Director Soi Cheung revealed at the Tokyo International Film Festival that the sequel to the blockbuster Hong Kong historical action film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” will begin filming next March.
During the Q&A session at the screening of the first film, director Chen also mentioned that filming for the first part will begin immediately after, although the producers have not decided on a release date for either. Both the first and second parts are based on Yuyi’s novel “City Of Darkness”.
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In grossed approximately $111 million on a $39 million budget, making it a critical and commercial hit for the Hong Kong film industry, which had seen little of either film in recent years. The film follows a mainland refugee, Chan Lok-kun (Raymond Lam), who wins a bare-knuckle brawl and attempts to obtain a fake identity card. When he finds himself double-crossed by the ruthless Triad leader Mr. Big (Samo Hung), the desperate outsider steals the chief’s bag of cocaine and flees to the walled city of Hong Kong, a dark fortress that turns anyone who approaches it against him. Rock’n may be safe from Mr. Big’s henchmen, who know all about trespassing into enemy territory, but he soon has to deal with the city’s own martial law at the hands of mysterious crime boss Cyclone (Louis Koo).
Chan’s own critical and commercial hits (and failures) have also been the subject of a free-flowing discussion of his career, as have his experiences with mentors like Hong Kong luminary Johnny To, who gave Chan his directorial debut under the Milky Way Image banner with films like the 2012 car-chase action film Motorway.
“‘Motorway’ was another disaster for me,” said Chan. “It was my first time making a racing film, and I didn’t have the budget to film fast cars. When I saw the assembly cut, my first reaction was to break the TV.”
“I had to go back and ask Mr. To for money for the reshoots. I asked for 16 days of reshoots. In the end, he used his own money to help fund the reshoots so I could get the movie back.”
The director spoke surprisingly candidly about other ups and downs in his career and how he returned to his indie roots after a stint making big-budget films, including the three-picture 3D fantasy series The Monkey King starring Donnie Yen.
“The Monkey King (film series) helped me in my career, maybe not creatively. It didn’t have a huge impact on my creativity, but it gave me the experience of working on a big movie with a crew from all over the world,” Chan said. “But by the end of that experience, I felt so lost. So I went back to making a more personal film, Limbo.”
“When you make a personal film, you slowly rediscover why you started making films in the first place.”
