"Dragon Tiger Gate" Chinese Theatrical Poster
Martial arts fans who were pleased by Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse’s 2006 collaboration Dragon Tiger Gate should be happy to hear that the two actors are teaming back up for a new project. Yen and Tse, easily two of the biggest stars in Hong Kong right now, will square off “emotionally and physically” in Enter the Master.
The action film is set in a US-based Chinatown where Donnie Yen’s martial arts master is pulled into the middle of a deadly Triad war thanks to his friendship with a new immigrant, played by Nicholas Tse.
Is it just us or does this almost sound like Donnie Yen’s take on the Shaw Brothers classic Chinatown Kid? Either way, Enter the Master is to be directed by Chan Hing-Kai. Donnie Yen will serve as action director as usual.
Film Business Asia does mention there are hopes of turning Enter the Master into a franchise if the first film is successful.
Update: Twitch offers word that Enter the Master is now titled simply The Master, which may or may not cause confusion with both the 1989 Jet Li movie of the same or Paul Thomas Anderson’s recent work. Directing duties have been handed off to Soi Cheang, who helmed last year’s excellent Hong Kong action racer Motorway. The film will begin shooting this year.
Also on Donnie’s docket as part of his recently launched production company Super Hero Films is a collaboration with director Derek Kwok (Gallants, Journey to the West) titled Dragon City. Just like The Master, the story is set in the 70′s, and follows Donnie as an ace cop fighting crime in Kowloon Walled City. The City has since been demolished but during that era, Kowloon was a massive structure with over 30,000 residents – it was also largely ungoverned and ruled by the Triads. Do a Google image search and you’ll start to see that the possibilities for a cool action movie set there are nearly endless! It will be interesting to see how the production designers go about recreating the now destroyed city.
Dragon City is gonna be awesome!