News Links - 2/12/09

[dleedlee]

Gong Li to be female lead in Wong Kar Wai's "The Grand Master"
(This is a translation of a previous report, not necessarily a confirmation)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20090212/t ... 1b9bc.html

WKW's Jet Tone recruits Cheng to direct Protein Girl
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... tegory=518
Wong Kar-wai's production outfit Jet Tone Films has brought on board Taiwanese director Cheng Hsiao-tse to write and direct urban comedy drama Protein Girl.

Scheduled to start shooting this summer, the film follows three characters – a thirty-something woman, a boy who is growing up to become a young Casanova and another young boy who has no luck with the ladies whatsover.

The project is one of a series of films from up-and-coming Asian directors, starting with filmmakers from Taiwan, that Jet Tone is developing to support new talent.

The first film in the series was Cheng's Miao Miao, a co-production with Beijing-based JA Media, which is screening at Berlin in the Generation section. Fortissimo Films is handling international sales.

"There are many interesting young directors in Taiwan who started out in commercials and are now moving into features," says Jet Tone producer Jacky Pang.

The company is also producing Taiwanese director Chang Rong-ji's The End Of The Tunnel, which has been selected for the upcoming Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (March 23-25). The film takes Chang's award-winning short of the same name as its starting point.

Jet Tone is also producing Wong's new project, The Grand Master, based on the life of Bruce Lee's kung-fu master Ip Man. Tony Leung Chiu-wai is attached to star in the film which is also expected to start shooting this summer.

Kim Ki-duk Film sues Korea's Studio 2.0
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... tegory=467

Chen Kaige remembers opera hero
'Forever Enthralled' director pays homage to Mei Lanfang
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... c9389fc60e

Dragonball: Evolution Open March 13 in Taiwan

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/f/2009-02-11/20322371979.shtml

Claustrophobia
Love it or hate it – in all probability, you will have one of those two extreme reactions
http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine ... hobia.html

Oxide Pang - Back to Basic in Basic Love
http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine ... basic.html

Gigi Leung in Joe Ma's Give Love - Strange Bedfellows
An unlikely alliance results in an unconventional film
http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine ... 0love.html

Zhang Jingchu to sing (a Vietnamese song) for first time in Hong He/Red River
Valentine's Day released pushed back to April

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/p/2009-02-11 ... 2175.shtml

'Hand Phone' Showcases Top Talent (South Korea)
Noir thriller shows how personal information in a lost cell phone can be used in all the wrong ways
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/ar ... 39421.html

Gordon Liu's Snake Curse Trailer Insanity
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/30388/ ... r-insanity

The Way We Are
Tin Shui Wai movie goes for glory
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... con_type=1


http://ent.sina.com.cn/r/m/2009-02-12/09312372529.shtml
Red Cliff, Ip Man Led HK Nominations
http://english.cri.cn/6666/2009/02/12/1221s453146.htm

28th Hong Kong Film Awards Full Nomination List

Best Film:

The Way We Are
Red Cliff
Yangtze River 7
Painted Skin
IP Man

Best Director:

Ann Hui - ‘The Way We Are’
Johnnie To - ‘Sparrow’
Benny Chan - ‘Connected’
Wilson Yip - ‘IP Man’

Best Scriptwriter:

Run Papa Run
The Way We Are
Painted Skin
Witness
Intimate Lover

Best Actor:
Louis Koo - ‘Run Papa Run’
Simon Yam – ‘Sparrow’
Tony Leung – ‘Red Cliff’
Nick Cheung – ‘Witness’
Donnie Yen – ‘IP Man’

Best Actress:

Bau Hei Jing – ‘The Way We Are’
Prudence Liew – ‘True Women For Sale’
Barbie Hsu (Da S) – ‘Connected’
Zhou Xun – ‘Painted Skin’
Karena Lin – ‘Intimate Lover’

Best Supporting Actor:

Zhang Feng Yi - ‘Red Cliff’
Stephen Chow – ‘Yangtze River 7’
Liao Qi Zhi – ‘Witness’
Gordon Lam – ‘IP Man’
Louis Fan – ‘IP Man’

Best Supporting Actress:

Nora Miao – ‘Run Papa Run’
Chen Li Yun – ‘The Way We Are’
Vicki Zhao – ‘Painted Skin’
Race Wong – ‘True Women For Sale’
Sun Li – ‘Painted Skin’

