Friday December 4, 2009
Perfect storm
By MICHAEL CHEANG
Moviegoers can expect an effects-laden comic book-like extravaganza in Storm Warriors.
THE storm is finally here. The Storm Warriors are finally thundering into cinemas next week, a full 11 years after Storm Riders, the first movie based on Ma Wing-shing’s best-selling Hong Kong comic Fung Wan (meaning wind cloud in Cantonese).
Main leads Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok, who play Nip Fung (Wind) and Bou Keng Wan (Cloud), respectively, were in Kuala Lumpur alongside Storm Warriors directors Oxide and Danny Pang to launch the movie at Berjaya Times Square, on Tuesday evening.
In a press conference, the directors expressed their relief at finally finishing the movie.
“Although filming only took four-and-a-half months, the whole process (of making this movie) took us almost three years. The special effects alone took us more than a year to complete,” said Oxide, the elder of the Hong Kong-born twin brothers, who are based in Thailand.
Storm Warriors is distinctly different in style from the Andrew Lau-directed Storm Riders (which topped the Hong Kong box office with RM20.5mil back in 1998).
The advancements in filmmaking technology have enabled the Pang brothers to go somewhat wild with the visual effects – the movie relies heavily on blue-screen technology, and was filmed entirely in custom-made sets housed in four large warehouses just outside of Bangkok.
The result is an effects-laden comic-book-like extravaganza rivalling that of 300 and Sin City.
The movie is based on the comic’s pivotal Death Battle story arc, which followed Cloud and Wind’s origin story in the comic (which was used for Storm Riders).
Powerful Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam) has invaded China with his son Heartless (Nicholas Tse).
Kidnapping the emperor himself, Lord Godless seeks a mythical artefact hidden in a Dragon Tomb behind the palace, one that will ensure the downfall of China.
Cloud and Wind have to team up against him with the help of a legendary swordsman, known simply as No Name (Kenny Ho Kar Keng).
Unfortunately, the combined powers of Cloud and Wind are no match for Lord Godless.
In a bid to increase his powers in the fastest possible way, Wind decides to absorb an ancient demonic power that threatens to turn him into an evil, world-breaking demon, resulting in a final battle with Cloud, who tries everything within his power to save his blood brother.
Although the movie stays fairly faithful to the comic book, the overall plot is a lot flimsier.
Where the comic took almost 20 issues to reach the conclusion of Wind and Cloud’s ultimate battle, the movie takes a much faster route at the expense of several key elements in the comic’s story.
According to Danny, the changes in the story were necessary to streamline the plot of the movie.
“The fans and moviegoers don’t want to watch a Fung Wan movie about the main characters falling in love. They want action and lots of fighting, and that’s what we gave them,” he said.
“True, we had to sacrifice a lot of character development and background to accommodate that. But we’re making Storm Warriors, not Wind and Cloud’s Everlasting Love Affairs.”
Ultimately, both brothers admitted that it would be hard to appease both the casual moviegoers and the comic book fans at the same time.
But at least they have the approval of the creator of Fung Wan himself.
“Ma was so pleased with the movie that he will be publishing a six-issue Fung Wan comic book entirely based on the movie, which he will be writing and drawing himself,” said Oxide.
The Pang brothers’ previous films include the acclaimed horror movie, The Eye, and hit Thai crime thriller Bangkok Dangerous, both of which spawned Hollywood remakes (the latter was directed by the Pangs themselves).
According to them, there was never a question of Kwok and Cheng reprising their roles, despite the 11-year lapse between the two movies.
“Their portrayal of the characters in the first movie was such a success that we felt no one else could fit into those iconic roles,” Oxide said.
Cheng and Kwok were happy to reprise their roles, though they agreed that their roles this time were vastly different. Cheng in particular had to spend more time in the makeup room in order to look the part of a demon warrior.
“My character turns evil in the movie, and I had to go through about three hours of makeup everyday so I could look the part,” Cheng said. “I had also gained a lot of weight on a previous movie (before Storm Warriors), so I had to work out intensively to get back into shape.”
“My character in this movie is more mature than the last, and the way he looks is also less cartoonish,” said Kwok, who injured himself several times during the shoot.
“Once, when we were filming a scene with explosives, I was hit by a nail in the arm. I felt like being hit by a bullet,” he recalled.
“Luckily, the doctor said that it was only a surface wound, and I could resume filming.
“We suffered a lot of injuries (during the shoot), but to me, it was all worth it.”
While the response towards the movie has been generally positive so far, the Pang brothers will be sitting back to see how it performs at the box office before committing to making another Fung Wan movie.
“We (the directors and producers) have put all our money and faith into this movie. As of now, we have not decided whether we will be making another one, but if this one does well, then the chances would be quite high,” said Danny.
“One thing is for sure though, if we do decide to make a third movie, the fans won’t have to wait another 11 years for it!”
Storm Warriors is distributed by GSC Cinemas and opens on Dec 10.
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Originally Posted by GeneChing
