East Asian Films Generating Massive Buzz

After the superb Departures (Okuribito) won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Japanese films continued their winning streak at the recent Asian Film Awards held in Hong Kong. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, a movie about a family's breakdown after the father loses his job, won the Best Film award. Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Best Director award for Still Walking and Masahiro Motoki won the Best Actor award for his role in Departures. Coincidentally all three pictures are about family relationship problems which could reflect a growing interest in movies of this genre as the global economic crises focuses our attention back to family and practical bread and butter issues. The Best Actress award was awarded to Chinese actress Zhou Xun for her portrayal in The Equation Of Love & Death. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Jung Woo-sung for his role as "The Good" in the very entertaining South Korean film The Good, The Bad, The Weird edging out co-star Lee Byung-hun (who plays "The Bad") in the process, hmm... a classic case of good triumphing over bad? The full list of awards and nominations can be found here.

Besides these award-winning films, another South Korean movie that has been generating much buzz recently is director Park Chan-Wook's new work Thirst to be released in South Korea at the end of next month. Thirst is about a priest who becomes a vampire and then plots a dastardly murder. Wow, just reading about the plot has already made me interested in the movie, a priest becoming a vampire... that's definitely something new. The trailer from YouTube below:



There are high expectations for this movie as Park who directed such award-winning movies like Old Boy and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, is a master in transforming violent themes into intelligent and introspective films and counts Quentin Tarentino as one of his fans. Thirst is reportedly also a possible contender at the upcoming Cannes International Film Festival in May.

Another movie that is already creating lots of buzz even though it's not even started production is Chinese film Bodyguards And Assassins (previously known as Dark October). This is mainly due to the star-studded lineup in the movie. The cast consists of a dream team of the top A-listers in the Chinese language entertainment industry, including Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Leon Lai (Forever Enthralled), Nicholas Tse, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Simon Yam, Fan Bing Bing, Wang Xueqi, Wang Bojie, Zhou Yun and Hu Jun (Red Cliff) and this is just half of the cast. According to a recent press conference for the film, the other half will be announced at a later date and reportedly may include Aaron Kwok, Anthony Wong and Chang Chen. Bodyguards and Assassins is about how a diverse group of patriotic individuals protected Sun Yat-Sen from an assasination attempt by enemy forces in Hong Kong during October 1905. The role of Sun Yat-Sen was originally offered to Chow Yun Fatt who turned down the role to star in Confucius (see my earlier post here). The film will be directed by Teddy Chen and produced by Peter Chan, filming will begin in April for a planned release at the end of the year. I found this promo video below that shows the set and the main cast on the Sina.com website here.

Source: http://www.kungfucinema.com/donnie-yen-headsbodyguards-and-assassins-6195, http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Thirst.php#news18650, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan-wook_Park, http://www.beijingww.com/1470/2009/03/19/291@84932.htm

Tags: Asian Film Awards, Departures, Okuribito, Tokyo Sonata, Still Walking, Zhou Xun, Masahiro Motoki, The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Thirst, Park Chan Wook, Bodyguards And Assassins, Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, upcoming movies, Korean movie, Chinese movie.

Chow Yun Fat To Play Confucius

The lead role for the upcoming big-budget biopic of Confucius or Kongzi (孔子) has just been announced and (drumroll) Dragonball's Master Roshi a.k.a. Chow Yun Fat has been cast as Confucius! Other cast members (as yet uncomfirmed) include a who's who of Mainland Chinese A-listers like Chen Dao Ming, Zhou Xun and Sun Hong Lei. To be directed by Chinese director Hu Mei, the script has already been revised 25 times since the film was first conceptualised two years ago. In preparation for this role of a lifetime, Chow has reportedly started growing a beard.



And one especially interesting news is that Confucius will not be portrayed as a scholarly, rather bookish elderly gentleman in the film but will instead be a lively, humorous guy who knows kungfu(???) and is an excellent archer and chariot driver. Hmmmm... this is really quite a shock to me as I just can't imagine Confucius as a martial arts expert... But on second thoughts, who's to say ancient thinkers and philosopers can't be fit and athletic?

