Martial arts action cinema fans have watched and waited for anything and everything resembling a sign of life for Once Upon A Time In Shanghai, a production that only saw a year-and-a-half old promo teaser with lead action star, actor Philip Ng until recently. The film has since shown itself out with new sales art and a synopsis revealed back in early November as the film made the film festival rounds this year.
This week, the new film from director Wong Ching-Po now has three viral non-English subtitled featurettes with snippets from the original promo and its behind the scenes segments, speaking segments from the cast and crew, clips from a training montage from 2010 and footage from the actual movie, with the second reel showcasing co-star Andy On‘s evolution as a certified action performer. Some of this footage is just now coming my way, so there may be more, if any.
At any rate, with the January 8, 2014 deadline approaching for the film’s domestic release, we should at least expect a full trailer sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.
Once Upon A Time In Shanghai features action choreography by the incomparable Yuen Wo-Ping, and stars Ng and On with Jiang Luxia, Sammo Hung, Michelle Hu, Wang Chunyuan, Chen Kuentai, Fung Hak-On and Mao Junjie.
Special thanks to reader Brad Curran for the nod!
SYNOPSIS:
In the 1900’s, MA YONG ZHEN joined many hopeful laborers to seek work in Shanghai. Remaining honest and refusing to join a gang, he became friends with gangster LONG QI. Japanese spy HASHIMOTO, furious that Long turned down his proposal, tries to kill both of them. Ma luckily survives, and is now determined to help his people by decimating the bad elements in Shanghai.
