‘The Storm Warriors’ opens, plus preview footage

After nearly four years in the making, the Pang brothers’ fantasy wuxia epic THE STORM WARRIORS rolls into theaters this week throughout Asia and Australia. This sequel to director Andrew Lau’s THE STORM RIDERS, which is adapted from popular Chinese comic book series “Fung Wan,” is Hong Kong’s most ambitious digital effects film to date. The film is the first Chinese production shot entirely against bluescreens, largely in Bangkok, Thailand with the same model of digital, high-definition camera used on Zack Snyder’s 300.

Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng reunite as sword heroes Cloud and Wind to defend China from a Japanese warlord intent on conquering the country.

Co-stars include Simon Yam as Lord Godless, Charlene Choi as Second Dream, Nicholas Tse as Lord Godless’ son Heart, Tang Yan (replacing Shu Qi) as Cloud’s lover Chu Chu, and Kenny Ho as a legendary hero known as Nameless.

Twin directors Danny and Oxide Pang were recently in Malaysia along with Kwok and Cheng to promote the film’s release there. According to Oxide, there was never any question that the two leads would be re-cast in the same roles after 11 years.

“Their portrayal of the characters in the first movie was such a success that we felt no one else could fit into those iconic roles,” said Oxide Pang while speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Both actors were eager to return to the roles despite differences in how the characters behave this time around.

“My character in this one is more mature than the last and the way he looks is also less cartoonish,” said Kwok.

Cheng’s challenge was somewhat different. “My character turns evil. So, I went through three hours of make-up every day to look the part,” he said.

THE STORM WARRIORS opens December 10 in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and elsewhere. Hats off to Vendetta Films for an early acquisition and for pulling off simultaneous screenings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. I can only dream about American distributors taking a similarly timely approach to acquiring and releasing A-list Asian films here.

THE STORM WARRIORS Trailer

THE STORM WARRIORS Music Video

THE STORM WARRIORS Making Of – The Characters

THE STORM WARRIORS Making Of – Swords

THE STORM WARRIORS Making Of – CGI Effects

Correction: Cine Asia is not the Australian’s distributor of THE STORM WARRIORS, Vendetta Films is.