More interesting details on this film can be found in my earlier post here.

Images from Wikipedia & YesAsia.com

Source: http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-03-09/11462407988.shtml, http://022net.com/2009/3-9/444437192458323.html, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20090305/ten-737-chow-yun-fat-plays-confucius-zho-3c1b9bc.html

Tags: Confucius, Kongzi, Chinese Movie, Chinese Film, Chow Yun Fat, Chen Dao Ming, Zhou Xun, Sun Hong Lei, upcoming movies, Dragonball.

Confucius Coming To The Big Screen

A new US$22 million film on the most influential philosoper of all time in Chinese history -Confucius (孔子) will begin filming in November this year. The director tasked to make Confuciu's cinematic debut is female director Hu Mei, who is known more as a TV drama director rather than as a film director. She has directed some of the most acclaimed Chinese historical television drama serials ever made such as Emperor Of Han Wu and Yong Zheng Dynasty.

No cast has been confirmed yet but according to what I gathered from the net, some of the actors that the public would like to see in this role include acclaimed director Zhang Yimou (who recently directed the spectacular Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony), Andy Lau, Chen Dao Ming, Zhang Fengyi (last seen as Cao Cao in Chibi) and Tony Leung.

Well, if all goes according to plan, this film should really be one of highlights of 2009 in the Chinese movie industry.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/05/content_8959143.htm, http://pl.cqnews.net/wy/200808/t20080828_2242755.htm, http://ent.sina.com.cn/f/m/kzjscx/.

Tags: Confucius, Kongzi, Chinese Movie, Chinese Film.

Red Cliff - Some Random Thoughts

As expected, John Woo's Red Cliff (赤壁) , the most expensive movie in Chinese film history, has broken opening day records in mainland China and topped the box-offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea over the last weekend. The US$80 million historical epic has already earned US$26 million on its opening weekend across these five Asian territories* and looks set to become the highest grossing East Asian hit movie this year. This is the first of a two-parter for Asian audiences and the sequel is scheduled to be released early next year. For audiences outside Asia, a condensed 2½ hour version will be released in January 2009.

I got to watch this highly anticipated movie over the weekend and I was largely satisfied with the performances in the film. From Tony Leung's portrayal of the calm yet brilliant Zhou Yu, to Takeshi Kaneshiro's portrayal of the witty Zhuge Liang, to Chiling Lin's beauteous Xiao Qiao, every member of the cast did a satisfactory job of bringing their characters to life. I was especially impressed by Zhang Fengyi's portrayal of the dominating and ruthless Cao Cao, although he is the singular lonely villian in the story, he still looked like he could eat every member of the gang of good guys - Liu Bei and his generals, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Sun Quan, Sun Shang Xiang and Xiao Qiao, for lunch. It's one against many yet the many seem to have a real hard time dealing with the ONE (Cao Cao), who looks to be the smartest of the lot ;-)

But what impressed me the most were the battle scenes, these do not disappoint and are the best parts of the movie. I could honestly say that these are some of the best battle scenes I have ever seen in an Asian movie. John Woo is really the master of action sequences and the battle scenes in this film retain his signature style ( lots of slow motion and sweeping moves) without losing the feeling of realism. Look out especially for the exciting battle scene just before the movie's end, for this is the part where we can finally understand and experience Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang's military genius (even though according to Wikipedia, this battle is purely fictional ;-P).

But the movie is not without faults, perhaps because of the plot, there is little human drama that is memorable. After watching the movie, except for the battle scenes, there were hardly any scenes that sticked in my mind. Lovebirds Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao do not generate a lot of romantic sparks and Cao Cao's obsession with Xiao Qiao somehow also comes out a but strange, maybe because it is quite unbelievable that a man like Cao Cao could be so obsessed over a woman, to the extent of going to war for her... And I also feel that the soundtrack could be improved, some of the film's music just sound too modern and do not seem to fit the time period of the movie.

