News Links - 10/8/08

Dennis Lee's Daily HK cinema news archive

News Links - 10/8/08

Postby dleedlee » Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:20 pm

Underdog Knight
Liu Ye, Anthony Wong, Yu Rongguang among cast
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http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/10/08/1221s412646.htm

Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time Gets Its Comeback
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/ ... -comeback/
The Perfect Storm: Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time Redux"
http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2008/10 ... _perf.html

Asian Pop - Jeff Yang with Wong Kar-Wai and Brigitte Lin
More teases of return to film
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 8/apop.DTL

Taipei Connected premiere photos
Little S and Big S - Hsu sisters
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http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/p/2008-10-08 ... 6381.shtml

Zhao Wei
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http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-10-08/16112197186.shtml

Ip Man press conference
Donnie Yen
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Lynn Hung/Xiong Dailin, Wilson Yip
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http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-10-08/16112197186.shtml
http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-10-08/ba2197364.shtml

Film Review: W.
A bold but imperfect film about a most imperfect man
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/fil ... &rid=11791
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=41273
Theresa Cheung with Oliver Stone
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http://ent.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/news/sho ... 316&ct=pic
Gillian Chung only in W. for 3 seconds
Image
http://i1.sinaimg.cn/ent/m/f/2008-10-08 ... 083805.jpg
http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/f/2008-10-08/08322196412.shtml

Jet Li and Tang Wei or Natalie Portman together in English language CGI-laden Qin Luc Besson's Qin Shi Huang
http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2008-10-08/09242196456.shtml

Reviews from Pusan
Breathless (South Korea)
Arrestingly violent from the get-go
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=41288

Dim Sum Funeral (USA-Canada)
Casting Bai Ling as the scantily-clad lesbian is a nice touch
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... &Category=

Miao Miao (Hong Kong-Taiwan)
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... &Category=

Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells (South Korea)
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... &Category=

Oishii Man (South Korea)
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... &Category=

'Tokyo Girl' to open in South Korea
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111799 ... egoryId=13

Chun: Ah Sa is so elegant
http://asianfanatics.net/forum/Chun-Ah- ... 88005.html

Yuan Quan Reveals Daniel Wu's Chinese Skills
http://asianfanatics.net/forum/Yuan-Qua ... 87984.html

'Kungfu Panda' Sequel Seeks Inspirations in Chengdu
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/10/08/902s412505.htm

Lin Chi-ling promotion event
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http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/h/2008-10-08/05362196304.shtml

Stars come out for Pansy Ho's PR and marketing firm anniversary
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http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/h/2008-10-08/11412196754.shtml
Occasions celebrates their 20th birthday
http://www.hongkonghustle.com/parties/4 ... /#more-463

Honesty - Feng Xiaogang's New Year's comedy

(9/27/2008) After four years without making a New Year film, director
Feng Xiaogang this year teamed up with Ge You again on their latest film.

After completing all of the shoot in Hokkaido. Director Feng along with
leads Ge You and Shu Qi yesterday attended a grand production commencement
ceremony in Shanghai. Feng Xiaogang and Ge You brought a light
atmosphere to the audience with their ample chemistry.

Feng Xiaogang's previous work THE ASSEMBLY was a critical and
commercial hit. This time he returned to a New Year comedy. He expressed
that many viewers looked forward ot his comedy and this year was full of
disasters, she should make a comedy to relax the audience. The film's
title had the word HONESTY, Director Feng hoped through the aging Ge You's
story of matchmaking to reflect how beauty and honesty reflect in life.
The film has already been scheduled for a December 22 release. He and Ge
You were unwilling to reveal how funny the film would be. Director Feng
said if he gave away where his film was funny for free, no one would be
willing to buy tickets to go to his movie.

Aside from funny, the film's other selling point was Ge You's
first romance with Shu Qi. Director Feng humorously said, "I feel that
their romance definitely exceeded the limit of kissing. Yet our film had
strict inspection standard. If it's made like (Tony) Leung Chiu Wai and
Tang Wei then definitely it won't pass inspection. Since then I might as
well not make anything like that. Although they don't have any kiss
scene in the film, their relationship absolutely is deepr than kissing."

Working for the first time with Director Feng, Shu Qi discovered
that the director actually was very talented director and was very
romantic as well. In the film the romantic girl chasing ideas came from
Director Feng. Director Feng humbly said, "With a beauty like Shu Qi,
romantic ideas of course are endless." He even took a big detour to
praise Shu Qi's acting. "Our production assistant was a Beijing Film
Academy graduate. His sights are set very high and very wild. He always
ignores Hong Kong and Taiwan stars' acting, but after watching Shu Qi's
acitng he ran to me and said that Shu Qi's acting was truly decent. Shu
Qi finally has been recognized."


1. MING PAO DAILY, SEPTEMBER 2008, FILM WORDS
CHASER : KOREAN VERSION LAMB

CHASER is this year's Korean hit that has received Best Picture,
Director, Actor and other Great Bell Award. Its Hong Kong release though
has caught less attention. The Japanese film 20TH CENTURY BOYS although
poorly made still had many supporters.

Undoubtedly, the Japanese storm in the Greater East Asian region
still leads the trend. Hong Kong has several generation that has grown up
on "Japanese milk" and grown up watching Japanese film ,television,
animation and manga. In the recent decade the Korean storm and the Thai
storm suddenly rose but could only occasionally surprise. The Greater
Chinese in popular culture lacks successors. The production quality is
severely mixed and still unable to rebuild mainstream.

