Taiwan-based Distribution Workshop is set to introduce Hong Kong director Juno Mak’s Sons Of The Neon Night, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Sean Lau, to international buyers at Busan’s ACFM, along with two Taiwanese titles.
It has been over a decade since Mak – who was a singer and actor before moving into directing – premiered directorial feature debut and vampire horror film Rigor Mortis at Venice and Toronto in 2013. His second feature, Sons Of The Neon Night, began filming in 2017 and has gone through a long gestation period including the Covid pandemic.
The $50m cop action thriller marks the first film starring Taiwanese-Japanese superstar Kaneshiro since 2017’s This Is Not What I Expected and 2016’s See You Tomorrow. The A-list cast also includes Tony Leung Ka-fai from Cold War and Lau (sometimes credited as Lau Ching Wan) whose Papa is set to premiere in Tokyo’s main competition as well as Louis Koo and Ritchie Jen, who both appeared in Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In.
Set in a deconstructed and reimagined snowy Hong Kong, the film opens with a massive explosion and shoot-out, the first in a series of wild actions planned by a pharmaceutical heir, played by Kaneshiro. When his father, the mastermind behind a global drug trafficking ring, is killed, a war is declared to create a world without drugs.
The original music score was composed by late acclaimed musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The film is in post-production, aiming for release in the first half of 2025.
At ACFM (October 5-8), Distribution Workshop will also represent Taiwanese romantic dramas Penguin Girl, directed by emerging director Yuyu Yang, and Unexpected Courage, directed by Shawn Yu and starring Rene Liu and Hsueh Shih-Ling who was named best supporting actor at last year’s Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards in Busan.
For Unexpected Courage, Distribution Workshop handles sales in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan only, with remaining territories handled by Mandarin Vision.
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