Take a look at these two posters. The on one the left is from License to Wed, a comedy released by Warner Brothers, and the one on the right is from Make Money or Love (bad English!), a comedy produced by an unknown Chinese studio. The "right" poster is made simply supper impose the heads of three leads over the "left" with some very awful Photoshop job.  This poster has been release on Sina.com and as what I have been told, every message mentions the poster is a stolen property has been quietly deleted. Sina is a Nasdaq-listed public company providing news and information services in China, is openly publishing pirated material and is trying to silence every word which points out the copyrights violation. What a shame!

In China, many makers of movies, TV shows or videos, have been openly denouncing piracy and calling people to buy legal products. However, some of them have been stealing from others for many years. A large number of TV shows contains shots and music took from other movies or TV shows with no authorization. That Japanese Zero from the Pearl Harbor poster, have appeared on countless posters and DVD covers of movies about almost every modern wars.

Even though China has signed many international treaty against piracy and has launched many movement to crackdown bootlegged DVDs and illegal downloads, intellectual property is sill highly exposed for stealing. The legal system in the country is very inefficient and ineffective. Many government agencies are responsible for watching for piracy in various sectors but the actions they often take only limited to collecting a small amount of fines from the violators. The property owners could sue the thieves but the compensations they can get are often not enough to cover their real loses and legal expenses. Action on piracy is also heavily focusing on confiscating DVDs and books from the street and steamrolling them under public eyes. The agencies have little interest in investigating violations took place of the street. People are so used to buying pirated products mainly because they only cost them a very small amount of fortune and legal products are not available. Piracy is so common that often an individual or a company feels nothing while stealing, even though it is considered illegal by the law in China.

This scene shows, in Invisible Target, a bad guy kicking the asses of three Hong Kong cops. the guy is played by Wu Jing, who actually kicks ass in real life, because he shared the same couch with Jet Li. Three three extremely unlucky cops are played by Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Jaycee Chan. This actioner, directed by Benny Chan, is due to be released in Hong Kong and other Asian cities Thursday next week.

Several pictures taken during the production of Blood Brothers have been released. If the scar-like logo is too annoying, you could just simply ignore it.

I have finally discovered a huge print (1100 x 1629) of the teaser poster of Ang Lee's latest,  Lust, Caution, huge enough for me to see every microprint of it. The story of the film is set in Shanghai during the WWII and based on Eileen Chang's same name short story, which was loosely inspired by a real incident. It tells a young woman assigned to seduce a high-ranking intelligence officer, working for the Japanese-controlled puppet government, then lead him to an assassination trap. Then she realized she is too emotionally involved with her prey. I do not believe there is any espionage told in the story, because espionage means getting military or political secrets and the young woman and her comrades' goal is simply killing the ranking Japanese collaborator. Hong Kong star Leung Chiu-Wai (Tony) plays the bad bad intelligence officer and young mainland Chinese actress, Tang Wei, a relatively newcomer, plays the young woman. Joan Chen plays a supporting role as the ranking officer's wife. The address of the film's upcoming official site is also revealed on the poster - www.focusfeatures.com/lustcaution.

Shanghai Film Group Corp. (Shanghai Film Studios) co-produced the film, which was shot almost entirely in Shanghai. However, on the poster, the studios' name is printed as "Haishang Films." Could it be a mistake?

(Thanks to Jet Liang.)

Trailer: THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD (Sina.com) April 28, 2007

BlackFilm.com got a few shots from WAR with Jet Li and Jason Statham.

Click here

(Thanks to Jet Liang.)

Trailer: THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD (Sina.com) April 28, 2007

(Images: Mandarin Films, Universe)

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Here are two Chinese posters for Nanking, the new documentary about the Nanking Massacre, wrote and directed by two American filmmaker Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman. Inspired by late author Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, this documentary tells the worst among countless atrocities carried out by the Japanese troops during the Second World War. In December 1937, after a bitter fight the Japanese army broke into the city of Nanking (now translated as "Nanjing"), the old capital of China, and started killer. Hundreds thousands of people were killed and tens thousands of women were raped. One of the center point of the film is how a group of westerner established a safety zone, which saved the life of thousands. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, this film has been released today in China. A limited release in the US has been scheduled for December 12, 2007.

According to the Chinese press, the Chinese Film Bureau, in charge of censorship on films to be theatrically released in the mainland China, has refused to issue a "release permit" to Hong Kong martial-art movie Shuang Long Ji (literal: The Tale of Two Dragons), unless certain violent scenes, "inappropriate for viewing at movie theaters", are removed. The film's director (don't know who) has refused to make any cut. The movie tells a young man (Nicholas Tse) disgraces his family and his father (Yuen Biao) refuses teach him kung fu. The young man runs away and learns how to fight from others. Then the they reunite and turn against their enemy.

This film is qualified as a “co-production” between mainland Chinese company and a non-mainland Chinese company. It is produced by Hong Kong-based Universe Entertainment and Shanxi Film Studio, one of many state-owned studios, established during the era of planned economy, now struggle for survival. Without a “release permit”, this movie would be “banned” from the big screens in China, potentially the biggest revenue source. It can still be released on DVD, after getting approved by another state censor.

The censorship decision was made by a panel with members old in age as well as mind. Their guideline is a largely ambiguous regulation imposed by the bureau, which insists movies to be theatrically released in China must be suitable for viewers of all ages. Earlier this year, the bureau forced Disney to shorten Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s Eng by about 11%. The deleted scene were concluded, that either too scary (no one feel they are scary except the panel members) or disgracing China (if true, Disney would have been disgracing almost all cultures in the world.) The bureau has shown absolutely no intension of adapting a movie grading system, despite a strongly growing public outcry for a movie grading system. Tough and often ridiculous censorship on movies and the state imposed quota on foreign film imports have made majority of the Chinese to turn their interest on pirated DVDs.

Director Yang De-Chang (Edward Yang) died of complications from colon cancer on Friday at his Beverly Hills home, reported Associated Press. Yang was known for telling stories of the modern day urban life in Taiwan with a realistic and critical approach. He was one of  the leading figures of Taiwan's "New Wave Cinema." He was born in Shanghai November 6, 1979 and moved to Taiwan shortly after. He received a master degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida. However, his interest in films eventually made his a director and screenwriter. He wrote the script of The Winter of 1905, a Hong Kong TV movie aired in 1981. Later he returned to Taiwan and directed a few TV shows. In 1982, Yang made a short film Desires and In Our Time, his first full-length feature film. In the next two decades, he wrote and directed That Day, on the Beach (1983), Taipei Story (1985), The Terrorist (1986), A Brighter Summer Day (1991), A Confucian Confusion (1994) and Mahjong (1996). His next film, Yi Yi earned him the Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival in 2000 and he was invited back to Cannes to serve as a juror. In 2000, he formed Miluku Technology and Entertainment to produce animated films and TV shows. The Wind, was supposed to be his ninth full-length film and first animated feature. It will feature a young boy, loosely based on Jackie Chan, who serves as the choreographer of the project. Despite many difficulties, financially and technically, he pressed on to keep the project alive. However, his health condition finally stopped him from working just over a year ago. He had been battling cancer for seven years before death. Today, Yang De-Chang is remembered by filmmakers and fans from Taiwan, the mainland China, Hong Kong and the rest of world.