Iceman (2014)

[Beat TG]

Trailer to the remake of Clarence Fok's action classic The Iceman Cometh. The movie is helmed by Law Wing Cheong (Running Out of Time 2, Punished) and stars Donnie Yen, Wang Baoqiang (The Assembly), Eva Huang (Kung Fu Hustle), Yu Kang (Dragon Tiger Gate, Wu Xia), Lo Hoi-Pang (Sparrow, Life Without Principle), and Simon Yam. Release date is somewhere in Spring 2014.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQbpot6v7NQ

[grim_tales]

Looks quite good

[Beat TG]

New teaser trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDz3hFBqm4w

[Beat TG]

Music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Q9-H3IDbc

[Beat TG]

New trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtFEk3P-gqQ

[Beat TG]

BTS footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XaDhZus9lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC4Z9MCSzmk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlMwIVOnBc

[RetroRobot]

I don't always agree with Sean, but most of the time.... so I doubt im gonna bother with this. Here's his review.... it's not pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg2Kxo3ZrTk

[Beat TG]

Nowadays, I just use other people's reviews as a basis to compare with my own judgment and see if I agree with points made or not.

Donnie's last two films before Iceman got pretty harsh reviews but they didn't turn out to be so bad like they were made out to be. Special ID is like Tiger Cage 2 to me (action meets comedy and drama) and The Monkey King (best acting performance from Donnie to date, proof that he can act) was lots of fun for a film meant for children.

[RetroRobot]

I usually don't go by reviews either, more my own gut feeling. But with modern HK films, whenever someone mentions mainland pandering... or more accurately, mainland cocksmoking, I just pretty much give up beforehand, cuz I fucking hate that shit. Especially if a HK film is being self depracating to please the mainland market, which Sean mentions here.... that shit just makes me wanna vomit. I could barely get through CZ12, and haven't even bothered with Special ID. I feel that my longtime love affair with HK cinema is nearing the end, and that makes me more sad than I like to admit. Thankfully there are still tons of older flicks I haven't seen, so that's a bit consoling, but still.

[Beat TG]

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. While I don't mind today's co-productions and can enjoy them as much as the old classics from the 80s and 90s, I would much rather watch true Hong Kong films because they are more liberal in terms of creativity. It's safe to say that most co-productions have to accommodate to the Mainland market by changing or cutting out crucial parts of content that are meant to be totally different and more personal from a film-making standpoint.

On the bright side, I read that Donnie formed a new company (Super Hero Films Co Ltd) last year and one of his projects will take off this September. It will be 100% Hong Kong-financed, meaning that he's investing out of his own pocket (the money he earned making films in the Mainland). Johnnie To does a similar thing; working in the Mainland to get money to finance his Hong Kong projects.

[RetroRobot]

Yes, but co-production or not, they still wanna sell that film to the mainland market, so more or less the same adjustements have to be made. I wish they would just do what they did back in the golden era, different versions for different markets.