The Heavenly Kings

The Heavenly Kings
Traditional 四大天王
Simplified 四大天王
Mandarin si da tian wang
Cantonese sei dai tin wong
Directed by Daniel Wu
Produced by Conroy Chan
Andrew Lin
Daniel Wu
Terence Yin
Patrick Lee
Written by Daniel Wu
Starring Daniel Wu
Terence Yin
Andrew Lin
Conroy Chan
Music by Jun Kung
Cinematography Kim Chan
Phat Chan
Edited by Kim Chan
Phat Chan
Distributed by Golden Scene
Release dates
  • 20 April 2006
Running time
 86 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese

The Heavenly Kings (四大天王) is a 2006 Hong Kong film directed by Daniel Wu.

Background

In 2005, Chinese media began to report that Daniel Wu had formed a boyband, Alive, with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan.[1] Wu and his band mates posted information, updates, personal thoughts (including slamming Hong Kong Disneyland, for which they were spokespersons[2]), and the band's music, at their official website.[1][1][3] In 2006, Wu made his writing and directorial debut with The Heavenly Kings, which chronicles Alive's formation and exploits.[4] After the film's release, however, it was revealed that The Heavenly Kings was actually a mockumentary of the Hong Kong pop music industry, and Alive was constructed purely as a vehicle to make the movie; the film's characters represented only 10-15% of their real-life counterparts[5] and much of the footage blurred the line between fiction and reality.[4] Wu admitted his own singing voice "sucked really bad," and the band had their voices digitally enhanced for its music, to prove that "it's easy to fake it."[3]

Cast and roles

Reception

Despite some backlash from the media over being intentionally fed false information in the movie[6] about illegal downloads of the band's music,[5] Wu won the best new director award for the film at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, an achievement he called "a group effort."[6] The film has also been nominated for Best Original Film Song at the same Awards ceremony: Composer: Davy Chan; Lyricist: Li Jin Yi and Singer: Alive.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chen, Fengfeng (2005-08-04). "Daniel Wu forms a new band". China Radio International. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  2. ↑ Rothrock, Vicki (2005-09-04). "A word of cultural caution". Variety. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Johnson, G. Allen (2007-04-25). "A model, actor, singing sensation (well, sort of) and now a director". SF Gate. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Eddy, Cheryl (2007-04-25). "Bubblegum bandits". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The great Cantopop swindle". The Standard. 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Young, Jennifer (2007-04-29). "Daniel Wu, "Heavenly King"". indieWIRE. originally from SF360. Archived from the original on 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2008-05-17.

External links