News Archives
December 2006
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News Archives |
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December 2006 |
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December 31, 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The year of 2006 is about to be over and the time to tell you my list of best Chinese language movies released in the year. Most people of world have never seen most of movies I am about to say. Also, the ranking does not means one is absolutely better than the others. Here we go:
1. Curse of the Golden Flower
An emperor runs his family like a clock. He orders his wide, whom he never loved, to take one dose of medicine for each hour she is awake, even though she is not ill. His favorite son, the crown prince, the only child he had with his deceased ex-wife, seems only interested in having an affair with his stepmother and a court maid. The middle prince, who loves his mother more than his father, is the best candidate for inheriting the empire. The emperor knows that. He would pass the job to his second son, but not before killing his mother, who is planning something very big. Zhang Yimou carefully tells us a story of how a family, already rots from the inside, collapses in just one night. What more can we ask for if Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li are on the screen together and Zhang Yimou turns the best from his brain into a vision wonder, which could suffocate your mind?
2. Crazy Stone
A precious stone is discovered in a toilet of a practically bankrupted craft factory. The factory's security chief, who is very upset about not becoming a cop, is assigned to guard the stone, which will be auctioned to save the factory, the only source of income for many people. Three thieves, who have never made much out of their crimes, see the stone as their chance of getting rich for real. A greedy real estate developer, who would like to collect the factory, hires a professional thief to steal the stone. 30 year old Ning Hao wrote and directed this probably most entertaining comedy ever comes out of China. This extravaganza is a real surprise, a movie fan made for other movie fans. Sure people may find it similar to a Guy Ritchie movie. But it is so enjoyable - so what? Nobody would think about that one day a movie can expose so many social problems in today's China in such a hilarious way. Millions of ordinary Chinese have enjoyed the movie. Even the premier ordered a private screen to get to know the misery of the bottom of the working class.
3. Exiled
Four hitmen arrive in Macao to meet the fifth man now quietly lives with wife. It turns out five of them once worked together in another job years ago in Hong Kong. Now they get together and each one has a mind of his own. Director Johnnie To is the man, maybe in only man (besides John Woo), who is capable of telling interesting stories about criminals, really really cool criminals and Exiled is really safe to be considered as another success story in Johnnie To's career. This one will probably never reach your local theaters. When you are searching it either in a DVD store or a web vendor, remember: make sure you get the Hong Kong version. The mainland Chinese version is really a shame.
4. Still Life
In a city is gradually flooded after the gigantic Three Georges Dam is built, a man arrives to look for his ex-"wife" he "purchased" and their 16 year old daughter and a woman arrives to look for his husband who has not contacted her for two years. The man finally meets his ex-wife and they decide to get married again and the woman asks for a devoice after realizing his husband is now living with another woman. Still Life surprisingly joined the competition of this year's Venice International Film Festival when the festival had already begun and several days later surprisingly captured the Golden Lion. A dam is being built and a town built over two thousand years ago disappears under water. Millions of people lose their homes and move to their new homes far away. Countless people are making a few hundred a month by turning their town into rubbles and a few others make millions by building a new town at high ground. Many great ironies could be found in this movie, if you could stand the slow drama.
5. Jasmine Women
In the 1930's Mo dreams about becoming a movie star and becomes the mistress of a studio manager. But an unplanned daughter makes ends her dream. In the 1950s, Li has a caring husband and an adopted daughter but Li's mind is slowly losing control. In the 1980s, Hua is pregnant but her husband decides to leave her for another woman. Cinematographer Hou Yong made his second directorial work. This is not an epic story about how China changes in the 20th Century but a small drama about four generations of women in an ordinary Shanghai family. Zhang Ziyi and Joan Chen, two great actresses, really make the movie work.
6. Courthouse on the Horseback
A judge, who almost reaches the age of retirement, a secretary, who is about to lose her job because of a newly introduced regulation, a young man, who just graduated from a law school. They travels to remote mountain villages to solve civil disputes. In the end, the young man runs away with his bride, the secretary finally retires and the judge continues the journey alone. Director Liu Jie makes a rare look at the life of the minority people living in remote mountains of southwestern China with this quiet and touching little drama shot in documentary style.
