The Storm Warriors (aka Stormriders 2)

[GeneChing]

I amazed I couldn't find a Stormriders thread. That was 2000, so perhaps it predates our forum here. We did a cover story on it in our May 2000 - it was revolutionary then but is quite dated now.

Thailand lures international shoots
Silvia Wong in Hong Kong
17 Mar 2008 16:16

Thailand continues to be a hot Asian shooting destination with six international feature films scheduled to shoot there in the upcoming months, including Lee Jun-ik's Sunny, the Pang Brothers' Stormriders 2 and Street Fighter.

Korean director Lee (King And The Clown) has just wrapped his latest film Sunny after a three-month shoot in Kanchanaburi province where Thailand doubles as Vietnam.

Starring Jung Jin-young and Su Ae, the picture is about a woman who goes to Vietnam in search of her soldier husband during the Vietnam War.

The Pang Brothers who filmed Bangkok Dangerous with Nicholas Cage in Thailand two years ago, will be back this month for a four-month shoot on their fantasy martial arts epic The Stormriders 2.

The strong cast includes Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Charlene Choi and Nicholas Tse

Starting this week, Street Fighter, which Twentieth Century Fox is distributing in the US, will begin an eight-week shoot in Bangkok while another US production Kindred Spirits will start filming in northern Thailand from April till June.

Three Indian productions are also set for Thailand, including Contract, Chandni Chowk to China, Shortcut... The Con is On.

Location shooting is increasingly a lucrative business.

Last year, Thailand played host to 22 foreign feature films, including Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Rambo IV and L:Change the World, and the Thai economy gained 466 m baht, according to Thailand Film Office which is taking part at Hong Kong FIlmart's Locations World to further promote the country's locations.

[Zenshiite]

I guess Thailand isn't just for child prostitution tours anymore...

[GeneChing]

Click the link and dig those crazy swords.

First View Of 'Stormriders' Stars
22 April 2008
Emma Lam

The Pang brothers, Oxide (彭順) and Danny (彭發) are currently filming the long awaited sequel to Stormriders <風雲> in Thailand. Original leading males Aaron Kwok (郭富城) and Ekin Cheng (鄭伊健) are reprising their roles as Cloud (步驚雲) and Wind (聶風) respectively and showed off their fresh new look at the film's blessing ceremony yesterday at a film studio in Bangkok.

The two leading stars gave a demonstration of their fighting scenes for the press who were present at the ceremony and at first everything was going very smoothly as they showed off their graceful moves. However, there was a slight mishap, when Ekin accidentally hit Aaron on the head with his sword. The shock and the pain left Aaron clutching his head and Ekin was immediately very apologetic. Fortunately, there was a doctor on hand and after a quick check, Aaron was given the all-clear and showed just a small bump on his head. He was very supportive of Ekin, saying that they had not had very much practice with the weapons because a lot of the action shots are created with computer graphics.

Aaron revealed that they were both left rather battered and bruised in a hand-to-hand combat scene earlier, but he laughed that he was expecting some injuries in taking on an action film. He said that he does not mind suffering minor injuries if the audience appreciates their sincerity in the production.

It has been ten years since Aaron and Ekin's first collaboration, but they still seemed to have the chemistry with each other and Aaron smiled that they feel just as young as they were before. As for who will be singing the film's theme song, he said that it is in the hands of the managers to arrange, but he does not mind who lands the job in the end.

Aaron's character will be paired with mainland actress Tang Yan (唐嫣) in the film.

Ekin was also prepared for injury during filming and told of how he was unable to move after shooting a rainy fighting scene. It was thanks to some qigong healing from the martial arts director that helped to ease the condition. He added that fortunately they were allowed enough time to rest in between shoots. He expressed that it was a great affinity that has brought him back to the character of Wind again after a decade.

Asked if girlfriend Yoyo Mung (蒙嘉慧) has been to visit him on set, Ekin said she had not, but he was enjoying the comfortable life in Thailand.

