Connected (film)
Encyclopedia
Connected is a 2008
action
-crime
thriller film co-written and directed by Benny Chan. A co-production between Hong Kong
and China
, the film is a remake
of the 2004 film Cellular
. Connected stars Louis Koo
as a man who receives a distressing phone call on his cellular phone from a young woman who has been kidnapped by a gang of corrupt Interpol agents who have a hidden agenda.
Producers of the film felt that a remake of Cellular would reach out to Hong Kong's cell phone user population, and decided to hire Benny Chan to develop a screenplay for the film. Chan and his screenwriters spent two years working on the script. For Connected, Chan wanted to improve on the previous film by making the characters and the situations seem more believable. Principal photography
took place in Hong Kong. For the film, lead actors Louis Koo and Barbie Hsu
shot their scenes separately, only sharing one scene together. After filming, Chan described Connected as one of the most difficult films in his career.
Connected was released in Hong Kong on 25 September 2008.
While talking to Grace on his cellular phone, Bob agrees to help Grace and hands his phone to patrol officer Fai, who believes that the distressing phone call is a prank, due to Bob's reckless driving. Grace is interrupted from the call when Fok and his men enter the room, having abducted her brother's friend, Joe. Fok forces Grace to contact her brother, Roy. After listening to Roy's answering machine, Fok kills Joe and leaves with his men, now planning to go after Grace's daughter, Tinker. Grace persuades Bob to head to the school and find her daughter before Fok's men do. When Bob arrives, he is distracted by the school's headmaster, and minutes before the school's class dismissal, he finds Tinker too late, as she is abducted by Fok's men. Bob goes after the abductors, but winds up losing sight of them in the struggle. After crashing through a truck, Bob later finds a handgun left in his car by a fellow debt collector.
Realizing that his phone has a low battery, Bob heads to a phone store to buy a cell phone charger. After losing his patience with the flirty service clerk, he holds the store at gunpoint and pays for the charger. After Bob is caught on camera at both the school and the phone store, Detective Fai heads to Grace Wong's residence. He is still convinced that the kidnapping situation is a prank, having talked to Michelle, a woman impersonating Grace. Fok decides to go after Grace's brother, Roy, who is in a hospital.
Fai decides to call Grace's house, after realizing the real Grace Wong is a Mandarin-language speaker, while the impersonator he met speaks Cantonese. At the hospital, Bob manages to distract Grace's abductors, who are revealed by police to be Interpol
agents. The agents, however, manage to successfully kidnap Roy and take him to a hill where he has hidden a camcorder. Bob intervenes, grabbing a hold of the camera and fleeing from the agents; unfortunately, he loses connections with Grace.
Fai heads to Grace's house, where he confronts and kills Michelle, realizing she was also an Interpol agent working for Senior Inspector Fok. As Grace tries to contact Bob, she is caught by one Fok's henchmen. Grace kills the henchman and manages to find her daughter. However, while planning to escape, Grace and Tinker are caught by Inspector Fok. Bob looks at the evidence on the camcorder. The footage, captured by Roy, reveals Fok brutally executing several American drug dealers and stealing the drugs. Bob calls Fok, and tells them to meet him at the airport in an exchange for the evidence and the hostages, while attempting to keep his promise to his son.
At the airport, Bob's plans to meet his sister and son are foiled as Fok is conveniently between them and Bob's hiding place. After telling Fok to go towards the parking lot, he demands that Grace, Roy and Tinker be released. They flee to a patrol car that is also in the lot. Unfortunately, Bob is caught by Fok and his men, and fights against them until Fai catches up to them. Fok and his men are arrested by Detective Cheung and his Serious Crimes Unit. After Bob hands the videotaped evidence over to Detective Cheung, Fok and Tong, one of Fok's henchman, appear, and Cheung reveals that he was working with Inspector Fok. Fok deletes the footage on the videotape, and a violent confrontation ensues in a loading dock in the airport where Fai and Bob take on Fok, Cheung and the corrupt Interpol agents. Detective Cheung is shot to death by Fai after attacking him with a forklift truck
.