7. Little Red Flowers
A kindergarten in the 1960s Beijing, a young boy shows up and making himself fitting in is probably the biggest challenge he has ever faced. Director Zhang Yuan presented us an innocent story about the world of the kindergarteners, based on the semi-biographical novel by Beijing writer Wang Shuo. This is not a movie for kids, but rather something for the grownup to relive their childhood.
8. After This Our Exile
A gambling addicted father is the real trouble for his family of three. Mother decides to leave but the son wants to stay with his father, who has never recovered from his problems and turns his son to thief. After being silent for 17 years, Hong Kong New Wave director Patrick Tam makes a triumph return with his truly sad story, which is inspired by a true story Tam discovered in the 1990s.
9. Confession of Pain
A senior cop's father-in-law is brutally murdered and all evidences point to two jobless men. But his wife believes in something else and to get into the bottom of the truth, she hires a private detective, some once working for the senior cop. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak tell a story of gradually unfolding the unspeakable sad stories of two men, which in some sense, surpassed what they achieved with the Infernal Affairs trilogy.
10. Dog Bite Dog
A Cambodian young cold-blooded killer comes to Hong Kong to kill a local judge's wife and a redneck cop is in charge of solving the case. Two men clash and their struggle turns into a brutal game raw killing. Director Soi CHEANG makes sure this movie extremely violent while keeping the gory scenes as realistic as possible. This is not a movie everyone would enjoy but is definitely something some people will talk about years later.
The runner-up:
2 Become 1,
(Beijing New Picture Film Co., Focus Films, Milkyway Images, Xstream Pictures, Poly Hua Yi, China Film Group, Vision Films, Ar Port, Inc.) |
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GOING HOME Coming (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) | |||
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December 30, 2006 | |||
Written and helmed by Zhang Yang, the director of Sunflower, Quitting, Shower and Spicy Love Soup, Air (as stated in IMDB), Getting Home (according to the poster) or Falling Leaves Returning to the Root (the literal title) is a real story inspired black comedy about a farmer who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from his village. Without a penny in his pocket, he cannot afford to ship his friend home in the normal way. He meets many interesting people along road. On a bus, he tries to protect everyone from being robbed. He wins the robbers' respect but is kicked off the bus because bus passengers discover there is a dead man on bus. Some steals his money and he dresses his dead friend as a homeless to beg for money. He attends someone's funeral to get a free meal. A hooker is asked by him to give his decomposing dead friend a makeover. A landslide blocks his way and he did his best to help the villagers and becomes a local hero. When he finally reach the end his the journey, he finds out his dead friend's village has already been flooded to make a reservoir.Stills
Related Stories: Trailer: Zhang Yang's Black Comedy AIR (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) November 11, 2006 |
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Jackie Chan Needs Protégés for his Ten Projects (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) | |||
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December 28, 2006 | |||
Jackie Chan has an ambitious plan – recruiting one or several protégés in China to make ten movies in the next few years, according to Sina.com. Among the ten untitled movies, two of them will be directed by Jackie Chan and three of them will be released by August 8, 2008, the day the Beijing Olympic begins. Backed by Jackie Chan’s JCE China, Hong Kong's EMP, China Film Group, Beijing Forbidden City Film Co. and Beijing TV station, a TV contest will be held next week in China to search for the protégé or protégés. Jackie Chan said the right candidates must be young and good at martial-art. He will announce the project at a press conference tomorrow in Beijing. |
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THE DEPARTED Barred from Chinese Screens (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) | ||||
