This is an authentic Hong Kong cinema experience from maverick filmmaker Pang Ho Cheung set in the old port city of Aberdeen in Hong Kong’s southwest district. “Aberdeen” the movie is a story about an extended Hong Kong family tormented by secrets and insecurities with an all-star Hong Kong cast. The area of Aberdeen is also known indigenously as “Heung Gong Zai” or “Little Hong Kong” and this is also the movie’s Chinese title.
Widowed grandpa Cheng Dong (Ng Man Tat) is a Taoist Priest who performs rituals at funerals to help the dead to reincarnate. However, he was a fisherman before until the government relocated all fishermen to live on land which he considers a curse. Hence, he becomes a Taoist instead, thereby hoping to seek peace spiritually. Nonetheless, he’s now happily living with Ta (Carrie Ng) who’s a much younger nightclub hostess.
Widowed grandpa Cheng Dong (Ng Man Tat) is a Taoist Priest who performs rituals at funerals to help the dead to reincarnate. However, he was a fisherman before until the government relocated all fishermen to live on land which he considers a curse. Hence, he becomes a Taoist instead, thereby hoping to seek peace spiritually. Nonetheless, he’s now happily living with Ta (Carrie Ng) who’s a much younger nightclub hostess.
- 6/19/2021
- by David Chew
- AsianMoviePulse
This downhearted human drama from first time director Danny Wong Hing Fan was a standout at the 4th London East Asia Film Festival in November 2019 in which Aaron Kwok won the Best Actor Award. It was nominated for nine awards including Best Film and Best Actor at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards. However, it only won the Best Supporting Actor award for Cheung Tat Ming who played Chatting Yeung. Aaron also sang the theme song “Grey Stardust” composed by Peter Kam.
In Hong Kong, homeless people spend their nights at 24-hour fast food restaurants dotted around the city, they sleep on the hard chairs and disappear at daybreak before customers come in, but they return during the night. This movie is about how these penniless McRefugees as they’re known, survive from day to day in a rather heartless big city and living under those circumstances.
In Hong Kong, homeless people spend their nights at 24-hour fast food restaurants dotted around the city, they sleep on the hard chairs and disappear at daybreak before customers come in, but they return during the night. This movie is about how these penniless McRefugees as they’re known, survive from day to day in a rather heartless big city and living under those circumstances.
- 2/16/2021
- by David Chew
- AsianMoviePulse
There’s a bit of everything and most of it works in “Chasing Dream,” the first feature directed by Hong Kong ace Johnnie To since “Three” in 2016. Far from what fans of To’s hard-boiled crime dramas such as “Drug War” and “Election” might have expected, “Chasing Dream” invokes everything from gritty 1930s Warner Brothers musicals to fizzy screwball rom-coms and “Rocky” as it follows an Mma fighter and an aspiring singer who team up to take on the world and chase the Chinese Dream. Poking fun at blind ambition and celebrity culture while propelling viewers on a dizzy ride of heightened realism and unabashed melodrama,
A box-office disappointment in Mainland cinemas in November, this production from To’s Milkyway Image company could get a new lease of life following its international premiere at the Far East Film Festival in Udine. It’s not the type of film that made To famous internationally,...
A box-office disappointment in Mainland cinemas in November, this production from To’s Milkyway Image company could get a new lease of life following its international premiere at the Far East Film Festival in Udine. It’s not the type of film that made To famous internationally,...
- 7/4/2020
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
The full list of nominations for the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards has been revealed. However, the dates are still unknown; the mid-April event in fact, will be probably postponed due to the Covid-19 (a.k.a. coronavirus). So for now let’s just have a look at the nominees.
This year’s edition sees Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung’s “Better Days” leading the competition with an amazing 12 nominations, followed at close range by Heiward Mak’s “Fagara” with 11 nominations and Wong Hing-Fan’s “I’m Livin’ It” with 10. Moreover, Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man 4: The Finale” bagged 9 nominations, including Best Director and Best Action Choreography.
Read the full list of nominations below:
Better Days by Derek Tsang
Best Film
Better Days by Derek Tsang
Suk Suk by Ray Yeung
Fagara by Heiward Mak
I’m Livin’ It by Wong Hing-fan
The New King Of Comedy by Stephen Chow
Best...
