The feature films competing for the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice Film Festival has just been announced and three East Asian films have made it into this prestigious list:
Pou-Soi Cheang's Yi Ngoi (Accident) from Hong Kong starring Louis Koo, Richie Jen and Michelle Ye.
Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo The Bullet Man from Japan starring Eric Bossick, Akiko Monou and Shinya Tsukamoto himself. The third instalment in the cult Tetsuo franchise, this one is unique cos it's actually in English! Check out this intriguing eight-minute clip of the film shown at the recent Comic-Con that I found on YouTube:
And last but not least, Yonfan's Lei Wangzi (Prince of Tears), a Taiwan / Hong Kong co-production starring Chih-Wei Fan, Terri Kwan, Joseph Chang and Kenneth Tsang.
Two East Asian films are screening out-of-competition: Mainland Chinese film Chengdu, I Love You directed by Fruit Chan and Cui Jian (selected as the closing film for the festival):
and Japanese animated film Yona Yona Penguin:
You can find the full list of films here. Good luck to all the films competing for the Golden Lion.
Tags: Venice Film Festival, East Asian films, Pou-Soi Cheang, Accident, Louis Koo, Tetsuo The Bullet Man, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yonfan, Lei Wangzi, Prince of Tears, Chengdu I Love You, Yona Yona Penguin.
East Asian Films At 66th Venice Film Festival
Chinese Movie News From The Shanghai Film Festival
There has been a flurry of news on upcoming Chinese movies at the just concluded Shanghai Film Festival.
1. The creators of the upcoming big-budget Chinese film Bodyguards and Assassins unveiled their huge HK$50 million film set to the press. The film set is a replica of 1905 Hong Kong and is as big as 10 football fields. Part of the star-studded cast including Donnie Yen, Eric Tsang and Fan Bing Bing attended this so-called "opening of the city" ceremony. You can see more scenes of this replica of old Hong Kong city in this new promotional trailer below:
2. Stars of the upcoming period movie Mulan including Vick Zhao (who stars as wartime heroine Hua Mulan), Hu Jun, Xu Jiao (young Mulan) and director Jingle Ma went on a promotional blitz at the festival, including organizing a special "Mulan Night" dinner party. Here is a trailer of Mulan than I found on Youtube.
3. Chinese film The Search won the Grand Jury Prize and Hong Kong star Aaron Kwok's new period movie Empire of Silver won the Jury Prize at the SIFF. Empire Of Silver is about a powerful banking family at the end of the 19th century whilst The Search is a film about a director's search for a missing man. Aaron Kwok will also be in the new Hong Kong movie The Murderer which will also be out in theatres in Hong Kong in July.
Empire of Silver trailer. Looks pretty good...
4. New trailer of upcoming sci-fi comedy Kungfu Cyborg which is scheduled to be released in August. This is definitely one of the campiest trailers I have ever seen... ;-P
5. Feng Xiaogang's highly anticipated upcoming US$18 million disaster movie Aftershock will be the first Chinese film to be in IMAX format. Aftershock is about the life of a girl who survived the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The film is set to begin filming next month and will be released in IMAX theatres in China and other Asian territories in July 2010. Box-office expectations for this movie is sky-high as director Feng Xiaogang previously helmed such massive box-office hits like If You Are The One, Assembly and The Banquet.
6. Ip Man 2 will start filming in August and Ip Man's disciple Bruce Lee will also make an appearance in the film. Donnie Yen will be reprising his role as Ip Man, but there is still no news yet on who will be playing Bruce Lee. There is another biopic of Ip Man that is also in the works - The Grand Master which will be directed by Wong Kar Wai and stars Lust, Caution star Tony Leung Chiu Wai.
Tags: Shanghai film festival, Chinese movies, Bodyguards and Assassins, Empire Of Silver, Mulan, The Search, Ip Man 2, Kungfu Cyborg, Aftershock, Feng Xiaogang, Aaron Kwok, Donnie Yen.
Red Cliff II And Other East Asian Movie News
The East Asian film industry has been pretty quiet lately. But there are still some interesting news tidbits.
1. As expected, John Woo's Red Cliff 2 - the just released second instalment of the two-part epic based on the Chinese classic Romance Of The Three Kingdoms - has been doing exceptionally well in the box-offices in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The movie earned over US$14 million in just five days in Mainland China (incredible!). At this pace, it may become the highest grossing Chinese language movie of all time.
2. Japanese movie Departures (Okuribito) is the only Asian movie to make it to the semi-finalist stage for the Best Foreign Film Award at the upcoming 81st Annual Academy Awards. The final nominee list of five movies will be announced on January 22nd. Starring Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue, the movie about the unique Japanese custom of "encoffining", has already won awards at various international film festivals including the Grand Prix des Amériques at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. You can find the trailer for the movie at the official site here. Good luck to Departures!
