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Oh my gods, I need The Furious injected into my eyeballs, right, freaking now! Already one of my most anticipated films of 2025 the Pan-Asian action film, directed by Kenji Tanigaki and produced by the legendary Bill Kong, recently wrapped up production in Thailand. Two first look photos went out today in the trades this morning and we can share them with you now.    (The Furious) follows a simple tradesman (portrayed by mainland Chinese star Xie Miao) who fights his way through a complex web of criminals and evil agents in a frantic attempt to win back his kidnapped daughter by any means necessary.   There were two seperate articles in Variety today, one a set visit, the other the official announcement. I love...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Japanese director Tanigaki Kenji has completed production in Bangkok, Thailand, on his upcoming film “The Furious,” intended as an elite-level Asian martial arts actioner.

Written by Mak Tin Shu, the film follows a simple tradesman (portrayed by mainland Chinese star Xie Miao) who fights his way through a complex web of criminals and evil agents in a frantic attempt to win back his kidnapped daughter by any means necessary.

(For full Bangkok set report see here.)

Produced by the region’s top producer Bill Kong, Frank Hui and Shan Tam, the film features a pan-Asian cast that also includes Indonesian’s Joe Taslim, Thai star Jeeja Yanin (“Chocolate”), Yang Enyu, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga and Yayan Ruhian.

Michael J. Werner, former principal at Fortissimo Films, joins Todd Brown and Aram Tertzakian of XYZ Films as an executive producer.

Kong’s Edko Films is financing the movie and will distribute in Hong Kong,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.FESTIVALSMay Days.As many as 200 French film festival workers plan to stage labor actions during Cannes, citing insufficient pay and the exclusion of many festival staff from unemployment benefits when they are not under contract. The movement is being organized under the banner of Sous Les Écrans La Dèche: Collectif Des Précaires Des Festivals De Cinéma.A new report outlines the institutional dysfunction at the Toronto International Film Festival, which recently lost the support of the telecommunications company Bell as its major sponsor. Citing a desire for “greater accessibility,” Slamdance Film Festival will relocate from Park City, Ut, to Los Angeles in 2025.NEWSHarlan County, U.S.A..Now that all thirteen IATSE locals have reached tentative agreements with the AMPTP,...

A surprise hit after its release on various streaming platforms, director and writer Yang's short online wuxia film “Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman” (2023) starring Xie Miao as the protagonist went on to generate a fair amount of attention both in Mainland China and overseas. Therefore it is inevitable that a sequel soon follows with both Yang and Xie returning. Though scheduled for a wilder cinema release, the much anticipated and a longer follow-up still ended up streaming on iQIYI.

Watch Eye for An Eye 2 on iQIYI

This second installment kicks off in Youzhou during the Tang Dynasty. Believing that five fugitives are hiding in a gambling den, blind swordsman Cheng Xia Zi shows up to arrest them. Naturally, they try to fight their way out but of course they are no match for the lethal bounty hunter. Apparently, Cheng is trying to make as much money as...

Yesterday Variety broke news that legendary Hong Kong producer Bill Kong has started production on a new action film called The Furious in Bangkok, Thailand, and he's enlisted the help of some of Asia's leading action talent. Like, the best of the best. The Furious will be directed by Japanese stunt director and action choreographer Tanigaki Kenji. His Pan-Asian cast includes former Chinese child actor and action star Xie Miao, Indonesia’s Joe Taslim (The Raid: Redemption), Thailand’s Jeeja Yanin (Chocolate), Yang Enyu and Indonesia’s Yayan Ruhian (The Raid: Redmeption). That's a lot of heavy hitters. Here's the scoop from Variety, of what to expect...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Bill Kong is cautious, vastly experienced and has an impeccable reputation as a key gateway between Hollywood and China to maintain. He is someone far more likely to deadpan than gush.

So, to hear him getting into high gear with a pitch for his bucket list martial arts movie project “The Furious” immediately invites comparison with previous Kong-produced action pictures including Oscar-winner “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Jet Li’s Fearless” or the Zhang Yimou-directed “Hero.”

“I’m going to do an action movie that rocks the world. And to prove that Hong Kong still has something to give the film industry. I want to show that Asian people can still make an action movie that is better than the rest of the world,” Kong tells Variety.