This year’s edition sees Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung’s “Better Days” leading the competition with an amazing 12 nominations, followed at close range by Heiward Mak’s “Fagara” with 11 nominations and Wong Hing-Fan’s “I’m Livin’ It” with 10. Moreover, Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man 4: The Finale” bagged 9 nominations, including Best Director and Best Action Choreography.
Read the full list of nominations below:
Better Days by Derek Tsang
Best Film
Better Days by Derek Tsang
Suk Suk by Ray Yeung
Fagara by Heiward Mak
I’m Livin’ It by Wong Hing-fan
The New King Of Comedy by Stephen Chow
Best...
- 2/14/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Chicago – After a short break, Season Seven of Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc) continues on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018, with a film from China, “Walking Past the Future. Director Lee Rui-jun will make an appearance at the screening at the AMC River East Theatre. For details and tickets, click here.
Apuc Presents ‘Walking Past the Future’ on October 24th, 2018
Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org
The family of Yang Yao-ting (Yang Zi-shan) returns to their village in Gansu after both of her parents are laid off from their jobs in Shenzhen, only to find that life has drastically changed in the village they left 25 years earlier. Hoping to provide her family with a home in the city, Yao-ting returns to Shenzhen to take part in high-risk medical tests, facilitated by a street hustler named Li Xinmin (Yin Fang). “Walking Past the Future” is the only Chinese film screened in the Un Certain...
Apuc Presents ‘Walking Past the Future’ on October 24th, 2018
Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org
The family of Yang Yao-ting (Yang Zi-shan) returns to their village in Gansu after both of her parents are laid off from their jobs in Shenzhen, only to find that life has drastically changed in the village they left 25 years earlier. Hoping to provide her family with a home in the city, Yao-ting returns to Shenzhen to take part in high-risk medical tests, facilitated by a street hustler named Li Xinmin (Yin Fang). “Walking Past the Future” is the only Chinese film screened in the Un Certain...
- 10/23/2018
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Louis Koo named best actor for Paradox; Teresa Mo wins best actress for Tomorrow Is Another Day.
Ann Hui’s period drama Our Time Will Come was the big winner at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards (April 15), taking five prizes including best film and best director.
The film (pictured), about Hong Kong’s resistance to Japanese occupation during the Second World War, also won best supporting actress for Deanie Ip’s performance, best art direction and best original film score (Joe Hisaishi). Hisaishi was also awarded best original music for the film at the Asian Film Awards last month.
Ann Hui’s period drama Our Time Will Come was the big winner at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards (April 15), taking five prizes including best film and best director.
The film (pictured), about Hong Kong’s resistance to Japanese occupation during the Second World War, also won best supporting actress for Deanie Ip’s performance, best art direction and best original film score (Joe Hisaishi). Hisaishi was also awarded best original music for the film at the Asian Film Awards last month.
- 4/16/2018
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Trivisa scoops five awards including best film, while Mad World takes best new ditrector prize.Scroll Down For Full List Of Winners
Hong Kong’s new wave of filmmakers scored big at the Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday night, where films from first-time directors walked off with most of the major prizes.
Johnnie To-produced crime drama Trivisa (pictured) was the big winner of the night, scooping five awards including best film and best director for its three first-time co-directors - Jevons Au, Frank Hui and Vicky Wong. The film, about a trio of notorious gangsters, also won best actor for Gordon Lam’s performance, best screenplay and best editing.
Wong Chun’s Mad World, also a first-time effort, picked up three awards, including best new director, best supporting actor for Eric Tsang’s performance and best supporting actress for Elaine Jin. The film tells the story of a former stockbroker living with his father (Tsang...
Hong Kong’s new wave of filmmakers scored big at the Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday night, where films from first-time directors walked off with most of the major prizes.
Johnnie To-produced crime drama Trivisa (pictured) was the big winner of the night, scooping five awards including best film and best director for its three first-time co-directors - Jevons Au, Frank Hui and Vicky Wong. The film, about a trio of notorious gangsters, also won best actor for Gordon Lam’s performance, best screenplay and best editing.
Wong Chun’s Mad World, also a first-time effort, picked up three awards, including best new director, best supporting actor for Eric Tsang’s performance and best supporting actress for Elaine Jin. The film tells the story of a former stockbroker living with his father (Tsang...