Bob confronts Fok on a scaffolding. After Bob reveals he still has videotaped evidence on his cell phone and threatens to send it to the police, Fok kicks Bob off the scaffolding. A net manages to save Bob's fall, but sends Fok falling to his death. While this was going on, a member of Fok's team rekidnaps Grace and her family and prepares to kill them, but Grace manages to defend her family long enough for the police to arrive. When Bob returns, Fai talks to him, feeling the glory he once had as a police officer, and wishing that they never meet again after their ordeal. Bob then meets Grace for the first time in person. Grace thanks him, and Bob concludes their meeting by saying, "If you're gonna call for help, no thanks! If you want dinner, then I'll consider." Bob is then reunited with his son, who is happy that his father kept his promise.
Other players include Ken Hung
as Joe, Roy's classmate, who is murdered by Fok; Vincent Kok
as a man whose convertible is taken by Bob; Mainland Chinese actress Gong Beibi
cameos as Jen, Fai wife; German-born Asian actress Ankie Beilke plays Michelle, an Interpol agent pretending to be Grace Wong as a cover-up for the kidnapping; Wong Cho-Lam
appears as a salesman; Raymond Wong Ho-Yin
cameos as a police officer; child actress Chan Sze-Wai plays Tinker Wong, Grace's daughter; child actor Presley Tam, who appeared as a school bus child in Benny Chan's Invisible Target
plays Kit-Kit, Bob's son; American actors Robbin Harris, David Rock, and Daniel Whyte play Interpol agents working for Inspector Fok.
of the 2004 American thriller Cellular
, which starred Kim Basinger
and Chris Evans
. It is also the first film to be produced by Sirius XM Radio's production arm Sirius Pictures International. Connected is a Chinese-Hong Kong co-production. It was produced by Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures
, China Film Group and Warner China Film HG, the Chinese production arm of Warner Bros.
The film was produced and directed by Benny Chan, and stars Louis Koo
in the lead role. Both the director and actor reunite after collaborating on the 2006 film, Rob-B-Hood
. Chan also reunites with stunt coordinator Nicky Li, a former leader of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team
, who has worked on several of Chan's films including Rob-B-Hood, Divergence
and Invisible Target
. The screenplay was co-written by Alan Yuen, who has frequently collaborated with Chan on films such as Rob-B-Hood and New Police Story
.
. Chan and his screenwriters spent two years working on the script. It went through various rewrites, before the writers finally created a scenario closely similar to the film Cellular.Hollywood's Chinese Thriller to Hit the Screen When comparing his film to Cellular, Chan wanted to make the characters more real and believable than the Hollywood original, even questioning the plausibility of the films' scenario.
45 million (US$
5.8 million), a conservative figure among growing Chinese movie budgets. Chan described the film as the most demanding film in his career, as he and co-screenwriters Alan Yuen and Xu Bing tried to make the film appeal to Chinese audiences. The director first filmed Barbie Hsu’s scenes before filming Louis Koo’s portion. Both actors, however, share one scene together. During filming, the Hong Kong Government
refused to grant a permit to film a flying car scene in a busy city district, thus the filmmakers could only shift filming to the outskirts of Hong Kong, proving that they could do the same without the government’s help.
Hong Kong films of 2008
A list of films produced in Hong Kong in 2008:.-2008:-External links:* * Hong Kong films of 2008 at...
action
Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...
-crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
thriller film co-written and directed by Benny Chan. A co-production between Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the film is a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 2004 film Cellular
Cellular (film)
Cellular is a 2004 thriller film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham and William H. Macy. The screenplay was written by Chris Morgan, Larry Cohen and J...
. Connected stars Louis Koo
Louis Koo
Louis Koo is a Hong Kong actor. He was once a notable local television series actor, winning TVB's Best Actor award in 1999 for Detective Investigation Files IV. In recent years, he has focused on film...
as a man who receives a distressing phone call on his cellular phone from a young woman who has been kidnapped by a gang of corrupt Interpol agents who have a hidden agenda.
