Carina Lau, Chow Yun-fat, and Jacky Cheung’s Love Triangle in “From Vegas to Macau 3”
Note: The following article includes spoilers.
Although Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) will only be making a special guest appearance in the upcoming Hong Kong-Chinese action comedy From Vegas to Macau III <賭城風雲III>, her character “Molly” will be central to the plot.
The third installment of the From Vegas to Macau film series will be arriving in Hong Kong theaters on February 6, 2016, two days before the Lunar New Year. The comedy stars Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), reprising his role as the god of gamblers Ken Shek. It also stars Andy Lau (劉德華), Nick Cheung (張家輝), Li Yuchun (李宇春), Jacky Cheung (張學友), and includes a special guest appearance by Carina Lau, playing Chow Yun-fat’s first love.
Yesterday, the film released a music video for one of its original tracks “Frozen” <停格>, performed by Jacky Cheung. The two-minute video focuses on the love triangle between Ken (Chow Yun-fat), Tin-hang (Jacky Cheung), and Molly (Carina Lau), which is the reason behind Ken and Tin-hang’s antagonistic relationship throughout the film.
“I never get a good ending with Fat Gor,” Carina said at an earlier press conference for the film. “In the previous film, Fat Gor and I were against each other. This one will be the same. Jacky Cheung is in love with me in this film, but I do not love him in return. Honestly, if I get to choose, I rather be Jacky Cheung’s lover.”
“I’ve hurt Carina’s heart too much,” said Chow Yun-fat with a laugh. “I want to love her well this time.”
From Vegas to Macau III opens in Hong Kong theaters on February 6 and mainland Chinese theaters on February 8. It will be competing against The Monkey King 2 <西遊記之孫悟空三打白骨精>, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny <臥虎藏龍：青冥寶劍>, and The Mermaid <美人魚> for China’s Lunar New Year box office champion.
“Frozen” performed by Jacky Cheung
“From Vegas to Macau III” Final Hong Kong Trailer
Source: Sina.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
1 and 2 were rubbish. I have no hope for this one.
I do like the melody of the song. Wonder of he’ll have a Canto version.
@jjwong I personally can’t stand Wong Jing and no doubt the storyline will be rubbish just like most of his recent works have been. Regardless though, I am still going to watch this movie for 2 reasons: 1) my idol Jacky Cheung and 2) the nostalgia factor. Besides, the way I see it, this is a Lunar New Year movie that is meant to be silly and cheesy, so no point in taking it seriously.
The song is actually the sub-theme song for the movie and is not exactly ‘original’ to this movie in that it was actually written for the second installment and was played briefly during the scene when Carina’s character jumped from the plane. Singer Tanya Chua wrote the song and she was the one who sang it in the second installment. Jacky re-recorded the song for the third installment – his version hasn’t officially been released yet though. And yes, rumor has it that there will likely be a Canto version of the song (just like with Jacky’s movie last year Helios, where he recorded both a Mandarin and Cantonese version of the theme song) – hasn’t been confirmed yet though.
There has actually been quite a bit of promo for the movie already, with press conferences held this past week in Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou (today) and Shanghai (tomorrow). I will tell you that as much as I dislike Wong Jing, I do like the cast for this movie and enjoy watching the interaction between all the ‘old friends’ at the press conferences (Fat Gor, Jacky, Andy, Nick, and Carina especially). To me, whether the movie is worth watching or not is beside the point…just going to enjoy the rare opportunity to see Fat Gor and Jacky collaborating again (last time I saw them together in a movie was in “Eighth Happiness” close to 30 years ago!)
P.S.: I’m actually more looking forward to Jacky’s other movie coming out in March – his ‘reunion’ with actress Karena Lam (they filmed “July Rhapsody” together back in 2002) called “Heaven in the Dark”. This will be Jacky’s first truly ‘serious’ role in years, plus the cast is strong and the story sounds quite interesting (the script is actually an adaptation of a famous stage play written by Candace Chong). Too bad the director is a rookie (the movie is directed by Karena’s husband Steve Yuen) – if it had a veteran director at its helm, the movie could’ve had the potential to become another acclaimed hit on the level of “July Rhapsody” (one of my favorite movies by the way), especially with its similarly controversial and “dark” subject matter.
