Ban would begin on Saturday and last at least three months.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 611424.htm
Rosamund Kwan to Quit Entertainment Career
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2007/12/12/1461@303944.htm
Wong Kar-wai says he never finished degree
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 ... 121652.htm
"Happy Flight" New film from director of "Swing Girls" and "Water Boys"
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5136/1/
Nanking review
Giving Testimony on the Horror That Was Nanking
http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/mo ... l?ref=arts
Nanjing massacre scars Chinese hearts 70 years on
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/200 ... SSACRE.php
Japanese film discredits Nanjing massacre
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 34/1/.html
Olivia Cheng continuing legacy with 'Iris Chang, the Rape of Nanking'
http://canadianpress.google.com/article ... rHOriRNoSA
Diary: Olivia Cheng
http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=162211
"The Children of Huangshi" recalls Nanjing Massacre
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007- ... 233688.htm
AP Interview: Peter Chan says 'Warlords' grounded, realistic Chinese epic
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/ ... -Epics.php
Xu Jinglei feels great to be the only leading lady in a film with three male leads in The Warlords.
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies
Takeshi Kaneshiro Rising to the occasion
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies
Blood brothers in war
Inspired by the Taiping Rebellion, director Peter Chan sets out to show how the lust for power deforms men. He shares with SHARON WONG his thoughts. BLOOD, sweat and tears mark Peter Chan’s Warlords in telling its story about brotherhood among men and humanity in the face of war.
Inspired by historical events (the 20-year Taiping Rebellion during the Qing Dynasty against China’s Manchu rulers in the mid-19th century) and Shaw Brothers’ classic Blood Brothers of the 1970s, Hong Kong director Chan had wanted to make a similar movie for a long time.
“I was very impressed by Blood Brothers during my younger days,” he said recently.
“But we realised that it covered only the surface where the battle scenes were concerned.”
Through his research, Chan discovered that over seven million people died during the Taiping rebellion and realised that, under such circumstances, human behaviour would become totally twisted.
He thought it would set a good stage for a look at brotherhood, friendship and love and what happens when they face betrayal.
Together with the background information, he rewrote the characters and ultimately, Warlords became a movie in its own right.
The movie depicts the exploits of a General Pang who is disillusioned with the Qing army and together with two bandits, Zhao Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), forms his own Shan regiment.
The three become blood brothers and set off to end the war and restore peace to the land.
But along the way, lust for power turns Pang ruthless. Adding to the human drama is the fact that the woman he loves happens to be his blood brother’s wife.
Eventually, it comes to a stage when anything or anybody standing in his way has to be eliminated — including his blood brothers...
Warlords features three of Asia’s top actors, namely Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. And they were the first choices for director Chan.
“Jet Li has had many experiences in the course of his life,” Chan said. “He has gone from China to Hong Kong to Hollywood and has seen all there is to see in life. As a result, I believe he would be able to handle a complicated character like General Pang.
“At the same time, he has never tried such a role before and the result was something beyond our expectations.
“As for Andy Lau, he is a very intelligent guy and his eyes are sharp but the character of Zhao Er-hu is very straight-forward and even a little innocent in his own way and is something quite different from Andy’s previous roles.”
Last but not least, the character Jiang Wu-yang is like an animal in its natural environment where he kills to survive and the matter of right or wrong does not arise. He is fierce yet vulnerable.
And according to Chan, Kaneshiro was perfect for the role because that’s his character in a nutshell. “Takeshi is just like the character he portrays,” Chan said. “He is a very private person and for him to work opposite two such huge stars was a burden to him. And initially, I thought he wouldn’t accept the role.”
Fortunately, he did and Chan couldn’t be more pleased with his cast. Where actual filming of the movie is concerned, Chan had his work set out for him in that he wanted to shoot the battle scenes with no special effects.
“The camera goes right into the thick of things, bringing the audience along,” he said. Naturally, these scenes were the most difficult to film.
Chan said there were two pivotal battle scenes.
The first battle brings out much cruelty with hands-on fighting scenes as the two armies rush each other but ultimately, it is a victory, complete with a victory cry.
“But the second battle scene, at Suzhou, was another look at war altogether. The men are in trenches, tired, hungry and just waiting to die like rats. This is also the time when things begin to unravel for the blood brothers. It is actually the climax and my favourite part of the movie. You see the cruelty of war and it actually carries an anti-war message.”
After the blockbuster success of Chan’s previous effort, the musical Perhaps Love, he is setting another milestone with Warlords as he feels that he was able to change the traditional Chinese style of action movies.
“For years, we have been chained by the Western perception of our action movies, which contains the surreal action style of being able to fly,” he said.
“Our action movies need not always be associated with special effects and flying. It’s about time things changed and for the West to have a different concept of Chinese action movies.
“And I’m glad to be able to do that with Warlords.”
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/ ... index_html
"Huo Yuanjia" Remake to Hit Beijing
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2007/12/12/1261@303763.htm
CCTV Hosts Calendar Debuts
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2007/12/11/1461@303581.htm
Luxury Car Decorated with Ivory Carvings Debuts in Guangzhou
http://english.cri.cn/3100/2007/12/12/1461@303969.htm
Hand-Pulled Noodles, Hold the Noir
http://events.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/di ... ref=dining
Lantau's Ngong Ping 360 cable car to lure families with free tickets
http://hkstandard.hk/news_detail.asp?we ... 71212&fc=4
