New Chinese movie set to revive action genre

From left: Director Tsai Yueh-hsun, actor Huang Bo, actress Janine Chang and actor Mark Chao at the news conference for Black &White: The Dawn of Justice in Beijing.[Photo by Wang Kaihao/China Daily]

The movie isn't about a superhero, nor is it adapted from a comic book, but since its release two years ago, it has attracted the kind of attention that's rare for a Chinese production.

Audiences are in for more, with Black &White: The Dawn of Justice, the second movie in the action series Black &White, set to hit the country's theaters on Oct 1.

Tsai Yueh-hsun, the director from Taiwan, famous for his dramas represented by Meteor Garden years ago, believes that audiences were drawn to the first movie because it "went beyond pretty faces".

Nevertheless, this new installment does not lack them. The cast is led by young actors Mark Chao from Taiwan and Lin Gengxin from the mainland.

This cross-Straits cooperative 3-D production was developed from Tsai's popular 2009 TV series. Comedian Huang Bo, who played a leading role in the first episode, makes a guest appearance in the new film.

Tsai likens the latest movie to an "industrial revolution", at least for Chinese cinema. With a budget of more than 100 million yuan ($16.2 million), the movie's action scenes have been worked upon by the visual effects squad for the Hollywood blockbusters Fast Five and Thor, and other action designers. "When different people gather together with multiple working styles, chemistry will happen," Lin says of his excitement while shooting the movie in spite of being a newbie in the action arena.

The movie has ample on-screen bomb blasts and collapsing constructions.

Set in the fictional Harbor City, the protagonist named Wu Yingxiong (yingxiong means hero in Chinese) is the city's savior.