Film company boss Daniel Lam (林小明) revealed that the mainland distribution licence for the film has finally been approved after three and a half months and the release date has been tentatively set as Christmas 2009. As for the film reported to have gone over budget, he responded by saying that they have used Hollywood production standards, so it was worth it. A decision will be made later in the year about whether or not they will film a third installment.

When Daniel was asked how he felt about the film's production was upstaged by the appearance of Cecilia Cheung (張栢芝) on set last week, visiting her husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒). He said that it could not be helped, so he would accept it as another form of publicity for the film.

[GeneChing]

Click link for pics

Digital Effects Highlight "Storm Warriors"
2008-06-26 10:56:49

Storm Warriors, the second Storm Riders blockbuster, which is currently shooting in Thailand, opened to media in the capital city Bangkok on Wednesday.

According to newspaper the Beijing News, directors Pang Brothers and Leading performers, including Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi, Tang Yan and Kenny Ho were present at the event.

Pang Brothers said this upcoming book-to-film action movie is shooting in a completely digitalized realm and ninety percent of the scenes have used computer-animated effects. The total budget is around 100 million yuan, about 146,000 US dollars.

The shooting for the film will be completed within a week. It will be shown on the big screens both in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong at the end of 2009.

Storm Warriors and its predecessor are based on a comic book series titled "Fung Wan" by artist and writer Ma Wing-shing.

[GeneChing]

no good pix.

Animated "storm rider" premieres
Updated: 2008-07-17 13:57

Nicholas Tse (L) and Richie Ren attend the premiere of Hong Kong director Dante Lam's animated film "Storm Rider - Clash of the Evils" in Shanghai on July 16, 2008. The kung-fu animation is based on Ma Wing-Shing's popular comic series "Fung Wan," which inspired Andrew Lau's award-winning 1998 film "The Storm Riders." The new film features the voices of Nicholas Tse, Richie Ren and actress Han Xue. It will open in the theaters this Saturday.

[SteveLau]

Another Stormrider animated film has just been released in mainland China in July 19. I am not sure when it is available for view in other areas. It is a huge investment for the producers, and huge production effort for behind the scene people involved. I will watch it for sure when it is released in the local theatre. As for Stormrider 2, the publicity photos show that the image design of the two heros makes them look more like the comic book heros that they are playing. It sure will be a hit when it is released in December 2009.



KC
Hong Kong

[doug maverick]

Originally Posted by GeneChing

no good pix.

if you do a search you'll find a post i put up like a year or so ago, that has the trailr and clips of the animated version.

[GeneChing]

I'm now curious how well Ninja Assassin will do in Asia now. Storm Warriors will blow everything out of the water. But then, Avatar will surely do well too - Asia loved Titanic. And I hear 2012 is doing well there too.

Aaron and Ekin are such Storm troopers
BY JOY FANG

THE Cantopop Heavenly King, Hong Kong singer and actor Aaron Kwok, has one revelation to make about his latest movie, The Storm Warriors: The harrowing experience landed him in hospital.

"Compared to other movies I have made, this movie was the one where I got injured the most number of times and where I bled the most," the 44-year-old told my paper in a round-table interview at the Raffles City Convention Centre yesterday.

He was in town to promote Warriors - the S$16 million follow-up to smash hit The Storm Riders (1998), which earned S$2.9 million in its Singapore run.

One scene involving Kwok and co-star Ekin Cheng - who was also in town to promote the movie, as Cheng and Kwok reprise their roles as martial-arts heroes Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud respectively - featured three explosions, one after the other.

After the second explosion, Kwok said he felt a sharp pain that "was like getting shot by a gun". A metal nail was embedded deep in his left arm, which had started to swell.

"The director asked me if I was all right. I calmly put down my weapon and told him, 'No, Let's go to the hospital'," said the chatty Kwok, who added that he did not tremble because "I am a man who will not fear the sight of blood".

Thankfully, he said, the nail was small and entered his arm horizontally, so the doctor extracted it and no stitches were necessary.

