City of Darkness : between modernity and nostalgia
Known in China for directing the trilogy The Monkey King (2014-2018), with which Hong Kong director Soi Cheang recently made a splash Limbo (2023), a sublime black and white thriller, between Seven AND Memories of Murder. After this film (released in Hong Kong in 2021), the director did not sit idly by. He realized Crazy destinypublished here on July 17 (see our review), and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled Inpresented in the midnight screening at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival under the title City of Darkness. A session that really attracted attention, as the film is a pure action pleasure, between modernity and homage to the Hong Kong cinema of the 80s.
A tribute that we feel from the casting, since Soi Cheang has brought together for the occasion a legend of martial arts cinema and well-known faces of Hong Kong cinema in general. This is how we find the emblematic Sammo Hungwhich obviously should not be reduced to the series The Shanghai Policeman his career is so massive. Alongside him is Richie Jen (Jackie Chan in Hong Kong, Latest news) and the charismatic Louis Koo (The Legend of Zu, Election). In City of Darknessall three represent an older generation of criminals. Older, but still influential, bosses who have experience a bloody gang war in the past.
Now, in the 1980s, peace reigns as each gang remains on its own territory. Until the day Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam), an illegal immigrant, takes refuge Kowloon Citadelafter escaping Mr. Big’s (Sammo Hung) Triads. It is there that he meets Tornade (Louis Koo), the club’s manager, who agrees to take him under his wing.
A crumbling citadel as the setting for a pure action film
After touring Hong Kong like a garbage city LimboSoi Cheang once again features a very unique setting with the Kowloon Citadel. A real place that was destroyed in 1993. Here’s how a crumbling city in the middle of the Hong Kong we are discovering. But the director manages to bring out a certain beauty through this surprising architecture.
There is also some good in this place, thanks to the values of Tornado, who runs the place. Through this heroic figure, the director does not show a simple criminal, but a man of honor who tries to do his best. And the same goes for the three young people who will befriend Lok-kwun. A quartet is then formed to embody the new generation who will suffer the consequences of an old conflict. Or how the past always disturbs the present…
There are many things to say about this. City of Darkness and its themes, or even its choice to evoke in this way a part of the History of Hong Kong – in such a complicated period, due to an increasingly violent and dominant Chinese regime. Furthermore, Soi Cheang’s proposal is certainly not insignificant such a nostalgic workwhere the emphasis is on friendship and solidarity. But beyond its subtext, the film remains above all a pure action movieviolent and dynamic.
Remembering at first The raid (2011), City of Darkness gradually tends towards wu xia reusing its folklore and the exceptional skills of the fighters. A little bit of “magic” which blends perfectly with Soi Cheang’s raw style. The action then reaches its climax in its last act, almost exhausting, but at the same time so enjoyable.
City of Darkness by Soi Cheang, in theaters from August 14, 2024. The film was presented in Midnight Screening at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Above is the trailer.
Source: Cine Serie
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