Chow Yun Fat and Huang Xiaoming both play the character Cheng Daqi in the film that garnered two awards and five nominations across Asia, The Last Tycoon, which debuts tonight, 9 p.m., on Celestial Movies Pinoy’s Celestial Sunday Presents.
We all know Chow Yun Fat not just from the films From Vegas to Macau and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but through many other great films like Anna and The King, Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End, The God of Gamblers franchise, The Replacement Killers, Dragonball Evolution, and recently, the franchise of The Monkey King. He starred in over 24 television series and 121 films including those in Hollywood.
Huang Xiaoming, on the other hand, became famous as Emperor Wu in one of Taiwan’s top television series Da Han Tian Zi (Emperor of Han Dynasty). The drama shows he starred in later all achieved high ratings in Asia. In the Philippines, he’s best known for his role as Yang Guo in The Return of the Condor Heroes. In 2007, he began focusing on his film career, appearing in films like The Sniper, The Message, Ip Man 2, and Insanity, which also premiered on Celestial Movies Pinoy in July.
The Last Tycoon is a period film set in early 1900s. Huang plays young Cheng Daqi, who travels to Shanghai in search of a new life. There, he meets a mob boss and becomes his apprentice. Twenty years later, the older Cheng Daqi, played by Chow, becomes a tycoon and the mob boss himself.
The film won the Best Art Direction and Best Original Film Song at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Original Film Score, and Best New Performer.
At the 7th Asian Film Awards, the film was nominated for Best Production Designer and Best Costume Designer.
Chow says Huang is “good looking, (has) great body and superb acting skills.” He says, “Among the new generation of actors, he is the one to look out for. Apart from his looks, he puts a lot of effort in his acting. However, I think he should step out of Chow Yun Fat’s shadow and be himself.”
Although a lot of their scenes in The Last Tycoon were shot separately, they worked together closely when they were dubbing their lines, as Chow was better at Cantonese, and Huang at Mandarin.
The Last Tycoon is a drama and action film, weaving a tale of loyalty, romance, and politics. Don’t miss it on Celestial Movies Pinoy on Cignal channel 12 and across pay TV stations nationwide.
Celestial Movies Pinoy is from Viva Communications, Inc. and Celestial Tiger Entertainment.