Yes , both were rubbish and this will be too…Wong Jing movies have always been crap… Lunar New Year movies have always been rubbish. Just to try get laughs.
So Carina Lau is in Vegas 3 , looks like she there in flash backs as didn’t she die in Vegas 2 from falling out of the plane?
@mulder99 Not sure how you feel about spoilers, but there will actually be an explanation for why Carina is in part 3 (without revealing too much – basically her character didn’t die when she jumped out of the plane at the end of part 2). So the scenes of Carina in part 3 are actually brand new scenes and not flashbacks…
@mulder99 Seems like Jacky”s character saved her.
@llwy12
Wong Jing – I can’t stand 99% of his movies for the past decade. He recycled the plots, tricks, humors, concepts and all of that jazz way, way too many times. With the exception that they get dirtier and more cringy each time.
Jacky Cheung – He’s my idol but sometimes that’s not enough to invest time in piss poor script. I do like the cast but I hate seeing their talents wasted on rubbish script. Yes, yes, I’m assuming this script is bad. Maybe I’m jumping the gun but JW doesn’t have good record recently. Aw, 8th Happiness, I enjoyed that movie. Ah, good memories. I wasn’t into “July Rhapsody.” I Like the Helios song over but not the non-Canto part. It threw me off xD Jacky’s voice, woo!
Script – Yes, LNY is meant to be lighthearted. There’s that then there’s just plain stupid. To me, WJ movies had been plain stupid lately.
Song – Oh yay! I can’t wait for Canto version.
Rookie director – he might surprise us. Unlikely but you never know. He’s new, so hopefully his view is fresh and interesting. I personally would give him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise over getting my hope up for WJ movie xD
@mulder99
Based on the trailer, my guess is Jacky saved Carina from the fall and nursed her in this bubble. The bubble is keeping her alive.
@jjwong LOL…well, actually, you’re not too far off the mark when you said that you ‘assume’ the script will be bad – I haven’t watched the movie yet, but I already know for a fact the script will be bad, as 1) it was written by Wong Jing (as you said, all he does is recycle and rehash old stuff nowadays – all his movies/TV series are essentially the same…you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all), and 2) based on all the trailers and the plot / story descriptions I’ve read/watched, this movie is more of the same in terms of ‘recycled’ content – not only does it play heavily on the God of Gamblers thing (obviously, given that at least 3 of the characters are exactly the same as in the original franchise), there’s also a lot of ‘content’ (re-enacted scenes and dialogue) from old HK movies that were incorporated in the script – plus there are plot holes galore. So yea, I’m already anticipating that the script will be rubbish…
Yes, this movie will be a waste of talent in terms of the cast, but ah well – not much we can do about that. As both Jacky and Fat Gor said at one of the recent press cons (when asked to comment about netizens’ threat to boycott the movie due to Wong Jing’s involvement): This movie actually has nothing to do with Wong Jing – sure, he was present during filming, but all he did was ‘sleep’ at the studio (LOL). The director of the movie is Andrew Lau and he (along with the cast of course) was the one who did most of the work. [Of course, Jacky and Fat Gor were half-joking, but not a bad way to look at it in my opinion…]. In any case, I’m ready to sit through the movie for Jacky, despite my obvious dislike for Wong Jing as well as the story/script being crap – besides, I’m taking assurance in the fact that if there is a part 4, Jacky already said he won’t participate, since he’s launching his concert tour soon and won’t have time to film any more movies (plus his character dies in this movie anyway….if Jacky is going to film another movie after his concert tour, it will most likely be the “Helios” sequel, which there are already plans for – a movie I definitely care more about than this Vegas movie).
Regarding “Heaven in the Dark” – the official trailer came out today (finally!!) and I’m actually dying with anticipation for the movie (3/24 – the movie’s premiere date in HK — can’t come fast enough!). Those who saw the limited release sneak preview of the movie in December said that the ‘direction’ of the movie (meaning the interpretation of the script by the director) is so-so and Steve Yuen’s (the director) lack of experience shows, as there are some parts that could’ve been better filmed – however, the acting is excellent from both main cast (Jacky and Karena) as well as supporting cast (Anthony Wong, Helena Law, Wong Hei, Edmund So, Catherine Chau, etc.), so that’s likely where the acclaim will be for the movie.
