Singapore has launched a scheme to help find the next generation of filmmakers from the South East Asia region. Local content producers Blue3Asia and CreativesAtWork, with the support of Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority launched the Leap!, a short film production scheme at the ongoing Asian TV Forum & Market on Thursday.
Seven filmmakers from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will be selected to make films based on the theme of mental illness. Selected participants will be announced by the end of January 2020, with a view to the completed films being ready for potential selection at the 2020 Singapore International Film Festival. The films will be 30 minutes or less in duration, with the majority likely to be more than 10 minutes.
The participants will be mentored by filmmakers Fran Borgia (“A Land Imagined”), Daniel Yun (“1965”) and Michael Kam (“Melodi”). The seven filmmakers will work with the mentors and other industry practitioners through lectures,...
Seven filmmakers from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will be selected to make films based on the theme of mental illness. Selected participants will be announced by the end of January 2020, with a view to the completed films being ready for potential selection at the 2020 Singapore International Film Festival. The films will be 30 minutes or less in duration, with the majority likely to be more than 10 minutes.
The participants will be mentored by filmmakers Fran Borgia (“A Land Imagined”), Daniel Yun (“1965”) and Michael Kam (“Melodi”). The seven filmmakers will work with the mentors and other industry practitioners through lectures,...
- 12/5/2019
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Shanghai -- John Woo's period war epic "Red Cliff," at $80 million the most expensive Asian film ever made, scored a record-breaking weekend across six Asian territories, earning 108 million yuan ($15.8 million) in its first weekend in China, according to the China Film Group.
In Hong Kong, local hero Woo's two-part film continued its boxoffice dominance for distributors Mei Ah and Edko, earning Hk$10,585,000 ($1.36 million) from Thursday-Sunday on 60 screens, the Hong Kong Kowloon & New Territories Motion Pictures Industry Assn. said.
"Red Cliff" grossed nearly twice what Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" earned in its four-day Hong Kong opening weekend in 2000 before going on to become the highest-grossing Chinese-language film ever released in the U.S.
Made with international backing and a star-studded, Pan-Asian cast including Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro, "Red Cliff" also raked it in in Singapore, where Daniel Yun, CEO of MediaCorp. Raintree Pictures, predicted the film will best most Asian epics from recent years.
Distributor Scorpio East scored a Friday-Sunday take of S$1,029,290 ($761,000) from 47 prints, topping the Singapore boxoffice.
"Red Cliff" sold 20% more tickets there than the first weekend of Peter Chan's "Warlords" in December. It also earned more than Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" and Lee's "Crouching Tiger" when they opened in the Southeast Asian city state.
In China, "Red Cliff" -- Woo's first film made in China since 1992's "Hard Boiled" -- earned a record-high 27 million yuan ($3.9 million) on Thursday, its opening day, Cfg said. This broke the previous opening-day record in China, held by "Transformers," which took in 22.4 million yuan ($3.3 million) in its July 2007 China debut.
Karen Chu from Hong Kong, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop from Singapore and Alicia Yang from Shanghai contributed to this report.
In Hong Kong, local hero Woo's two-part film continued its boxoffice dominance for distributors Mei Ah and Edko, earning Hk$10,585,000 ($1.36 million) from Thursday-Sunday on 60 screens, the Hong Kong Kowloon & New Territories Motion Pictures Industry Assn. said.
"Red Cliff" grossed nearly twice what Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" earned in its four-day Hong Kong opening weekend in 2000 before going on to become the highest-grossing Chinese-language film ever released in the U.S.
Made with international backing and a star-studded, Pan-Asian cast including Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro, "Red Cliff" also raked it in in Singapore, where Daniel Yun, CEO of MediaCorp. Raintree Pictures, predicted the film will best most Asian epics from recent years.
Distributor Scorpio East scored a Friday-Sunday take of S$1,029,290 ($761,000) from 47 prints, topping the Singapore boxoffice.
"Red Cliff" sold 20% more tickets there than the first weekend of Peter Chan's "Warlords" in December. It also earned more than Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" and Lee's "Crouching Tiger" when they opened in the Southeast Asian city state.
