September 30, 2005

Actor Director Jiang Wen Plans His Third Directorial Effort - THE SUN RISES AGAIN (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 30, 2005

Opening This Week: September 24 - 30 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 30, 2005

DRAGON SQUAD Official Site with A Trailer (DragonSquad.hk)

September 29, 2005

Camera Stars Rolling for Andy Lau's STRATÉGE (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 28, 2005

Andy Lau to Star in Two Period Films - STRATÉGE and ZHAO ZILONG (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 2, 2005

THE PROMISE, PERHAPS LOVE and THE WAYWARD CLOUD To Make Oscar Bid (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 27, 2005

Three Teaser Poster Designs for Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE / WU JI (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 26, 2005

(China Film Group)

More about Wu Ji / The Promise

Donnie Yen's DRAGON AND TIGER GATE Will Go into Production This Fall (DonnieYen.net)

September 26, 2005

More Shots from the Opening Ceremony of Feng Xiaogang's YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET (Sohu.com)

September 25, 2005

Ge You and Zhang Ziyi play the Emperor and the Empress.	Zhang Ziyi	(L to R): Zhou Xun, production designer Tim Yip, Zhang Ziyi and director Feng Xiaogang.
(HTF)

Cast List for Feng Xiaogang's THE NIGHT BANQUET Announced (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 19, 2005

EVERLASTING REGRET / CHANG HEN GE Official International Site (Everlasting-Regret.com)

September 24, 2005

The 62nd Venice Film Festival Opens (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) September 1, 2005

The Aged Andy Lau in WAIT TILL YOU'RE OLDER / TONG MENG QI YUAN (Sina.com)

September 23, 2005

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

Stills: Peter Chan's Musical PERHAPS LOVE (Sina.com / Tome.com)

September 23, 2005

(Thanks to Michael Ji for his contribution to this story.)

Opening This Week: September 17 - 23 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 23, 2005

Feng Xiaogang's YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Held Opening Ceremony in Beijing (Sina.com)

September 22, 2005

WU JI / THE PROMISE Official Site by Sina.com (Sina.com)

September 22, 2005

More Production Stills of Jet Li's Huo Yuanjia Biopic - FEARLESS (Sina.com)

September 21, 2005

More Reviews from Toronto Festival (Sina.com)

September 21, 2005

More Reviews from Toronto Festival (Twitch)

September 20, 2005

SPL	Seven Swords	Everlasting Regret
(ABBA Movies Company Limited, Mandarin Films, Shanghai Film Group Corp.)

SPL: A B C

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA North American Trailer (Yahoo!)

September 19, 2005

Actually, this one is virtually identical to the Japanese trailer released last month.

Xu Jinglei's DAYS WITHIN THE PALACE Gets Ready for Production (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 19, 2005

According to The Beijing News, production of woman director Xu Jinglei's historical drama Gong Li De Ri Zi (literal title: Days within the Palace) is expected to being this December and will end in May next year. Now she is getting ready to capture the first snow fall of Beijing on film. The production will also take place in Shanxi Province, CCTV's production studio in Zhuozhou of Hebei Province and Hengdian World Studios of Zhejiang Province. The epic film will tell the story of Empress Wu Zetian (624 - 705), the only female monarch in Chinese history. Xu will play the empress, the role which was turned down by Zhang Ziyi due to her schedule conflict.  The film is produced by Beijing-based private-own Taihe Media.

Reviews from Toronto Festival (...)

September 18, 2005

Trailers: SUNRISE, SUNSET (Sina.com)

September 17, 2005

Promotional Stills of Chen Kaige's WU JI / THE PROMISE (Sina.com / QQ.com / AllMov.com)

September 16, 2005

Opening This Week: September 10 - 16 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 16, 2005

The Creation of YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 15, 2005

Tim Yip's costume design: (L to R) The Emperor, The Empress and The Crown Prince.
(The Beijing News)

Beijing local newspaper The Beijing News just published a series of exclusive reports on the preproduction of director Feng Xiaogang’s Ye Yan (literal title: The Night Banquet).

The role of Empress Wan was originally a mid-age woman, specifically wrote for Gong Li. After Gong turned it down due to schedule conflict, it eventually went to Zhang Ziyi. The role was also changed from the mother of the crown prince to the step-mother of the crown prince, who is even younger than the prince. Zhang Ziyi once prepared to do only one film this year, Memoirs of a Geisha, because she would be busy on the doing the film's post-production and promotion for the rest of the year. But the project was so interesting and she persuaded her agent to let her take the role. The Empress was once married to the previous emperor and after her husband was killed by the new emperor, she remarried to the murderer just for protecting the life of hers and the crown prince's, but she is also motivated by the greed for power.

The Making of Jackie Chan's THE MYTH (Sina.com / CCTV)

September 14, 2005

(JCE, EMP)

China's CCTV just aired a special program covering the making of Jackie Chan's newest flick They Myth. The clip also contains a very short interview of Klaus Badelt,  the composer of Wu Ji / Promise. Chan recently said he might quit doing more on-screen actions in five years and by then he might start producing action movies, low-budget movies and documentaries. He also wanted to create more opportunities for young directors and stunt actors.

 

Click here for the clip.

 

More about The Myth

More about Wu Ji / The Promise

Production Stills of Jet Li's Huo Yuanjia Biopic - FEARLESS (Sina.com)

September 13, 2005

Scores of Chen Kaige's WU JI / THE PROMISE Get a Concert Ahead of Release (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 12, 2005

Poster: Andy Lau's wait till you're older / tong meng qi yuan (Media Asia / QQ.com)

September 11, 2005

(Media Asia)

In this fantasy story, a 12 year old boy hates his family because he thinks his father and his stepmother are responsible for the death of his birth mother. He wants to grow up quicker and asks help from a mad scientist. With a bottle of lotion made by the scientist, the boy grows to a handsome young man over night. He starts dating one of his teachers and discovers how his mother really died. Now he wants to be 12 again and badly needs another bottle of lotion to change him back. But he is already well over 80 and it seems his time is running out...

