15.12.09

The Storm Warriors (2009) / 風雲II : Filming in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Storm Warriors (2009)

The Storm Warriors (simplified Chinese: 风云II; traditional Chinese: 風雲II) is a 2009 Hong Kong martial arts/wuxia film, produced and directed by the Pang brothers. It is the second live-action film adaptation of screenwriter Ma Wing-Shing's manhua Fung Wan, following the 1998 film The Storm Riders. The Storm Warriors is based on Fung Wan′s popular Japanese invasion story arc The Death Battle. Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok respectively reprise their roles as Wind and Cloud, who this time find themselves up against Lord Godless (Simon Yam), a ruthless Japanese warlord bent on invading China. The film is a co-production between Universe Entertainment and Sil-Metropole Organisation.
A sequel to The Storm Riders was first announced in March 2008 after Universe gained rights to the Fung Wan franchise from former film distributor Golden Harvest. The Pangs aimed on creating a big-budgeted film involving visual effects and stated that The Storm Warriors would not be a direct sequel to its 1998 predecessor. Principal photography for The Storm Warriors began in April 2008 and ended in July; filming took place in three studios located in Bangkok, Thailand. The film is notable for being the first Chinese language film shot in bluescreen. During post-production, effects artists worked on scenes involving computer-generated imagery, focusing on the film's setting and backgrounds.
The Storm Warriors was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 10 December 2009.

The Storm Warriors (2009) / 風雲II : Filming

Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok, along with the Pang brothers, executive producer Daneil Lam and the film's crew celebrated production of the film with a traditional Thai blessing ceremony. Filming for The Storm Warriors began in April 2008 and ended in July 2008. Principal photography for the film took place entirely in three studios occupying 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) in Bangkok’s Pak-Gret district. Filming consisted mainly of a Thai production crew, as the Pangs decided to shoot the film in Thailand, rather than in their native Hong Kong: "We wanted to shoot the whole film...because we trust them, and because it's probably cheaper than shooting in Hong Kong, even though we have to fly in some of the props and costumes." Members of the media and the film’s distributors across Asia were invited to visit the shooting location. They also invited to view a fight scene between leading actors Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok as it was being filmed.

****The Storm Warriors was released theatrically in Hong Kong and Australia on 10 December 2009.***





The Storm Warriors (2009) / 風雲II Synopsis

The evil Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam) desires to conquer China. He threatens the General in command into surrender, takes the emperor captive and subdues a large number of martial arts masters using his special poison. Among the captives are Cloud (Aaron Kwok) who surrendered out of concern for Chu Chu (Tang Yan), and the Mou Lam legend Nameless (Kenny Ho). Lord Godless gives them two choices, they can either surrender and work under him, or they will be executed. None of the masters accept the offer. Nameless then breaks free of his chains, revealing that Wind (Ekin Cheng) sneaked in earlier to give all the masters the antidote to the poison. Cloud and Wind land direct blows on Lord Godless with no noticeable effect, and even though several other martial arts masters combine their powers to attack Lord Godless, they lose the contest of strength and are killed.


Nameless uses his special attack on Lord Godless, using his chi to launch all the captured masters' swords at Lord Godless, Lord Godless takes the attack head on and blocks all the swords while Nameless suffers serious internal injuries because he overtaxed himself while not fully recovered from the poison. Some other martial artists raid the prison on horseback and Nameless, Cloud, Wind and Chu Chu manage to escape, while Lord Godless sends his son, Heart and two lieutenants, Earth and Sky, after Nameless with an army, with orders to destroy any martial arts schools along the way who will not surrender.





Nameless is badly injured and will not be able to recover his full strength to fight with Lord Godless for a significant period of time, so he sends Cloud and Wind to find Piggy King's elder brother, Lord Wicked, who is the only person who can fight Lord Godless now. They go to the mountain where he has hid himself from the outside world but are unsuccessful in persuading him to help, until Wind's lover Second Dream shows up and aids in persuading Lord Wicked. Lord Wicked comes out of his cave, revealing that he had chopped off his own arms years ago.



This was his attempt to stop killing innocent people because he had lost control of himself in his younger days while practicing evil kung-fu. He kicks some pebbles at Cloud and Wind to test how they react, Cloud crushes the pebbles totally while Wind only catches them intact. Lord Wicked states that Cloud is too aggressive and will not be able to handle training in the evil way, while Wind has more control and might be able to return to normal. Lord Wicked then starts training Wind in evil arts while Cloud is summoned to meet Nameless at Lin Yi Temple.



At Lin Yi Temple, Cloud fights a disguised Nameless, who states that Cloud has massive potential, able to accurately learn his styles in a short period of time, and trains him, eventually creating a new sword style which Nameless names "Ba", inventing a new character partially resembling the characters "Cloud" and "Sword". Lord Godless discovers where Nameless, Wind and Cloud have been hiding and dispatches Earth and Sky to kill Nameless while sending a few warriors after Wind.