Producers of the film felt that a remake of Cellular would reach out to Hong Kong's cell phone user population, and decided to hire Benny Chan to develop a screenplay for the film. Chan and his screenwriters spent two years working on the script. For Connected, Chan wanted to improve on the previous film by making the characters and the situations seem more believable. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
took place in Hong Kong. For the film, lead actors Louis Koo and Barbie Hsu
Barbie Hsu
Barbie Hsu also known as Dà S |Mars]] with Vic Chou of F4. She has also acted in movies, her first being the Chinese movie The Ghost Inside. She also had a singing career prior to her acting career. She was in a duo group called "S.O.S." with her sister Dee Hsu. Their last album was called...
shot their scenes separately, only sharing one scene together. After filming, Chan described Connected as one of the most difficult films in his career.
Connected was released in Hong Kong on 25 September 2008.
Plot
After Grace Wong sends her daughter to school, her car is knocked down by another vehicle and she is abducted from the scene. The kidnappers, led by Fok Tak-Nang, return to Grace's house, where they kill her maid, and start searching the place. Grace is then taken to an abandoned house, where she manages to repair a destroyed telephone. With the phone, she manages to contact Bob, a single father and debt collector who has promised his son, Kit-Kit, and his sister, Jeannie, that he will meet them at an airport, before Kit-Kit boards a flight to Australia.While talking to Grace on his cellular phone, Bob agrees to help Grace and hands his phone to patrol officer Fai, who believes that the distressing phone call is a prank, due to Bob's reckless driving. Grace is interrupted from the call when Fok and his men enter the room, having abducted her brother's friend, Joe. Fok forces Grace to contact her brother, Roy. After listening to Roy's answering machine, Fok kills Joe and leaves with his men, now planning to go after Grace's daughter, Tinker. Grace persuades Bob to head to the school and find her daughter before Fok's men do. When Bob arrives, he is distracted by the school's headmaster, and minutes before the school's class dismissal, he finds Tinker too late, as she is abducted by Fok's men. Bob goes after the abductors, but winds up losing sight of them in the struggle. After crashing through a truck, Bob later finds a handgun left in his car by a fellow debt collector.
Realizing that his phone has a low battery, Bob heads to a phone store to buy a cell phone charger. After losing his patience with the flirty service clerk, he holds the store at gunpoint and pays for the charger. After Bob is caught on camera at both the school and the phone store, Detective Fai heads to Grace Wong's residence. He is still convinced that the kidnapping situation is a prank, having talked to Michelle, a woman impersonating Grace. Fok decides to go after Grace's brother, Roy, who is in a hospital.
Fai decides to call Grace's house, after realizing the real Grace Wong is a Mandarin-language speaker, while the impersonator he met speaks Cantonese. At the hospital, Bob manages to distract Grace's abductors, who are revealed by police to be Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
agents. The agents, however, manage to successfully kidnap Roy and take him to a hill where he has hidden a camcorder. Bob intervenes, grabbing a hold of the camera and fleeing from the agents; unfortunately, he loses connections with Grace.
Fai heads to Grace's house, where he confronts and kills Michelle, realizing she was also an Interpol agent working for Senior Inspector Fok. As Grace tries to contact Bob, she is caught by one Fok's henchmen. Grace kills the henchman and manages to find her daughter. However, while planning to escape, Grace and Tinker are caught by Inspector Fok. Bob looks at the evidence on the camcorder. The footage, captured by Roy, reveals Fok brutally executing several American drug dealers and stealing the drugs. Bob calls Fok, and tells them to meet him at the airport in an exchange for the evidence and the hostages, while attempting to keep his promise to his son.
At the airport, Bob's plans to meet his sister and son are foiled as Fok is conveniently between them and Bob's hiding place. After telling Fok to go towards the parking lot, he demands that Grace, Roy and Tinker be released. They flee to a patrol car that is also in the lot. Unfortunately, Bob is caught by Fok and his men, and fights against them until Fai catches up to them. Fok and his men are arrested by Detective Cheung and his Serious Crimes Unit. After Bob hands the videotaped evidence over to Detective Cheung, Fok and Tong, one of Fok's henchman, appear, and Cheung reveals that he was working with Inspector Fok. Fok deletes the footage on the videotape, and a violent confrontation ensues in a loading dock in the airport where Fai and Bob take on Fok, Cheung and the corrupt Interpol agents. Detective Cheung is shot to death by Fai after attacking him with a forklift truck
Forklift truck
A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing...
.