Significantly, “The Furious” is a project made by Hong Kong, rather than made in Hong Kong. Kong’s Edko Films is financing and producing.

The Action Scene is a column that explores the construction of action set pieces in order to deepen appreciation for and spark discussion about action cinema.The following column examines my fifteen favorite action scenes of 2023. In their variety, virtuosity, and visceral power, they embody the vibrancy of contemporary action cinema. Like last year’s roundup, the focus is on action scenes—relatively sustained, heightened, self-contained expressions of action filmmaking craft—so some otherwise strong action films didn’t make the cut, and not all of the films featured here are necessarily compelling beyond their set pieces. All included films made their official, non-festival, US theatrical and/or streaming debut in 2023. For the sake of variety, I’ve limited myself to one scene per film.And now, on to the action. As with previous years, these scenes have been grouped by theme to foreground patterns and enhance ease of perusal.

Martial cinema has always been an equal opportunity domain. We have One Armed Swordsmen, The Crippled Avengers and fittingly here a history of Blind Swordsmen exemplified by the Zatoichi series. These individuals would all have exceptional skill to make up for their disability and give countless opportunities for scriptwriters to create ingenious ways to put them in danger. As Well Go USA release “Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman onto Blu Ray, it's an opportunity to observe how the latest incarnation sits among his peers.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Blind Cheng (Xie Miao) is a Ghost Killer for Dali Temple, a bounty hunter returning with his latest capture. On route, he smells freshly made wine made by Ni Yan (Weiman Gao) for her wedding day. Invited to attend, he witnesses the arrival of her brother Ni Jun, then falls asleep by his horse.

Miao Xie as Cheng in Eye For An Eye: Blind Swordsman (Mu Zhong Wu Ren). Courtesy of WellGoUSA

Chinese martial arts films have a long tradition of including quite an array of masterful fighters with significant disabilities. Many of them feature a hero who is blind, deaf, missing an arm, etc. yet still able to defeat whatever evil being or force must be eliminated for the common good. That usually yields a bunch of intricately choreographed battles – one-on-ones with the worst, often preceded by dispatching hordes of underlings and anonymous minions.

Eye For An Eye: Blind Swordsman (Mu Zhong Wu Ren) follows the pattern in a relatively low-key production set in the distant (pre-firearms) past. Cheng (Miao Xie) has the unlikely job of itinerant bounty hunter for the government. He’s very good at it, of course, despite his lack of sight. The film opens in a gambling den. We...

The mid-nineties were a period of transition for Jet Li. Having made his name in period martial arts pieces during the aftermath of the new wave, the saturation point had been reached and stepping into the modern action movie was inevitable. Initial forays had been limited in their success (Dragon Fight & The Master) and it wasn't until the shameless “The Bodyguard” rip-off “Bodyguard from Beijing” in 1994 that he began to get accepted in this genre. “The Enforcer” to give “My Father is a Hero” its generic western release title was a reunion of star and director, only this time with added familial drama with a script co-written by Wong Jing. As Eureka Entertainment releases its “Heroes and Villain's” box set, it's time to revisit this transitional period of the star and see how it holds up today.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Undercover cop...

A horde of ravenous, bloodthirsty tigers will be attacking Chinese theaters in the upcoming Mutant Tigers (aka Crazy Tiger City), and the trailer has just been unleashed this week.

Watch the wild official trailer below, loaded with tiger carnage… and zombies?!

Mutant Tigers was directed by Liu Wenpu, and written by Yang Bingjia.

“In the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the eunuchs were in power. The master of Fangshu was the first factory master of the flattery supervisor, and proposed to use the “living tiger heart” to make alchemy to “strengthen the yang and regenerate”. Therefore, Dongchang established a “Sili Hunting Ground” in the southwestern border town where tigers are infested to hunt tigers for refining. But I didn’t expect that this move made the strange virus enter the tiger’s body, made the tiger go mad, and formed a plague that spread rapidly.

“At this time,...

