The Lost Bladesman

[doug maverick]

lol, yea they made him wear lifts, donnie is actually a decent height and i very well doubt that general kwan was over eight feet.lol there is a bunch of stuff on this movie actually. ill collect it all and post tonight..

[GeneChing]

Is half a year enough time?

The Lost Bladesman' to Hit Cinemas on April 28
08:28, January 28, 2011


The first poster of "The Lost Bladesman" [Photo: sina.com]

The historical action movie "The Lost Bladesman" ("Guan Yunchang"), starring Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, will open in Chinese cinemas on April 28, Sina.com.cn reports.

The production company also released a poster featuring Yen's look in the movie. Since it was announced that Yen would portray famous general Guan Yu, also known as Guan Yunchang, in the movie, many fans have doubted whether he could look like Guan as the latter's story is so popular in China and his statue can be seen in many temples throughout the country.

"Yen's look will be in accordance with most people's visual image of Guan Yu," said film directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong.

Yen said he hoped audiences could accept his performance as Guan Yu.

Actor Jiang Wen stars as famous warlord Cao Cao in the movie, a very important character in the story, which tells about how Guan Yu tries to escape from Cao Cao and return to his brother Liu Bei.

Alex Fong Chung-Sun plays Liu Bei, and actress Sun Li stars as a young woman named Qi Lan, who does not appear in the original story.

[Hebrew Hammer]

Am looking forward to seeing this release, not only because of the story but hoping for some great weapon work with his halberd/glaive.

Hopefully someone can find a trailer...

[doug maverick]

Is half a year enough time?

well the site wu-jing.org had all the info then when i went there to repost the site crashed and i forgot all about it.

[Hebrew Hammer]

well the site wu-jing.org had all the info then when i went there to repost the site crashed and i forgot all about it.

Excuses! Did we give up after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!!!!! Nooo...we expect more out of you Douglas.

[Jimbo]

I don't believe Guan Yu was 8 feet tall, and certainly not by today's measurements. And if he were, he'd likely have had lots of physical problems. Unless he was a 'yeren'/sasquatch.

[taijiphoenix]

You can find the teaser trailer at the site below. Looks pretty good, can't wait till it's released.

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/the-f...zle-your-mind/

[GeneChing]

Jackie is doing more than just selling shampoo...

Donnie Yen
Posted: 12 Apr 2011

Donnie Yen didn’t become the most bankable leading man in Hong Kong overnight. The martial arts superstar opens up about struggles, strife, and ultimate success. Interview by Edmund Lee. Photography by Calvin Sit

Things have not been looking bright in the world of Chinese martial arts movies. Sammo Hung is getting fatter; Jet Li keeps on confusing the world with his wushu movie retirement; Jackie Chan is selling shampoo; and Bruce Lee is still dead. All these, to the relief of many, have been rendered academic since a certain bloke called Donnie Yen became widely mistaken in our public consciousness for an altogether different man – called Ip Man (no relation to Iron Man), who’s perhaps better known as Bruce Lee’s Wing Chun mentor. “Ip Man changed everything,” Yen says of his starring role in the acclaimed 2008 period biopic when we meet at the weekend.

We’re here supposedly to chat about his latest effort The Lost Bladesman, directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s dramatic retelling of the fabled tale of Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms period. But our conversation inevitably drifts back, time and again, to Ip Man. Then again, as Yen is all too ready to concede, everything happened because of that movie. Soon afterwards, an inevitable follow-up, Ip Man 2, claimed an emphatic box office victory over – of all movies – Iron Man 2, which opened here in the same week last April. The popular sequel ended up taking in more than HK$43million locally, and became 2010’s highest grossing Chinese-language film in Hong Kong.

“It’s the most influential movie that I’ve ever done. Not only was the box office great, but it also created a social phenomenon. [The character] became a household name,” says the 47-year old actor. “I think it’s a blessing. It’s the most rewarding thing that any actor can ask for, because not everyone [of them], in their entire career, can meet such a role and play it successfully. It’s like Sylvester Stallone: everybody refers to him as Rocky or Rambo. And Jet Li is Wong Fei-hung – people remember that. You know, I have Ip man, and it took me many, many years to [get to this role].” As if trying to sound mildly baffled by his dramatic change of fortune after more than 20 years in the business, he adds wistfully, “And somehow it happened.”

