Click here

Several pictures of PAYCHECK's filming in the street of Vancouver are up at Hollywood North Report. Click here

Click here for a large collection of still from the movie and spy pictures from the set. It has also been confirmed that Yuen Wo-Ping is in charge of the action this time and for each fight scene, there will be only one camera and one shot. Great news for everyone who has been sick and tired of Hollywood style editing.

Visit JL2H for more pictures and more news on the film.

According to Variety, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Cleese will play cameo roles in Jackie Chan's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. Hal Lieberman, the producer of TERMINATOR 3 is also producing 80 DAYS. I wonder what roles they will take. Kathy Bates has already linked herself to the project with the role Queen Victoria.

Click here for report by Variety

Click here for report by CommingSoon.net

Jackie Chan's diaries have bee updated through April 20th:

 Click here

This is a story of three women of an ordinary family in Shanghai. They are Mo, Li and Hua:

Mo's Story (1930's)

18 year old Mo (Zhang Ziyi) lived with her mother (Chen Chong (Joan)) who owns a small photo shop. She wanted to be a movie star, a dream her mother could not understand. One day, Mo met Mr. Meng (Jiang Wen), manager of a movie studio. Close relationship with Meng made her dream come true and also made her pregnant with Meng's baby. When the Japanese invaded China, Meng left Shanghai and vanished forever along with Mo's dream. Mo gave birth to Li and blamed her for everything she had lost…

Li's Story (1950's)

Li (Zhang Ziyi) had grown up with her mother (Chen Chong (Joan)) with great misery. She married Zou Jie (Lu Yi) just for staying away from her mother. Unable to bear a child of her own, Li adopted a baby girl named Hua. Day by day, Li had become more and more paranoid and even accused Zou for violating Hua. Li’s own family collapsed and Zou ended his life on a train track…

Hua’s Story (1980’s)

Li disappeared when Hua (Zhang Ziyi) was still very young and she grown up with her grandmother Mo (Chen Chong (Joan)). Mo treated her own daughter very badly but found comfort on taking care of her granddaughter. Hua’s husband Du (Liu Ye) was not happy with his wife and had an affair with another woman. Hua decided to end the marriage even though she had already carried Du’s child. Years later, Du wanted to go back to Hua but only found out she had married again…

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner (X-MEN series, FREE WILLY series, DAVE) told "Smilin' Jack Ruby" something about Jet Li's next project called LABOR DAY:

"It's about an assistant D.A. who is very ambitious who goes up against the head of mafia who wants to stop and go legit and he goes after the mafia guy's son, so the mafia guy kidnaps his wife. Now the assistant D.A. has to go to his wife's old boyfriend, who happens to be Jet Li, to come in and help. Now these two men – who are in love with the same woman – are trying to rescue the woman for her love." She said no one else has been cast except Jet Li but the "just brought in Schwentke and (they) are doing a quick pass on the script."

This old-fashion martial-art film produced by the legendary Shaw Bros., has been set to be released this month. Click the following links for stills and shots from the set:

Thanks to Chris Vinh

According to Nanfang Daily, director Lou Ye is working on the final sound mix of PURPLE BUTTERFLY, even though the Cannes Film Festival is coming in less than three weeks.

(Pictures) Three Zhang Ziyi's films we are waiting for: (from left to right) PURPLE BUTTERFLY, 2046, JASMINES BLOOM.

Photos: Nanfang Daily, Oriental Daily

Yuen Wo-Ping has recently been interviewed by Hong Kong Economic Times and here some highlights:

What Does MATRIX Mean to Yuen Wo Ping:

"I think it really means a lot to me, but I have to sacrifice a lot and finding the right person to work with is also important. For each work, there is always something not satisfying me after watching it. Like there were many ways we do in Hong Kong were really amateur, and now with the standard of computer effect, I feel they can be done in much better ways.

Wachowski Brothers:

"Before these two brothers made THE MATRIX, they had watched many Hong Kong films to look for the style they desired, and they found me. They said it was not because other (action directors) were not good, but because my style was more suitable to theirs." "They are excellent action directors. I have met many Hollywood directors and they are always use multiple cameras to shoot action scenes. But the Wachowskis are just like our Hong Kong directors - only using single camera. That means they know exactly what they want and from which (camera) angle it will looks more powerful. Their judgment is just as (accurate) as that of Hong Kong directors and they can get the right result."

