Local filmmakers are set to showcase their skills absorbed from the set of the first foreign production to be shot in Myanmar for years.
Action movie Line Walker 2 wrapped up its Myanmar shoot last week after 12 days of filming street shootouts, car chases and explosions near Yangon landmarks landmarks Sule and Shwedagon pagodas and the City Hall.
Shaw Brothers Pictures International, one of the largest production outfits in Hong Kong, hired local firms as well as 200 extras to play Myanmar police, street vendors and passersby for the sequel to the 2016 blockbuster.
They joined the film’s director Jazz Boon and Hong Kong stars Louis Koo Tin-lok and Bick Cheung Ka-fai.
The sight of so much local film talent drawn to the foreign movie was “a bold new move” for Myanmar film, said director Kyi Phyu Shin.
“Some people from our local film industry had the chance to work with them,” she told Myanmar Mix. “They gained a lot of new experience and will contribute that knowledge to our films.”
Fellow director Ko Pauk was impressed by the operation, which he attended every day to learn from the crew. He said its budget dwarfed that of local films.
Producer Grace Swe Zin Htike, who was an adviser to Line Walker 2 (Operation Midnight Shadow), said permission for the shoot was requested to 10 governmental departments.
“Through this film, international film producers will see many shooting sites in Myanmar,” she said. “The country also earns foreign revenue from the daily costs and expenses paid by foreign moves filming in our country.”
Deputy director-general of the Information and Public Relations Department U Aye Kywe told Myanmar Mix it was the first foreign crew to shoot a movie here since the Japanese-Myanmar collaboration Thway in 2003.
No other foreign movie productions are lined up but Myanmar welcomes them to develop technical knowledge in the industry and “boost the beautiful images of the country to the international community and tourism sector through films,” he said.
