We brought you the teaser trailer all the way back in June 2010 and now we have the full trailer for your enjoyment. There is (thankfully) a good deal more in the way of plot points in this new trailer, unfolding for us as it does this tale of a masked crime-fighter taking on organised crime in a Japan-occupied Shanghai in the 1920’s. There is also, much more to the point, loads more along the lines of Donnie Yen kicking people, which can only be a good thing; after all, they are baddies.
As the trailer below says, this is due for a theatrical release in the US in April 2011, having apparently already enjoyed a UK release in December 2010. Must have missed that one, then. Badass Digest describe the film as an “avalanche of ass-kicking”, while Cinematical say it is “fresh, exciting and original”. Depending on what you’re looking for, I suppose either one of those might prompt you to seek it out. Personally, I think it looks outstanding, with some genuinely impressive stunt and fight work and a real sense of imagination applied to the sequences on show here.
It’s pretty weak to be honest. Ip Man and Ip Man 2 are far better.
Agreed, it’s not worth getting excited about. I saw it in Hong Kong last year, and though it has a couple of good moments (Donnie Yen’s first appearance in costume is a great entrance), the fight scenes are too choppily edited to be very exciting. And Shu Qi is wasted, playing exactly the same showgirl role she played in Blood Brothers a couple of years ago (and anyone who knows the slightest bit of Mandarin can spot the mistranslation in the subtitle for her final line in the trailer – she says an ironic “thankyou”, not “Who are you?”).
Donnie Yen has taken full advantage of the gaps in the martial arts market that is being opened up by Jackie Chan and Jet Li lining their nests for retirement, but he’ll need a better director than this to do him justice. He could also lay off make-up a little, but that’s another matter.