This new movie has a good amount of action, and stars Louis Koo and Daniel Wu. Louis Koo last starred in 2009 movie “Overheard” as well as “Poker King” – 2009. Wu, who co-starred with Koo in the 2009 movie “Overheard”, worked with Yee in the “Shinjuku Incident”. Other members of the cast include former Cantopop girl Charlene Choi (“The Storm Riders 2” – 2009), Li Bingbing (“The Forbidden Kingdom” – 2008), Chapman To (“Rebellion”, 2009), Lik-Sung Fong (“Metallic Attraction: King Fu Cyborg” – 2009) and Kai Chi Liu (“To Live and Die in Mongkok” – 2009).

The movie is all about champion sharpshooter Ken who gets caught in the middle of a armored van heist. After seeing a policeman being held hostage by the robbers, he decides to shoot and is able to take out four of the robbers in the heist. However one of the robbers is able to escape but the policeman is able to survive the incident. The shooting case of Ken is handled by Jerry Chan, whom Ken had earlier beaten in a shooting competition. Ken is found innocent for the incident in court. But soon after, the robber who escaped capture, Pang Tao attacks Ken. Some twists in the story brings to light a multitude of untruths and tricks as well as sudden changes to the way Ken and Jerry treat each other up to a point where each one tries to get one over the other.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The movie is scheduled to grace the big screen on April 29, 2010.

Sources: 24framespersecond.net, Wikipedia.com, and asianmediawiki.com

US born Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu was born and raised in California, the son of an Engineer and a College Professor. His parents are native of Shanghai, China but migrated to the US during the communist take-over of China in 1949. He said he developed an interest in martial arts at the age of 6 after watching Jet Li in “The Shaolin Temple”, thus starting his training in Wushu at age 11. He considers Jackie Chan as his role model and they became close after working on several movies, Jackie Chan considers him as a “son”.

On becoming an actor

Daniel Wu’s entry to the world of entertainment can be considered as an accident. He was in college studying architecture at the University of Oregon and also the founder of the school’s first Wushu club, after graduation he went to Hong Kong to witness the “handover of Hong Kong” without any plan of pursuing a movie career. At his sister’s suggestion he decided to try modeling only a few months later an offer to do a movie came along.

His acting career

He struggled during the early years of his career because of his inability to speak and read Cantonese. Hi first movie was the gay themed Bishonen and this was followed-up with City of Glass for which he was nominated as best actor during the 18^th Hong Kong Film Awards.  He then played a supporting role in Young and Dangerous: The Prequel, from Andy Lau’s series of gangster films. He eventually met Jackie Chan who signed him on his JC Group.

Daniel Wu’s popularity grew fast and he began starring in big budgeted films such as Purple Storm, Naked Weapon, Enter the Phoenix, Around the World in 80 days, New Police Story, The Banquet and recently The Shinjuko Incident again with Jackie Chan.

Other Works

In 2007 he launched the website alivenotdead.com with his friend Terence Yin. In this website he maintains his blog to give is fans some update on his career and personal life.

The nominations for this years Golden Horse Academy Awards have finally been announced.

The awards show is very much Taiwans version of the Oscars, and is regarded by many as one of the most prestigious Asian movie awards around.

China have won the last two ‘Best Film‘ awards (2008 – The WarLords, 2007 – Lust, Caution).

This year China has two entries in the Best Film category – “Cow” and “Crazy Racer”,  but its Taiwans very own ‘No puedo vivir sin ti‘ which is favourite for this award after the films successes at the recent Taipei Film Festival and Japans D-Cinema Festival.

