aaron kwok
Action Thriller PROJECT GUTENBERG Launches With Aaron Kwok And Chow Yun-Fat Starring
Overheard trilogy co-helmer Felix Chong is currently in production with new big budget action thriller, Project Gutenberg. International sales agent Distribution Workshop are shopping the film at Cannes whilst having nabbed a raft of release deals throughout Asia.
Chong wrote the script which sees Aaron Kwok as a member of a notorious money counterfeiting gang extradited from Thailand by Hong Kong police who are looking to bring down the gang whose leader will be played by Kwok’s fellow Cold War 2 cohort, actor Chow Yun-Fat. Rounding out the cast are Dick Liu Kai Chi, Zhang Jingchu and Catherine Chau who plays the lead detective with locations slated for Hong Kong, China, Canada and Thailand.
Project Gutenberg, previously titled Unparalleled, is a Hong Kong/China co-prod. between Pop Movies and Bona Film Group. Kwok’s next outing will be in Soi Cheang’s The Monkey King 3 in time for the Chinese New Year. (Variety)
Review: COLD WAR 2 Still Heats Up The Old Hong Kong Magic
Cold War 2 [Blu-ray]Cold War 2 [Blu-ray]
In 2012, the original Cold War served as a proclamation to the world that Hong Kong could still produce a rock solid thriller. It was a tense film that relied on plot and characters to drive the suspense and used action sparingly whenever the situation reached an impasse that only ballistic violence could solve. Cold War was easily one of the most entertaining thrillers of the decade, yet its resolution left a few narrative threads dangling. As it turns out, those threads weren’t an oversight; they would form the basis for the film’s even more thrilling sequel.
The original film dealt with a Hong Kong Police emergency: several officers and a van full of valuable equipment are ambushed and taken hostage. What set the film apart from other police thrillers was that it focused not just on the conflict with the kidnappers but on an internal power struggle within the Police Force. Department veteran M.B. Lee (Tony Leung Kai-Fai) steps up to the role of Commissioner (the true Commissioner is out of country) and enacts operation: Cold War to save the kidnapped officers and minimize damage. The younger, more politically savvy Deputy Commissioner Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) doesn’t think Lee is capable of handling the crisis and sets about taking the reigns and leading the operation his way. It’s an angle that few police thrillers take and it helped to elevate it above its genre contemporaries. Little did anyone realize, this would be the setup for an even bigger story.
The marketing for this film is somewhat misleading: like its predecessor, Cold War 2 is less of a bullet-fest and more of a chess game. The film’s breakneck pace will keep you glued to the screen as Lau and Lee continue to try to outmaneuver each other. The plot never stops moving and demands your full attention as it weaves through the tangled conflict. When the chess game turns violent, the action is grounded yet beautifully executed. Most of all, it feels earned. The stakes and tension are so high that even an action scene that doesn’t directly involve any of the main characters is compelling. Not many action movies can pull that off. Of course, not many action movies are this well written.
The film’s cast is quite extensive and it sometimes becomes a chore to keep track of who everyone is. All the surviving characters from the original return here, with the film opening almost immediately after the events of the first. The biggest addition to the cast, though, is Chow Yun Fat as legislator Oswald Kan. Serving as an outsider who feels the HK Police are in need of reform, he observes and eventually investigates the battle between Lau and Lee when he suspects a conspiracy. Chow bleeds charisma; effortlessly stealing every scene he’s in. Thankfully, the film utilizes him well as an actor and not just marquee value (this is a long way from Dragon Ball: Evolution). One can only hope that he returns for the inevitable sequel.
Cold War 2 [Blu-ray]
The only real drawback of this film is the fact that you have to watch the original to really get the most out of it. Fortunately, the original is a great film and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu so GET ON THAT. It’s somewhat comforting to know that, even as the Chinese film industry conquers the world, Hong Kong filmmaking is still on point. Much like the original, this film leaves a few dangling threads for its inevitable sequel to pull. If the story can maintain its current momentum, we may all be in for a hell of a trilogy.
THE MONKEY KING 2 Continues The Legend At Home On DVD, Blu-Ray And Digital HD This Winter!
Having been the more well received of the trilogy now in progress, the Aaron Kwok-starring second chapter, The Monkey King 2 is finally headed to U.S. audiences following limited theatrical releases earlier this year. December 6 is the date for its Digital HD offering prior to its DVD/Blu-Ray release on January 3, and with any luck we’ll be holding a giveaway for three lucky winners between now and then!
Read the announcement below and check out the accompanying batch of official stills and DVD/Blu-Ray cover artwork.
PLANO, TEXAS. (November 16, 2016) – The legendary Monkey King returns for a new adventure when Well Go USA Entertainment debuts THE MONKEY KING 2 on digital December 6 and on Blu-ray™ and DVD January 3. The follow up to the international fantasy blockbuster finds Soi Cheang (The Monkey King, Kill Zone 2) back in the director’s chair, with martial arts legend Sammo Hung (Kung Fu Hustle, Tai Chi Zero) on board as action director, for the epic sequel set 500 years after the original. This edition finds Aaron Kwok (Cold War) replacing Donnie Yen as The Monkey King, a warrior who must protect a traveling monk (William Feng Shaofeng, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon) from the White Bone Spirit (Gong Li, Curse of the Golden Flower), a demon seeking immortality. THE MONKEY KING 2 also stars Xiao Shen Yang (The Grandmaster), Him Law (Young and Dangerous: Reloaded) and Kris Phillips (Painted Skin: The Resurrection). Bonus materials include a five-part Making-of featurette.
Synopsis:
The follow up to the international fantasy blockbuster, THE MONKEY KING 2 fast forwards 500 years after the Monkey King (Aaron Kwok) wreaked havoc in heaven. Newly freed from his confines under the Five Finger Mountain, the Monkey King vows to protect the innocent from a demon seeking immortality as he accompanies a young monk on an epic journey to the West.
Bonus Materials Include:
●Five-part “Making of” Featurette
○The Monkey King
○Bajie
○The Monk
○Wujing
○A New World
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Cheng Cheng Films To Release ONE NIGHT ONLY In The U.S. On July 22
The story follows Gao Ye (Aaron Kwok), a gambling addict who has lost all his inherited fortune and loved ones, as he tricks a beautiful prostitute Momo (Yang Zishan) into throwing her savings on all kinds of gambling games in Bangkok’s streets, hoping the money they win will make himself rich again. But things immediately spin wildly out of control as they find themselves fallen into a bigger scheme set up by the city’s underground. It is also revealed that Momo actually has always been behind something unknown to Gao Ye. The two wait anxiously as the night falls not knowing if they will survive to see another sunrise.
THE MONKEY KING 2: 3D Delivers Its Latest Poster And Banner
Director Soi Cheang’s earlier efforts with The Monkey King was a huge box office hit in 2014 and a release in the U.S. is soon pending. Bearing in mind of course is the fact that some fans had their own disapproving opinions on it and so optimism on a sequel remained floundering, but the sequel is here, nevertheless, and less than a month short of its Hong Kong release in February for The Monkey King 2: 3D.
Featuring action director Sammo Hung’s signature fight design, actor Aaron Kwok reunites with the director and now takes the lead in this inspired CG-laden epic based on Wu Cheng’en’s Journey To The West, in a story that now pits our hero against actress Gong Li who plays the White Bone Demon. Both have been featured aplenty in character posters and you can view those here among others floating online, but you can now check out the latest official poster below. Click here for a first teaser as well if you fancy it.
THE MONKEY KING 2 Unveils Its Heroes And Villain In New Character Posters
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