12.5.2011 - News [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

This post was produced by Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver: http://yellowcranestower.blogspot.com


FBA: Treasure Hunt review
An okay kid's adventure comedy, shot in China, from the Wong Jing factory.

FBA: The Pretending Lovers review

Chinese take on My Sassy Girl is wafer-thin but gets by on its two leads' charm.

FBA: 72 Martyrs review
Initially promising drama of a 1911 China uprising let down by a weaker second half.

FBA: I Phone You review
Given the amount of time the audience is to spend with Jiang [Yiyan]'s stranded Ling, the script wisely spends a good 20 minutes building her character at home with her job (a bubbly flower-girl) and easygoing girl friends. By the time she arrives in Berlin, the viewer already knows she's a typical young Chongqing woman — practical, determined, life-loving, chance-taking. So, as she tries to survive 48 hours in a foreign city with just a mobile phone but no passport, money or a word of German, there's at least a semi-believable element to the story.

CF: Gunfight of "Flowers of War" Unveiled

The teaser features the beginning of the movie when about 20 Chinese soldiers fight a large number of Japanese invaders to save a group of schoolgirls.

Dynamic version of international poster

New "Allure of Tears" poster featuring the cast of the second story released

The cast includes Dennis Chan, writer Lawrence Cheng and Jung Hsiang in addition to Gigi Leung and Richie Jen

(Sina)

In a Beijing press conference yesterday, Louis Fan Siu-Wong was introduced as one of the villains of Tsui Hark's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate in 3D".

Tsui Hark, Louis Fan

(Sina),(Sina-gallery)

Chen Kaige's micro film "Searching" wrapped up shooting in Ningbo.

Yao Chen, Deng Chao (Sina-gallery)

Fans designed their own posters for Johnnie To's "Romancing in Thin Air" based on recently released concept poster and publicity stills. The impressive fan posters were themed to represent the four seasons.

Original concept poster

Fan made posters

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Publicity still (Sina-gallery), (CNYahoo)

(Dec.5) Beijing press conference for Derek Yee's "The Great Magician" opening January 12.

Zhou Xun, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

Wu Gang, Yan Ni, Zhou Xun, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

Zhou Xun, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

(Sina-gallery)

Posters for "No Liar, No Cry" a comedy about gold fever set in the Gobi Desert.

Cherrie Ying

Wu Gang

Yue Xiuqing

Zhang Xinyu (Sina) (Review)

MSN: Vicki Zhao acquires winery in France

MSN: Miriam Yeung put on one-month bed rest

MSN: Benny Chan’s wife and daughter discharge from hospital

Lately, it was said that Rose's master Master Sin is currently the target of triads.[!]

A1: Triads get involved in Rose Chan's sexual harassment scandal, (WorldJournal)

Sin Chew Daily reported that the sexual harassment scandal involving Hong Kong actress Rose Chan and two senior actors had escalated...Police, who got wind of the assassination attempt, arrested four people and seized three toy guns.

A1: Bruce Lee's kung fu style draws new generation

Many credit wing chun’s renewed popularity to a series of films about Yip Man, one of the art’s greatest “sifus", or teachers, and most famously the man who turned Lee from street fighter to martial arts legend.

9.12.2011 - News [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

This post was produced by Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver: http://yellowcranestower.blogspot.com

WSJ: Deanie Ip on ‘A Simple Life’ and Winning at Venice

HKStandard: Golden girl Deanie Ip takes best actress prize at Venice
Film director and producer Ng See-yuen said: "Her achievement not only gives her center stage at the top-tier film festival, it also raises the world's awareness of Hong Kong's film industry, especially for female actresses."

FBA: People Mountain People Sea
Strikingly mounted, existential tale of revenge that's let down by being over-elliptical.

Variety: People Mountain People Sea review, [HKMDBNews-reprint]
A pitch-black tale of murder, corruption and almost every other conceivable form of human injustice is taken to its bleakest possible conclusions in "People Mountain People Sea."

Cai Shangjun holds up Silver Lion 

THR: 11 Flowers review

Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai evokes memories of provincial life prior to Mao's death

FBA: The Sword Identity review
Original, lowkey satire of martial-arts codes that's too academic for its own good

The Sword Identity director Xu Haofeng

The Sword Identity - Zhao Yuanyuan, Song Yang (Sina)

TimeOutHK: Treasure Hunt review

A milk powder TV commercial disguised as a feature-length adventure comedy, Wong Jing’s latest folly is so thoroughly mediocre that anyone other than its sponsors will struggle to sit through it.