If it was Kwok who experienced physical harm, then it was Cheng, 42 - also a Cantopop singer who has plans for a comeback concert in Hong Kong in the middle of this month - who perhaps endured emotional distress.

When the boss of production company Universe Entertainment met up with the Hong Kong actor to discuss the reprisal of his role, the production house head honcho reportedly told him: "You are not Whispering Wind now, you are Fat Wind."

Cheng said with a rueful smile: "After hearing that, I realised that I was actually fat. Luckily, he gave me six months to work out... I worked really hard."

Perhaps that comment wasn't so surprising. After all, 11 years ago, Kwok and Cheng were young and dashing pop idols in a promising breakthrough film which had the best special effects ever seen in a Hong Kong film.

A decade on, it is perhaps inevitable that the same stars show signs of ageing.

Yet, unlike Korean actor Rain, 27 - who went through a gruelling training regimen for his role in Ninja Assassin (six hours every day for six months, and surviving on a strictly no salt, no sugar diet with only meals of chicken breasts and vegetables for eight months) - Cheng's exercise regime was tame by comparison.

He firmed up by exercising for two hours every day, either by running or doing rowing exercises with a trainer. He did not eat rice or bread at night, he said. The effort paid off.

"He used to have a four-pack, now he has a six-pack, like a chocolate bar," joked Danny Pang, 44, who directed the movie with his twin brother Oxide, 44. The pair - known as the Pang Brothers - have directed movies like The Eye and Bangkok Dangerous.

Despite rumours of trouble between Cheng and Kwok - according to rumours, there was a scuffle on who got to sing the theme song for the movie - Danny said the two were "good friends" who had no trouble working together.

Asked if he minded, and Kwok said: "If I were a petty person who wanted to snatch the limelight, then I wouldn't be willing to share the song with him.

"As long as we can get people to notice the movie with this song, I have absolutely no problems with it."

[GeneChing]

I should really see Dragonball Z for the comparison...

The Storm Warriors review
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:09a.m.
Reviewed by Michael Quartly-Kelly

Over a decade ago a film called Storm Riders (Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha) wowed martial arts fans as the first decent live-action Anime-style movie. While its super-powered heroes and over-the-top action sequences were nothing new to Chinatown aficionados, Storm Riders stood apart from the pack with its state-of-the-art digital effects, the likes of which had not been seen outside of big budget Hollywood Blockbusters.

Although this seemed to herald a new era of martial-artsy goodness, the following years proved to be a little lacklustre (Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon aside) as mainstream Asian imports tended more towards new gritty crime dramas. It seemed John Woo’s two fisted gunplay had won out over the long established Shaw Brothers flying guillotine.

Fast forward ten years and we have Storm Warriors (Storm Riders 2) which reunites the heroic Wind and Cloud, played again by Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok, under new direction from Hong Kong wonder-twins Danny and Oxide Pang. With a blitzkrieg of fireball punches, tsunami kicks and seemingly infinite sword strikes, the likes of which Americanised candy-actioners like Dragonball Z: Evolution can only view in horrific envy, the fighting goes from great to awesome to ballistic to utterly gob-smacking.

The series yet again sets a new benchmark in digital action, incorporating seamless special effects and sumptuous slow motion wizardry into an almost ballet-like kinetic display.

Though not a direct sequel so much as a continuation somewhere along the same mythic arc or an episode in what is obviously a vast and epic canon of work, the film wastes no time in establishing the good guys from the bad and you are immersed in the combat-heavy story in no time at all. Ironclad warlord and aptly named antagonist, Lord Godless, seeks a secret treasure with which he may rule all of China. In his way stand Cloud and Wind and a selection of support characters, all with impossibly cool names like: Lord Wicked; Second Dream and Nameless.

If there is a downside to the film, it is that every character isn’t given enough screen time or back story and that the economy of elements seem weighted towards supplying immediate justification for the epic martial arts sequences. The result is a less than perfect ending and the crying need for a third instalment - we can only hope it will come sooner, rather than a decade later.

