Yue
Feng’s specialty is facing down large gangs of lead pipe wielding toughs. He is so good at it, he has done time. There is a reason they used to call him “the
Street Fighter.” He would like to put
his old life behind him, but obviously that is not going to happen. Billed as China’s first mixed martial arts
movie, writer-action director-lead actor-co-director-co-editor Yuen Song &
co-director Zhong Lei bring it old school in The King of the Streets (trailer here), which is now
available on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA.
Yue
Feng has just been released from prison, but the death of a rival gang member
still troubles his conscience. Yes, the
punk had it coming, but he is a sensitive street fighter. Resolving to go straight, he takes a job with
a moving company. While delivering some
donated equipment to a private orphanage, Yue Feng meets Li, an attractive
volunteer. She has a few moves herself,
but nothing like the Street Fighter. Soon, he is volunteering regularly. At first, he is just helping out with the
kids and lifting heavy things, but soon he is fighting off the hired muscle
trying to run the orphanage off its prime piece of real estate.
King, the throwback
throwdown, mixes generous helpings of no holds-barred street melee with old
fashioned melodramatic angst. It is
impossible to miss Yue’s themes of redemption and loyalty, but he sure can mix
it up. To be fair, he also develops respectable
romantic chemistry with Becki Li. Yue’s fellow professional fighters Hou Xu,
Kang En, Yang Jianping, and the Chang Long Stunt Team also clearly know how to
give and take a punch. Nobody was really
hired for the acting chops (except maybe Li), but so be it.
Almost
entirely staged in abandoned warehouses and back alleys, Yue’s film has a Spartan
vibe and a dramatic simplicity that is frankly rather aesthetically
appealing. Co-cinematographers Liu
Zhangmu and Li You earn style points with the black-and-white flashback
interludes, while consistently maintaining an icy slick look.
