Last year, I saw S.P.L. at the Toronto Film Festival. It was a tremendously enjoyable film, melding cop drama with some phemonenal martial arts sequences. It’s at least several levels above most films in either genre, given its moral ambiguity, tight script, and stylish direction, as well as two major fights at the finale that are absolutely pheneomenal.
I’ve been waiting for it to show up on DVD since then, and was surprised when I found out about this the other day:
Yes, that’s the North American DVD release of S.P.L.. And as much as I’m excited to see the film available on this continent, I’m fairly traumatized at the marketing approach the distributors took.
First: Kill Zone? Okay, I understand that the original title (which is based on the Chinese zodiac signs of the three main character) may lack some dynamism for North American audiences. It’s possible you could come up with something more descriptive and exciting. But Kill Zone? That sounds like a fucking Steven Seagal movie. It’s horribly generic and bland, and really says nothing about the movie.
But at least there’s some synergy going on here, because that cover is just as bland and lifeless. For one thing, I have no idea what the hell Donnie Yen is supposed to be doing; everyone else is standing around trying to look cool, but Yen looks like he’s having some sort of seizure. The guys at the bottom look halfway cool – couldn’t that have been the main cover, with Sammo overshadowing everyone or something?
On the up side, from what I’ve heard there have been no structual cuts or changes made to the film, so what’s inside is still the film I saw a year ago. But both the title and cover undersell the film tremendously, and if I weren’t already familiar with it, there’s no way I’d pick the DVD off a shelf, let alone rent or buy it.
It’s a much, much better film than it looks like. Don’t pass it by just because it looks like every other generic martial arts film out there.