@llwy12 Just saw HitD trailer. It looks eerie and suspenseful. I completely agree with the acapela lyric “I don’t understand” xD because I haven’t read the movie synopsis or the book so I have no idea what it’s about.
It looks sort of like not only a reunion from JR cast but also a continuation of JR story, i.e. a broken marriage that drives to cheating but darker and more dramatic?
Even it hasn’t aired but both leads are nominated for HK Film Award BAs already: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-film-awards-blockbusters-860946
@jjwong I can tell you what the movie (Heaven in the Dark) is about if you want, since I’ve been following it ever since the project was announced (before filming even began, lol). It definitely has shades of July Rhapsody to it, but very different in terms of content (theme-wise, it’s probably even more controversial and dark than JR). Those who are into theater might be familiar with the story, as the script was adapted from a famous stage play that has been performed many times since 2005 (the stage play version is called “The French Kiss” and was written by Candace Chong Mui-ngam). The project actually has nothing to do with the July Rhapsody team (other than Jacky and Karena being the leads), though I personally kind of wish it did because I know for sure that director Ann Hui would’ve been able to do the movie justice from a film direction perspective.
And yes, both Jacky and Karena were nominated for HKFA already for their performances. The movie actually had a limited release showing in December to qualify it for the HKFA, but the official premiere isn’t until 3/24. Looks like promo has officially started for the movie though, so no doubt you will start to hear more about it in the coming weeks.
@llwy12 I love plays and theatrical performances but don’t follow the HK ones. I’m debating to get a summary of the movie from you or just wait and watch to be surprise. I hate trailers or synopsis that pretty much say everything about the movie. It’s a movie, show me (pictorially, through the movie duh) instead of tell me (with words in the synopsis). On the other hand, I like to know the genre. Is this just a slice of life, romantic drama?
@jjwong No, it’s not a slice of life, nor is it a ‘romantic’ drama (in the traditional sense of the word). If I had to choose a genre for this movie, I would lean more toward ‘psychological thriller’, but minus the action and with a heavy emphasis on the ‘psychological’ part. The story itself is actually quite complicated and goes deeper than merely a taboo relationship gone awry….there are elements of mystery to it in that there is a ‘truth’ to be uncovered, but again, not in the ‘traditional’ way of trying to solve a crime (since technically, there is question from the beginning as to whether an actual ‘crime’ was even committed). I’m not sure how faithful the movie will be to Candace Chong’s original story or how her script will be interpreted, but if done right, this will be a good one to watch for people who prefer a movie that is more thought-provoking than it is straight-forward.
@llwy12 Ooo, I love psy thriller! They’re so much scarier and creepier. I’ll have to look out for this movie.
@jjwong In case you’re still interested in getting a summary of the story for Heaven in the Dark (completely up to you of course), I posted up an article I had translated on my blog that has some info…plus there’s also my own commentary (albeit a bit long-winded, lol) that has some info as well (though more my thoughts rather than actual behind-the-scenes stuff about the movie). Feel free to check it out if you end up changing your mind about wanting to read a summary.
@llwy12 Hey, appreciate the sharing. I plan to watch this movie as soon as I can my hands on it. Then I’ll head to your blog. I’m curious if it was as good as you anticipated? No need for details since you already wrote a piece on it.
@jjwong You’re welcome! 🙂
Speaking of 2016 movies, a little off topic but The Menu movie version is confirmed for a Summer 2016 release date. The first trailer came out yesterday — I posted it up at AF already so feel free to check it out and comment.
Is Carina in a coma in the bubble? That’s quite a bit of posing there.
Why can’t it just be slap-stick comedy… Part 3 is really pushing it too far into the bin. Having said that, will still watch with my regular group of friends as it’s something we’ve been doing in the past years on the first day of chinese new year.
