Distinguished martial arts star and actress JuJu Chan left a spritely impression with Adrian Castro’s award-winning short, Hit Girls alongside Maria Tran back in 2013 in my own discoveries. She’s been a sight to see ever since with hopes all the more prevalent that she’d become a greater film presence in due time, missed opportunities notwithstanding.
I gotta say, the newest official trailer Fruit Chan’s The Invicible Dragon looks tons of fun as we get more and more footage of story, drama, and featured talents Max Zhang and Anderson Silva trying to beat each other to a pulp. The least I expected was for this latest push to include an actual CG dragon as much as we all thought the tattoo on Zhang’s back was all there was to the “dragon” element of the story.
Indeed, you’re not alone if you feel like Fruit Chan’s The Invincible Dragon should have been in theaters by now. It’s been two years since the campaign began with a teaser and a prolonged wait period that now sees light at the end of the tunnel with a June 20 rollout in Hong Kong.
The past few years have been a waiting game as award-winning director Fruit Chan forged further onto projects like Anthony Wong drama, Still Human, and sex comedy, Three Husbands. All while this is happening, his latest thriller, The Invincible Dragon, remained frozen in time with nil info on its release and now it appears fans of actor and martial arts star Max Zhang (Master Z) will finally see some movement on this end come its Chinese release on April 30.
It was earlier this week that I alleged action star Donnie Yen might be crowding the blogs this week. Undoubtedly he’s leveled up on that end while several stars of note are delivering in equal measure, including actor Max Zhang whose latest, Invincible Dragon from Three…Extremes helmer Fruit Chan, still doesn’t have a local release date but otherwise stil bares a 2018 stamp.
It also invites fans in with a tough new short promo following its newest trailer earlier this week which highlights Zhang in the role of a tattooed undercover cop whose impulsive work ethic brings him in the throes of a suspicious serial killer in the form of an American Army veteran. Former UFC Middleweight champ, actor Anderson Silva hones in his acting for the role opposite our inked protagonist which you can now take a gander at several times below. (An official trailer from earlier this week can be seen BY CLICKING HERE.)
Annie Liu and Stephy Tang also star, and with action sequences by Stephen Wai. The newest official trailer is now online and you can check it out below.
The recent SgIFF world premiere of Gavin Lim’s latest small-budget thriller, Diamond Dogs, was something of a call to action for Singapore’s moviegoing audience to try and nourish its own before gaining a foothold on the world stage. The move was an albeit success and will hopefully edge action star Sunny Pang toward international stardom, here tackling the role of Johnny, deaf mute and prisoner to an underground fight circuit where he’s locked away and forced to fight to the top unless his stage three cancer kills him first. Pang caught waves of love from festival crowds while promoting Headshot last year and so let’s hope there’s an interest sparked in this latest thrilling Asian starrer.
Jason Momoa may be eager to move onto The Crow with Corin Hardy as we await what lies ahead for Aquaman. Until then, his latest endeavor as a family man and logger who looks to settle a score with a pack of drug runners who make the dumb decision to underestimate his killing nerve looks to be a feasible welcome for stunt professional Lin Oeding’s directorial debut, Braven. It’s been much more than a year since the first official still beneath from Highland Film Group and Oeding has since moved onto direct action horror, Office Uprising, while Braven might be the first to step out into the spotlight signaling Oeding as a directing talent to look out for, especially since impressing the hell out of folks with his 2012 short, Wake.
Leave it to director Fruit Chan to keep action fans pining for more Max Zhang as we await the verdict on The Invincible Dragon. We managed at least one trailer so far sampling the story of a Hong Kong police officer who travels to Macao in search of his missing fiancée but accidentally stumbles into a series of murder cases. That was during HK FilMart and with another year ahead apart from Well Go USA’s own acquisition earlier on, we should hear some more on this soon enough. Anderson Silva, Stephy Tang, JuJu Chan and Marsha Yuan also star.
I’m not the biggest Steven Seagal fan, but I like who has alingned himself with for Mathieu Weschler’s new movie, Attrition, a film that has taken sometime to get off the ground but has since been completed for a hopefully deeper look next year. This one casts Seagal next to a raft of Asian talents for the story of a stoic soldier-turned-reclusive healer who convenes with his former team to help save the beautiful enchantress who redeemed him. Louis Fan, Donnie Yen cohort Yu Kang and Reel Deal Action’s own Yoon Cha-Lee also star.
Of course, going into some major heavy duty sci-fi action for Indonesia is Hollywood action heavyweight producer Mario Kassar who spent the last few years shepherding Foxtrot Six, set in a dystopian world where food is all but scarce. Noted cinematographer Randy Korompis is making his directorial debut here with a cast comprised of many familiars from hit titles like Headshot, The Raid and The Raid 2, and while there aren’t any official stills just yet, Kassar’s Instagram seems tentatively reliable.
The UNSTOPPABLE TRAIN has left the station and moving fast ???
A post shared by Mario Kassar (@mariokassarofficial) on Sep 3, 2017 at 10:03pm PDT
Stay tuned for the next five!
Two really great bits of news arrived this past weekend at Cannes with Well Go USA on hand to nab itself a nifty pair of titles after just recently acquiring Jung Byoung-Gil’s The Villainess. Said titles bring actor and martial artist Max Zhang front and center for and even bigger spotlight with news on the acquisition of The Invisible Dragon and Cheung Tin-Chi, the latter which commences filming this summer.
Hailing from director Fruit Chan for a 2018 release, The Invincible Dragon casts Zhang opposite Anderson Silva in the story of a detective who, in the wake of a spate of homicides under investigation by his team, sets out to find his fianceé’s kidnapper. Also starring are Stephy Tang, Kevin Cheng and JuJu Chan; Cheung Tin-Chi still awaits production but has Zhang lined-up to reprise the title role as seen in the Donnie Yen-starring 2016 hit, Ip Man 3, and will be joined by the likes of Dave Bautista (Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: Sword Of Destiny) and Tony Jaa (xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage).
Zhang currently co-stars in Lawrence Ah Mon’s crime drama, Dealer Healer, and will appear in this year include Jonathan Li’s The Brink and next year’s Pacific Rim: Uprising. The actor can currently be seen pictures on the set of Jeff Lau’s Heavyweight Assassin which also casts Ada Choi, Andy On and Danny Chan.
If you missed the initial trailer for The Invisible Dragon, feel free to click here to view it. (Screendaily)
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