cold war 2 ( film )
cold war 2 寒战 2 - final trailer - opens in sg 08. 07
• cold war 2 opens in cinemas tomorrow. look out for interviews with cold war 2 stars aaron kwok and eddie peng on saturday .
eddie peng yuyan in
cold war 2 .
( wellgo usa entertainment )
hksar film no top 10 box office: [ 2015. 12. 09 ] cold war 2 wraps up production
crime thriller, “ cold war 2 ” has become the highest grossing chinese - language film of all time in hong kong .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing cold war 2 near you .
cold war 2 is produced by hong kong' s edko films, and is slated for a july 2016 release .
longman leung and sunny luk, the directors of
cold war 2 ,
have expressed their gratitude to viewers for the good reception of the film .
taiwanese actor tony yang, who plays a cop - turned - mercenary, is another new addition to the cold war 2 cast .
cold war 2 is competently plotted, tautly edited and superbly acted across the board. this is a political thriller that deserves the billing .
actors of cold war 2 (from far left) eddie peng, chow yun fat and aaron kwok at the press conference on tuesday .
cold war 2
has been one of the most talked - about films following its announcement. it is the continuation of the 2012 film released under the same name .
dubious claims of municipal safety aside,' cold war 2' is a smart blockbuster that showcases the best of mainstream hong kong cinema today .
summary: dubious claims of municipal safety aside, cold war 2 is a smart blockbuster that showcases the best of mainstream hong kong cinema today .
' cold war' was the top - grossing hong kong film in 2012 and took $ 40 million at the chinese box office .
i do not like ending of the cold war. well, because they want a sequel .
train to busan has now eclipsed the hk $ 66. 2 million box office takings of hong kong crime thriller cold war 2 to become the highest - grossing asian film in hong kong cinema history, and sits at 16th on hong kong’s all - time box office chart .
in cold war 2, chow, 61, plays councillor kan, a powerful lawmaker who resists being made a pivotal pawn in a high stakes game of political maneuvering .
dc entertainment, dceu, diana prince, gal gadot, patty jenkins, questions, steve trevor, the cold war, warner bros. , wonder woman, wonder woman 2
cold war 2
features the original cast of the first film including aaron kwok, who played the lead role of sean lau, and tony leung, who played the part of kwok' s rival, waise lee .
if cold war 2' s complex plot confuses you, rest assured that you are not alone - the stars of the new police thriller say they were equally puzzled over the storyline .
2. avengers: age of ultron (hk $ 133. 1 million )
6. transformers: age of extinction (hk $ 98. 2 million )
fat gor will reportedly star as the main villain in cold war 2, engaging in battles of wits with aaron kwok, tony leung, and new cast member, kenneth tsang (曾江) .
hong kong superstar chow yun - fat has joined the cast of cold war 2, the sequel to the 2012 award - winning blockbuster that took in $ 40 million at the chinese box office .
now comes “ cold war 2, ” which may be incomprehensible for those unfamiliar with the original, but it is a summer sequel worth its salt, a brisk exercise in suspense and high - gloss mayhem .
it' s comforting to know that hollywood isn' t the only place that produces needless sequels to box - office hits. case in point :
cold war 2 ,
the underwhelming follow - up to hong kong' s highest - grossing domestic film of 2012 .
the film cold war 2 (hong jin 2) earlier wrapped up production. the team shot on the overpass outside the wanchai police headquarters early in the morning. in the scene gordon lam ka tung who passed away in the previous film received a honorary funeral. almost 300 extras played police officers and marching band members. the team was present at 4am to prepare and rehearse in order to coordinate with the 6am morning sun .
hong kong superstar chow yun - fat (“crouching tiger, hidden dragon”) will star in “ cold war 2, ” the sequel to the 2012 action thriller, which saw police under siege, and betrayed by a mole .
reviewed at shanghai film festival (opener), june 11, 2016. running time: 110 min. original title :
hon jeen 2 .
sleek cinematography, perky editing and several stunning locations enliven the proceedings, but a finale that telegraphs
cold war 3
is disheartening .
the movie continued to thrive in the box office throughout the whole weekend in china .
cold war 2
earned $ 44 million in the country since its opening, and finished on the number one spot in the weekend box office .
15. harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 2 (hk $ 76. 8 million )
according to production details on a sequel obtained by screenrant ,
wonder woman 2
may take place in the 1980s, amid the cold war. the shocker, though, is that chris pine' s steve trevor may return, despite his heroic and sacrificial feat at the end of the first film .
with the first cold war and last year’s helios, luk and leung risked becoming synonymous with the clunky one - liners and pompous terrorist plots that peppered their first two features. but though cold war 2 fails to provide closure – yet again – it is at least far more competently plotted and tautly edited, and superbly acted across the board. this is a political thriller that deserves the billing .
on the other hand, in china ,
cold war 2
is said to have bagged $ 15 million on its opening day. the movie is now considered the highest - grossing crime thriller in china, and is also the first film under its genre to surpass $ 15 million mark, according to jaynestars .
although it has been 18 years since chow yun fat last worked on a hong kong film, the actor is still highly supportive of hong kong’s local productions. he is a regularly supporter of tvb dramas and was a vocal supporter of cold war when the film opened in november 2012. fat gor praised cold war’s script and aaron’s improved acting, also expressing that he hopes to have a chance to work with aaron again soon .
the story of cold war 2 will kick off after the end of the first film. aaron kwok will return to star as dcp sean lau, who is now promoted to commissioner of police after the success of the cold war rescue operation. the main villain – who was briefly mentioned in the first film – returns to the scene to kidnap sean’s wife and daughter. sean convinces former rival, the retired dcp of operations officer waise lee (tony leung), to return to his post to help sean solve the tricky kidnapping case .
as we will see, film critics performed a very similar operation in readings of dozens of films as blacklist or cold war allegories. these films cut across a wide range of genres and cover the entire gamut of the political spectrum. yet they all share at least one thing. they rely on a similar set of events to heighten and strengthen the analogies drawn between the film' s dramatis personae and the totems of cold war political culture .
produced by hong kong’s edko films, it is written and directed by sunny luk and longman leung. the first “cold war, ” in 2012, was hong kong’s top grossing film that year and went on to win 9 major prizes at the hong kong film awards, including best picture .
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slow to heat up yet quick to burn out, police procedural - thriller “cold war 2” dramatizes internal strife and conspiracy among hong kong’s police force and ruling elite, adding some new twists in a narrative framework that ultimately can’t support the film. still, directing duo longman leung and sunny luk do an admirable job walking the [ … ]
crime thriller, “cold war 2” has become the highest grossing chinese - language film of all time in hong kong. the film has grossed us $ 8. 48 million (hk $ 65. 8 million) after 24 days on release in its hong kong home territory. it overtook previous record holder, the taiwanese - made “you are the apple of my eye. ” including results from mainland [ … ]
cold war, about the hijacking of a police car and the attempt to regain control of it, was the highest - grossing hong kong film in 2012, taking in $ 5. 8 million in local box office. it garnered nine awards at the hong kong film awards, including best film, best director, best screenplay and best actor for leung ka - fai .
when discussing about the possible topics to explore in cold war 2, sunny luk explained that the sequel will explore the answers to questions that were previously left hanging in the first film. he said, “the first film had three major pending questions, which will all be answered in the sequel. one – the sequel will uncover who the main villain is, the leader who was behind the hijacking case in the first film. two – the sequel will explore the backgrounds of the hijackers; and three – the film will explain what the md57 document was. ”
this film is about two deputy commissioners of police dealing with the mysterious disappearance of a police car along with its five police officers .
cold war
wastes no time in building up suspense and thrill. within a minute we already have an explosion in the middle of the most popular hang out place in hong kong. after that, the action never stops. the plot is very fast paced, it twists and turns in unexpected directions every few minutes. it is so engaging, the story is so grippingly told, that i was completely transfixed. my mind was blank with no distracted thoughts. i was simply in awe throughout the film .
cold war
is so brilliant, from the intelligent plot, the star studded ensemble, the intense action, beautiful cinematography and great acting. everything about
cold war
is outstanding. i have heard great things about
cold war
. not only does it live up to its expectations, it certainly surpasses every single praise i have heard. in fact ,
cold war
is undoubtedly, undeniable the best hong kong film i have ever watched. i never even imagined hong kong cinema can be this excellent. words fail to describe how outstanding
cold war
is. i unreservedly recommend this film to anyone .
made in hong kong by local creators and featuring some of hong kong cinema’s brightest luminaries over the past few decades, cold war 2 is undoubtedly a homegrown triumph. despite suffering top - down pressure from the hinterland (a state of matters subtly hinted at in the film) and competition from a certain southeast asian island nation, the flame of hong kong cinema still burns as bright as ever, if this film is any indication .
kwok, who reprises his cold war (2012) character of the hong kong commissioner of police in the sequel, said half - jokingly with a laugh :
i, too, didn' t really understand anything in this film .
while the story may seem heavy handed for some, cold war 2 keeps from drowning in its own narrative by using great set pieces and action to balance out it' s pace. for all the great tension building that is presented keeping you constantly guessing the motives behind the main characters in the film, it is the dynamic action that keeps you on edge .
