Winners of the 9th Chinese Huabiao Film Awards, the 6th Xiayan Cinematic Literature Awards and the 11th Chinese Tong Niu (child bull) Awards have been announced at a grand ceremony in Beijing tonight. All three awards are established by Chinese government for recognizing the social contribution, rather than art, by the film industry. Only mainland Chinese productions and citizens are allowed to compete. HERO, a co-production between the mainland and Hong Kong, is not disqualified for any award. However a new award, "Special Contribution Award", was added for the film as a recognition of its domestic box office record (250 million yuan / US$30.2 million).

Click here for winners list

13 posters

Official site: (US URL: www.warriors-movie.com; Chinese URL: www.tdyx.com.cn)

Sina.com

Full trailer (Windows Media Video):      Teaser trailer (Windows Media Video):

56k   100k   300k                               56k   100k   300k

More features have been added to the official site:

The World Film Festival opens today in Montréal.

Click here for the complete list.

The 60th Venice Film Festival officially start today.

Click here for the complete list.

The complete film list of Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4 - 13) has been released to the public. Among them, there are familiar and unfamiliar names:

Contemporary World Cinema
DRIFTERS	DRIFTERS / ER DI (China) Directed by Wang Xiaoshuai; starring Duan Long, Shu Yan, Wang Zhiliang, Zhao Yiwei, Tang Yang. Page by the festival
GOLDEN CHICKEN	GOLDEN CHICKEN / JIN JI (Hong Kong) Directed by Samson Chiu; starring Sandra Ng, Eric Tsang, Eason Chan, Andy Lau, Krystal Tin. Page by the festival      Official film site
	PTU (Hong Kong) Directed by Johnnie To; starring Simon Yam, Maggie Shiu, Lam Suet, Ruby Wong, Lo Hoi-pang. Page by the festival      Official film site
	PURPLE BUTTERFLY / ZI HU DIE (China) Directed by Lou Ye; Zhang Ziyi, Nakamura Tooru, Liu Ye, Feng Yuanzheng, Li Bingbing. Page by the festival      Page by MonkeyPeaches      Official film site
Discovery
MY FATHER AND I	MY FATHER AND I / WO HE BA BA (China) Directed by Xu Jinglei; starring Ye Daying, Xu Jinglei, Su Xiaoming, Qiu Qiu, Zhang Yuan. Page by the festival      Official film site
Real to Reel
DREAM CUISINE	DREAM CUISINE (Documentary / Japan) Directed by Li Ying. Page by the festival
WEST OF THE TRACKS	WEST OF THE TRACKS (Documentary / China) Directed by Wang Bing. Page by the festival: Part I: Rust, Part II: Remnants, Part III: Rails.
Special Presentations
ZHOU YU'S TRAIN	ZHOU YU'S TRAIN / ZHOU YU DE HUO CHE (China) Directed by Sun Zhou; starring Gong Li, Leung Ka-Fai, Sun Honglei, Li Zhixiong Page by the festival      Official film site
Visions
GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN	GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN / BU SAN (Taiwan) Directed by Tsai Ming-liang; Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Miao Tian, Shi Jun Page by the festival
THE TESSERACT	THE TESSERACT (Thailand / United Kingdom / Japan) Directed by Oxide Pang; starringJonathan Rhys-Meyers, Saskia Reeves, Alexander Rendel. Page by the festival

Click here for the complete list.

Film Rotation just posted a few promotional still of the film scanned from French magazine Ciné Live .

Click here for the full story.

This viewing guide is intended for answering questions regarding the history background and plot structure of the film. If you has yet seen the film, please stop right here.

(Warning: Heavy Spoilers!)

Click here

INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2

- Set in early 1990's, this is a prequel with Edison and Shawn Yue as the leads;

- Four major characters will return. Lau Kin-Ming (Edison Chen / Andy Lau), Chan Wing-Yan (Shawn Yu / Leung Chiu Wai), S.P. Wong (Anthony Wong), and crime boss Sam (Eric Tsang);

- Four new characters will be introduced: Leon Lai and Hu Jun  will play two high ranking police officers, Francis Ng will play a rival gang leader, and Lau Kar-Ling will play Sam's girlfriend.