Storm Warriors (Fung Wan II)
:: Director: Danny & Oxide Pang
:: Starring: Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Simon Yam, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi
:: Running Time: 112 mins
:: Rating: M - Fantasy Violence
:: Release Date: December 10, 2009

In the eye of the Storm
The Pang brothers’ highly-anticipated martial arts extravaganza blows into cinemas here today
by Chan Soo Wah

THE current stormy weather seems to herald the impending storm that is about to hit the big screen here nationwide.

(from left) Oxide, Kwok, Cheng and Danny at the press conference.
The Storm Warriors a.k.a. Fung Wan II, starring Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, back in their roles as Cloud and Wind respectively, opens in cinemas today.

This highly-anticipated sequel to 1998’s The Storm Riders is helmed by Hongkong’s Pang brothers, screenwriters and directors Danny and Oxide, of The Eye fame.

While it may be a sequel, the only connection between both storylines are the two main characters from Ma Wing-shing’s popular comic Fung Wan.

This time around, expect more amazing CGI effects from the Fat Face Production whose works include the award-winning Recycle and The Warlords.

"The CGI effects are better than what we both imagined three or four years ago when we started this project," said Danny during a promotional trip to Kuala Lumpur last week with his brother and their leading actors.

The Storm Warriors took almost four years to make with the CGI effects alone taking 22 months to complete although shooting was wrapped up in four months in the five studios the Pangs had rented in Thailand.

The film’s budget came up to HK$1 billion (RM43.8 million), making it one of the most expensive productions in Asia.

For the two leading men, reprising their roles in the film also meant getting back into shape. After all, it has been almost 11 years since they first appeared as Wind and Cloud.

"First of all, we needed to get back into the shape we were back in 1998," said Kwok. "I thought since I have been working out, it would be less difficult for me.

"However, during the fitting sessions, the directors told me my biceps were not big enough! So I needed two weeks to beef them up and I had to carry a dumbbell with me all the time so that I could do lifts in-between filming."

It was even more difficult for Cheng as he had gained quite a bit of weight for his role in the film, Rule #1.

"Executive producer Daniel Lam gave me six months to get fit again or else I would be the ‘Fat Wind’ in the film. I trained for half a year but when I returned, they told me to tone down a little because I’d bulked up too much for the role," Cheng lamented, prompting laughter from the press.

Shooting was also not without its share of accidents and injuries. Kwok actually was struck by a nail during the tail end of the filming.

He said: "It was the scene where Cloud gets blown off by Wind, so they placed a small explosive about 12 inches from my body."

When it exploded, Kwok felt a sharp pain on his right arm. He was rushed to hospital where they found a tiny nail that was threw up by the explosive and hit his arm.

"The impact was so great that I felt like I was shot," Kwok recalled.

Cheng, too, had his share of injuries although he said they were mostly minor ones. But the most excruciating was when he aggravated his back injury sustained from his wire-hanging days.

"I actually had thoughts of pulling out from the day’s filming but coincidentally the press were around that day, so I had to continue with the shoot although it was really painful."

When asked which was the most difficult scene to shoot and the most fun, all four named the ending.

"We spent one week shooting the ending and it was really difficult," said Oxide. "The money spent on the ending alone is equivalent to the amount usually spent to make a full-length movie!"

Many will be struck by The Storm Warriors’ similarities to Hollywood movies such as 300, Sin City and even the Harry Potter series. The Pangs said they don’t deny the resemblance.

Said Danny: "Truth be told, we had no choice but to use the most advance software to make the CGI effects and it is also the software that other films like 300 used. That is why you can see the resemblance there.

"We wanted to blend local subculture, CGI and visual language into a brand new world of wuxia (martial arts), and to advance Hongkong’s movie production to the next generation."

The brothers believe that Asian movie productions can definitely make their own CGI movies without any help from the West. They just need time, money and complete dedication.

