Preview of Dragon Dynasty’s ‘The Rebel’

Last month, The Weinstein Company’s intrepid point man in Asia, Bey Logan, headed to Vietnam to meet up with the producers and stars of THE REBEL in preparation for its North American debut on DVD. In Bey’s blog he provides a colorful, three-part preview of what we can expect.

In a rare occurrence, all three of the martial arts film’s stars were on hand to record not only an audio commentary with Bey but also their own voices for the English-language dub track that will be provided as an option along with the original Vietnamese track. Johnny Nyuyen, Veronica Ngo and Dustin Nguyen all speak English, thus making Bey’s efforts considerably easier.

In part two, Bey reveals that Ngo, who is also a hip-hop star in Vietnam, broke her foot during the production and carried on despite the injury, something that Jackie Chan did while shooting RUMBLE IN THE BRONX many years ago. Its proof positive, along with her incredible screen fighting and acting performance, that Veronica Ngo is destined to make her mark internationally, quite possibly as a screen fighting beauty in the tradition of Michelle Yeoh.

In his final report, Bey assures us that Johnny’s martial arts demonstration skills in real life look even better than onscreen. Johnny brought in his stunt double to perform a demonstration for the Dragon Dynasty crew. This is above and beyond for a DVD label and for movie stars giving up their time for fans.

THE REBEL is one of the hottest martial arts movies to come out of Asia in recent years, while back in Vietnam it’s providing a huge boost to the country’s film industry. Dragon Dynasty looks to be giving it the royal treatment. According to Amazon, it tentatively arrives on DVD on August 26th.