Best New Performer:

Monica Mok – ‘Ocean Flame’
Kitty Zhang – ‘Not All Women Are Bad’
Liang Jin Long – ‘The Way We Are’
Lin Zhi Ling – ‘Red Cliff’
Xu Jiao – ‘Yangtze River 7’

BEST SCREEN WRITER

- Susan Chan, Sylvia Chang, Mathias Woo (Run Papa Run)
- Lou Shiu Wa (The Way We Are)
- Gordon Chan, Lau Ho Leung, Abe Kwong (Painted Skin)
- Jack Ng, Dante Lam (The Beast Stalker)
- Ivy Ho (Claustrophobia)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

- Tony Cheung (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon)
- Cheng Siu Keung (Sparrow)
- Lu Yue, Zhang Li (Red Cliff)
- Arthur Wong (Painted Skin)
- O Sing Pui (Ip Man)

BEST EDITING

- David Richardson (Sparrow)
- Angie Lam, Robert A. Ferreti, Yang Hong Yu (Red Cliff)
- Yau Chi Wai (Connected)
- Chan Kei Hop (The Beast Stalker)
- Cheung Ka Fai (Ip Man)

BEST ART DIRECTION

- Daniel Lee, Horace Ma (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon)
- Hai Chung Man, Lau Man Hung (An Empress and the Warriors)
- Tim Yip (Red Cliff)
- Bill Lui (Painted Skin)
- Jeff Mak (Ip Man)

BEST COSTUME MAKE UP DESIGN

- Thomas Chong, Debby Wong (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon)
- William Chang (All About Women)
- Hai Chung Man?Dora Ng (An Empress and the Warriors)
- Tim Yip (Red Cliff)
- Bobo Ng (Painted Skin)

BEST ACTION DESIGN

- Sammo Hung (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon)
- Corey Yuen (Red Cliff)
- Nicky Li (Connected)
- Tung Wai (Painted Skin)
- Sammo Hung, Leung Siu Hung (Ip Man)

BEST SOUND EFFECTS

- Ng Kwong?Roger Savage (Red Cliff)
- Chris Goodes?Wong Lui (Connected)
- Kinson Tsang?Lai Chi Hung (Painted Skin)
- Phyllis Cheng?Nip Kei Wing?David Wong (The Beast Stalker)
- Kinson Tsang (Ip Man)

BEST VISUAL EFFECT

- Heather Abels (Red Cliff)
- Eddy Wong?Victor Wong?Ken Law (CJ7)
- Ho Siu Lun (Missing)
- Ng Yuan Fai?Chas Chau, Tam Kai Kan (Painted Skin)
- Henri Wong (Ip Man)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

- Li Yun Wen (Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon)
- Fred Avril?Xavier Jamaux (Sparrow)
- ???? (Red Cliff)
- Ikuro Fujiwara (Painted Skin)
- Kenji Kawai (Ip Man)


BEST ORIGINAL FILM SONG

- ???? (An Empress and the Warriors)
- ???? (L For Love, L For Lies)
- ?? (Red Cliff)
- ?????? (Missing)
- ?? (Painted Skin)

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

- Derek Kwok (The Moss)
- Heiward Mak (High Noon)
- Ivy Ho (Claustrophobia)

BEST ASIAN MOVIE

- If You Are The One
- Cape No. 7
- Suspect X
- Forever Enthralled
- Assembly

http://asianfanatics.net/forum/28th-Hon ... 26348.html
http://www.donnieyen.us/dymb/index.php?topic=1531.0

http://www.hkfaa.com/award/home.html
THE 28th HONG KONG FILM AWARDS - RULES OF ELECTION
http://www.hkfaa.com/nominee/regulation_e.html
Previous 27 years' nominees and awards (use drop down on right)
http://www.hkfaa.com/history/home.html

YIM Pil-Sung’s Flower of Evil Project
Director YIM Pil-sung is known for films that tread on the fragile threshold of human psychology, often plunging into depths of horror and fantasy. His latest project is no exception. To be presented at the upcoming Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (March 23 -25), The Flower of Evil delves into the dark side of sexuality.

Budgeted at US $5 million, and described as a horror-suspense-drama, the project, while set in Seoul, will feature an American in the male lead role and both English and Korean dialogue. Casting has yet to take place.

