February 29, 2004

****

Nuan is a beautiful rural girl who has been loved by three men, but despite their promises, only one of them is really capable of offering her everlasting comfort.

Jing He (Guo Xiaodong), a government employee from Beijing, returns to his home village to take care of some business for his old school teacher. On a small bridge, he reunites with his first love Nuan (Li Jia), now a lame housewife married to "the dumb (Teruyuki Kagawa)" and with a five year old daughter. Already has a family of his own, Jing He cannot help but thinking about the past. Jing He and Nuan are best friend since birth, but they never made it formal, something would not be allowed according to the tradition. When a local opera company makes a visit to their village, Nuan quickly falls in love with a young and handsome actor. By the time of his departure, the actor promises to come back and make her an actress in the provincial capital. He never did. Nuan rediscovers love on Jing He and their relationship finally becomes an open secret. Suddenly a rope swing accident makes Nuan permanently limped and her dream of becoming an actress irreversibly crashed. Soon after, Jing He gets admitted by a university in Beijing, which usually means he would be able to start living in the cities, some opportunity rarely offered to citizens of the countryside. Jing He promises that he will come back for Nuan, but as his life drastically changes, something really inevitable, neither one of them is willingly to continue their relationship. Then the dumb (the only name he is referring to) jumps into Nuan's life and warms up her broken heart.

Click here for the full article

February 29, 2004

In the month of Valentine, love is the dominating subject.

Click here for 14 movies released in February.

KILL BILL Vol. 2 Posters (Impawards.com)

Internet Movie Poster Awards (impawards.com) has the most complete collection of Kill Bill Vol. 2 posters. Some of them show the Chinese translation of the title -  "Murder Bill" rather than "Kill Bill".

Shots Of Donnie Yen On Location Of THE TWINS EFFECT 2 (Donnieyen.com)

Donnie Yen and The Twins - Gillian Chung  (left) and Charlene Choi (right).	Donnie Yen and a member of the wire team (front).	Donnie Yen leads the rebelling tribesmen against the "Women's Empire".	An all-female troop. (Donnieyen.com)

Donnieyen.com has posted several exclusive photos taken on the Yunnan location of The Twins Effect 2.

Click here for more

(Thanks to Kington Jiang)

Hong Kong Film Critics Associated has released the nomination list for the 9th Golden Bauhinia Awards yesterday. Winners will be announced Sunday, March 28.

Click here

(Thanks to Daniela for reminding me)

See The Twins In THE TWINS EFFECT 2 (Tom.com)

A few production stills were distributed to the media by the production studio, EMG. The outdoor filming has wrapped up in Yunnan Province.

(Thanks to Marie M)

Snapshots From The Yunnan Location Of THE TWINS EFFECT 2 (Various)

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Gillian Chung and Fong (Chan) Cho-Ming

(Thanks to Marie M)

JASMINE FLOWER (MO LI HUA KAI) Stills (New Cinema Magazine / Movie View Biweekly Look Magazine)

New Cinema Magazine / Movie View Biweekly Look Magazine

(Thanks to the anonymous reader for the stills.)

In this "action comedy" directed by Li Xin, John Lone plays a low-end village administrator, who comes out an ambitious idea to get the girl, played by Coco Lee, - making a martial-art epic of his own...

More: A B C D E F

**

Silver Hawk had many promises - a Michelle Yeoh martial-art film with hi-tech action and some comedy relief in a futurist setting. However, trying to appeal everyone is usually a mission impossible, as being demonstrated here.

Wong Lulu (Michelle Yeoh) is a single rich girl who inherited a great amount of money, which allows her to do anything but having a real job. She has been enjoyed beating up men for fun since her elementary years and growing up, she became Silver Hawk, a masked superheroine, to take on all baddies, and of cause, most of them are men. The police force, greatly embarrassed by their works being done by Silver Hawk, sends one of their man Rich (Richie Ren), happens to be Lulu's childhood friend, to catch her. Meanwhile, the main valiant (Luke Goss) comes out a plan of taking over the world by taking over everybody's mind...

Silver Hawk has a very standardized story with routine characters ready for action packing. This would be okay as long as the action is good - it's not. Setting for many fight sequences, like Michelle Yeoh battling a group of Bungee jumpers and later hockey players could be potentially exciting, but these scenes really suffer from shaky camera move and editing overkill, usually found in Hollywood made actions. This would be okay if the comedy works - it's not. It seems that no one from the cast really took her/his job seriously, except the kids played the younger version of Lulu and Rich.

