White Vengeance

[GeneChing]

Trailer out for 'White Vengeance'
2011-10-10 09:35:42

Director Daniel Lee's latest historical movie, "White Vengeance," released its first trailer recently. [Video courtesy of Mtime.com]

This is on my radar because Chan Koon Tai told me he was in it.

[GeneChing]

Follow the link for the vid.

A 2 Minutes Teaser of "White Vengeance"
2011-11-02 13:41:37

Starred by Leon Lai, Zhang Hanyu, Crystal Liu, Fen Shaofeng, Anthony Huang, Jordan Chan and Andy On, director Daniel Lee's imminent costume blockbuster "White Vengeance" released a 2 minutes teaser trailer in the run up of its release at the end of November. The teaser unveiled some behind-the-scene stories of filming the movie. [Video courtesy of mtime.com]

I've been looking forward to something new from Crystal.

[GeneChing]

Follow the link.

Final Trailer of 'White Vengeance' Released
2011-11-16 13:21:26 Chinese Films

The final trailer of director Daniel Lee's latest historical epic movie "White Vengeance" was released. [Video courtesy of mtime.com]

[Hebrew Hammer]

Looks enticing...do we have a release date?

[GeneChing]

Follow the link for more premiere pix.

"White Vengeance" Premieres in Shanghai
2011-11-22 15:18:49 Chinese Films



Yesterday, the production company behind the film "White Vengeance" held a press conference to promote the movie's premiere in Shanghai. Director Daniel Lee, along with lead actors including Leon Lai, Feng Shaofeng, Zhang Hanyu, Liu Yifei , Jordan Chan, Meng Tong-di, Huang Zi-qi, Jia Qing all made an appearance at the publicity event, mtime.com reports.

At the event, lead actors Zhang Hanyu and Leon Lai recited a paragraph written in the style of Hong Kong cult director Wong Kar Wai, eliciting laughs from the audience.

As the film premiered in Beijing, some media reflected that there were wide discrepancies between the plot and the actually historic events. Echoing that opinion, director Daniel Lee said that "the film represents my attitude and perspective of the history, so it will be meaningless if the both are wholly identical."

The film will hit cinemas nationwide on November 29.

[GeneChing]

This thread started with a tip from Chan Koon Tai. He's our cover master for our January/February 2012 issue, available now.

"White Vengeance" Tops Mainland's Box Office with a Cume of 100m RMB
2011-12-07 15:51:47 Chinese Films

(From left to right) Director Daniel Lee, president of Starlight International Media Group Song Guangcheng and producer Zeng Peishan celebrated the success. [Photo: weibo.com]

In its second second week on the screens, director Daniel Lee's historical blockbuster, "White Vengeance," has topped the Chinese Mainland's box office charts, mtime.com reports.

A party was held by the film's production company Starlight International Media yesterday to celebrate its box-office revenue success – a gross of over 100m RMB since it hit national cinemas, November 29th.

Taking 29% of cinema screening schedule timeslots, the "White Vengeance" is being shown on over 11 thousand screens in China. The film's high earnings have put a lot of pressure onto this film's competition for the upcoming New Year holiday.

"White Vengeance" is now going up against Maggie Q's thriller "Priest," Cha Tae-hyun's comedy "Hello Ghost," Ma Liwen's "A Big Deal" and action flick "Cold Steel."

The film recalls the banquet of Hongmen, a well-known event in 206 B.C. where warring general Xiang Yu planned to assassinate his rival Liu Bang.

Zhang Hanyu plays Liu Bang's strategist Zhang Liang, and Anthony Wong portrays strategist Fan Zeng who assists Xiang Yu. These two Qin Dynasty intellects launch into a battle of the wits during the banquet.

Jordan Chan performs as the valiant general Fan Kuai who saves Liu Bang at the banquet. And young actor Andy On plays Han Xin who uses the "ambush from all sides" strategy to force Xiang Yu to commit suicide in the Wujiang River.

By Chen Nan

[doug maverick]

This is on my radar because Chan Koon Tai told me he was in it.

sounds like a movie about the tea party!!!

