Jiang Wen has been in the industry for years, first as an actor and starting back in 1994 with the film In the Heat of the Sun as a writer and director. Wen has won the Golden Horse Award for best original screenplay and best director as well as the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film Director.
It would seem like with over 23 years of filmography experience under his belt that Jiang Wen would know what he’s doing. But as always that’s for the viewers to decide and while I can’t say whether or not his newest film Let the Bullets Fly will be worth it or not, I can say that I am sufficiently excited about it not to dismiss it right off. An action comedy, Let the Bullets Fly stars Chow Yun-fat as a triad leader in 1920’s China.
Personally I think it was a fabulous choice to bring in the star of the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon movie and video game. Chow Yun-Fat has been nominated for Best actor over 13 times and best supporting actor twice. So apparently Jiang is pulling out all the stops on this particular project.
Reminiscent of his four other films, Jiang will not only be a director and writer of the script, he’ll also be claiming a role in the production as a bandit. A man who takes control over a remote provincial town under the guise of mayor, taking advantage of the fact that the resident’s spirits are too crushed after years spent in a country torn apart by feuding warlords to fight back.
An $18 million film the movie has some western dueling-at-high-noon elements that will please any lovers of westerns, or just John Wayne for that matter. After nine rewrites and ten various endings, Let the Bullets Fly was finally approved and is scheduled to appear in theaters in the fall of 2010.
