Trying to keep my mind occupied this week while Todd, Kurt and Michael have been sounding the highs and lows of this year's TIFF I've been catching up on some of the Shaw Brothers titles sitting on my living room table. Consider it pure joy when I read today that Yuen Wo Ping is behind the camera filming a throwback to old school kung fu films with [苏乞儿] Beggar Su (tentative), a remake of Hero Among Heroes in spirit. Filming began only a couple weeks and there has been little to no news about it until now.

Zhao Wen Zhuo who has been absent from MA films for far too long... is starring as the eponymous folk hero Su Qi Er. Zhou Xun plays Su Qi Er's wife Yuan Ying, while Michelle Yeoh, who has just finished her part in the film, cameos as a recluse swordswoman Sister Yu, who is Su Qi-er's saviour. In possibly another cameo role, Jay Chow will be joining the production later as a peerless martial arts master who imparts his skills to Su Qi Er.

Beggar Su also marks Yuen Wo Ping's first film as a director in almost a decade and the first time he ever works with Zhao Wen Zhuo. Yuen Wo Ping is also paying tribute to his late father Yuen Siu Tin, who had portrayed Su Qi Er in a few films, through this production.

In the first half of the film, Su Qi Er faces persecution and gets badly beaten up, leaving his right arm maimed while being reduced to begging, undergoing the lowest points and most painful moments in his life. Su Qi-er's romantic interest deserts him while his stout and kind-hearted wife Yuan Ying remains faithfully by his side. Being preoccupied with vengeance, Su Qi Er runs amok while training too hard in martial arts. During this sharp change of his fate, Su Qi Er's personality changes drastically too, providing a good challenge to Zhao Wen Zhuo acting skills.

Production stills here including a breathtaking shot of the set up top of the peaks of Mi Yun's Dragon Clouds Mountain.