Film review - SPL2: A Time for Consequences: no holds barred

When Wilson Yip Wai-shun  delivered his martial arts crime thriller   SPL in  2005, few expected a follow-up — and not just because almost every character died in the first film. By supplementing its brilliant action choreography with grace notes instead of fully developed characters, the  Donnie Yen Ji-dan vehicle made no apologies for its intense violence.

In the hands of Soi Cheang Pou-soi, who has mellowed considerably since his days as a cult filmmaker of ultra-bleak thrillers (2006’s  Dog Bite Dog and 2007’s  Shamo), SPL 2: A Time for Consequences is a sequel-in-spirit that hasn’t only retained the original’s overreliance on coincidence, but has also reshuffled an impressive amount of plot elements into a resonant story.

Apart from Yip (as a producer), the most prominent returnee from SPL is mainland actor Wu Jing, who has cemented his stature as an action star with the top-grossing   Wolf Warriors, which he both directed and starred in. A one-dimensional assassin in SPL, Wu is given a leading role as a drug-addicted undercover cop in trouble.

After Kit’s (Wu) cover is blown in a mission involving a human organ trafficking syndicate run by Hung (Louis Koo Tin-lok) — an ailing% villain with his sights on his brother Bill’s (Jun Kung) heart for a life-saving transplant — the police mole is thrown into a Thai prison overseen by the sharp-suited and corrupt warden Ko (Max Zhang Jin of  The Grandmaster fame).

While Kit’s uncle Wah (Simon Yam Tat-wah, again playing a soon-to-retire detective) takes Bill hostage and sets out on an unlawful mission to rescue his nephew, things are further complicated by prison guard Chai (Thai martial-arts star Tony Jaa, in possibly his best role to date), whose daughter suffers from leukaemia and just happens to be waiting for Kit’s bone marrow donation.