Yen may not be the only person in the world who believed the martial artist-turned action star would one day become the most bankable leading man in the Hong Kong film industry. Indeed, we would venture to presume that about all five of those believers had been anticipating his superstardom ever since his childhood days. Born in 1963, the Guangdong-born actor grew up in Hong Kong between the ages of two and 11, when his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. His earliest memory related to martial arts reaches all the way back to the time when his mother – renowned wushu master Bow-sim Mark, who founded the first Chinese Wushu Research Institute in Boston in 1975 – would drag him out of bed at 5.30 every morning, forcing the young boy to train for an hour or more before going to school.

“You know, when you grow up, when you’re a child, there’s a lot of rebellion against what your parents teach you,” he says, recalling the foundation of his multi-faceted martial arts expertise. “So I’d run away from my mother’s school to other schools to learn martial arts. That has kind of, in a way, made me who I am today, because I’ve learned so many different martial arts styles. Besides learning from my mother and the teachers in her school, I’ve learned karate, taekwondo, boxing and other kung fu styles. I think it has [to do with] my personality – I was curious as a child.”

Being a good fighter is one thing; being a composing figure on the big screen is quite another. So even after Yen was sent, as a teenager, to China to train with the prestigious Beijing Wushu Team for two years, his first crack at martial arts celebrity only truly arrived when he was introduced, midway during his trip back to the U.S., to the celebrated director/action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, who was then looking for a new actor for his kung fu vehicles. Yen is unreserved in his compliments for the man who brought him into the industry. “Yuen Woo-ping will always be my sifu,” he enthuses. “He’s one of the greatest action directors in the last 40 years.”

After making his acting debut as the star of Yuen’s 1984 movie, Drunken Tai Chi, Yen’s career would take him from Hong Kong to Hollywood and back again for the next two decades. Unbeknown to most people, the intertwining destinies between the actor and his eventual star turn as Ip Man had already begun as early as 1996. “When [director] Jeff Lau – who’s a close working partner of Wong Kar-wai – and another couple of directors formed a company at that time, I was asked by Lau to play Ip Man,” he remembers. “Actually, I was signed to play Ip Man; I took the deposit too. And Stephen Chow [was to] play Bruce Lee. But then the company fell apart and the movie never went [into production].”

Continued next post

[Cdr.Instigator]

Excuses! Did we give up after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!!!!! Nooo...we expect more out of you Douglas.

Dam it man... All my life I thought Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program..

[BillSmith]

Thats an 'Animal House' reference.

[GeneChing]

Posted: Wed., May. 4, 2011, 6:18am PT
Festival
The Lost Bladesman
(Guan yun chang)
(Hong Kong-China Mandarin dialogue)
By Russell Edwards

An Icon release (in Australia) of a Shanghai Film Group, Anhui Media Industry Group, Star Union Skykee Film & Media Advertisement presentation, in association with Star Union Skykee Film & Media Advertisement, Shao Xing Sheng Xia Film & TV Cultural Investment, Dong Yang Teng Yuan Film & Media Advertisement, Shenzhen Zhi Shang Film & TV Investment of a Pop Movies production. (International sales: Easternlight, Los Angeles.) Produced by Leung Ting, Wang Tianyun. Executive producers, Leung Ting, Ren Zhonglun, Li Jinhua. Directed, written by Alan Mak, Felix Chong.
With: Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Sun Li, Alex Fong, Chen Hong, Shao Bing, Andy On, Wang Xuebing, Edison Wang, Zhou Bo.
Glorious martial-arts mastery is trumped by Machiavellian manipulations in period actioner "The Lost Bladesman." Action helmer/star Donnie Yen's memorable setpieces satisfy the senses, while the script by directing duo Alan Mak and Felix Chong provides an intellectual counterbalance to the film's physicality, as magnetic co-lead Jiang Wen contemplates heroism's shortcomings in the broader political game. After opening the Beijing fest, pic made $5 million in three days on the mainland, and other Chinese territories will follow suit. Lack of the overt Sino nationalism that marked "Ip Man 2" makes this an easier sell to Westerners, although ancillary will be stronger.

