March 11, 2014

Special ID


If you watch action movies for the storylines, you will find much to deride in Special ID. If on the other hand you want to see Donnie Yen direct some inventively punishing martial arts sequences, you can now catch it in a limited theatrical release in North America, or grab it on iTunes. Yen plays an undercover cop caught between his triad boss (Collin Chou) and his triad protégé (Andy On.) At one point the case takes him to the mainland where he meets a winsome/comically strident female counterpart (Tian Jing.) Other than that it's, shall we say, loosely plotted. But what you’re there for is the action--particularly the climactic car chase/martial arts battle which is possibly the best combo of those two elements you could hope to see.

The subtitling is tad iffy for a Hong Kong flick getting an English-language theatrical release nowadays.  Weirdly, at one point the translator drops in a line from Glengarry Glen Ross. Yes,  you’re right, triad guy. You should keep your mouth shut until you know the shot.