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
(HunanTV)
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.
(HunanTV)
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.”
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: 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
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
(Xinhua)
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)
(HunanTV)
All’s Well Ends Well 2010 costumes - Angelababy
Lynn Xiong (Sina)
Hot Summer Days - Daniel Wu
Vivian Hsu (Sina)
Charlene Choi and Louis Koo filming Derek Yee’s Double Tap King in Central
(Sina)
Jay Chou in Yuen Wo-Ping’s True Legend (Beggar So)
(Sina)
Johnnie To
Johnnie To visited Wang Xiaoshuai in Chongqing where Wang is filming Mosaic/Sunshine in Chongqing (Sina)
CRI: ‘The Message’ Trilogy on Agenda
“The Message” closes nine-day-run Pusan film festival
“The Message” joins Pusan Int’l Film Festival
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun had to endure rope burns for these torture scenes. Her thighs suffered and were injured in the process since the costume was very thin for realism. (Sina.com)
Peter Chan
Tony Leung Ka-Fai
Bodyguards and Assassins: 8 minute show reel previewed in Beijing
No fear of competing against Zhang Yimou’s Three Guns
CRI: Jiang Wenli’s Debut Film Wins Award at Pusan Film Fest
Actress/director Jiang Wenli’s “Lan” won the Audience Award at the Pusan International Film Festival on Friday.
LATimes: New York, I Love You
Maggie Q enjoys her ‘New York’ minute
Maggie Q New York premiere - slide show
Screen Daily: At The End of Daybreak (Malaysia/HK/South Korea)
Screen Daily: Taiwan’s Zeus set to produce triptych love story Juliet
Taiwanese producer Khan Lee is lining up a portmanteau love story, Juliet, as the second installment in its Pushing Hands initiative, designed to support new talent.
Taipei Times: Pop Stop
Aaron Kwok rehearses for National Day show
How does he do that?
(Xinhuanet.com) (Sina.com)
Vivian Chow
New advert photos
(Xinhuanet.com)
Tony Leung
Almost ready to begin shooting WKW’s First Generation Master (Xinhuanet.com)
At an appeance for The Founding of a Republic in Shaanxi, Director Huang Jianxin saidthat the first cut was 3 hours and 27 minutes long but he had to edit it down to 2 hours. The original film is long enough for a 4 episode TV movie version and he is now in discussions with TV stations. (Sina.com)
Astro Boy with the man behind his voice, Aaron Kwok
Aaron and movie son (Sina.com)
China claims ‘Astro Boy’
“Astro Boy,” a big budget cartoon from Hong Kong- and L.A.-based Imagi International, will escape China’s film import quotas and be considered a local picture on the Chinese mainland.
Meanwhile, Lynn Xiong is modeling and filming Ip Man 2 in Shanghai. [Aaron was recently photographed with Mango Wong in Beijing.] (Sina.com)
After receiving a surprise gift from an anonymous man at a charitable banquet, Chinese actress Zhou Xun has admitted the man was her new boyfriend.
Zhao Benshan had a stroke Wednesday and is now being treated in Shanghai.
Zhang Ziyi - August
Zhang Ziyi sent a video message to Tsai Ming-Liang on the eve of his Taiwan premiere of Face. She congratulated him on his success and expressed hope to collaborate in the future. In the message, Zhang said that movies are a high art form that combines literature, drama and music and other arts which is not easy to do but Tsai was able to do so. At the Cannes Film Festival premiere, Zhang Ziyi said that not only did Face have avant-garde artistic value but should also be appreciated. Therefore, she did not hesitate to vote for Face. (Sina.com)
Screen Daily: Golden Horse fest to open with Warrior and Tears
Starring Tsai Chen-nan, Enno Cheng, Serena Fang and Tsai Jian-wei, Tears is a story about an old detective who takes on the case of a girl who dies of a drugs overdose, and accidentally reveals a hidden crime he committed years ago.
