Homegrown sci-fi flick shines through

After a long, hard road — first cluttered by a lengthier-than-expected post-production period, then by COVID-19 — actor-producer Louis Koo's labor of love has arrived. Warriors of Future is a healthy, bouncing baby of a sci-fi romp. Announced in 2015, Koo's $56 million production — a somewhat unconscionable budget by local standards — started filming in 2017. It could be Hong Kong's most ambitious movie ever, pitched at a technical level rarely seen here, and that in a genre that normally doesn't get much attention unless it's Brand Marvel.

Though Koo has been the film's guiding force for seven years, directing duties fell to veteran visual effects pro Ng Yuen-fai, an award winner for his work on Peter Chan and Raymond Yip's The Warlords (2007) and Re-cycle (2006) by the Pang Brothers. However, it's his contribution to Teddy Chan's Bodyguards and Assassins (2009), a sprawling period drama with a heavy emphasis on place — chiefly Hong Kong of the early 20th century — that prepared him best for this.