Special ID is one of the latest martial arts police dramas from Hong Kong. It stars Donnie Yen, one of the hardest working and physically impressive martial artists in the film industry today.
While Yen is a household name in Hong Kong, American audiences may only recognize him from American films such as Blade II and the Jackie Chan comedy Shanghai Knights. Of his many Chinese roles in U.S. films, his most popular is that of Bruce Lee’s mentor in the masterful 2008 and 2010 martial arts biopics, IP Man and IP Man 2.
In Special ID, Donnie Yen plays Dragon Chan, an undercover cop who is also a member of a ruthless underground Chinese gang. He must balance being both a gangster for the leader of the gang (Matrix Reloaded’s Collin Chou) and an informant for his police boss (Ronald Cheng). He fears that his identity will be discovered one day and that his only existing family, his mother Amy (Paw Hee-ching), will be harmed. When a gangster named Sunny (Andy On) begins to play recklessly, Chan is asked to look into him by both of his bosses. The tension rises as Chan must also work with a feisty and talented female co-worker named Jing Tian (Fang Jing).
Yen has tackled many cop roles before, such as Flash Point and SPL. Therefore, Special ID feels like yet another typical action-based role for him. Most of these martial arts films do not have particularly engaging plots. Usually, the majority of these films are seen for their action scenes. Unfortunately, Special ID has both a bland plot and disappointing action sequences. Therefore, Special ID is just a basic run-of-the-mill action film best used to pass the time.
There really is not much tension in the plot at all. While the film has a nice set up for great action and possibly an intense story that reminds the viewer of other undercover films such as Infernal Affairs and its remake The Departed, Special ID never seems to pull the viewer in even once. I never felt like I was viewing characters that I cared for. I did have a previous bias by being a huge Donnie Yen fan. However, even that did not hold me over during this film. For me, Yen simply occupied the space and did nothing more than to kick butt and do it well.
As for the action scenes, all of the one-on-one fights felt very “been there done that” to me. This is a shame, because some of Yen’s fights from SPL, IP Man, In the Line of Duty 4 and Once Upon a Time in China 2 are truly incredible fights that rival even the greatest of Jackie Chan’s fights.
Nevertheless, the film was not without some value. My favorite action scene of the film did not even involve Yen. In the scene, an assassin attaches a rope to his waist and proceeds to run down the side of a building while firing at police officers in an alley. This was a great scene and really had me on the edge of my seat. It is visually exciting set pieces like this that keep me checking up on the Asian action film market.
There is also a very impressive car chase at the end of the film that utilizes great stunt work. Jing Tian’s character is even hanging from the side of a door while the car is dodging high speed traffic. The scene was clearly accomplished with no CGI and reminded me of a stunt that Jackie Chan would have done in his hey-day in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
If you can’t take much away from Special ID, take this: it will remind you that the Chinese still know how to make their action films without big special effects sequences. In this film, stuntmen, intricate choreography and shootouts are the name of the game.
This film is now available on VOD and will be released in U.S. theaters on March 7th.