All in all, I think this is one of the best big-budgeted Chinese historical epic that I have seen so far, definitely much better than the too-extravagant-for-its-own-good Curse Of The Golden Flower ;-P

Tags: Red Cliff, Chi Bi, John Woo, historical movie, Chinese film, Tony Leung, Chiling Lin, box-office.

Source: *http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/15/arts/AS-MOV-John-Woo-Red-Cliff.php,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)

Picture from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)

John Woo's Next Project After Red Cliff - 1949

John Woo's mega production Red Cliff is set to be released in July this year in Asia and a spate of new trailers for the movie have just been released (one of them below). High profile appearences by John Woo and the the cast of the movie including Tony Leung (Zhao Yun), Lin Chiling (Xiao Qiao), Chang Chen (Sun Quan), Hu Jun (Zhao Yun), Vicky Zhao (Sun Shang Xiang) and Zhang Feng Yi (Cao Cao) at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival have generated much buzz for the film.



And while we are still anticipating the arrival of Red Cliff, John Woo has already announced his next project at Cannes - 1949, a US$40 million epic romance set during the tumultous WWII era which will star Chang Chen and Korean actress Song Hye-kyo (left picture). As Song will play a Shanghai lady in the film, she will be taking Chinese language lessons in preparation for her role. This film will start shooting in December this year and is set for release in December 2009.

John Woo is one busy man ;-)

Picture from http://news.yule.com.cn/html/200805/9954.html
Source: http://www.movieweb.com/news/76/28776.php, http://news.yule.com.cn/html/200805/9954.html

Tags: Red Cliff, 1949, John Woo, upcoming movies, Chinese movies, Chinese film, Tony Leung, Chiling Lin, Chang Chen, Song Hye Kyo.

East Asian Film And TV News & Trends In 2007

It's almost the end of the year and time once again for reflections on what happened in this past year ;-P Wow time flies, it seems that it was only yesterday that I was celebrating the 2007 New Year. I think that this has been a pretty decent year for East Asian films and TV dramas on a whole. Here is a general recap of the news and trends that have caught my attention this year.

1. Chinese Movie Of The Year: Lust, Caution

This film was the most talked about Chinese movie in 2007. With Ang Lee's signature low-key approach, attention to detail, the engrossing storyline and great acting by Tony Leung and Tang Wei in some of the most daring erotic scenes ever seen in an Asian movie, it comes as no surprise that this film enjoyed fantastic box-office takings throughout Asia and won the Golden Lion and seven awards at this year's Golden Horse Awards.

2. Ancient Is Golden

Period movies and drama serials continue to be popular in Korean and Chinese dramas and films in 2007. Big-budget period movies with star-studded casts and state-of-the-art CGI like The Warlords performed very well at the box-office. The period drama boom was also seen in Korean drama serials with period dramas like Jumong and Taewangsasingi snaring the top positions in television ratings. This period boom looks set to continue in 2008 with the release of the most expensive Chinese film ever made - Red Cliff during the Beijing Olympics.

3. More Pan-Asian Co-productions

Co-productions between different Asian countries seem to have become the norm in 2007. From arthouse productions like director Kim Ki-duk's Breath starring Taiwanese actor Chang Chen to Japanese hits like Hero with Korean actor Lee Byung-hun in a cameo role to big-budget Chinese flicks like The Warlords and Red Cliff that are financed by investors throughout East Asia, filmmakers are cooperating in more ways than ever to expand a film's appeal to a wider pan-Asian audience.

4. Quest For New Themes

To counter the whimsical and fast-changing tastes of viewers, movie and drama makers must come up with new themes at an ever-increasing speed. This is especially apparent in the Korean TV drama market where it seems that viewers have become increasingly tired of the same romantic drama plot used countless times in the past. To maintain viewer interest, TV stations and production houses have had to come up with new themes for their dramas. This has resulted in the type and range of drama serials expanding considerably this year. From dramas about money lenders to police action thrillers to romantic comedies with "cross-dressing"themes, this aggressive search for new themes have already yielded gems like War Of Money, Time Between Dog And Wolf and First Shop Of Coffee Prince. It remains to be seen if this exploratory approach will continue into 2008...