According an unconfirmed source from the inside, number of cities for the scheduled March 26 release has been increased to ten. The plan came out last October is for limited release in New York, Los Angeles and possibly Toronto, and then extend it to other cities. It will still be subtitled, though edited somewhat, and any last minute change has been barred.

(Thanks to "L.C.")

According Hong Kong media, this is an 8 minute long gunfight sequence, made with over 20 firearms and hundreds of blank bullets and bullet hits. Cast of Da Shi Qing (Big Thing or Big Event) includes Richie Jen, Cheung Ka-Fai, You Yong, Kelly Chen and Hui Siu-Hung.

More images: A B C D

Zhang Ziyi has said her next project would be a musical by Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. Still untitled, the musical is based on a classical Japanese folklore about courage to love. She will spend three months in Japan for her role. However, we are still waiting for the final  confirmation on the deal. Zhang Ziyi has said two of her favorite films are Dancer In The Dark and Chicago, both are musicals. Seijun Suzuki is known for his highly stylized portraying of gang violence. Since the 1956, he has made more than 50 movies and a series of TV projects.

Moviehole.net reports Luc Besson is in talk for directing a remake of Seper Occultus, a "female driven spy movie" set in "Paris, London and South Africa" and dubbed as "a female James Bond." The rumored sequel to Leon is more likely referred to this one, according to the same report.

Click here for the original report by Moviehole.net

(Thanks to "Peter")

The North American date for Hero has been shifted from April 16 to "Summer 2004", according to MiramAxe's official site. MPAA has given Hero a "PG-13" for "stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality."

Official Hero site by MiramAxe

(Thanks to "Peter")

According to Nanfang Daily, Stephen Chow and his team secretly returned to Shanghai to get make shots. During the postproduction, some shots were found less satisfiable, and fixing these shots with computer would be too costly.

Donnie Yen (right) and Leung Kar-Fai (left).	Leung Kar-Fai (right).	Charlene Choi (left) and Gillian Chung (right).
Photocome, Oriental Daily

Reporters were invited to the set on Saturday. They witnessed the filming of two scenes. The first one is Donnie Yen and Leung Kar-Fai leading their people to charge on the imperial troop and the the second one is a fight scene with Charlene Choi (left) and Gillian Chung, The Twins actually. According to Yangcheng Evening News, the fight scene with Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen will be shot with blue or green screen at in Guangzhou. Waterfalls will be inserted in digitally. Donnie Yen said the scene would last 15 to 20 minutes.

Gillian Chung tried out the wires.

Charlene Choi

Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung:  A B

Chen Bo-Lin (the guy showing "V" sign

(Thanks to Marie M for most images)

So far there have been three versions Hero's North American release date. The first one is "April 16", claimed by many sites, including the official site of MiramAxe; the second one is "June", from a message posted on the board of Hollywood Stock Exchange; and the third one is "August", according to Men's Journal. Jet Li is ranked no. 20 of "The 25 Toughest Guys in America" and the magazine claims that Hero will arrive in American theaters in August. However, this could be a mistake, because August has been assigned to Infernal Affairs by MiramAxe.

Original report by Men's Journal

(Thanks to "Bad Link")

****

A little girl's quest for her true love, which may only exist in her fantasized world. Baober In Love starts as a romantic comedy, then received some fantasy treat, and then turns darker through the end.

Baober (Zhou Xun) is a little girl grows up along with the modernization of China. Her body shows she is already a woman, but her mind still remains in a child's world. She routinely runs away from home, not because her parents do not love her, but because of her curiosity for perfect life she thinks she could find in the outside world. She needs a father and she really finds one - a lonely retired professor only lives with his huge collection of literature books from around the world. And, after watching a video she discovered in the street, Baober concludes the man, complaining about his unhappy marriage in the video, is her perfect match. She starts following the man, Liu Zhi (Huang Jue), a young white-collar, and harassing his wife, who has been cheating on her husband for over a year. Eventually, Liu Zhi falls for Baober, something he has dreaming about for a long time. However, Baober is eager for a simple and romantic life but Liu Zhi could not resist the life provided by materialistic world. Haunted by the traumas from childhood, Baober runs away. Liu Zhi, after getting Baober back from a young boy in wheelchair (Chen Kun), starts trying to understand her world. But, Baober's memory of the past and her passionate idea about the future finally make her vanishes from his life forever.