Bob confronts Fok on a scaffolding. After Bob reveals he still has videotaped evidence on his cell phone and threatens to send it to the police, Fok kicks Bob off the scaffolding. A net manages to save Bob's fall, but sends Fok falling to his death. While this was going on, a member of Fok's team rekidnaps Grace and her family and prepares to kill them, but Grace manages to defend her family long enough for the police to arrive. When Bob returns, Fai talks to him, feeling the glory he once had as a police officer, and wishing that they never meet again after their ordeal. Bob then meets Grace for the first time in person. Grace thanks him, and Bob concludes their meeting by saying, "If you're gonna call for help, no thanks! If you want dinner, then I'll consider." Bob is then reunited with his son, who is happy that his father kept his promise.
Cast and characters
- Louis KooLouis KooLouis Koo is a Hong Kong actor. He was once a notable local television series actor, winning TVB's Best Actor award in 1999 for Detective Investigation Files IV. In recent years, he has focused on film...
(古天樂) plays Bob, a debt collector, and single father whose life has fallen apart after his wife leaves him and her son behind. After a successful, previous collaboration with the 2006 film Rob-B-HoodRob-B-HoodRob-B-Hood is a 2006 action comedy film directed by Benny Chan, and starring Jackie Chan, Louis Koo and Michael Hui. It was produced with a budget of HK$130 million and filmed between December 2005 and January 2006...
, Koo was director Benny Chan’s first choice to play the role of Bob, a role the actor described as the most difficult in the film.
- Barbie HsuBarbie HsuBarbie Hsu also known as Dà S |Mars]] with Vic Chou of F4. She has also acted in movies, her first being the Chinese movie The Ghost Inside. She also had a singing career prior to her acting career. She was in a duo group called "S.O.S." with her sister Dee Hsu. Their last album was called...
(徐熙媛) plays Grace Wong, the female protagonist who is kidnapped. Grace is a widowed single mother, who owns a successful toy designing company. Hsu, a Taiwanese actress who appears in her first Hong Kong film, expressed her interest on her character overcoming her vulnerability: “The character I play is a victim throughout. After being kidnapped and imprisoned, she even has to witness someone being killed. It’s all very frightening. Yet, I like this character a lot because she manages to piece together a shattered phone to make a call, under such difficult circumstances.”
- Nick CheungNick CheungNick Cheung Ka-fai is a Hong Kong actor. He is married to actress Esther Kwan and the two have a daughter together named Brittany.Cheung was a Royal Hong Kong Police officer for five years and changed his career as an actor with ATV...
(張家輝) plays Detective Yu Yan-Fai, a low-ranking police officer in Hong Kong's Serious Crime DivisionSerious Crimes UnitThe Serious Crimes Unit was the official title given to an elite unit of International Police investigators during the United Nations 1999 to 2004 mission in East Timor....
.
- Liu YeLiu YeLiu Ye is a Chinese film and television actor.-Career:From the beginning of his acting career when he was a 20 year old student majoring in performing arts at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, Liu Ye's talent in acting was apparent very early on...
(劉燁) plays Senior Inspector Fok Tak-Nang, the main antagonist who is a corrupt InterpolInterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
agent with a hidden agenda.
- Flora ChanFlora ChanFlora Chan Wai-Shan was born in 30 May 1970 in Hong Kong. She is a Hong Kong television and film actress.-Biography:Chan was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts at a young age. As a child, she had hoped to become a dancer, but because of an injury when she was a teenager, she...
(陳慧珊) plays Jeannie, Bob's sister, who is looking after Bob's son before he boards a flight to Australia.
- Carlos Chan (陳家樂) plays Roy Wong, Grace's brother, who mysteriously catches Senior Inspector Fok robbing the drug dealers on video.
- Fan Siu-WongLouis Fan Siu-WongLouis Fan Siu-wong is a Hong Kong actor and martial artist. He is best known for his role as Ricky Ho in Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and as Jin Shanzhao in Ip Man and Ip Man 2 .-Early life:...
(樊少皇) plays Tong, another Interpol agent who serves as one of Fok's henchman.
- Eddie Cheung Siu-FaiCheung Siu-FaiEddie Cheung Siu-fai is a Hong Kong actor best known for his many supporting or everyman roles similar to Liu Kai-chi.-Filmography:-TV series:-External links:* on Sina Weibo* at the Hong Kong Cinemagic* on LoveHKFilm.com...