Ang Lee (Lust,Caution) Winning the 2007 Best Film Award

Other notable nominees include Li Bingbing and Zhou Xun both going up against each other for the Best Actress Award from the movie ‘The Message‘,

Daniel Wu (Like a Dream) and Nick Cheung (Beast Stalker) are up for Best Actor, and the fantastic ‘City of Life and Death’ is up for Best Cinematography

Nick Cheung (Best Actor Nominee) - Beast Stalker

Daniel Wu (Best Actor Nominee) - Like a Dream

Nominees for the Major Awards

Best feature film
“No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
“Cow”
“Crazy Racer”
“Face”
“Like a Dream”
Best director
Leon Dai, “No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
Guan Hu “Cow”
Tsai Ming-liang, “Face”
Clara Law, “Like a Dream”

Best actress
Sandrine Pinna, “Yang Yang”
Yolanda Yuan, “Like a Dream”
Zhou Xun, “The Message”
Li Bingbing, “The Message”

Best actor
Chen Wen-pin, “No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
Nick Cheung, “The Beast Stalker”
Huang Bo, “Cow”
Daniel Wu, “Like a Dream”

Best supporting actress
Liou Yiin-shang, “Sleeping with Her”
Lu Yi-ching, “A Place of One’s Own”
Wai Ying-hung “At the End of Daybreak”
Zhang Ziyi, “Forever Enthralled”

Best supporting actress
Cai Zhen-nan, “Ending Cut”
Huang Chien-wei, “Yang Yang”
Zhang Han-yu, “The Equation of Love and Death”
Wang Xueqi, “Forever Enthralled”

The Awards show takes place on 28th November 2009.

Who are your picks to scoop the major prizes this year?

Click here for a full list of nominees

I had heard a lot of talk on the grape-vine regarding The Banquet around the time of its initial release in Hong Kong that it was a very stylish film that despite all its glitz and glamour, lacked the substance underneath to merit it being a essential piece of cinema. This was somewhat disappointing to hear as it decreased my desire to see the film, and Zhang Ziyi was in it, and anything with her should be essential viewing. Well, I finally got hold of the Metrodome UK release many years after all this talk and rumour spreading and I’ve been able to make up my own mind.

First off, the talk was most certainly right in the stylish regards. Every set, every scene, every camera shot or pan looks quite simply superb. This is by far the most impressive aspect of the film. In fact, if anything the film goes too far and becomes too stylish and borders the realms of pompous artistry. Nowhere did I feel this more so than the attack on the Music and Dance school in the first third of the film. Maybe it was how the characters were meant to be, after all they all were supposedly scholars of music and dance, but if I were being attacked by people intent on killing me, I wouldn’t prance around, making deep artistic poses and not defend myself in anyway. With so much arty-ness going on, and it being at the forefront of the film, I feared the film would lose deeper substance and become not much more than a glamour piece that is only skin deep – in other words I feared the rumours and talk was going to be on the money.

Unfortunately, it was. The story was nothing more than a standard tale of murder and revenge, so required something special from the cast to elevate it above the other films in this genre, but rather than powerful, emotional performances, what you mostly got was arty melodrama. Daniel Wu is fairly wooden, with very little emotional range, Ge You is successful as the slimy, smarmy brother who you grow to dislike rather quickly, Zhang Ziyi doesn’t have enough to do other than look conniving and being caught in the midst of all the drama, and the rest of the cast offer nothing much other than standard performances. There is little to make you feel for the characters involved or their situations. The only remaining saving grace for The Banquet is the action.

Alas, it was not up to a great standard either. With Yeun Wo-Ping at the helm, expectations were unsurprisingly high. The action delivers entertainment, but not anything that proved memorable. I wasn’t left grinning like a Cheshire cat while watching fights like I so often have been. I was simply left mildly entertained, but with a hope for better later. Whether this was a constriction from the main director or the people he was choreographing, I don’t know, but it simply wasn’t up to the standards you’d like to see from Yuen Wo Ping.

With so much of an arty feel, The Banquet always had the potential to alienate some viewers and I think I was one of those people. It did not hit home on any level other than visuals, but those went too far. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. With no empathy or sympathy generated for the characters, I got not engage myself with the proceedings on any level and was left with nothing more than an impression that was only skin deep, which is such a shame as there was a lot of potential in the cast and crew.