The saga of Ip Man has turned out to be a never ending one, with the adventures of Bruce Lee’s sifu having reached their tenth entry, not to mention that the tendency has already started being called Ipsploitation. This time the role of the iconic Wing Chun master is handled by Miu Tse, a rising wing chun specialist himself. Let us see how he fares.

on Amazon

A young Master Ip visits Hong Kong from Fosshan in the 30s, being quite cocky and sure of himself at the time, in contrast to the noble and utterly virtuous man he became later. Upon his arrival, he stumbles upon a kidnapping effort of a woman by a series of Chinese men inside a bus. Ip Man prevents them and beats them up, which results in him meeting the girl’s brother, Hu Bufeng, a man who works as a coolie,...

The Action-Packed Martial Arts Drama IP Man: The Awakening Debuts Exclusively on the Streaming Service Hi-yah! May 20 Before Hitting Digital, Blu-ray & DVD June 21st.

Read the review from Mark Glass Here. Glass says, “Miu Tse should be a rising star with a bright future.”

Check out the trailer:

While visiting Hong Kong, a young Master Ip intervenes in a kidnapping attempt, unintentionally igniting a turf war with a ruthless human trafficking ring in action-packed martial arts drama IP Man: The Awakening,debuted May 20 exclusively on the martial arts streaming service Hi-yah! before hitting Digital, Blu-ray and DVD June 21 from Well Go USA Entertainment. When the ruthless gang kidnaps one of Ip Man’s close friends, he is forced to face the group’s brutal boxing champion head-on. Co-directed by Li Xi Jie and Zhang Zhu Lin, IP Man: The Awakening stars the rising wing chun martial arts master Miu Tse...

Ip Man (Miu Tse), right, fights an adversary in IP Man: The Awakening. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

Ip Man is a historic Chinese martial arts master who inspired a nation in his era, and a raft of movies ever since. Most memorable for Western viewers would be the four films starring Donnie Yen from 2008-2019. Besides being an accomplished fighter and actor, Yen achieved the rare feat of making all four of these films excellent, without the usual sequel drop-off. Well, to be honest, the third had a bit of a quality dip, before rallying for number four, which was arguably the best of the quartet.

Even though the last of these was titled IP Man: The Finale, that qualifier only applied to Yen, not his character. Apparently, the Marvel Universe isn’t the only place one can blow right past what sounds like a series-ending name. Did...

Ip Man: The Awakening Trailer — Li Xi Jie and Zhang Zhu Lin‘s Ip Man: The Awakening (2021) movie trailer has been released by Well Go USA Entertainment. The Ip Man: The Awakening trailer stars Miu Tse, Guanying Chen, Hua Qi Long, Zhao Yu Xuan, and Hao Yan Fei. Crew Fang Lan and Liu Bayin wrote [...]

Continue reading: IP Man: The Awakening (2021) Movie Trailer: Miu Tse Fights to Save the Life of His Friend...

"I've heard that you're quite the fighter." Well Go USA has revealed a new official US trailer for another new Ip Man movie - this one called Ip Man: The Awakening. It already opened in China & Hong Kong last year, and is available to watch on streaming from the Hi-Yah! service right now in the US. This one stars a new Ip Man - actor Miu Tse. While visiting Hong Kong, the young Master Ip intervenes in a kidnapping attempt, unintentionally igniting a turf war with a ruthless human trafficking ring. In retaliation, the gang kidnaps one of Ip Man's close friends, leaving him with no choice but to challenge the group's notoriously brutal boxing champion head-on. The cast also includes Guanying Chen, Hua Qi Long, Zhao Yu Xuan, and Hao Yan Fei. This definitely doesn't look like it has the same filmmaking artistry as the last few Ip...

Stuck on ideas how to win over the heart of that special girl. You’ve tried everything. Flowers. Candy. Jewelery. Puppies. Nothing seems to work. Ever give any thought to Kung Fu?

No, I’m not talking about round-housing her and taking her back to mom’s for formal introductions. I’m talking about winning a martial arts competition so you can take part in a martial arts performance at an Olympic games just to impress the girl you love, who just happens to be a national sprinter. I kid you not, that is the premise for the upcoming martial arts flick Champions. How wonderfully absurd does that sound? Delicious I say.

Champions is about an underdog wushu athlete played by Dicky Cheung who takes part in a martial arts tournament in order represent China in a martial arts performance at an Olympic Games so as to win the heart of a national sprinter,...