Donnie Yen’s Special ID has just hit the screen in Asia and while Yen is still filming parts of both Iceman Cometh movies, and still has The Monkey King set for release in early 2014, he’s just wrapped on his second collaboration with writer/director Teddy Chen.
The film, which was shot under the title Last of the Best, would appear to have been given a new name Kung Fu Killer, according to a one sheet that Yen posted on his official Weibo page in China. We’re not exactly sold on the title, it does sound like very bad Taiwanese Kung Fu Cinema from the 1970s -, the original title Last of the Best hinted at more.
Produced by Albert Lee for Emperor Group, the film has Yen playing a former martial arts master who has been imprisoned for the ‘accidental death’ of a rival martial artist and who finds his skills are needed when a serial killer begins targeting various martial artists in Hong Kong. (It sounds a lot like the plot for 1997’s Bloodmoon, which saw Yen’s Ip Man 2 co-star Darren Shahlavi laying a serial killer targeting various martial arts masters ). The film also starred Gary Daniels - who was supposed to star alongside Yen in Ballistic Kiss - and Chuck Jeffries)
Last of the Best / Kung Fu Killer also stars Wang Baoqiang from Iceman Cometh, Charlie Yeung (New Police Story), Bai Bing and John Chiang... while Yen’s longtime collaborator John Salvitti also worked on the film's action sequences. Writer and director is Teddy Chen (whose previous film with Yen was the very successful if troubled production Bodyguards and Assassins) Chen’s other credits include the dark epic Purple Storm, Downtown Torpedoes and scriptwriting and assistant director duties on a huge number of projects including Jackie Chan’s Crime Story, and Andy Lau’s The Moon Warriors.
Yen’s Special ID is currently dominating the China box office and he is slated to appear and produce Kowloon Walled City (his take on The Raid as a team of police are caught in the cavernous lawless land that was the Kowloon Walled City), and is also attached to the English language thriller Priority Run,playing a notorious criminal who is forced to join forces with the guards escorting him to a new Supermax prison... when a mysterious force targets them for annihilation.
