(Image: Visualizer Film Productions, China Film Group, Taewon Entertainment.)

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon tells a largely fictional life story of general Zhao Yun during China's Three Kingdom era (3rd Century). It is loosely based on part of 14th Century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdom, which is a dramatized chronicle of the real history. Andy Lau plays the lead and the cast also include Sammo Hung, Maggie Q, Vanness Wu, Andy On, Yu Rongguang, Pu Cunxi and Ti Lung. It is helmed by Daniel Lee, the director of Dragon Squad and Black Mask (not among my favorite Hong Kong directors). This is a joint production by Hong Kong based Visualizer Film Productions, Beijing-based state-run China Film Group and Korean studio Taewon Entertainment.

Two Stupid Eggs	Dangerous Games
(Images: Stellar Mega Media, Golden Coast Films, Filmko Entertainment Ltd., Chengtian Entertainment, Xi'an Mei Ah Culture Communication Ltd..)

Two mainland China - Hong Kong jointly produced comedies have been released in China to capture the fever of the holidays.

 

Two Stupid Eggs, a remake of Spanish comedy Torremolinos 73, tells a married couple, who are no long attracted to each other, decide to make a home movie titled "A Guide for the Newlywed", to get some quick cash to pay for the rent.

In Dangerous Games, the relationship of five persons, a hot air balloon handler at an amusement park, a handsome pianist, a sexy young woman, a rich guy and a beer girl, accidentally forms a "Rock, Paper, Scissors"-like loop.

Liu Weiwei (R)	Liu Weiwei (L) and Cheng Taishen (R)	Liu Weiwei (L) and Zhang Jiayi (R)
(Image: ?.)

In Love We Trust (aka. Left Right) is the 10th film of Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai (Shanghai Dreams, Drifters, Beijing Bicycle). Inspired by a true story, it tells a married woman is told her daughter from her previous marriage is diagnosed with blood cancer and the best cure would be the cord blood stem cells from her daughter's close relatives. Then takes great courage to ask her ex-husband to have another baby with her. In Love We Trust will be premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival the coming February, to compete for the Golden Bear. Wang Xiaoshuai's Shanghai Dreams won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 2005. His Beijing Bicycle won the Jury Grand Prix at Berlin International Film Festival in 2001.

Assembly	The Red Awn	Trivial Matters
(Image: Huayi Brothers, Media Asia Films, Ltd., XiuDong Hao Ye Investment & Consulting Ltd., Wan Ji Culture Promotion Co. Ltd., Making Films Production (Hong Kong), Not Brothers.)

This week in China, Feng Xiaogang's war epic Assembly, about an army captain fighting to gain recognition for 47 of his comrades who died in action, has been released in massive scale; while Cai Shangjun's The Red Awn, about a father decides to take his neglected son on a trip across the country with his red combine harvester, has been released in tiny scale. In Hong Kong, Trivial Matters, a comedy contains seven mini stories, has been made available in local theaters. It is based on director Pang Ho-Cheung's same title story collection.

In Beijing-born director Feng Xiaogang's A World without Thieves, Andy Lau and Rene Liu play a couple who are conning people for living. On a train they meet a young, who travels with a bag of cash and is naive enough to believe there are not thieves on earth. The couple then decide to protect the young man's cash against a gang of thieves, who are riding the same train. During a show by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, Feng said the his next movie, The Nobles, would be a prequel to A World without Thieves and it would tell how the couple met and how they conned people. According to a few previous reports, the story of The Nobles is about a newly rich man hires a young woman, just returned home after spending many years overseas, to teach him everything about how the rich in the west live. And a con man sees it as an opportunity for getting the rich man's millions. The reports also said the cast would include Ge You, Jiang Wen and Shu Qi. There is no words on whether Andy Lau and Rene Liu would reprise their roles or the story of The Nobles would feature brand new characters.

(Images: Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, China Film Group, Star Overseas)

In CJ7, Stephen Chow created a CG alien dog, lost on earth and adopted by a single dad (Chow) and his son (Xu Jiao). The  character was created partially for remembering Chow's own pet dog, died from cancer a few years ago.

Click here for the full set of alien doggie photos.

A clip showing the creation of the alien dog.

Kelly Chen as a princess.
Director Ching Siu-Tung (mid) (Images: United Filmmakers Organization, Poly-Bona Film Publishing Co., Ltd. and Big Pictures. )

Less than a week after the release of the the first trailer., a few stills are distributed to the Chinese press today. An Empress and the Warriors (literal title: The Kingdom and the Beauty) tells a princess (Kelly Chen), with help from a retired warrior (Leon Lai) and a general (Donnie Yen), trying to take back her stolen kingdom. Director Ching Siu-Tung said the movie was "a martial-art film in a fairytale for the grownup and an eye candy."

