Promo trailer for Jeffrey Lau’s ‘Kung Fu Cyborg’

An English-language promo trailer for upcoming sci-fi martial arts actioner METALLIC ATTRACTION: KUNG FU CYBORG that premiered at Hong Kong’s Film Mart has gone public. It shows off director Jeffrey Lau’s $14.6 million production in only a portion of its crazy magnificence. The promo, originally intended for private screening, displays some footage that is missing final effects application. The English dubbing and voiceover also sounds like it was hastily scrapped together for this screening.

Forget about TRANSFORMERS 2. This looks way more entertaining to me. This is Hong Kong cinema as it should be and I’m talking about the fun, 1980s and ’90s-era genre frenzy that spawned similarly zany films like I LOVE MARIA and THE ICEMAN COMETH. It’s got giant transforming robots, Jacky Wu Jing doing exaggerated wushu as a super-powered cyborg, Law Kar-ying in a tacky wig, and a gonzo title that I positively love. I’m sold.

Described as a sci-fi romantic comedy, the film is Lau’s answer to Hollywood’s superhero genre and it draws heavy inspiration from Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS but adds a measure of oddball comedy and martial arts excellence that Lau produced with KUNG FU HUSTLE.

“When I saw SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN and BATMAN, I wondered why we don’t have similar superheroes in China,” said Lau. “I burst out laughing when watching TRANSFORMERS. The effects were amazing but the robots didn’t know how to fight. So I decided our Chinese superheroes should be kung fu experts.”

A third of the film’s budget was spent on motion capture and CGI technology to produce oversized robots transformed from humanoid automatons. One robot is based off Bruce Lee and another is described as a giant robotic version of “Mr. Vampire” from Ricky Lau’s classic 1985 kung fu-horror comedy starring Lam Ching-ying.

KILL ZONE star Jacky Wu Jing plays a super cyborg named “K-88″ who wields a FINAL FANTASY-sized chopper.

The cast also includes Alex Fong (LEGENDARY ASSASSIN) in what looks to be a very quirky role as a fellow cyborg, Hu Jun (RED CLIFF), Ronald Cheng (FATAL CONTACT), Sun Li (PAINTED SKIN), Law Kar-ying, and Eric Tsang.

The film is scheduled for release this summer, just in time to compete with Hollywood’s mechanized heavyweights TRANSFORMERS 2 and TERMINATOR: SALVATION.

Source: China.org.cn, Wu-Jing.org

Tags: Jeffrey Lau, Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg (2009), upcoming, Videos, Wu Jing