Venice Golden Lion Goes to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, Hail to Ang Lee (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 10, 2005

Ang Lee's Brokebakc Mountain, about a love story between two cowboys set in the American west, has captured the Gold Lion for Best Film tonight at the closing ceremony of the 62nd Venice Film Festival. 12 years ago, Ang Lee another work with gay subject matter, The Wedding Banquet, won the Gold Berlin Bear. In the short film catagory, Xiao Zhan (Small Station) by Taiwanese director Lin Chien-Ping wins the Citroën Short Super-Short Lion for Best Short Film. Outside the official awards, Young woman director Li Yu's Dam Street, about a young mother's twisted love of his son, is presented with the C.I.C.A.E Award and Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan Everlasting Regret, about a Shanghai woman's bitter story in the 20th, is given the C.I.C.A.E Award for Art Exchange (?).

Opening This Week: September 3 - 9 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 9, 2005

Trailer: Zhang Yuan's LITTLE RED FLOWERS / KAN SHANG QÜ HEN MEI (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 8, 2005

Based on the same name novel by Wang Shuo, Little Red Flower tells the stories of a group of kindergarteners in Beijing during the early 1960s. The film is directed by Zhang Yuan and co-produced by Marco Müller, the director of Venice Film Festival. The film did not make it to the Venice lineup and will shown at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival.

Michael Biehn Talks about His Experience with DRAGON SQUAD (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 7, 2005

During a video interview with Sina.com, Michael Biehn talked about his involvement in the shooting of Dragon Squad. In  the international production, he plays a criminal who comes to Hong Kong to revenge his brother but  the man being responsible for his brother's death is already in police custody. The criminal then kidnapped the man's brother as a bait. To catch the criminal, a team of six from the Interpol is sent to the city. The cast also includes Sammo Hung, Shawn Yue, Li Bingbing, Lawrence Chou, Xia Yu, Maggie Q, Huang Shengyi, Vanness Wu and Heo Jun-Ho. The movie is scheduled to be premièred in Hong Kong on board a luxury cruise ship this November and its rights for east Asia, North America and Europe have already been sold. 

Click here for the video. (The video is cut into ten parts. Click on the numbers below the screen to select.)

Shooting of Feng Xiaogang’s YE YAN / THE NIGHT BANQUET Begins (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 6, 2005

Filming of the historical drama has begun yesterday in Arxan of northeastern China. Shooting in this region mainly involves war scenes and is expected to last about ten days. No major cast member will participate in the shooting in Arxan and the rest of the film will be shot indoor north of Beijing.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the story of Ye Yan (The Night Banquet) is set in a chaotic era of China called Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, according to Shanghai Youth Daily. In a falling empire, the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Princess, the Minister and the General all have their own quests for the ultimate power. The Empress set up a secret coalition with the Princess and the Minister in attempt to take the throne for the Crown Prince, but her real goal is to take the power for herself, and the Crown Prince wants to use the Empress' plan for his own quest for the throne. The conflicts finally erupt at a night banquet, at which the Empress starts executing her plan of killing the Emperor and the Crown Prince takes the opportunity to finish off his own enemies...

John Woo Talks about THE BATTLE OF RED CLIFF (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 5, 2005

During an interview with Sina.com, John Woo briefly talked about his upcoming historical war drama The Battle of Red Cliff. The real Battle of Red Cliff occurred in 208, in which the Han Dynasty reached its final years and warlord Cao Cao just took control of the northern part of China after wiped out  other warlords in the North. He marched to the south in attempt to unify the entire empire. The relatively weak warlord Liu Bei was quickly defeated and was forced to run south. Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to meet warlord Sun Quan and set up a coalition against Cao Cao. Their combined force of about 50,000 men confronted with Cao Cao's army with tens thousands of men and a strong fleet In Red Cliff, across Long River (Yangtze River). In October, the coalition force launched a surprise attack with a small number of fireships. Under heavy wind, Cao Cao's battleships and camps along the shore was easily burnt to ashes, and Cao Cao was forced to retreat to the north. In Romance of Three Kingdoms, a 14th / 15th Century fiction by Luo Guanzhong, the Battle of Red Cliff is retold in a dramatized fashion. In the novel, Cao Cao is ambitious and treacherous, Liu Bei is kind but weak in will and mind, Zhuge Liang is extremely smart, and Zhou Yu is a young and arrogant commander consumed by his jealousy of Zhuge Lian's wisdom. The upcoming movie will be based on the novel but Woo wants to change something. Cao Cao will not be treacherous, Liu Bei will not be weak and Zhou Yu will not be jealous of anyone. Woo said the war epic will contain many large war scenes with much focus on the battle on Long River. He also said he was not interested in making people flying in midair in The Battle of Red Cliff and it would be laughable if it turned out to be a martial-art film.

Jackie Chan's THE MYTH: Final Trailer, The Theme Song, Final Posters and Wallpapers (Sina.com / G-film.com)

September 4, 2005

(JCE, EMP)

Final Trailer

Promotional Stills: Jackie Chan's THE MYTH (Sina.com)

September 3, 2005

Opening This Week: August 27 - September 2 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 2, 2005

The 62nd Venice Film Festival Opens (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)

September 1, 2005

Starring Sammi Cheng, Leung Ka-Wai and Hu Jun.

Initial D / Tou Wen Zi D