The Choreography:

"The Wachowski brothers first clearly told me the direction and requirement for each scene - how many fight scenes, how they wanted the fights look like, and how long they wanted to the fights last. Then I designed (the fights), showed to them. And (after) communicating and modifying the fights, I started to train the actors for these fights. Many directors would leave such scenes completely to the action directors, but they (Wachowski brothers) participated in each fight. On the set, I just assisted the directors to shoot the actors doing their actions."

The Actors:

"Because the first one was (released) in 1999 and the actors had unavoidably forgotten what they learned during the (initial) training. Therefore everyone had to start from the basic and only after they passed the phase of basic training, I could design fights for them." "(I) cannot design fights according to what an actor is capable of, but according to the script and what the directors required. There is no such thing as "can't do". You come to the set and you must do it."

The Fighting Style:

"In Si-Fi films, (you) don't need to tell which school or which clan the style is from, but basically it must have a concept for the action. To design fights for THE MATRIX (sequels), I first laid aside the difference between Western style of fight and Eastern style of fight, then I pursued real fight and excluded any tricky stuff. Not like one move followed by a rotation" "Once (someone) need to soar to the air, the help from computer is essential. What we can develop is definitely limited."

Diaries from March 31st to April 6th have been added: Click her

Click here for pictures taken at Jackie Chan's birthday party

PURPLE BUTTERFLY has successfully secured a seat "In Competition" of the Cannes Film Festival. Reportedly, the film is probably pushed into Cannes by its international distributor. However, according to Chengdu Daily, PURPLE BUTTERFLY has yet been greenlighted by the Chinese Film Bureau. If so, the film will very likely being banned in China as a punishment of competing at a foreign film festival without the permission of the authority. BLUE KITE by Tian Zhuangzhuang, TO LIVE by Zhang Yimou, DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP by Jiang Wen and SUZHOU RIVER by Lou Ye, the director of PURPLE BUTTERFLY, have all suffered such fate. According to Shanghai Film Studio's website, the film will be released in China this May.

Other Chinese language films will be shown at Cannes include ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES by Yu Lik Wai, DRIFTERS by Wang Xiaoshuai and ROBINSON'S CURSOE by Lin Cheng-Sheng, all in "Un Certain Regard" category.

Click here for the complete list of film shown at the 56th Cannes Film Festival

Several new shots from EmpireMoives.com are up at The Quentin Tarantino Archives. The first, third, fifth and sixth are shot at Beijing Film Studio.

Click here

Thanks to the webmaster THE QUENTIN TARANTINO ARCHIVES

See the most angry and probably the saddest superhero recreated by Ang Lee:

Trailer: THE HULK (QuickTime)

Many readers of this site told me that HERO had been released in North American on April 11th. However, the one being released is called THE HERO, directed by Anil Sharma and starring Sunny Deol. On  Yahoo! Movies, two movies are horribly and ridiculously messed together. Enjoy the laugh!

Just checked MiramAxe's official site, the HERO page remains unchanged and all those mistakes remain uncorrected. For some reason, the link to this page was taken off from the home page (thanks to Gideon Genesis) for a few weeks and now it is back.

BULLETPROOF MONK was released on video last Wednesday in China. But, it is dubbed in Mandarin Chinese and the only subtitle option is Chinese. By the way, the Chinese title of the movie is "Bulletproof Martial Monk", which is actually a more accurate description of Chow Yun-Fat's character.

(left) Box design of the DVD case

THE TWINS EFFECT Official Site has been launched last Thursday. It features a plot description, character description, cast & crew, some back knowledge of vampires, a gallery, wallpapers, and a new trailer. So far this site is only available in Chinese.

Full Trailer 1 (Windows Media Video / Length: 2:11): 300k 45k (New)

Thanks to Al Young

Photo: Emperor Media Group

Zhang Yimou has contacted Andy Lau for his untitled upcoming martial-art film and yesterday Andy Lau confirmed that Zhang Yimou had promised to tailor a role for him and he was expecting the script from Zhang Yimou (in May). Based on the information we know so far, this project will not be the sequel of HERO but a brand new story and will most likely be set in another timeframe. Beijing New Picture and Hong Kong's Edko will once again work with Zhang Yimou on this film. Zhang Ziyi may also be cast because Zhang Yimou has said working with Zhang Ziyi again was out of question. Rumor suggests she will play a blind warrior. However, it is still too early to tell who will join the cast and what the story is really about.

