Award-winning director Benjamin Wong explores themes of reconciliation, loss and love in his new black and white Samurai silent short film, "The Old Samurai."
The short film stars James Wong as an old samurai, who after a lifetime of fighting in wars, is challenged to an epic showdown by a young ambitious samurai, his worthiest adversary yet. But his battle with the young challenger could prove to be the old samurai's undoing.
Inspired by lighting-fast duels-to-the-death in Samurai classics such as Sanjuro, according to the filmmakers, the idea for "The Old Samurai" began with a simple question: What if you could capture the split second between first draw and final blow?
That seed of an idea blossomed into Wong's short film homage to Samurai films both classic and recent.
Armed with a 1000 frame-per-second camera, a rain machine, and some amazing locations, Wong's cast and crew shot the "The Old Samurai" in three days. The film's ultra slow motion scenes were filmed with the IDT N5 camera.
Told purely through visuals and a score written by Christopher Guanlao of Silversun Pickups, Wong invites viewers to actively watch and interpret the film through their own eyes without any dialogue.
Wong is a New York City based filmmaker whose previous work has been recognized with Webby and Addy awards, with a client list including MTV, AT&T, Smithsonian, Kid Rock and Seal.
"The Old Samurai" is the third short film written and directed by Wong, who is also currently developing two low-to-medium budget high-concept features.
The film stars James Wong and Miho Ando. It was produced by Celia Esguerra with cinematography by Boa Simon, editing by Alisa Khosrovschahi and score by Christopher Guanlao.
Additional cast and crew includes Patrick Chien, Ryan Fung, Chad Kim, Darrel Miho, David Sheen, and Eagle Yu with Kevin Nakatsuka, AD, Lauren Morelli, Costume Design, and Christie Griffin, Key Makeup.
For more info visit: http://theoldsamurai.com or go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Old-Samurai/213084665391522
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