Media Asia

INFERNAL AFFAIRS 3: END INFERNO (literal title)

- According to Leung Chiu-Wai, the story has two plotlines: one is what happens right after the end of the original and the other one is what happens six months before, so it should be both a prequel and a sequel;

- Dr. Lee (Kelly Chen), from the original but absent from the first prequel, will return. Sammi Cheng may also return as Lau Kin-Ming's girlfriend;

- Leon Lai's character (high ranking police officer) will return, and Francis Ng's character (the rival gang leader) may also return;

- A mysterious businessman from the mainland, played by Chen Daoming, will be introduced;

- Leung Ka Fai and Li Bingbing may be added to the cast;

- The script is still not done yet, so everything stated in the above may change.

If you get confused, go through the above again.

A traditional ceremony marking the beginning of the production of INFERNAL AFFAIRS 3, but the shooting will not start for real until next month.

Picture: (from left to right) To Man-Chat, Eric Tsang, Andy Lau, Leung Chiu Wai, Leon Lai, Chen Daoming. Far-right: Li Bingbing

Click here for over a dozen more pictures.

The famous Silk Road, the infamous Gobi Desert...

A fugitive, a Japanese emissary, a general's daughter, and an overlord...

A story about warriors of heaven and earth...

According to Sci Fi Wire, Jackie Chan has delayed the production of TIME BREAKER, formerly known as TITANIUM RAIN, which was intended to start this summer, in order to get the script rewritten. During an interview, Jackie Chan said, "When I looked at the script, there were a lot of special effects. After THE MEDALLION (which is filled with CG effects), I'm not sure anymore, so now we change the script," and "It might not happen until next year." According to director Stanley Tong, "this is a film frequently shifting between the ancient time and the present days. It will have flashback to the ancient time and will go all the way back to Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC)." In Hollywood, Jackie Chan has RUSH HOUR 3 and SHANGHAI DAWN waiting for him and he has promised to make the fifth POLICE STORY soon.

Stephen Chow  felt very sorry.	Sommo Hung had "nothing to say".	Yuen Wo-Ping will take over the action.
Jiefang Daily	Jiefang Daily	Edko Films

According to Shanghai paper Jiefang Daily, Sammo Hung has resigned from the post of action director yesterday and Yuen Wo-Ping has been called in to fill the blank. Reportedly, Sammo Hung and Stephen Chow have been clashing on the set. Interviewed by Hong Kong media, he talked about everything, from the high temperature to mosquito on the set. He said he would focus on the production of a new movie in the States. Stephen Chow has shown his regret for Sammo Hung's departure. He praised Sammo's work and said his health was a major concern. However, neither one of them admitted there was any clash on-set. Yuen Wo-Ping has returned from the States and is gathering his troops in Hong Kong for the Shanghai trip. Yuen Wo-Ping told Hong Kong's The Sun that Stephen Chow's Star Overseas would arrange everything and according to his assistant, Yuen must return to the States for a Hollywood production by the end of the year.

MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER Official Site

Even with only 3 minute on-screen time at the end of the sequel, Zhang Ziyi is still a major selling point of the movie, especially for international market. The Official Site of the movie was launched yesterday, and  among all the goodies being released, there are two pictures of Zhang Ziyi and a video documenting her trip to Korea last month. What role she plays is still a mystery. MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER 2 is due out in South Korea September 5.

MiramAxe just released the design of a promotional teaser poster. (Thanks to the webmaster THE QUENTIN TARANTINO ARCHIVES) It shows the right hand of the Bride holding a Japanese sword upside-down and handkerchief bearing the word "Kill Bill - Fall 2003". On the back, there is the film's title written in Katakana, a kind of Japanese alphabet, sort of. It is pronounced as "ki-ru-bi-ru".

Now, the Volume 1/ Volume 2 issue: Once again, those folks form MiramAxe have proved their commitment to film art has been erodes by concerning for profit.

According to Hong Kong media, Jackie Chan has promised the coming of the fifth POLICE STORY with a budget of HK$80 million (US$10.3 million). He recently pumped HK$18 million into Hong Kong studio EMG and opened a joint-venture with EMG. The new POLICE STORY will be the first production of the new company. Nicholas Tse and Charlene Choi (one of The Twins) have made their commitment to the project. There is no word whether Maggie Cheung, played Jackie Chan's girlfriend in the first three movies, will return or not, but Jackie Chan has said in January that he wanted his character Chan Ka Kui to marry his girl friend in the final installment of the series. The sequel will be helmed by Benny Chan (HEROIC DUO, GEN-Y COPS, GEN-X COPS, WHO AM I?