Ching is more famous as an action director in such projects like The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, Hero and Shaolin Soccer. As a director, he made more than 20 movies and TV series, including Naked Weapon, Adventure King, New Dragon Inn, A Terra Cotta Warrior, A Chinese Ghost Story trilogy.

(Images: EDKO Film, Encore Films, Milky Way Image Company, Sil-Metropol Organization, Sundream Motion Pictures)

These posters are available from Sina.com, which runs the official mainland Chinese website of the film. Helmed by the top action director Johnnie To, Linger (literal title: The Butterfly Flies), is about a man (Vic Zhou), who has been taking drugs to ease the pain of losing his girlfriend (Li Bingbing) in a car accident three years, decide to get clean and move on. Then suddenly, his girlfriend reappers and he does not believe it is his imagination. This film will be released in Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese the coming January.

If you like Shaolin Soccer, you may like this one as well. Stars singer-actor Jay Chou (Curse of the Golden Flower, Initial D), Kung Fu Dunk tells how a young man, raised by a kung fu master, uses his skills to play in basketball game.

Mighty Ganesha, one of our greatest contributors, just had a chat with Ted Leonsis, one of the producers of documentary  Nanking, which tells how over 200,000 people lost their lives in the hand of Japanese army from December 1937 to January 1938, after Nanking, the Chinese capital back then, fell. Ted Leonsis is the Vice Chairman of American Online. He felt "compelled to produce a documentary about the horrors of the of the Nanking invasion," after "reading the obituary of Iris Chang." Iris Chang's book The Rape of Nanking makes the world knows about what happened in Nanking (now translated as Nanjing) during those days. In China Nanking was the only documentary being released theatrically this year and did fairly well for a documentary. The film ha         s also appeared on the shortlist for Best Documentary of next year's Oscar.

Here is the interview:

MG: Why did you make this film about events that happened in 1937? It's a subject that so few people in America know about?
 
TL: I don't really have an answer that people understand. I had never made a movie and I wasn't motivated to make a movie. I'm not Japanese, I'm not Chinese, I don't have an agenda. I came to the film after reading the obituary in the New York Times about Iris Chang. It was troubling to me, she was a beautiful woman, she was married, she had a child, and she took her own life, so that got my attention. There was a photo of her and I felt like she was looking at me. When I threw the obituary into the garbage, her picture was up as I kept walking by it. When the cleaning crew came to take the garbage out, I was leaving the room and I literally ran back in the room and I took it out of the garbage and put it in my briefcase. I did a Google search on her, and there was a sponsored link on the side, "buy the book." clicked and went to Amazon and it said, if you liked this book, you'll like these books, and there were two new books out called American Goddess of Nanking and The Good Man of Nanking, and the descriptions - The Good Man of Nanking was a German Nazi businessman (John Rabe) ?The Good Man of Nanking. And this woman (Minnie Vautrin) was called a goddess because she saved all these girls, so I bought all three books in one day. This was in 2005.

Two years before the war broke out in Europe, on December 13, 1937, Japanese troops, fought their way into Nanking (now translated as "Nanjing"), the capital city of China at that time, and started killing, looting and raping, which lasted for six weeks.

Purple Mountain, a China-US joint production inspired by late author Iris Chang's book The Rape of Nanking, is an attempt to retell the story through the eyes of a group of westerners, especially a few Americans. A teaser trailer, a horizontal poster and several production stills have been released to promote this film, which is only in its early stage of production. The screenplay was written by William J. MacDonald with Simon West as the director. The cast list has yet been announced.

Teaser trailer

Ten production stills

This is not the only movie project taking the subject of the Nanking Massacre. Nanking, a documentary telling the story of the massacre, by American filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, was released this year. The Children of Huang Shi, an Australia-China-Germany production, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, tells a true story of an English journalist bringing a group of war orphans to safety. The story of the yet to be released film started during the Massacre. It was written by Jane Hawksley and James MacManus and was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. Nanking Nanking, a Chinese production intents to capture the event in full-scale, written and helmed by  Kekexili: The Mountain Patrol director Lu Chuan, is currently in production. The cast include Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Fan Wei and Qin Lan. John Rabe, a Germany-China-France co-production, is a biopic of John Rabe, a German Nazi businessman, who headed an international committee, which saved the lives of more than 200,000 people during the Massacre. The film is written an directed by Florian Gallenberger. The cast include Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Br黨l, Zhang Jingchu and Steve Buscemi. 

(Image: goldenhorse.org.tw. )

Surprised no one. Ang Lee's Lust, Caution becomes the biggest winner tonight, with seven winnings, include Best Feature Film, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Lead Actor, Leung Chiu-Wai and Best New Performer (Tang Wei), but it does not collect every award it was nominated for. Two winning actors, Leung Chiu-Wai and Leung Ka-Fai, are all from Hong Kong. and Three winning actress, Joan Chen, Fan Bingbing and Tang Wei, are all born in the mainland China.

