Mike Leeder brings another action digest round-up of the news-stories from the world of eastern action that you may have overlooked in the last few weeks…
Line Walker: TVB series becomes a Globe-Trotting Spy Thriller…
Hong Kong’s TVB series Line Walker makes the jump from the small screen to the big screen with the upcoming release of the feature film follow up directed by Jazz Boon, as original series stars Charmaine Sheh and Benz Hui, are joined by Louis Koo, Nick Cheung and Francis Ng.
After the mysterious death of the handler of several undercover agents, his classified files are erased and the secret identities of several of these agents are lost… so how does the government identify who’s really who? When the Hong Kong Police are contacted by someone using the codename ‘Blackjack’, a source who insists he is a lost agent, Inspector Q sends special agent Ting (Charmaine Sheh) to contact him. Ting soon finds herself being manipulated by ‘Blackjack’, while Inspector Q struggles to deal with a series of crimes that lead to the death of the chairman of a finance group. The trail leads to ‘Blackjack’ and his involvement in a huge drug deal in Brazil. But when the drug dealers discover there is an undercover agent among them, the question of who to trust becomes even more risky.
The recent batch of TVB series hitting the big screen have done very well. The Triumph in the Sky movie – which also starred Sheh – did huge business in Hong Kong and China and i’s great to see her back on the big screen and in a more action orientated role this time. Good use is made of locations in both Hong Kong and Brazil, and given the right project Sheh could make an excellent Chinese female variation on James Bond.
The Order: Power Rangers Civil War!
While we wait for the big budget Power Rangers reboot, we find ourselves wondering what could have been… the controversial Adi Shankar Bootleg Universe take on Power Rangers directed by Joseph Khan, took the concept of the show in a dark new direction, exploring what happens to you after you’ve spent your teenage years fighting aliens… how do you deal with the come down and repercussions of that life, can you ever really hang up your helmet?
Former Power Rangers stunt alumni and superkicker David Wald who cut his teeth as a member of Alpha Stunts, has assembled many a familiar face from the world of Power Rangers for his new project The Order, which has been crowd-funding for support…and some fans are referring to as an unsanctioned Power Rangers: Civil War!
The Order, follows a covert team of vigilantes, a ‘shadow strike force’ to the CIA and FBI. The men and women of The Order, are highly skilled living breathing weapons. They operate in secret, having dedicated their lives to eliminating violent threats and imminent disasters, their one goal is to keep humanity safe and maintain world order. The Order has faced the worst of enemies over the years, but the discovery that the latest global-threat crisis is being organised by some of their very own? It could tear The Order apart. When everything you know is revealed as a lie, how do you tell the good guys from the bad?
Wald has assembled some very familiar faces from various incarnations of the series including original ‘Red Ranger’ Austin St.John, ‘Black Ranger’ Walter Jones, ‘Yellow Ranger’ Karan Ashley, David Yost, Jonny Yong Bosch, Daniel Southworh, Youshi Sudarso and many more, with other former Rangers offering support behind the scenes.
The film just hit its fund-raising target on Indie Go-Go: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-order–2#/ And if all goes well the film will be moving forward shortly and we’ll get the unsanctioned but possibly just as cool take on the masked hero universe. Let’s see what happens…
Cancelled ‘Rush Hour’ still feels the Emmy love…
While Rush Hour’s transition to the small screen may have come to a close long before CBS wished we were hoping it would b given the chance to find its feet as we knew a lot of talented people working both in front and behind the camera. But its good to see the Emmys recognising the blood, sweat and tears shed by Jeff Wolfe and his team… with a nod for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for their work on the show.
Wolfe, whose credits both infront and behind the camera include the likes of playing Billy the Kid in Once Upon a Time in China and America, Knock Off, Alias, Martial Law, Drive, the Revolution tv series – for which he won an Emmy in 2014 – and is currently working on the Mcgyver reboot, which also stars Rush Hour alumni Justin Hires…
Top Squad Reboot: Special Female Force soon to be unleashed…
Top Squad was the international title given to the Jackie Chan-produced action comedy the Inspector Wears Skirts which could be described as a female driven HK take on the Police Academy series. It follows the misadventures of a woman in the Special Duties Unit, lead by Sibelle Hu from My Lucky Stars and Fong Sai-yuk (with Cynthia Rothrock making an extended cameo in the first film). The film starred Ann Bridgewater, Sandra Ng, Hui Yin-hong, Ellen Chan, the late Regina Kent and featured fight and action sequences choreographed by Jackie Chan and his team. American Wushu maestro Jeff Falcon was also given a great introduction to Hong Kong Action Cinema as the villain of the first movie. The film was a huge success, and spawned a number of official sequels and unofficial sequels including Inspector Wears Skirts 2, Inspector Wears Skirts 4 (there was never an official part 3!), Assault on Casino Royal Marine, They Came to Rob Hong Kong, and Jeff Lau’s Thunder Cops 1 & 2.