Korean director Kwak Jae-Yong's new film CYBORG SHE in Hong Kong
is more successful with 5 million, but it is a Japanese film. Even Hong
Kong sex film FORBIDDEN LEGEND OF SEX AND CHOPSTICKS has to rely on
Japanese adult video stars to have 2 million at the box office. Although
Japan has stalled it ultimately maintains the advantage.


Actually Korean film professional talent has overflowed, the impact
has been strong, the production serious, only that they often imitate
foreign films and adds Korean variation. Seemingly few are truly uniquely
created. CHASER chases after a deranged killer, which obviously has been
under the influence of the 90s U.S. controversial film SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS.

In the film the mild mannered looking young maniac (Ha Jung-Woo)
continuously kills call girls. Male lead (Kim Yun-Seok) once was a
detective and now is a call girl agent. Due to the mysterious
disappearance of several prostitutes, he picks up his investigation skills
again and chases after the wanted. The more he chases the more enraged he
becomes.

This category III film actually does not sell sex but is very
dark, bloody and cruel. In addition it targets today's Korean political
world and police. When the male lead captures the maniac, due to
bureaucracy and a incident with the Seoul mayor the criminals becomes
above the law and kills even more innocent people. One of the poor
prostitute (Seo Yeong-Hie)'s kidnapping and escape is very thrilling and
chilling.

This is new writer director Na Hong-Jin's first full length film.
The visual is energetic, solid and full but also a little satirical. Lead
Kim Yun-Seok is very frustrated, but also good hearted enough to take
care of a prostitute's cute little daughter. His performance is lively.
Ha Jung-Woo and other numerous characters each has the uniqueness of
social variety.

Strictly speaking though, the story is contrived with too many
coincidences. In addition the lead seems to be as brutal as the killer.
This film praises him but criticizes the government for not daring to
randomly beat and arrest people, which is extremely excessive. Yet Korean
mainstream film can uncover social ill and scold the government, which is
much freer than China. - SHEK KEI
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2038/080925.txt

4. TA KUNG PAO, SEPTEMBER 28 2008, LIGHT SHADOW PATH
SITUATION CHANGES, HONG KONG FILM GRADUALLY DISAPPEARS

Director Benny Chan Muk Sin in an interview pointed out that Hong
Kong new actors' frivolous style, lacking concentration and willingness to
prepare; instead, Mainland actors have been professional and tough. Hong
Kong directors welcomed them. Director Chan even pointed out that now
film seemed to have traveled back in time. Years ago "Qing Dynasty films"
and martial art films all had Putonghua speaking actors (like RED CLIFF
and THE WARLORDS), hinting that Hong Kong professional actors were
lacking. Without the advantage of speaking Putonghua the future looked
grim. Established three years ago the Hong Kong film industry emergency
response team (which now has merged already into the film development
council's assistance team) once pointed out that the most severe of Hong
Kong film industry's three major problems was the talent gap. Fewer and
fewer were willing to toil and suffer and the industry had to extend its
hand to Mainland actors. Most Hong Kong new actors were idol singers who
primarily sang and secondarily acted. Instead nine out of ten Mainland
new actors have been professionally trained. Their acting's average
quality has been night and day in comparison to Hong Kong new actors'.
When the film industry was in a crisis, co-production films also had
actor quota (1/3 key cast had to be Mainland actors) restriction, Hong
Kong directors of course gladly worked with Mainland actors more. Back
then the film industry response team pointed out another issue, illegal
film download online. Three years later, this phenomenon still continued.

The difference is now film owners hoped to pursue right protection and
seek compensation from illegal uploaded film sites in Mainland. The
Mainland courts have been very accommodating as well as successful right
protection cases continued to increase. With the Mainland film market's
high speed inflation, film business return has increased as online
download damage declined. Three years ago Hong Kong film professionals
have mentioned the illegal film video rental issue, now it is under
legislative control. Although some film companies felt that the law has
loopholes, as Hong Kong film dwindled in the local market (also related to
illegal rental), this issue should not be as severe as back then. The
three major difficulties have found certain revelations amid the Mainland
market change. Mainlanders could make up for the talent gap, Mainland
market inflation can reduce illegal download and rental issues' impact.
New issues have unknowingly appeared though, as Hong Kong film's specialty
has gradually lost its luster. Local market remained depressed. Hong
Kong film would soon become a part of Chinese film. One day perhaps
Mainland and Hong Kong film would have no difference. As for films that
only kept Hong Kong and the traditional markets (Southeast Asia and
Taiwan) in mind they would become minority films as their production rate
would only decline. Recently co-production films' Mainland process
(registration) and inspection took longer and longer, impacted film
companies' production release rate and increased film cost. In the long
run, Hong Kong film production rate naturally would decline and the speed
of Hong Kong film's disappearance would be accelerated. - TIN LIK
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2038/080925.txt

Charlene’s bestseller
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/ ... ndexF_html
Last edited by dleedlee on Thu Oct 09, 2008 2:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
???? Better to light a candle than curse the darkness; Measure twice, cut once.
Pinyin to Wade-Giles. Cantonese names file
dleedlee
HKMDB Immortal
 
Posts: 4883
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2001 7:06 pm
Location: USA

Postby dleedlee » Wed Oct 08, 2008 3:15 pm

???? Better to light a candle than curse the darkness; Measure twice, cut once.
Pinyin to Wade-Giles. Cantonese names file
dleedlee
HKMDB Immortal
 
Posts: 4883
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2001 7:06 pm
Location: USA


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