Back in the commentary booth

 

Recording the talk track for 'Storm Warriors' UK DVD release.

I've been so busy setting up B&E Productions, shooting 'Blood Bond', prepping 'Beach Spike!', selling 'Little Gobie', I realised I hadn't recorded a DVD commentary for almost six months. I've done more Asian action movie commentaries than anyone else (I think!), and maybe I even have the record for talk tracks in any genre.

(For those not aware, a commentary track is the DVD equivalent of that annoying guy in the cinema who keeps talking through the movie. And I get paid for it!)

It was a great pleasure to be invited to join forces with the team at the UK's Showbox company. It was kind of a homecoming, as the individuals involved were the first folk to retain me to record commentaries, lo these many moons ago. The company is committed to bring the very best in Asian action entertainment to the British market, and so am I!

In terms of the new partnership, we opened the batting with a commentary for the Pang Bros directed fantasy actioner 'Storm Warriors'. It was a lot of fun to prepare for and execute. The film doesn't have an enormously complicated story, but it does boast some ground-breaking special effects sequences. It succeeds in creating and sustaining a credible 'other world', and that's no mean feat.

Yes, I'm aware that the film perhaps focusses on style rather than dramatic substance, but its so original and visually stunning that I'm certain it can find a wide audience in the UK (and elsewhere!). 

'Storm Warriors' is the long-delayed sequel to Andrew Lau's 'Storm Riders', an adaptation of the Hong Kong comic book 'Fung Waan' ('Wing and Cloud'). Just as Lau's film set the bar in 1998, so Danny and Oxide's did last year.

Its an indication of the staying power of Chinese leading men that both Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok reprise their roles from the earlier film.

They're joined by award winning actors Simon Yam and Nicholas Tse as the father-and-son villains of the piece.

The film was shot entirely in a studio in Bangkok, most of it '300'-style against a green screen. It was filming at the same time as I was there working on 'Shanghai', and I could easily have visited the 'Storm Warriors' set, and I kick myself now for not doing so!

You can read more about the label at the company's website here

http://www.cine-asia.co.uk/about-cine-asia/

where I'll also be providing some Asian show business news items.

If you're a UK based fan of the genre, please support Cine Asia, and feel free to fire off your comments, kudos, queries and criticisms to me at bey.logan@gmail.com