4. captain america: civil war (hk $ 113. 5 million )
once in a blue moon, a scrappy film comes along to win over the world and mystify its few detractors. never known for being an ornery contrarian, this critic was one of the few people who weren’t at all convinced by cold war, the highest - grossing hong kong film in 2012 and the winner of nine prizes at the hong kong film awards, including, astoundingly, best picture .
to this, taiwanese hottie eddie peng, who plays a villainous ex - policeman in the film, piped in :
that' s why you have to watch this, and then watch cold war 3 in the future to figure things out .
the first “ cold war ” was the highest grossing hong kong film of 2012, earning us $ 5. 78 million (hk $ 44. 9 million) at the local box office and us $ 40 million (rmb253 million) in china .
the film has grossed us $ 8. 48 million (hk $ 65. 8 million) after 24 days on release in its hong kong home territory. it overtook previous record holder, the taiwanese - made “you are the apple of my eye. ” including results from mainland china and other territories, “ cold war 2 ” has a global cumulative of $ 115 million to date .
slow to heat up yet quick to burn out, police procedural - thriller “ cold war 2 ” dramatizes internal strife and conspiracy among hong kong’s police force and ruling elite, adding some new twists in a narrative framework that ultimately can’t support the film. still, directing duo longman leung and sunny luk do an admirable job walking the tightrope of servicing the mainland market while making an eloquent defense of the former british colony’s benchmarks, namely rule of law and clean governance. “cold war” was hong kong’s highest grossing domestic film in 2012; the sequel’s stellar cast has helped secure sales to nine asian countries, but it’s probably heading for middling business in china .
it also dominated the hong kong film awards, collecting nine prizes including best film, best director, best screenplay and best actor for tony leung ka fai .
china envoy seeks to defuse tensions with u. s. as a trade war brews
without the lingering goodwill from the first flick, this overcooked sequel would have left me totally cold .
the directors let on that the first movie’s beloved bad boy joe lee, played by taiwanese actor eddie peng, 33, gets even more screen time. “when cold war 2 opened the shanghai international film festival, and eddie’s chillingly bad boy was unveiled, the ladies kept screaming for him. it turns out that girls simply love seeing him play a bad boy, ” the two directors laughed .
brushing off rumours that they waited four years to make cold war 2 just to work around a free spot in chow’s busy film schedule, the two explained that it was because they took a longer to develop the script. “the script was nine months late. but, a good script takes time. with a cast like that, we could not simply dash out a script, ” said luk .
set during the 1980s, the film will send diana against the forces of soviet union in the closing days of the cold war. the production team is expected to remain on board for the sequel, with confirmation that geoff johns is developing wonder woman 2‘s script with jenkins (who is still in negotiations, with all evidence and word of mouth pointing to her return once the contracts are signed) .
the new crime thriller
cold war 2
won the weekend box office competition in china and hong kong. the movie reportedly earned $ 690, 000 on its opening on july 8, beating stephen chow' s
mermaid ,
which garnered $ 670, 000 when it opened during the lunar new year holiday .
rounding out the five highest - grossing asian films in hong kong, after train to busan and cold war 2, are you are the apple of my eye (hk $ 61. 9 million), kung fu hustle (hk $ 61. 3 million) and shaolin soccer (hk $ 60. 7 million) .
a hit in hong kong, the 2012 crime film “cold war” went straight to video in the united states — too bad because it’s a tense, engaging thriller that deftly plays with a template partially established by “ infernal affairs, ” an influential genre exercise that appeared in 2002 .
cold war 2
broke records in the hong kong and chinese box offices, earning more than $ 600, 000 on friday, and later taking home an estimated amount of $ 970, 000 in hong kong on saturday. the movie surpassed yet another one of stephen chow' s films ,
kung fu hustle .
movie news, screening invitations and reviews from the world of independent film and beyond .
besides its impressive box - offie haul, cold war was also the biggest winner at the 2013 hong kong film awards, bagging nine awards: best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actor (for tony leung ka fai), best new performer (alex tsui), best editing, best sound design, best visual effects, and best original film score .
hong kong media reported that william kong (江志強), the producer of cold war, has an interest in inviting chow yun fat to portray the film’s main villain. kenneth tsang was also cast to portray tony leung’s father, who will have a secret connection with chow yun fat’s character .
cold war 2, which opens in cinemas tomorrow, picks up from where the first movie left off, with peng' s villainous ex - cop character behind bars for kidnapping police officers. however, kwok' s character receives a mysterious telephone call demanding that he release peng' s character, or his wife and daughter will suffer the consequences .
