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By François - November 2003 |
After directing Andy Lau in Fighter's Blues in 2000, it took three years for director Daniel Lee to release another movie in Hong-Kong, which can be considered as some kind of prequel of Fighter's Blues (the chinese title meaning "Young Ah Fu", when the chinese title of Fighter's Blues means "Ah Fu"). The characters are not the same however, but the two movies have one thing in common: the ring. When Fighter's Blues was talking about a redemption, Star Runner talks about what goals you may have in life, and what you are ready to do to achieve them.
The movie is a mix of countries, genres, and generations. Countries as there are actors from many places, like Korea for the main actress (Kim Hyun-Joo), Taiwan for the main actor (Vanness Wu), and Hong-Kong for most of the cast (Gordon Liu, Ti Lung, Max Mok...). Countries also for the locations (Manchuria, Hong-Kong), styles (Russian and Mexican style music by Daniel Lee's favorite composer, Henry Lai...). Genres as the movie will mix a love story with some martial art action and human drama. Generations as the cast contains some promising young actors (Vanness Wu, Andy On), some well known actors from the 80's and 90's (Chin Ka-Lok, Max Mok), and some Shaw Brothers Legends (Gordon Liu, Ti Lung). As usually, director Daniel Lee tries to find the chemistry between various elements, just like a painter tries to find the appropriate colors, shapes and movements to draw the best painting.
Concerning the fights' part, Daniel Lee was helped by some famous Hong-Kongese martial artists (Billy Chow, Chin Ka-Lok), as well as by some experts in various martial arts. This very realistic style of fights mixed with Daniel Lee's strong sense of images and human feelings leads to a very unique approach of action scenes once again. At a period when martial art movies are looking for a new style after a long period of absence, Star Runner is maybe the movie which could gather fans of raw and pure martial arts as well as fans of high quality production values and meaningful plots.
We propose you to find out more about this movie through various articles.
First part, an interview with Black Mask 2 in the flesh, Andy On, a very friendly and nice guy, who talks about his career and Tank, his character in Star Runner. Second part, an interview with Henry Lai, who is now a kind of "official composer" for Daniel Lee, and whose soundtrack for Star Runner is another very active actor in the movie.
Part 1
Star Runner File