The Twins Effect

Last updated

The Twins Effect
The Twins Effect.jpg
Film poster
Traditional Chinese 千機變
Simplified Chinese 千机变
Hanyu Pinyin Qiān Jī Biàn
Jyutping Cin1 Gei1 Bin3
Directed by Dante Lam
Donnie Yen
Written byChan Hing-kar
Jack Ng
Produced byCheung Shing-sheung
Starring Charlene Choi
Gillian Chung
Ekin Cheng
Edison Chen
Anthony Wong
Mandy Chiang
Josie Ho
Maggie Lau
Jackie Chan
Karen Mok
Chapman To
CinematographyCheung Man-po
Edited byChan Kei-hop
Music by Chan Kwong-wing
Production
companies
Emperor Multimedia Group
Goldpeak Corporation Limited
Distributed by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Release date
  • 8 March 2003 (2003-03-08)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese
Box office$28,423,960 (Hong Kong)

The Twins Effect, also known as Vampire Effect in the United States, is a 2003 Hong Kong martial arts comedy-horror film directed by Dante Lam and Donnie Yen. The film was derived from Cantopop group Twins, starring both members Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung in the leading roles. Co-stars include Edison Chen and Ekin Cheng. Jackie Chan makes a cameo appearance as an ambulance driver.

Contents

Released on 8 March 2003, The Twins Effect was a box-office success in Hong Kong, became the highest-grossing domestic film of the year. The film gained huge popularity, mainly from fans of the Cantopop group Twins.

Plot

An evil vampire duke seeks to kill and collect the blood of a royal family of European vampires in order to become all powerful. The last surviving member of the family, Prince Kazaf, flees to Hong Kong with his servant Prada. There, they are introduced by estate agent Momoko to live in an abandoned church.

Vampire hunter Reeve is depressed after his partner Lila is killed by vampires. He decides to train Lila's younger sister, Gypsy, to inherit her sister's duty and fight the vampire duke. However, Reeve's own sister, Helen, sees Gypsy as a rival.

At the same time, Kazaf meets Helen and falls in love with her, after which he intends to lead the life of a human being, but he is tracked down by the duke. Helen helps Kazaf and lets him hide in her home, where they are later discovered by Gypsy. Meanwhile, Reeve falls into the duke's trap while hunting vampires. Helen and Gypsy team up to save him.

Cast

Alternate version

After its release in Hong Kong, the film was renamed to Vampire Effect and some sequences were slightly altered. The new version was released in the United States in DVD as well.

The following are some differences between Vampire Effect and The Twins Effect:

Release

The Twins Effect was released in Hong Kong on 8 March 2003. In the Philippines, the film was released on 21 January 2004. [1]

Home media

There are five versions of DVD, along with VCD, released in Hong Kong:

Accolades

List of accolades
CeremonyCategoryRecipientOutcome
23rd Hong Kong Film Awards Best Action Choreography Donnie YenWon
47th Golden Horse Awards Best Action Choreography Donnie YenWon

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twins (group)</span> Hong Kong Cantopop duo

Twins are a Hong Kong Cantopop duo that was created in the summer of 2001 by Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). Twins are made up of two girls, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung. They are a popular group in Hong Kong and a top band in mainland China. Their fanbase have included Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, United States, Vietnam and Philippines. Their music was generally targeted at young teens, but in 2004 they began to attract a wider audience by venturing into different styles of music. In February 2008 the duo temporarily separated after the Edison Chen photo scandal involving Gillian Chung. The group reunited two years later in 2010.