Variety: Life Without Principle review

Seizing on the ongoing world banking crisis to add spin to an otherwise ho-hum crime story, Hong Kong helmer Johnnie To finds greed to be the root of all evil in his patchy "Life Without Principle." [HKMDBNews-reprint]

ScreenDaily: Life Without Principle review

There are some good ideas knocking around in Hong Kong genre auteur Johnnie To’s multi-strand financial crisis dramedy- but they’re swamped by an inept script that keeps getting bogged down in details and forgetting the big dramatic picture. [HKMDBNews-reprint]
AP: Hong Kong director focuses on financial crisis
The movie is shot in a style that is partly serious, partly caper-comic — or, as To put it, "this film is a bit realistic but also fantasy

 (Sina)

Toronto 2011: Christian Bale's China movie previewed for buyers
Zhang Yimou's Heroes of Nanking now retitled The Flowers of War
THR: Top U.S. Buyers Get First Glimpse of Christian Bale's 'The Flowers of War'
WSJ: Zhang Yimou Previews ‘The Flowers of War’ in Toronto
FBA: Buyers get taste of Zhang's War

Too Much Heaven: Shaolin, My Kingdom, and Love In Space movie reviews (beyondasiaphilia)

Taiwanese epic film draws lukewarm reception from China
As Taiwanese enthusiastically flock to the cinema for "Seediq Bale," the biggest blockbuster this summer, reactions to the film from China had been far more muted and critical ahead of its release earlier this week.

First poster for Dante Lam's The Viral Factor, now in post-production

Stills featuring the Midlle East back drop

(Sina)

Deanie Ip and Ann Hui also accepted the Equal Opportunity Award at the close of the Venice Film Festival from Rosalba Veltri, Director General for Equality and Equal Opportunities. The prize goes to the work which best represents the official selection of a complaint or a message of hope with respect to the issue of discrimination, intolerance, inequality, social or gender. (Source) Andy Lau had rushed back to Hong Kong and missed the closing ceremony and awards announcements.

(Sina)

And the SIGNIS Prize, a Catholic humanitarian organization award

(Sina)

CNNGo: World's first Jackie Chan Museum to open in Shanghai

MSN: Cecilia Cheung and Lucas go on a secret holiday
MSN: Edison Chen’s girlfriend breaks up with him
Currently in New York, Edison also tried to build up a lovelorn image of himself by uploading a photo of the city with the words: "Lonely Street's of NY (sic)."

CNNGo: To hell with tradition, Hong Kong mooncake marketing at a high
Hong Kong food anthropologist unfazed by Angry Birds taking over our Mid-Autumn Festival

Li Danni - Treasure Hunt

Li Danni plays a femme fatale in Wong Jing's Treasure Hunt.

(Sina)

8.18.2011 - News

THR: Imax to Super-Size First Chinese Language 3D Movie, (CF)
"Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," a $35 million epic martial arts film from China's Bona Film Group, will be released on Imax screens.

FBA: Hi, Fidelity review
Glossy slice of softcore nonsense is of interest only for its veteran female cast.

CF: The Making of a Kungfu Star
Actor-turned-producer Daniel Wu promises that Chinese cinema's next martial arts hero will come out of his studio..."We have Donnie Yen, but he cannot be in all the kungfu films. We need new blood."

CF: Jet Li Promotes Kung Fu in Washington D.C.

Treasure Hunt review: No real treasure
Little Lucas Tse (played by the real son of Cheung and Nicholas Tse), is cuter than he looks, but the kid needs to stay out of the set. What he should do now is watch and learn if he were ever to follow his parents' footsteps. His special appearance in the movie (as Cheung's screen son) might help boost ticket sales, but there isn't much to expect from the kid.

Treasure Hunt poster and stills with Lucas

(HunanTV)

Posters of Wuershan's Painted Skin 2 with an unknown blue-eyed mystery queen appears on the left in each poster. Netizens suspect a viral marketing campaign.

Zhou Xun

Chen Kun

Zhao Wei (Sina)

Ring-styled Nightmare features Gillian Chung

Nightmare, directed by Yip Wai-Ying (Troublesome Night 12), has passed review and received release permits. It will be released in late September. (HunanTV), (Sohu)

First poster for Wang Quan'an's White Deer Plain 

Kitty Zhang Yuqi

Guo Tao

Zhang Fengyi

Wu Gang, Liu Wei

Based on an early three and a half hour preview version, a group of writers from a Shaanxi literary federation were left very impressed by the film and Kitty Zhang Yuqi's performance. (Sina), 2

Nick Cheung shows the aftermath of shooting six hours in the sun in Nightfall

Simon Yam, playing in studio

Simon Yam and Tian Zhuangzhuang who has a small role in the film

(Sina), 2

Poster for The Purple House

The psychological thriller, i.e., horror film, is helmed by first-time director, long-time cinematographer, Poon Hang-Sang, and stars Jiro Wang and Tong Liya. The story has the couple moving into his father's one hundred year-old house. Each night, there are strange events and Tong Liya's character has nightmares. Is it real or not? Opens Sept.23. (Sina)

Raymond Wong, Ronny Yu and the cast of Saving General Yang held a press conference in Beijing to announce the official start of production on Aug. 19.

Raymond Wong

Ronny Yu

Ekin Cheng, Adam Cheng

(Sina)

MSN: Selina Jen to wed on October 31, (CNA)

MSN: Zhang Ziyi rumoured to have reconciled with Eric Fok

Newly released teaser for Derek Yee's The Great Magician