Jackie Chan appeared on "Total Request Live" on MTV last week. He was asked when the next RUSH HOUR would come and he replied "next year." I think he actually meant he would start working on the sequel next year, but the sequel itself would not come out next year.

***

Jackie Chan is back in action, takes on more bad guys, makes more friends, becomes an immortal superman and gets a girl of his dream. The movie starts with the main valiant Snakehead (Julian Sands) receiving an ancient text stating a Buddhist holly child is capable of bringing to medallions together which will bring the ultimate power to the holder of the medallion... Then in Hong Kong, a local cop Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) is assigned to assist the Interpol officer Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) arresting Snakehead. The bad guy runs away and the holly child is kidnapped by Lester (Anthony Wong), the No. 2 man of Snakehead. Our hero follows the trace all the way to Ireland and reunions with Watson and Nicole James (Claire Forlani), his one-time lover and another Interpol officer. After Eddie dies while trying to save the holly child, he is brought back by the power of the medallion...

The story is routine and the bad guys are standardized. What make the movie afloat is Jackie Chan. Once again he does many of his trademark tricks no one dare to imitate and no insurance company dare to cover. Jackie Chan is wired frequently because Eddie Yang is an immortal superman for much of the film. But unlike in THE TUXEDO (shot with THE MEDALLION simultaneously), this time the wired Jackie Chan is actually fun to watch.

Lee Evans provides the most comedy relief for the movie. He does Officer Watson, an arrogant and clueless Mr. Bean-like overkill, but he is from the UK which makes everything so enjoyable. Lovely Claire Forlani is luckily enough to be the first girl kissing Jackie Chan on screen, reportedly. She tries some kicking and takes on another supermodel bad girl - a cat fight, of cause. But just like all female co-stars from all other Jackie Chan movies, her role is basically secondary. Christy Chung plays Watson's wife and there is absolutely no explanation for she suddenly becoming a terminatrix after the bad guys break into her house. Something only happens in a Jackie Chan movie. About the rest the of cast: Anthony Wong delivered an average No. 2, John Rhys-Davies makes a surprise cameo as the Interpol chief and young Alexander Bao plays the holly child, just like a holly child.

Now, the heaviest spoiler. As what we have already know, the final print is almost a quarter shorter than the first cut, traces of editing-out are noticeable. There are scenes of Jackie Chan in action, other characters in action, Lee Evans showing us his talent, and of cause Claire Forlani kissing and slapping Jackie Chan. But, each one of these scenes looks a little bit shorter than it should be. This movie is specially tailored for the American market, which means it can never go too deep and too hard-bone, and the editing has made it more rush rush. An extended DVD should solve the problem, I truly hope so.

More coverage on the film

	Sina.com

INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2, in fact the prequel of INFERNAL AFFAIRS just got its own teaser site, now only available in Chinese.

(Thanks to François)

On the left, there are three promotional sheets.

Related Story: INFERNAL AFFAIRS Prequel And Sequel Announced (Media Asia) May 3, 2003

According to Chinese paper Shenyang Daily, Anita Mui and Jin Chengwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) have been added to the cast list of Zhang Yimou's next project. The reporter who wrote the article claimed she had discovered the outline of the plot: the time is Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) and the story is completely fictional. Zhang Ziyi plays a blind swordswoman, who has intricate relationship with two men played by Andy Lau and Jin Chengwu. Anita Mui will play Zhang Ziyi's big sister, a relative minor role in a key position.

According to Korean paper The Chosun Ilbo, Leung Chiu-Wai and Zhang Ziyi have signed up to play two leading roles in FIRE MOTH (translation). Budgeted at 7 billion Korean Won (US$6 million), it will tell a story of three members (Leung, Zhang and a top Korean actor) of a resistance force against the Japanese in 1910's Shanghai. According to the paper, China Film Group Corp., helped to lobby Leung and Zhang into the project, will cover two seventh of the budget and two Korean companies will pay for the rest. The production will be mainly handled by a Korean crew and the shooting will start in China March next year.

Stephen Chow has been talking to Jiefang Daily. He said shooting of KUNG FU (KUNG FU HUSTLE) will last at least four month in Shanghai and all CG effects would be done overseas. Sony, financed the film, will decide when we will see it and according to Stephen Chow, this will not happen until the coming Chinese New Year, at least.