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with its cast of hong kong cinema’s finest, the film makes an engrossing spectacle of how public servants – including those at the very top level – could be corrupted by power. while not exactly meant to reflect the public’s more ambivalent sentiment towards the police force in these post - occupy times, cold war 2 makes a point of pillorying politicians who exploit the legislature and the police force to purge their opponents. still, it can get awfully conceited at times .
the director announced after the wrap, actors sing sing and charlie yeung choi nei immediately went from actors to photo opportunity targets. then sing sing worked on an additional shot. after that, the directors and the boss gave sing sing a champagne surprise for a
finale wrap
. sing sing said ,
i hope soon there will be cold war 4, 5, 6 and break the most films in a series record, exceed the wong fei hung film series. even in cold war 20, at age 80 i would still be working !
he said that this time in comparison to cold war, he had better chemistry with the entire team and tony leung ka fai. he was also happy about fat gor' s addition .
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according to screenrant, the sequel will see diana prince battling the soviet union in the dying days of the cold war – after her first solo outing saw the dc comics hero fighting in the trenches of the western front .
whereas the first film pitted rival police departments against one another, cold war 2 sees law enforcement go up against the city’s legislature as lau is reprimanded for his actions, with independent litigator oswald kan (chow yun fat) brought in to oversee the hearings. the situation is further muddied when lee is cajoled into returning to work by former commissioner choi (chang kuo chu), whose shady cadre of power - mongers want lee to replace lau in their planned political reshuffle .
hong kong superstar chow yun - fat (“crouching tiger, hidden dragon”) will star in “cold war 2, ” the sequel to the 2012 action thriller, which saw police under siege, and betrayed by a mole. production recently began with co - directors longman leung and sunny luk again at the helm. also returning are major cast members aaron kwok, tony [ … ]
“cold war” ended with m. b. turning in renegade son joe (eddie peng) for orchestrating the disappearance of an armored police van. as in the original, “ cold war 2 ” conspicuously extols hong kong as “asia’s safest city, ” yet the events that unfold suggest it’s any but, starting off with a hostage crisis that goes terribly wrong on a crowded subway, with new police commissioner sean humiliatingly handcuffed to a bomb. it’s all an elaborate stunt to get joe out of prison, and sean’s leadership is called into question by an investigative committee appointed by the legislative council (legco) .
2. glittering generalities -
the propagandist identifies his program with virtue by use of' virtue words,'
such as truth, freedom, justice .
the undead have come spectacularly alive in hong kong cinemas: train to busan has taken more than hk $ 66. 3 million in its first 34 days in cinemas, making it the most watched asian cinema release in the city’s history – beating every chinese - language film ever shown. not only that, it has become the biggest - selling zombie film in hong kong history, eclipsing world war z, which took in hk $ 46. 2 million .
although framing effects are evident in individual interpretations of specific films, other cognitive biases and heuristics are evident in the collective work of the critical community. as i noted earlier, the development of particular interpretive strategies in relation to cold war - era cinema took place over time. appearing around the same time as a more general rapprochement with the blacklist era, these critical commentaries contributed to the elaboration of a specific reading formation that allied cold war cinema with allegorical expression. after the establishment of a small group of canonical cold war allegories, such as the crucible and high noon, later critics who engaged in this critical enterprise relied on the availability heuristic to expand the category to include other members .
starring: aaron kwok, tony ka fai leung and yun - fat chow cold war 2 official trailer 1 (2016) - aaron kwok movie rival police chiefs clash in the streets and station after a killer makes a desperate escape. subscribe to indie & film festivals: urltoken subscribe to trailers: urltoken subscribe to coming soon: urltoken like us on facebook: urltoken follow us on twitter: urltoken you' re quite the artsy one, aren' t you? fandango movieclips film festivals & indie trailers is the destination for... well, all things related to film festivals & indie films. if you want to keep up with the latest festival news, art house openings, indie movie content, film reviews, and so much more, then you have found the right channel .
an article on nov. 25 about the film director oliver stone misidentified the television network that originally broadcast the british documentary “the world at war” in 1973 - 74. it was itv, not the bbc .
it has been 18 years since chow yun fat (周潤發) has last starred in a hong kong film. yesterday, the hong kong media reported that the international star is considering to star in sunny luk (陸劍青) and longman leung’s (梁樂民) upcoming sequel to their successful 2012 crime thriller, cold war < 寒戰 > .