The story revolves around David, an American business exec heading the Korean office of a multinational company. Conservative and happily married with kids, he never-the-less falls for In-hwa, a beautiful, young Korean woman whose double nature drives him into obsession and madness.

The project is to be produced by Barunson Film Division which handled YIM’s previous feature Hansel and Gretel (2007), as well as KIM Ji-woon’s The Good, The Bad, the Weird and BONG Joon-ho’s upcoming Mother.

YIM debuted with Antarctic Journal (2005) which won the Best Asian Film Award at the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in 2005. His second feature, Hansel and Gretel, was invited to a number of international film festivals including the Sitges, Vancouver, and London Film Festivals.
Nigel D’Sa (KOFIC)


Happy days for Miriam Yeung
Filming Mainland TV swordplay series The Bronze Teeth / The Eloquent Ji Xiao Lan
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... &sec=music

Singapore
Lunar New Year movie "Love Matters"
Jack Neo strives to guide local film industry into the future
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20090212/t ... 1b9bc.html

Aaron Kwok arrives in Berlin

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/p/2009-02-12 ... 2221.shtml (more)

Vivian Chow, Hins Cheung and William back from trip to Nepal


Charlene Choi had diarrhea a few times everyday
http://asianfanatics.net/forum/Charlene ... 26266.html

Christy Chung's weight gain after second baby in July
http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2009-02/1 ... 804366.htm

Kwai Lun-Mei promotes 2010 Shanghai World Expo


http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/p/2009-02-12/02272372253.shtml
http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/p/2009-02-12/02272372247.shtml

Divorced? Annie Yi says final outcome will surprise everyone
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20090212/t ... 1b9bc.html

Senior reporter exposes who 'Salty Pork Hand' is
http://asianfanatics.net/forum/Senior-r ... 26352.html

HK's ATV Lays off Over 200 Employees
http://english.cri.cn/6666/2009/02/12/1221s453171.htm

China's netizens ridicule CCTV over fire
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090211 ... rshipmedia

Firecracker goes through car door, kills passenger
"This is no firework, it is a bomb" one bystander said.
http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the ... _car_a.php
Adventures in pyromania
http://news.imagethief.com/blogs/china/default.aspx

Paper, Rock, Scissors? Pfft, try Fish, Shrimp, Crab
http://www.hongkonghustle.com/local-cul ... /#more-520

[dleedlee]

Reviews of three Chinese films from Berlinale

Lala's Gun, Yang Yang and A North Chinese Girl

http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=43025
Lala's Gun (Gun Lala De Qiang)
Dan Fainaru in Berlin
10 Feb 2009 17:44
Dir/scr: Ning Jingwu. China. 2008. 103mins.

Billed as a coming-of-age film, Lala's Gun is much more concerned with the Miao tribe of south-east China, one of the country's largest minorities. Tracking a young boy as he hunts for his long-lost father, this is more concerned with local customs, costumes, habits and traditions than any one character it features. Shot in the tribe's own Hmong language, this will appeal to thematic festivals but given its thin story, some substantial tightening is necessary before tackling the marketplace.

According to the Miao tradition, a boy turns into a man when he reaches the age of 15. On this day, after a prayer to the tree his parents planted on the day he was born, the boy's father is supposed to present him with a gun, the symbol of his adulthood. But Lala (Wang Jishuai) who will soon turn 15, has been brought up by his grandmother after his mother's death and his father has disappeared. Despite the fact that his grandmother has promised him a gun, and even the local gunsmith has said he'll donate one if all else fails, Lala sets out to find father.

Wandering from one Miao village to another, armed only with the knowledge that his father has a certain type of tattoo on his back, Lala crosses spectacular landscapes and meets a variety of characters. Going back home at the end of his fruitless expedition, he meets an older friend with whom he had left the village a month earlier. His pal was headed for Guangzhou to be a security guard but now he is returning, put off by the frenetic pace there.

That the non-pro actors here have a certain clumsiness is only to be expected and characters sometimes look a bit too dressed up for their daily routines. The plot is pretty arbitrary throughout, Lala's choice of one direction over another a mystery. But the camera work is good, the landscapes breathtaking and the film is informative about the little-known Miao people.

