Director Says "Swordsmen" will Redefine the Martial-Arts Genre

Hong Kong director Peter Chan has become one of Asia’s leading filmmakers, cranking out box-office hits while filling his office shelves with best-director awards. Now, he’s turning his hand to the martial-arts, or wu xia, genre with "Swordsmen" that being shot in a remote and mountainous part of China's southwest Yunnan province. For the project, Chan's assembled an A-list cast, two cinematographers, an award-winning costume designer, and a visual-effects team from South Korea to bring what he describes as detailed authenticity to the film. Its ambition underscores the current trend in Chinese cinema toward highly polished blockbusters. The Wall Street Journal currently caught up with Mr. Chan on the set of his latest film, where the director once again explained about his ambition to “redefine” the martial-arts genre. "All our period films seem to be mixed with martial arts and action. But period films actually have many different genres—love stories, thrillers, crime dramas—and I think we never see these period films in complete authenticity. We never see the details of life, and we never feel like we’re transported in time."

The $20 million martial-arts drama slated for release next summer. The story, which takes place during the end of the Qing Dynasty, is about a repentant killer living a simple life in a secluded village and whose past catches up with him. "Swordsmen" stars Donnie Yen, who's arguably the Asia's leading martial-arts star following a string of recent hits including "Ip Man", "Bodyguards and Assassins" and "Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen," Takeshi Kaneshiro who's mark his third collaboration with Chan after "Perhaps Love" and "The Warlords", and Tang Wei, who with just a handful of films to her credit so far, is one of Asia's leading young actresses. The cast also includes Jimmy Wang Yu, one of Hong Kong's biggest action stars from the 1960s and '70s, in his first film appearance in more than 15 years. Jimmy is the main star of Shaw Brothers' classic wuxia "The One-Armed Swordsman", which this new film is loosely based on.