How do the movies in the Sha Po Lang franchise rank from worst to best? Beginning with the eponymous 2005 Donnie Yen vehicle, The Sha Po Lang, or SPL, series is a unique one for American audiences, the first two films being re-titled Kill Zone in their Western releases. Furthermore, the three movies in the series are more of an anthology than a narratively tied franchise, with some actors returning from one film to the next but the story of one never directly connecting to that of another. Then again, this is also where the Sha Po Lang title itself comes into play.
The term Sha Po Lang derives from Chinese astrology, each individual word referencing a star that embodies either good or evil depending upon its celestial positioning. With such an esoteric concept, it seems fitting that the series would involve singular stories from one movie to the next without any specific concern for continuity. Bringing back cast members like Wu Jing and Tony Jaa in different roles from their previous appearances is also a notable tradition for the Sha Po Lang franchise.
Aside from that, the only real connective tissue between the three films is the fact that each has absolutely incredible martial arts action scenes, and naturally, that’s been what’s brought audiences back from the first Donnie Yen-led entry to its subsequent follow-ups. Each has been its own unique beast, and each has consistently brought the thunder for fans of Asian action movies. Here’s the rundown of the SPL series, from worst to best.
3. Paradox
Led by Louis Koo, Paradox follows his Hong Kong inspector Lee Chung-chi as he travels to Thailand to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Bringing back Tony Jaa from SPL 2: A Time for Consequences in the new role of Lee’s friend and local Thai cop Tak, Paradox was also the first blip on the radar for rising star Chris Collins. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and well-versed martial artist, Collins is a beast in his action scenes. The movie builds up to a show-stopping battle between him and Tony Jaa, pitting the two fighters against one another in the film’s highlight one-on-one battle.
Koo admittedly isn’t the martial artist that his nimble co-stars are, but the film nevertheless adapts his strengths to its needs with the leading man performing quite admirably, taking on henchmen in a battle of machetes and cleavers, with Gordon Lam also getting in on the fun with some blade work of his own. Paradox‘s dark ending may be a hard pill to swallow for some, but its excellent action scenes, orchestrated by the great Sammo Hung (who won an award for Best Action Choreography at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards) makes it worth a look for fans of the series — most of all to see Chris Collins go at it with Tony Jaa ahead of his battle with Donnie Yen in Ip Man 4: The Finale.
2. Sha Po Lang (Kill Zone)
Before 2006, Western audiences mainly knew Donnie Yen for movies like Iron Monkey, Hero, and Once Upon A Time in China II, and while he’d made a handful of memorable appearances in Highlander: Endgame, Blade II, and Shanghai Knights, he hadn’t quite become as mainstream a martial arts movie icon as Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Sha Po Lang was where that began to change, and it was Yen’s revolutionary approach to its action scenes that made Sha Po Lang such a huge game-changer in the industry. Released in Hong Kong in 2005, Sha Po Lang sees Yen play Hong Kong police detective Ma Kwun, determined to take down Sammo Hung’s crime boss Wong Po. Bringing together two icons like Yen and Hung was a big enough hook for Asian action fans by itself, with the presence of then-rising star Wu Jing as the knife-wielding Jack adding some welcome seasoning to the mix. What really made Sha Po Lang stand out was the fact that it brought MMA into the Hong Kong action movie game.
A devoted UFC fan, Yen blended grappling techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with his already eclectic background in Wushu, Tae Kwon Do, and other arts, and would forever change martial arts moviemaking. The stick and knife alley smackdown between Yen and Wu Jing is an electrifying weapons duel, while his final showdown with Sammo Hung was the clash of Hong Kong icons fans had waited decades to see, made that much better by Yen’s adeptness in merging chokes, throws, and takedowns with the jump-spinning back-kicks that have long been Yen’s calling card. Yen fully pushed action-movie MMA through the roof with 2007’s Flash Point, before finally achieving international fame in taking on his most famed role of Bruce Lee’s mentor in 2008’s Ip Man, which elevated martial arts films even more with his use of Wing Chun. Sha Po Lang was still the point where the world finally began to seriously take notice of Yen’s talents. Fast-forward a decade, and subsequent appearances in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and xXx: Return of Xander Cage show how much Yen’s legacy as a martial arts legend and action innovator has been solidified.
1. SPL 2: A Time For Consequences (Kill Zone 2)
2015 was the Year of Tony Jaa. Following a sabbatical from movies after the Ong Bak sequels and a period living as a Buddhist monk, Jaa returned to action films with his first English-language roles in Skin Trade and Furious 7, and made his Hong Kong debut in SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (released in the West as Kill Zone 2). Jaa portrays Bangkok prison guard Chatchai, who finds himself the reluctant guard over Wu Jing’s Chan Chi-kit, a Hong Kong cop sent undercover to stop an organ-harvesting operation in Thailand. Chatchai initially tries to keep his head down when Chi-kit is thrown behind bars, knowing that the fate of his leukemia-stricken daughter hangs in the balance, but the two eventually team up to take down the operation and its ruthless middle man, Max Zhang’s sadistic prison warden Ko Chun. Director Cheang Pou-soi was obviously aware that SPL 2 was never going to get away with having Tony Jaa and Wu Jing in the same movie without having them go head-to-head, allies or not, and the movie satisfies that quota as soon as they cross paths.
SPL 2‘s singular goal is to outdo itself every chance it gets, thrilling viewers with action scenes like a prison riot worthy of The Raid 2 and a stick and knife duel that cleverly flips Wu Jing’s weapon of choice and villainous role in Sha Po Lang to the stick-wielding hero. Jaa and Jing are everything fans of Asian action movies want in a pairing of heroes, their mutual distrust thawing into a warrior duo viewers are invested in on both individual and collective terms. Zhang is chilling in his stone-cold villainy as a prison warden with at-best indifferent feelings to human life.
The finale is simply full-blown kung fu and Muay Thai pandemonium with Chi-kit and Chatchai battling a swarm of henchmen before taking on the emotionless Ko Chun in a two-on-one showdown that’s a personal best for each of the three stars involved. Wu Jing and Max Zhang had similarly big years as Jaa in 2015, Jing starring in and directing the Chinese Rambo-style hit Wolf Warrior, with Zhang also becoming the breakout star of Ip Man 3. With SPL 2: A Time For Consequences, audiences saw all three at their absolute pinnacle in some of the most dynamite action scenes they’ve ever done, with the movie itself being the reigning champion of the Sha Po Lang series.
