“Sons of the Neon Night” Teaser Poster
Filmmaker Juno Mak (Revenge: A Love Story, Dream Home), the actor/director of 2013’s Rigor Mortis, is finally putting his finishing touches on One Cool Film Productions’ Sons of the Neon Night, an upcoming gangster epic that was completed back in 2018.
The highly-anticipated film features an all-star cast that includes Takeshi Kaneshiro (Wu Xia), Louis Koo (Three), Ritchie Ren (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), Tony Leung Ka Fai (League of Gods), Lau Ching-wan (The White Storm 3), Kara Hui (Mrs K), Gao Yuanyuan (Robin-B-Hood), Michelle Wai (As The Light Goes Out) and Conan Lee (Aces Go Places V: The Terracotta Hit).
With a production budget of over $50 million, Asian sales and production firm Distribution Workshop is using the Busan International Film Festival’s market to re-launch Sons of the Neon Night as “Hong Kong’s Most Expensive Film” (via Variety). This now aligns with the numerous reports, which stated that the reason behind the film’s long delay was because it had exceeded its budget by a whopping HK$200mil (S$35.26mil).
Here’s a poetic description of the film from Mak himself: “A land free of drugs depicts utopia, or so they say – Yet only those who have been there would know the eternal flames that burn in that place called Hell. It was with his creation of medicine that men began deluding himself about the illusive power to ordain life and death. Be it naivety or arrogance, we glory in awe, eyes closed; deaf to the quiet humming of destruction that lingers on the edge of desire. As it goes, blood weeps more eagerly than tears in a merciless world.”
Sons of the Neon Night is currently in post-production with a targeted release in 2025. Don’t miss a Behind-the-Scenes featurette below:
As Heaven’s Gate ended up being a good movie once the director’s cut was released, hopefully Sons of the Neon Light ends up being good and not going through all the troubles of the former film.
What’s the best version of Heaven’s Gate available on the market?
Criterion’s DVD and Blu Ray set is awesome. The film looks amazing and you can see every dollar that was spent. The extras are great and Michael Cimino gets emotional when talking about the film’s critical re-evaluation, and that he’s glad more people appreciate it.
Hong Kong netizens have long joked about this being more urban legend rather than an actual movie due to its long delay, similar to Warriors of Future and Back to the Past (all starring Louis Koo coincidentally lol).
I’m just here to see how many of the main actors are willing to come and promote this if it does come out, given the longstanding rumor that Juno Mak wasn’t on great terms with a lot of them due to his insistence on reshooting scenes until he got his desired result.