In China, "Red Cliff" -- Woo's first film made in China since 1992's "Hard Boiled" -- earned a record-high 27 million yuan ($3.9 million) on Thursday, its opening day, Cfg said. This broke the previous opening-day record in China, held by "Transformers," which took in 22.4 million yuan ($3.3 million) in its July 2007 China debut.
Karen Chu from Hong Kong, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop from Singapore and Alicia Yang from Shanghai contributed to this report.
- 7/14/2008
- by By Alex S. Dai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Home Song Stories
SYDNEY -- There's a fine line between deeply personal and self-indulgent. Chinese-Australian screenwriter-director Tony Ayres' "The Home Song Stories" sits just the wrong side of it.
Examining the ambiguity of his feelings toward his mercurial mother through this semi-autobiographical drama was undoubtedly cathartic. But, in the same way others' holiday snaps can become wearying, being asked to wallow in someone else's tragedy has limited appeal, and Ayres' closeness to the subject seems to have blinded him to the slackness of the narrative.
"Home", which moves on to the Adelaide Film Festival after Berlin, is a good-looking film with limited commercial appeal. It should generate interest on the festival circuit thanks to an intensely committed central performance by Joan Chen. Chen plays Rose, a Shanghai-born nightclub singer with a hard-knock background, who relies on her beauty and charm to get through, using a succession of men as meal tickets.
In the mid-1960s, Chen marries a sailor named Bill (Steve Vidler), another of the many "uncles" in her children's life, and they emigrate to Australia. The story is told through the eyes of young Tom (Joel Lok) who, with his older sister May (Irene Chen), is dragged pillar to post, from "uncle" to "uncle," when Rose up and leaves Bill after just a week in the new country.
Early expositional scenes drag. Rose finally goes back to the long-suffering Bill, clashes with his surly mother (Kerry Walker), moves a young lover in while her husband's away and is thrown out on her ear again. It's clear Ayres, whose debut feature "Walking on Water" won Berlin's Teddy Award in 2002, is more comfortable directing than writing. One shot of the glamorous Rose, poured into a jewel-colored cheongsam and sky-high heels, strutting peacock-proud past the drab, soul-destroying shop fronts of 1970s suburbia distills into a single image much of what Ayres struggles to say about his mother.
Tom, his cinematic stand-in, is torn throughout the film between love, despair, anger, disgust and admiration. Rose is painted alternately as a skilled emotional blackmailer and a damsel in distress. When she's up, the irresponsible good-time girl proves a fun companion to her children. But Rose's emotions always are roiling close to the surface.
When things start to go wrong with her new young love, Joe (Qi Yuwu), she clutches at her schoolboy son like a drowning woman, begging him to look after her, to save her. Ayres' script piles tragedy upon tragedy, with a numbing effect, until all we feel is a vague sense of despair with no chance of resolution.
Random fantasy sequences in which Tom vanquishes his enemies in kung-fu style prove an unnecessary distraction in an already unfocused screenplay. Performances overall are strong, though emotional arcs swing too wildly to get a true handle on the characters.
Production design is first-rate, with the ornamental trappings of Rose's exotic background forming a sharp contrast to the hideous 1970s decor of middle-class Australia. Perhaps garish shag-pile carpets and butt-ugly wallpaper were enough to kill the spirit of a beautiful foreign butterfly like Rose.
THE HOME SONG STORIES
Dendy Films
Big & Little Films and Porchlight Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Tony Ayres
Producers: Liz Watts, Michael
McMahon
Executive producers: Wouter Barendrecht, Michael J. Werner, Daniel Yun, Liz Koops
Director of photography: Nigel Bluck
Production
designer: Melinda Doring
Music: Antony Partos
Costume designer: Cappi
Ireland
Editor: Denise Haratzis
Cast:
Rose: Joan Chen
Joe: Qi Yuwu
Tom: Joel Lok
May: Irene Chen
Bill: Steve Vidler
Norma: Kerry Walker
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Examining the ambiguity of his feelings toward his mercurial mother through this semi-autobiographical drama was undoubtedly cathartic. But, in the same way others' holiday snaps can become wearying, being asked to wallow in someone else's tragedy has limited appeal, and Ayres' closeness to the subject seems to have blinded him to the slackness of the narrative.