(Left: Andy Lau)

According to Yangcheng Evening News, director Chen Yifei has met Leung Chiu-Wai, the prime contender for taking the leading role in MUSIC BOX, formerly known as BARBER (LI FA SHI). The original leading man, Jiang Wen walked away from the production when the filming was 20% complete. According to Lu Yifan, the screenwriter and the author of the the novel the film is based on, Leung Chiu-Wai was one step away from actually signing the contract. But Chen Yifei has refused on comment on it. Jiang Wen's departure has caused removal of some other major actors from the cast list, rewriting the script, renaming the title and scraping everything has been shot so far. Set in the 1930's to 1940's, the film is about the story of a barber, who became a general after Japanese invasion and became a barber again after the war ended.

(Left: Leung Chiu-Wai)

On the set of MO LI HUA KAI (JASMINES BLOOM), a reporter from Beijing Youth got an opportunity to ask director Hou Yong a few questions:

I heard you had been preparing for the film for 11 years?

Not that long, (but) I read Su Tong's book Funüshenghuo (LIFE OF WOMEN) 11 years ago. I liked it very much. (I) felt it was very beautiful, very smooth and very enjoyable, and (I think) it was very framable. At that time, I felt the urge to make a film (based on it). For all these years, I just could not forget it. Now everything is ready, therefore making a big-screen adaptation of it is naturally the next step to take.

What from the novel has drawn your attention and what are you going to show us in the film?

(It is) the feeling. Su Tong never used quotation marks for dialogues and he rarely use adjectives. I like his way of quietly telling us the fate of a woman. In this book, Su Tong shows us women, lived in different social environments and different times but share the same fate, and causing the sadness of their stories was their own faults. Starting from this, I want to explore some deeper meaning. Maybe I won't make it clearly, but I want to show I have (at least) thought about it and to show my love to women.

In the film, are you going to recreate the feeling from the book?

No. Later when I was working on the script, I realized I felt good while reading (the book) was only because I was fascinated by the language. Therefore in the film I will pursuit a different kind of feeling and taste.

Do you mean there will be a big difference between the book (and the film)?

The first two parts with Mo and Li are basically shot based on the book. The last part with Hua has been changed a lot and the ending will be much more brighter than in the book. I once tried to write the dialogues in Putonghua (Mandarin) with Shanghai slang. But (my fellow) screenwriter Zhang Xian said it was impossible to "translate" Shanghainese to Mandarin, therefore I gave up on writing those so-called Shanghai slang.

Tell me something about the cast. How did you recruit Zhang Ziyi to play Mo, Li and Hua?

I want the best actors in my film, of cause, and Zhang Ziyi is one of the best (Chinese) actresses of our times. I once wanted to cast Gong Li and at that time, Zhang Ziyi was still too young to handle three roles (in one film). I have already had very serious conversations with Zhang Ziyi and I have written down my thoughts of (the roles), including many concepts (?). I believe Zhang Ziyi will handle it very well.

Chen Chong (Joan) was recommended by Hu Xuehua. She is very humorous and very easy-going. I once worried about (I may not be able to) work with her (well), because she is such a big star. But later I found out she was a very nice person. I told her she should knew how I felt, just like what she was working with Richard Gere (in AUTUMN IN NEW YORK). Then she laughed, very loudly.

According to the script, the visual and music is very vital for the film.

That's right. The music will be Molihua (Jasmines, a Chinese folk song) and the composer (Zhang Ye) is the one who wrote Zou Jin Xin Shi Dai (WALK TO NEW AGE). What exactly the music is going to be - I don't want to say right now.

The shooting has started for 20 days. (note: the interview was conduced on March 27th.) As a first time director, are you satisfied by your work so far (note: he is a second time director actually)?

Not bad, just too nervous. (There are) a lot of things but I just don't have time for all of them. The ratio is 1:15 (14 feet of film wasted for each foot of usable film) and I still think that's not enough. Such as, we spent four hours to shoot a hand soaked by rain outside a window. (We) have wasted too much time. It would be more time consuming for shots which are more tasteful and more enjoyable. I feel I am very nervous.

