Here's a way to infuse some Asian-ess in the year-end festive celebrations. You can watch two Chinese martial arts shows while chowing down on some baked ham and roasted turkey, and you can do this wayyyyy before Chinese New Year too! That is because HBO Asia will be screening an original martial arts anthology at 9 PM on 25 December and 26 December respectively! Shiok!!!
Set in China's Qing Dynasty, the two stories “Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So” and “Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying”, will be sub-titled in English and Mandarin. These HBO movies are a co-production with China Movie Channel (CMC), and will be the first time HBO is airing Mandarin films.
Those who love action movie star Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" films, can look forward to reacquainting themselves with Zui Quan (醉拳) or Drunken Fist style in “Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So”. So Chan (Magic Mobile Phone (魔幻手机)), a pampered and wealthy merchant loses riches, his family and almost his life, when he is framed due to a political conflict. He is saved by the Beggars’ Sect, and through the sect chief Lau Pak-Gwei, So Chan learns the long lost martial art - the Drunken Fist - so that he can get revenge on the person who wronged him.
Also, don't miss the stereotypical evil eunuch character Song Fook-Hoi with a pair of Machiavellian white eyebrows that have a life of their own! Someone you can relish BOO-ing or throwing kacang puteh at from your comfy sofa seat.
In the second installment “Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying", young Chinese actor Sun Hao-ran (孙浩然) stars as the main character, Wong Kei-ying (黄麒英). There's also a local Red Dot Island flavour to this TV movie, as local award-winning screenwriter Koh Teng Liang, has a hand in the script!
A down-to-earth physician, Wong Kei-ying deliberately stays away from politics and unethical power plays of the pugilistic world or "Jiang Hu" (江湖). One day, he was deceived into helping Wei Mo-gik, the new, ruthless and corrupted governor of Canton, who intends to take over the lucrative opium business. His mentor Luk Ah Choi leaves him the illustrations of a martial arts style called "The Shadowless Kick" and Wong begins on his journey to masters the skill in order to take down the governor.
Red Dot Diva loves watching martial arts film. She really enjoyed a Westernized take of the genre in AMC's TV series "Into The Badlands" starring Daniel Wu, and is excited to see how a more back- to-basics style of kung fu story-telling is going to translate on the cable channel. With both TV movies choreographed by famed Hong Kong action director, Corey Yuen ("Lethal Weapon 4", "Romeo Must Die", "The Expendables"), she is optimistic that the shows would appeal to the large fan base in this region. Adding on to the experience on screen is director Guo Jian-yong (国建勇), who specializes on martial arts movies and has also worked on action sequences in "The Twins Effect II", "Red Cliff" and the first 3 "The Transporter" movies.
So, it's all set as to what Red Dot Diva will be doing on Christmas night and Boxing Day! She will be live tweeting the shows on both nights, so if you are also intending to punch in your time with HBO Asia, join her on Twitter!
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Dates: 25 and 26 December, 2016
Time: 9PM
Channel: HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601). Also, available in original language on HBO ON DEMAND (StarHub Ch 602 / StarHub Go)
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