RISE OF THE LEGEND

This was the chinese hero movie that I caught 2 weeks ago. However, I must admit this movie was a letdown to me.

Starring Eddie Peng as the young legendary hero Huang Feihong, Sammo Hung, Tony Leung, Angelababy, Jing Boran etc, this movie traced the path of how the junior Huang formed a youth gang with his childhood brothers and sisters, whose families were killed by the gangs, in an attempt to bring down the ringleaders and their gangs to restore peace and harmony to the community.

Naturally, there was nothing to complain about the fighting scenes but the storyline was feeble. The brotherhood was touching and I cringed when Huang almost had to slice off the tongue of his buddy Fiery and maimed him. On the other hand, I found Angelababy's role as Xiao Hua tragic and her ending was laughable.

In the end, of course good triumphed over bad. Otherwise there would never be the famous Master Huang Feihong in the many other stories in the other movies. In comparison, Jet Li's movies at least two decades ago of the same legend was way better and much more impressionable.

YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE: RISE OF THE SEA DRAGON (狄仁杰之神都龙王)

This is a prequel to the earlier Detective Dee (狄仁杰) movie starring Andy Lau and Carina Lau. I read that it did very well at the box office in China.

In this movie on the younger Detective Dee directed by the famous Tsui Hark, the stars appear to be a slew of young male actors, instead of the female actresses. The three male leads Mark Zhao (赵又廷) from Taiwan as Detective Dee, Feng Shaofeng (冯绍峰) and Lin Genxing (林更新, better known as the fourteenth prince in the China TV production "步步惊心") from China helmed the movie together with the pan-asian looking Yang Ying (杨颖, better known as Angelababy) from China, Carina Lau (刘嘉玲) from Hong Kong and Kim Bum (金汎) from Korea.

I read in the chinese newspapers recently that Tsui Hark made a joke that the pay that Andy Lau commands is more than the pay of the three male leads added together and is enough to create the special effects of the sea dragon. It was notable that amongst the thespians, Carina Lau continued to enjoy the meaty role of playing the Empress Wu Zetian after acting the same role in the earlier movie. Never mind her humongous and outrageous headdress or crown, she still commanded a lot of respect and attention as a serious and formidable force to be reckoned with. 

The young Detective Dee first arrived in the Imperial Capital of Luoyang and soon found himself embroiled in a plot that involved extermination of the entire imperial family and officials. I will not give the story away but I definitely enjoyed the movie for its great martial arts action sequences and special effects. The cast was great and there was a lot of eye candy in the form of the actors themselves.

As I was watching the movie, I was thankful that such movies still exist today. In the light of modern technology and the space age, there are a lot of movies out there on aliens, superheroes etc and only China, Hong Kong and Taiwan make such period dramas. I wonder if a decade or two later, would we still be able to see such movies anymore? I certainly hope so because I have always been a fan of such and hope I don't have to wait too long to see the next sequel.

Mark Chao, Feng Shaofeng and Lin Genxing

Feng Shaofeng, unknown cast, Mark Chao and Lin Genxing

Mark Chao and Lin Genxing

Angelababy and Mark Chao

Carina Lau

Angelababy

Angelababy and Kim Bum

Kim Bum

TAI CHI 0

I was so busy recently that I didn't manage to post much these few weeks. So here goes.

Directed by Stephen Fung and produced by him and Daniel Wu, this first part of a trilogy stars the newcomer Yuan Xiaochao, who is China's wushu gold medal winner at the Asian Games 2010, Angelababy, Taiwan's Eddie Peng, and Hong Kong's Tony Leung with cameos by Stephen Fung himself and Shu Qi.

I guess Stephen loves to make such light-hearted movies, as evident by some of his other earlier productions, but I prefer period martial-arts movies to be more serious. Hence, I wasn't quite bowled over by the story-telling although the animation scenes were quite interesting. I read quite a bit about her but this was the first Angelababy movie I watched and I do think she has a refreshing face.

Well, the second part starring Daniel Wu and China's Feng Shaofeng is coming out soon, so there is no need to wait too long for the continuation.