(Left) Zhang Ziyi plays Mo from the 1930's. (Nanfang Daily) (Mid) Jiang Wen plays Mr. Meng, Mo's boyfriend (G-Film.com) (Right) Zhang Ziyi and Lu Yi, played a couple, Li and Zou Jie in the 1950's (Jiefang Daily) For more, click here and here.

The video was shot on a set of a 1930's movie set, where Mo (played by Zhang Ziyi) became a movie star. Director Hou Yong received an on-set interview.

Click here (NetandTV.com)

Stephen Chow with an axe wired in the air.	Stephen Chow was tortured along with a big guy.                                        Jiefang Daily

Photographer from Shanghai's Jiefang Daily has snapped more shots on the set of Stephen Chow's KUNG FU (KUNG FU HUSTLE). This time the shooting took place inside an old factory house at the northeast corner of the city and lasted two full nights. The scene is something like Stephen Chow's character and a big guy getting caught by the bad guys, probably the Axe Gang, and being rescued later.

More shots: A, B, C, D, E, F, G

During the press conference right before the Beijing première, Jackie Chan said he would make a pure drama next year. In his own word, he "won't do even one punch." Jackie Chan said he had always tried to keep improving himself and had talked to several art film directors, like Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou. He had reached an agreement with Zhang Yimou - they will do it once the script is ready (not the one he will do next year).

See Jackie Chan on the press conference, click here, here and here.

Top: the news conference (Sina.com)   Right: promotions stills (EMG)

Jackie Chan and co-star Christy Chung  attended the Beijing première tonight.

More coverage on the film

Jackie Chan has attended the première of THE MEDALLION last night in Hong Kong. After more than two years since the camera started rolling, after being shrunken 23%, and after loads of hours spent on the special effects, this Hong Kong made Jackie Chan film tailored for the American market is finally coming to theaters near us.

More pictures: Yahoo! News  Sina.com

More coverage on THE MEDALLION

Andy Lau said the film is not based on the real history and his character will be a cop, in the ancient time. He said it will be an art film and he will get to do some emotional scenes. Several actress will be involved in the production and one of them is Zhang Ziyi. The production will start by the end of the year and will last about 6 months. Andy Lau has started practicing the skill of "knife" (sword with long and curved blade).

He told these to the press yesterday in Hong Kong at a news conference, in which INFERNAL AFFAIRS has been officially selected as the sole contender representing Hong Kong to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the upcoming Academy Awards. It is also announced that three Hong Kong made crime drama, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, HEROIC DUO and PTU, will be shown during the Asian Film Festival in Iran starting October 20th.

Take a look at these two reports by Kung Fu Cinema (here and the follow-up), and tell me has MiramAxe ever had a strategy or not.

Thanks to Mark Pollard, Lisa Clemens, Marie M and Dustin Hsu

"The first cut of THE MEDALLION (Chinese title: DRAGON RESURRECTION) is 116 minute long with over 400 CG shots, and now the (final) cut is only 89 minute long with over 300 CG shots," director Gordon Chan told Nanfang Daily. An alternative plan of releasing two versions, a longer Asian version and a shorter the-rest-of-the-world version, was initiated but later abandoned. As the result, the entire world will have to watch the shorter version preferred by Sony Pictures and tailored for the North American market. Gordon Chan said, "this is the result of seeking business interest. Shortening the length of movies has become a trend in Hollywood. A shorter movie means more frequent screening and more audiences. (Editorial note: it also means we have to sit and watch more pre-show ads.) They (executives of Hollywood studios) now demand kung fu movies to be refined and simple, no complexity, and not only letting the audiences entertained, but also causing them to feel they need more (Editorial note: open a door for a sequel by the end of a movie - yet another trend in Hollywood)." Even though, Gordon Chan still believed quality of the film did not suffer. He said, "this is the first Hong Kong made big budget production aimed at the international market, and is also the first film blends Jackie Chan's kung fu with cinematic special effects. (I) believe the fans will love it."

More coverage on THE MEDALLION

The official emblem of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was unveiled last night at the historical Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Several pieces of music composed for HERO by Tan Dun were used as the background music during one segment of the celebration gala helmed by HERO's director Zhang Yimou. A short film promoting the emblem, also directed by Zhang Yimou, was shown last night at China's CCTV. Zhang Yimou has volunteered to direct the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and he is willing to give up directing movies for two or three years if he gets the job. However, it is still to early to seal the deal for him. During an interview with CCTV, he said, "my next movie will go into production soon."