2. the problem of recalcitrant data (i. e. , how to adjust one' s critical concepts and methods to the specific features of the text )
( 梁家輝), has been a massive box office success. the film is currently the highest - grossing local film in hong kong, grossing over $ 43 million hkd in the hong kong box office .
thankfully, the writer - directors offset these scenes of confrontation over procedural anomalies by staging numerous sequences of high octane action in public places. whether it be a bomb scare in a crowded mtr station, a shootout in a subterranean highway tunnel, or an explosive stand - off in an isolated scrapyard, the action in cold war 2 - again overseen by chin ka lok - is far superior to its predecessor .
the first cold war ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger, with an unknown perpetrator threatening the lives of police commissioner sean lau’s (aaron kwok) wife and daughter. barring a brief interlude to mourn fallen colleagues, cold war 2 begins right where its predecessor left off, with worst - son - of - the - year joe lee (eddie peng) once again up to his old tricks. when lee junior escapes police custody, dear old dad waise lee (tony leung ka fai) is brought back into the fold after enjoying a scant two days of pre - retirement leave. as if the return of his old rival wasn’t enough, sean is also targeted by his enemies within the police force for the fiasco that was operation cold war. with his family in danger and an impeachment looming, sean has to marshal his allies to discover who is really pulling the strings behind the scenes .
it should be difficult to keep track of who everyone is and what they’re doing, but cold war 2 ’s plot is so taut and its use of its numerous characters so economical that one rarely feels lost even as new faces and plot twists continue to bombard the screen. directors sunny luk and longman leung also served as the film’s screenwriters, and they appear to have a very clear picture of what their endgame is, picking up loose threads from the first film and introducing new ones with adept perspicacity. this reviewer watched the first film shortly before the second one, and was amazed at how neatly everything adds up. if some questions are still unresolved, that’s only because luk and leung are looking ahead to the upcoming third instalment .
an article on nov. 25 about the film director oliver stone misstated the name of the city in spain where his latest film, “savages, ” was screened. it was san sebastián, not st. sebastián .
list of illustrations list of tables acknowledgments introduction: what more can be said about the hollywood blacklist? 1. a bifocal view of hollywood during the blacklist period: film as propaganda and allegory 2. i was a communist for rko: hollywood anti - communism and the problem of representing political beliefs 3. reds and blacks: representing race in anti - communist films 4. stoolies, cheese - eaters, and tie sellers: genre, allegory, and the huac informer 5. the cross and the sickle: allegorical representations of the blacklist in historical films 6. roaming the plains along the “new frontier”: the western as allegory of the blacklist and the cold war 7. loving the alien: science fiction cinema as cold war allegory conclusion: old wounds and the texas sharpshooter notes bibliography index
at the heart of captain america: civil war is an amazing shape - shifting ability. it is a film that confronts the consequences of super - heroic intervention, while also providing a popcorn - worthy bang - pow experience .
cold war 2’ s roster of top - tier players, which also includes eddie peng, charlie young and janice man, should entice audiences back for more, while the film’s up - scaled action quota will help it compete in a crowded summer marketplace dominated by hollywood blockbusters. opening day - and - date in hong kong, china and north america on july 8, as well as in a number of asian territories, will also help the film make a strong impact. the only cause for concern may be if hong kong audiences, still reeling from the police’s heavy - handed behaviour during 2014’s umbrella revolution, prove reluctant to embrace heroic law enforcers again so soon .
2013 (12th) asian film festival of dallas - july 11 - 18, 2013 * u. s. southwest premiere
this year' s
wonder woman
film received so much praise that calls for a sequel sounded off almost immediately .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
but the machinations are just a pretext for such sequences as an escape in a crowded transit station and pursuits involving multiple teams of cars. the location work may have you pondering a hong kong vacation, which could be the goal. the movie refers to the city as the safest in asia and touts its status as a financial capital, even as the portrait of corruption — with absurd power plays that involve characters predicting moves many steps in advance — makes it seem like a dicey place to park cash. whatever it does for tourism, “cold war 2” helps affirm hong kong’s film industry as a sturdy action factory .
as for the possibility of a cold war 3, leung said they were waiting to see the response from the audience. “honestly, we already have a framework. but, good things take time to develop. most importantly, we have to go about doing things the proper way. ”
making meaning also proves quite useful for understanding blacklist and cold war interpretations. early in his book, bordwell draws an important distinction between comprehension and interpretation. on one hand, comprehension involves the viewer' s or critic' s construction of referential and explicit meanings that are cued by the formal properties of the film. referential meanings are built up by the viewer in the process of constructing the film' s fictional world and the events of the story. explicit meanings are a literal construal of a film' s meaning, the message or
point
of the story that the film overtly communicates. interpretation, on the other hand, involves the viewer' s or critic' s construction of a text' s implicit and symptomatic meanings. implicit meanings are covert or symbolic and are typically expressed as themes that the film critic explicates in reading the film. symptomatic meanings are repressed, unspoken meanings in a text that critics extract by uncovering structuring absences within the work, which are then traced back to economic, political, or ideological factors .
