“Temple of Wishes”: Edison Chen returns to the screen after nearly a decade — Kuala Lumpur press conference reveals details of the comedy with Anthony Wong

KUALA LUMPUR — The upcoming Chinese New Year comedy “Temple of Wishes” was presented at a media conference in the Malaysian capital, bringing together its two main stars: three-time Hong Kong Film Award winner Anthony Wong, and Edison Chen, who returns to the big screen after an absence of nearly ten years. They were joined by actors Nikki Hsieh from Taiwan, Samuel Pang from Hong Kong, and Summer Chan and Zhen Ning from Malaysia, as Pocket News reports.

With a budget of around 10 million ringgit, the film is being shot in three countries — China, Malaysia and Italy — with locations in Hengdian, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and the picturesque Italian town of Bellagio. Production also built a set specifically for several key scenes, while director Pei Chiek Goh revealed that the script had been completed four years earlier and the project went through years of preparation before entering production.

“Temple of Wishes” tells the story of two struggling men who begin managing a temple built around the fulfillment of wishes. Filming began on September 7 and will wrap on September 30, while the premiere is set for February 6, 2027 — the first day of the Chinese New Year.

Edison Chen’s return to cinema is the project’s most talked-about news. The 45-year-old actor was unveiled as the mystery co-star at the filming kickoff ceremony in Penang on September 17 — until then the production had kept him hidden as a silhouette. The film reunites Chen with Anthony Wong, with whom he shared the screen in the acclaimed series “Infernal Affairs” and the hit “Initial D” (2005). Chen said he accepted the role partly to discover whether he was still suited to acting and whether audiences wanted to see him again; Wong praised his dedication, recounting how the actor learned difficult Chinese dialogue with English phonetics.

Director Goh, asked why he chose precisely this duo, replied with a laugh: “Of course, because they were suitable. The two actors in the film need to have chemistry between them — it’s not simply a matter of showing up and following the script from day one.”