Late summer movie carnival

Entering the last month of summer vacation, it seems both domestic and imported blockbusters are trying their all to seize one last opportunity. From animation to science fiction and marital arts movies, and on to romantic comedies, audiences should be able to find a favorite during the last moments of the summer movie season.

Imported feast

While normally only two to three blockbusters are imported in a month, this August we have at least four: Brick Mansions, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Pompeii and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Already showing on big screens is the action movie Brick Mansions. Directed by Camille Delamarre, the movie, however, has mainly been gaining attention because of scriptwriter and producer Luc Besson. Ten years ago in 2004, Besson was also scriptwriter and producer for the French film District 13, one of the early successful parkour focused action films. An English adaptation of District 13, Brick Mansions tells pretty much the same story and may seem a bit old to those who have seen the French original.

Still though, the film has a number of exciting scenes involving drag racing, and is also the last completed work of Paul Walker before he died, and so may serve as a special memento for fans of Walker's work.

The second film of a trilogy, the story in How to Train Your Dragon 2 takes place five years after the 2010 film and Hiccup and his friends are now young adults. Starting new adventures with his dragon Toothless, Hiccup comes across new dragons but at the same time becomes involved in a new conflict between humans and dragons.

Set for August 14 in China, the film was released in North America in June. With a high score of 8.4 on movie site IMDB, the film is sure to cause a wave of excitement once it hits theaters here.

One of the world's ancient lost cities, Pompeii has always captured people's curiosity. Now the story of the mysterious city will be seen on the big screen in British director Paul Anderson's latest film, the aptly titled Pompeii.

Scheduled for August 15, this historical disaster movie brings audiences back to the time before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. With early works like the Resident Evil franchise and The Three Musketeers (2011), Anderson is known for creating eye shocking scenes, but it remains to be seen whether he can master a story that brings both love and revenge into the mix as well.

Even though it didn't receive much in the way of promotion, back in 2011 sci-fi movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes took in 155 million yuan ($25 million) in the Chinese mainland in just two weeks. Now the apes return in the highly anticipated Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, set for August 29. Set 10 years after the first movie, a virus has caused the collapse of human society, and only a small group of humans are left alive. Accidentally, they come across the ape tribe led by Caesar and interrupt the tribe's peaceful life. To defend each other's territory, a war between humans and apes is set to begin at any moment.

Domestic martial arts

Martial arts movies seem to have become a new trend recently. Quickly following on the coattails of The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom, comes Brotherhood of Blades (August 7) and The Four 3 (August 22).

Starring popular domestic actors and actresses such as Zhang Zhen, Wang Qianyuan and Liu Shishi, Brotherhood of Blades tells a legendary story of romance, ambition and conspiracy involving three officials belonging to the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)'s imperial military secret police.

Rising to prominence with feature film My Spectacular Theatre (2010), director Lu Yang is still new to commercial movies and the martial arts genre.

Yet, after a pre-screening event held Monday, Brotherhood of Blades seems to be getting quite a bit of good feedback from people in the industry and regular moviegoers. For example, mainland director Gao Qunshu praised the film saying "Brotherhood of Blades demonstrates the goals and quality that movies should possess. Additionally, out of all the domestic-made martial art movies that I have seen in recent years, it possesses the most realistic and literary style, that is to say it is the movie that is most like what a movie should be," according to a report on ent.163.com.

Also set during the same time period is The Four 3, the third and last of The Four films by Hong Kong director Gordon Chan. Adapted from Malaysian Chinese author Woon Swee Oan's novel series The Four Great Constables, The Four franchise focuses on four constables who solve crimes with their unique skills. Differing from Brotherhood of Blades, which is purely a martial arts film, The Four franchise mixes martial arts with fantasy.

Yet, with a collective box office of only a little more than 350 million yuan ($56 million), neither of the previous two movies received very good reviews. Now with the addition of Taiwan actor Alec Su, let's hope that Su will bring a fresh feeling to the last installment.

Lighter fare

In addition to blockbusters, August will also see quite a number of mid-budget comedies and romance films which may act as something light for moviegoers to watch.

One of the few non-animated films targeting a family audience, When a Peking Family Meets Aupair tells a series of funny stories about the culture clash that occurs when a Chinese family hires a foreign tutor for their daughter.

Directed by Chen Gang, a professor at The Central Academy of Drama, at first glance the film seems to have little market power, however, the number of veteran stars such as Xu Fan, Chen Jianbin and Sun Honglei who appear in the film opening August 8 may end up catching the attention of audiences.

Scheduled for August 15 is the romantic comedy Mr Lucky, staring Hong Kong actor Jordan Chan and Taiwan actress Ady An. Differing from the normal "boy chases girl" format, the film takes the opposite approach and is about a rich woman who goes after a security guard.

If Mr Lucky fails to satisfy, there are still many more choices to choose from like Next Station I Love You and Temporary Family.