“High Kick Girl” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Megaton Entertainment has picked up Chungking Mansions and launching it at the American Film Market with the selling points: “The biggest zombie film in Hong Kong cinema history”, and also as “The Raid with zombies” (via Variety).
The film is set to star Rina Takeda (High Kick Girl), Go Joon-hee (Doomsday Book), Wiyona Yeung (Guilt by Design), Desmond Tan (Control), Rebecca Lim (Doppelganger) and Kevin Leslie (I Am Vengeance) for Chungking Mansions, a zombie film that will take place in the iconic Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong.
According to Deadline, the action-thriller will be primarily in English, as the lead character is an American desperately striving to save his wife and child who are holed up in Chungking Mansions. The film will feature a number of languages including Japanese, Cantonese, and Korean to reflect the multi-cultural nature of both the production and Chungking Mansions itself.
Produced by Phoenix Waters Productions, Chungking Mansions will be directed by Bizhan M. Tong (The Escort), who plans to start production next spring.
We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about the film. For now, here’s the Trailer for Rina Takeda’s High Kick Girl.
She’s got a lot of potential, but I don’t think she’s ever been paired with a competent filmmaker. It’s been a while since I’ve heard from her so I hope this one will utilize her talent properly.
Karate Girl was Rina’s best work. The fights were much better choreographed than in High Kick Girl. She also did a movie called Danger Dolls which was like Power Rangers without the costumes and that was fun.
You’re right on the fights in ‘Karate Girl’ being better than those in its predecessor, but I still prefer ‘High Kick Girl’. For me ‘KG’ felt more like the Hina Tobimatsu (whatever happened to her!?) show, with Takeda cast as second fiddle in her own movie. ‘High Kick Girl’ has many flaws, but it was a breath of fresh air in 2009 and a perfect vehicle to display Takeda’s talents.
I never got the impression that Rina was “second fiddle.” She and Hina appeared to be equals who both had their moments to shine.
With High Kick Girl though, I felt like Rina’s teacher took the spotlight at the finale while only giving her an inconsequential sight scene as scraps. Tale of Iya does sound intriguing though!
Can’t say I’m a huge fan of Karate Girl, but I can see why you consider it her best work. There’s a number of awesome looking shots demonstrating Takeda’s kicks, but overall the movie had no flow to it. Haven’t seen Danger Dolls but I’ve been wanting to see Gothic Lolita Battle Bear which she’s in.
Agreed. I remember the hype around when it was announced she’d been cast alongside Tak Sakaguchi in Yuji Shimomura’s ‘Re:Born’, only for her to provide voiceover narration and not even appear onscreen! I still consider it a missed opportunity to not have 2 of Japan’s most exciting action talents share the screen together.
Ironically I consider Takeda’s best role to be a non-action one, when she played the lead in 2013’s ‘The Tale of Iya’, a 170 minute epic shot on 35mm that takes the form of a hauntingly meditative piece of filmmaking set in the mountains. Well worth checking out!
Ah shame, right? A Tak vs Takeda showdown or even a team up would have been sweet. Plus it would have meant she’d work with some of the best action/stunt guys in Japan.
I need to check out Tale of Iya, and revisit High Kick Girl.