NYAFF XXIII Review: In Herman Yau’s CUSTOMS FRONTLINE, Tse And Cheung (Mostly) Get The Job Done
TW: This review discusses self-harm, mental illness and suicide.
TW: This review discusses self-harm, mental illness and suicide.
Emperor Motion Pictures revealed the start of production for The Unleashed Blaze, reportedly a thematic sequel to the late Benny Chan’s Raging Fire which starred Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Derek Kwok (Gallants, Full Strike) is directing the film which reunites Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse who previously starred together in the aforementioned Chan’s 2011 martial arts epic, Shaolin.
Director Herman Yau’s newest action-thriller comes tethered with the bolstering influence of none other than Nicholas Tse for Emperor Motion Pictures’ entry, Customs Frontline. Tse joins Jackie Cheung for a production that ultimately sends off the studio as a major success in the spotlight of this year’s events at FilMart having reportedly produced up to 27 titles since the pandemic, a factor which ultimately put things in motion for Yau’s production to take necessary alternatives.
A sequel to 2004’s New Police Story is on the horizon, according to Screen International’s digital magazine and Screen HK over at HKFilMart on Tuesday. Action star Jackie Chan will rejoin his co-stars, Nicholas Tse and Charlene Choi from the first film, with Chan producing and Tse making his directorial debut.
Herman Yau (Shock Wave, Shock Wave 2, Ip Man: The Final Fight, The White Storm 2: Drug Lords) is at the microphone once more as cameras roll for War Customised. Actors Jacky Cheung (Bullet in the Head) and Nicholas Tse (Raging Fire) are heading the cast from a script by The Empty Hands and Shock Wave 2 scribe Erica Li.
With Tsui Hark back on the charts with Criterion’s release of his epic Once Upon A Time In China boxset, let’s take a look back at his absolutely over the top, ludicrous action character piece from 2000, Time And Tide. It’s a hard film to process as it juggles so many styles and tones over its run time.
The past two decades or so proved to be a pretty interesting era in Asian movies. Specifically, new blood entered the arena by the late nineties to carry onward the legacy and momentum of Hong Kong cinema following its latest crossovers of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh, placing younger stars like actor Nicholas Tse firmly in the spotlight as the terrain shifted. The result has seen the trajectory expanded on significantly more prospective terms as, namely speaking, Yen’s pursuits saw him traveling the world for productions on both sides of the lens, while the likes of Tse and his Gen-X Cops helmer Benny Chan – director of Yen’s 1995 incarnation of Fist Of Fury – would eventually see the two collaborate several times over from 2004 through 2011.
Right up until his untimely passing in August, late director Benny Chan served as one of the most memorable and remarkable filmmakers of his field. He now leaves his fanbase around the world with his final posthumous film credit, Raging Fire, rejoining his Fist Of Fury TV series star Donnie Yen, and Shaolin and Invisible Target star Nicholas Tse for a brand new thriller going into 2021.
Media Asia Films/IMDB
Emperor Motion Pictures made it official this week with the announcement of Raging Fire. Thought to be a new rendition of last year’s announced Crossfire project joining Benny Chan and action star Donnie Yen, THR reports that Raging Fire is an entirely different film altogether that will also star Nicholas Tse.
The early two-thousandsies saw an essential shot-in-the-arm rebirth of Hong Kong action cinema with the pairing of actor Donnie Yen and Wilson Yip for S.P.L.. In its wake, it left fans fawning over one two of the genre’s greatest action matches in film history also featuring Wu Jing and a brutal finale with Sammo Hung, thus etching a major success for the actor/director duo as the first in a string of staple thrillers and adventures that would further make Yen into a cult-driven household name since falling short years earlier with crossover efforts, Highlander: Endgame and Blade 2.
The film, currently in post-production, hit a stalemate with investors last summer which led to a delay in its China release. Xiao Feng (Hushed Roar) directs with art direction led by Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), joining Willis with Bingbing Fan (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Iron Man 3) and Nicholas Tse (The Stool Pigeon, Bodyguards and Assassins). Stephen J. Eads, Haiyang Jiang, Jian-Xiang Shi and Buting Yang produced the film.
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