Renowned Hong Kong director and producer Soi Cheang is repping his country for the first time in the International Feature Oscar category, with this year’s box office hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. The film has made over $111 million globally since it first premiered locally in early May, and then went on to screen as part of the Midnights section in Cannes.
During Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season showcase, Cheang talked about approaching the project, which is based on Andy Seto’s Chinese comic City of Darkness, and re-creating the titular enclave of British Colonial Hong Kong which was ultimately demolished in 1993.
The film is set in the 1980s and follows troubled youth Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam) as he accidentally enters the Walled City, discovers the order amidst its chaos, and learns important life lessons along the way. In the Walled City, he becomes close friends with Shin, Twelfth Master and AV. Under the leadership of Cyclone, they resist against the invasion of villain Mr. Big in a series of fierce battles. Together, they vow to protect the safe haven that is Kowloon Walled City.
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Cheang told Deadline he never entered the city himself, but through research met with people who used to live there, leading him to decide it was a place “very different than what had been portrayed in the movies.” The challenge became how “to build the organic atmosphere” of the city rather than “just building a set and filming within the set.”
The team ultimately used different structures that included an old school for interior sets and a modular three-story set that could be moved and dressed according to what was necessary at the time.
Veteran actors Sammo Hung and Louis Khoo also star as rivals Mr Big and Cyclone, respectively. The Mr Big character was originally going to be younger, “but the action actor who had all these characteristics could not be found,” so they decided to make some tweaks and ask Hung, who “agreed very quickly” and even worked with an injured leg, Cheang recalled.
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There’s plenty of action in the film, so how hard is it to top one’s self and evolve in that genre? Said Cheang, “I demand of myself that the style of each of my action films be different and according to the nature of the script. Every film has its own style.” Because Twilight of the Warriors is based on a graphic novel, Cheang said he “added some elements that are unique to Hong Kong comic books without going completely over the top, just using some of the comic book elements to enhance the style and mixing some of the comic book effects with more realistic fighting moves.”
The Limbo, Monkey King, Mad Fate, Dog Bite Dog and Accident filmmaker said he was honored to rep Hong Kong as the Oscar submission for the first time given “this is a very local Hong Kong genre film. People had been making films in and around the Kowloon Walled City, but not in the past decade or so. It’s particularly meaningful for me that such a Hong Kong-flavored film would represent Hong Kong at the Oscars.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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