"Harpoon" Chinese Theatrical Poster
We’re not even a month into 2012 and already two gruesome, blood-splattered horror films are slated for release in…Mainland China?! Sure, Hong Kong has always be known for their goofy horror comedies and supernatural-tinged romances, but I for one never expected to see full-on “this is comparable to Saw“-style horror flicks coming out of the Mainland.
Over at Beyond Hollywood, you can check out the two posters and the Not Safe For Work trailer for the horror movie Harpoon, which promises to have as much sex and murder as any Friday the 13th flick and is already in Chinese theaters.
Meanwhile, 24 Frames Per Second has the poster and trailer for the humorously titled Nightclub School Hospital, slated to hit Chinese theaters in February. This film looks to have surprisingly slick production values and a supernatural-tinged plot. At a glance, I detected a slight influence from Silent Hill and Inception.
Considering that the Chinese censors have always abhorred supernatural elements and plots were the bad guys triumph, it’ll be interesting to see how Mainland filmmakers manage to explore the horror genre. Or perhaps films like this indicate a change in censorship policies?
You know, as long as no more ‘period’ films are coming out I’m happy. Am I the only one sick of those movies??
Yeah the period films were getting old besides Red Cliff 1&2. Why can’t asian people make good martial arts films anymore tho? I can’t remember the last time I saw one and went holy smokes!!! The Thai films dubbing is horrible, and they just seem to be repeating themselves likewith BKO which I thought would be good, but I’d already seen everything they did in that movie before. Now when it comes to horror, I don’t think China know what they are doing.
Well, part of the problem is that we’re not even getting some of the best Chinese martial arts movies anymore. For instance, Donnie Yen’s “Wu Xia” desperately needs Western distribution! It played at Cannes last year and is one of the better martial arts flicks of the last few years.
I say it’s even better than Ip Man. Not as much action, but a better movie.