Chin gei bin 2: Fa tou tai kam (2004)

In the mythical land of Huadu, Charcoal Head, a humble boy born to rule an empire must undertake his journey to claim his throne. It is an epic action adventure combining romance, fantasy, comedy and cutting edge Hong Kong style martial artistry.

Directors:

Patrick Leung, Corey Yuen (as Cory Yuen)

Writers:

Kin Chung Chan, Suet Lam

Stars:

Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Ying Qu

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlene Choi	...	13th Master
Gillian Chung	...	Blue Bird
Ying Qu	...	Empress Ya Ge
Jaycee Chan	...	Charcoal Head
Bo-lin Chen	...	Blockhead
Tony Ka Fai Leung	...	Master Blackwood
Edison Chen	...	Peachy
Yueyun Liang	...	Slave buyer
Donnie Yen	...	General Lone
Jackie Chan	...	Lord of Armour Wei Cheng
Mou Kit	...	Slave
Bingbing Fan	...	Red Vulture
Daniel Wu	...	High Priest Wei Liao
Sam Yu-Sum Chan	...	Slave
Xie Jing-Jing	...	Marshall Edo Bowman

Storyline

A cruel empress, a place where men are subservient to women. The empress' reign is disturbed by a prophecy saying a boy will rise to become king, and restore the male regime. Char, a humble boy, is born to be emperor. He and his adopted brother, Leaf, perform in a traveling show run by their adopted father, Blackwood. Thanks to their friend, Lao, the pair receive a stone with a map engraved on it. They set out on a quest for the treasure that the map is supposed to reveal. Two lovely yet lethal female warriors, Blue and Spring, join the boys on their journey. The youngsters encounter various challenges before they meet General Lone, a master swordsman who seeks to overthrow the empire. To do so he must first duel the Lord Of Armour.

---

Plot Keywords:

deception | empress | swordsman | king | female warrior | 

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Twins effect 2 [Hong Kong]

Country:

Hong Kong China

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

12 August 2004 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Blade of Kings

Filming Locations:

Yunnan, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$1,001,044 (Hong Kong), 13 August 2004, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Emperor Classic Films, Shenzhen Film Studio, Union Praise

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie marks the acting debut of Jaycee Chan, Jackie Chan's son.

---

Connections

Follows Chin gei bin (2003)

---

Soundtracks

Love Invincible
Performed by TWINS

User Reviews

Alright if you're a Twins fan

My understanding was that Twins Effect 2 was changed from a proper sequel to the Twins' vampire-busting film to a period film because the (mainland) Chinese authorities wouldn't allow a film to be released that featured "supernatural" elements, such as vampires. I am a bit puzzled now though, because Twins Effect 2 features plenty of supernatural things - no monsters, but lots of magic powers and what-not (and prophecies of destiny etc). It's slightly reminiscent of The Stormriders, but less epic and vastly more juvenile smile.gif

Gillian & Charlene play "Dumbbell Traders" - women who trade in male slaves, in a land ruled by an evil queen where all men are slaves and love is outlawed. Jackie Chan's son and some gawky teenager play two such dumbbells, who come across an artefact that implies one of them might be the true king of the land - thus begins a quest, of sorts, and a love story. Aw, how sweet?

Charlene is in full on sassy mode again, whilst Gillian has the quieter, more serious role (again). The film makes it clear just how much Ah Gil has outgrown Ah Sa in every way - her acting and her appearance are much more mature, and I think the time for the Twins phenomenon must be running out. I think this is the debut film for Jackie Chan's son, and I'm sure nobody is at their best when they're thrust into a leading role for their first performance, but I have to say he comes off especially badly - he has zero acting ability or charisma, and he's sadly inherited his father's looks (but without the talent to compensate). Daniel Wu gives a fairly good performance, and Donnie Yen has presence as a character called "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", but the only really great performance in the film is a hilarious cameo from Leung Ka Fai.

The film does have high production values, with some great sets and costumes, but they're kind of wasted on the juvenile story and direction. There was potentially a great film in here, but not with this cast and crew.

The film does have quite a few fight scenes, choreographed by Donnie Yen I would assume, since they rely heavily on over the top wirework and his personal favourite, digital stuntmen. There are some very innovative wire sequences, but the quality of the computer graphics is very poor, and the digital scenes are very unconvincing and unimpressive. The special effects in this film are actually worse than those in Stormriders. The action scenes also suffer from some major plagiarism - there are lots of moves and shots lifted from any number of Yuen Wo Ping films, which is to be expected from Donnie, but there are also a couple of shots ripped off blatantly from Ryuhei Kitamura's AZUMI. Does he really need to resort to that? Worse still, the highly anticipated Jackie vs Donnie fight is almost a remake of the Donnie vs Jet fight in HERO. How short does he think people's memories are?

All in all, Twins Effect 2 is not a good film - but it has moments that are enjoyable, especially if you think of it as a kid's film, which I guess you have to expect with a vehicle for Twins. Given the time and budget they had for making the film, it's somewhat unforgivable that they didn't do a better job though.