"Dragon Blade" actors Jackie Chan, John Cusack and Adrien Brody in Singapore for Gala Premiere!

Lunar New Year is a time when many Chinese movies like comedies or blockbusters are released. For many Chinese communities around the world, it has become a tradition to gather a bunch of family members or good friends after the reunion dinner, and head to the cinema to catch a film.

For this coming Year of the Ram, the movie to look out for is action period drama "Dragon Blade" (天将雄狮), which stars action superstar, Jackie Chan, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, A-lister John Cusack, Korean pop-idol Choi Siwon (Super Junior) and Chinese actresses, Lin Peng and Wang Ruo Xin.

The movie is directed by famed HK film maker Daniel Lee (“White Vengeance”, “14 Blades”) and is set in 48BC, during the Han Dynasty, when Lucius (John Cusack), a Roman general accused of treason treks into the Middle Kingdom with his pack of soldiers. While in the Gobi Desert, he befriends and forms an alliance with Huo An (Jackie Chan), a former commander forced into slavery by corrupt officials. Hot on Lucius' heels is Tiberius (Adrien Brody), the ambitious baddie son of Rome's Consul. Tiberius is leading a large troop of 100,000 soldiers toward the Chinese border, intent on capturing the runaway general.

With an appreciation for the growing trend of movies and TV series that feature well-known Eastern and Western actors, "Dragon Blade" is certainly a very ambitious project. Not only has it been listed as one of the most expensive Chinese productions to-date with a budget of USD 65 million, it has one of the largest number of production crew of over 700.

Huo An (Jackie Chan) clashes with Lucius (John Cusack)

The hardworking crew spent a few grueling months filming in China's desert city of Dunhuang and the Gobi Desert. The story is set around the famous Silk Route after all. In addition, a full-sized Roman-styled pulley machine was intricately replicated and built for use on set, and Jackie Chan - ever a stellar example of passion, dedication and work ethic - ploughed through the scenes together with the crew in the scorching sun for 2 hours. There are stories that he even helped the crew nail cogwheels for the set!

Jackie Chan on set with the life-sized pulley system

Having said that though, this type of East-West mash-up can sometimes yield really cheesy results, or seem painfully forced. So, Red Dot Diva is really hoping "Dragon Blade" will be not follow a similar fate. But she has to admit, it still takes a lot getting used to Jackie Chan speaking his lines in "English", and the trailer released recently looks hastily put together.

Adrien Brody being handsomely broody

As for the female characters in the movie, Red Dot Diva does not even want to comment much at this point. In most Chinese action movies, the female characters are mostly stereotyped as demure plot devices for the male's "heroic" or revengeful pursuits, or even if they do know how to fight, most end up as rather pointless "flower vases".

Despite these expected shortcomings, Red Dot Diva the movie buff is still interested to find out how this big-budget film will fare in terms of story-telling and its action sequences. Not to mention, she intends to be checking out Adrien Brody's broody eyebrows and wavy long locks doing all sorts of evil things. While in armour. And a cape. Yep.

Then, there is also this uber-ly exciting piece of news for Red Dot Diva and local fans:

On 9th to 11th Feb, Jackie Chan will be here... Yes! *HERE* in Red Dot Island - the first stop in the movie's promotional tour. Joining him for the gala premiere, will be fellow actors Adrien Brody, John Cusack, Choi Siwon, Lin Peng and Wang Ruoxin! There will be much biceps gazing to be had, people! :D

"Dragon Blade" will open in Singapore and across Asia on Chinese New Year day, 19 Feb 2015. And there will be a chance to win a pair of tickets to watch the movie, right here on this blog!

So, keep an eye out for more information about the RDD "Dragon Blade" online contest as well as the red carpet premiere in the following weeks!

Meanwhile, here's the "Dragon Blade" trailer:



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Thanks to Encore Films for keeping Red Dot Diva updated with news!