Central characters will be familiar to Chinese history buffs and film fans who took notes during John Woo's great 2008 epic "Red Cliff." Thus, the opening credits sequence, showing the carving of a coffin, doesn't bother to hide where the protagonist, noble swordsman Guan Yunchang (Yen), will end up, or the fact that the Iago-like Gen. Cao Cao (Jiang) will outlast him.

Told via extended flashbacks set around 200 A.D., during the late Han dynasty, the story begins in Baima, where Cao and his army are under siege by rival warlord Yuan Shao (never seen). Already Cao's prisoner, Guan is drafted to fight. His reward is freedom, which he uses to escort concubine Qilan (Sun Li), whom Guan happens to be in love with, to Cao's sworn enemy, Liu Bei (Alex Fong). The catch is that, even after proving his allegiance to Cao's youthful and easily manipulated Emperor (Edison Wang), Guan must battle several other rival warlords en route to Qilan's delivery point.

The treacherous Cao sure doesn't make it easy for Guan. Dongling Pass warlord Kong Xiu (Andy On) is given advance notice of Guan's "betrayal" of the Emperor by carrier pigeon, setting up the first battle in which Yen's action choreography really rips loose. While this combat sequence has an "El Cid"-like majesty, Guan's match against Kong, in a circular alleyway with insufficient space for combatants to twirl their long spears, is a stunning appetizer that could have easily played as a magnificent finale. Other contests ensue (including a minimalist take on the classic one man-against-a-hundred conflict, conducted here behind closed doors), allowing helmers Mak and Chong (who co-wrote "Infernal Affairs") to indulge a variety of cinematic techniques, some with a very contempo feel, to keep each fight scene visually distinct.

Fortunately, Yen's prowess is showcased more often than his thesping limitations. Supporting perfs are solid, with Zhou Bo making a strong impression in his brief appearance as a Buddhist monk.

But pic belongs to Jiang, whose portrayal of political strategist Cao appears so natural it's easy to forget he's acting. Poised and smart, with reserves of unexpressed power, Jiang endows the pic with the sophistication that thesps like Anthony Hopkins or Alan Rickman sometimes bring to Hollywood actioners. The difference here is that Jiang's fulfills the script's obvious aspiration to be more than just a martial-arts showpiece. By way of contrast, distaff thesp Sun is reduced to playing a beautiful ornament.

Lensing varies in accordance with the helmers' whims. The fight sequence in Luoyang's mill fortress brims with deep shadows lacquered with golden light. Later, another well-helmed scene with Sergio Leone-like overtones appears so washed out it looks like a last minute add-on.

Production standards are generally high, and the re-creation of the Han era is easy on the eyes. Special effects, particularly hurtling arrows and thrusting spears and knives, blend well with Yen's smoothly choreographed moves.

Robust score by Henry Lai underlines the vigorous helming, although the closing-credits theme song by Ikuro Fujiwara is just the standard pop sop to Asian youth. Theaters equipped with Dolby 7.1 will get the full benefit of the soundtrack's amplified airborne swooshes and metallic clangs in every battle.

Mandarin title is simply the name of Yen's character, reflecting the extent of the historical figure's fame.
Camera (color, widescreen), Chan Chi-ying; editor, Kwong Chi-leung; music, Henry Lai; production designer, Bill Lui; art director, Liu Jinping; costume designer, Zhang Ling; action director, Donnie Yen; sound (Dolby Digital/Dolby Surround 7.1), Kinson Tsang. Reviewed at Cinema 12, Broadway, Sydney, April 28, 2011. (In Beijing Film Festival -- opener.) Running time: 108 MIN.

Who will be first to review this here?