(張兆輝) plays Detective Cheung, Fai's superior.
Other players include Ken Hung
Ken Hung
Ken Hung Cheuk Lap is a Hong Kong cantopop singer. He started his career after earning a second place in the EEG Singing Contest . During 2007, he went to help in the office for about 3–4 months cutting newspapers because Mani said he was too shy. Then he finally started recording songs...
as Joe, Roy's classmate, who is murdered by Fok; Vincent Kok
Vincent Kok
Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu is a Hong Kong actor, scriptwriter and film director.Kok is best known for his frequent collaborations with Stephen Chow, acting and co-writing with him the films Forbidden City Cop, From Beijing with Love and The God of Cookery in addition to producing and co-writing Chow's...
as a man whose convertible is taken by Bob; Mainland Chinese actress Gong Beibi
Gong Beibi
Gong Beibi is a Chinese film actress. Beginning her career as a child actress, she later graduated from the prestigious Central Academy of Drama where she gained fame and popularity among young audiences in China after starring in several popular TV series and feature films in both China and Hong...
cameos as Jen, Fai wife; German-born Asian actress Ankie Beilke plays Michelle, an Interpol agent pretending to be Grace Wong as a cover-up for the kidnapping; Wong Cho-Lam
Wong Cho Lam
Wong Cho Lam is a Hong Kong artiste currently working for TVB. He works as a stage actor, stage director, television actor, voice actor , DJ, television host, composer, lyricist, and singer. He graduated from The Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts in 2003 with First Honors in Bachelor of Arts...
appears as a salesman; Raymond Wong Ho-Yin
Raymond Wong Ho-Yin
Raymond Wong Ho-Yin , is a Hong Kong TVB actor.-Early life:Wong completed his secondary education in Hong Kong Tang King Po College and obtained a degree issued by the City University of Hong Kong...
cameos as a police officer; child actress Chan Sze-Wai plays Tinker Wong, Grace's daughter; child actor Presley Tam, who appeared as a school bus child in Benny Chan's Invisible Target
Invisible Target
Invisible Target is a 2007 Hong Kong action film produced and directed by Benny Chan. The film stars Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Jaycee Chan as three police officers who are thrown together due to their backgrounds to bring down a criminal gang of seven led by Tien Yeng-seng -Plot:An armoured...
plays Kit-Kit, Bob's son; American actors Robbin Harris, David Rock, and Daniel Whyte play Interpol agents working for Inspector Fok.
Production
Connected is a remakeRemake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 2004 American thriller Cellular
Cellular (film)
Cellular is a 2004 thriller film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham and William H. Macy. The screenplay was written by Chris Morgan, Larry Cohen and J...
, which starred Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
and Chris Evans
Chris Evans (actor)
Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans is an American actor. He played Cary Baston on the television series Opposite Sex, and transitioned to a film career, starring in several hits, including Not Another Teen Movie , Fierce People , Fantastic Four, sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and...
. It is also the first film to be produced by Sirius XM Radio's production arm Sirius Pictures International. Connected is a Chinese-Hong Kong co-production. It was produced by Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures
Emperor Entertainment Group
Emperor Entertainment Group is one of the largest entertainment groups in Hong Kong founded by Albert Yeung Sau-Shing in and established in Wan Chai in 1986, along with Music Icon Entertainment Limited and Emperor Motion Picture Group, EEG operates under the major conglomerate Emperor Multimedia...
, China Film Group and Warner China Film HG, the Chinese production arm of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
The film was produced and directed by Benny Chan, and stars Louis Koo
Louis Koo
Louis Koo is a Hong Kong actor. He was once a notable local television series actor, winning TVB's Best Actor award in 1999 for Detective Investigation Files IV. In recent years, he has focused on film...
in the lead role. Both the director and actor reunite after collaborating on the 2006 film, Rob-B-Hood
Rob-B-Hood
Rob-B-Hood is a 2006 action comedy film directed by Benny Chan, and starring Jackie Chan, Louis Koo and Michael Hui. It was produced with a budget of HK$130 million and filmed between December 2005 and January 2006...
