The most anticipated film of next year's Spring Festival, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2, a collaboration between two legendary Hong Kong filmmakers Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark, had its first teaser released in Beijing.
Chow, Tsui and cast members Kris Wu, Lin Gengxin, Bao Bei'er, Wang Duo, Yang Yiwei and basketball player-turned-actor Mengke Bateer attended a press conference to promote the film. Actress Yao Chen, a leading role in the film, was noticeably absent due to her pregnancy.
"King meets King," the film promoter claimed, referring to Chow as the "King of comedy" and Tsui as the "King of martial arts films." They had never worked together for an in-depth collaboration. Chow wrote and executive produced the film and Tsui directed it.
Directing a film based on China's ancient fantasy novel Journey to the West was a decades-long dream for Tsui Hark, but Chow had previously been involed in three Journey to the West movies.
Chow wrote the script and proposed it to Tsui. Tsui agreed to direct. "We finally did the Journey to the West together, I felt so good, and the collaboration is so good," he said.
Chow was deeply involved in the production, creative process and promotion. At the end scene of the first teaser released yesterday, Chow unexpectedly appeared with Tsui in a short clip and hilariously questioned why there were no special visual effects in the trailer.
The film will be released in Chinese theaters during the Spring Festival which falls on Jan 28 next year, the first day of China's most profitable film season of the year. During the Spring Festival this year, Chow's The Mermaid grossed 3.39 billion yuan ($517.3 million) to become the highest grossing Chinese film ever.