Watching Flash Point last night, I realized something.  Despite the texting, the driving at night in the neon city, all the dislocated joints and broken ribs and justifiable reasons for using fisticuffs instead of guns, it?s so bloody brothers.  It reminded me of the films of Chang Cheh and Shaw Bros.? period pieces. 

Shaw Bros. movies are filled with crippling and vengeance and bloody suffering.  And girls just sort of dropped in a hovel or an abandoned temple or back with ma or by the side of the road.  In Flash Point,  Donnie Yen and Louis Koo get well bloodied while Fan Bing-Bing?s character, Julie, gets dropped by the side of the road. 

I actually kind of love bloody brothers films for that.  The intensity of the relationship between the characters.  The bleeding, the suffering, the histrionics, the female love interest as an after thought, the meaningful looks between boy?and in Flash Point?Louis Koo?s character even calls Donnie Yen?s, ?Hunky? and if I remember right, something about meat.

Sure, all the Mixed Martial Arts grappling, throws and holds are new, but there?s these little fanboy signs all through the film.  Stuff that reveals Donnie Yen?s enthusiasm for, say, Tony Jaa and a neat ?realistic? little reference to Bruce Lee, but Donnie only brushes his nose after it gushes blood.  Looks to me like Donnie Yen is old school at heart.

(I still miss Sammo, though)