Cantopop is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production and consumption. The genre began in the 1970s and became associated with Hong Kong popular music from the middle of the decade. Cantopop then reached its height of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s before slowly declining in the 2000s and shrinking in the 2010s. The term "Cantopop" itself was coined in 1978 after "Cantorock", a term first used in 1974. In the 1980s, Cantopop reached its highest glory with fanbase and concerts all over the world, especially in Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan. This was even more obvious with the influx of songs from Hong Kong movies during the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sammi Cheng</span> Hong Kong singer and actress (born 1972)

Sammi Cheng Sau-man is a Hong Kong singer and actress. She is considered one of the most prominent female singers in Hong Kong, with album sales of over million copies throughout Asia. Most notably in the 1990s, she was dubbed by the media as the "Cantopop Queen". Having success in entertainment industry for over three decades, Cheng is also best known for her roles in Hong Kong rom-com films in the early 2000s that were box office hits. For her performance in the 2022 film 'Lost Love', she won 4 best actress honors including from the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Yuen Biao is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist and stuntman. He specialises in acrobatics and Chinese martial arts and has also worked on over 80 films as actor, stuntman and action choreographer. He was one of the Seven Little Fortunes from the China Drama Academy at the Peking Opera School along with his "brothers" Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. Yuen Biao has appeared in over 130 films. He has played roles in eight television series for the Hong Kong channel TVB.

<i>Armour of God II: Operation Condor</i> 1991 Hong Kong action-comedy film

Armour of God II: Operation Condor is a 1991 Hong Kong action-adventure film written and directed by Jackie Chan, who also starred in the film. It is the sequel to 1986's Armour of God.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ekin Cheng</span> Hong Kong actor and singer

Ekin Cheng Yee Kin is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Early in his career, he used the name Dior as a first name. He has also been referred to his stage name Noodle (伊麵), after a popular noodle dish with a similar name and his wavy long hair. Currently Ekin is the name used.

<i>Mr. Vampire</i> 1985 Hong Kong film

Mr. Vampire is a 1985 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau and produced by Sammo Hung. The film's box office success led to the creation of a Mr. Vampire franchise, with the release of four sequels directed by Ricky Lau from 1986 to 1992, and subsequent similarly themed films with different directors released between 1987 and 1992, with Lam Ching-ying as the lead for the majority of them. The vampire of the film is based on the jiangshi, the hopping corpses of Chinese folklore. The film was released under the Chinese title 暫時停止呼吸 in Taiwan. The film was the breakthrough success of the jiangshi genre, a trend popular in Hong Kong during the 1980s, and established many of the genre's recognisable tropes.

Yumiko Cheng is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. Cheng was given the Japanese nickname "Yumiko" by her friends in secondary school, and upon signing with EEG, adopted it as her official stagename.

<i>Trainee Cupid</i> 2005 studio album 見習愛神 by Twins

Trainee Cupid is the first Standard Chinese album by Hong Kong Cantopop girl group, Twins, released in 2005 by Emperor Entertainment Group. Various versions of this album exist, including of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore/Malaysia and China versions. Also karaoke DVD and VCD versions of Trainee Cupid, featuring music videos of the songs listed below with few extra bonus videos, was released in August 2005.

<i>The Twins Effect II</i> 2004 Hong Kong film

The Twins Effect II is a 2004 Hong Kong action fantasy film directed by Corey Yuen and Patrick Leung. The film is a sequel to The Twins Effect (2003), but has a completely different story from the first film. It starred Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung of Cantopop duo Twins in the leading roles. Co-stars include Donnie Yen, Daniel Wu, Edison Chen, Wilson Chen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Qu Ying, Fan Bingbing and Jim Chim. Jackie Chan also makes a cameo appearance, along with his son Jaycee Chan in his acting debut. The film's original English working title was The Huadu Chronicles: Blade of the Rose and its US DVD release title is Blade of Kings.

<i>The Duke of Mount Deer</i> (2000 TV series) Taiwanese TV series or program

The Duke of Mount Deer 2000 is a Hong Kong-Taiwanese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Deer and the Cauldron. It was first broadcast in 2000 in Taiwan and followed by subsequent broadcasts in other Asian countries.

<i>Leave Me Alone</i> (film) 2004 Hong Kong film

Leave Me Alone is a 2004 Hong Kong thriller film directed and co-written by Danny Pang. It stars Ekin Cheng in a dual role.

