| Jan 25 2008 |
Dennis Law, the corporate bigwig at Johnnie To's Milkyway Image, the producer of ELECTION and ELECTION 2 and the the director of the Wu Jing vehicle, FATAL CONTACT continues what will certainly come to be known as his "fatal" series with FATAL MOVE. I don't have enormously high hopes for this flick since I didn't really enjoy FATAL COMBAT in the slightest, but the huge ensemble cast of this dark gangster drama actually feels kind of exciting. There's Simon Yam and martial arts legend Sammo Hung in the lead roles, then Danny Lee plays a cop (again) in his first movie in four years. Wu Jing has a part, as does Jackie Chan's bodyguard, the high kicking Ken Lo. Three Milkyway character actors - Wong Tin-lam (Wong Jing's dad), the master of the quiver, Hui Shiu-hung, and Lam Suet - round things out. Also, longtime Milkyway regular Maggie Siu (THE LONGEST NITE, PTU, ELECTION) gets a substantial-looking part as well.
In a promising sign, Easternlight is handling the movie, so we're assured that it'll hit some minimum level of quality. Oh, and the movie is rated Category III, Hong Kong's equivalent of NC-17.
I can predict the future on this one now. A run in Hong Kong where it makes about HK$5 or HK$6 million, followed quickly by a sale to the Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty label and it's out on a two-disc special edition in early 2009. Okay, I'm cheating. That's exactly what happened with Law's FATAL CONTACT.
(Slow-going streaming trailer)
(Easternlight's page on the film, including a confusing plot synopsis)
(Many thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who sent this in)
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In any case, Law is, if I remember correctly, a film school graduate, but I guess it doesn't really help. But as a producer he seems to be successful (and I think he's also into real estate). Now that he's got money to burn, I assume he's just making the action films he's always dreamt of, just like a kid would play with his Transformers figurines. Shit, that must be an awesome feeling.
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