Actress Vivian Hsu will soon start work on the new Taiwanese movie Seediq Bale, directed by Wei Te Sheng, who also directed last year’s Cape No 7.
Vivian plays the lead role in the movie that portrays the Wushe Incident, a 1930 Seediq uprising led by Mona Rudao against the Japanese when Taiwan was colonised.
The Seediq are Taiwanese aboriginal people who, along with the Truku people, were previously classified as the Atayal tribe.
She said: “I won’t be speaking any Mandarin in the movie at all. Instead, I would have to speak Japanese and Seediq.”
The movie is due to film for half a year and will be completed in 2011.
It is budgeted at $21 million.
Treasure Hunter poster featuring Jay Chou
Bodyguards and Assassins main poster
The difficulty in fitting all the cast took three months before finalizing the poster.
World premiere will be in Nanjing Nov. 12 where Sun Yat-Sen’s mausoleum is located.
THR: Tang Wei returns in ‘Manchu’ remake
‘Lust, Caution’ actress coming off ban, stars in English film
“Full Autumn” in Korean — by Kim Tae-yong (“Family Ties”) will start shooting later this month in Seattle, and will travel to other cities across the United States, the Korean producer said…
THR: Hong Kong movies make a dramatic showing at the boxoffice
Four local films got into the top 10 in the summer: the Shaw Brothers’ comeback “Turning Point” (HK15.7 million), “Overheard” from the “Infernal Affairs” team (HK15.5 million), Edko’s Aaron Kwok thriller “Murderer” (HK11.7 million) and period comedy “On His Majesty’s Secret Service” (HK8.8 million). Only two made the cut last summer…Although the number of local releases rose slightly in 2009, what’s staggering is the upcoming Chinese New Year public holiday slot, which will see 10 Hong Kong/Chinese-language high-profile projects competing in three weeks in February. It’s something the which hasn’t been seen since the 1990s….
THR: AFM Special Report: Hong Kong
Boxoffice may be up, but the outlook is troubled
“If there (were) enough films to make in Hong Kong, I’d rather not go anywhere else,” says [Herman] Yau, the hugely prolific Hong Kong director who works with three crews simultaneously — even while many technicians have followed the helmers to the mainland. “Although a large number of Hong Kong filmmakers are now working in China,” he says, “they can’t bring all the film crews with them, so there’re still a lot of local crew members stranded here, unemployed.”
THR: ‘Bodyguards and Assassins’ sells at AFM
Cinema Popular also is shopping its action-romantic comedy “The Return of the Incredible Wu Xia Couple,” directed by Vincent Kuk, and Dante Lam’s period actioner “Flying Guillotines” at AFM.
THR: Jung to star in ‘Rain of Swords’
Film co-stars Michelle Yeoh, co-produced by John Woo
Screen Daily: TF1 buys Media Asia’s Chen Zhen for France
Hong Kong’s Media Asia Distribution has sold The Legend Of Chen Zhen, directed by Andrew Lau and starring Donnie Yen, to France’s TF1.
Leading Hong Kong action star Yen plays Chen Zhen in the film, a folk hero who fights the Shanghai mafia and occupying Japanese. Shu Qi and Anthony Wong also star…Meanwhile, Dream Movies also took rights for Australia and New Zealand to Pang Ho-chueng’s Love In A Puff, a comedy starring Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue, and Johnnie To’s new project, Death Of A Hostage, starring Lau Ching Wan.
Zhang Yimou’s remake of Blood Simple [Amazing Tales: Three Guns] has bought its release forward from December 18 to December 11, while Hong King Universe’s The Storm Warriors has shifted its release to December 10. Jay Chou-starring Treasure Hunter will be released on December 9 instead of mid-month as originally planned, and Ning Hao’s road movie Wu Ren Qu [No Man's Land] will move back its release by three months to March next year…
Variety: CineAsia honors Zhou Xun
Actress to receive star of the year kudo
Variety: The Laughing Policeman (Japan)
Wheat (長平大戰之麥田)
What first might appear to be another tiresome period costumer about one of the millions of battles in China’s history turns out to be something rather different. Two deserters from the Qin army in the Warring States period lucklessly find themselves in an enemy town whose men are away fighting. Their lies and ingratiations with the women gradually wear thin — especially as others arrive with contradictory news. This meticulously photographed drama-comedy is structured around elemental themes, of which wheat, the local crop, is prominent. Directed by He Ping (何平), who made The Swordsman in Double Flag Town
Meat Grinder
(雙旗鎮刀客).
A coming-on-middle-aged street vendor projects her madness and history of abuse onto (mostly) unsuspecting, sleazy men — and cooks up a storm. Surprisingly good reviews greeted this gory Thai drama, which is right up there with Hong Kong’s The Untold Story (八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包) as a boundary-pushing, gag-inducing Asian incarnation of Sweeney Todd; it’s also a perfectly timed essay for people who think US beef is the sign of the Devil. Abstruse political subtexts (it’s set during student riots in the 1970s) and class and gender commentary … or blood, guts and torture for their own sake? Take your pick. Taiwan’s censors have let this one through without cuts, though it isn’t clear if this is the version originally banned in Thailand. Either way, here’s the question: Why doesn’t Taiwan make movies like this?
4 new Three Guns images in HD (Sina)
CRI: Stefanie Sun Sings for Mulan
Let The Bullets Fly
Ge You
Carina Lau plays Ge You’s wife
CRI: ‘Bullets’ Go Stylish (HD version Sina)
Gong Beibi and Aaron Kwok
Oxide Pang has started shooting B+Detective, the sequel to C+Detective (aka The Detective) in Thailand. (HunanTV)
Li Xiaolu and Alfred Cheung (actor, director, writer)
Love At Seventh Sight (lit.Seven Days To Fall in Love)
All’s Well Ends Well 2010 costumes - Angelababy
Lynn Xiong (Sina)