Snapshots from tonight's award ceremony.

Click here for the complete nomination list.

Related Story:

After telling a war story with Assembly, Beijing born director Feng Xiaogang has decided to return to his root, comedy. His upcoming movie, The Nobles, is just the one designed to make people laugh. Set in a modern day Chinese city, the story will tell a newly rich guy, who wants to know all about the luxury western life style, or how the "nobles" live. A girl, returned to China after spending many years abroad, knows a lot about the west and need a job to feed herself. They meet and realize they both have something the other one really need. Wait, that's not all. A con artist somehow sees it as an opportunity to get the rich guy's millions. The cast so far include Ge You and Jiang Wen, and the female lead will likely goes to Shu Qi. Shooting will start next year with financial backing from Beijing-based provide studio Huayi Brothers.

Johnnie To and his team have been spotted in a Hong Kong street shooting The Sparrow (aka. Cultured Bird) again, reported by a Hong Kong newspaper. It tells a story centers around Simon Yam抯 character, a pickpocket, or a cultured bird in Cantonese slang. The cast also include Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-Tung, Lam Suet and Kate Tsui. The scene is about Simon Yam, Lam Ka-Tung and two other actors riding the same bicycle. Then the back wheel got bent and the bike was sent for repair. The shooting only last about three hours.

Six major cast members of Hong Kong director Gordon Chan's US$15 millions period supernatural movie Painted Skin have appeared at a press conference this afternoon in Beijing. Painted Skin is based on the same title short story from Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, a collection of hundreds of short supernatural stories written by Pu Songling (1640 - 1715). The original story tells a young scholar being seduced by demon with a painted skin of a beautiful girl while a Taoist monk is trying to save his life and capture the demon. The project is produced by Yang Hongtao, Yun Huixiang and Hsu Li-Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Wedding Banquet). The production design is done by Yee Chun-Man (The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, Perhaps Love) and the action is handled by Tung Wei (Seven Swords, Hero, The Accidental Spy).

Related story:

Ulrich Tukur plays John Rabe. (Click here for four more stills.)	Zhang Jingchu as Lanshu, a schoolgirl.	Tang - Fei as a nightclub singer.
(Images: Hofmann & Voges Entertainment GmbH, EOS Entertainment, Majestic Filmproduktion, Huayi Brothers & Taihe Film Investment, Pampa Production, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF))

This set of images, collected from the Internet, gives up the first look at John Rabe, a German-China-France production now being shot in Shanghai. John Rabe, (1882 - 1950) was a German citizen and devoted National Socialist (Nazi). From December 1937 to February 1938, in Nanking (Nanjing), he was the head of an international committee, which was responsible for saving the lives of 250,000 men and women from being slaughtered by the Japanese army after the Chinese capital city fell. Shortly after returning to Germany, Rabe actively denounced the Japanese atrocity he witnessed and wrote to Hitler asking him to use his influence to persuade Japan to stop killing. He was soon arrested by Gestapo and was released three days later under the condition of stop speaking about the Rape of Nanking. After the war ended, he was arrested first by the Soviet and then the British, but an investigation concluded he was not a Nazi. From 1945 to his death five years later, Rabe lived in poverty and he was greatly supported by donations from a large number of Chinese citizens, many of them were took refuge under the international committee.

Related story:

The following is straight from an article of Beijing Morning Post. The reporter who wrote the article claimed the source was someone from Chow's studio Star Overseas.

- The adaptation will be a trilogy, written and directed by Chow. It will be heavily CG loaded and each installment costing US$100 million (this is just plain ridiculous. Even 100 million HK dollars (US$12.8 millions) sounds too much.)

- Chow will play Monkey King again and Zhang Yuqi, who debuted in Chow's CJ7, will play Tang Monk. Monkey King finds out his master, Tang Monk, is really a woman and falls in love with her. (This will prove this project won't be a faithful adaptation.)

No one else has been cast for such roles as Tang Monk's two other disciples, Piggy and Sandy, and Chow is considering Fung Tak-Luen, Edison Chen and Lam Chi-Chung (Lam would be perfect for Piggy, at least his size makes him qualified. I am not sure about others.)

Chow's Star Overseas cannot bear the whole cost and production partners will be brought in, such as Sony Pictures, which co-financed Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. (China Film Group Corp. would be another major partner.)

Chow is still working on the script and the production will not start until 2009.

Leon Lai	Yu Shaoqun (more)
(Images: China Film Group Corp.)

Several pictures has been released today, showing Peking opera performances in the Mei Lanfang biopic, now in production. Picture on the left shows Leon Lai (as Mei Lanfang) playing Yu Ji, in a play called Farewell My Concubine. Picture on the right shows Yu Shaoqun (as the younger Mei Lanfang) playing Su San in a play called Yu Tang Chun.