A Quick Filmart Rundown ...

Over the next couple days I'll be working up the courage to open my suitcase and start sorting the promo materials stashed away in there, so expect to see info and scans turning up soon, but in the meantime here's a quick rundown of a few key things I spotted while there ...

Invisible Target. The latest from director Benny Chan, starring Nic Tse and Wu Jing is still shooting but that didn't stop Universe from bringing along a temporary promo reel. The English narration was unintentionally hilarious but the actual footage looked quite good. Tse's all dirtied up for this one, which suits him, and there are some very good martial artists in the support cast, to say nothing of Wu Jing in a major role. Should be a good one.

The Warlords. Pater Chan's Jet Li / Takeshi Kaneshiro / Andy Lau starrer has a new English title and an absolutely stunning promo reel. It's jaw dropping, people. Everybody who's been asking for a big time epic blockbuster without the wuxia influence - this is your film. Yep.

Flash Point. This one's gone through so many name changes it's dizzying, but it's just about done and everybody who complained that there wasn't enough fighting in Sha Po Lang - you foolish people, you - will be glad to know that Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen were apparently listening. The promo reel and music video were cut together from pretty much nothing but action sequences and it looks really damn good.

Twins Mission. Garbage. Enough said.

Blood Brothers. There's a new promo reel for this - which looks GORGEOUS - and I had a chance to talk a bit with director Alexi Tan who cleared up a couple things. This is not intended AT ALL to be a remake of John Woo's Bullet in the Head, rather it was inspired by that film when Tan started asking why nobody made films like that any more after viewing it himself a couple years back. Being a sensible fellow he decided to make one himself and managed to get Woo on board as a producer. And there ends the connection between the two pictures. From the sounds of things Woo has been playing mentor to Tan on this, offering up advice from the script stage right through to editing. The film is wrapping its final sound mix now.

Ming Ming. Loved it, loved it, loved it. My review is here.

Eye in the Sky. A very solid directorial debut from Johnnie To's long time script writer. A tense police procedural built around charismatic performances from Simon Yam - who shows a little something different in this one - and Tony Leung Ka Fai, aka Big Tony.

Shamo. A rough trailer screened from this latest flick from the director of Dog Bite Dog and it looks every bit as vicious. Shawn Yue is pretty much unrecognizable in the lead.

Sasori. A very rough promo for this one - not surprising since it finished shooting less than a week before - shows them pretty much re-envisioning the Female Convict Scorpion series. Don't get me wrong, the exploitation roots are very much in place but it looks very, very different. Which I think is very likely a good thing.