"Home", which moves on to the Adelaide Film Festival after Berlin, is a good-looking film with limited commercial appeal. It should generate interest on the festival circuit thanks to an intensely committed central performance by Joan Chen. Chen plays Rose, a Shanghai-born nightclub singer with a hard-knock background, who relies on her beauty and charm to get through, using a succession of men as meal tickets.
In the mid-1960s, Chen marries a sailor named Bill (Steve Vidler), another of the many "uncles" in her children's life, and they emigrate to Australia. The story is told through the eyes of young Tom (Joel Lok) who, with his older sister May (Irene Chen), is dragged pillar to post, from "uncle" to "uncle," when Rose up and leaves Bill after just a week in the new country.
Early expositional scenes drag. Rose finally goes back to the long-suffering Bill, clashes with his surly mother (Kerry Walker), moves a young lover in while her husband's away and is thrown out on her ear again. It's clear Ayres, whose debut feature "Walking on Water" won Berlin's Teddy Award in 2002, is more comfortable directing than writing. One shot of the glamorous Rose, poured into a jewel-colored cheongsam and sky-high heels, strutting peacock-proud past the drab, soul-destroying shop fronts of 1970s suburbia distills into a single image much of what Ayres struggles to say about his mother.
Tom, his cinematic stand-in, is torn throughout the film between love, despair, anger, disgust and admiration. Rose is painted alternately as a skilled emotional blackmailer and a damsel in distress. When she's up, the irresponsible good-time girl proves a fun companion to her children. But Rose's emotions always are roiling close to the surface.
When things start to go wrong with her new young love, Joe (Qi Yuwu), she clutches at her schoolboy son like a drowning woman, begging him to look after her, to save her. Ayres' script piles tragedy upon tragedy, with a numbing effect, until all we feel is a vague sense of despair with no chance of resolution.
Random fantasy sequences in which Tom vanquishes his enemies in kung-fu style prove an unnecessary distraction in an already unfocused screenplay. Performances overall are strong, though emotional arcs swing too wildly to get a true handle on the characters.
Production design is first-rate, with the ornamental trappings of Rose's exotic background forming a sharp contrast to the hideous 1970s decor of middle-class Australia. Perhaps garish shag-pile carpets and butt-ugly wallpaper were enough to kill the spirit of a beautiful foreign butterfly like Rose.
THE HOME SONG STORIES
Dendy Films
Big & Little Films and Porchlight Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Tony Ayres
Producers: Liz Watts, Michael
McMahon
Executive producers: Wouter Barendrecht, Michael J. Werner, Daniel Yun, Liz Koops
Director of photography: Nigel Bluck
Production
designer: Melinda Doring
Music: Antony Partos
Costume designer: Cappi
Ireland
Editor: Denise Haratzis
Cast:
Rose: Joan Chen
Joe: Qi Yuwu
Tom: Joel Lok
May: Irene Chen
Bill: Steve Vidler
Norma: Kerry Walker
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/9/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MediaCorp, Eyeworks prep co-productions
SINGAPORE -- Singapore production house MediaCorp. Raintree Pictures said Friday that it will sign letters of intent with New Zealand's Eyeworks Touchdown for the S$5.3 million ($3.3 million) The Tatoois and Altar, which is currently in development. The films are the first under the New Zealand-Singapore co-production treaty, which was set for a signing ceremony in Auckland on Sunday to be attended by the prime ministers of both nations. Owned by Singapore's dominant television and radio broadcaster MediaCorp, Raintree has made no secret of its regional and international ambitions. MediaCorp. Raintree Pictures CEO Daniel Yun said the studio was at a point in its development at which it is seeking to move to a new level of experience and exposure. "Now we have a clear vision to produce a breakout hit within the next three years," he said. "Both the Singapore and New Zealand markets by themselves are small," Eyeworks boss Julie Christie said. "We believe we can use specific elements from each of our cultures to develop unique stories for the international market."...