Gong Xi Fa Cai, fellow Jaynestars members
I don’t understand why Chinese movies are so widely received. They think that by throwing together a bunch of big names and a garbage script and cinematography, that would please the crowd, and it does – only in China though. As much as I like to complain about the declining production of Hollywood movies in recent years. Chinese movies are even worse. Can someone explain to me why the Chinese audience would put up with such low-quality productions? Does the audience have a particularly poor taste? What is it? It just baffles my mind that so many crappy movies in China receive such high box office revenues.
Thanks!
@anon
most Chinese audiences mainly go to movies to see their particular idol; story is secondary.
@anon
100% agree. That’s why while I do take glimpses of series here and there I have hardly ever finish completing a HK movie. I probably did finish Leslie’s Cheung and that Anita film but that was about it. haha…. I just never particularly like their movies, a lot of them are gabage but then a lot of American movies can be garbage as well but in comparison I have watched more American ones then the Asian ones. I think Asians/HK especially do like big names and such in order for them to spend. They tend to go where the trend is? Even in fashion, my HK cousin says this all time, hk people do tend to go w/whatever is “IN” so I guess even if they make garbage films, ppl will still go watch it? haha lol….
@anon This phenomenon isn’t happening just in Chinese entertainment or fashion or whatever hip at the moment. US is no different when it comes to shotty movies. They cranked out their fair share of garbage and people flocked to them like bees to honey. Remember Twilight or more recently 50 Shades of Grey? For strictly A-lister appeal, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day come to mind. Don’t forget about The Expendables.
@jjwong I agree, but I think that Chinese movies are even more shotty, the lowest of the lows, when compared to Hollywood’s shotty movies. To the point that it’s not even watchable, at all.
Although I’ve heard Wong Jing is a crap director/writer, I wanted to see for myself if he was really that bad. So I checked his filmography page and dang, out of all the stuff he’s produced, I only like 2-3 movies and majority of the reason is because Stephen Chow was in it. Man can this guy retire already and stop ruining the HK movie industry.
@coralie
Isn’t he just a like perv director who does mostly softcore films? From super trio shows, they do tend to tie him w/those females who can star in his films? hahah lol… For some reason, that’s always just how I picture him to be? LOL
@coralie Yes, Wong Jing is a crap director. The running joke in the industry is that despite his constant boasting of how much box office returns he gets for his movies, he has never been nominated nor won a reputable director award in HK (if I recall correctly, I think he’s the only one of the ‘big shot’ directors in HK who has never even been nominated for HKFA, which definitely speaks volumes on what his peers and the industry as a whole thinks of his movies). Of course, no one should be surprised, since he DOES have a reputation in the industry for filming movies that focus on commercial need and not quality, which is why the majority of his movies are vulgar and also repetitious. I actually don’t understand why Wong Jing continues to make HK films, since he cares more about Mainland box office than he does HK anyway. Whenever HK netizens threaten to boycott his movies, he pretty much gives them the ‘I don’t give a crap because the population in HK is barely even a 25th of China’s population’ response (and that’s putting it lightly – some of the stuff he says in response is actually not repeatable in a public forum, lol).
@coralie Is WJ even a representation of the HK movie industry? The guy seems to focus mostly on the mainland market. Yes, he uses HK actors and yes he is from HK, but that doesn’t mean that his products are in any way a representation of HK style productions.
@anon it matters. even though he’s a crap director, he’s also a prolific producer and writer. he may not be a representation of HK film industry but he has a lot of clout and renowned in the biz. if he churns out like 3-5 films a year, which is a lot for movie turnaround, these crap films degrades the overall quality for the rest of the good stuff.
@coralie What do you consider as good?
Because the last decent Chinese movie I’ve seen was Cold War, and by decent, I mean acceptable. Everything else since has been less than memorable for me.
It’s hard to find one good (as in well-written scripted movie, not only throwing a bunch of big names together and pray for the best) Chinese/HK major production in a year. Imo, there is one good Chinese movie every 3-5 years. By Hollywood standards, that’s would be comparing a professional production to a high-school theatre drama.