Update 22 January 2009: Departures has made it to the nominee list for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars! See the full list of nominated films here.
3. Donnie Yen's actioner Ip Man - based on the life and times of the legendary kungfu master who founded the Wing Chun school of martial arts - has punched his way to the top of the box-office in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Here is the short clip of the fight sequence where Ip Man fights ten karate black belts on YouTube. Great action, but like a lot of other fight sequences where the hero dispatches a whole bunch of lesser thugs in less than 5 minutes, you have to wonder why the bad guy fighters somehow always seem to look like they are waiting in line to fight the hero one-by-one... Wouldn't their chances improve tremendously if they all attack at the same time? hmmm...
4. Feng Xiaogang's romantic comedy If You Are The One (Fei Cheng Wu Rao) starring the sultry Shu Qi and acclaimed character actor Ge You has been a surprise box-office hit in Mainland China. It has already overtaken Red Cliff Part 1 in box-office takings and is still going strong now.
5. Japan's very own big-budget screen version of the pandemic disaster movie genre titled simply Pandamic (Kansen Rettou) has just topped the Japanese box-office over the last weekend, which just goes to show that disaster/epidemic type movies are still very much in demand.
6. Keanu Reeves will take on the role of Spike in a Hollywood adaptation of the popular anime series Cowboy Bebop. Err i don't know about you but I feel that Keanu Reeves who excels in playing powerful but rather expressionless god-like characters (e.g. Neo in the Matrix) does not seem all that suited to play the role of the free-spirited space cowboy Spike...
More movie news next time.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_Man_(film), http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b79405_keanu_saddles_up_cowboy_bebop.html, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998388.html?categoryid=2429&cs=1, http://varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/7837/1/, http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=42758&Category=, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998705.html?categoryId=19&cs=1
Tags: Red Cliff 2, John Woo, Departures, Okuribito, Ip Man, Donnie Yen, Pandemic, Kansen Rettou, If You Are The One, Fei Cheng Wu Rao, Feng Xiaogang, Keanu Reeves, Cowboy Bebop, East Asian movie news, Best Foreign Film, Academy Awards.
Japanese Films Rule The Asian Movie Roost At Venice Film Fest
At the recently announced lineup of films in competition for the prestigious Golden Lion at the 65th Venice Film Festival which will take place from August 27th to September 6th, Japanese films are the most represented among all the Asian movies competing this year. Three Japanese movies have made it into the list of 21 films including two of the most anticipated animated features: Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea and Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers. The other Japanese movie in competition is award-winning director Takeshi Kitano's Achilles and the Tortoise. Ponyo debuted in Japan recently and has already topped the box-office records there. The Sky Crawlers will debut in Japan on August 2.
Unlike the previous years' La Biennale di Venezia, where Chinese language movies (including Hong Kong and Taiwanese movies) were quite well represented and a force to be reckoned with(3 films in 2006 including Golden Lion winner Still Life and 4 films in 2007 including winner Lust, Caution), this year, only one Chinese language movie made it to the list, Hong Kong director Yu Lik Wai's Plastic City, a Chinese/Brazil/Hong Kong/Japanese co-production about a group of Asian immigrant gangsters in Brazil. Plastic City stars über-cool Japanese star Joe Odagiri and well-known Hong Kong character actor Anthony Wong.
The trailer for Ponyo can be found here and the trailer for Achilles and the Tortoise can be found at this site. And here is the trailer for The Sky Crawlers that I found on YouTube:
Good luck to all the films competing in this year's Venice Film Festival :-)
Source: http://international-animated-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/ponyo_on_a_cliff_tops_japans_box_office, http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8674, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/31/content_8870603.htm
Tags: Venice Film Festival, Japanese movies, La Biennale di Venezia, Ponyo On The Cliff, The Sky Crawlers, Takeshi Kitano, Achilles And The Tortoise, Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii, Anime, animation, Yu Lik Wai, Plastic City, Joe Odagiri, Anthony Wong, ponyo, Asian Films, Film Festival
Character Posters For John Woo's Red Cliff
Character posters for the 8 major characters in John Woo's mega production Red Cliff were presented at the recent Hong Kong Filmart. Just click on the names of the characters below to check them out.
Zhao Zilong - played by Chinese actor Hu Jun. Hmmm, I like Hu Jun but his Zhao Zilong really looks a bit too burly and tough.... isn't Zhao supposed to be a rather debonair and dashing general? For another version of Zhao Zilong, check out Andy Lau's version of this heroic figure in the YouTube trailer for his upcoming new movie Three Kingdoms - Resurrection Of The Dragon below - in case you are wondering, yup he is the guy in the "WWII" combat helmet ;-P
(Wikipedia entry for Zhao Zilong aka Zhao Yun)
Zhuge Liang - played by Takeshi Kaneshiro. OK... he looks suave and scholarly enough...