- 6/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Infernal Affairs 2
Opened
Oct. 1
Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Here's the difference between Hong Kong and Hollywood in a nutshell: "The Matrix", the Hong Kong-influenced blockbuster, takes four years to produce its two sequels. In comparison, the makers of "Infernal Affairs", a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop hit last Christmas, crank out Parts 2 and 3 barely nine months later.
The speed and efficiency of the Hong Kong film industry may be admired and respected abroad, but it also has its drawbacks. The original "Infernal Affairs" was a deftly crafted thriller about cops and triads infiltrating each other's ranks. It updated John Woo's urban chivalry with less melodrama and more post-Colonial existentialism. And rightly, it was a major commercial and critical success.
With its momentum still strong, co-directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, along with screenwriter Felix Chong, immediately got back to work and turned their story into a trilogy. The first "Infernal Affairs" focused on the yin-yang story of two nemeses forced to stay undercover in each other's world -- an unhappy cop planted inside a criminal gang and a triad mole in the police department who wishes to free himself of his shady side.
With "Infernal Affairs 2", the filmmakers try to top themselves by going the "Godfather" route. That is, they attempt to put the story on a bigger canvas, expanding the scope of the themes and making the narrative more epic. Unfortunately, Mak and Lau aren't Coppola and Puzo. Rather than contextualize the happenings of Part 1, the movie has so many story lines, it simply loses focus.
In essence, it's a prequel to the first film. The two main protagonists are young teenagers here just entering their covert positions, so the drama shifts instead to their superiors in the prime of their career. Eric Tsang is Sam, a middle-level triad guy who has an unusual friendship with Wong (Anthony Wong), a cop on the organized crime unit. Their trust gets severely tested as the pressure of being on opposite sides of the law presses down on them and their associates.
Sam has to contend with power struggles and double-crossing rivals, while Wong fights the urge to break laws to maintain them. The credo "what goes around, comes around" haunts characters like an old score waiting to be settled.
There's great dramatic material here. But alas, the filmmakers try too hard for too much. In striving for grandeur, they drop the ball. The great duality of the two moles in the first movie is now diluted. There are now so many subplots heading in so many directions, any cohesive thematic thread gets lost and tangled.
What does remain is a great sense of fateful melancholy. The acting, for the most part, is powerful and committed. Wong and Tsang are solid Hong Kong performers whose exposure to Western audiences has been limited to minor roles in Jackie Chan (Wong in "The Medallion") and older Wayne Wang (Tsang was in "Eat a Bowl of Tea") movies. Also creating a real presence is another veteran, Francis Ng, as crime kingpin Hau.
However, if you haven't seen the first "Infernal Affairs", you're bound to be confused in the narrative mess. In short, this has the feel of an ambitious but rushed project. The finale of the trilogy comes out in December.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
Media Asia Films presents in association with Raintree Pictures and Eastern Dragon Film a Basic Pictures production
Credits:
Directors: Alan Mak, Andrew Lau
Screenwriters: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Producer: Andrew Lau
Executive producers: John Chong, Daniel Yun, Ma Baoping
Line producers: Ellen Chang, Lorraine Ho
Original music: Chan Kwong-wing
Directors of photography: Andrew Lau, Ng Man-ching
Production designer: Bill Lui
Editors: Danny Pang, Pang Ching-hei
Costume designer: Silver Cheung
Stunt coordinator: Lee Tat-chiu
Cast:
Inspector Wong: Anthony Wong
Sam: Eric Tsang
Hau: Francis Ng
JP Luk: Hu Jun
Ming: Edison Chen
Yan: Shawn Yue
Keung: Chapman To
Mary: Carina Lau
Uncle John: Liu Kai-chi
Law: Roy Cheung
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Oct. 1
Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Here's the difference between Hong Kong and Hollywood in a nutshell: "The Matrix", the Hong Kong-influenced blockbuster, takes four years to produce its two sequels. In comparison, the makers of "Infernal Affairs", a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop hit last Christmas, crank out Parts 2 and 3 barely nine months later.