. Chan also reunites with stunt coordinator Nicky Li, a former leader of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team
Jackie Chan Stunt Team
The Jackie Chan Stunt Team , also known as Jackie Chan's Stuntmen Association is a group of stuntmen and martial artists who work alongside Jackie Chan.-History:...
, who has worked on several of Chan's films including Rob-B-Hood, Divergence
Divergence (film)
Divergence is a 2005 Hong Kong action-crime film produced and directed by Benny Chan, from a screenplay by Ivy Ho. The film stars Ekin Cheng, Aaron Kwok and Daniel Wu.-Plot:...
and Invisible Target
Invisible Target
Invisible Target is a 2007 Hong Kong action film produced and directed by Benny Chan. The film stars Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Jaycee Chan as three police officers who are thrown together due to their backgrounds to bring down a criminal gang of seven led by Tien Yeng-seng -Plot:An armoured...
. The screenplay was co-written by Alan Yuen, who has frequently collaborated with Chan on films such as Rob-B-Hood and New Police Story
New Police Story
New Police Story is a 2004 Hong Kong action film starring Jackie Chan and directed by Benny Chan.The film is a reboot of the Police Story series. New Police Story relies much more on drama and heavy action than its predecessors.-Plot:...
.
Development
Connected was greenlit by Warner China Film HG, who hoped that the film would appeal to the Hong Kong's cell phone user population. The studio approached director Benny Chan, one of the most sought-after film directors of Hong Kong action cinemaHong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...
. Chan and his screenwriters spent two years working on the script. It went through various rewrites, before the writers finally created a scenario closely similar to the film Cellular.Hollywood's Chinese Thriller to Hit the Screen When comparing his film to Cellular, Chan wanted to make the characters more real and believable than the Hollywood original, even questioning the plausibility of the films' scenario.
Filming
The film was shot entirely in Hong Kong under a budget of HK$Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar is the currency of the jurisdiction. It is the eighth most traded currency in the world. In English, it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively HK$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
45 million (US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5.8 million), a conservative figure among growing Chinese movie budgets. Chan described the film as the most demanding film in his career, as he and co-screenwriters Alan Yuen and Xu Bing tried to make the film appeal to Chinese audiences. The director first filmed Barbie Hsu’s scenes before filming Louis Koo’s portion. Both actors, however, share one scene together. During filming, the Hong Kong Government
Government of Hong Kong
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, commonly the Hong Kong Government, is led by the Chief Executive as Head of the Government, who is also the head of the Hong Kong SAR...
refused to grant a permit to film a flying car scene in a busy city district, thus the filmmakers could only shift filming to the outskirts of Hong Kong, proving that they could do the same without the government’s help.
Stunts
Louis Koo performed his own stunts, stating, "Whether it’s a car chase, rolling down a hill or jumping out of a falling car, I’m fine with the stunts as long as the outcome gives the effect we want." He later revealed that he suffered from external injuries. For the film's car chase sequence, Koo persuaded Chan to let him perform the stunt himself, feeling that the “result of which would be more believable.”Box office
On opening weekend in Hong Kong, Connected topped the box office, grossing HK$3.61 million, with HK$1.08 million from 42 screens on a four-day weekend. At the end of its box-office run in Hong Kong, the film had grossed a total of HK$13.64 million.Awards and nominations
| Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Name | Outcome |
| 45th Golden Horse Film Awards Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962, by Government Information Office, Republic of China... |
Best Film Editing | Yau Chi-Wai | Won |
| Best Action Choreography | Nicky Li | Won | |
| 28th Hong Kong Film Awards | Best Director | Benny Chan | Nominated |
| Best Actress | Barbie Hsu Barbie Hsu Barbie Hsu also known as Dà S |Mars]] with Vic Chou of F4. She has also acted in movies, her first being the Chinese movie The Ghost Inside. She also had a singing career prior to her acting career. She was in a duo group called "S.O.S." with her sister Dee Hsu. Their last album was called... |
Nominated | |
| Best Film Editing | Yau Chi-Wai | Won | |
| Best Action Choreography | Nicky Li | Nominated | |
| Best Sound Effects | Chris Goodes, Sam Wong | Nominated | |