Film Review: Donnie Yen leads an HK cavalcade of stars

Donnie Yen (“Iron Monkey,” “Ip Man”) now reigns as the top martial arts star in Hong Kong cinema. Since being discovered by Hollywood, Jackie Chan’s domestic output has slowed down. (Plus Jackie is now 61, and his stunt bravado is no longer so crazy.) Jet Li is nine years younger than Jackie, but his overall output (including the American “Expendables” series) has slowed even more.

Yen — who stars in the new “Kung Fu Killer” (also known as “Kung Fu Jungle”) — is only a few months younger than Li, but remains busier. Perhaps it’s because he’s never been promoted as forcefully in Hollywood and has fewer time-consuming American movies. (The irony is that Yen spent all of his teens living in Massachusetts and hence speaks English more clearly and naturally than the others.) Another factor is that Yen’s stardom developed more slowly than Li’s, so he’s at a career point the others reached years earlier.

In any case, “Kung Fu Killer” is an HK take on a standard thriller plot: The police are trying to stop a serial killer before he gets to the next victim on a predetermined list. The opening seems like an homage to the start of the noir classic “D.O.A.”: Hahou Mo (Yen) stomps into Central Police Headquarters to turn himself in for murder — or at least for killing.

Mo is martial arts master who dispatched someone in a challenge. He is sentenced to five years in prison, but halfway through his sentence he convinces police inspector Luk Yuen-Sum (Charlie Yeung) that he can help solve an ongoing series of murders of one-time martial arts masters. She arranges for his temporary release, while worrying that she is being hustled — maybe even that the killer is a colleague of Mo, committing the crimes as a way of getting the latter out of jail.

Like many Chinese action films, “Kung Fu Killer” is a series of set pieces hooked on to a relatively unimportant plot. There’s nothing exactly wrong with the story, except that it’s a pretty old concept by now, stretching way back before “Seven” and “The Alphabet Killer.” And the twists and turns aren’t always clear. Did the police prevent the murder of the short order cook? I’m not sure.

There is also a standard voicing of martial arts philosophy, but what the movie is really about is a bunch of fights. The first and last involve Yen, but most of the others show the killer (Baoqiang Wang), as he challenges and defeats his victims, each one famous as the master of a single aspect of fighting — kicking, grappling, weaponry and more. The killer’s plan is to eliminate each specialist so he can honorably take on Mo, who is the all-around best.

And when we get to that final battle, it’s a doozy — the hero and the villain smashing, throwing, kicking and altogether mauling each other... at night... on a freeway! In addition to the duel-to-the-death combat, they have to dodge traffic, frequently throwing themselves to the ground, so speeding trucks can drive over and past them.

The quality of the fights, particularly the last, is no surprise, since Yen, Yuen Bun, and Stephen Tung Wei — veterans all — are among the choreographers. HK action fans may also have fun with the cameos: Director Teddy Chan has filled the frame with half the remaining directors, actors, stunt guys and personalities from two to four decades ago. But it’s not easy: Age has rendered many of them almost unrecognizable.

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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).