New untitled Dante Lam film

[DiP]

It could either be the long-awaited crime thriller Wanted Criminals (Tung Chap Faan in Cantonese) starring Lau Ching-Wan; Francis Ng; Anthony Wong; Nick Cheung, or the action thriller with Donnie Yen.

http://www.chinesefilms.cn/141/2012/04/27/141s9099.htm

[Yakuza954]

Hopefully he tones things down a bit in his next film. Viral factor just had too many things going on for its own good. People complained about the lack of action in his two films prior (I was one of those), but while Viral Factor met the desired action quota, it was an utter mess. Just too many production companies, too many filming locations, and too many actors from different countries speaking different languages. It was like Fulltime Killer, but minus all the cool stuff that made that film memorable. Dante Lam's films have never been especially good on the action front anyway, but they usually came correct in other stuff like story, acting, and camera work... but man, Viral Factor felt like a cross between a Jean Claude Van Damme DTV and a Taiwanese soap opera.

Well that's my rant, but I just had high expecations for a film that had Dante Lam + a high budget + Nicholas Tse. Guess that's what happens when your funds come from like 5 different countries and you end up making a film that has to satisfy all the parties involved (China, HK, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc).

[DiP]

Couldn't agree more. I think he's at his best working on small-scale films like Beast Cops, Jiang Hu - The Triad Zone and The Beast Stalker. If the studios (something unlikely for Lam at this stage, it seems) could give him more freedom and space of creativity, he could bring out his real visions clearly and better.

[Sheng]

Originally Posted by Yakuza954

Viral factor just had too many things going on for its own good. People complained about the lack of action in his two films prior (I was one of those), but while Viral Factor met the desired action quota, it was an utter mess.

Say what??? I thought the action quota was sufficient and what there was was inventively staged and perfectly timed in FIRE OF CONSCIENCE and STOOL PIDGEON, the latter being my favourite film in 2010. THE VIRAL FACTOR is all action and amped up melodrama, aiight, but a mess it certainly ain’t! The admittedly paper-thin plot somewhat reminded me of PURPLE STORM (thankfully without the CGI cheesiness that plagued Teddy Chen’s flick in the final reel) and generally the film relies so heavily on contrivances and coincidences that it becomes almost cartoonish and at times is in danger to derail. Plus the mix of languages or rather characters speaking to each other in two different languages is really puzzling and very, very distracting (Dante mentioned that after the exhaustions of the project everyone involved fled from the set! Maybe to call ‘em back to post-sync part of their dialogues would have been asking too much after this long drag…)

BUT… the camerawork, the fluidity of the editing, the choice of locations, the shootouts and car stunts make this a SPECTACLE worth watching (and the truly fabulous HK Blu Ray worth buying!). I think there is nobody – and I really mean nobody!! – that stages gunfights as creatively as Dante Lam and Chin Kar Lok nowadays do! When it comes to the action sequences my only reservation being that some of the fistfights weren’t so terribly convincing and appeared too chopped up, mainly to mask Jay Chou’s deficits as an “action actor” (he frankly talks about it in the “Making Of” feature). Wished the man would have been doubled more often because his character as a presumably super-drilled Special Force member simply demanded more physical presence.

[mark187]

looking forward to more from Dante Lam, this is great news. it does say crime thriller, so maybe it is the one he had planned with Nick Cheung and the others? if Donnie does decide to do an action film with Dante Lam though, that could end up being truly awesome!

[DiP]

Donnie will shoot the Iceman Cometh remake after wrapping Special Identity so that's unlikely. But then again, there's news that the remake is running into financial and script problems which means that shooting is postponed till August. There's even a rumor that due to all this, the project might get scrapped.

http://hktopten.blogspot.se/2012/04/20120408-more-rumored-trouble-for.html

[Yakuza954]

To tell the truth, I didn't find anything special about any of the camerawork, locations, or shootouts in The Viral Factor. None of it has stuck in my mind, and were it not for the Malaysian setting and Asian actors, I would have a hard time differentiating it from any generic Hollywood action movie. Could you point me to one of the gunfights that caught your eye in the Viral Factor? I would gladly do a double take to see if I missed something. I was genuinely impressed by a couple of the the car stunts, however. But what do you expect? Nicholas Tse was even paralyzed for a few seconds after performing one of them.

As for Jay Chou being one of the reasons for the film's poor action choreography, I would buy it under most circumstances, but this is the HK film industry we're talking about. This is an industry that built itself on being able to make any random janitor look like a bonafide action star on screen. Yuen Woo Ping made Jay Chou look like a martial arts master in True Legend, and that was pure fisticuffs. Chow Yun Fat has the athleticism of a golf player, yet his resume is full of action classics. Back in 2000, Tsui Hark took a cast of only pop stars and churned out Time and Tide; granted, we've since come to find out that Nicholas Tse is certified batshit and has a knack for the martial arts, but back in 2000, he was little more than a pop star.