After becoming a director, I finally realized what an excellent cinematographer I am. That's right! I didn't know that before. As a cinematographer, I know how to completely, efficiently and remarkably achieve what the director is asking for. Therefore I won't give up being a cinematographer. Then I think, in the future, maybe I will be the cinematographer and hire a director to make (another) movie.

You can be both.

I think it won't be a good movie if the director and cinematographer are the same, so I must have someone (else) to be the director.

What do you expect from your directing début?

I am satisfied by what I have designed for this project. The design is having Zhang Ziyi to play three characters, the young Mo, Li and Hua. I believe this has never been done before and I will do it with my style.

Hou Yong's Filmography

As Cinematographer:

HERO / YING XIONG (2002) - director: Zhang Yimou

HAPPY TIMES / XING FU SHI GUANG (2001) - director: Zhang Yimou

THE ROAD HOME / WO DE FU QIN MU QIN (1999) - director: Zhang Yimou

NOT ONE LESS / YI GE DOU BU DENG SHAO (1999) - director: Zhang Yimou

LANAI-LOA - THE PASSAGE (1995) - director: Hu Xuehua

THE OPIUM WAR / YA PIAN ZHAN ZHENG (1997) - director: Xie Jin

STRANGERS IN BEIJING / HUN ZAI BEI JING (1996) - director: He Qun

WARRIOR LANLING / LAN LING WANG (1995) - director: Hu Xuehua

THE DAY THE SUN TURNED COLD / TIAN GUO NI ZI (1994) - director: Hao Yan
THE BLUE KITE / LAN FENG ZHENG (1993) - director: Tian Zhuangzhuang

TIAN CHU XUE / SKY IS BLEEDING (lit.) (?) (1991) - director: Hou Yong

EVENING BELL / WAN ZHONG (1988) - director: Wu Ziniu

Sun YATSEN / SUN ZHONG SHAN (1987) - director: Ding Yinnan

THE HORSE THIEF / DAO MA ZEI (1986) - Tian Zhuangzhuang
 

As Director:

TIAN CHU XUE / SKY IS BLEEDING (lit.) (1991)

Yesterday Chow Yun-Fat admitted to Taiwanese media that he had boarded Michelle Yeoh's HUA MU LAN. According to China's Youth Times, the script has been rewritten seven times and shooting will start in August and end in January, if everything goes as planned. Director Peter Pau, art director Tim Yip and production manager Liu Erdong has visited Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai (in the Northeast China and are all candidate for desert scenes). Recently they have gone to Xinchang of Zhejiang Province for its mountains. Later they will go to Hengdian Film & TV City, Yellow Mountain, and Hainan Province.

This vampire-slaying comedic action with a Jackie Chan cameo will be released in Hong Kong this summer.

The official site (with 2 teaser trailers)

Photos: The Sun, Oriental Daily, Sing Pao

According to Hollywood.com, master action choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping has agreed to helm HANDS OF SHANG CHI, another Marvel Comics adaptation produced by DreamWorks. The story is about a young Chinese kung-fu master, Shang Chi, who discovered his father, Fu Manchu, is the most dangerous criminal of the world... The character of Shang Chi was created in 1971 by Marvel Comics and it looks suspiciously like Bruce Lee and Fu Manchu is a fictional character racially created in the 1910's. Bruce McKenna (BAND OF BROTHERS - Part 6) is working on the script which will be set in China. No further detail has been released.

HERO has been released in another Scandinavian country - Norway

Great thanks to Anders Jonassen from Norway for discovering the reviews and translating the summaries.

 

Øynene mine har nesten problemer med å motta så mange nydelige bilder på en gang, men bare nesten. (My eyes have problems with seeing so many beautiful images at the same time,  almost.) (5 out of 6) Birger Vestmo NRK

En utrolig vakker film. Men også en kampfilm, 'alle kampfilmers mor' (An unbelievably beautiful movie. Also a martial art movie, "the mother of all martial-art movies) Kjell Moe KulturSpeilet

Click here (4 out of 6) anonymous Dagbladet DVD Forum (Norwegian Newspaper)

HERO er en av de vakrest fortalt historier og mest storslåtte filmer som noensinne er laget. (HERO is one of the most beautifully stories ever told and one of the biggest movie ever made.) (6 out of 6) Geir Kamsvåg Film Magasinet

Official Danish Site

Features we have never seen before: the first trailer in QuickTime format (30 MB) and lots of exclusive photos.