The speed and efficiency of the Hong Kong film industry may be admired and respected abroad, but it also has its drawbacks. The original "Infernal Affairs" was a deftly crafted thriller about cops and triads infiltrating each other's ranks. It updated John Woo's urban chivalry with less melodrama and more post-Colonial existentialism. And rightly, it was a major commercial and critical success.
With its momentum still strong, co-directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, along with screenwriter Felix Chong, immediately got back to work and turned their story into a trilogy. The first "Infernal Affairs" focused on the yin-yang story of two nemeses forced to stay undercover in each other's world -- an unhappy cop planted inside a criminal gang and a triad mole in the police department who wishes to free himself of his shady side.
With "Infernal Affairs 2", the filmmakers try to top themselves by going the "Godfather" route. That is, they attempt to put the story on a bigger canvas, expanding the scope of the themes and making the narrative more epic. Unfortunately, Mak and Lau aren't Coppola and Puzo. Rather than contextualize the happenings of Part 1, the movie has so many story lines, it simply loses focus.
In essence, it's a prequel to the first film. The two main protagonists are young teenagers here just entering their covert positions, so the drama shifts instead to their superiors in the prime of their career. Eric Tsang is Sam, a middle-level triad guy who has an unusual friendship with Wong (Anthony Wong), a cop on the organized crime unit. Their trust gets severely tested as the pressure of being on opposite sides of the law presses down on them and their associates.
Sam has to contend with power struggles and double-crossing rivals, while Wong fights the urge to break laws to maintain them. The credo "what goes around, comes around" haunts characters like an old score waiting to be settled.
There's great dramatic material here. But alas, the filmmakers try too hard for too much. In striving for grandeur, they drop the ball. The great duality of the two moles in the first movie is now diluted. There are now so many subplots heading in so many directions, any cohesive thematic thread gets lost and tangled.
What does remain is a great sense of fateful melancholy. The acting, for the most part, is powerful and committed. Wong and Tsang are solid Hong Kong performers whose exposure to Western audiences has been limited to minor roles in Jackie Chan (Wong in "The Medallion") and older Wayne Wang (Tsang was in "Eat a Bowl of Tea") movies. Also creating a real presence is another veteran, Francis Ng, as crime kingpin Hau.
However, if you haven't seen the first "Infernal Affairs", you're bound to be confused in the narrative mess. In short, this has the feel of an ambitious but rushed project. The finale of the trilogy comes out in December.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
Media Asia Films presents in association with Raintree Pictures and Eastern Dragon Film a Basic Pictures production
Credits:
Directors: Alan Mak, Andrew Lau
Screenwriters: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Producer: Andrew Lau
Executive producers: John Chong, Daniel Yun, Ma Baoping
Line producers: Ellen Chang, Lorraine Ho
Original music: Chan Kwong-wing
Directors of photography: Andrew Lau, Ng Man-ching
Production designer: Bill Lui
Editors: Danny Pang, Pang Ching-hei
Costume designer: Silver Cheung
Stunt coordinator: Lee Tat-chiu
Cast:
Inspector Wong: Anthony Wong
Sam: Eric Tsang
Hau: Francis Ng
JP Luk: Hu Jun
Ming: Edison Chen
Yan: Shawn Yue
Keung: Chapman To
Mary: Carina Lau
Uncle John: Liu Kai-chi
Law: Roy Cheung
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Infernal Affairs 2
Opened
Oct. 1
Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Here's the difference between Hong Kong and Hollywood in a nutshell: "The Matrix", the Hong Kong-influenced blockbuster, takes four years to produce its two sequels. In comparison, the makers of "Infernal Affairs", a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop hit last Christmas, crank out Parts 2 and 3 barely nine months later.
The speed and efficiency of the Hong Kong film industry may be admired and respected abroad, but it also has its drawbacks. The original "Infernal Affairs" was a deftly crafted thriller about cops and triads infiltrating each other's ranks. It updated John Woo's urban chivalry with less melodrama and more post-Colonial existentialism. And rightly, it was a major commercial and critical success.
