Max Zhang and Anderson Silva thank fans for their support of Invincible Dragon. | Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images
Made in Hong Kong, the martial arts extravaganza is now headed to America.
Max Zhang, fresh off his success portraying Bruce Lee in the Ip Man films, stars in a new Kung Fu franchise with UFC legend and former middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Produced in Hong Kong, Invincible Dragon was first released there and will come to the US this fall. Its debut trailer just hit the Internet.
Written and directed by Hong Kong veteran filmmaker Fruit Chan, in collaboration with longtime co-creator Kee-To Lam, Invincible Dragon follows Kowloon, played by Zhang, a detective targeted by a serial killer. Kowloon loses his fiancée and job, and with nothing left to lose, decides to take on the criminal underworld and put a stop to the serial killer once and for all. He then finds himself back in the crosshairs of an old rival, Alexander Sinclair, played by Silva.
While Invincible Dragon sounds like a straight ahead martial arts crime drama, it is in fact an odd genre mash-up, mixing in moments of surrealistic fairy tale and cheeky comedic voiceover narration. The result is an eccentric potpourri of filmic elements which may appeal to some, but leave others cold.
However, the action stands apart from story, and rising star Zhang and the charismatic Silva definitely deliver. Director Chan had a fairly big budget to work with, and in terms of the martial arts, it shows.
As for Silva, he was cleared to return to training two weeks ago after his recent knee surgery. In May, he called out Conor McGregor, and was himself called out by Roy Jones, Jr. just this week. However, as Silva builds up a body of work as an actor, it might that his return to action will be once again in front of the camera.