louis koo Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Opening in Hong Kong this week is a movie that sounds like James Bond but may play closer to Austin Powers. On His Majesty's Secret Service (Dai noi muk taam 009), written and directed by the prolific -- and wildly fluctuating in quality -- Wong Jing, stars Louis Koo, Barbie Hsu, and Sandra Ng in a 'nonsense' comedy that is set in a historical period, long before British secret agents began drinking martinis.

Andrew Mack of Twitch found a plot description at Far East Films: "The secret service has been responsible for protecting the Emperor for generations ... Amongst the current group, Zero Zero Dog (Louis Koo) is considered to be the weakest as he shows no interest in the martial arts and spends his time studying technology and creating inventions. When Dog stumbles upon an evil plot to kill the Emperor by the chief eunuch ... he decides to prove everyone wrong and vanquish the enemy himself."

Louis Koo can play strait-laced and frantic equally well, so he's well-suited for the lead role, and I'm a big fan of Sandra Ng's comic abilities, so I'll look for this when it hits (legal) import DVD shelves, probably in a few weeks. If you're like me and don't speak or understand Cantonese, the verbal wordplay will remain a mystery, but this one may have enough silly, physical stunts and gags to make up for it. [ Hat tip to Love HK Film. ]

Watch the trailer for On His Majesty's Secret Service after the jump!

In the early 1990s, the leaders of the Hong Kong action pack included John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-tung with Johnny To running somewhere in the distance. His only major credit was co-directing the awesome The Heroic Trio (1993) with Ching. But as the 1997 handover approached, during which control of Hong Kong would revert from the British back to the Communist Chinese, most filmmakers panicked. Some came to the U.S. to make Jean-Claude Van Damme movies and others simply laid low, waiting for the worst to happen. However, To suddenly found himself at the forefront of things, and slowly worked his way into becoming Hong Kong's top new action director, consistently churning out reliable, if old-fashioned hits: Running Out of Time (1999), Help!!! (2000), Fulltime Killer (2001), Running on Karma (2003), Breaking News (2004), Election (2005), Exiled (2006) and now Triad Election.

Tartan Films is giving Triad Election an American theatrical release, even though its forerunner, Election, did not get the same treatment. No matter. I didn't see Election, and it was easy enough for me to parcel out what was what. This superb, graceful new film actually has quite a bit in common with Francis Coppola's Godfather trilogy, and so anyone even remotely familiar with that should be able to follow it pretty clearly. Here it is: Lok (Simon Yam) is the current Chairman of Wo Shing Triad Society in Hong Kong. Each Chairman is elected and serves for two years. Lok's time is running out and he wishes to serve another term.

We've reported a couple of times here about an intriguing-sounding, unnamed collaboration between Hong Kong superstars Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. Referred to as a "puzzle film," the movie is expected to be a 90 minute crime feature, with 30 minutes directed by each man, based on what has occurred in the previous section (there is not a screenplay for the film; each bit is being made independently, according to the desires and ideas of its director).

A couple of weeks ago it was revealed to the surprised of no one that To's long-time collaborator Simon Yam would star in his segment, and now further details about the film are starting to leak out. Though no cast members apart from Yam have been confirmed, it's expected that Louis Koo, Kelly Lin and Sun Honglei will also star in one or more segment. In addition, the film -- currently called Triangle -- now has a vague plotline from which Hark, who is at the helm of the first segment, will work. According to people at Twitch who can read the Chinese media, the film will start with "a few guys with little money and a lot to worry about [who] gather together to chat about how to get rich. Then a mysterious man sitting in the same room approaches them with a treasure map. ... To get their hand on the treasure, the map is only the first of a series puzzles they have to solve."

Frustratingly, there's still no reliable info available about shooting or release dates. Rest assured, however, that whether you like it or not, we'll let you know when those details emerge.