I can’t say I’m sad about this even though I adore baby boy Wu Lei (Leo Wu) and this is such a high profile project for him. The summer 2018 big budget Chinese fantasy movie Asura was billed as a six-year movie in the making with the biggest cost ever at $113 million USD and when something flies so high it flops loud enough to be covered around the world watching intently on the growth and future of the Chinese movie market. Starring Wu Lei, HK stars Carina Lau and Tony Leung (not her husband Tony), Zhang Yi Shang, and Ming Dao, the movie got only $7 million in box office during the first three days premiere and was abruptly pulled from theaters after. The movie was savaged by C-netizens and audiences online in China’s biggest platforms like Weibo for being a knockoff of Hollywood fantasy movies and having a terrible story, and with such a smack down the production claimed to be pulling the movie to make changes for a future re-release. Media pundits are happy with this flop, hoping it halts China’s bigger is better push and re-centers the industry on making good movies. Continue reading →