Release date: April 16th, 2003

Official German Site (Thank to Tom for providing the link)

Features we have never seen before: N/A

Release date: June 5th, 2003

Several stills have been posted on the officials site of of Shanghai Film Studio: Click here. The same site has also revealed the plot:

The film start in the 1930's, at the dawn of Japanese invasion, in China's the Northeast (Manchuria), a young Chinese girl Xin Xia (Zhang Ziyi) just sees her Japanese lover Itami (Nakamura Tooru) off and on the way back, she witnesses her brother brother being murdered by the Japanese right-wing extremists. She moved to Shanghai, changed her name to Ding Hui, and joins Purple Butterfly, a secret organization led by Xie Ming (Feng Yuanzheng) against the Japanese aggression. During an operation, Situ (Liu Ye) a bystander accidentally gets involved and his girlfriend Yi Ling (Li Bingbing) is gun down by a Japanese agent. Ding Hui fells sorry for Yi Ling's death and ask Situ to walk away. But Situ insists on joining Purple Butterfly to seek revenge on the death of her lover. Meanwhile, Itami arrives in Shanghai with a new identity, a spy for Japan, and his mission is tracking down Purple Butterfly. After reunited with her old lover, Ding Hui has to make a tough choice between love and her nation, and what really lies beneath the the passion is...

This old-fashion martial-art film produced by the legendary Shaw Bros., has been set to be released this month. Click the following links for stills and shots from the set:

Shanghai Film Studio

Sina.com

Thanks to Elhcay

We all know the story of KILL BILL takes place in the present days, but the Chinese scenes do not look like from the present days. Sure, those scenes are flashback, but they got flashbacked too much. Based on the costumes, the street setting and others, the film has been flashbacked to no later than the 1940's!

Click here and here for two shots taken on the backlot of Beijing Film Studio.

Thanks to Mark Singh for the links

Zhang Yimou spent five days to make this five minute commercial and it has been shown on China's CCTV on April 10.

TOYOTA VIOS Commercial (Length: 5:11)

Stream (Window Media Video / 21.6 MB)         Download (ZIP / Real Video / 14.1 MB)

More on the commercial by TOYOTA

Jackie Chan has shown us more pictures taken in Thailand.

Click here

PTU, a new thriller by director Johnnie To, premièred at Berlin International Film Festival and Hong Kong Film Festival, is about to be released in Hong Kong.

Trailer (ASX): 300K  56K

Review: PTU (Positive, Minor Spoilers) by Dan Fainaru

Review: PTU (Negative, Minor Spoilers) by "Marshy"

PTU Official Site

According to Business Times, Wong Kar-Wai's next project will be AI SHEN (lit.: LOVE GOD), staring Gong Li (RAISE THE RED LANTERN) and Chang Chen (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Chang Chen told the paper this project is only going to be half-hour long and Wong Kar-Wai will suspend the production 2046 for a while, finish this one first, and then re-pick 2046 up.

MiramAxe has once again, offended us by acquiring video distribution rights in major English speaking countries. According to The Hollywood Reporter and Screen Daily, MiramAxe has reached a deal with Celestial, which is bring Show Bros.' old classic films to video for the first time. According to the agreement, MiramAxe will select 50 titles from the film library of Show Bros' and released them in  North America, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The deal also include "video-on-demand" rights to the entire library and English-language remake rights for two of them. According to Celestial's website, all these titles will be DUBBED IN ENGLISH. This is a good news for people who hate reading subtitles and a true tragedy for people who always prefer the original voices. There is no word on whether they will be re-edited, but MiramAxe is very good at doing it.

Screen Daily article

The Hollywood Reporter article 

Celestial's site (Q&A)  - pay attention to the second question from the bottom.

Zusammengenommen ein schöner, spannender Chinesischer Film der oberen Kategorie, den man auf jeden Fall gesehen haben sollte (A beautiful and exciting Chinese film of the higher category that one should have seen in any possible way).