Now… director Wilson Chin (the Lan Kwai Fong series) is about to unleash his new take on the concept with Special Female Force, starring Jeanna Ho, Eliza Sam, Cathryn Lee, Anita Chui, Mandy Ho, Joyce Cheng, Shirley Yeung, Jessica C, Jacqueline Chong, Black Cat’ s Jade Leung and Once Upon a Time in Shanghai’s Philip Ng. The film was produced in early 2015, but censorship issues due to several violent sequences saw the film having to undergo an overhaul to finally secure a cinema release. There’s no trailer yet but for a taste of what to expect here’s the original Top Squad trailer…
A Fist Within Four Walls: Kung Fu in Kowloon Walled City…
TVB’s upcoming martial arts series A Fist within Four Walls, hits the tv screen in August as a 28-episode project, produced by Line Walker director Jazz Boon. It features fight choreography by Shaw Brothers legend Philip Kwok (Kuo Chui) with a cast that includes Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu, Benjamin Yuen, Jaz Lam, Grace Wong and martial arts heroes Yuen Qiu (Kung Fu Hustle) and Philip Ng (Once Upon a Time in Shanghai).
The 1950s-set series takes place in and around the infamous Kowloon Walled City, which used to be the most dangerous neighborhood in Hong Kong,. The enclave was a densely populated and lawless settlement in Kowloon City legally counted as Chinese territory so ungoverned by Hong Kong law. It was an area largely controlled by the Triads and served as a base for all kinds of illegal activities. It featured in such movies as Bloodsport, Long Arm of the Law, Crime Story and more, before finally being demolished in 1994.
In A Fist within Four Walls our story unfolds as Ah-kuen (Ruco Chan) returns to Kowloon Walled City after losing his family. He is in search of his long lost sister, only to find the area has become a lawless no man’s land. Hiding his skills as a Bajiquan master, he creates a new identity and begins to explore the city and get to know the people who live there. But his intention to try and restore some kind of law and order brings him into conflict with Lung Shing-fu (Philip Ng), a skilled Thai Boxer who fights in the underground fight circuit. Ah-kuen also uncovers the truth about who is responsible for his father’s death, which leads to an epic finale which will ‘rock the city to its foundations…’
TVB assembled a very solid team both in front and behind the camera for this project, including Shaw Brothers legend Philip Kwok as fight and stunt choreographer for the show. Kwok’s credits include a range of projects from Five Deadly Venoms through to John Woo’s Hardboiled, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Christophe Gans Brotherhood of the Wolf .
Here’s a glimpse at what is to come:
Lo Meng: Shaw Brothers Legend Returns…
Shaw Brothers legend Lo Meng – best known as the Toad from Five Deadly Venoms and the title character in Kid with the Golden Arm – was back in action in Los Angeles letting loose with some classic kung fu technique in a new project Circle of Iron: Golden Arm Returns. The project produced and choreographed by Ron Hall (Bloodsport 2, Kung Fu Brother) began life as a music video but looks set to now launch a web series that is a tribute to the martial arts movies of the 1970s and 1980s featuring classic characters, concepts and actors from the genre.
The video was co-produced by Lo Meng himself and Wu Tang Clan affiliate Iron Sheik, to accompany the release of the Sheik’s latest CD which features such names as KOOL G RAP – KILLAH PRIEST – PAPOOSE – CNN – INFAMOUS MOBB – BIG NOYD – BLAQ POET – AZ – NATURE – CORMEGA – PLANET ASIA – IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE PRODIGAL SUNN SHEEK LOUCH TRAGEDY KHADAFI .
Daylight’s End: US and UK Releases confirmed…
The post-apocalyptic action thriller Daylight’s End – directed by William Kaufman (Sinners & Saints) and written by Chad Law (6 Bullets) – stars Johnny Strong (Fast & Furious, Sinners & Saints), Lance Henricksen and Louis Mandylor and has been riding the festival circuit. It will hit US theatres and VOD (Videon On Demand) at the end of August with an October release following for the UK.
The plot: Set in a ravaged post-apocalyptic world, the majority of those who have managed to survive have become blood thirsty cannibalistic creatures… and the rest have become their prey. A rogue warrior (Johnny Strong) roams the badlands hunting the creatures on his own personal mission of vengeance, but a chance encounter with a desperate band of survivors forces him to make a choice: does he carry on fighting for himself or try to help humanity’s last survivors?
The film has a feel of a 28 Days Later meets The Walking Dead meets Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead reboot… its the end of the world as we know and nobody feels fine! The survivors are trying to cling to some last vestige of humanity to keep themselves from being just as savage as the creatures that hunt them, and when a scratch or exchange of fluids can cause infection its hard to get close to people! Strong certainly has the presence… he just needs a bit more attention and one of his films to get a wider release. The same goes for Kaufman as a director – this man knows how to deliver on a modest budget but you can see he’s got an epic within him. There’ll be a full review closer to the release date but rest assured, Daylight’s End delivers on every level!
We’re big fans of Kaufman and Strong’s earlier Sinners & Saints – it was a down and dirty cop thriller set in New Orleans that showcased the talent of all involved to tell a very dark tale. It’s well worth tracking down and there’s been a lot of talk about a potential sequel, one that we’d be excited to see come together. Chad Law’s scripted some very impressive action projects over the last few years including this one and Jarhead 3: The Siege, Six Bullets, Close Range and the Brian Trenchard Smith directed Drive Hard.
