Feng Xiaogang’s Epic YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Ready for Production (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 31, 2005

Director Feng Xiaogang	Zhang Ziyi	Ge You	Daniel Wu	Zhou Xun	Huang Xiaoming	Ma Jingwu
(HTF, Beijing New Picture Films.)

The four-month preproduction of Feng Xiaogang’s epic Ye Yan (literal title: The Night Banquet) will finish soon. Shooting will begin earlier next month in Arxan of northeastern China. This project will a reunite for four tallents from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – female lead Zhang Ziyi, action director Yuen Wo-Ping, production designer Tim Yip and composer Tan Dun.

Among about 20 sets Tim Yip designed, the one for the “Night Banquet” is the biggest. It is an interior of a place which is about 12000 square meters large, the size of a football field. Another set will be built in the “Bamboo Sea” of Zhejiang Province, which has been featured in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. According to Yip’s plan, a pond will be dug in the bamboo forest and water will come from a nearby reservoir. A city wall and a stone bridge, over a hundred meter long, is built on the location in Altay Mountains. A palace compound will be built on top of a waterfalls digitally. There will be a war scene with 500 actors and extras. Yip has also designed many lavish props, including hundreds of meters high bronze lanterns and a “phoenix cart” for the queen. With so much designs to realize, cost of the project has soared to US$20 million.

Composer Tan Dun just completed the theme song after two months of hard work. It will be sung by Mongolian Chinese singer Tenger and Zhou Xun, the 2nd female lead. There is another piece of music is even performed by rock and drum. The dance scene is choreographed by Wang Yuanyuan, who did the ballet version of Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern.

Actor Fu Biao Died at 42 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 30, 2005

He rarely took leads in movies but dozens of small roles he played on the big and the small screen made him a very well known comedian in China. Fu Biao was born in 1963 in a military compound in Beijing. He attended Beijing Film Academy and worked for two troupes after graduation. His first movie deal was playing a small role in director Zhang Yimou’s Shanghai Triad. In 1997, he played another small roll in director Feng Xiaogang’s comedy The Dream Factory, which brought him instant fame. In the next seven years, he continuously to play small but noticeably roles in such film as Mei Wan Mei Liao, A Sign, Big Shot's Funeral, Happy Times, Cell Phone and A World Without Thieves, all by Feng Xiaogang except Happy Times, which was directed by Zhang Yimou. Fu Biao received liver transplant twice but still died from liver canner this morning in Beijing.

Poster: wait till you're older / tong meng qi yuan (G-Film)

August 29, 2005

(Media Asia)

Starring Andy Lau, the film tells a little boy wants to grow older quickly at accidentally gets his wish fulfilled.

See Andy Lau Getting Old in TONG MENG (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) August 15, 2005

Andy Lau to Experience Quick Aging in TONG MENG (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) March 28, 2005

China's 11th Huabiao Awards (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 28, 2005

Zhang Ziyi (R) and Zhao Wei (L). (Sina.com)

Winners of the 11th edition of the government-endorsed Huabiao Awards have been announced at a grand ceremony tonight in Beijing.

Outstanding Directors - Lu Chuan (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol), Yin Li (Zhang Side)

Outstanding Producers - Zhang Weiping, Han Sanping

Outstanding Actors - Pu Cunxin (Yi Lun Ming Yue), Wu Jun (Zhang Side)

Outstanding Actresses - Zhang Ziyi (House of Flying Daggers), Zhao Wei (A Time to Love)

Making-of Featurette : PERHAPS LOVE (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 27, 2005

(Stellar Megamedia)

A short making-of featurette was released on the net yesterday. In this musical by Hong Kong director Peter Chan, mainland Chinese actress Zhou Xun plays a movie star who is cast as the lead in a musical set in the old Shanghai and unexpectedly, the male lead (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and the director (Jacky Cheung) are two men from her past. The film is on the "Out of Competition" list of the upcoming Venice Film Festival and is expected to be shown as the closing film. Peter Chan said because there was very little time left, he would not be able to finish all special effects on time and the one to be screened in Venice would be a work-in-progress. To make a theatrical cut, he would definitely do some modification, at least some technical modification, on the Venice version.

Opening This Week: August 20 -26 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 26, 2005

Actor Guo Zhenqing Died at 78 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 26, 2005

He is basically unknown to the world outside the mainland China but in his home country, the older generations remember him as “Li Xiangyang”, a brave and smart guerrilla leader he played in Ping Yuan You Ji Dui (Guerilla fighters of the Field), which was released 50 years ago. Guo Zhenqing was born in Tianjin City in 1927. At 17, he began working on street cars as a ticket seller. After the communist troops took his city 5 years later, Li was sent to a cadre school. Upon graduation, he was sent to the troupe run the city’s labor union. In 1952, Guo played a longshoreman in Liu Hao Men (Gate No. 6). In the next three decades, he was involved in the making of dozen films. Because of his looking, the roles offered to him were either members of the working class or communist cadres. Guo Zhenqing died two days ago in his hometown Tianjin.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA Japanese Trailer Online Now (Movies.co.jp)

August 25, 2005

Toronto International Film Festival Lineup (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 25, 2005

Perpetual Motion	Shanghai Dreams	Sunflower	The Wild Wild Rose	Dam Street	Brokeback Mountain
				?
Three Times	SPL	Seven Swords	The Myth	Be with Me	The Wayward Cloud
(Beijing Happy Village, Shanghai Film Studios, Beijing Film Studios, Panorama Entertainment, Laurel Films, Focus Features, ?, ABBA Movies Company Limited, Mandarin Films, JCE, EMP, KingNet.com.tw).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

Perpetual Motion / Wu Qiong Dong

Directed by Ning Ying; starring Xu Huang, Li Qinqin, Liu Suola, Zhang Hanzhi.

A wife invited three women, who she suspects having affairs with her husband, for a chat at home.

 

Shanghai Dreams / Qing Hong

Directed by Wang Xiaoshuai; starring Gao Yuanyuan, Li Bin, Qin Hao, Yan Anlian, Wang Xueyang.

A school girl enjoys her first taste of forbidden love while her father tries to bring the family back to Shanghai.

Trailer   Stills   Special page from Cannes Film Festival official site

 

Sunflower / Xiang Ri Kui

Directed by Zhang Yang; starring Sun Haiying, Joan Chen.

Trailer 1   Trailer 2

Classic Actor Li Wei Died at 86 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

August 25, 2005

Chinese actor Li Wei died in Shanghai August 21. Li Wei was born in 1919 with the birth name Li Zhiyuan. In 1938, 19 year old Li Wei joined the state-run Central Motion Picture Corporation and 2 years later he starred in Chang Kong Wan Li (Expansive Sky), a film about resisting the Japanese aggression. In 1948 he played Zhang Zhichen in Xiao Cheng Zhi Chu (Spring in a Small Town), which has been praised as the best Chinese film of all time. In 1950, a year after the Chinese Communist Party took over the country, Li played a supporting role in Wo Zhe Yi Bei Zi (This Life of Mine), which recalls the history of China in the first half of the 20th century through the eyes of a Beijing policeman. In 1963, he took the lead in Fei Da Hua (Flying Dagger Hua), a very rare martial-film made in the mainland China during the 1960s. Like most filmmakers in the mainland China, Li was not able to play in any film during the Culture Revolution (1966 - 1976). From 1979 to 1990, Li starred in 12 movies, with all supporting roles except for Mei You Hang Biao De He Liu (The River without Navigation Marks), which heavily criticizes the Culture Revolution. In 1990, Li Wei played a supporting role in director Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou, which was his last film.