(Positive, 8/10)

by "tm"

asianfilmweb.de

(You can use FreeTranslation.com)

Thanks to Tim

The official Japanese site has been launched with a Japanese trailer, a brand new one. Do not get excited when you see Warner Brothers' logo, because MiramAxe still holds the distribution rights of North America, Latin America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South African, the rest of Africa and Italy.

Trailer: HERO (Japanese / QuickTime, length: 1:57)

Large (21.6 MB)      Medium (10.0 MB)      Small (3.7 MB)

HERO has been released in Finland and Greece. Thanks to our readers around the globe, we have the opportunity of getting to know what people from different part of the world think about the film:

Do you know any review from your country? Please tell me.

Finland		Greece
HERO on näyttävä ja toimiva elokuva – mestarinäyte kiinalaisesta osaamisesta (HERO is a dynamic and visually stunning movie - a Chinese masterpiece). Katja Argillander Hohto (Movie Magazine)   HERO on täydellinen esimerkki siitä, miten elokuva tulisi tehdä. (HERO is a perfect example how one should make a movie). Yle (public broadcasting)   Click here Helena Ylänen Nyt (Newspaper)   Click here anonymous MoonTV (cable TV)   Thanks to Kat and Anonymous		HERO is a movie definitely worth checking out, just for the fact that it offers some of the most lush, beautifully realized and executed scenes we are bound to experience all year and that alone towers above a mediocre script and an outdated ideology. Alexander Thanks to Mark Singh
		Sweden
		Se den och förförs! (See it and be seduced!) (Click here for the English translation) Peter Nilsson (Great thanks) Portland Street (Asian Films Website)
		India
		Not quite a review, but a very good read about the wuxia genre: Click here  Pradeep Sebastian The Hindu (Newspaper) Thanks to Sukumaran, Sanjeev

According to Nanfang Daily, Hong Kong's EMG has agreed with Columbia's demand of cutting the film. As the result, most comedy scenes will be deleted and action scenes will remain untouched. The film has wrapped up almost a year ago but has yet arrived at any theater. Reportedly, Columbia (SONY), the film's international distributor, was not pleased with so many non-action scenes in the film. To solve the problem, EMG, production company from Hong Kong, once planned two versions of the film, a longer Asian version and a shorter international version. But now there will be only one version for all. Neither Jackie Chan nor director Gordon Chan is happy with the result, but they have no other option. Same tragedy happened to HERO has struck Jackie Chan.

Gordon Chan also told the paper that the worldwide release date has been pushed back from August to October.

By the way, the English title of the film has been changed from HIGHBINDERS to THE MEDALLION. Darkhorizons broke the news first few weeks ago and Jackie Chan has confirmed it in his diary. Maybe there are not enough Irish in the States, or maybe there are not enough Irish in the States who know what "highbinder" means, or maybe it just sounds too similar to HIGHLANDER. But for whatever reason, the title has been changed definitely and I do not like it! According to Irish mythology, highbinders refer to people came back from the dead. The original title is closely consisted with the plot. But, what "medallion" refers to?

Jackie Chan's diary from March 17th to 30th has been posted on Jackie Chan's official site:

March 17   March 18   March 19   March 20   March 21   March 22   March 23   March 24   March 25   March 26   March 27   March 28   March 29   March 30 (note: not all dairies are linked from the homepage)

According to Beijing Youth, when Studio Babelsberg, the Berlin based company assisting the production, was recruiting extras, over six thousands people showed up. The studio had to limit the audition time for each candidate to no more than four minutes.

Martin Birkeldh has sent me another review by the biggest newspaper in Sweden. Here are the highlights:

HERO är en av alla tiders vackraste filmer. Synd då att den inte innehåller ens en tiondel så mycket dramatik, som den har skönhet (HERO is one of all time most beautiful movies. It is so bad it does not consists of more than one tenth of drama as it does with beauty). by Jan-Olov Andersson

Do you know any review from your country? Please tell me.

Here are three more reviews by critics from Sweden, plus one we have already seen.

Do you know any review from your country? Tell tell me.

Great thanks to Martin Birkeldh for discovering the first three reviews and translating the summaries.