Olivier Gruner: Assassin
Director Art Camacho’s latest thriller – which was shot as The Chemist – has been given a new title: Assassin X for its August release from Sony Pictures.
Camacho has had an interesting career on both sides of the camera as an actor, choreographer and director, learning his trade at the late lamented PM Entertainment, and with credits that include Gary Daniels Recoil and Half Past Dead 2, we know there will be plenty of bang for the buck. The film stars the ‘man who should have been king’ Olivier Gruner, who burst onto the screen in Angel Town and Nemesis being groomed by Imperial Entertainment as their successor to a certain Jean-Claude Van Damme. But the project that should have solidified his name, Tarzan for stunt maestro Andy Armstrong fell by the wayside and Gruner has always seemed like an actor in search for the right role ever since. He has the look, the moves (he’s a former soldier, ring-proven kickboxer and when he wants to let loose he can… check out the training sequence in Angel Town, all of Nemesis and his fight with Sammo Hung in Martial Law). The film also features Booker and 21 Jump Street star Richard Greico, Sasha Mitchell from Kickboxer 2, and Martin Kove from The Karate Kid.
Gruner plays a long time company man, an aging assassin who finds himself double-crossed by his employer when he refuses an order to ‘terminate with extreme prejudice’ his latest target, a young woman he’s just met. Forced to go on the run, he finds himself the target for many of his former colleagues, assassin vs. assassin, until he is surprised by a secret that changes everything he thought he knew…
Tak Sakaguchi is Re:Born…
Cult Japanese action hero Tak Sakaguchi and acclaimed action choreographer Yuji Shinomura burst onto the scene as the star and action director for Ryu Kitamura’s Versus… and their involvement, physical prowess, presence and choreographic skills were a major part in its success. The pair would collaborate on further projects including Yuji’s directorial debut Death Trance.
But while Sakuguchi appeared in a number of cult classics and supporting roles in bigger movies, he wasn’t satisfied with the way his career was going and a few years ago announced his retirement from the spotlight… only to be drawn back into action by the idea behind the project that eventually became Re:Born! Both Yuji and Tak spent time training in the Zero Range Combat System under Inagawa Yoshitaka who served as a combat instructor for the US military, to prepare for the project.
Re:Born blends elements of The Bourne Identity First Blood and The Hunted (the Tommy Lee Jones/Benecio Del Toro movie, not the Christophe Lambert Ninja movie or Robert Chapin’s vampire movie and web series of the same name), as Tak plays a mild mannered clerk who lives a quiet life, but has strange lucid and very violent dreams of a past he’d rather not remember, as he battles to control the dark anger that rages within, and when his past and the military come looking for him, battle lines are drawn and blood will be shed.
Steven Seagal: Above the Law 2 The Return of Nico?
Nowadays, we think of Steven Seagal as having the most prolific output of any action star since Richard Harrison shot a few dozen movies for IFD Films in the 1980s. Barely an ‘action digest’ goes by without a new release being rumoured… but he’s very much quantity over quality, and seems about as enthusiastic as Harrison was in many of those movies: all he needs is a headband that reads ‘Ninja’ or in his case ‘CIA’! But there was a time when Seagal movies had some inherent quality about them, when even he seemed to give a damn and at various times he has spoken of wanting to return to better films and hinted at potential projects such as a third chapter in the Under Siege franchise. But recently the ‘Tall Guy’ tweeted about his interest in returning to the role that introduced him to the big screen and whose back story created much of the mythos that is associated with his image. He wants to bring back ‘Nico Toscinini’, from his starring debut Above the Law or Nico as it was called in the UK and certain other territories.
Although Seagal had been involved with a few other projects as a choreographer including The Challenge starring Scott Glenn and Sean Connery’s Never Say Never Again, it was with the movie Above the Law – directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) – that we were introduced him as an action hero in his own right. The film had actually begun life as a vehicle for Chuck Norris, as a potential semi-sequel to Davis’ earlier classic Code of Silence (which saw Chuck as a tough Chicago cop… and this film kept many of those elements.) Seagal played a tough Chicago cop and Vietnam veteran who’d been involved in covert operations for the CIA, was an Akido expert and had family on both sides of the law. The film also starred Sharon Stone, Pam Grier and Henry Silva from both The Manchurian Candidate and Code of Silence.
But what was true and what was hype became very hard to know for sure.
Over the years Seagal has spoken of many things that raise eyebrows: “I’ve been working as an officer in Jefferson Parish for two decades under most people’s radar’ he said – referring to his *ahem* duties as a ‘reserve deputy sheriff’ in Louisiana… very much above the radar when it came to publicising the Steven Seagal: Lawman tv show. He’s apparently also claimed that he is the reincarnation of a 17th century elder in the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism. But, yes, we do find ourselves kind of excited by the thought of a potential Above the Law: Return of Nico sequel in principle. However, in reality, if it does move ahead, we doubt Andrew Davis will be involved…. Perhaps it might give Seagal that push for one last hurrah, to put the effort in and give a performance that might reconfirm those memories of what made him a star in the first place?