- 4/10/2017
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Newly added to this year’s festival will be a workshop for young filmmakers and film music composers.
Sundance Institute has revealed the 11 films that will form the line-up of its second festival in Hong Kong, held in association with The Metroplex, a newly opened cineplex in Kowloon Bay.
The 2015 Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong will run from Sept 17-27 and follows last year’s Sundance Film Festival - Hong Kong Selects, which brought a series of curated Us independent films to the city for the first time. Titles this year include:
The Wolfpack, Crystal MoselleAdvantageous, Jennifer PhangCartel Land, Matthew HeinemanDope, Rick FamuyiwaJames White, Josh MondMe and Earl and the Dying Girl, Alfonso Gomez-RejonPeople, Places, Things, Jim StrouseSongs My Brothers Taught Me, Chloé ZhaoThe End of the Tour, James PonsoldtThe Stanford Prison Experiment, Kyle Patrick AlvarezThe Witch, Robert Eggers
The Wolfpack, which won the Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at Sundance, will open the...
Sundance Institute has revealed the 11 films that will form the line-up of its second festival in Hong Kong, held in association with The Metroplex, a newly opened cineplex in Kowloon Bay.
The 2015 Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong will run from Sept 17-27 and follows last year’s Sundance Film Festival - Hong Kong Selects, which brought a series of curated Us independent films to the city for the first time. Titles this year include:
The Wolfpack, Crystal MoselleAdvantageous, Jennifer PhangCartel Land, Matthew HeinemanDope, Rick FamuyiwaJames White, Josh MondMe and Earl and the Dying Girl, Alfonso Gomez-RejonPeople, Places, Things, Jim StrouseSongs My Brothers Taught Me, Chloé ZhaoThe End of the Tour, James PonsoldtThe Stanford Prison Experiment, Kyle Patrick AlvarezThe Witch, Robert Eggers
The Wolfpack, which won the Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at Sundance, will open the...
- 8/11/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Hong Kong-based Sun Entertainment Culture is unveiling several new projects at Filmart, including romantic drama Concerto Of The Bully, starring Ronald Cheng and Janice Man.
Fung Chih-chiang has scripted and will direct Concerto Of The Bully, which is based on his novel about a street punk who kidnaps a gifted songwriter who never forgets anything she has heard.
Peter Kam, who won a Berlin Silver Bear for best music for Isabella in 2006, has written the score of the film, which is currently in pre-production.
Sun is also introducing Fire Lee’s Robbery, which stars Derek Tsang, J. Aire and Lam Suet in a story about a series of bizarre events at a corner convenience store.
The Cantonese-language drama is in post-production for release later this year.
Sun has also invested in Wilson Chin’s ‘girls with guns’ action drama, Special Female Force, starring Anita Chui, Jeana Ho and Eliza Sam.
Chin previously...
Fung Chih-chiang has scripted and will direct Concerto Of The Bully, which is based on his novel about a street punk who kidnaps a gifted songwriter who never forgets anything she has heard.
Peter Kam, who won a Berlin Silver Bear for best music for Isabella in 2006, has written the score of the film, which is currently in pre-production.
Sun is also introducing Fire Lee’s Robbery, which stars Derek Tsang, J. Aire and Lam Suet in a story about a series of bizarre events at a corner convenience store.
The Cantonese-language drama is in post-production for release later this year.
Sun has also invested in Wilson Chin’s ‘girls with guns’ action drama, Special Female Force, starring Anita Chui, Jeana Ho and Eliza Sam.
Chin previously...
- 3/24/2015
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Action star Donnie Yen, director Teddy Chen and actress Michelle Bai to attend London Film Festival premiere.
The 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19) is to host the world premiere of Kung Fu Jungle (Yi Ge Ren de Wu Lin), attended by director Teddy Chen, action super star Donnie Yen (Ip Man) and actress Michelle Bai.
The film has been added to the festival’s Thrill selection and will screen premiere on Oct 12 at the Empire Leicester Square Cinema.
Yen plays Hahou, a former martial arts instructor, imprisoned after accidentally slaying an opponent. But when a vicious killer (Wang Baoqiang) starts targeting martial arts masters, the instructor offers to help a police inspector (Charlie Young) in return for his freedom. Bai plays the woman loved by Hahou who is threatened by the killer.