THR: Bey Logan to produce ‘Blood Bond’
Bey Logan has set “The Blood Bond” as the first movie to flow from his new production company following his imminent exit as the Weinstein Company’s Hong Kong-based vice president. The picture is a stylized Asian actioner to be shot in English…The picture co-stars American stage actress Phoenix Chou and also features Chinese model and Taekwondo ace Zhang Lan-xin and veteran Hong Kong actor Simon Yam. Production begins Oct. 15 in China…
The Chinese-language romantic comedy “Hot Summer Days” will be a co-production between Fox International Productions, China’s Huayi Brothers Media Corp. and satellite TV operator Star Television Asia Ltd., Fox and Star said in a joint statement late Tuesday. Fox and Star are both units of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Fan Bingbing will turn the table in an adaptation of Three Smiles/Flirting Scholar when she becomes the pursuer instead of the pursued. Guo Degang directs the Lunar New Year comedy.(Sina.com)
Simon Yam makes a pair of shoes for Sandra Ng to promote their new film Echoes of the Rainbow (lit.1969 A Space Odyssey) in which Simon plays a shoemaker. However, he only had time to make one shoe.
Simon Yam
Sandra Ng
Jiang Wenli
Jiang Wenli’s Lan is screening in competition at the Pusan International Film Festival. Jiang wrote, directed and produced the film. (cri.cn)
Bottom Line: Dated drama of growing pains during the Cultural Revolution enhanced by superb elderly role.
Chinese romantic comedy is company’s first China pic
Set during a summer of record-breaking temperatures, “Days” tells six intertwined stories of love.
Screen Daily: ox, STAR, Huayi Brothers line up China rom-com Hot Summer Days
Huayi Brothers president James Wang said: “Huayi Brothers highly values the partnership with Fox. We admire Fox’s courage and decision in going into a mainstream romantic comedy. With a superb story, high production values and star-studded cast from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Hot Summer Days will sure become the hottest movie for the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day period.”
Zhou Xun - The Message
Huang Xiaoming brought his camera on set and acted the paparazzi to help the actors decompress and release suppressed emotions from the tension of the film shoot. Huang, Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Jizhong purchase shares and became majority shareholders in the recent Huayi Brothers IPO. (Sina.com)
Anthony Wong and Michelle Ye in Secrets of Yang Kwai Fai (Sina.com)
According to the company’s prospectus, top director Feng Xiaogang holds about 2.88 million shares, or 2.3 percent of the total current shares. Pop star Huang Xiaoming is also an owner, with 1.8 million shares.
The full interview, translated below, touches on the films that China Film Group has produced, and on the investments that Han Sanping has made, good and bad, including Crazy Stone (疯狂的石头) and Mobile (手机), to the hundred million productions such as Red Cliff (赤壁) and Hero (英雄)…
Zhou Xun flipping off reporters?
No! Zhou Xu was wiping away tears after viewing The Message at the Beijing Film Academy public premiere. (cri.cn)
My Fair Gentlemen - Beijing Premiere
Sun Honglei, Kelly Lin
Making mooncakes - Sun Honglei, Kelly Lin
Director Lee Gui-Yuen, Yuan Xinyu, John Woo, Kelly Lin, Sun Honglei
![[wheat+poster.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6fyaIP-cj0o/SrjgSfqrR6I/AAAAAAAABtA/YkEoWxYuJ-E/s1600/wheat%2Bposter.jpg)
Wheat
Fan Bingbing - Beijing, Wheat premiere
Huang Jue
Director Ho Ping (Sina.com) (Sina.com)
Kaohsiung fest removes controversial doc from line-up
Hackers attack Kaohsiung festival Web site
Taiwan director: Art movies are on the decline
Tsai Ming-liang, known for his highly experimental style, said Tuesday that art movies are shrinking for one reason: the box office drives the movie industry.
RTHK hears victory cry
Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming
Li Bingbing will film her first nude scene for The Message. She spoke frankly that she had no experience with this and that it will be a huge challenge. The director wanted her to film it and she agreed that a substitute would not have the desired effect. The scene with Huang Xiaoming is harder than her rape scene and requires cruelty and humiliation. Huang plays a Japanese secret service chief who uses a variety of torture to extract confessions [Remember the Taiwan poster?]. (Sina.com)
Zhou Xun
Li Bingbing, Zhou Xun
Zhang Hanyu
Alec Su
Ying Da
Wang Zhiwen
Zhou Xun
Huang Xiaoming
Yesterday, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the first 30 minutes of the The Message was screened to the media and a preview audience. The movie revolves around Takeda (Huang Xiaoming) who is given 5 days to uncover ‘Lao Gui’ an anti-Japanese spy in the puppet army’s headquarters. There are 5 suspects under house arrest. He undertakes various methods of torture to discover who it is. (CRI.cn) (CRI.cn)
