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The author of this article is @鬼脚七 from Xiaowan family. The only function of movies is to make life more interesting than movies.

In recent years, there is a work that has always been a frequent guest on the "Generation Missing" new film expectation list. Every time I hear news about it, I always sigh, "Why hasn't it been released yet?"

Recently, this mysterious new work finally had new news from the producer, and fans and moviegoers can count the days.

That’s right, “Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano” is finally expected to be released this year.

According to media reports, Chen Luochao, the producer of "The Besieged City of Kowloon", stated at a recent media event that there has been new progress in the release date of "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" and it is currently expected to be released in December at the end of the year.

Although this news has not been confirmed, for fans who have been following the film for years, from anticipation to anxiety, and then disappointment, to the point of "blocking" all news, and now finally waiting for new developments, they just hope that the film can be released smoothly.

Chen Luochao said that "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" will be released this year

Looking back, "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano", which brings together four handsome men including Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Lau Ching-wan and Louis Koo, as well as actors from different generations including Gao Yuanyuan, Alex To, Jiang Pei-yao, Wyman Wong, Lowell Lo and Kam Kwok-leung, was announced in 2015 and started filming in 2017, a long time ago.

Like the film itself, its director Juno Mak has also been missing for seven years.

In fact, to be more precise, at the beginning of filming of "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano", what really attracted our attention was Juno Mak.

As a famous "rich second generation" in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, we will not talk about how Junlong Mak proved himself step by step in music. After he decided to cross over to become a film director, he was of course greeted with a second round of doubts and people waiting to laugh at him.

In 2013, Juno Mak made his directorial debut "Zombie", which received 9 nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Kara Hui won the Best Supporting Actress award for this film. The film also snatched a Best Visual Effects award from the popular "The Grandmaster" that year. It can be said to be the biggest surprise.

In this work that pays tribute to the tradition of Hong Kong zombie films, Juno Mak gave a very sincere and humble answer.

Whether it was the reappearance of veteran actors such as Chin Siu-ho, Ng Man-tat, Alex Man, and Lo Mang, who might have been forgotten by Hong Kong films at the time, or the inclusion of a photo of Lam Ching-ying as a tribute, as well as the numerous cinephilic homages in the film, all of these made horror film fans quite upset.

Mak Junlong's sincerity touched many people back then. He has watched these classic works, loves them, and brought them back to the screen in his own way. This is truly commendable in today's society where everything is about pursuing benefits and returns.

It is not difficult to understand why when Mak Junlong's second directorial work "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" began to be prepared, Hong Kong film fans were full of expectations and imagination for this new work.

We don’t know much about the film’s content. For example, the film tells the story of an accident that led to the death of a wealthy businessman, but after his death, a series of disputes surrounding drugs were triggered, which sounds a lot like “Underworld”;

For example, a large number of stills from the film suggest that the film may be in black and white, which is very personal; for another example, it is said that the film is a crime story that takes place in the snow, yes, a snowy Hong Kong.

But all of this is not enough. What really makes us look forward to is that if in "Zombie" Mak Junlong showed us an era of Hong Kong horror films that is so familiar yet novel, then in "Wind, Forest, Volcano" what kind of Hong Kong action film era will he take us back to?

For Hong Kong films of that year, audiences were expecting a "new color" to emerge that would break the formula of action films, and the best candidate was undoubtedly "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano".

In the film's cast list, we can also see an interesting cast like that of "Zombie": in addition to hardworking actors like Tony Leung, Lau Ching-wan, and Louis Koo, there is also Takeshi Kaneshiro who has not appeared on the big screen for many years, and even Wyman Wong, Alex To, and Liu Yong, which are castings that audiences familiar with Hong Kong films and the Hong Kong entertainment industry can better appreciate.

It was under such high expectations that "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" began to become a regular on the annual outlook list, and this wait lasted for seven years.

There have actually been various rumors about why there has been no news about "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" yet.

At first, it was said that the budget was overrun. In order to shoot a large-scale explosion scene, Juno Mak built a 1:1 real scene in Causeway Bay. In order to shoot a snowy scene in Hong Kong, the entire street was covered with artificial snow in a high temperature of 30 degrees.

Set photos

Of course, the budget is only one aspect. Subsequently, various news came out, such as that due to the actors' respective schedules and differences of opinion on filming, reshoots and post-production were seriously delayed.

Although these rumors have not been officially confirmed, for movie fans, after waiting for several years without even hearing basic news, they can only rely on rumors to comfort themselves.

The reasons for the delay in the progress of "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" in recent years are relatively clear. On the one hand, it is the objective factors caused by the epidemic. On the other hand, after the death of the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Juno Mak also said that he was looking for someone to do the mixing again.

In any case, after so many years of ups and downs, "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" finally received news of its release, and all these years of waiting finally had a good result.

However, we also have to face a perhaps more cruel question: Will "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" still satisfy everyone?

Chen Luochao also said in his speech, "The film shows the actors' appearance 5 or 6 years ago. I don't know if everyone can accept it." In fact, what has changed over the years is not just the actors' appearance and image, but more about the changes in the market and the shifting tastes of the audience.

If in 2015, audiences expected "Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" to be a "different" Hong Kong action film, then in the past decade or so, Hong Kong films have had "Trees Draw the Wind", "Chasing the Dragon", "SPL 2", "Teeth", "Raging Fire", "Murder", and the hit "Kowloon Walled City: The Besieged City" released in May.

These all represent different Hong Kong-style crime action films. The resurgence of this genre has allowed movie fans and the market to feel that the "Hong Kong film" is not so easy to disappear.

"Wind, Forest, Fire and Volcano" will either be the one that surprises the audience, or it may just be "nothing special" which leads to greater disappointment as the expectations grow. We will find out after the film is successfully released in mainland China.

Note: Some of the pictures in this article are from Douban and the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us.

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