"危城" 影迷们见面- 彭于晏 and 劉青雲 (Call Of Heroes meet and greet- Eddie Peng and Sean Lau Ching Wan) - 16 August 2016 (Paradigm mall)

I knew Eddie has a growing fan base but didn’t anticipate such a large following in Malaysia. Avid supporters occupied the stage six hours prior to the “Call of Heroes” meet and greet session ! The stars were quite punctual as they had to leave for Mid Valley mall for the movie premiere.  This is Eddie’s first movie promotion in Malaysia. Eddie’s last official appearance was in 2014, when he graced the official opening of "Longines" outlet at Pavilion. More recently (last 2015), Eddie was on location shooting in Penang for Dante Lam’s soon to-be-released new movie, “Operation Mekong”.

This happens to be my first time seeing Eddie in person. I haven’t watched any of his Mainland nor Taiwanese dramas. I only noticed Eddie after he started to actively participate in HK productions lately.  “Call of Heroes” is an action packed period drama which also stars Louis Koo and Sean Lau Ching Wan. Obviously, Louis had to bail on this since he was in KL just a week earlier to promote “Line Walkers”.  For this round of promo tour, only Eddie, Sean and Benny Chan were in attendance.  Eddie displayed a playful antic on stage and were extremely nice to the fans. Those star struck fans who had the chance to go up the stage literally hit the jackpot, so to speak. Eddie even gave them all a tight hug ! The female emcee made some unwarranted comments, repeatedly stressing that day happens to be the 14^th day of the seventh month in the Chinese Calendar and assuring the artistes that the fans surrounding the stage are actually humans, not spirits ! Please ! It ain't funny and judging from the celebrities’ expression, they find it lame, too.

I expected the event to conclude within 15-20 minutes (just like the “Line Walker” event) but I was lucky. The session lasted more than half an hour. Louis plays the baddie in this movie. I dislike the fact that Eddie’s voice has been dubbed. Eddie is still communicating in Mandarin during interviews, unlike fellow Taiwanese, Annie Lau Sum Yau, who now converses in Mandarin during Q&A and public appearances in HK/Msia.  Annie’s Cantonese has improved tremendously.  Frankly, I keep seeing the same ol’ faces (leading actors) in HK movies – Nick, Sean and Louis. Most often than not, I get confused about which movies they appeared in. It’s either a combo of Nick and Louis, or Louis and Sean, or all three…thankfully, they are all very capable artiste, especially Nick and Sean. However, this also shows a dearth of  good young actor from Hong Kong.  “Call of Heroes” hits the local cinema circuit on 18^th August (818 – auspicious).

SYNOPSIS (credit to GSC cinemas)

In the early Republic of China, the whole country was trodden by incessant civil wars. The new ruling warlord Cao Ying sent his son Cao Shaolun (by Louis Koo) to take over the remote village Puchong. Cold-blooded and temperamental, Shaolun killed the innocent and orphans relentlessly. The guardians of Pucheng arrested him and the guardian commander Yang Kenan (by Sean Lau) planned to execute him after the trial.

Zhang Yi (by Wu Jing), a colonel under the warlord Cao Ying, learnt what happened and came to Pucheng demanding the release of Shaolun. Zhang came across Ma Feng (by Eddie Peng) who learnt martial arts under the same mentor as Zhang. Ma witnessed the outrageous behaviour of Shaolun and refused to take Zhang’s side. He was determined to assist Yang to keep Shaolun behind bars.

Zhang failed to rescue Shaolun. Cao’s army invaded Pucheng and caused numerous causalities and deaths. The brave feroes swore to fight the battle to protect their homeland…