@anon i don’t watch HK films anymore. i barely even finish HK dramas. but if we’re discussing a CNY good film, i’d consider Hotel Deluxe directed by Raymond Wong pretty decent. no one expects every hollywood movie to be blockbusters but shouldn’t I at least feel it wasn’t money wasted? often when I watch HK films, i can’t even finish them.
if we’re discussing just good HK movies in general, I quite like Barbara Wong’s works. Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat was a great movie. Break Up club was decent. Love in a Buff was cute. I acknowledge there are probably some great action movies too, but I’m not a huge fan of kung fu films so I usually skip those.
people are so harsh its for CNY so people have a good laugh … lol the star power in this 3rd installment is epic, and bringing back the original god of gambler (fat gor) and Andy he apprentice …. so sad it’s missing Stephen Chow would have been epic if he only did a cameo scene.
but then again HK movie has been going downhill in general, but gotta give credits to Wong Jing to have gather all these old school stars in one film.
@vodka I was speaking of Chinese movies in general, not in any way targeting Chinese “comedic” films.
When I say Chinese, I mean Chinese-mainland heavily-invested productions with a mainland audience in mind.
HK movies…… I try not to lump them together because they aren’t any better or worse, as a whole.
Speaking of Lunar New Year films, has anyone watched the remastered version of All’s Well, Ends Well, which producer Raymond Wong re-released in HK theaters last week with a new, never-before-seen finale segment? The re-release is for the 1992 version (the original version, NOT the sequels) starring Raymond, Sandra Ng, Leslie Cheung, Stephen Chow, Maggie Cheung, Teresa Mo, etc. Now THAT movie was truly funny and reflects the LNY holiday spirit more than all of this year’s LNY timeslot movies (come to think of it, same thing can actually be said for most of the LNY movies in recent years). I’m actually more interested in re-watching All’s Well Ends Well than I am in watching most of this year’s LNY movies! They sure don’t make these movies like they used to — most likely because filmmakers nowadays are too busy trying to cater to the Mainland market, so a lot of the ‘unique to HK’ humor/jokes/story arcs, etc. have slowly been phased out over the years. Such a shame! I used to love HK movies back in the day (and not just LNY movies, but the regular non-LNY ones as well), but in the past 15 to 20 years, most HK movies haven’t been able to pique my interest (there ARE some exceptions of course). It’s no wonder that the HK movie industry is in shambles (and has been for years actually)…I definitely miss the old days (of the HK entertainment industry that is)!
@llwy12
I would love to catch the remastered version. I hope I can “get” it online somehow.
I definitely agree that most HK movies (post-2000) has not been the same. The late 80’s and 90’s HK movies will always be the golden era of HK entertainment in my heart. The HK younger generation will never understand.
@anon Hard to say whether someone might put it on-line – I actually think the likelihood of the ‘new’ version coming out on DVD right after it’s re-release is probably greater than someone actually taking the time to record it in the theater and put it online. The re-release was on January 30th, so it definitely came out earlier than all the other LNY movies this year. I remember reading that Raymond Wong had also done a special screening of the ‘new’ version earlier in 2015 so a handful of lucky people got to watch it before everyone else. I have so many memories of watching that movie for the first time back in the early 90s and laughing my head off the entire time – of course my favorite pairing was Leslie and Teresa (aww, it was so sweet seeing their ‘reunion’ in that movie), though my second favorite (interestingly enough) was actually Kwan Hoi San and Lee Heung Kam as the delusional old parents (loved them because they were absolutely HILARIOUS!!) Stephen Chow was his usual funny self (that guy is irreplaceable – NO ONE does ‘mo lei tou’ like he does!) and Raymond Wong too had great sparks with Sandra (Raymond is one of those few actors who can make ‘serious’ look funny without deliberately trying). I could go on and on, lol….
Ah, the glory days of 80s/90s HK cinema! I agree that the younger generation who never went through that ‘golden era’ will never understand how good things truly were back then…..
@anon
Back in those ‘golden’ days HK was churning out about 500 films a year. Some stars would rush from movie set A to movie set B and then C in the course of one day. Needless to say, a huge number of these films were crap.