Welcome to a blockbuster Trailer Tuesday! We got some heavy hitting trailers that have me fired up to see these movies!

Let’s get right to it!

 

The Legend of Shaolin Temple

Directed by Stanley Tong

Starring Baoqing Wang, Haoran Liu, Man-Tat Ng, Dahong Ni

Plot: Debao (Baoqing Wang) is an innkeeper without ambition who does not hesitate to defraud his clients. But his little shenanigans were quickly revealed by a mysterious monk. Misfortunes never come alone, He Xiao, the governor of Lingzhou, kills the imperial envoy and takes the opportunity to accuse Debao. Overnight, Debao became a wanted criminal by the court. In order to get revenge, Debao begins to follow the monks to learn martial arts.

Film Fan Dojo reaction: Fresh off of Vanguard, director Stanley Tong takes us back to Shaolin Temple for a seemingly comedy homage to Jet Li’s 1982 Shaolin Temple. This time we get the underrated Baoqing Wang ( Kung Fu Jungle, The Monk Comes Down the Mountain, Detective Chinatown 2) as the title character and we get loads of Wushu style martial clips. We get homages to some of the classic scenes in 1982’s Shaolin Temple such as the waterfall practice, Drunken Staff, the cone-shaped water buckets, and of course the iconic one legged pose on the film poster. We get a glimpse of the fight scenes which are Wushu inspired, complete with the “hitting powder,” some wirework, staff work and the ever present Shaolin Iron headbutt! All in all this looks like  a fun homage to Jet Li’s Shaolin Temple and I am looking forward to seeing Baoqing Wang portray the character and bring his real life Shaolin Wushu (he was a student at Shaolin from 92-98) to the screen.

 

Raging Fire

Directed by Benny Chan

 Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Jeana Ho, Ray Lui, Patrick Tam

Plot: Shan (Yen) is a righteous cop who’s solved countless cases. One day, his past comes back to haunt him when his sting operation is attacked by a mysterious group of criminals led by Ngo (Tse), his former protégé. Ngo was once a talented cop who admired Shan. However, a terrible accident sent him to prison three years ago, transforming him into a furious man dead set on killing everyone who’s wronged him.

Film Fan Dojo reaction: Raging Fire is the late director Benny Chan’s last film. Donnie Yen has exchanged his black kung fu robe for some nice Western style clothes, badge, gun and a crazy adversary portrayed by Nicholas Tse in this tense action thriller. As is the case for many of these Chinese cop movies we are promised plenty of action judging by this trailer. I am probably in the minority as I am picky when it comes to Donnie Yen action.  Donnie Yen is a co-action director along with familiar names as action director Huen Chiu Ku aka Master Dee Dee (Into the Badlands, Monster Hunt, Wu Kong, The Shadow), Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon, Wu Xia, Special ID) and Kang Yu (Special ID, Big Brother, Iceman 3D, Iceman: the Time Traveler). With all these men and their enormous talent as well as their familiarity with “Donnie Yen style” action we should get some kinetic fight scenes complete with spectacular kicks, some ground and pound, and a general mixture of different martial arts flavors. It will be a mixed bag of emotions when I watch this film as I will be excited but sad since this is Benny Chan’s last film before his untimely passing in August 2020. Raging Fire is scheduled for Chinese release on July 30, 2021 ( we can hope for a Well Go USA release sometime later).

 

Shin Ultraman

Directed by Shinji Higuchi

 

Starring Masami Nagasawa, Takumi Saitoh, Hidetoshi Nishijima

Plot: An alien is out for justice and pursues a rogue criminal to a planet called earth. to atone for his deeds he leaves the power to transfer a human into a hero out for good and earthly protection.

Film Fan Dojo reaction: I am not going to lie, I am a HUGE Ultraman fan! As of late Ultraman has seen somewhat of a resurgence ( along with Kong and Godzilla): Marvel has an Ultraman comic series, new toys are being released, Mill Creek Entertainment have been releasing various Ultraman series on DVD/Blu-Ray, Netflix Ultraman Anime, and now Shin Ultraman! This time we are going back to the Ultraman origin days with an all new cast and modern special effects! even the Beta Capsule is on the new poster! Now to the teaser trailer! We are treated to shots of tanks and police mobilizing , the Space Science Patrol pin, dog tags, 2 Kaiju: Gabora and Neronga.

And finally we get the shot of Ultraman rising like the hero he is to kick some Kaiju ass! Shin Ultram has a 2021 release date in Japan.

 

Are you excited as I am for these trailers? Let me know in the comments and have a great Trailer Tuesday!