Lff director Clare Stewart described the film as “a breathtaking thrill-ride” and said she was “honoured” that the festival had been chosen by [link...
The 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19) is to host the world premiere of Kung Fu Jungle (Yi Ge Ren de Wu Lin), attended by director Teddy Chen, action super star Donnie Yen (Ip Man) and actress Michelle Bai.
The film has been added to the festival’s Thrill selection and will screen premiere on Oct 12 at the Empire Leicester Square Cinema.
Yen plays Hahou, a former martial arts instructor, imprisoned after accidentally slaying an opponent. But when a vicious killer (Wang Baoqiang) starts targeting martial arts masters, the instructor offers to help a police inspector (Charlie Young) in return for his freedom. Bai plays the woman loved by Hahou who is threatened by the killer.
Lff director Clare Stewart described the film as “a breathtaking thrill-ride” and said she was “honoured” that the festival had been chosen by [link...
- 9/16/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Congralutations to Andy Lau (representing Hong Kong's Oscar submission A Simple Life) and Eugene Domingo (the star of The Philippine's Oscar submission Woman in a Septic Tank) who won the People's Choice Award for Actor and Actress at the 6th Annual Asian Film Awards.
They look so happy. The Oscars are long over but somehow it's comforting to know that people hold new trophies every day of the year for something or other and not all of them are dreaming of Oscar. And not all awards bodies are concerned with whether or not Oscar voters are watching.
It was a big night for A Separation (which we were just talking about) which took home the top prize and three others. The craft categories were mostly split between Wu Xia and The Flying Swords of Dragon Gale, neither of which have come to Us cinemas.
The acting awards were all over...
They look so happy. The Oscars are long over but somehow it's comforting to know that people hold new trophies every day of the year for something or other and not all of them are dreaming of Oscar. And not all awards bodies are concerned with whether or not Oscar voters are watching.
It was a big night for A Separation (which we were just talking about) which took home the top prize and three others. The craft categories were mostly split between Wu Xia and The Flying Swords of Dragon Gale, neither of which have come to Us cinemas.
The acting awards were all over...
- 3/21/2012
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Still from A Separation
Asghar Farhadi’s Nader and Simin, A Separation added to its long list of accolades after it scooped up four awards at the 6th Asian Film Awards (Afa) in Hong Kong. It won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter and Best Editor.
Donny Damara won the Best Actor for Lovely Man (Indonesia) while Deanie IP won the Best Actress for A Simple Life (Hong Kong).
The 6th Afa that took place on March 19 is one of the opening events of Entertainment Expo Hong Kong and takes place with two other flagship events of the Hkiffs: the 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), and the 10th Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf).
The winners of the 6th Afa are:
Best Film
• Nader And Simin, A Separation (Iran)
Best Director
• Asghar Farhadi ― Nader And Simin, A Separation (Iran)
Best Actor
• Donny Damara ― Lovely Man (Indonesia...
Asghar Farhadi’s Nader and Simin, A Separation added to its long list of accolades after it scooped up four awards at the 6th Asian Film Awards (Afa) in Hong Kong. It won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter and Best Editor.
Donny Damara won the Best Actor for Lovely Man (Indonesia) while Deanie IP won the Best Actress for A Simple Life (Hong Kong).
The 6th Afa that took place on March 19 is one of the opening events of Entertainment Expo Hong Kong and takes place with two other flagship events of the Hkiffs: the 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), and the 10th Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf).
The winners of the 6th Afa are:
Best Film
• Nader And Simin, A Separation (Iran)
Best Director
• Asghar Farhadi ― Nader And Simin, A Separation (Iran)
Best Actor
• Donny Damara ― Lovely Man (Indonesia...
- 3/20/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Nominations for the 6th annual Asian Film Awards were announced in Hong Kong today:
Best Film
A Separation (Iran) Postcard (Japan) The Flowers of War (Mainland China) Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China) Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan) You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)
Best Director
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale Zhang Yimou, The Flowers of War
Best Actor
Chen Kun, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Donny Damara, Lovely Man Andy Lau, A Simple Life Park Hae Il, War of the Arrows Yakusho Koji, Chronicle of My Mother
Best Actress
Vidya Balan, The Dirty Picture Michelle Chen, You Are the Apple of My Eye Eugene Domingo, The Woman in the Septic Tank Leila Hatami, A Separation Deanie Ip,...