<i>Mr. Vampire II</i> 1986 Hong Kong film

Mr. Vampire II, also known as Mr. Vampire Part 2, is a 1986 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau, starring Yuen Biao, Moon Lee and Lam Ching-ying, and produced by Sammo Hung. The film is the second of a series of five films directed by Ricky Lau in the Mr. Vampire franchise. Mr. Vampire and its sequels were released as part of the jiangshi cinematic boom in Hong Kong during the 1980s. The Chinese title of the film literally translates to "Vampire Family".

<i>Mr. Vampire III</i> 1987 Hong Kong film

Mr. Vampire III, also known as Mr. Vampire Part 3, is a 1987 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau and produced by Sammo Hung. The film is the third of a series of five films directed by Ricky Lau in the Mr. Vampire franchise. The Chinese title of the film literally translates to Mr. Spiritual Fantasy.

<i>Mr. Vampire IV</i> 1988 film

Mr. Vampire IV, also known as Mr. Vampire Saga Four is a 1988 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau and produced by Sammo Hung and Jessica Chan. The film is the fourth of a series of five films directed by Ricky Lau in the Mr. Vampire franchise. Mr. Vampire and its sequels were released as part of the jiangshi cinematic boom in Hong Kong during the 1980s. The Chinese title of the film literally translates to Uncle Vampire.

Love Under the Sun is a 2003 Hong Kong musical short film directed by Andy Lau. It depicts an evening ball in which a rumor spreads among the guests that one among them has contracted AIDS. The film was meant to raise awareness about AIDS and dispel common misconceptions regarding its contagiousness. It features an all-star cast of Lau and various other Hong Kong cinema actors and Cantopop singers. The music is mostly arranged from Classical works such as Für Elise and Carmen with added or changed lyrics.

Love Actually... Sucks! is a 2011 Hong Kong movie, directed by Hong Kong Chinese film producer Scud. The film's title is a humorous wordplay on the 2003 romantic comedy film Love Actually, as it deals with similar complicated and interconnected relationships. It was released at the 47th Chicago International Film Festival, in October 2011. It explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society, in an unusually open, convention-defying way, featuring frequent full-frontal male and female nudity. It is the fourth of seven publicly released films by Scud. The six other films are: City Without Baseball in 2008, Permanent Residence in 2009, Amphetamine in 2010, Voyage in 2013, Utopians in 2015 and Thirty Years of Adonis in 2017. The eighth film, Apostles, was made in 2022, as was the ninth, Bodyshop, but neither have yet been released. The tenth and final film, Naked Nations: Hong Kong Tribe, is currently in production.

<i>The Yuppie Fantasia</i> 1989 Hong Kong film

The Yuppie Fantasia is a 1989 Hong Kong comedy film written and directed by Gordon Chan, and storied, produced by and starring Lawrence Cheng based on the hit radio series of the same name created by Cheng and Chan Hing-ka for RTHK in 1986 which also starred Cheng. The film was followed by two sequels, titled Brief Encounter in Shinjuku released in 1990, and The Yuppie Fantasia 3 released in 2017.

Naughty Boys is a 1986 Hong Kong martial arts crime comedy film directed by Wellson Chin, produced by Jackie Chan, and starring Kara Hui, Carina Lau, and Mars. The film was released in Hong Kong on 25 July 1986.

<i>Protégé de la Rose Noire</i> 2004 Hong Kong film

Protégé de la Rose Noire, also known as Black Rose Academy, is a 2004 Hong Kong action-comedy film co-directed by Wong Chun-chun and Donnie Yen. It follows Jeffrey Lau's 1997 film Black Rose II as the last in a series of updated Black Rose films but features a different plot and no returning cast members. All of these films are ultimately inspired by Yuen Chor's 1965 film Black Rose and its sequels. The film was a vehicle for the Cantopop duo Twins, who had previously starred in the 2003 vampire film The Twins Effect that was also co-directed by Donnie Yen. Co-director Donnie Yen, who also functioned as action director, had previously had a small role in Black Rose II as a boxing school owner. Donnie Yen's sister Chris Yen plays the role of Enchantress, a gang member in a schoolgirl uniform.

References

  1. "Opens January 21". Philippine Daily Inquirer . The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. 15 January 2004. p. B7. Retrieved 12 September 2022. Humans vs. vampires, only the strongest will survive