Gallants | |
---|---|
Directed by |
Derek Kwok Clement Cheng |
Produced by | Gordon Lam |
Written by | Derek Kwok Clement Cheng Frankie Tam |
Starring |
Leung Siu-lung Chen Kuan-tai Teddy Robin Wong You-nam JJ Jia MC Jin Lo Mang |
Music by | Teddy Robin Tommy Wai |
Cinematography | O Sing-pui |
Edited by | Hui Wai-kit |
Production
company |
Focus Films
|
Distributed by | Focus Films |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
100 minutes |
Country | Hong Kong |
Language | Cantonese |
Gallants (Da lui toi 打擂台) is a 2010 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng, starring Leung Siu-lung, Chen Kuan-tai and Teddy Robin. The film is set in modern times, but is in the style of Hong Kong action comedy films from the 1960s and 1970s. The film premiered at the Hong Kong Film Festival on 26 March 2010. The film has received favorable reviews on its festival shows in North America.
In modern-day Hong Kong, Leung King-cheung (Wong You-nam) received a job from his real estate company to handle a dispute in a village in the New Territories. Leung arrives and meets with two old martial artists, Tiger (Leung Siu-lung) and Dragon (Chen Kuan-tai), who are being bullied by the young Chung Sang-mang (MC Jin) and his crew. Chung wants Dragon and Tiger to sell their lease on a tea house which was used as a training dojo by their comatose master Law San (Teddy Robin). When Law suddenly wakes up from his 30-year coma, he is determined to restart his school by taking on Chung and his master Pong Ching (Michael Chan).
Gallants is the directoral debut of Clement Cheng and the third film for his friend director Derek Kwok, as well as a production debut of actor Gordon Lam.
Gallants was originally conceived as being about a musical group in the 1960s and 1970s. One member suffers a stroke and begins to realize he has not done anything of importance in his life. Feeling that he may die soon, his last wish is to go back to his youth, find all his friends, and do one final show. Finding it difficult to sell the story about musicians, the writers changed the theme of the plot to being about kung fu masters instead. For the cast, Cheng and Kwok felt that if they could not get the actors Chen Kuan-tai and Bruce Leung, they would not make the film.