Best Film
A Separation (Iran) Postcard (Japan) The Flowers of War (Mainland China) Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China) Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan) You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)
Best Director
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale Zhang Yimou, The Flowers of War
Best Actor
Chen Kun, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Donny Damara, Lovely Man Andy Lau, A Simple Life Park Hae Il, War of the Arrows Yakusho Koji, Chronicle of My Mother
Best Actress
Vidya Balan, The Dirty Picture Michelle Chen, You Are the Apple of My Eye Eugene Domingo, The Woman in the Septic Tank Leila Hatami, A Separation Deanie Ip,...
- 1/18/2012
- MUBI
The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and the other nominations for the 2012 Asian Film Awards have been announced. The 6th Annual Asian Film Awards was presented by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) “to recognize excellence of film professionals in the film industries of Asian cinema.” This year’s award ceremony will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on March 19, 2012.
The full listing of the 2012 Asian Film Awards nominations have been announced.
Best Film
A Separation (Iran)
Postcard (Japan)
The Flowers of War (Mainland China)
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China)
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)
Best Director
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation
Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man
Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance
Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
Zhang Yimou, The...
The full listing of the 2012 Asian Film Awards nominations have been announced.
Best Film
A Separation (Iran)
Postcard (Japan)
The Flowers of War (Mainland China)
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong/Mainland China)
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
You Don’t Get Life a Second Time (India)
Best Director
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation
Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Lovely Man
Sono Sion, Guilty of Romance
Tsui Hark, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
Zhang Yimou, The...
- 1/18/2012
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
San Francisco International Film Festival
HONG KONG -- After a career excelling in highbrow urban romances, Hong Kong director Peter Chan (Perhaps Love) earns his spurs in his march into war epic territory.
The Warlords is a classical tragedy of how an oath of blood brotherhood is betrayed by adultery, failed idealism and Darwinian principles. Set under the vast historical canopy of the pseudo-Christian Taiping Rebellion in 19th century China, no-expense-spared battle scenes achieve a brutal majesty, refined by intricately plotted military strategies and Machiavellian statecraft. The casting of Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro was a surefire draw in Asia.
The film recently swept the Hong Kong Film Awards (equivalent to the local Oscars), winning eight prizes, most notably best film, best director and best actor for Li.
The $40 million hit gained tenfold from the combined boxoffices of seven countries, with China counting for the lion's share (well more than $30 million), leading Morgan & Chan Films to claim its film as the top grosser in Southeast Asia. Overseas distributors or producers eyeing the China market should check this out as an exemplar of what appeals to Chinese viewers. It premieres stateside at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Loosely based on the chronicled assassination of Jiangsu governor Ma Xinyi in 1870 and at first intended as a remake of the Shaw Brothers actioner The Blood Brothers (1973) by Chang Cheh, Warlords has updated historical insight and is closer in spirit to the Chinese novel The Water Margin as it focuses on the social plight of poor men-turned-bandits, exploited by the court to fight its enemies in outnumbered maneuvers. The film's impact springs from its dystopian vision, its unblinking attention to the carnage and desperation it portrays. Stockpiled images of mountains of corpses leave any humanist audience thoroughly depressed by the ending's no-win situation.
Incorporating such Western elements as canons and trench warfare, Chan shows he has the directorial muscle to handle action set pieces commanding thousands of extras wielding an array of weapons. He draws on the strength of action choreographer Ching Siu-tung to give realism to the combat, occasionally with a nod to the gory heroism of 300. Visual effects are of the highest caliber in Asia, though overcast by a production design of dusty gray and dirty brown -- faces are always caked in grit or mud, and even ornate interiors are dimly and menacingly lit.
Doing less fighting than usual, Li gives his best dramatizing the ambivalent leading role Pang Qing-yun, whose social conscience is offset by survival instincts. Lau and Kaneshiro's roles are imbued with less psychological depth, and the brotherhood lacks the gutsy manliness, riveting personality tensions (and intriguing gay subtext) of Chang's original. Although the film is impressive in its physical aspects, the adultery of Pang and his blood brother's wife, Lian (Xu Jinglei), is underdrawn as a sexual skirmish whose influence on events is diminished.