Click here for more.

According to Chinese media, the world première of THE MEDALLION will be held at The Great Hall of the People, where the National People's Congress (the parliament) meets. THE MEDALLION will be the second movie premièred inside the building, only after HERO. This Jackie Chan movie was originally scheduled for a release on both side of the Pacific starting August 15 and two months ago Sony Pictures pushed the North American date back for a week. With lobbying by Jackie Chan, Sony agrees to keep the Asian date unchanged.

According to an article posted on indieWIRE written by Anthony Kaufman, HERO "won't get released in the U.S. until next year, according to Miramax." This is not shocking news, not at all. MiramAxe and Harvey and Bob have shown their greedy for profit long long time ago. They feel more confidence on selling videos from Shaw Brothers' library, to what they called niche market. SHAOLIN SOCCER, which has been scheduled for showing in theaters across North America, could be seen as another "bold" attempt of testing the water bigger than the niche market. But, the core of it, the die-hard martial-art fans, are less enthusiastic about seeing the mutilated Miram-axed version on the big screen. HERO, which is more stylish, more artistic and more Eastern, has scared the scissorhands of MiramAxe. Afraid of receiving a bad box-office report and still thinking about getting the tens million dollar investment back, MiramAxe has, once again, pushed HERO back

Article: Chasing the Dragon: Are Foreign Martial Arts Movies Making a Comeback?, by Anthony Kaufman

Thanks to "Bad Link" and anonymous

PURPLE BUTTERFLY (ZI HU DIE)

Shanghai, 1931, the dawn of Japanese invasion. Ding Hui (Zhang Ziyi) is a member of Purple Butterfly, a secret organization violently against the Japanese infiltration. Unexpectedly, her ex-lover Itami (Nakamura Tooru), now a Japanese spy assigned to track down Purple Butterfly has arrived...

MY DREAM GIRL (PAO ZHI NÜ PENG YOU)

A wealthy business man returns to Shanghai and finds his long-lost daughter Zhang Ning (Zhao Wei). He hired an expert ((Ekin Cheng), sort of, to train her to a well-behaved girl...

LOVE UNDERCOVER 2: LOVE MISSION (MEI LI REN WU)

Officer Fong Lai-Kuen (Yeung Chin-Wah) got a new assignment - in charge of the safety of Princess Tasah of a small country, who is visiting Hong Kong. She brings the princess home got her husband very upset. But protecting the princess is only the beginning of her adventure...

Other Releases:

DISTANCE (Japan)

FINDING NEMO (USA)

EL HIJO DE LA NOVIA (Spain)

IRON LADIES 2 (Thailand)

KEN PARK (USA)

LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE

CRADLE OF LIFE (USA)

THE MISSING GUN (China / mainland)

PEEPING TOM (1960 / USA)

LE SOUFFLE (France)

SPIDER (UK)

MY DREAM GIRL (PAO ZHI NÜ PENG YOU)

A wealthy business man returns to Shanghai and finds his long-lost daughter Zhang Ning (Zhao Wei). He hired an expert ((Ekin Cheng), sort of, to train her to a well-behaved girl...

Click here for more

BLESS THE CHILD (MOU NIAN MOU YUE MOU RI)

Boni (Paulyn Sun), art director of an advertising agency, is accused of plagiarizing and fired immediately. When wakes up in the morning, she discovers it is another yesterday, the day she gets fired, then another yesterday, then another yesterday... Sam day by same day, she is getting closer to the one leaking her creation to the competitor and better relationship with her colleagues... Click here for more.

AI HUO HUA

A traumatized girl is getting help from people running a small restaurant called Paradise... Click here for more.

HEROIC DUO (SHUANG XIONG)

A police officer (Ekin Cheng) dragged into a diamond heist by a mind-controller (Leon Lai). He escapes from jailhouse in order to catch the mind-controller, a psychiatrist worked for the police before. Soon he discovers the psychiatrist is not the mastermind...

KUNGFU KID (YE MAN XIA ZI)

Raised in the mountain, a wild young kid met a young girl from the city, and here goes the story...

Other Releases:

BELOW (USA)

CONFIDENCE (USA)

RAHUL