News Links - 5/14/07

[dleedlee]

Chow Yun-fat has agreed to return to John Woo's new Chinese epic, movie publicist says
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/ ... un-fat.php

Director Denies Stephen Chow to Star in Bruce Lee Biopic
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2007/05/14/1221@226696.htm

"Sinking of Japan" review
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/1319/

Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai finds success
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/entertainm ... 872098.htm

Bitter end
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies
Last year, Tsai Ming-liang continued his love-hate relationship with the Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards, with things coming to a bitter end when he decided to withdraw his film from the competition.

Tsai reportedly initiated the pullout of his film after he was infuriated by some jury members’ comments. It was said that one member thought I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone was too “self-indulgent”.

The Chinese media reported that when the chairman of the jury was asked why Tsai’s film did not receive nominations in the major categories, he replied that they thought films should not be too personal and should be more accessible to audiences.

Tsai reportedly accused the jury of treating his film as a “sacrificial offering”.

“The severance of ties is the result of many things,” said Tsai in Kuala Lumpur recently. “The Golden Horse has a certain platform and a certain mission. But over the years, I found that they’ve become more and more shallow. Society has become more interested in how much a film is going to fare at the box-office. And if a movie doesn’t make money, they will ask why they should support it because they don’t see it as helping the industry.”

Tsai explained that over the years, he became increasingly uncomfortable with that situation. He began to question whether he really wanted to be a part of the Golden Horse Awards.

“If I don’t participate, then they will say I’m being arrogant and I’ve snubbed them. But when I do, I get attacked. They will ask why I make films that are not helping the film industry.”

Things finally came to a head, he said, when the organisers levelled such strong criticisms against him. He decided to sever all ties with them.

“I was being pushed into a corner and I had to make a choice,” said Tsai. “I wanted to make them aware of the question: have they degenerated to such a level? Have they forgotten why they made films in the first place? Is it all about making money now?”

Tsai knows he won’t be making films forever, and wants to do what he wants to do.

“I don’t really care now. This is a point in my life when I have to draw the line. Recently, I became producer for Lee Kang-sheng’s film, and we both decided that we would not submit the film to the Golden Horse. So I have removed that burden. I’m free.”

Cutting for change
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies
Would a renowned director allow his film to be censored? Yes, and Tsai Ming-liang had good reasons to do so.

You'd probably never expect this from an award-winning, internationally acclaimed filmmaker like Tsai Ming-liang, who also happens to be a festival darling. He allowed his film to be censored for its release here.

Yes, you read it right.

Way back in 1933, Jean Renoir’s masterpiece, The Rules of the Game, was re-cut by the director himself after a disastrous first screening. Viewers had been infuriated by the film, with some threatening to burn down the cinema.


Malaysian stage actress, Pearlly Chua, plays a rich woman in I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone.
In the case of Tsai’s film, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Hei Yan Quan), there has been no such threat, simply because no one in Malaysia has seen it yet.

Initially, Tsai had re-cut his film to suit local audiences’ sensibilities and sensitivities. Despite this, the National Censorship Board requested an additional five cuts – and this was after it had banned the film.

And Tsai obliged.

This can only mean that the Sarawak-born, Taiwan-based filmmaker truly wants Malaysians to see the film, his first to be shot entirely on home soil.

But there is another reason.

In an interview during his recent visit to Kuala Lumpur to promote the film, Tsai emphasised his desire to open up channels of dialogue with the authorities with regard to the strict censorship laws in the country.

He even went so far as to say that he was willing to invite the relevant ministers to see an uncut version of I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, to show them that there really is nothing controversial about it.

“I would like to implore them to watch the film for themselves and see whether the cuts are justified,” said Tsai, who spoke in Mandarin.

In fact, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone is probably the mildest of Tsai’s works. His most notorious would be 2005’s The Wayward Cloud, a provocative musical that was, ironically, in competition at the 2005 Asia-Pacific Film Festival in KL.

“There is already a dialogue established with the Censorship Board,” said Tsai. “When they announced that this film would be banned, it triggered a lot of discussions in the electronic and print media.”

He feels it’s a great opportunity for society to speak out about censorship, that has created a stifling environment for the arts. Of course, no director wants to see his work cut, but Tsai said he made an exception because Malaysia is his homeland.

“If I had refused to comply with the five cuts, then there would not have been any dialogue. I would like the dialogue to go further and beyond my film.”

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone is his first film to get a general release here. Previously, the only way to see his films was at film clubs and special screenings.

Back in the 1980s, Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia organised special screenings of his films, on 35mm prints, to very receptive crowds.

Perhaps today, the environment is not the same. Tsai feels that society has been dumbed down by a steady diet of Hollywood films, so much so that people may no longer be so accepting of films that are different from the norm and more challenging. (His 2003 film, Goodbye Dragon Inn, mourned the death of cinema.)

In fact, since 2001, with the release of What Time is it There?, Tsai has been going to the streets to sell tickets himself. He is well-known in Taiwan for going to universities, colleges and schools to give talks and sell movie tickets. It’s a move that has been successful. His films have since sold more tickets in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world. He is also doing the same here for I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone.

Tsai is probably one of the very few directors who would openly admit that their films do not sell. That kind of statement would drive distributors away, but since not many distributors are interested in his films anyway, he might as well take matters into his own hands.

Tsai is a master of the static long take, and eschews music and dialogue. His style is immediately unique and unconventional.

He realises that audiences nowadays want to be entertained and not be provoked into thinking.

“But I’m telling people – why not try my brand of films?” he explained. “I’m offering them a choice. I go to their doorstep, deliver it to them and ask them if they’d like to try something different. And I’ve been successful with that and I continue to do it.”

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, which stars Tsai regular Lee Kang-sheng and local newcomer Norman Atun, tells the story of a foreigner who is robbed and beaten on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, and is later rescued and befriended by a migrant worker.

The story takes place during the infamous haze, and some scenes are shot in an abandoned building on Jalan Thambi Dollah. Tsai himself was an immigrant in Taiwan, so he feels it is apt for him to tell this story.

“Just like in my other films, I’m talking about people in limbo. We don’t always fit nicely into our environment, and sometimes we’re neither here nor there.”

Tsai started writing the script in 1999, developing the story into an exploration of the nature of freedom.

“We are never really free wherever we are. The grass may seem greener on the other side, but when we get there, we might just find ourselves operating within new parameters.”

Tsai said everything in the film is real and not made up, except for the haze, which they had to recreate.

“I didn’t need to buy any props, so it was very good for the budget,” he said with a laugh.

Some things that may seem surreal, in fact, do exist, such as the huge pool of brackish water, four storeys deep, in an abandoned building.

A young director who worked with him on the film had asked Tsai how he managed to find such an astounding location. Tsai remarked that sometimes we fail to see the things that are right next to us, and it takes someone else to notice these things.

“I never thought of coming back here to make a film, because I felt there were too many restrictions here,” said the director.

“But this is my homeland, and I always come back to visit. Gradually the desire grew in me to do something here. Finally, I found that it’s a kind of destiny and I came back to make this film.”

[dleedlee]

Anita Mui's TV Biopic on Air
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2007/05/14/1261@226866.htm