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Future X-Cops trailer: Sina

Andy Lau travels back in time and teams up with Barbie Hsu to stop a group of cyborg assassins, led by Fan Siu Wong, hired to bump a scientist whose green inventions in the future would threaten the profits of oil companies. Opens on Dec 20, 2009
 

-- Legend of Shaolin Kungfu --

With the incredible success of the truly realistic kungfu series Legend of Shaolin Kungfu 1 in not just China, but also Japan, not only has Fuji TV continued to acquire the Japan rights to Legend of Shaolin Kungfu 2: Thirteen Cudgel Monks, but is also co-producing Legend of Shaolin Kungfu 3: Story of Xilu, that is scheduled for production sometime in July, announces director Du Xiao at a press conference on June 29, attended by the cast Yuen Biao, Ji Chun hua, Li Yuan, Xie Miao, Sun Hui Ning, etc.

-- Future Cops --

Future Cops is currently being filmed on in Huairou, Beiijng. According to Wong Jing, the movie timeline have been changed, it will take place totally in the future. A number of characters in the film are part-man, part-machine with superhuman abilities, such as the villain Tang Yi Fei, whose cybernetics accessories include scorpion tail, wings of bat, arms of praying mantis, and she also possesses speed of leopard, all of which will be handled by special effects.

Action director Ching Siu Tung, who's trying to be innovative in the action, says that the film's budget is over 100m yuan, and a significant portion of the budget will be spent on creating roughly 900 visual effects shots in post-production.

Andy Lau and his wife Fan Bing Bing are cops living in 2130, and Xu Jiao's their daughter. Barbie Hsu plays Andy Lau's romantic interest when he travels to 2080 and part of his memory is erased. Fan Siu Wong plays a terrorist leader who sends his men to kidnap scientist Ma Jing Wu, whom Andy Lau and Fan Bing Bing are assigned to protect, at a Tang Dynasty exhibition.

Photos: 1, 2 (Sina) | Short clip: Sohu

Perhaps, feeling upstaged by Hollywood in kungfu genre in the recent years, Chinese directors are responding with their answers to X-Men and Transformers. One is Future Cop, directed by Wong Jing, while another is Robot, directed by Jeffrey Lau.

-- Future Cops --

Director Wong Jing is teaming up with martial arts choreographer Ching Siu Tung on a loose remake of Future Cops, produced by Tsai Sung Lin. Future Cops (tentative) is budgeted at 150m yuan and Andy Lau and Barbie Hsu are playing leads. Andy Lau agrees to joining only after the script went through 19 revisions, and also picks Barbie Hsu, who showed excellent performance in Connected, as his co-star. 

Andy Lau was interviewed by Barbie Hsu sometime back, and thought that they would have great chemistry together. It's like a dream come true for Barbie Hsu to work with her idol. Andy Lau reprises his role as a cop from 2085 who accidentally returns to 2010, and teams up with a female cop Barbie Hsu to bust a criminal organisation.

Ching Siu Tung has been working on choreographing the film since the closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics, coming up with exotic moves for Andy Lau and Barbie Hsu.

Filming begins next month and is expected to be completed by end of the year, after which post-production, including special effects, will be carried out. They're planning to go to exotic locales like Dubai to do location filming. Future Cops is slated for year end release in 2009.   Sina

-- Legend of Shaolin Kungfu --
Finally, the wonderful kungfu TV series by Du Xiao, which has been topping viewership ratings across various provinces in China, is available for sales officially on DVD.

This martial arts production features highly authentic martial arts sequences with intricate exchanges, courtesy of Ching Siu Tung who discards his usual highly stylised/beautified choreography for wide shot and long cuts that give ample room to showcase the skills of the martial arts champions Li Yuan, Xie Miao, Ye Jian Wei, Ji Chun Hua, Yu Cheng Hui, Chen Jia Jia, Guo Hui, Li Qi Long, Dai Tian etc, a number of whom are fresh talent. Also starring Bao Guo An, Sun Hui Ning, Yaqi Fatima, Wu Ma, Anthony Wong, Tsui Siu Ming, etc.

Order Legend of Shaolin Kungfu DVD (in Chinese only) from YesAsia.

As a side note, Shaolin Warriors DVD with Sammo Hung in a major supporting role as well as actual Shaolin monks as extras but starring non-martial artists is shipping on August 19, 2008. Shaolin Warriors is an unrelated TV series surrounding Shaolin Temple and its monks helping general Qi Ji Guang fend off marauding pirates. However, with its choppily edited action scenes, perhaps done purposely to mask the inefficiencies of the non-martial artists, genre fans are well advised to steer clear of Shaolin Warriors.

On May 8, the press was granted a visit to the set of Grand Master Yip Man on a Shanghai soundstage, where filming of Butterfly Lovers/Butterfly Swords, starring Wu Zun and Charlene Choi as the re-incarnations of the star-cross lovers, with choreography by Ching Siu Tung, is also going on nearby.

They were filming a scene whereby Yip Man (Donnie Yen) goes shopping with his wife Zhang Yong Cheng (Lynn Hung) and son Yip Chun (Li Ze) in the bustling streets of Foshan. However, owing to unexpected drizzle, filming was affected. At one end of a street is the congregation of all kind of martial arts schools. The set will be altered at a later stage to give a worn-down, grim and dismal look following Japanese invasion and occupation.

Gordon Lam plays constable Li Zhao and while enforcing his duty, he inevitably comes into conflicts with Yip Man. It's Li Zhao's duty as a constable to ensure law and order, but those martial arts practitioners are constantly taking on each other. Thus, they are a perennial threat to public security as well as a headache to the police force. In other words, Gordon Lam's character per se may be a wet blanket to the audience for potentially disrupting any matches.

More photos at: Sina. Here are the videos from the set visit at Sina: Shopping, Interviews with Donnie Yen, Wilson Yip, Lynn Hung, Gordon Lam

-- HK Filmart 2008 --

Have Perseverance, Will Succeed

李渊 Li Yuan was born on August 7, 1982 in Shangdong to an impecunious peasant family of over 10 members, at the time when Jet Li's Shaolin Temple took the nation by storm. Growing up being a fan of martial arts films, Li Yuan started formal training in martial arts at the age of 12. When he was in primary 4, he made a bold decision to quit school in order to learn wushu. He was subsequently punished by his parents. But on considering that he wasn't doing very well in his academic studies, Li Yuan's parents finally relented.

Li Yuan was raised mostly by his wushu champion brother 李炳雷 Li Bing Lei, who also teaches him martial arts. Li Bing Lei is 8 years his senior. Li Yuan was brought up under very strict upbringing, and he matured earlier than most people. In his youth, he got only one rest day on Lunar New Year; on other days, he would train for four to five hours daily. There were times when thoughts of skiving did occur to Li Yuan, but on thinking of how hard his parents were toiling in the fields in his hometown, even in bitter winters, Li Yuan cast aside all weariness.

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?

Director Du Xiao Shares His Visions and Goals

When China's multiple awarding director Du Xiao read the script of A Legend of Shaolin Kungfu, he approached it with reminiscence. As everyone is aware, Jet Li's version of Shaolin Temple is known throughout the world for its authentic portrayal of martial arts scenes, their elegance and practicality.

The kungfu culture developed rapidly following that, and films like Swordsman and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon brought about a different school of martial arts choreography, tending towards surrealism, etherealness and gracefulness.