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| Zhang Yimou’s “Cliff Walkers” is a pre-WW2 espionage thriller. |
Zhang Yimou’s upcoming thriller “Cliff Walkers” has recently released its teaser trailer.
The new trailer, which was released on 13 April, starts with two characters discussing a secret operation by four Communist special agents from Soviet Union, before the scene changes with another character saying that they are prepared for an operation that they have been training for for the past seven months.
The remaining scenes are packed with car chases, gun fights, and one scene involving an electric chair.
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| The film is set in 1930s Manchukuo. |
Starring Zhang Yi (“Operation Red Sea”), Yu Hewei (“I Am Not Madame Bovary”), Qin Hailu (“The Pluto Moment”) and Zhu Yawen (“The Captain”), the film follows a task force of four communist agents who have received training in the Soviet Union to carry out a secret operation in the city of Harbin. Upon their return, they find themselves surrounded by threats on all sides from the moment they parachute in after being sold out by a traitor.
This will be the first attempt by Zhang at a spy genre, with the movie taking place in the 1930s Manchukuo, the puppet state set up in northern China by pre-World War II imperial Japan.
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| Snow, snow and lots of snow. |
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| Zhang filming the movie in the snowy forest in northeastern China |
The director had led the crew to a snowy forest in north-east China in minus 40 degrees to shoot the said film. The extremely cold environment posed a great challenge to the filming, with the thick snow covering up to one’s knees, making it difficult for everybody involved to move even an inch.
“Cliff Walkers” will be released on 30 April.