5. International Recognition

East Asian films continue to perform well in international film awards in 2007. Lust, Caution took home the Golden Lion and Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon won the prestigious Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, only the second time an Asian actress has won this award in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.


All-in-all, 2007 has been a good year for Asian films and dramas. Let's hope for an even better 2008 :-)

Have A Happy New Year!

Tags: Lust, Caution, Asian Movie Trends, Chinese Movie, Korean Movie, Japanese movie, Drama Serial, Drama Series, Korean Drama Series, co-productions, Pan-Asian Films, Asian Drama Themes,

Lust, Caution Takes Home 7 Golden Horses

As expected, Lust, Caution is the big winner at this year's Golden Horse Awards held on December 8 in Taipei, Taiwan. The Ang Lee thriller won 7 awards including Best Film, Best Actor (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), Best Director (Ang Lee) and Best Newcomer (Tang Wei) among others. Best Actress was also won by a Lust, Caution alumni - former Golden Horse Award winner Joan Chen for her portrayal in The Home Song Stories. The full results can be found at

http://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/gh_main/gh/gh-e-5.aspx

And here is a clip of a rather interesting moment that happened when Ang Lee and Sandra Ng (a Hong Kong actress well-known for her talent in comedy) were about to give out the Best Actor award, rather unexpectedly Sandra Ng tore the sealed envelope containing the results without opening the envelope (for comic effect perhaps?), shocking the normally sedate Ang Lee into a minor panic who then hurriedly tried to piece the torn pieces together, dropping the bits of paper in the process... hmmm... poor Ang Lee, he looked really distressed by Sandra's er playful act ;-P But I guess this was just a minor blip in an otherwise fantastic night for the cast and crew of Lust, Caution.



Tags: Golden Horse awards, Ang Lee, Lust, Caution, Tang Wei, Tony Leung, Chinese films, Chinese Movies, Chinese Film Awards.

New! Trailer for Stephen Chow's Upcoming Film CJ7

Hot off the press! The trailer for Stephen Chow's much anticipated new film CJ7 (长江七号) has just been released on this Yahoo website 30 minutes ago:

http://tw.movie.yahoo.com/videoplayer.html?id=2457&type=movie

Seems to be a cool comedy + sci-fi pic... Very Stephen Chowish in style ;-)
Btw the actress who plays his son in the trailer (yes you read right - actress) is a 10-year old little girl called Xu Jiao...

Tags: CJ7, Chang Jiang 7, Stephen Chow, trailer.

Flash Point and The Secret Do Well At The Box Office

Donnie Yen's exciting new action thriller Flash Point (导火线) and Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou's directorial debut Secret (不能說的秘密) have both done pretty well at the Chinese box office. Flash Point starring Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Colin Chou and Fan BingBing grossed RMB 20 million (US$2.63 million) in its first six days of release. Jay Chou's Secret a romantic drama with a mysterious twist at the end, stars Jay Chou, up and coming Taiwanese actress Guei Lun-Mei and Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong, grossed US$2.44 million in its first week of release.

Check out the trailer for Flash Point inYouTube. Wow, the action is simply exhilerating .... a must watch! And do catch Secret as well for Jay Chou and Guei Lun-Mei's great performances in the film.




Source: http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-08-09/15301670119.shtml; http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/1835/1/

Tags: Jay Chou, Secret, Guei Lun Mei, Donnie Yen, Flash Point, Louis Koo, Chinese Box Office, Action Movie, Gong Fu movie, Romantic drama, mystery.