With its momentum still strong, co-directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, along with screenwriter Felix Chong, immediately got back to work and turned their story into a trilogy. The first "Infernal Affairs" focused on the yin-yang story of two nemeses forced to stay undercover in each other's world -- an unhappy cop planted inside a criminal gang and a triad mole in the police department who wishes to free himself of his shady side.
With "Infernal Affairs 2", the filmmakers try to top themselves by going the "Godfather" route. That is, they attempt to put the story on a bigger canvas, expanding the scope of the themes and making the narrative more epic. Unfortunately, Mak and Lau aren't Coppola and Puzo. Rather than contextualize the happenings of Part 1, the movie has so many story lines, it simply loses focus.
In essence, it's a prequel to the first film. The two main protagonists are young teenagers here just entering their covert positions, so the drama shifts instead to their superiors in the prime of their career. Eric Tsang is Sam, a middle-level triad guy who has an unusual friendship with Wong (Anthony Wong), a cop on the organized crime unit. Their trust gets severely tested as the pressure of being on opposite sides of the law presses down on them and their associates.
Sam has to contend with power struggles and double-crossing rivals, while Wong fights the urge to break laws to maintain them. The credo "what goes around, comes around" haunts characters like an old score waiting to be settled.
There's great dramatic material here. But alas, the filmmakers try too hard for too much. In striving for grandeur, they drop the ball. The great duality of the two moles in the first movie is now diluted. There are now so many subplots heading in so many directions, any cohesive thematic thread gets lost and tangled.
What does remain is a great sense of fateful melancholy. The acting, for the most part, is powerful and committed. Wong and Tsang are solid Hong Kong performers whose exposure to Western audiences has been limited to minor roles in Jackie Chan (Wong in "The Medallion") and older Wayne Wang (Tsang was in "Eat a Bowl of Tea") movies. Also creating a real presence is another veteran, Francis Ng, as crime kingpin Hau.
However, if you haven't seen the first "Infernal Affairs", you're bound to be confused in the narrative mess. In short, this has the feel of an ambitious but rushed project. The finale of the trilogy comes out in December.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
Media Asia Films presents in association with Raintree Pictures and Eastern Dragon Film a Basic Pictures production
Credits:
Directors: Alan Mak, Andrew Lau
Screenwriters: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Producer: Andrew Lau
Executive producers: John Chong, Daniel Yun, Ma Baoping
Line producers: Ellen Chang, Lorraine Ho
Original music: Chan Kwong-wing
Directors of photography: Andrew Lau, Ng Man-ching
Production designer: Bill Lui
Editors: Danny Pang, Pang Ching-hei
Costume designer: Silver Cheung
Stunt coordinator: Lee Tat-chiu
Cast:
Inspector Wong: Anthony Wong
Sam: Eric Tsang
Hau: Francis Ng
JP Luk: Hu Jun
Ming: Edison Chen
Yan: Shawn Yue
Keung: Chapman To
Mary: Carina Lau
Uncle John: Liu Kai-chi
Law: Roy Cheung
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Oct. 1
Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Here's the difference between Hong Kong and Hollywood in a nutshell: "The Matrix", the Hong Kong-influenced blockbuster, takes four years to produce its two sequels. In comparison, the makers of "Infernal Affairs", a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop hit last Christmas, crank out Parts 2 and 3 barely nine months later.
The speed and efficiency of the Hong Kong film industry may be admired and respected abroad, but it also has its drawbacks. The original "Infernal Affairs" was a deftly crafted thriller about cops and triads infiltrating each other's ranks. It updated John Woo's urban chivalry with less melodrama and more post-Colonial existentialism. And rightly, it was a major commercial and critical success.
With its momentum still strong, co-directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, along with screenwriter Felix Chong, immediately got back to work and turned their story into a trilogy. The first "Infernal Affairs" focused on the yin-yang story of two nemeses forced to stay undercover in each other's world -- an unhappy cop planted inside a criminal gang and a triad mole in the police department who wishes to free himself of his shady side.