Rating:

[Rating 1.5/5]

Reposted from Dark Dragon Style

Low’s life is in danger. If he lives he will sell shares and market will plunge and the lives of trio and others will be comprised. The conflict is triangular-money, future and justice. Amidst the chaos Johnny masterminds a plan to kidnap Low. They succeeded in the abduction . But the unexpected happens- the share market plunged again leading to price fluctuations which draws attention from the officials of the economy wing. They aborted the undercover operation under Johnny,s head. Johnny also “overhears” from his bugging device and to his dismay that an investigation has been ordered against the trio. The characters are portrayed by the famous Lau Ching-Wan as Inspector Johnny. Louis Koo as cop Gene Yeung and Daniel Wu as rookie Max Lam. Needless to say all these have fans of their own. They are Asia’s leading male leads and The characters are well depicted in what can be described as a melodrama. The show of money, the greed for it and the poverty stricken police officials trying to come out of the poverty line by encashing their secret information by using badges of police uniform, the conflicts of interests amongst them in a state of crisis, and the brainy inspector’s drawing up a Machiavellian scheme of kidnapping- spices up the film to keep the tempo rising. The cinematography have been well delivered amidst high-rise towers and a threatening bay downwards. All screens are well taken with cinematographic lens always having an eye for minute details. The creation of the character “Boss” is intriguing and add twist to the tale. Overall, Overheard has proved to be a box-office hit in the Asian theatres and is definitely worth going out of your way to check it out. Score: [Rating: 4/5]

Shinjuku Incident combines the elements of a gang thriller and immigrant drama. The plot is focused on a group of  Chinese “Immigrants” (illegal ones) in Japan and their struggle and problems. Throw in Japanese Yakuza, friendship, blood, gang war and you have the making of a violent and gritty film.

The lead cast of Jackie Chan and Daniel Wu reunited on screen for the first time since playing cop and thief in “The New Police Story”. Jackie Chan is Steelhead, who sneaks into Japan as a illegal immigrant to find his lost lover Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Jie (Daniel Wu) and other illegal immigrants from China are there to help Steelhead get settled down in his new life.

However life is rough for them, as they are often forced to take odds job and hide from the police due to their special status. During his shift as a dishwasher in a restaurant with Jie, Steelhead finally sees Xiu Xiu and she is revealed to be the wife of Yakuza leader Mr. Eguchi (Masaya Kato).

Heartbroken, Steelhead decides on a new direction and strives to become a legal citizen of Japan. However Steelhead and his friends are pulled into a increasingly dangerous path of no return.

Review

First of all, this is not the typical Jackie Chan action and comedy film. The story is dark and intense in it’s development with the consequences of crime and violence being a main theme.

For once, Jackie Chan does not play a cop and is incapable of fighting like superman, as he does his best in a more serious and dramatic role. Also included is his character visiting a  hooker and having sex. Some fans may grumble at this new direction while others will applause his evolution and wiliness to explore new grounds.

Daniel Wu easily handles the scope of his role and switches to different aspects of the character easily.  However with his American Born Chinese background, viewers might find it hard to be convinced by his PRC role.

The film explores the theme of human vulnerability as it develops, as the Chinese immigrants get involved in conflicts with both side of the law. Out of necessity and choice, Steelhead and the group get involved in crime for the sake of survival in an difficult environment.

Director Derek Yee (The Protege) smartly crafts moments of shocking violence to stir the audiences emotions and the fates of the characters. However the proper change of tone and overall cohesion of the story fails to be delivered.

The last 30mins  are particularly disappointing as it’s very unneccessarily action packed whilst lacking the emotional climax that the entire film has been building up for and thereby dilutes any insightful messages that the movie was trying to bring across in the first place. So much so that when the final curtain falls you are are greeted with important statistics about immigrants to Japan you are at a point in which you really dont care
Conclusion

Shinjuku Incident comes off as over ambitious, trying to be both a gangland thriller and immigrant drama but fails to score strongly on either.

Perhaps with the right director and a more experienced drama actor, this film would have been more memorable. As it is, Shinjuku is a enjoyable film that hit very hard but lack that something to really deliver the punch.

Score

[Rating:3.5/5] ( Good Effort)