"The Locksmith" 鎖戰 movie premiere and promotional events in Penang (featuring Philip Keung, Raymond Wong and Samantha Ko- 姜皓文、黄 浩然 and 高海宁.) - 12 and 13th November, 2023.

 

Suspense thriller, “The Locksmith” (鎖戰) is a movie shot entirely in Penang island. Even the director (making his directorial debut and switching from commercials to feature film) is a Penang dude known as Wu Peiji. The movie is co-produced by Louis Koo’s company, “One Cool Film Production”, along with several local producers.  This marks Louis’s venture into South East Asia, most notably in Malaysia and Singapore.  As expected, “The Locksmith” had tremendous support from the Penang state government and Tourism Board.  Leading the movie is Hark Gor aka Philip Keung, who is no stranger to Penang. He has a second home in Tanjong Tokong, Penang.  Hence, this project is obviously close to his heart.  Other notable cast are Raymond Wong, Benz Hui, Samantha Ko, plus local artistes Yumi Wong, Thomas Kok (formerly of boy band “Thomas & Jack”) and new child star, Chanel.  Philip plays the role of a Malaysian locksmith and Samantha is the daughter of Benz Hui, who also happens to be Philip’s “sifu”. Raymond takes on the cop character.  To heighten the sense of mystery, each artiste only received their part of the script which means they are not aware of the plot involving others.

There’s a series of publicity blitz in Penang surrounding the movie launch, which will be released nationwide, Brunei and Singapore on 16^th of November. Prior to that, the movie premiere was held on 13^th of November at Mega Cineplex. Mega Cineplex never disappoints when it comes to film premieres as they are always super generous in giving away free tickets, movie merchandise/freebies and customer service is top notch. A massive enthusiastic crowd turn-up to support the event, with many Penang state assemblymen invited as well.  Philip’s wife, Anna Kam, was also in attendance to support hubby.  What made me flinched is the local investor asking audience to sing along a birthday song for the one of the assemblymen, which is totally uncalled for and had me mortified ! Come on, he’s a YB, not artiste ! Silly sucking up move ! My ears also hurts from the emcee deafening and too loud for comfort lame and old skool banters. If ticket sales breached MYR10 million, the local investors vowed to shoot a sequel. After Penang and Sabah, the artistes will be heading to KL and Sarawak for more promotional activities.  Watch the video clips for Philip, Samantha and Raymond’s thoughts about this movie.