Paradox (2017) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Blu-ray Region A

The film opens with Louis Koo as steely police negotiator Lee, who heads to Thailand after his sixteen-year-old daughter (Hanna Chan), who is abducted during a trip to Pattaya. Teaming up with local cops Chui Kit (Wu Yue) and Tak (Tony Jaa), he's soon facing off against corrupt police officers and caught up in a conspiracy involving an organ-smuggling ring led by an American crime boss (Chris Collins, Wolf Warrior), linked to a powerful Thai politician and his sinister aide (Gordon Lam). Things inevitably turn violent, and when Lee finds himself on the wrong side of the law and needing to bust a serious number of heads.

While some viewers might have preferred the SPL series to take the more traditional route of churning out sequels, by sticking to unconnected stories it gives the filmmakers far more leeway in the direction the films take and in what they do with the characters. Whatever the benefits of the SPL brand name, Paradox certainly works very well as a gritty, relentlessly bleak thriller in its own right, and Wilson Yip does a great job of mixing martial arts action with police procedural drama and social issues. Though there's nothing new to its tale of organ trafficking, kidnapping and corruption, the film's dark tone really helps, and while retaining the theme of fate from the SPL 2, it takes things in a much more depressing direction. Yip keeps things tight and tense, working in some surprising plot developments through a series of revelations that it quickly becomes clear are not leading things towards a cheerful conclusion. Some great performances also give things a kick, Louis Koo doing an impressively physical approximation of Liam Neeson's Taken murder machine, Wu Yue providing believable moral grounding, and Tony Jaa adding a likeable if bizarre twist through his sadly brief appearance as a possible psychic.

The grounded plot and characters really help when it comes to giving the action and violence a real edge and elevated air of danger. As with the original SPL, Yip shows a great sense of timing in the way that he gradually escalates the intensity and scale of the set pieces and battles, aided by some excellent choreography from Sammo Hung, which arguably ranks as his best in years. It's brutal, bone-crunching stuff, with shootouts and chase scenes combining with brawls, beatings, stabbings and torture, making for a visceral and thrilling experience, much more so than with other Hong Kong genre offerings of late. Without really straying far from his comfort zone Yip directs with a controlled verve, and the Thai setting gives the film somewhat of a different atmosphere, the less familiar surroundings and culture working well to make Koo's Lee even more of a troubled outsider figure rather than a straightforward hero.

As a tangential third entry in a series arguably needing a shot in the arm to justify its existence, Paradox is certainly much better than might have been expected and one of the better and more brutal Hong Kong thrillers of the last while. Boosted by a strong cast and by some excellent work by Sammo Hung, the film marks a welcome return for Wilson Yip; and gives hope that an SPL 4, whatever it might entail, might continue to take the franchise in an interesting direction.

by James Mudge - EasternKicks.com