Dante Lam is a good director, but if his action choreography (particularly, gunplay) is considered the best in HK at the moment, that's more of a testament to the weakened state of the HK film industry than anything else. Take his contemporaries in the Korean film industry for example. Na Hong-Jin's every bit the director Dante Lam is, yet he is still a relative unknown in Korea, stuck in the shadows of the Kim Ji woon's, Chan Wook Park's, and Bong Joon-Ho's. Hell, in 2008, I thought his Chaser outdid Dante's Beast Stalker, and he followed it up with an even better film in The Yellow Sea. For a more extreme example, there's Lee Jeong-beom. Who? I had to look his name up myself. He was the director of the Man From Nowhere, a film so full of action and melodrama that it makes the Viral Factor look restrained in comparison. But man oh man, when the action comes in that film, it takes no prisoners. And all of it with Won Bin as the lead: a guy mostly known in Korea for being a pretty boy.

[Sheng]

Originally Posted by Yakuza954

Could you point me to one of the gunfights that caught your eye in the Viral Factor?

Well, I thought the opening kidnap shootout was ferocious, nailed me into my seat and catapulted me right into the story. Some of the chase scenes in KL were impressively intense as well. Which had a lot to do with the actors he used (well, maybe he actually underused the talents of some!) performing their parts so well. Hell, Liu Kai-Chi has really developed into one of my favourite character actors! And his role was a rather restricted one here.

On a whole I took THE VIRAL VACTOR as a sort of big-budget and also very China-friendly blow-out for Dante, all smoking spectacle and overwrought drama, but not much else. The film could rely on a five times higher budget than STOOL PIDGEON (for which he just had a lil’ over four million bucks at his disposal), but its simply not in the same league.

I would gladly do a double take to see if I missed something. I was genuinely impressed by a couple of the the car stunts, however. But what do you expect? Nicholas Tse was even paralyzed for a few seconds after performing one of them.

Dante Lam’s car stunts are always spectacular, think BEAST STALKER or SNIPER for instance. Also the creative way he uses explosives…. I mean, I will never forget the moment when Wang Bao Qiang was blown into a million pieces in FIRE OF CONSCIENCE!

Yuen Woo Ping made Jay Chou look like a martial arts master in True Legend, and that was pure fisticuffs.

You really think so? I hated this scene, it felt like a comic strip interlude and was the biggest spoiler in the movie to me.

For whatever reasons Jay Chou just wasn’t made looking convincing in THE VIRAL FACTOR. But his apparent weakness in the hand-to-hand combat sequences didn’t ruin the entire action choreography here, I never said that. Still, when you’re acting in the company of serious MA practitioners like Tse Ting Fung and On Chi Kit your own physical deficits become all the more glaring. Wonder why Kar-Lok couldn't provide the right double for the man?

Take his contemporaries in the Korean film industry for example. Na Hong-Jin's every bit the director Dante Lam is, yet he is still a relative unknown in Korea, stuck in the shadows of the Kim Ji woon's, Chan Wook Park's, and Bong Joon-Ho's. Hell, in 2008, I thought his Chaser outdid Dante's Beast Stalker, and he followed it up with an even better film in The Yellow Sea. For a more extreme example, there's Lee Jeong-beom. Who? I had to look his name up myself. He was the director of the Man From Nowhere, a film so full of action and melodrama that it makes the Viral Factor look restrained in comparison. But man oh man, when the action comes in that film, it takes no prisoners. And all of it with Won Bin as the lead: a guy mostly known in Korea for being a pretty boy.

Hmm, when it comes to new Korean stuff I gotta admit that I’ve to do some serious catching-up. I’m aware that their stuntmen and their action designs are world-class by now… its just that I’ve never really been blown away by the charisma of their actors. Ain’t seen no Korean who could hold a candle to a Leung Chiu Wai or Leung Ka-Fai, a Lau Tak Wah, a Lau Ching Wan, a CYF, an Anthony Wong or a Simon Yam… But that might also be explained with plain ol’ familiarity and underexposure to K-cinema on my part.

[mark187]

http://hktopten.blogspot.com/2012/06/20120619-tsui-harks-new-film-receives.html

the untitled Dante Lam film is now going by the title Moscow Mission, and will be produced by Derek Yee. First, Lam will shoot another picture for Emperor starring Nick Cheung this fall!