Continues

According to Shanghai Morning Post, Chinese actress Gong Li will be involved in the filming of 2046 in Shanghai later this month. If the rumor turned out to be true, it would be the first time ever Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Dong Jie work together in the same project. All three of them started their big-screen career with director Zhang Yimou.

(Thanks to "L.C.")

According to a massage "D. Mac (aka 'Antibody')" posted on Hollywood Stock Exchange, MiramAxe has picked a new month for Hero - June, leaving Arial 16 only for Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Click here for the original massage

(Thanks to "Paul")

Andy Lau-in-muscle-suit action, Running On Karma, rounded up 13 nominations, two Infernal Affairs se/prequel, collectively, received 19 nods in 12 categories, and both director Johnny To and actress Cecillia Cheung received double nominations.

Click here for the complete list

Official website (not updated)

February 12, 2004

February 11, 2004

February 10, 2004

February 9, 2004

February 8, 2004

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Light up the firecrackers, part of the opening ceremony

Cast of the love rectangle - (from left to right) Gillian Chung, Chan Cho-Ming, Chen Bo-Lin and Charlene Choi

Chan Cho-Ming and Chen Bo-Lin

February 7, 2004

According to Beijing Youth Daily, shooting of The Twins Effect 2 has begun today in Yunnan Province. There are, at least, two plotlines in the story. One line is about the characters played by The Twins - Charlene Choi plays a pimp who catches men to be slaves and Gillian Chung plays a protector of the Queen. Along with Chan Cho-Ming and Chen Bo-Lin, they form a love rectangle. The other line is a sort of triangle among two princess and a man. The younger sister, played by Qu Ying, seduces the lover (Daniel Wu) of her sister, also played by Qu Ying, in order to stop her sister's quest for the throne. The elder sister, eventually becomes the Queen, starts hating all men and even tries using spell to change all men to women. To win back her love, the man is willing do anything, even to become a eunuch.

February 6, 2004

Click here for the the trailer

The official site will be available here

(Thanks to Brian Crounse, Thierry, Marie M and Lisa C.)

February 5, 2004

Jackie Chan told Hong Kong reports that he would not show up in The Twins Effect 2 because he did not want to overshadow his song Chan Cho-Ming. Accompanied by his mother Lin Feng-Jiao, Chan Cho-Ming has been practicing spear skills in Luliang County of Yunnan province and 700 hundred extras have been hired for the filming, which will begin in a few days, according to Yuannan Information, a local newspaper.

(Thanks to Marie M for part of the story)

February 4, 2004

February 3, 2004

Built at a soundstage of Beijing Film Studios, this the set of a brothel (?), where Zhang Ziyi's character works as a dancer / singer.

February 2, 2004

MTV France has shown the trailer, or maybe just part of the trailer, of Danny The Dog in the last part of the report:

Hi Lo (Real)

The page by MTV.fr

Here is the translation of the original report in French (thanks to Amashu):

“MTV Buzz presents in preview the trailer of the next film produced by Luc Besson (EuropaCorp), "Danny The Dog" with Jet Li and Morgan Freeman. With in addition the soundtrack realized by Massive Attack. After Pharrell Williams ("Taxi") and Archive ("Michel Vaillant"), the studios of Besson announced to the Midem the signature of Massive Attack for the original motion picture soundtrack of "Danny The Dog". The recording will be done next February in Normandie, at the Digital Factory studios. The movie is likely to be released before September."

February 2, 2004

Associated Press reports "in August, Chan is to begin shooting the third in the 'Rush Hour' series in France, Germany and Russia."

Click here for the original report

Thanks to Bad Link

February 2, 2004

This is an old news and might be a good one for fans in Europe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Focus Features has acquired the rights to Shi Mian Mai Fu for European market, except UK, back in October last year. Focus Features is an art-house type division of Universal Pictures. It is still known which studio will handle the distribution in the English speaking countries.

Click here for the original report by The Hollywood Reporters.

February 1, 2004

A wealthy girl fights crimes with a silver mask, a policeman can't find his true love, a cinderella finds a magic lamp, a woman is hired to be a little girl's mother, curse and love are discovered in the kitchen, a family house sinks because there is some treasure buried in beneath, and a guy has to kidnapped four people to save the life of his kidnapped fiancée.

Click here for 7 movies released in January.