[GeneChing]

White Vengeance 鴻門宴傳奇
Hong Kong/China
Costume action drama
2011, colour, 2.35:1, 137 mins

Directed by Daniel Lee (李仁港)
White Vengeance

By Derek Elley
Fri, 30 December 2011, 11:50 AM (HKT)

Impressive costume drama about two warring leaders loses the plot halfway. Ancillary beyond Asia.

Story

Shaanxi province, central China, winter, 183 BC. Twelve years after the death of the Han dynasty's first emperor, Liu Bang (Leon Lai), the Grand Tutor (Wu Ma) leads a group of seven young students to the site of a famous meeting in 206 BC - the so-called Feast at Hong Gate - between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu (William Feng), then rival leaders following the collapse of the Qin dynasty. A mysterious figure appears, and tells the story of how Liu Bang and Xiang Yu first met during the period following the death of Qin Shi Huang and the interregnum by King Huai II of Chu (Zhao Huinan). Both agree to overthrow the Qin, but it is Liu Bang who first reaches the capital, Xianyang, along with Xiang Yu's woman, Consort Yu (Crystal Liu), whom Liu Bang has helped protect. In Xianyang, Liu Bang takes on Zhang Liang (Zhang Hanyu), a wily weiqi (Go) player leading a group of six assassins, as his advisor, against the advice of loyalists such as Fan Kuai (Jordan Chan). Zhang Liang advises Liu Bang, who has no ambitions at ultimate power and less forces than Xiang Yu, to stay in the city and win its citizens over to his side. Thinking that Liu Bang has betrayed him, and spurred on by his aged uncle and advisor Fan Zeng (Anthony Wong), Xiang Yu invites Liu Bang to a meeting at Hong Gate. Liu Bang respectfully hands over the imperial seal and says Consort Yu is safe under his protection for the meantime. To resolve the impasse, Zhang Liang challenges the blind Fan Zeng to a game of multiple weiqi on five boards.
Review

Variable Hong Kong director Daniel LEE 李仁港 (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon 三國之見龍卸甲 (2008), 14 Blades 錦衣衛 (2010)) aims high but starts going seriously wobbly from the mid-point with White Vengeance 鴻門宴傳奇, an historical action drama based around rival leaders Liu Bang and Xiang Yu during the so-called Chu-Han Contention period (206-202 BC) that followed the collapse of China's first dynasty, the Qin. The era is favourite fodder for Chinese-language TV dramas and received fine treatment in the 178-minute version of Stephen SHIN 冼杞然's The Great Conqueror's Concubine 西楚霸王 (1994), with ZHANG Fengyi 張豐毅, Ray LUI 呂良偉 and GONG Li 鞏俐. Lee's version attempts to be two films in one, initially centring on the famous Feast at Hong Gate of 206 BC, in which Xiang Yu invited Liu Bang to a banquet at which the latter was almost murdered, and then carrying on for another four years up to the former's eventual defeat and his suicide after the Battle of Gaixia. The result is a dramatic first hour leading up to and including the Hong Gate event, followed by a second hour that lets all the air out of the bag.

The Feast at Hong Gate 鴻門宴 — which has since entered the Chinese language to mean "a treacherous invitation" — is also the subject of LU Chuan 陸川's forthcoming The Last Supper 王的盛宴, with LIU Ye 劉燁 and Daniel WU 吳彥祖. From its Chinese title, Legend of the Feast at Hong Gate, Lee's movie looks like a rival production that got first out of the traps; in fact, once his script gets to the eponymous banquet after almost an hour of atmospheric lead-up, Lee jettisons the well-documented dinner and replaces it with an elaborate game of weiqi (Go) between the two sides that then leads to an outbreak of martial arts. That done, the film has a where-do-we-go-from-here feel, literally losing the plot as it wanders all over the map during the final hour in a story of warfare, betrayal, tragic romance and a lesson on the loneliness of ultimate power.

