Back in September, rumors spread in the media related to combat cinema about a joint project of such pillars of the genre as Jet Li, Donnie Yen и Jackie Wu Jinga. Now the mysterious project has acquired not only a name, but also “weight”, revealing to us the rest of the film’s cast.
This is a short film called "Guardians of Martial Arts" (Gong Shou Dao) or simply GSD. We already noticed rumors about this mysterious project when disassembled upcoming movies Donnie Yen, but now everything is serious and official.
Gong Shou Dao is a project of a Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma and himself Jet Li, who is one of the producers of the upcoming short film.
The plot of the film is unknown, but the GSD acting ensemble is so cool that it would be suitable for a notable full-length work. In addition to Jack Ma himself, who, it turns out, has been practicing tai chi for a long time, the following people took part in the film: Jet Li ("Kiss of the Dragon") Donnie Yen (Ip Man trilogy), Jackie Wu Jing (dulogy “War of the Wolves”), Sammo Hung ("God of War"), Tony JAA (Ong Bak trilogy), Jackie Hyun ("League of Gods") Natasha Liu Bordizzo (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny”), classics of Chinese cinema - directors Tony Chin (“The Sorcerer and the White Snake”) and Yuen Wu Ping ("Drunken Master") and also a professional boxer Zu Shiming ("Transformers: Age of Extinction") and famous Japanese retired sumo wrestler Asashoryu Akinori.
On its website, which primarily exists for third party projects Jet Li, the former action movie star wrote the following:
All of us [participants in the project] have one goal - to promote the excellent traditions of China associated with Tai Chi, Kung Fu and martial arts in general, and also to pay tribute to our predecessors. [The actors'] schedules seemed to work out perfectly, and everyone involved in this project was enthusiastic to make it happen.
The release of GSD should take place in November 2017 on the Chinese video platform Youku. However, the filmmakers have not yet announced the exact date. Meanwhile, we are really waiting.
45-year-old martial artist and actor Vincent Zhao, who stopped full-time filming back in 2014, appears to be returning to active work. This year Zhao released a historical epic "God of War", where Vincent's on-screen partners were action film legends Sammo Hung and Yasuaki Kurata.
For 2018, Zhao has three interesting projects planned. About one of them, called "Kungfu Alliance", we already wrote. However, it is worth talking about other expected films.
First of all, it’s worth talking about the action movie "Tattoo" (Tattoo), where the Chinese actor will be paired with a French stuntman, actor and parkour icon David Bell (13th District franchise). Nothing is known about the film yet except that its director is listed Lu Yitong ("Lost in Wusun"). Filming began in early October, and the release of the action movie is scheduled for 2018.
The next film has already completed the filming process and is in the post-production stage. The project is called "Cyborg Wong Fei-Hungg" and is a director's work Linya Zhenzhao, who previously worked only with the “cinema for online cinemas” format, having made films such as "Fire for Glory" (2010) "Chinese Superhero" (2015) and "Death Spell Against Sadako" (2016)
Lin's new film is likely to be made specifically for online platforms again. However, the film is produced by Vincent Zhao himself, which may somewhat “raise” the future film about martial arts.
By the way, everything is unclear with the plot again. It is only known that some famous folklore characters in this next film adaptation about the adventures of the Chinese national hero Fong Fei-Hungg will be cyborgs. Very reminiscent of this year's movie "Kung Fu Traveler" starring Tiger Hu Chen.
In addition to Zhao, the film featured: Michael Tong ("God of War"), Wei Ni (“Woman in the Shadows”) and other actors.
Well, so far we only have one shot from the upcoming film. It's interesting that playing Fei-Hungg is nothing new for Vincent Zhao. The actor has already embodied the image of a folk hero on screen in the later parts of the saga "Once Upon a Time in China", succeeding Jet Li in the television series "Real Chinese" (1998), as well as in the film we are waiting for "Kung Fu Alliance".
We can only wait for the trailers of all of the above-mentioned Zhao films and keep our finger on the pulse.
Apparently, in 2018 we will see a film adaptation of the famous computer game "Warriors of the Dynasty" (Dynasty Warriors) Japanese companies Omega Force и Cow. The game was based on the classic Chinese novel by Luo Guangzhong "Three Kingdoms", so there have been rumors about a film adaptation of this game for a long time. Last spring, copyrights were finally settled, and the project went to the Middle Kingdom.
In the director's chair is Roy Chow (“The Making of a Legend”). The cast of the future historical epic includes the following actors: Louis Koo ("Paradox"), Wang Kai ("Railroad Tigers"), Karina Lau (duology “Detective Dee”), Eddie Chun (“Storm Z”) and others.
Nothing more is known about the project, including the plot component. All that remains is to wait.
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Tags: Dynasty Warriors, Unseen Tattoo, The Unity of Heroes, Asashoryu Akinori, Wang Kai, Vincent Zhao, Wei Ni, David Bell, Jack Ma, Jackie Wu, Jackie Hyun, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zu Shinming, Karina Lau, Li Yitong, Lin Zhenzhao, Louis Koo, Michael Toon, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Roy Chow, Sammo Hung, Tony JAA, Tony Chin, Eddie Chun, Yuen Wu-Ping
Tags: Dynasty Warriors, Unseen Tattoo, The Unity of Heroes, Asashoryu Akinori, Wang Kai, Vincent Zhao, Wei Ni, David Bell, Jack Ma, Jackie Wu, Jackie Hyun, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zu Shinming, Karina Lau, Li Yitong, Lin Zhenzhao, Louis Koo, Michael Toon, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Roy Chow, Sammo Hung, Tony JAA, Tony Chin, Eddie Chun, Yuen Wu-Ping
I was amazed by the cast of Guardians of Martial Arts.
Added new posters for "Guardians of Martial Arts".