The King of the Streets
街头之王
China, 2012, colour, 1.85:1, 87 mins.
Directors: Yue Song 岳松, Zhong Lei 钟雷.
Rating: 4/10.
Vanity production by martial artist Yue Song is basic action fodder, with a retro flavour.
STORY
Northern China, the present day. After accidentally killing an opponent at the age of 16, and serving eight years in prison for manslaughter, street fighter-cum-martial artist Yue Feng (Yue Song) is released and finally gets a job with a removals firm. Hearing that the grandmother (Liu Ming) of the man he killed is an impoverished street hawker, he anonymously buys food from her stall to help her. While doing a removal job for a privately run orphanage, he finds one of the staff is Yi (Li Yufei), whom he’d previously helped when she was mugged in a backstreet. As he was also an orphan, Yue Feng starts helping her out in his spare time, and learns the orphanage head, Zhou (Wang Zaihe), is under pressure to sell the land at an unfair price to a ruthless businessman, Li Shao (Yang Junping), for a resort development. Yue Feng finally tracks down his boyhood friend, Hai (Hou Xu), who is now working as an underworld fighter for hire. He invites Yue Feng to join him but the latter refuses. After Yue Feng fights off all the heavies who come to threaten Zhou, Li Shao agrees to settle the dispute by a fight between one of his own men and Yue Feng. On the day, however, Li Shao breaks the rules by fielding several opponents, including Yue Feng’s best friend, Hai.
REVIEW
From its main titles, with stop-frame action, to its barebones plot, with a martial artist defending a children’s orphanage from an evil developer, there’s an old-style Hong Kong flavour to Mainland lowbudgeter The King of the Streets 街头之王. A vanity first feature by 27-year-old Shandong martial artist Yue Song 岳松, who produced, co-directed, wrote, choreographed and co-edited, it’s the kind of movie that Li Xiaolong 李小龙 [Bruce Lee], one of Yue’s idols, could have made 40 years ago, with a strong moral subtext, a flawed hero, a winsome heroine (Li Yufei 李宇菲 in the Miao Kexiu 苗可秀 [Nora Miao] role) and lots of fighting in warehouses and bare rooms.
In her first leading role, Li (who’s wrongly credited on posters as 李雨妃) is okay but doesn’t get much to do apart from looking cute and having one brief action scene. Yue himself shows no special screen charisma and needs an experienced action director to hone the raw talent shown in his demo footage. But the fight sequences – which come thick and fast in the second half and are basic, street-style martial arts, without wire-work – are fully equal to a run-of-the-mill Hong Kong action movie in their staging, cutting and performances, and littered with Yue’s pals from the fight world, such as boxers Hou Xu 侯旭 and Kang En 康恩, and MMA fighter Yang Jianping 杨建平. Co-d.p. Liu Zhangmu 刘章目 (Insistence 守株人, 2012) gets a prominent credit for “artistic planning” and brings a cool, wintry look to the visuals.
King isn’t such a big step forward, as an action showcase, from Yue’s 39-minute internet short, The Mars Affair 战神事件 (2009), also made with Chang Long Stunt Team, but as a nostalgic retro exercise it’s good video fodder. One of the producers is Mainland film-maker Kong Lingchen 孔令晨, who directed China’s first parkour movie, City Monkey 玩酷青春 (2010).
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Yue Song Television Culture (CN). Produced by Beijing Chang Long TV Culture (CN), Beijing Chang Long Stunt Team (CN), Beijing Confucian Run Media Culture (CN).
Script: Yue Song. Original story: Shen Cheng. Photography: Liu Zhangmu, Li You. Editing: Zhao Gaowei, Yue Song. Music: Jin Dapeng. Art direction: Rebecca Lee. Sound: Wu Yujie. Action: Yue Song. Martial arts: Chang Long Stunt Team. Second-unit photography: Wang Jiandong. Artistic planning: Liu Zhangmu.
Cast: Yue Song (Yue Feng), Li Yufei (Yi), Yang Junping (Li Shao), Hou Xu (Hai), Li Changhai (Long), Zhang Chao (boy in white), Yu Xin (Huang Mao), Wu Shenbiao (Biaozi), Fu Hai (Wang Bo), Wang Liang Shuangquan (Xiaoshuai), Guo Wenxue (Yue Feng’s father), Wang Zaihe (Zhou, orphanage head), Liu Ming (grandmother), Kang En, Yang Jianping (fighters), Han Yanchang (Xiaoqiang), Li Lei (young Yue Feng), Bai Yang (young Hai), Yang Jiaqi (young Kai), Wang Junlong (Datou), Chang Yingtao (removals company foreman), Kang Maozhe (Liu, removals company manager), Li You (drunk driver).
Release: China, 27 Jul 2012.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 6 Jan 2013.)