All posts tagged yuan quan

LOST IN RUSSIA (2020) review

Lost in Russia, the latest installment in writer-producer-director-actor Xu Zheng’s franchise of box-office juggernauts (Lost in Thailand was for a while the highest-grossing Chinese title ever with 208 million dollars, with Lost in Hong Kong topping that impressive tally three years later with 254 million dollars) has known a drastically different fate upon its release. It was among the half-dozen high-profile Chinese New Year film releases cancelled due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China. Except while films like Dante Lam’s The Rescue, Chen Sicheng’s Detective Chinatown 3 or Stanley Tong’s Vanguard, among others, are for now biding their time, Lost in Russia was released online for free in the middle of the downcast festivities, as a result of a deal between the film’s studio Huanxi Media, and streaming giant ByteDance.

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THE CAPTAIN (2019) review

In May 2018, on a Sichuan Airlines flight from Chongqing to Lhasa, the cockpit windshield shattered suddenly while the plane was 30,000 feet above the Tibetan Plateau. In the subsequent cabin depressurization, a co-pilot was half-sucked out of the plane and many passengers lost consciousness or succumbed to panic. Yet against all odds, the plane’s pilot (Zhang Hanyu) managed a miraculous emergency landing, with all aboard safe and sound, including the co-pilot. Less than four months later, Andrew Lau was already re-creating these events for the big screen, surely a record when it comes to rushing to cash in on true events.

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by LP Hugo on October 1, 2019 • Permalink

Posted in Film Reviews

Tagged andrew lau, angelababy, chen shu, crystal zhang tian'ai, du jiang, oho ou, yuan quan, zhang hanyu

Posted by LP Hugo on October 1, 2019

https://asianfilmstrike.com/2019/10/01/the-captain-2019-review/

CALL OF HEROES (2016) review

One of our most anticipated films of 2016, Call of Heroes is a neo-western set in China during the Warlords era (beginning of the 20th century). Blood-thirsty, demented Commander Cao (Louis Koo), son of Warlord Cao (Sammo Hung) rides into the village of Pucheng, where he kills three people at random. He’s arrested by sheriff Yang (Lau Chin Wan) and sentenced to death, but his second-in-command Zhang (Wu Jing) soon arrives, issuing an ultimatum to the people of Pucheng: to release Cao or to be massacred. But Sheriff Yang stands by his verdict, helped in the face of growing adversity by a wandering swordsman (Eddie Peng), who once was Zhang’s comrade-in-arms.

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by LP Hugo on January 3, 2017 • Permalink

Posted in Film Reviews

Tagged benny chan, eddie peng, jacky wu jing, lau ching wan, liu kai chi, louis koo, sammo hung kam bo, sammy hung, shi yanneng, yuan quan

Posted by LP Hugo on January 3, 2017

https://asianfilmstrike.com/2017/01/03/call-of-heroes-2016-review/

THE WASTED TIMES (2016) review

Delayed for more than a year for reasons unclear (censorship issues or belabored editing?), Cheng Er’s third film takes place in Shanghai in the thirties and forties -before, during and after the battle and subsequent capture of the city by the Japanese. It follows various characters all connected to Mister Lu (Ge You), a crime boss: there’s his housekeeper (Ni Yan), his superior (Ni Dahong), the prostitute he occasionally visits (Gillian Chung), an actress he admires and helps (Yuan Quan), another actress (Zhang Ziyi) unfaithfully married to his superior, her lover (Wallace Chung), her other lover (Hang Geng), and more importantly Watabe (Tadanobu Asano), a Japanese man who got married and made his life in Shanghai, and claims he will fight for his city rather than side with his countrymen. When Japanese businessmen approach Mister Lu with plans for a lucrative partnership, he refuses ; death ensues.

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by LP Hugo on December 15, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Film Reviews

Tagged cheng er, ge you, gillian chung, han geng, ni dahong, wallace chung, yan ni, yuan quan, zhang ziyi

Posted by LP Hugo on December 15, 2016

https://asianfilmstrike.com/2016/12/15/the-wasted-times-2016-review/