Film News

-- Fatal Move --

The gala premiere of Fatal Move on Feb 26 was attended by director Dennis Law, producer Charles Heung and his son Jacky Heung, most of the cast members including Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Ken Lo, Wu Jing, Maggie Shiu, Tien Niu, Carisa Yan, Lau Kam Ling, etc.

Simon Yam appears especially excited. He greets the audiences effusively and also provides autographs prodigiously. He says that at Berlin Film Festival, the film was sold to an India distributor and he was invited to do promotions in India in May.

Sammo Hung appears quieter and more stoic, and he doesn't forget to promote the younger generations. He says that Wu Jing is one with very bright future, but timing is not favourable due to lack of martial arts films being produced. Sammo Hung hopes that, given his skills, Wu Jing would carve out a niche for himself in the film industry.  

Video: Sina, Sohu | More photos: Tom, QQ, Mop

An Empress and The Warriors Sina Chat

Sina, Feb 20, 2008

New Dragon Inn

Host: The Empress and the Warriors will be released in March. In our memories, this isn't Ching Siu Tung and Donnie Yen's first collaboration. They first collaborated on New Dragon Inn in 1992.

Donnie Yen: Yes.

Host: My most memorable scene is the finale in the desert with Donnie Yen fighting against Maggie Cheung et al. Do the two of you still remember it?

-- Fatal Move --

A brief look at filming of the exchange of metal pole and sword between Sammo Hung and Wu Jing, some other scenes and brief notes from the director, Sammo Hung and Wu Jing may be viewed at Youtube, courtesy of WuJing.hk

-- Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor --

Director Rob Cohen has updated The Mummy 3 blog with progress of post-production. At the moment, the film clocks 2 hrs 5 minutes of running time and they are working on further refining the cut. There're still lots of work to be done on visual f/x. It will have the first studio screening on February 28. So far, those studio executives who have seen a big part of the film are pretty stoked. Jet Li, who dropped by the editing room recently, was quite pleased by the parts that Rob Cohen showed him. A teaser trailer is going to be out in a month.

-- Fatal Move --

In a bid to bringing freshness to the audience and to re-invigorate the market, director Dennis Law makes the HK$20m Fatal Move an action-packed film that is full of extreme violence and gore, to the extent that it receives a Category 3 rating in Hong Kong. And by the same token, it won't be released in Mainland theatres as Dennis Law refuses to compromise by editing a tamer version that conforms to their strict censorship. 

Dennis Law instead sets his sights on the Western market, with an assembly of cast familiar to them - Sammo Hung, Ken Lo, Simon Yam, Danny Lee, where Chinese martial arts film DVDs are selling very well. He believes that the martial arts scenes are the strongest asset of Fatal Move, in particular, the major weapon fight scene between Sammo Hung and Wu Jing.

-- Wolf Fangs --

Wu Jing's next film is expected to begin production in middle of March. The film, tentatively titled 《狼牙》 (Wolf Teeth), tells the tale of an assassin. The production would try to get theatrical release in Mainland, as opposed to the Category III rated Fatal Move, which can only be released on home video there.

Wu Jing will be in Hong Kong on February 20 to take part in Gold Label Management's Lunar New Year celebration, and will be attending Fatal Move's gala premiere on February 26. Wu Jing's Management

CJ7

Straits Times

6 Feb 2008, Boon Cheng

Comic Relief

Stephen Chow conquered the East - and West - with his nonsensical humour in Kungfu Hustle. Will he have the last laugh for taking risks in his new family-oriented film?

Never work with children or dogs, goes the old showbiz saying. Comedy king Stephen Chow Sing Chi works with both in his latest film, CJ7, which opens here tomorrow. But neither the child star nor canine character reared their heads at his press conference here earlier this week. Instead, the director-actor shared the limelight with Chinese starlet Kitty Zhang Yu Qi, in the process dispelling rumours of a rift between the two.

-- Painted Skin --

After 2 1/2 months of filming, Painted Skin has wrapped up production on February 3. Post-production will start with making a rough edit before dubbing is done, while special effects will take 4 months to create. The scenes involving Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun and Chen Kun are primarily drama while those involving Donnie Yen, Sun Li, and Qi Yi Wu, who's playing a villainous reptile spirit, contain a fair bit of action.

As an award-winning action director, Donnie Yen, being fully aware that having come thus far in martial arts choreography, it'll be very hard to make further breakthrough within a short period, hopes to portray a character that is different, to develop himself as an actor. However, he has not been given much chance in this area. Thus, Donnie Yen is very grateful to director Gordon Chan for giving him such an opportunity, frequently communicating with him, digging out his potential in acting. Donnie Yen also has a wonderful time working with his costars, saying that he has learned many things from them. He's full of praise for Zhou Xun's acting and has forged a close bond with Chen Kun.  Sina

A press conference, attended by Kelly Chen and Guo Xiao Dong, was held on February 1 for An Empress and the Warriors, which is heading for release in Asia on March 20. Ching Siu Tung directed this film and worked with Ma Yuk Sing choreograph the action, which tips on the more realistic side of the scale. Kelly Chen, who plays a princess of a fallen kingdom who seeks to restore it, says that the armours they wore was very heavy. It was made of metal and the film was made in summer when it was the hottest in Beijing. It was already tiring wearing armours, they were already sweating a lot, and had to do action scenes, resulting in loss of appetite. All they wanted was to finish filming quickly. Even then, Kelly Chen did not slack, not only was she praised by Leon Lai, but gave quite a bit of pressure on Guo Xiao Dong, "Seeing Kelly Chen's action scenes gave me a shock. It didn't occur to me that she could fight so well. I thought to myself, I mustn't lose out to her."