THE WARLORDS
Media Asia Films, Morgan & Chan Films, China Film Group
Sales agent: Media Asia Distribution (Hong Kong), Arm Distribution (international)
Credits:
Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Screenwriters: Xu Lan, Chun Tin Nam, Aubrey Lam, Huang Jianxin, Jojo Hui, He Jiping, Guo Jun Li, James Yuen
Producers: Andre Morgan, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Huang Jianxin
Executive producers: Peter Lam, Andre Morgan, Han Sanping
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Yee Chung Man
Music: Leon Ko, Chan Kwong Wing, Peter Kam, Chatchai Pongprapaphan
Co-producer: Jojo Hui
Costume designer: Jessi Dai, Lee Pik Kwan
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Pang Qing-Yun: Jet Li
Zhao Er-Hu: Andy Lau
Jiang Wu-Yang: Takeshi Kaneshiro
Lian: Xu Jinglei
Running time -- 110 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONG KONG -- After a career excelling in highbrow urban romances, Hong Kong director Peter Chan (Perhaps Love) earns his spurs in his march into war epic territory.
The Warlords is a classical tragedy of how an oath of blood brotherhood is betrayed by adultery, failed idealism and Darwinian principles. Set under the vast historical canopy of the pseudo-Christian Taiping Rebellion in 19th century China, no-expense-spared battle scenes achieve a brutal majesty, refined by intricately plotted military strategies and Machiavellian statecraft. The casting of Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro was a surefire draw in Asia.
The film recently swept the Hong Kong Film Awards (equivalent to the local Oscars), winning eight prizes, most notably best film, best director and best actor for Li.
The $40 million hit gained tenfold from the combined boxoffices of seven countries, with China counting for the lion's share (well more than $30 million), leading Morgan & Chan Films to claim its film as the top grosser in Southeast Asia. Overseas distributors or producers eyeing the China market should check this out as an exemplar of what appeals to Chinese viewers. It premieres stateside at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Loosely based on the chronicled assassination of Jiangsu governor Ma Xinyi in 1870 and at first intended as a remake of the Shaw Brothers actioner The Blood Brothers (1973) by Chang Cheh, Warlords has updated historical insight and is closer in spirit to the Chinese novel The Water Margin as it focuses on the social plight of poor men-turned-bandits, exploited by the court to fight its enemies in outnumbered maneuvers. The film's impact springs from its dystopian vision, its unblinking attention to the carnage and desperation it portrays. Stockpiled images of mountains of corpses leave any humanist audience thoroughly depressed by the ending's no-win situation.
Incorporating such Western elements as canons and trench warfare, Chan shows he has the directorial muscle to handle action set pieces commanding thousands of extras wielding an array of weapons. He draws on the strength of action choreographer Ching Siu-tung to give realism to the combat, occasionally with a nod to the gory heroism of 300. Visual effects are of the highest caliber in Asia, though overcast by a production design of dusty gray and dirty brown -- faces are always caked in grit or mud, and even ornate interiors are dimly and menacingly lit.
Doing less fighting than usual, Li gives his best dramatizing the ambivalent leading role Pang Qing-yun, whose social conscience is offset by survival instincts. Lau and Kaneshiro's roles are imbued with less psychological depth, and the brotherhood lacks the gutsy manliness, riveting personality tensions (and intriguing gay subtext) of Chang's original. Although the film is impressive in its physical aspects, the adultery of Pang and his blood brother's wife, Lian (Xu Jinglei), is underdrawn as a sexual skirmish whose influence on events is diminished.
