Finnish- born filmmaker Renny Harlin has had quite the colourful career. With such acclaimed action hits as “Die Hard 2”, “Cliffhanger”, and “Deep Blue Sea” to his name, he would later make the jump to directing in the Chinese film industry with the 2016 action-comedy “Skiptrace” starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville. Now, Mr. Harlin is venturing into the video game movie subgenre with the wire-fu fantasy adventure “Legend of the Ancient Sword”, which you can see the newly released trailer for below!
Based upon the Chinese role-playing game “Gu Jian Qi Tan”, the film is being produced by Alibaba Pictures, the film production arm of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group. The film stars Leehom Wang in the role of Yue Wuyi, an exponent of the dying martial art form known as “Yanjia,” which grants supernatural abilities to its most advanced practitioners.
In the midst of his adventures, Yue teams up with fellow warriors Wen Renyu, Xia Yize, and Ah Yuan, respectively played by Victoria Song, Godfrey Gao, and Karena Ng, to uncover the missing pieces of the “Sword of Enlightenment”, in order to put a stop to the machinations of Chen Ye, the grand priest of Liu Yue City, who plans to unleash a nefarious plot that could spell doom for the world.
“Gu Jian Qi Tan” draws heavy influence from the wuxia genre, and that’s clearly been carried over into the film. With the reputation of video game movies slowly but surely climbing out of the gutter its spent most it existence in (thanks to the like of “Mortal Kombat: Legacy“, “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist“, “Assassin’s Creed“, and “Tomb Raider”), it would be very poetic indeed if one of China’s console titles helped kill that curse amid the nation’s economic ascendency. If you’re unfamiliar with “Gu Jian Qi Tan”, check out some gameplay footage from the series’ second title below!
“Legend of the Ancient Sword” is set to hit theaters in China on October 1st. Stay tuned for more info on the film’s release in the English-speaking world. In the meantime – what are your thoughts on the trailer, have you played “Gu Jian Qi Tan”? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram. (Explore more legends, sword-FU and much more along with KFK’s martial arts news!)