With "Infernal Affairs 2", the filmmakers try to top themselves by going the "Godfather" route. That is, they attempt to put the story on a bigger canvas, expanding the scope of the themes and making the narrative more epic. Unfortunately, Mak and Lau aren't Coppola and Puzo. Rather than contextualize the happenings of Part 1, the movie has so many story lines, it simply loses focus.
In essence, it's a prequel to the first film. The two main protagonists are young teenagers here just entering their covert positions, so the drama shifts instead to their superiors in the prime of their career. Eric Tsang is Sam, a middle-level triad guy who has an unusual friendship with Wong (Anthony Wong), a cop on the organized crime unit. Their trust gets severely tested as the pressure of being on opposite sides of the law presses down on them and their associates.
Sam has to contend with power struggles and double-crossing rivals, while Wong fights the urge to break laws to maintain them. The credo "what goes around, comes around" haunts characters like an old score waiting to be settled.
There's great dramatic material here. But alas, the filmmakers try too hard for too much. In striving for grandeur, they drop the ball. The great duality of the two moles in the first movie is now diluted. There are now so many subplots heading in so many directions, any cohesive thematic thread gets lost and tangled.
What does remain is a great sense of fateful melancholy. The acting, for the most part, is powerful and committed. Wong and Tsang are solid Hong Kong performers whose exposure to Western audiences has been limited to minor roles in Jackie Chan (Wong in "The Medallion") and older Wayne Wang (Tsang was in "Eat a Bowl of Tea") movies. Also creating a real presence is another veteran, Francis Ng, as crime kingpin Hau.
However, if you haven't seen the first "Infernal Affairs", you're bound to be confused in the narrative mess. In short, this has the feel of an ambitious but rushed project. The finale of the trilogy comes out in December.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
Media Asia Films presents in association with Raintree Pictures and Eastern Dragon Film a Basic Pictures production
Credits:
Directors: Alan Mak, Andrew Lau
Screenwriters: Alan Mak, Felix Chong
Producer: Andrew Lau
Executive producers: John Chong, Daniel Yun, Ma Baoping
Line producers: Ellen Chang, Lorraine Ho
Original music: Chan Kwong-wing
Directors of photography: Andrew Lau, Ng Man-ching
Production designer: Bill Lui
Editors: Danny Pang, Pang Ching-hei
Costume designer: Silver Cheung
Stunt coordinator: Lee Tat-chiu
Cast:
Inspector Wong: Anthony Wong
Sam: Eric Tsang
Hau: Francis Ng
JP Luk: Hu Jun
Ming: Edison Chen
Yan: Shawn Yue
Keung: Chapman To
Mary: Carina Lau
Uncle John: Liu Kai-chi
Law: Roy Cheung
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/29/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: '2000 AD'
"2000 AD" is the latest film from Hong Kong mini-major Media Asia, which started with Mandarin-language art house movies but now produces high-quality actioners that can perform well at home and travel internationally. The film, which changed from its original title, "Y2K", to avoid postmillennium letdown, closed the recent Udine Festival of Far East Film.
"2000", a story about counter-espionage and computer viruses, is directed by Gordon Chan, an eminently bankable mainstream helmer who alternates glossy action pictures with more personal movies like 1998's feisty caper "Beast Cops". Scripted by Chan and American Stu Zicherman, "2000"'s complicated plot sees three young friends caught up in a criminal attempt to destabilize the world economy by unleashing a menacing computer virus. The film toplines singing and acting superstar Aaron Kwok, who plays a small-time computer whiz kid.
The boxoffice doldrums of the past five years have forced Hong Kong producers to rethink their strategies. During the early '90s, any sketchy star vehicle was sufficient to draw crowds. But nowadays, local producers have realized that they must increase production values to maintain their slipping share of the domestic -- and regional -- market.
While part of the new Media Asia philosophy, demonstrated in last year's "Gen-X Cops", has been to cultivate a roster of younger, cheaper talent, "2000", a co-
production with Singapore's Raintree Pictures, departs from this idea by featuring Kwok -- recognizable in the West for his role in the martial arts fantasy "Stormriders" -- in the leading role. But this doesn't lead to any skimping on the action scenes.