At the temple, Cloud easily defeats Earth and Sky in a single blow, but as Lord Wicked and the others are fighting off the warriors that Lord Godless sent, Second Dream gets injured and Wind interrupts his training to come out of the cave and save her, killing the warriors in the process. Afterward he leaves with his training unfinished, despite it supposedly not being possible to leave the pool yet. Cloud arrives to find Wind gone, and Lord Wicked sends Cloud after Lord Godless as he is trying to find the Dragon Tomb which contains a secret that deals with the destiny of China.



Lord Godless meanwhile has taken the Emperor and his family as hostages and is searching for the Dragon Tomb. The Emperor refuses to help him, but Heart is able to find out which path into the tomb is the correct one through the use of his chi that generated a massive wind when he picked the correct passage. Once at the end of the path, Heart starts threatening the Emperor for more information on the Dragon Tomb, but as he refuses to speak, Heart starts killing his wives and sons. Cloud arrives, and the guards which were Imperial Guards that were forced to surrender, switch sides instantly and pull the Emperor out of harm's way.



Cloud and Heart exchanges blows, Heart backs off after the first exchange, and Cloud and Lord Godless starts fighting, Cloud initially has the upper hand but is unable to injure Lord Godless due to his near invincible armor. In the fight, a pile of rocks is blown away, revealing the entrance to the real Dragon Tomb, which contains a human skeleton sitting upright. Lord Godless almost kills Cloud in the next exchange of blows, but Wind, whom has been thoroughly possessed by the evil arts, arrives and fights against first Lord Godless, then Cloud, and then both of them, eventually killing Lord Godless by cutting off his arm from the underside of his armor, which was not as well protected and stealing the Dragon Bone, the secret of the tomb.




As Cloud chases after Wind, the Emperor begs Cloud to retrieve the Dragon Bone as it is crucial to the destiny of China. Second Dream eventually finds Wind at the secret place she had written to him in a letter about, but Wind just sits there with minimal response, and eventually the Emperor's guards arrive to try and take the Dragon Bone back.


However as the General struggles with Second Dream over the dragon bone, Heart, which had escaped from the previous battle, grabs the bone and heavily injures the General, as the General and Heart struggle for the bone, it breaks into two and Wind gets fully taken over by the evil spirit again. Cloud arrives and fights Wind to try and bring him back, but fails as Wind eventually wounds Second Dream and also kills Chu Chu.



In a final gambit, Cloud hurls his sword at Wind, cutting him on the forehead and Wind miraculously regains control. The cliff side has taken serious damage in the battle however, and a large section collaspes, causing Wind and Second Dream (who walks over to check on her beloved) to fall off the cliff. Cloud is not in the section of the cliff that collapses.


However, Cloud jumps off the cliff as well, manages to fall faster than the Wind and Second Dream, and exerts a force to push Wind and Second Dream back to safety. In doing so, Cloud plummets into the depths, but there is no scene of him dying. Sitting safely on the stable part of the cliff, Wind laments about why Cloud did not kill him earlier when Cloud had the chance. The movie ends abruptly at this stage.




風雲II : 主角漫畫外泄 人物新造型曝光

彭氏兄弟執導的新片《風雲II》,現於泰國開始拍攝,除了步驚雲及聶風繼續由郭富城及鄭伊健演繹外,其他演員全為新班底,包括謝霆鋒及蔡卓妍(阿Sa)等,昨日,該戲角色造型漫畫與部分演員陣容名單於網上曝光。

據香港媒體報道,由于《風雲》漫畫曾在港瘋魔一時,故不少人對此戲寄望甚殷,對角色及造型都相當關注。最新消息是身披斗笠的角色豬皇由林雪扮演,黃德斌則飾演邪王,何家勁飾演無名。

風雲II :將採用廠景及藍布景拍攝,後期制作近1年。《風雲II》服裝造型將由榮獲奧斯卡金像獎提名的香港著名美術指導奚仲文擔綱,他將根據新的劇情,為每個角色重新設計造型。從已經曝光的這組造型照來看,角色的外型確實與前部有很大不同。最顯眼的要屬飾演步驚雲的郭富城,他已沒有了前部的一頭藍髮,也沒像前部中那樣露出麒麟臂,而是身穿堅實鎧甲,但新造型確比之前的造型備添了幾分英武。由鄭伊健飾演的聶風的造型也甚是俊美。

另外,兩第二夢的飾演者阿Sa的造型則顯得英氣十足。唯獨唐嫣飾演的楚楚有兩種不同的造型,一個飄逸、一個神秘。新晉加入的謝霆鋒飾演的絕心以一身鎧甲裝扮現身。其他配角的造型也都設計得十分精細,整理感覺非常貼和原著漫畫風格。

Celebrating the much anticipated movie release of The Storm Warriors (based on Ma Wing Shing’s popular comic ‘Fung Wan’), The One Academy partners with Sin Chew Daily and GSC to proudly present a national creative art competition like no other: The Storm Warriors Comic Art Challenge. Create your own comic hero and stand a chance to win scholarships and limited edition movie premium items!





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Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Storm_Warriors
http://www.movieworld.com.tw/
http://www.toa.edu.my/tsw/html/aboutus.html

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