chow yun fat’s wife and manager, jasmine tan (陳薈蓮), stated in a phone interview yesterday, “we’ve had preliminary discussions. the script is not even out yet, so let’s wait until he reads the script first! as long as the script is good, it doesn’t matter if it’s a hong kong film, a co - production film, or a hollywood film. fat gor is also currently in talks to do several other films this year as well. in april, he will film wong jing’s (王晶) new movie. in the second half of the year, he will film an american movie. ”
as we reported yesterday, all signs point to wonder woman’s sequel taking place in the 1980’s, peak cold war, with some sort of soviet adversary. it’s unclear why diana, ostensibly a neutral party in “the world of men, ” would take america’s side—she ended up taking on germany in wonder woman because of her alliance with steve trevor and the german attack on the amazons. had a brave citizen from the central powers been the first to end up in themyscira and befriend her, well, that would’ve been a very different movie. and considering that the cold war is a much murkier conflict that lacks the traditional war - movie battlefield, it’ll be interesting to see how she’s positioned and what her motivation is .
... an odd - and oddly entertaining - type of cop thriller: interdepartmental power play directed like an action film .
scripted by luk, leung and jack ng wai - lun with unusual respect for procedural justice (when it suits the story), cold war 2 then enters uncharted territory: lau finds himself the target of an impeachment hearing in the legislative council. an influential lawyer and independent legislator, oswald kan (chow yun - fat), carries out the grilling. as it transpires, m. b. has joined his son and other shady ex - cops to take down lau in a larger political conspiracy .
recent research on cold war europe has sketched the image of a deeply interconnected continent, with cultural exchanges, travel and tourism, scientific collaborations, and the like creating dense networks between countries on both sides of the “iron curtain, ” and beyond. media scholars, similarly, have begun to trace the active collaborations between eastern and western european broadcasting institutions; the networks formed by artists and technicians at and through film festivals; the movement of samizdat and tamizdat texts; and the relationships between professionals in specialized fields such as children’s entertainment, television, and industrial film .
as dana polan and others have pointed out, there is a long history of academic interest in film as a particular type of cultural artifact. but it was not until the 1970s that universities began awarding doctorates in film studies as a distinct and autonomous discipline. as the field developed professional organizations dedicated to film studies, academic journals turned away from evaluation and increasingly turned to the study of film theory and criticism. as david bordwell notes, film criticism was an outgrowth of film reviewing by professional journalists, but the meaning of a work supplanted its aesthetic worth as the chief object of inquiry .
now the author of a film book ,
writes bordwell ,
was apt to be an academic, whose professional career required publications bearing a scholarly imprimatur. in sum, the academicization of film publishing created an expanding institutional base for interpretive criticism .
not surprisingly, blacklist interpretations became more common as a result of this change. as film scholars combed through films of the 1950s for their implicit and symptomatic meanings, the field came to accept the premise that certain films, and even entire genres, allegorized the political tensions around the huac investigations and u. s. foreign policy .
diana will next bow in zack snyder and joss whedon' s film
justice league ,
due out on nov. 17 .
by highlighting both the windfalls and pitfalls of film criticism, bordwell provides a set of criteria for evaluating stronger interpretations over weaker ones. if a reading of a film seems facile or unenlightening, perhaps it is because the critic has indulged an overfamiliar interpretive heuristic or because the critic generalizes too quickly about a film' s characterizations or formal properties. most film scholars seem to acknowledge that the discipline is awash with weak interpretations of films. making meaning allows us to identify and catalog specific ways in which readings of films go horribly awry .
ever since details about wonder woman 2 started to leak out, i haven’t been able to think about much else, and i keep wondering what this new era will mean for diana and co. talk to me .
film criticism, the cold war, and the blacklist examines the long - term reception of several key american films released during the postwar period, focusing on the two main critical lenses used in the interpretation of these films: propaganda and allegory. produced in response to the hearings held by the house committee on un - american activities (huac) that resulted in the hollywood blacklist, these films’ ideological message and rhetorical effectiveness was often muddled by the inherent difficulties in dramatizing villains defined by their thoughts and belief systems rather than their actions. whereas anti - communist propaganda films offered explicit political exhortation, allegory was the preferred vehicle for veiled or hidden political comment in many police procedurals, historical films, westerns, and science fiction films. jeff smith examines the way that particular heuristics, such as the mental availability of exemplars and the effects of framing, have encouraged critics to match filmic elements to contemporaneous historical events, persons, and policies. in charting the development of these particular readings, film criticism, the cold war, and the blacklist features case studies of many canonical cold war titles, including the red menace, on the waterfront, the robe, high noon, and invasion of the body snatchers .