Great thanks to Kenneth Brorsson for discovering and translating the fourth review

Den är en otroligt vacker film (This is an unbelievably beautiful Movie) Nils Petter Sundgren   Det här är riktig filmkonst (This is real art of cinema) Hans Wiklund   bionytt, TV4

Med det sagt vill jag dock påpeka att HERO är en klart sevärd film, och jag kan inte annat än rekommendera den. (And with that, I want to indicate that HERE is a really worth to see) Fredrik Svensson MovieboX

En av de snyggaste filmerna jag sett, och något av det bästa på flera år. Mer än så behöver man väl inte säga. (One of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen and the best in many years. More than that is unnecessary to say) anonymous DVD Forum (DVD Review)

With great acting in combination with fight scenes that stand above everything else, Zhang Yimou have shown before what a fantastic filmmaker he is but now he has shown that he is capable of doing wonders in the action/adventure genre as well. Orvar Säfström Filmkrönikan Sveriges Television

According to Hong Kong's The Sun, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS' production in Thailand has completed as scheduled a few days ago. Due to  the pneumonia scare, Jackie Chan has asked for a chartered plane to send the cast and crew to Germany, where they will finish the rest of the film. He got his wish granted.

These pictures were taken at a backlot of Shanghai Film Studio where Zhang Ziyi is working on her new film JASMINES BLOOM.  Because everything from the project should remain secret, she was wearing her own clothes while posing for the camera. The backlot contains buildings from the old shanghai. In the pictures, Zhang Ziyi was standing on a steel bridge.

Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, the screenwriters of BULLETPROOF MONK have sit down and talked to SCREENTALK Magazine. Click here (Beware of spoilers)

According to Hong Kong media, actor and singer Leslie Cheung has committed suicide in Hong Kong today. He jumped off from a hotel window at about 6:41 pm Hong Kong time and was pronounced dead after being sent to the hospital. We do not know what caused him to make such decision at this moment.

Leslie Cheung (Chinese name: Cheung Kwok-Wing) was born in Hong Kong in 1956. After getting a college degree in the Great Britain, he returned to Hong Kong and became a singer. Soon after Leslie Cheung started playing small roles on stages, TV and movies. In 1986 he was cast as Kit Sung in John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW, which has proved to be a turning point for his career. In 25 years, he worked with many big name directors including John Woo, Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-Wai and Tsui Hark. Some of his best known movies are: A BETTER TOMORROW, A BETTER TOMORROW 2, A CHINESE GHOST STORY, ONCE A THIEF, DAYS OF BEING WILD, FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR 2, ASHES OF TIME, TEMPTRESS MOON and HAPPY TOGETHER. In his last film, INNER SENSES, which was released last year, Leslie Cheung played a psychiatrist who becomes suicidal after helping a patient.

This is not an April Fool's Joke.

JING TAO HAI LANG (lit.: RAGING WAVES)

When flood are coming, thousands of soldiers are sent in to reinforcing dam at all costs, even their lives. The film tells a fictional story which was based on the true event of the great flood of the Yangtze Rive in 1998.

Clip (Real Video, length: )

Directed by Zhai Junjie, Starring Wu Gang, Ning Jing, Li Youbin, Pan Yueming, Zhao Youliang.

KALA, MY DOG! (KA LA SHI TIAO GOU)

Factory worker Lao Er has an uneasy life. Neither his wife nor his son is giving him one moment of rest. Only Kala offers him some relief. When the unregistered pet dog is taken away by the police, Lao Er tries desperately to get it back. Buying a license for Kala has become the only hope but money is something his family can not afford for just a dog...

Directed by: Lu Xuechang, Starring Ge You, Ding Jiali, Li Bin, Li Qinqin, Xia Yu, Li Min.

Hong Kong

GET THE MURDERER

An undercover policewoman starts working for a hair salon in order to find out how a hairstylist was murdered. Several old customers look very suspicious but what role did the owner of the hair salon played...

THE TWO INDIVIDUAL PACKAGE WOMEN

DIVA-AH HEY

A young girl is dreaming about becoming a super singing star but her manager is only interested in using her for his own good. Even when she accidentally become famous with one song, she still has to be a shadow singer under someone else...

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Taiwan

BRAVE 20

Two best friends enjoy drinking salty soy milk together, which might be some metaphor for life. One of them is in love with a girl who already has a boyfriend and, for her he even committed to something very dangerously; another one of them is thinking about rescuing a mysterious girl who is routinely abused by a gangster...

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