Director's Note

"When I read WANG SHUO's novel, I couldn't put it down until I had finished the last page. I had the feeling of absorbing something which immediately became part of me. I've rarely read or seen anything that described with such clarity and feeling that most complex of phenomena: love. Claire is at the heart of the story, and the film adopts the viewpoint of Jack, the way he sees this woman who suddenly lights up his life and melts the ice in his heart. It's a story of love's awakening between a Beauty and a Beast. A universal story set in a city of oppositions. That's why New York and its contrast, its people, its light is the ideal background for LOVE THE HARD WAY".

Wang Shuo
Born in Nanjing in 1958, Wang Shuo grew up in Bejing, during which time his parents were sent to the countryside as part of the Cultural Revolution, leaving him and his brother in the big city, resulting in a period of petty crime, fighting and jail. His father made him join the mavy where he spent four years going on to run through a number of odd jobs while starting to write. In 1983 he quit his job to become an independent writer; in 1984 his first book titled "Air Stewardesses" was published. He has written over 20 novels, which have sold nearly 10 million copies. He also has written television series and movies. He has achieved enormous cultural status in China and in the last few years he divided his time between Bejing and California, working on screenplays for American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola´s production company and seeing the first two english translations of his work published.

"(...) call it China noir. If you can imagine Raymond Chandler crossed with Bruce Lee (or maybe Richard Brautigan crossed with John Woo), that gives you the flavour... but really have to eperience this in order to really get it."- Stephen King