Very short trailer clip of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution

Sorry, haven't been posting as often as I should... I will post more interesting East Asian movie and drama posts very soon, promise :-)

But for now, check out the URL below for clips of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution in this promotional advertisement by Focus Features for their upcoming releases in the second half of 2007. You will need to wait some time for the mov file to load though. The screen shots of the movie are somewhere in the middle of the clip.

http://www.focusfeatures.com/clips/about_focus/spring07-480x260.mov

Enjoy the clip :-)

Tags: Lust, Caution, Ang Lee, Tony Leung, Wang Lee Hom, Tang Wei, Chinese Movie, Chinese Film.

Casting Troubles At The Red Cliff

Casting problems on the set of the in-production mega Chinese movie Battle Of The Red Cliff (赤壁) seem almost as exciting and unpredictable as the plot of the film itself.

The latest news is that Tony Leung Chiu Wai has rejoined the cast and may be taking over Chow Yun-Fatt's role of Zhou Yu after Chow left the cast last week. Leung was originally slated to play Zhuge Liang but his role was handed over to Takeshi Kaneshiro when he quit early this year.

The latest cast as per news reports:
Tony Leung as Zhou Yu (?)
Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang
Hu Jun as Zhao Yun
Zhang Fengyi as baddie Cao Cao
You Yong as Liu Bei
Chang Chen as Sun Quan
Chiling Lin as ancient hot babe Xiao Qiao
Vicky Zhao Wei as Sun Shang Xiang
Zhang Jing Chu as Da Qiao

This John Woo film will be divided into two parts, with the first part scheduled to be released before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the second part at the end of 2008.

Hmm... hopefully the casting troubles will not affect the film too adversely...

Good luck to John Woo :-)

Also, check out this site below (in Chinese) for some nice pics of the cast and the characters in the movie: http://ent.tom.com/movie/f/chibi.html
And for some background info on the movie, check out my previous blog post here.

[information from articles in the following sites:
http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1294807.php/Tony_Leung_rejoins_Woos_The_Battle_of_Red_Cliff’_ http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/04/17/chow-yun-fat-drops-john-woos-battle-of-red-cliff/
http://ent.tom.com/movie/f/chibi.html]

Tags: Battle Of The Red Cliff, Chi Bi, John Woo, Chow Yun Fatt, Tony Leung, Lin Chiling, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chinese Movie, Chinese Film, Historical Movie.

Curse Of The Golden Flower - My Thoughts

Just watched Curse Of The Golden Flower... Well what can I say, the sets and costumes were truly made of "gold", practically everyone and everything were nicely color coordinated BUT I admit that I don't like the movie that much...

Why? Actually I don't really know why just that at some places where I am supposed to be terrified or touched I just had the urge to laugh instead. Its not that the acting was bad, on the contrary it was really good for the most parts (Chow Yun-Fatt and Gong Li were truly amazing). But the movie just feels emotionally empty. Most of the time I was admiring the actors' clothes and the lovely scenery instead of being focused on what the actors were actually saying.

But still ... although the sets and costumes look gorgeous, I kept thinking that the palace looks more like some swanky Vegas casino hotel since everything was so bright and shiny, honestly I did not know that the Tang dynasty had spotlights haha. And not forgetting the "unbelievably" buxomy palace maids. Whew... how can any guy (even eunuchs!) work in a place like that without going a little ... :-P In other words, I think in trying to create a gorgeous and elaborate palace setting, the director seemed to have forgotten that a touch of realism would have helped a lot.

And the storyline... the familial breakdown and the violence that ensued could have made for a impactful and absorbing story .. if only it was handled a little better. I felt that more scenes should be given to explaining what the main characters were feeling and how the events happened instead of focusing so much on the scenes of the palace staff getting ready for the day etc... although these scenes were interesting too in their own way... seeing how efficient the palace staff were really puts me to shame ;-)

All in all, I feel that the movie is worth watching for 3 things: the costumes, the sets and Chow Yun-Fatt's and Gong Li's superb acting.

Tags: Curse Of The Golden Flower, Chinese Movie, Zhang Yi-Mou, Chow Yun-Fatt, Gong Li, Jay Chou.