(Wikpeda entry for Zhuge Liang aka Kong Ming)
Zhou Yu - played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Not bad at all. He looks more tanned and buff here compared to his Lust, Caution days. (Zhou Yu On Wikipedia)
Xiao Qiao - this ancient beauty is played by modern beauty Chiling Lin. Much much better here than I expected :-P
Cao Cao - played by Chinese character actor Zhang Fengyi. Fits the widely accepted image of Cao Cao. (Cao Cao on Wikipedia).
Sun Quan - played by Chang Chen. Not bad too. (Sun Quan on Wikipedia)
Sun Shang Xiang - played by Vicky Zhao Wei. Me thinks that glow from her forehead is caused by the reflection from the glass pane in front of the poster, it should not be in the poster itself :-P
Gan Xing - played by Japanese actor Shido Nakamura.
All in all, the characters don't look too bad at all. The film will be released in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong on 10 July this year just before the Beijing Olympics and in Japan in October.
Here is the Japanese version of the trailer:
And here is the trailer for Andy Lau's Three Kingdoms - Resurrection Of The Dragon:
Tags: Red Cliff, John Woo, Tony Leung, Vicky Zhao, Zhao Wei, Chiling Lin, Hu Jun, Chang Chen, Shido Nakamura, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Andy Lau, Three Kingdoms, trailer, upcoming movies, Chinese movies.
Trailers of Upcoming Kungfu Films
It's 2008 and great to be back :-) Here are the latest trailers of 2 highly anticipated kungfu related films to be released in 2008 that I found on YouTube.
First up is the the Jackie Chan, Jet Lee kungfu blockbuster film - The Forbidden Kingdom which is set to be released in April 2008.
Well... all I can think of after watching this trailer is how did people in ancient China thousands of years ago learn to speak American English so well??? Strange...
And here is the trailer of another kungfu movie, this time in the unlikely setting of a basketball court - Kung Fu Dunk starring Jay Chou.
After watching this trailer, I think all martial arts exponents should seriously consider a career in professional sports. They will definitely beat all the non-kungfu trained competitors hands down in gymnastics, sprinting, high jump, long jump, volleyball, soccer, basketball etc etc... ;-P
Tags: Kungfu Film, Forbidden Kingdom, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, Trailer, Kung Fu Dunk, Jay Chou, Basketball, 2008 Movies.
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.
Golden Horse Awards Updates
Following my last post in October on the upcoming Golden Horse awards to be held on December 8, there have been even more changes in the lineup of nominated films. Besides Tuya's Wedding (nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress), the other mainland Chinese film Blind Mountain (nominated for Best Director) has also withdrawn from the competition. However, this does not mean that it will be easier for the remaining films to win in their respective categories as the Golden Horse organizers have decided to replace the withdrawn films with other contenders...
In the Best Picture category, Hong Kong cops and robbers thriller Eye In The Sky replaces Tuya's Wedding. In the Best Director category, The Sun Also Rises's Jiang Wen and Protege's Derek Yee replaces Blind Mountain's Li Yang. And Rene Liu who starred in Kidnap takes over Yu Nan's (from Tuya's Wedding) position in the Best Actress nominations.
So the final list of nominations for the major awards of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress are as follows:
Best Picture
What On Earth Have I Done Wrong?!
Getting Home
The Home Song Stories
Lust, Caution
Eye In The Sky
Best Director
Yau Nai Hoi (Eye in the Sky)
Ang Lee (Lust, Caution)
Jiang Wen (The Sun Also Rises)
Derek Yee (Protege)
Best Actor (no changes)
Gurmit Singh (Just Follow Law)
Zhao Ben Shan (Getting Home)
Aaron Kwok (The Detective)
Tony Leung Chiu Wei (Lust, Caution)
Best Actress
Joan Chen (The Home Song Stories)
LI Bing Bing (The Knot)
Tang Wei (Lust, Caution)
Rene Liu (Kidnap)
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/13/arts/AS-A-E-MOV-China-Taiwan-Movie-Politics.php
Tags: Golden Horse Awards, Lust, Caution, Tuya's Marriage, Getting Home, The Home Song Stories, Ang Lee, Eye In The Sky, Protege, The Sun Also Rises, Rene Liu, Blind Mountain, Chinese movies, Chinese films, Film awards.