the film is also called
laan jin .
it has nothing to do with the cold war, nor is it much of an action thriller. the film is a hong kong police drama which utilizes a kidnapping and bombing as background for a police commissioner struggle. there are long dramatic scenes of internal office conflict and politics which follow a very orderly process. the translation is not herky - jerky, but very straight slang english, no reverse syntax. some of the dubbing made the actors look bad, especially the woman crying for her dead husband. the film focuses on deputy police commissioner sean lau (aaron kwok) and his relationship with the commissioner (tony leung ka fai) and operation cold war. cold war is a police emergency that happens when an emergency van with five hostages are stolen and a bomb goes off at a cinema. while part of the story involves solving the crime, a good two thirds of the film is a complex multi - sided office drama. the film uses a stock made for tv sound track. it has some cliche tough guy language like
desperate times call for desperate measures
and
i was never here .
it then ruins it with
i prefer latte .
there is also some mention of police and government openness, something i didn' t know if it was a criticism of government or a government propaganda statement. the film lost me for a moment when the internal office conflict started as i was expecting a chinese dirty harry. instead i got a joe friday arguing with his boss and then apologizing. clearly the chinese don' t have the genre down for american audiences. parental guide: some minor f - bomb usage. no sex or nudity. woman in lacy top and panties .
we have seen that a comparatively small but important group of postwar american films have been interpreted as hollywood' s response to the red scare. but what produced this consensus view of postwar american cinema? along with the appearance of the earliest histories of the blacklist and the memoirs of blacklisted writers, as well as the industry' s belated recognition of those writers' contributions, a third aspect of american film culture of this period fostered the impression that cold war - era cinema was fertile territory for the exploration of political subtexts: the introduction of film criticism into the academy. although this aspect was not specific to blacklist film scholarship, it was nonetheless a crucial element in establishing a framework within which this reading formation could develop and flourish .
tony leung ka - fai, sunny luk, leung longman, aaron kwok at the busan international film fest. (photo: getty images )
critics performing allegorical interpretations relied on a repertoire of particular textual components that could connect the latent and manifest meanings of cold war - era films. this repertoire of elements aids the critic in solving two particular problems: the problem of plausibility and the problem of differential levels of meaning. these textual components include such elements as authorial intent, the political activities of personnel involved in the film' s production, and specific genre conventions that lend themselves to the activation of the allegory' s latent significance .
in the first film, the hijacking of an armoured police van and two terrorist bombings are revealed to be part of a master plan orchestrated by constable joe lee (eddie peng yu - yan), who is the son of m. b. lee (tony leung ka - fai), one of two deputy police commissioners – the other being sean lau (aaron kwok fu - shing) – fighting for control over the rescue missions under operation “cold war”. the van remains missing until the end .
jeff smith is professor of communication arts at the university of wisconsin at madison, and the author of the sounds of commerce: marketing popular film music .
it’s also claimed that the entire production crew of the film will return, despite no official agreement being announced for director patty jenkins to remain behind the camera .
instead of helping to end the great war in the trenches of no man' s land, trevor may, in fact, be intercepting russian intelligence circa the 1980s .
civil war reminds us it' s ok to enjoy a few laughs, even while diabolical villains plot doom, outraged citizens demand accountability and your best pal mistrusts you .
jones' s and reisz' s comments are a reminder that these films draw on traditional patterns of storytelling as much as they do the ideological mission implicitly mandated by huac. as daniel j. leab notes :
there can be no doubt that these post - world war ii anticommunist films are clearly a product of the cold war. yet it is important to note that the themes highlighted, the characters portrayed, the story lines set forth, and the images presented all had their roots in films produced twenty years earlier in the united states. because of the cold war, these movies heavily emphasized certain aspects, but the concept of the films was in the mainstream of american filmmaking .
as we will see, in their reliance on the conventions of crime melodramas, legal thrillers, and social problem films, hollywood' s genre norms inflect the political message of these films in unusual and sometimes surprising ways .
hong kong superstar chow yun fat, who joins the sequel as a legislator, told singapore media at a press conference here for the film on tuesday that he had to go through the script
several times
with the film' s co - directors longman leung and sunny luk to fully understand what it was all about .
most surprisingly, however, is the reported return of chris pine as wonder woman’s ally steve trevor – despite seemingly sacrificing himself at the end of the first film .
director patty jenkins, who hadn' t directed a feature film since 2003' s
monster ,
may be in the conversation for best director at next year' s oscars for her work on the film. the same praise was heaped on gal gadot for her portrayal of the leading lady, amazonian princess / demigod diana prince .
