The sequel to hit Hong Kong period action film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” will start shooting in March next year, revealed its director Soi Cheang at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Speaking at a Q&A session for a screening of the first movie, Cheang also mentioned that the prequel will be shot immediately after, although the producers have not determined the release dates for either. Both prequel and sequel will be based on the novel “City Of Darkness” by Yuyi.
“Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” grossed some $111 million on a $39 million budget, a critical and commercial hit for a Hong Kong cinema industry that has seen little of either in recent years. The film followed Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam), a mainland refugee trying to pay his way to a fake ID by winning bare-knuckle brawls. When he ends up double crossed by remorseless triad leader Mr. Big (Sammo Hung), the desperate outsider steals a satchel of the head honcho’s cocaine and makes a run for Hong Kong’s Walled City, a darkened citadel, hostile to anyone who approaches. Lok-kwun may be safe from Mr. Big’s cronies, who know better than to step into enemy territory, but he soon has to deal with the city’s own martial law, courtesy of the enigmatic crime boss Cyclone (Louis Koo),
Cheang’s own critical and commercial hits (and misses) were also up for discussion in the freewheeling discussion on his career, as were his experiences with mentors like Hong Kong luminary Johnnie To, who gave him his first directorial starts under his Milkyway Image banner, with films like the 2012 car chase action film “Motorway.”
“’Motorway’ was another disaster of mine.” said Cheang. “It was the first time I had shot a racing film, and I had no budget to shoot the cars going fast. When I saw the assembly cut, my first reaction was to smash the television.”
“I had to go back and ask Mr. To for money to do reshoots. I asked for 16 days of reshoots. At the end of the day, he used his own money to help fund the reshoots, so that I could recover the movie.”
The director was surprisingly candid about other ups and downs of his career, and how he retreated to his indie roots after experiences with big budget filmmaking, such as the three-film, 3D fantasy series, “The Monkey King,” starring Donnie Yen.
“The “Monkey King” [movie series] helped me in my career, perhaps not creatively, it didn’t have a great impact on my creativity, but it gave me the experience of working on a large scale film, with personnel from all around the world,” said Cheang. “But by the end of the experience I was feeling very lost, and that’s why I went back to shoot ‘Limbo,’ a more personal film.”
“When you make a personal film, you end up slowly rediscovering the reasons why you started making films in the first place.”