THE WARLORDS
Media Asia Films, Morgan & Chan Films, China Film Group
Sales agent: Media Asia Distribution (Hong Kong), Arm Distribution (international)
Credits:
Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Screenwriters: Xu Lan, Chun Tin Nam, Aubrey Lam, Huang Jianxin, Jojo Hui, He Jiping, Guo Jun Li, James Yuen
Producers: Andre Morgan, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Huang Jianxin
Executive producers: Peter Lam, Andre Morgan, Han Sanping
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Yee Chung Man
Music: Leon Ko, Chan Kwong Wing, Peter Kam, Chatchai Pongprapaphan
Co-producer: Jojo Hui
Costume designer: Jessi Dai, Lee Pik Kwan
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Pang Qing-Yun: Jet Li
Zhao Er-Hu: Andy Lau
Jiang Wu-Yang: Takeshi Kaneshiro
Lian: Xu Jinglei
Running time -- 110 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 4/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HONG KONG -- Perhaps Love, China's first musical in more than three decades, led the winners' list with six awards at the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards on Saturday night though it saw the best film and director nods go to Johnnie To's Election. Love, a collaboration between Hollywood-based Ruddy Morgan Organization and HK's Applause Pictures, took the awards for best actress (Zhou Xun), best cinematography (Peter Pau), best costume and make-up (Yee Chung-man and Dora Ng), best art direction (Yee Chung-man and Wong Ping-yiu), best original film score (Peter Kam and Leon Ko) and best original song (Perhaps Love). Director Peter Chan, however, lost out to To in the best director category for the latter's gritty triad expose Election, which also earned the best film prize for To's Milkyway Image and China Star.
- 4/10/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HONG KONG -- Perhaps Love, China's first musical in more than three decades, led the winners' list with six awards at the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards on Saturday night though it saw the best film and director nods go to Johnnie To's Election. Love, a collaboration between Hollywood-based Ruddy Morgan Organization and HK's Applause Pictures, took the awards for best actress (Zhou Xun), best cinematography (Peter Pau), best costume and make-up (Yee Chung-man and Dora Ng), best art direction (Yee Chung-man and Wong Ping-yiu), best original film score (Peter Kam and Leon Ko) and best original song (Perhaps Love). Director Peter Chan, however, lost out to To in the best director category for the latter's gritty triad expose Election, which also earned the best film prize for To's Milkyway Image and China Star.
- 4/10/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Isabelle" has a gentle, melancholy spirit as two characters look to the future while haunted by the past. During the chaotic, crime-ridden months before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, a rogue cop named Shing (Chapman To), already under suspicion of corruption, brings home an underage hooker picked up in a sleazy bar. Then the girl, Yan (Isabella Leong), hits him with a huge whammy: She claims to be his daughter by a long-ago lover, who recently died. Thus begins two people's odyssey, tracked through the shadowy, decaying back alleys of Macau, toward a relationship neither is certain is desirable.
This Berlin competition film makes a fine festival entry and could do well in Asia where it has several marketing hooks. For one thing, director Pang Ho-cheung, who has made five films in rapid succession since 1999, has emerged as one of the leading Hong Kong new-wave filmmakers. Here he collaborates with To in his partner's first outing as a leading man and producer. Meanwhile, the beguiling Isabella Leong has enjoyed success as a pop singer in Asia as well as an actress.
The film gets off to a misleading start as the time frame is fractured and events are fuzzy, leading one to anticipate an arty deconstruction exercise where things remain unclear for most of the film. However, once characters get sorted out and Yan drops her bombshell, the film heads down a fairly straight-forwarded narrative path.
Pang (working from a script he wrote with Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wang) concentrates on character and mood without overplaying the emotional content. Macau itself becomes a third character in the movie, a stubborn, decadent city in transition, as are the two people.
Yan has turned for help to her womanizing father -- whom she has studied from afar but never approached-- only due to a financial emergency. Since she is four months behind on rent, her landlord has padlocked the flat with her dog, Isabelle, inside. When Shing confronts the landlord, the man snorts that he threw the dog out on the street.
This launches an extensive dragnet of the neighborhood by the older man and young woman, searching for the missing canine. Meantime, the homeless girl moves temporarily into her father's one-bedroom flat.
The film's incidents are casual, even muted. Yan puts off a classmate (Derek Tsang) with a huge crush on her by insisting that Shing is her new lover. Fellow cops and crooks wander into Shing's path, offering oblique warnings about the corruption charges. (He's guilty but who wants to be a fall guy?) Flashbacks show Shing as a young man bringing Wan's mother (J.J. Jia) to an abortion clinic, and then abandoning her before she goes through with the procedure. The memory is still fresh for Shing.
One amusing sequence has Yan, assuming the role of Shing's live-in lover, turning away a succession of girlfriends who come to the door. One girlfriend proves her equal in deception: She insists that any girlfriend of Shing's must drink so challenges Yan to see who can drink whom under the table.