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December 27, 2006 | ||||
The Chinese press reports Martin Scorsese’ The Departed has been prohibited from being shown in mainland Chinese cinemas. An unidentified person told the press that the Chinese Film Bureau asked Warner Brothers to cut several dialogues involving some arm deal, some “sensitive subject” and several indecent words. Martin Scorsese refused and Warner Brothers backed his decision. The Departed is based on hit thriller Infernal Affairs, produced by Hong Kong’s Media Asia several years ago. As part of the remake deal, Media Asia acquired the distribution rights in Asia, including the mainland China. Media Asia submitted the movie to the Chinese Film Bureau for censorship review two months ago and hoped to collect at least US$6 million in China. However, the authority’s decide has not stopped ordinary Chinese from getting access to the movie. Various bootlegged copies have been available online shortly after it was release last fall and DVDs containing a Russian-originated print have hit the streets in China last month. Despite the Chinese government’s effort on cracking down piracy, the public’s strong interest in foreign movies of all sorts has helped keeping the pirating industry strong in the country of over one billion consumers. |
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PROTÉGÉ Stills - Daniel Wu as the Protégé (Sina.com) | ||||
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December 26, 2006 | ||||
Related Stories: PROTÉGÉ Stuffs (...) December 10, 2006 PROTÉGÉ Teaser Posters (Sina.com.cn) November 20, 2006
PROTÉGÉ Teaser Trailer
(Film Unlimited)
October
20, 2006
PROTÉGÉ Production Photos
(Oriental Daily / The Hong Kong Sun)
PROTÉGÉ Press Conference Photos from
Hong Kong
(Sina.com.cn / OriSun.com)
PROTÉGÉ Plot Summary
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) Andy Lau as a Drug Lord in PROTÉGÉ (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 12, 2006Andy Lau Gets PROTÉGÉ Heads to BOARDING GATE (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 18, 2006Peter Chan Talks Future Projects - PROTÉGÉ BLOOD BROTHER Remake and More of THE EYE Series (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) April 13, 2006 |
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Celestial Pictures to Remake Shaw Bros. FIVE DEADLY VENOMS and FLYING GUILLOTINE (...) |
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December 25, 2006 | |||||||
Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures recently announced that two projects to remake Five Deadly Venoms ( Wu Du) and Flying Guillotine (Xue Di Zi), produced by Shaw Brothers in the 1970s. Directed by The original Five Deadly Venoms is about a young protégé being ordered by his dying master to eliminate the evil ones among five of his previous protégés, known as the Five Deadly Venoms. Each of the Five Deadly Venoms has a lethal skill learned from a toxic animal. The young protégé has to identify and team up with the good one in order to defeat the other four. The story of the remake will be set in present days and the beautiful but lethal Spider Girl will join the all-male clan, replacing one of the original male characters. It will be written and directed by Kirk Wong (The Big Hit, Jackie Chan’s Crime Story). According to a previous report, Andy Lau may have been onboard as a financier and the cast may include Edison Chen, Maggie Q and Lau himself. Shooting would begin right after the Chinese New Year next spring.The original Flying Guillotine, directed Ho Meng-Hua, tells a fictional story of a young fighter rise against a killing team, which is frequently ordered by the evil emperor to eliminate people who may threaten the emperor. Members of the killing team use Flying Guillotines, capable of decapitating anyone from far distance. It will be written by Su Chao-Pin (Silk, Double Vision) and directed by Teddy Chen (Jackie Chan’s The Accidental Spy). Emi Wada (House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Ran) will be responsible for the costume. A separate report claims Chang Chen and Zhou Xun are being considered to play the male and female leads.
Celestial Pictures has restored and released many Shaw Brothers movie on DVD and these two remaking projects have been claimed by the studio as the first step to make a series of Shaw Brothers classics.
The original press article by Celestial Pictures.
