A Look at Jang Dong-gun’s Laundry Warrior

Talk about a really, really bad title for a movie with a really, really cool premise. Someone (i.e. the producers) need to have to talk with writer/director Sngmoo Lee about the title of his Asian/Western/Martial Arts movie, because let’s face it, “Laundry Warrior” ain’t gonna sell a whole lot of tickets. The film will mark the U.S. debut of South Korean heartthrob Jang Dong-gun, famous for roles in movies like “Taegukgi”, “Friend”, and “Typhoon”. It will also star American Kate Bosworth and Aussie Geoffrey Rush, and be set in the American west. And did I mention it’s a martial arts movie?

So what’s it about? (via)

Yang, the World’s Greatest Swordsman, leaves his clan and flees Asia with baby April, the last of the enemy bloodline. Hoping to make a new life for himself as a humble laundryman in America’s Wild West, he comes to know and care about the people of Lode, a small, forgotten town filled with carnival players. While there, Yang finds a pupil/lover in Lin, (a beautiful Asian girl), but also makes new enemies with the Hell Riders, a marauding gang of vicious thugs. Reluctant to stand forward and defend the town, because it will mean revealing his identity, Yang is soon forced to pick up his sword and lead the “carnies” and townsfolk in to an incredible battle against the loathsome Hell Riders. At the pitched height of that battle, Yang’s past, the Asian sword clan he left behind, (”The Sad Flutes”), attack raising the battle to an epic crescendo…

The film is being produced by Barrie Osborne (the “Lord of the Rings” movies), and boasts a $45 million dollar budget, which ain’t too shabby.

Variety had more from last year:

Story sees a fugitive Asian warrior (Jang) hide out in the American badlands, where he encounters the town drunk (Rush) and a beautiful, but troubled woman.

Lee, who has taught for five years at the New York Film School, will make his helming debut.

Production will employ extensive green screen techniques, and post-production will involve the use of effects houses including Weta Digital in New Zealand and others in Korea, India and the U.S.

So, a martial arts movie with extensive special effects, plus Kate Bosworth as a knife-throwing carnie chick? Huh. The film was supposed to star Zhang Ziyi in the Bosworth role (the “beautiful Asian girl” from the logline above), but Ziyi left the project due to scheduling conflicts. She was replaced with Bosworth.

I’ve been looking high and low for any image from the movie (IMDB.com says it’s already in post!), but all I could find was the one below, which is apparently the “official homepage banner” for the movie, whatever that means (via):