Asked if there is another instalment in the works, Danny replied: "If there is, I can assure you that you will not have to wait 11 years for The Storm Warriors 3."

[GeneChing]

If it does well, Aaron will be back. And it seems to be doing well. Time to renegotiate that contract Aaron!

Aaron Kwok may not reprise role in 'Storm Warriors' sequel
Posted: 16 December 2009 1512 hrs

HONG KONG: Hong Kong actor Aaron Kwok, who plays Striding Cloud in the film "The Storm Warriors", says he might not act in the sequel if the timing is too tight.

The two-time Golden Horse Award winner intends to spend six months focusing on his new musical theatre production and may not have the time to reprise his lead role in the sequel.

Kwok, 44, revealed this at an event on 15 December, to celebrate the success of "The Storm Warriors" which had broken the 100 million yuan (S$2 million) mark in box office receipts in Asia.

"The Storm Warriors" directors, the Pang brothers, had mentioned that overseas investors have expressed interest in a sequel and urged them to shoot it soon. However, Kwok did not want more of the same.

"Even if I were to reprise my role, I hope there will be more of a plot and less fighting," he said. "It all depends on the script, if there is any room for me to express myself."

Kwok added that he will take the role "out of gratitude" if the Pang brothers and the studio head insist.

Kwok's co-star Ekin Cheng, who plays Whispering Wind, was keen to act in the sequel.

"I will definitely reprise my role if they shoot a sequel. After all, I am the most suitable person for the role," the 42-year-old actor said.

"The Storm Warriors" is based on a series of Wuxia comic books and novels by Hong Kong writer Mah Wing Sheng.

The film is about how the two main heroes Whispering Wind (Cheng) and Striding Cloud (Kwok) set out to stop evil warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam) and his son Heart (Nicholas Tse) from conquering China.

The 110-minute film had only about 200 lines of dialogue while featuring about 70 minutes of CG enhanced fight scenes.

- CNA/ha

[Shaolinlueb]

thought they already made a sequel to this a couple years ago?

[GeneChing]

Pang Brothers Martial Arts Fantasy THE STORM WARRIORS Hits DVD And BluRay In February!

by Todd Brown, January 19, 2010 9:17 AM

Good news for fans of the Pang Brothers and original Hong Kong blockbuster fantasy hit The Storm Riders. The Pang's big fantasy hit sequel - The Storm Warriors - is slated to hit both DVD and BluRay on February 9th, both editions fully English friendly, both editions listed as being region free and able to be played anywhere in the world. So, if you're a fan, you know what to do ...

I haven't even got a pirate version yet...

[GeneChing]

You guys are lagging.

Our graphic artist was disappointed by Storm Warriors. He's a huge fan of the comic and felt it didn't live up to that at all. I've not really read the comic. I've looked at a few issues, but don't really know the story beyond the general themes. But I can certainly understand that gripe - I have the same issues with Percy Jackson and Wicked (the musical). Our graphic artist felt SW was too deep in fantasy and too dark compared to the comic.

That being said, SW was a little too long-winded for me, too many melancholic scenes. The fights and action scenes were interesting. Like Storm Riders, I had hoped for more innovative effects (and SR was innovative for Asia at the time - you got to remember, I live near ILM territory). Many of the effects seemed derivative of Harry Potter (smoke trails were just like the Death Eaters in HP6, ball of water was just like the Dumbledore vs Voldemort in HP5 - Wind even ends with a forehead scar!), Forbidden Kingdom (the flying weapons) and V for Vendetta (the tempo of the fight going from fast to slow and the trails of the action). This is not a kung fu movie - it's more like wizard battles. Nevertheless, there's some innovation in the action scenes and I kept thinking if you just cut all those action scenes together in one montage, it would make a cool backdrop projected on the wall of a rave. It's more like a music video - very abstract, colorful and artsy.

I'm totally envious of Simon Yam's black dragon armor and black dragon palanquin. That was awesome.