Andy Lau to Remake Chang Cheh's Classic WU DU (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) October 9, 2006 |
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Hou Hsiao-hsien Will Shoot His First Martial-Art Project Next August? (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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December 24, 2006 | |||
According to the Taiwanese press, Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien is getting ready to shoot his first martial-art project Nie Yin Niang August next year. Hou announced the project about four years ago, and Shu Qi has committed to play the lead ever since. Based on a short story written in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), the story is about the a woman assassin called Nie Yin Niang, who can transform herself to other creatures. According to the source, this movie will feature lavish costume and sets, which may push the production cost over US$10 millions. Mainland Chinese writer A Cheng ( The Go Master, Springtime in a Small Town, The King of Chess, King of the Children) has completed the first draft of the script. Since 1980, Hou Hsiao-hsien has made almost twenty movies and most of them are about the life of ordinary people in Taiwan. Shu Qi starred in Hou's Millennium Mambo and Three Times. Ballon Rouge, Hou's latest and first project outside of Asia, about a French boy and his babysitter's adventure with a red balloon, is currently in post-production.
Related Story: Hou Hsiao-hsien Is Ready To Have A Taste Of Wuxia (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) May 30, 2002 |
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December 23, 2006 | |||||||
Ang Lee shot a scene at a cinema in Shanghai last week.
(Left) Tang Wei as Wang Jiazhi. (Mid) Director Ang Lee. (Right) A poster of Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion, release in 1941. The story of Suspicion is about a woman who thinks her husband may be planning to kill her and the story of Lust, Caution is about a young woman seducing a puppet government official and sending him into an assassination trap.
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PROTÉGÉ Stills (Sina.com) | |||||||||
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December 22, 2006 | |||||||||
Opium poppy flowers turn to unripe seed pods, the seed pods produce white milk-like juice, the juice is turned to dark-color raw opium, raw opium is boiled, baked and fermented to produce brown-color cooked opium, cooked opium is converted to heroin base, heroin base is purified to produce heroin of various forms, the heroin is then smuggled to much of the world and finally sold to millions of addicts to be absorbed by their bodies. There is the complete life-cycle of opium based drugs director Yee Tung-Shing and producer Peter Chan intend to exhibit in Protégé. Yee spent three years to gather information, from addicts to people in the industry, before he finally decided to make it earlier this year.
Daniel Wu plays Ah Lik, who has been the protégé and named successor of drug lord Brother Gwan (Andy Lau) for eight years. Gwan, who controls the entire heroin market of Hong Kong, has never told Ah Lik where the drug was manufactured and stored and has never let him meet other members of the ring. Until one day, Gwan decides to retire and begins telling Ah Lik everything he needs to know. Director Yee Tung-Shing is now in Chiang Mai of northern Thailand shooting a scene of Gwan introducing Ah Lik to a local drug cartel。
Director Yee Tung-Shing tries to fully reveal the chilling reality of drugs to warn people about the dangerousness of drugs. He said, “taking soft drugs is popular among today’s young people and most dangerously, one out ten persons, who are exposed to soft drugs, will probably go into the extreme and sink into the world of drugs.”
The stories of Protégé will be told in a format similar to that of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Andy Lau, Daniel Wu, Louis Koo, Anita Yuen and Zhang Jingchu portray five characters each plays a role in the world of drugs. Both director Yee Tung-Shing and producer Peter Chan have claimed Protégé would be a movie with no stars but actors. It will be released in Hong Kong, the mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore by mid-February.
Related Stories: PROTÉGÉ Stuffs (...) December 10, 2006 PROTÉGÉ Teaser Posters (Sina.com.cn) November 20, 2006
PROTÉGÉ Teaser Trailer
(Film Unlimited)
October
20, 2006
PROTÉGÉ Production Photos
(Oriental Daily / The Hong Kong Sun)
PROTÉGÉ Press Conference Photos from
Hong Kong
(Sina.com.cn / OriSun.com)
PROTÉGÉ Plot Summary
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) Andy Lau as a Drug Lord in PROTÉGÉ (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) July 12, 2006Andy Lau Gets PROTÉGÉ Heads to BOARDING GATE (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) June 18, 2006Peter Chan Talks Future Projects - PROTÉGÉ BLOOD BROTHER Remake and More of THE EYE Series (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) April 13, 2006 |
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