Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

When a feared Hong Kong Triad Boss puts a bounty on his head, a skilled underground fighter ends up seeking shelter within the notorious labyrinthian confines of Kowloon Walled City, a lawless haven for gangs and refugees alike.

Kowloon Walled City was the famous and infamous slum district within colonial Hong Kong. Extremely densely populated, with roughly 35,000 residents stacked up within a size roughly the equivalent of four football fields, it was like a glimpse of a cyberpunk future that never came, a riotous patch of urban fungal growth.

Originally a Chinese military fort seized by the British government at the turn of the 20th Century, but still claimed by China, the Walled City became a magnet for refugees escaping the war-torn mainland, and was held up as a symbolic last stand of sorts against Western Colonialism. With no clear governmental control, it soon became synonymous with Black Market deals and dangerous triads.

As its 99 year long lease began to draw closer to its end, in January of 1987, the British colonial government announced plans to demolish the walled city. After an long and arduous eviction process, demolition finally began in March of 1993, and was completed in April of 1994. Now Kowloon Walled City only exists in video games, like Stray

And movies like this, obviously.

Set in 1980s Hong Kong, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In follows the story of Chan Lok-kwan. A mainland refugee, he had been participating in an underground fighting ring so that he could make enough to buy a fake ID, all so that he could then live and work in Hong Kong without the fear of getting deported.

But when he finally stands at the edge of attaining his goal, he is betrayed by Mr. Big, the local crime syndicate boss.

In a desperate move, Lok-kwan steals what he thinks is a bag of money from Mr. Big, but is actually a bag of drugs, and flees ahead of Mr. Big's angry gang, who end up chasing him to the Walled City. Mr. Big's gang will not follow Lok-kwan inside, because the Walled City belongs to Cyclone and his gang, so for the moment, Lok-kwan is safe. But when he tries to sell the drugs within the Walled City, he gets in another fight, this time with Cyclone's gang, and in a last ditch desperate attempt to get his money and his fake papers, he tries to strongarm the gang into giving him what he wants by taking a kindly old barber hostage.

Unfortunately for Lok-kwan, this kindly old barber is actually Cyclone, the local crime lord. Cyclone is so feared, and such a legendary bad ass, he can afford to be nice to everyone. Which, after a quick and decisive ass-kicking, is exactly how Cyclone treats Lok-kwan.

Cyclone invited Lok-kwan to stay in the Walled City.

The Walled City is a huge and crumbling concrete structure, everything within it, shoved right next to, and on top of, itself. It goes up, up, up, towering overhead, its balconies, walkways, apartments, shops, courtyards, and little restaurants laid out in a twisting warren, everything shaking as low-flying planes come in for a landing at the Kai tak airport. Its rooftops are festooned with antenna. Its gaps are strung with dangling clothes lines. Its narrow halls are packed with the hustle and bustle of thousands, all living cheek to jowl, and right on top of one another, with only the occasional sliver of sky visible far above.

It is here that Lok-kwan finds his place amongst the community.

Then, after he coincidentally shows up at the same time as three other guys, all of them with the same intention of beating the shit out of a local woman-beater, Lok-Kwan bonds with Cyclone's chief lieutenants.

Like Shin, who often fights on a dirt bike. And AV, the local doctor who wears a mask in order to cover his hideous battle scars and runs his clinic out of his porn video store. And the Twelfth Master, a bad ass with a katana.

Together, these four defend the Walled City from outsiders and other gangs. Which is good, because Mr. Big is still mad about the stolen bag of drugs.

After that, life is good in the Walled City.

Well... there is this whole thing about some unfinished business with some outsiders who want revenge, which is the legacy of how Cyclone won the Walled City in the first place. There's also this big mystery about the fate of the long lost infant son of a long dead enemy, who was long believed to be dead as well, but it turns out, isn't. But luckily, this long lost infant son of a long dead enemy definitely hasn't grown up in the intervening years into a bad ass fighter, and they definitely aren't currently, albeit unknowingly, in the Walled City right at that moment, and their eventual reveal definitely won't shatter alliances and threaten all of Kowloon...

So that's good to know.

And on top of that, there's King, Mr. Big's right hand man, who is crazy as shit, craves power, has some seriously bad ass kung fu, and also dresses like the most awesome motherfucker in the East. King has a mullet that announces to the world without any fear...

"Hey, I may have come here for a bit of business up front, but I'm more than happy to stick around in the back, crack open a can of whop ass, and party."

That this film is set in 1984 was a great choice, as there's a lot of great fashion, especially during a big scene at a disco. I liked how a lot of the imagery and music really evoke the feeling of that era of Hong Kong cinema, with the best part being that while it never seems like a gimmick, it also leans hard into the ludicrousness of it all.

The outfits are even better during the fights, which are very fast and complex and don't seem to repeat. There's a lot of knives and leaping and climbing, with a good use of the closely stacked levels of the Walled City too. And best of all, it's all larger than life. There's a lot of kung fu superpowers on display here. To be fair, some of the fights are maybe shot a little more close and wobbly than I prefer, but they're still easy to follow, and make sense for the claustrophobic locations.

But how's the story, you ask?

My brother in Christ, this is a wild-ass kung fu flick, okay? The story is just fine. Don't worry about it.

In a nutshell, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is absoluetly ridiculous, and it’s also absolutely awesome, but mostly... it’s absolutely ridiculously awesome.