KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Andy Lau Tak-Wah once again face off in an explosive crime drama, The Goldfinger, 20 years after Infernal Affairs.
This time, Leung plays the antagonist and Andy the protagonist, a reversal of their roles in the 2002 crime drama.
But besides having the heart-throb duo as its main stars, The Goldfinger will also have a special "guest appearance" of Malaysians, in particular a fictitious banker named Musharra played by Phillip Keung who heads a Malaysian bank named Federal Bank.
It has been widely reported on social media that The Goldfinger is based on real events surrounding the rise and fall of Hong Kong conglomerate Carrian Group in the early 1980s, and that conglomerate was linked to the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) corruption scandal during the same period.
However, The Goldfinger's director Felix Chong said that his new film was "purely fiction" and its characters did not resemble Carrian's founder George Tan and neither was Musharra based on any of BMF's chairmen.
"It may be inspired by Carrian in some ways, but the story of the main character Ching Yat Yin and his company Carmen Group are different, likewise the characters who interact with Ching," said Felix in an interview at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jalan Imbi here today.
Also present were Leung and the film's producer Ronald Wong.
In The Goldfinger which opens in cinemas on Dec 30, Leung plays Ching, the founder of Carmen Enterprises whose big business is gradually exposed as a fraud.
Ching is an overseas-born Chinese who flees to Hong Kong in the 1970s when his first business fails. By chance, he makes his first pot of gold in the real estate business in the same decade, and proceeds to form over a hundred companies within a year.
But a small stock market crash in the early 1980s exposes the true nature of Carmen Enterprises as a scam built upon lies.
Felix said that having Leung and Andy co-star in The Goldfinger was a pairing that he had always wanted.
"I'm a big fan of both. Tony and Andy share very strong screen chemistry. When they're together, there's tension even when they're only looking at each other."
The Goldfinger, with Albert Yeung, Zheng Zhi Hao and Alex Yeung as executive producers also stars Charlene Choi, Simon Yam, Carlos Chan, Michael Ning, Philip Keung, Alex Fong, Tai Bo, Chin La Lok, Catherine Chau and Anita Yuen.
In the 125-minute film, Andy plays anti-corruption investigator Lau Kai Yuen who is tasked with investigating the sudden collapse of Carmen Enterprises.
Lau sets his sight on Ching and after facing numerous challenges and threats to his life as well as the lives of his loved ones, he takes Ching to court.
Sadly, the presiding judge turns out to have been bribed, and this means that the "battle royale" between Lau and Ching has only just begun.
The Goldfinger is distributed by GSC Movies.