‘The Lost Bladesman’ Has Been Found by Weinstein

The duo (Felix Chong and Alan Mak) partially behind the Internal Affairs trilogy have a new historical martial-arts picture in the can called The Lost Bladesman. To see it in the States, you’ll need to hand over a bit of your hard-earned cash to the Weinstein Company, who have just announced their acquisition of US distribution rights. History has not been kind to past Asian acquisitions by the infamous brothers, who are known for sitting on projects for years, likely trying to calculate how they can trick all those people into seeing a subtitled film. Bladesman was produced by Shanghai Film Group (24 City, Ip Man) and Star Union Skykee Film Investment (Ip Man 2). China will get their first look at the film at the end of April, so one can hope to see it in US theatres at some point in 2011. 

Gist: This is an adventure film about Guan Yu, one of the greatest warriors who had a hand in the civil war which led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty. It focuses on Guan’s mythical crossing of five passes and the slaying of six generals, culminating in the battle between himself and his best friend over the woman they both love. Is it just me, or this essentially Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? Anyway, expect this be more in the style of the ultra-picturesque historical Chinese films (ala Hero), and not modeled off of a retro video game.

Worth Noting: Guan Yu has been featured in a number of films, many of which have, for some reason, popped up in the last decade (the most recent being John Woo’s Red Cliff). Of course, while Guan Yu is an important historical figure in Chinese history, his passes and slayings as represented in this film are fictitious, and derive from the Chinese classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a 14th century work by Luo Guanzhong that is widely thought to be the most-read piece of literature in modern China.

Do We Care?: These guys are largely responsible for one of the most successful Chinese trilogies ever, and it’s great to see them behind the camera (the jury is still out on Overhead). The Weinstein factor is an interesting bit. They’ve not really dabbled in Chinese cinema, so it will be curious to see how their marketing pans out for it. Can we expect a PG-13 version if it gets too graphic? It’s a safe bet.