When his brother, a world-class computer programmer with links to the CIA, is murdered, Peter (Kwok) and friends Benny (Media Asia regular Daniel Wu) and Janet (newcomer Gigi Choi) trail the killer to Singapore. Once in the Lion City, the convoluted tale slims down to make room for the action as Peter and company unravel the plot behind the murder.
An opening aerial combat scene is immaculately shot and sets the standard for the quality of action to come. Along with effective pyrotechnics, "2000" features classy stunt driving, passable martial arts and rip-roaring shootouts that make effective use of slow motion and freeze frames. The Hong Kong action sequences have a noticeable edge on those shot in Singapore, probably attributable to a greater familiarity with the terrain back home.
Sadly, the film is hamstrung by a needlessly complex setup that confuses with its plethora of interconnected characters and activities. "2000" would have benefited from a clearer plot line and fewer characters, which would have made the journey from action scene to action scene a much smoother ride.
2000 AD
Media Asia Films/Raintree Pictures
Director: Gordon Chan
Screenwriters: Gordon Chan, Stu Zicherman
Producers: John Chong, Solon So, David Leong, Thomas Chung, Daniel Yun, Willie Chan
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: James Leung
Action coordinator: Yuen Tak
Editor: Chan Ki-hop
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: Bruce Yu
Color/stereo
Cast:
Peter: Aaron Kwok
Benny: Daniel Wu
Janet: Gigi Choi
Ronald: Francis Ng
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"2000", a story about counter-espionage and computer viruses, is directed by Gordon Chan, an eminently bankable mainstream helmer who alternates glossy action pictures with more personal movies like 1998's feisty caper "Beast Cops". Scripted by Chan and American Stu Zicherman, "2000"'s complicated plot sees three young friends caught up in a criminal attempt to destabilize the world economy by unleashing a menacing computer virus. The film toplines singing and acting superstar Aaron Kwok, who plays a small-time computer whiz kid.
The boxoffice doldrums of the past five years have forced Hong Kong producers to rethink their strategies. During the early '90s, any sketchy star vehicle was sufficient to draw crowds. But nowadays, local producers have realized that they must increase production values to maintain their slipping share of the domestic -- and regional -- market.
While part of the new Media Asia philosophy, demonstrated in last year's "Gen-X Cops", has been to cultivate a roster of younger, cheaper talent, "2000", a co-
production with Singapore's Raintree Pictures, departs from this idea by featuring Kwok -- recognizable in the West for his role in the martial arts fantasy "Stormriders" -- in the leading role. But this doesn't lead to any skimping on the action scenes.
When his brother, a world-class computer programmer with links to the CIA, is murdered, Peter (Kwok) and friends Benny (Media Asia regular Daniel Wu) and Janet (newcomer Gigi Choi) trail the killer to Singapore. Once in the Lion City, the convoluted tale slims down to make room for the action as Peter and company unravel the plot behind the murder.
An opening aerial combat scene is immaculately shot and sets the standard for the quality of action to come. Along with effective pyrotechnics, "2000" features classy stunt driving, passable martial arts and rip-roaring shootouts that make effective use of slow motion and freeze frames. The Hong Kong action sequences have a noticeable edge on those shot in Singapore, probably attributable to a greater familiarity with the terrain back home.
Sadly, the film is hamstrung by a needlessly complex setup that confuses with its plethora of interconnected characters and activities. "2000" would have benefited from a clearer plot line and fewer characters, which would have made the journey from action scene to action scene a much smoother ride.
2000 AD
Media Asia Films/Raintree Pictures
Director: Gordon Chan
Screenwriters: Gordon Chan, Stu Zicherman
Producers: John Chong, Solon So, David Leong, Thomas Chung, Daniel Yun, Willie Chan
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: James Leung
Action coordinator: Yuen Tak
Editor: Chan Ki-hop
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: Bruce Yu
Color/stereo
Cast:
Peter: Aaron Kwok
Benny: Daniel Wu
Janet: Gigi Choi
Ronald: Francis Ng
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 6/14/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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