12 Nominations For Lust, Caution At The 2007 Golden Horse Awards
To me, Lust, Caution is the must watch Chinese movie of 2007. The extensive media coverage and the lively debates generated by the movie have been unprecedented, no Chinese film has generated this kind of buzz in a long long time, Lust, Caution is truly the Chinese-language movie event of the year. And I think the Golden Horse Awards panel thinks so too as the film has been nominated for a whopping 12 awards at this year's Golden Horse Awards to be held on December 8th in Taiwan including the major awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Actor (Tony Leung) and Best Actress (Tang Wei). Me thinks Lust, Caution is going to take more than a few of these golden horsies home this year ;-)
Besides Lust, Caution (色，戒), other nominees for Best Picture are:
- What On Earth Have I Done Wrong (情非得已之生存之道) first feature film by Taiwanese director Doze Niu who also directed the Wu Bai and Barbie Hsu idol drama Say Yes Enterprise
- Getting Home (落叶归根) a black comedy by Chinese Sixth Generation director Zhang Yang and starring Best Actor nominee Zhao Ben Shan and Hu Jun
- The Home Song Stories (意) an Australian/Singaporean bilingual movie (in English & Chinese) by Tony Ayres and starring Best Actress nominee Joan Chen and Singapore based actor Qi Yu Wu.
And the other Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress nominees are:
Best Director: Yau Nai Hoi (Eye In The Sky), Li Yang (Blind Mountain)
Best Actor: Gurmit Singh (Just Follow Law), Zhao Ben Shan (Getting Home), Aaron Kwok (The Detective)
Best Actress: Joan Chen (The Home Song Stories), Li Bing Bing (The Knot).
A full list of the nominees can be found on the official Golden Horse Awards site:
http://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/gh_main/gh/gh-e-5.aspx.
And here are some screen shots of the nominated Best Picture films below:
Video: goldenhorse nomination films
Latest News: According to this news report, one of the original nominees, Tuya's Marriage (图雅的婚事) - Golden Bear winner at the 57th Berlin Film Festival, has announced its withdrawal from the Golden Horse Awards yesterday. So as of today, we are left with four competing films for Best Picture, and three nominees each for the Best Director and Best Actress awards...
Tags: Golden Horse Awards, Lust, Caution, Tuya's Marriage, Getting Home, The Home Song Stories, Ang Lee, Chinese movies, Chinese films, Film awards.
Golden Horse & Asia-Pacific Film Festival Awards
Two major film award ceremonies for Asian films have just been held over the last 2 days in Taipei, Taiwan - The Golden Horse Awards and the Asia Pacific Film Festival Awards.
Hong Kong films again reigned at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards, which some regard as the Chinese language equivalent of the Oscars - After This Our Exile (父子) from Hong Kong took home the Best Picture award. The movie's lead actor, Aaron Kwok, won the Best Actor award the 2nd time in a row for his portrayal of an abusive single parent. Nine-year old Goum Ian Iskandar, who played Aaron's son in the film became the youngest winner of a Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor Award.
The hugely popular muscial Perhaps Love (also from Hong Kong) won 4 awards - Best Director (Peter Chan), Best Actress (Zhou Xun), Best Cinematography and Best Original Film Song.
The mainland Chinese film Crazy Stone (a personal favorite of mine) won the Best Original Screenplay award.
Check out the videos of the ceremony here (videos are in Mandarin):
Best Picture (presented by John Woo and Takeshi Kanshiro): http://www.im.tv/vlog/personal/452795/853619
Best Actor (presented by Chang Chen [who was nominated for Best Actor but unfortunately the film he was nominated for The Go Master was withdrawn at the last minute] & Karen Mok): http://www.im.tv/vlog/personal/452795/853611
Best Actress (presented by Aaron Kwok and Charlie Young): http://www.im.tv/vlog/personal/452795/853607
Over at the 51st Asia-Pacific Film Festival, South Korean films reigned supreme, winning 6 awards in total. However, the Best Feature Film award went to Iranian film The Unwanted Woman, which also won the Best Director (Tahimeh Milani) and Best Screenplay awards.
15-year old South Korean actor Lee Jae-eung won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of a teenager's growing up pains in Bravo, My Life. Son Ye-jin took home the Best Actress award for her role in April Snow (which also starred South Korean mega hunk Bae Yong-jun). And South Korean box-office champ The Host clinched 3 awards as well for Best Supporting Actor (Byun Hee-bong), Best Sound Effects and Best Editing.
Congragulations to all the winners :-)
[Compiled from news articles: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=96083&GRP=B, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-11/26/content_742945.htm, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/243523/1/.html]
Tags: Golden Horse Awards, Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Hong Kong Films, Chinese Films, Movie Awards, Asian Films, Aaron Kwok, Zhou Xun, Perhaps Love, After This Our Exile, The Host, April Snow, Son Ye-Jin, Bravo My Life, The Unwanted Woman, South Korean Movies.