This wouldn't matter so much if the twin personalities of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were (a) well played and (b) dominated the movie. Unfortunately, Leon LAI 黎明 is wooden as Liu Bang (and hardly the bluff peasant general of history), while William FENG 馮紹峰 is not much more than a long-haired matinee idol as the reputedly clever Xiang Yu. There's no chemistry between the two to build a film on their edgy relationship, and they're outclassed by a strong cast in what should be subsidiary roles. As Liu Bang's wily advisor, China's ZHANG Hanyu 張涵予 (Assembly 集結號 (2007), The Message 風聲 (2009)) acts everyone else off the screen with his usual understated intensity, including a monk-like Anthony WONG 黃秋生 as Xiang Yu's equally wily, blind advisor. There's more chemistry between these two actors than between Lai and Feng, though still not enough to make their later scenes together resonate emotionally.

Other roles, though often well-played individually, also don't cohere into a single drama. As Xiang Yu's consort, Mainland actress Crystal LIU 劉亦菲 largely sits in carriages, plays her pipa, or waits on the sidelines looking beautiful, making the love story a non-starter. Among several characterful supports, Hong Kong's Jordan CHAN 陳小春 has the strongest moments but, again, not enough follow-through in the script to justify his final emotional scene.

On a technical level the movie is classy, with dark cavernous sets designed by Lee himself; ominous, uncolourful costuming by Debby WONG 黃明霞 and Eddie MOK 莫均傑; atmospheric photography by Tony CHEUNG 張東亮, and good battles and action that manage to be visceral without much blood-letting. Henry LAI 黎允文's score is, however, weak.

So...anyone here see this one yet?

[Lucas]

This movie is freaking epic!!! Must see!

Now available on netflix!

Action, props/costumes, acting, story, all top notch!

[GeneChing]

I totally forgot about this but watched it over the weekend because you reminded me.

My review: A medieval sword swinger about the founding emperor of the Han. It's a bit intricate - lots of strategizing and traps of etiquette, plus this metaphor of weiqi (go) between the two main strategists that was cool. Anthony Wong is the blind weiqi master, which he portrays by just squinting - that's sort of lame really. The film also had this nasty tendency to jump forward and backward in time without warning, so it was easy to get lost about whether the narrative was a flashback or the present or what. And it's a tad too long.

But the negative aside, there's some great battle scenes, large scale cavalry charges with lances and archers and bodies flying everywhere, an awesome drunken swordsman who kicks ass and takes names (always a personal fav) and some hardcore warrior acts of sacrifice. Swords, swords, SWORDS! The swords are funky, given that this was like 200 BCE - the blades were all chrome-y with funny patterns like a Transformer sword, but that didn't really matter as the sword fights are a lot of flying about and sufficiently bloody.

It's also gorgeous - massive intricate sets, opulent costumes, panoramic vistas, massive crowd scenes and okay CGI. And it stars two acquaintences NOT AS VILLAINS. Chan Koon Tai doesn't really have any lines and SPOILERcomes to a bitter endEND SPOILER, but it was a good scene. And there's Crystal Liu Yifei as the babe between the warriors. She's the perfect China doll, and has a very juicy role but she doesn't quite live up to it.

Nevertheless, I agree with Lucas. This is pretty epic.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I remember the porno version of this with Peter North.

[SimonM]

This is on Netflix now - it's on my to-watch list. (Possibly when I get bored with the latest TV adaptation of the Book and the Sword)

[SimonM]

The swords are funky, given that this was like 200 BCE - the blades were all chrome-y with funny patterns like a Transformer sword, but that didn't really matter as the sword fights are a lot of flying about and sufficiently bloody.

I'd love to see a film that used swords patterned on the museum pieces from 2200 years ago. There was some beautiful work being done with bronze back then... but I suspect you might need an eye for weapons to appreciate the beauty of the sometimes workmanlike blades.

[bawang]

the only historically accurate movie about warring kingdoms i saw was the emperor and the assassin, but there wasnt that much action scenes.

[PalmStriker]

Watched it the other night. EXCELLENT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JprFP_BHYxs