If Lau’s character (a kidnap victim) needs some rescuing in Ding Sheng’s “Saving Mr. Wu,” in Herman Yau’s “Shock Wave,” he’ll get to play the role of someone who can save the day. (Photo : Film Kingdom Group/YouTube)
Herman Yau will direct Andy Lau for the third time via the action thriller “Shock Wave,” where Lau will play the role of a bomb-disposal officer. Set in Hong Kong and scheduled for a 2017 release, the film will have cameras begin rolling in April.
With Hong Kong’s Cross-Harbour Tunnel and a bundle of explosives with one second remaining on the timer shown on a movie poster to stir interest, plus the names “Andy Lau” and “Herman Yau” appearing on it, moviegoers might patiently wait for the film’s release in 2017.
Yes, Hong Kong Cantopop singer-actor-producer Andy Lau and Hong Kong director-scriptwriter Herman Yau will once more team up for “Shock Wave,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The award-winning actor (“Running Out of Time,” “Running on Karma,” “Protégé” and “A Simple Life”) described his latest project as “a Hong Kong-style action thriller.”
“I hope to reach new heights with the Hong Kong action genre and the cops-and-robbers genre with this film,” said Lau to THR.
As a triad gang member in the 1991 action-comedy, “Don't Fool Me!” and a wealthy bachelor in the 1999 rom-com, “Fascination Amour,” this time Lau will be directed by Yau as a bomb-disposal officer in “Shock Wave.”
Budgeted at $23 million, the movie will begin filming in Hong Kong this April, according to THR.
While Lau played the role of a film producer in Hong Kong director-actress-producer Ann Hui’s internationally acclaimed 2011 drama, “A Simple Life,” the veteran actor has been doing it in real life for more than two decades now.
Lau formed the film production company Teamwork Motion Pictures Ltd. in 1991 and renamed it Focus Group Holdings Limited in 2004.
Focus Group presents itself as “a new energetic entity” and carries the vision of “establishing itself as one of the leading entertainment companies in Hong Kong,” according to its website.
In an interview with Robin and Yannis Polinacci during the 2002 Berlin Festival, Lau said that he became a producer “to rock the world of Hong Kong cinema a bit,” reported Cinemasie.
“There are many kinds of movies in Hong Kong. Some are commercial and others are more artistic. I became producer to try and create an equilibrium between these two styles,” said Lau to the Polinaccis.
Some of the more than a dozen movies Lau produced earned accolades.
In the international scene, “A Simple Life” won awards in Japan’s 4th Okinawa International Movie Festival, in Italy’s 68th Venice International Film Festival, in France’s 10th Paris International Film Festival and in Estonia’s 15th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The Deanie Ip-starrer film similarly collected awards from various local award-giving bodies.
In 2011, the Best Film award at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 17th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards went to Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng’s 2010 action-comedy, “Gallants.”
Fruit Chan’s 1997 drama, “Made in Hong Kong” bagged the Best Film and Best Director awards at the 17th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1998.
According to Cinemasie, Lau said that Chan is “an interesting director.”
Born Tak-Wah in Tai Po, Lau entered the entertainment world in the early '80s as a TV actor. Hong Kong’s TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) designated him as the “Fourth Tiger” for its “Five Tiger Generals of TVB” or simply “Five Tigers.”
Now 54, Lau raises his daughter Hanna together with his Malaysian Chinese wife, Carol Chu.
