Movie posters designed by artist Huang Hai, including for The Sun Also Rises, Big Fish & Begonia Shoplifters, Dying to Survive, Tai-Chi 0, The Ghouls, My Neighbor Totoro, Ashe is the Purest White Shadow, Hidden Man, The Golden Era, and Massters in the Forbidden City.
Two modern, two ancient, and one in between (sort of.)
Which production (if any) would you guys be interested in a recap of? The options listed in the poll below are mostly movies (Double Exposure, Caught in the Web, Painted Skin II, The Assassins, Tai-Chi Zero…), but if there’s a particular drama you’re interested in, leave a comment and we’ll put that into consideration. (Just note that dramas are a lot more subject to my whims than movies are.) Descriptions of the movies have been added below the poll.
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New steampunk martial arts film trilogy Tai-Chi 0 will be airing in the U.S. in late October. There’s a free screening at the University of Southern California on the 14th. The show opens on October 19th in San Diego, Monterey Park, Sacramento, City of Industry, Hollywood, Irvine , Chicago, Boston, New York, Portland, Seattle ,Houston, and Philadelphia, and on October 26th in Honolulu. Canadian airings are undecided. For more information, check showtimes on the official website here.
Playing “The Freak” in Tai Chi 0(zero, not oh), Yuan Xiaochao is a martial arts master in real life. The multiple world champion is still on the national martial arts team, with a focus on the changquan, or the long fist. Yuan comes from Shandong Yuncheng, one of the most prominent martial arts centers in China and the hometown of Song Jiang and a majority of his Outlaws of the Marshes.
Watch his gorgeous performance below at the Beijing Olympics (performance event). Can you catch which former changquan world champion and current international star is watching?
Tai-Chi Zero (the sequel is Tai Chi Hero) has gotten amazing reviews all around, with Mark Adams of Screen Daily commenting that “Big, bold and glossy and blending comic-book style effects with martial arts mayhem – and with a little steampunk aesthetic thrown in for good measure – Stephen Fung’s enjoyably off-the-wall action film is a real guilty pleasure big screen experience and despite more than a few mis-steps really does deliver,” while Twitch calls it “Playful, exciting and hugely entertaining,” with “the biggest down side to Tai Chi 0 is the inevitable wait for the sequel, a wait that Fung makes all the harder by embedding an absolutely gonzo trailer for the follow up in the closing credits.”
The Huayi-produced movie stars new wushu star Yuan Xiaochao, the Beijing Olympic gold medalist in changquan (performance), as well as an all-star cast of Angelababy, Feng Shaofeng, Tony Leung Kai-fa, Eddie Peng and guest performances from the likes of Daniel Wu and Shu Qi. Continue reading