Cinematographer Charlie Lam has one of the world's greatest sets to work with -- the amazingly colorful/drab/vital/decaying back streets and alleys of Macau. Throw in Peter Kam's melancholy, Portuguese-influenced music involving piano and guitar and you get a wonderfully lyrical atmosphere for this modest but emotionally satisfying character piece.
ISABELLA
Media Asia Films/China Film group present a Not Brothers production
Credits:
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Writers: Pang Ho-cheung, Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wang
Story by: Pang Ho-cheung
Producers: Pang Ho-cheung, Chapman To, Jin Zhongqiang
Executive producers: John Chong, Yang Bu Ting
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Peter Kam
Costumes: Stephanie Wong
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Yan: Isabella Leong
Hua: J.J. Jia
Yan's suitor: Derek Tsang
Kate: Meme Tian
Shing: Chapman To
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
BERLIN -- "Isabelle" has a gentle, melancholy spirit as two characters look to the future while haunted by the past. During the chaotic, crime-ridden months before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, a rogue cop named Shing (Chapman To), already under suspicion of corruption, brings home an underage hooker picked up in a sleazy bar. Then the girl, Yan (Isabella Leong), hits him with a huge whammy: She claims to be his daughter by a long-ago lover, who recently died. Thus begins two people's odyssey, tracked through the shadowy, decaying back alleys of Macau, toward a relationship neither is certain is desirable.
This Berlin competition film makes a fine festival entry and could do well in Asia where it has several marketing hooks. For one thing, director Pang Ho-cheung, who has made five films in rapid succession since 1999, has emerged as one of the leading Hong Kong new-wave filmmakers. Here he collaborates with To in his partner's first outing as a leading man and producer. Meanwhile, the beguiling Isabella Leong has enjoyed success as a pop singer in Asia as well as an actress.
The film gets off to a misleading start as the time frame is fractured and events are fuzzy, leading one to anticipate an arty deconstruction exercise where things remain unclear for most of the film. However, once characters get sorted out and Yan drops her bombshell, the film heads down a fairly straight-forwarded narrative path.
Pang (working from a script he wrote with Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wang) concentrates on character and mood without overplaying the emotional content. Macau itself becomes a third character in the movie, a stubborn, decadent city in transition, as are the two people.
Yan has turned for help to her womanizing father -- whom she has studied from afar but never approached-- only due to a financial emergency. Since she is four months behind on rent, her landlord has padlocked the flat with her dog, Isabelle, inside. When Shing confronts the landlord, the man snorts that he threw the dog out on the street.
This launches an extensive dragnet of the neighborhood by the older man and young woman, searching for the missing canine. Meantime, the homeless girl moves temporarily into her father's one-bedroom flat.
The film's incidents are casual, even muted. Yan puts off a classmate (Derek Tsang) with a huge crush on her by insisting that Shing is her new lover. Fellow cops and crooks wander into Shing's path, offering oblique warnings about the corruption charges. (He's guilty but who wants to be a fall guy?) Flashbacks show Shing as a young man bringing Wan's mother (J.J. Jia) to an abortion clinic, and then abandoning her before she goes through with the procedure. The memory is still fresh for Shing.
One amusing sequence has Yan, assuming the role of Shing's live-in lover, turning away a succession of girlfriends who come to the door. One girlfriend proves her equal in deception: She insists that any girlfriend of Shing's must drink so challenges Yan to see who can drink whom under the table.
Cinematographer Charlie Lam has one of the world's greatest sets to work with -- the amazingly colorful/drab/vital/decaying back streets and alleys of Macau. Throw in Peter Kam's melancholy, Portuguese-influenced music involving piano and guitar and you get a wonderfully lyrical atmosphere for this modest but emotionally satisfying character piece.
ISABELLA
Media Asia Films/China Film group present a Not Brothers production
Credits:
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Writers: Pang Ho-cheung, Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wang
Story by: Pang Ho-cheung
Producers: Pang Ho-cheung, Chapman To, Jin Zhongqiang
Executive producers: John Chong, Yang Bu Ting
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Peter Kam
Costumes: Stephanie Wong
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Yan: Isabella Leong
Hua: J.J. Jia
Yan's suitor: Derek Tsang
Kate: Meme Tian
Shing: Chapman To
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 2/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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