wang yibo

BORN TO FLY Review: Trial-And-Error Compounds Liu Xiaoshi’s Noteworthy Aviation Drama

Born To Fly is now available on Blu-Ray and Digitial in the UK from Trinity CineAsia. Aiming as high as Hollywood when it comes to production quality was definitely on the itinerary for director Liu Xiaoshi, as he neared completion on most recent aviation thriller, Born To Fly. The film was reportedly shelved for over three months to allow time for post production to improve on the visual effects according to a statement from Alibaba Pictures and Bona Film Group, releasing about a month prior to Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick overseas. This was mainly what sat with me going into Born To Fly as this, my second viewing experience with a cast led by actor Wang Yibo, who was terrific in Cheng Er’s seething WWII spy drama, Hidden Blade. The special effects weren’t mainly a singular issue for me either. Patriotic cinema in China existed long before anyone in my […]

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Cheng Er’s HIDDEN BLADE Unsheathes On Digital This Month From Well Go USA!

Lee B. Golden III

Hard-hitting World War II espionage thriller, Hidden Blade, is releasing on Digital beginning July 18 from Well Go USA. The film comes from award-winning filmmaker Cheng Er (Lethal Hostage, The Wasted Times), and stars Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs franchise, Hero, The Grandmaster), Wang Yibo (Born to Fly), Dong Chengpeng (City of Rock, I am Not Madame Bovary, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia), Zhou Xun (2022’s Hero, Painted Skin, Perhaps Love), Eric Wang (Saturday Fiction, Dying to Survive), and Lei Huang (Farewell My Concubine, Phantom of the Theatre). During World War II, at the height of China’s war of resistance against Japan, a group of courageous citizens develops a top-secret underground espionage network right under the nose of the newly established puppet regime. At increasingly great peril to their own lives, the double-agents masterfully extract classified information from deep behind enemy lines, an effort that gives rise to the united front […]

BORN TO FLY Spreads Its Wings In U.S. Theaters This Month From Well Go USA

Lee B. Golden III

Patrick Brzeski’s December reporting over at THR should provide some insight regarding director Liu Xiaoshi’s latest air force thriller, Born To Fly. At any rate, it’s Well Go USA who will be in the cockpit for China’s answer to Top Gun: Maverick as it stars Wang Yibo who co-leads the banner’s recently-released brooding political war thriller, Hidden Blade, starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. After an unforeseen threat arises mid-air, a talented young air force test pilot (WANG Yibo) is forced to test not only the capabilities of his top-secret aircraft, but also his own physical and psychological limits, in order to survive. Also starring are Hu Jun, Yu Shi and Zhou Dongyu for the film’s April 28 release in the U.S..

HIDDEN BLADE Review: Cheng Er’s Brooding Period Espionage Mishmash Settles All Deadly Scores

Lee B. Golden III

Well Go USA’s press pack for director Cheng Er’s latest film, Hidden Blade, partly states that he’s best known for keeping his audiences guessing. That he does, this time with a story set in the early 1940s with events chronicled before, and afterward, amid the Communist party’s campaign as it’s set against the backdrop of the invasion of imperial Japanese forces. The film weaves in its elements and characters from all angles, flashing forward in its efforts to set things in motion for the audience to begin following our main characters and learn more about them. That process eventually begins to materialize a little more about a half-hour into the film where we’ve then come to acquaint ourselves with the likes of He (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), Ye (Wang Yibo), the sinister Captain Wang (Eric Wang), Tang (Da Peng) and Watanabe (Hiroyuki Mori), all members of a Japanese spy agency operating […]

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ANONYMOUS Pops Off With Tony Leung And Wang Yibo In The Newest Teaser [UPDATED]

Lee B. Golden III

The past year has been a little bit interesting with a few teasers making the rounds for director Cheng Er’s new World War II spy thriller, Anonymous. Not much happens in either of those teasers, save for offering little pieces here and there of characterization to go by, along with the casting of celebrated actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai to boost the film’s wider marketability. That all changes just a little more for the better now with a brand new teaser making the rounds, and footage suited to entice fans of espionage and spy warfare. That means quite a bit of hallway footage, dudes in suits, lots of walking, and more walking, all peppered in the latter half with some gunplay to whet the appetite. Fun! The logline via Letterboxd: On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The following day, the Wang False Government followed Japan’s declaration of war against […]