the film is not so lucky, as more wordy scenes anguish the protagonists (i. e. , kwok furrows his brows) with complex moral decisions and political compromises. while the screenplay darkly hints at the time not being ripe, yet, to blow the whistle on the corrupt political bosses who “secretly” call the shots in hong kong, these references are not going to register with most non - chinese audiences, who will want to know why absolutely nothing gets settled in the final act. of course, the door is left wide open for cold war 3 .
leung and luk’s previous instalment saw deputy commissioners sean lau (aaron kwok) and m. b. lee (tony leung) lock horns over how to handle the kidnapping of five officers that triggered a wave of terror attacks across the city. after lee’s son joe (eddie peng), one of the police hostages, was revealed to be in cahoots with the terrorists, lau assumed command, while lee stepped down in shame. in cold war 2, lau is now police commissioner, while lee sits things out on pre - retirement leave. but when lau’s wife is kidnapped by joe’s gang, who demand his release, lau botches the exchange and joe manages to escape .
the superhero film achieved the huge sum in its forth week of release, beating the record set by phyllida lloyd’s big screen adaptation of mamma mia, which grossed $ 609. 8 million (£479 million) in 2008, as well as beating 2015’s fifty shades of grey, directed by sam taylor - johnson, for the biggest launch by a female director – after taking $ 85. 2 million (£66 million) in its first weekend of release .
i know at this point this is all just rampant speculation, but i had to get it out there. this is what i spend most of my time thinking about, people. what’re your thoughts about diana taking on the cold war? how should steve trevor return? how mad will this movie make the russians? will diana be rocking shoulder pads and permed hair? i have so many questions .
train to busan premiered to positive reviews at the cannes film festival in may, before proving a box office hit in south korea and across asia. a bidding war among hollywood and european studios for its remake rights was reported by the hollywood reporter in early august. on september 13, lead actor gong yoo announced on twitter that a sequel is in the works .
however, this being said, i still have a lot of thoughts. some articles have speculated that wonder woman 2 is likely skipping over wwii (where she originated in the comics) in order to avoid the ground captain america already covered in his origin - story movie (and considering that wonder woman already did a “hot war” so well, i’m not desperate to see another historical battlefield). but i think it’s hard not have these sequel plans also call to mind the best captain america film (fight me), the winter soldier, which was, by all accounts, more of a cloak - and - dagger drama than previous marvel efforts .
captain america: civil war focuses on the approach of superheroes to what' s right and what' s wrong. this movie makes you pick a side because both have very valid points .
the two main critical lenses used in blacklist and cold war interpretations correlate with these processes of comprehension and interpretation. the postwar cycle of anti - communist propaganda films, for example, fall under the concept of critical comprehension insofar as propaganda depends on an overt, didactic appeal to spectators. by identifying this cycle as propaganda, film critics acknowledge that the referential dimensions of these texts involve characterizations and story events that depict communist party members as duplicitous, subversive, and criminal agents of the kremlin. the explicit message of these films is that communists pose a dangerous threat to u. s. security. in contrast, films seen as blacklist or cold war allegories fall under the concept of interpretation. in revealing the allegorical dimensions of these films, critics must
decode
meanings that are disguised through particular figurations, such as synecdoche and personification. because these allegorical meanings are seen as expressions of their creators' political discontent, these readings, more often than not, seek to explicate implicit meanings of such films.
cold war 2 is a 2016 hong kong-chinese crime thriller film written and directed by longman leung and sunny luk . the film is a sequel to the 2012 box office hit , cold war , and stars returning cast members aaron kwok , tony leung , charlie young , eddie peng , aarif rahman , ma yili and alex tsui , joined by new cast members chow yun-fat , janice man , tony yang and bibi zhou . cold war 2 was released on 8 july 2016 in 2d , 3d and imax 3d . 
cold war 2 is a 2016 hong kong-chinese crime thriller film written and directed by longman leung and sunny luk. the film is a sequel to the 2012 box office hit, cold war, and stars returning cast members aaron kwok, tony leung, charlie young, eddie peng, aarif rahman, ma yili and alex tsui, joined by new cast members chow yun-fat, janice man, tony yang and bibi zhou. cold war 2 was released on 8 july 2016 in 2d, 3d and imax 3d.
cold war 2 is a 2016 hong kong-chinese crime thriller film written and directed by longman leung and sunny luk. the film is a sequel to the 2012 box office hit, cold war, and stars returning cast members aaron kwok, tony leung, charlie young, eddie peng, aarif rahman, ma yili and alex tsui, joined by new cast members chow yun-fat, janice man, tony yang and bibi zhou. cold war 2 was released on 8 july 2016 in 2d, 3d and imax 3d.