I never thought I would see that day when I would write an article and when it came to choosing categories for our search options I would click both Martial Arts and Western. But here we are...
I think the last movie I saw involving Asian swordsmen plying their trade in the Western landscape was... what? And I don't mean something like Shanghai Noon. I mean honest to goodness swordsmen hacking it out against cowboys. Once Upon A Time in China and America? Or am I going back farther to Red Sun with Bronson and Mifune? But look at this! This is a martial arts western called The Warriors Way. It was once called Laundry Warrior and either that was deemed insensitive to all the Chinese immigrants who settled in the West at that time or the title itself wasn't appealing. So what is really going on here?
The Warrior's Way is an English language fantasy action film starring Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush, Danny Huston, Tony Cox and Korean actor Jang Dong-gun. Helmed and written by Sngmoo Lee, pic has a $45 million budget through Sad Flutes, a company set up by Michael Peyser [Speed 2] and Lee Joo-ick [Seven Swords] and is being produced by Barrie Osborne who also produced Lord of the Rings The movie is scheduled for release sometime in August 2009. The story is about an Asian warrior played by Jang, who is forced to hide in a small town in the American badlands. He meets the town drunk played by Rush, and a circus knife thrower played by Bosworth, both of whom have powerful secrets. Wikipedia
Lee taught film in NYC for the past five years. This will be his debut film. Filming took place in New Zealand between November 2007 and February 2008 and Weta has been involved in a lot of the effects. "We draw on two great milieux, the Samurai movie and the Western," Peyser said. "We will deliver a stylized, partly anime feel, with the techniques of '300,' but a look that is brighter.".
The film features the fight choreography of Japanese action director Yuji Shimomura, a protégé of Donnie Yen with AD credits that include VERSUS, ARAGAMI, SHINOBI: HEART UNDER BLADE, and motion capture for several action video games including DEVIL MAY CRY 4. Kensuke Sonomura is assistant fight choreographer and stunts have been overseen by Hollywood veteran Augie Davis (THE WATER HORSE). KungFuCinema
Word from 24FPS was that the trailer was up on YouTube but got taken down. It surfaced on RuTube and we have embedded it after the break. And because Twitchfilm readers are such an insightful bunch I'm sure you're going to have your two cents worth to share with us after the break. Play nice.
Cheese Supreme. For a second I thought we had another role for Bryan Bosworth. The visual look good, I like the idea of Western Wuxia, and I'm always up for some Shimoura action choreography. I can't think of any film that's mixed new age flying swordsman with the old west.
I don't really see much cross-over appeal here. The choice to shoot it with an English speaking cast baffles me almost more then it's budget (45 FREAKING MILLION DOLLARS!?) with all the crummy stylized CGI shots at the Promo Reel's end.
Martial Arts Western? Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe!
I'm guessing the quality of the clip isn't doing this justice, but the visuals are pretty tasty. Definitely one to look out for.
Looks 50/50 to me, i like the concept and some scenes look good, but that last CGI shot looked crappy as hell. Also, memo to directors: abusing the slow mo thing can be really really annoying, unless you are John Woo in the late 80s/early 90s.
So while not "ZOMG" excited for the moment it looks interesting enough to give it a shot. Hope to catch a trailer with better resolution.
oh my god that was awesome a remeber this wen't still was called Laundry Warrior but a read nothing a bout it for a year now. And then this happens this movie looks sick a hoop it comes in the cinema. Also the guys form Weta ar masters in effects first outlander then this sick man. A hoop to see more movies done by thus guys.
A cant wait to see this movie!
I think the gun lit hallway hack and slash sequence was pretty cool.
Holy shit... is that Ti Lung at 3:33???
Hmmm. Christ, it does look cheap, and heavy on the cheese... but while Shinobi was a terrible, terrible film with one of the worst endings I've ever seen, the choreography was pretty inventive. I remember thinking it was extraordinarily good for a Japanese wire-fu picture. I'm not going to be rushing out to see this, but it does have me interested.
Looks pretty badass to me, don't know what you guys saw...
Gotta agree with kungfueurotrash... this looks awesome! They had me at Yuji Shimomura.
Sukiyaki Django!
Anyway, was Danny Huston channeling Michael Ironside there?
Sukiyaki Western Django!
The last fight is just amazing.
This cold be good, but, just hope that they go easy on slow motion.
And if is indeed Ti Lung would awesome.
More CGI Fest then Martial Arts. The CGI in Storm Warriors (Trailer) impressed me more. Jang Dong Gun would be the only reason to see this.
Mixed bag for me as well. The generic bamboo forest stuff and most of everything towards the beginning feels like Wuxia lite blah for me.
The cast listing is damn impressive though, Rush and Huston are certainly having fun chewing the scenary up. I'm shocked that this thing cost 45 million though. I saw the tralier this morning and thought.
"Hmmm. Cgi like this is so tacky and lame, looks like a cut scene from a video game. Actually, I take that back. The cut scenes in Final Fantasy blows this away....BUT, it's pretty cool that CG has enabled independent filmmakers to create entire worlds and elaborate set pieces that would otherwise have been far too expensive to do on any practical level so I can forgive it."
I thought this was like a Sky Captain. A DIY epic made on home computers for around 15 million, 25 TOPS! ALthough, even at 15 million, that's still a lot of dough.
But 45?!!! Wasn't 300 30 Million? Say what you will, apart from the elephants, the CGI looked damn good. And wasn't Watchmen brought into the can for around 60?
Yeah, the story doesn't do much and the dialouge is atrocious. Can we get a post mondern action film for film nerds without all the overt references to other films. At the beginning of the trailer, I almost thought this was the Lone Wolf and Cub remake I remembered reading about.
BUT, that hallway fight/shootout is really, really, cool. This will either be the fast/fun purely disposable guilty pleasure I was expecting Sukiyaki to be, it'll be something totally insufferable.
This being a demo reel and not an official trailer, I'm guessing that the ending is unfinished CG work. But if this is getting released in August, they've got a lot of work to do.
looks awesome. i agree the cgi isn't perfect but can't comment without seeing the finished product.
cowboys vs ninjas vs samurai. i know i want to see it
Oh man, this looks awesome. Hopefully just as good as Once Upon A Time In America.