Production companies
Beijing Spring Thunder Films

International sales
Three Dots Entertainment
(886) 2 23887099

Producers
Ning Jingqu
Li Zhangjun

Cinematography
Wu Lixiao

Production design
Shi Qiurong

Editor
Jia Culping

Music
Chen Changfeng
Qu Xiangong

Main cast
Wang Jishuai
Shi Mingma
Gun Dangyuan


http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=43023
Yang Yang
Dan Fainaru in Berlin
11 Feb 2009 18:10
Dir/scr: Cheng Yu-chieh. Taiwan. 2008. 112mins.

Using handheld camera and natural light this film about a young woman who feels like a misfit because of her dual nationality is not easy to watch. Shaky, under-exposed and mostly shot in close-up, the film generates a feeling akin to seasickness. While some will admire the chiaroscuro effect, this is strictly a specialty festival item.

Cheng's film follows sophomore University athlete Yang Yang (Pinna), born of a Taiwanese mother and a French father she never knew. In the first sequence, her mother marries the girl's coach who has a daughter of his own Xiao-Ru (Her). For a while, the two step-sisters bond but soon prettier Yang Yang, a top runner, not only draws the attention of model-scouting photographer Ming Ren (Huang) but also the affection of her step-sister's boyfriend Shawn (Chang). After a short fling, she sends him packing but the damage is done and once Xiao-Ru finds out, her vengeance puts an end to Yang Yang's athletic aspirations.

Profoundly hurt but also feeling guilty, Yang Yang leaves home and starts a modelling and acting career under the guidance of Ming Ren. Always desperate to be loved, she tries to have an affair with Ming-Ren but when he spurns her for reasons she doesn't immediately understand, she feels even more unwanted and rejected, an outsider because of her looks and her half-French origins. It's obvious that her father's absence has weighed heavy on her all throughout her life.

Though the script may not always tie up all the loose ends, it offers some interesting and pertient glimpses in the maturing process of a whole generation in which many have to face Yang Yang's problems. Rising star Sandrine Pinna, who starred in Cheng's debut Do Over, has just the right amount of carefree charisma for the part.

Production company/international sales
Khan Entertainment
(886) 2 23660202

Producer
Khan Lee

Executive producer
Jessica Chen

Cinematography
Jake Pollock

Production design
Chen Po-jen

Music
Lim Giong

Editor
Liu Yue-xing

Main cast
Sandrine Pinna
Chang Ruei-jia
Huang Chen-wei
Her Sy-huoy
Chu Lu-hao
Yu Tai-yan

http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=43014
A North Chinese Girl (Dongbei, Dongbei)
Dan Fainaru in Berlin
10 Feb 2009 19:27
Dir/prod/scr: Zou Peng. China 2009. 81mins.

A first film which seems unsure of what it wants to say or how to go about it, this trip to the North Chinese city of Harbin isn't a clear portrait of the city or its inhabitants; at best, it could be described as an attempt to portray the mood of contemporary young people living there today through an ill-defined plot and characters.

Shot with a handheld camera, each take lasting several minutes, and mostly in an alienating long-shot, this looks like a graduation film. It's hard to envisage it at many other festivals, while distribution channels must surely be limited.

Xiao Xue (Tian Yi-wen) is 19 and works in a fashion store by day. At night, she accompanies her boss and his various guests to restaurants and night clubs. Her friends don't approve of this, but she reckons it's the best way to climb up the social ladder. After a torrid clinch with the boss Brother Wei (Wu Rui-peng) in one of the film's rare close-up sequences, she discovers she is pregnant but insists on taking care of the baby by herself, rejecting any attempts by her old boyfriend Dong Song (Liu Xing-ping) to help.

All the actors are amateurs, plucked from the street by the director and even improvising their own lines. Even Xiao Xue is more like a sketch than an actual character. There's no sense of pace or drama here as one long shot follows another in an assembly line of unexceptional observations on life in Harbin.

Some of the camera moves are nicely engineered but the quality of the image is far from impressive.

Production companies
Zou Peng Film Studios

International sales
L'Est Film Group
(86) 158 10125225

Cinematography
Pablo Enrique Mendoza Ruiz

Production design
Ding Peng
Du Hong-yu

Editors
Zou Peng
Chen Zhi-heng
Yuan Fei

Main cast
Tian Yi-wen
Wu Rui-peng
Liu Xing-ping
Wang Yan
Jia Fu-yan
Shi Sheng-qi

[Brian Thibodeau]

Trailer for OWL AND THE SPARROW (Vietnam, 2008/9)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independe ... hesparrow/