Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In (NC16)

125 minutes, opens on May 17
3 stars

The story: Circa 1980s, Chinese-Vietnamese refugee Chan Lok Kwun (Raymond Lam) goes seeking a better life in Hong Kong and finds refuge in the notorious Kowloon Walled City.

Soi Cheang continues his hot streak after winning the 2024 Hong Kong Film Awards’ best director prize for Mad Fate (2023).

The HK$5 million (S$866,540) opening day for Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In is Hong Kong cinema’s biggest of 2024 and the second-largest of all time for a local film.

The gangland martial arts extravaganza, directed by Soi from Andy Seto’s City Of Darkness manhua, marks the arrival of television actor Lam: He is a compelling marquee lead as the stoic hero.

Louis Koo shares top billing as the noble godfather of the Walled City, who takes Chan in and leads Chan and his loyal underlings against a brazen invasion by Sammo Hung’s mob boss.

Philip Ng and Richie Jen are others with a stake in the turf war, and Aaron Kwok is a riot as a campy psycho thug.

The epic brawls are explosive if often overdone. This HK$300 million blockbuster is only ever just a premium action genre picture.

More than the stunts or the cast of veterans and rising stars, it is the detailed recreation of the fortified city setting that awes.

The movie wallows in the crime and squalor of this infamous no man’s land during the chaotic end days before the enclave’s demolition in 1993. It is the film-makers’ eulogy to the territory’s anarchic spirit and vanishing sense of community.

Hot take: This triad thriller has craft and sincere nostalgia for the 1980s, but not the complexity of that era’s genre trailblazers such as Johnny Mak’s Long Arm Of The Law (1984) with its classic Walled City chase scene.

Anyone But You (M18)

103 minutes, opens on May 16
2 stars

The story: Twentysomething singles Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) detest each other after a magical first date ends on a misunderstanding. They cross paths again six months later at a destination wedding in Australia.

Sweeney is more fun as a terrorised nun in the horror flick Immaculate, now showing in cinemas.

Anyone But You is the Hollywood romcom debut of the Emmy nominee from television series Euphoria (2019 to present) and the first season of The White Lotus (2021).

The sleeper hit may have grossed more than US$200 million (S$270 million) globally, but the actress’ efforts at screwball repartee are strained and this update of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing has torturous plot contrivances only the Bard could get away with.

Director Will Gluck (Easy A, 2010) is not said playwright, despite a fortuitous first name.

Once in Sydney, the wedding couple – Bea’s sister (Hadley Robinson) and Ben’s friend (Alexandra Shipp) – conspire to get the rancorous pair together to ensure a good time for all.

The enemies play along and pretend to be in love so as to… what, spite their respective exes (Darren Barnet and Charlee Fraser)? Appease Bea’s helicopter parents, played by Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths, in a nod to My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)?

The unfunny gags on the way to their sham romance becoming real include Bea falling into shark-infested waters and a tarantula up Ben’s bum – anything to get the leads into various states of undress.

Sweeney has dramatic range, while Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, 2022) has cocky charm. The movie makes no use of their assets beyond their hot bods.

Hot take: The myriad scenic sights – from the Sydney Opera House to the actors’ abs – cannot distract from how laboured the comedy is.