Sorry, this list is rather randomly organized. OK, now it’s organized.
Tang Yan of the upcoming Stormriders 2 movie (and the CP3 and Pandamen series), posted up pics of her at the ceremony on her blog, along with goofy self-cam pre-redcarpet. This is the only eye-candy related news I have, sorry.
Random Movie News About Upcoming Movies and One that May Never Come
Variety Review of One Night in Supermarket – Overall, positive. Derek Elley calls it “slickly made”, and says there are clever twists at the end. The review is too short and too much of a summary to be a great guage, but the positiveness echoes most of the reviews from the Chinese side, where the movie was well-received.
5-min Preview of Sophie’s Revenge (Cam Quality from Festival) – looks good and there’s So Jisub shirtless! People’s Online has a brief article about it from Zhang Ziyi’s perspective such as why she chose a comedy for her first production, and mentions that she’s trying to bring it to the American market.
Michelle Yeoh will star in John Woo’s new kung fu movie. Let’s see if this movie actually will make it to production stage.
People talking about music
Quincy Jones gave advice to students in Shanghai and told stories about working with Sinatra, Michael Jackson. He also said he believed China’s music industry could become the world’s biggest.
People talking big about their films
Jeffery Lau says that he thinks his movie Kungfu Cyborg, will get 200 million yuan at the box office. Of his two latest films, Chinese Odyssey 2002 was a brilliant farce, whereas A Chinese Tall Story was just crappy. This seens more like the latter.
People talking smack about each other
6th Generation Director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle, Shanghai Dreams) complains that Chinese films are getting too commercialized and points fingers, saying that even though his films may not make as much money as others, he’s a happier director than those soul-less bigshots (paraphrased). Lu Chuan (City of Life and Death and one of the directors being attacked) rebuttals that “Film first and foremost is a consumption product”. Come on guys, the SIFF is not a therapy session for directors!
Jury head Danny Boyle “gently” chided China for film restrictions. I think he means artistic. I hope SARFT takes those words to heart. MPAA wants China to stop restricting its market, opening it to more foreign films. To which SARFT better not pay any attention to.
The Film Festival Closes
Angels and Demons will be the first foreign film to close the Shanghai Film Fest, hoping to secure an ok for wide release in China. Ewan McGregor (hey look, more eye-candy!) was there with co-star Ayelet Zurer to support the film, and said it does not challenge the Catholic faith.
CCTV gives examples of how The SIFF catalyzes co-productions. And not just ones with S. Korea.
Hollywood reporter lists the winners of the film festival and an overall look at what went on during the festival.
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For those of you who don’t like these list posts, don’t worry, we’ll still be doing regular full length posts and I may even post up another recap. Chinese Paladin 3 started airing, and it looks much better than Chinese Paladin 1.
I just watched One Night In Supermarket and I died laughing. It was amazing.
im not liking the name ..
@julie
mostly (but on Golden Eagle, not eeMedia’s site. eeMedia needs to get a new color scheme for its site…). Thank you for sharing, though. The Hunantv site didn’t have the part about Zhu Zixiao burning down a house. ;b
That article made me annoyed…Meteor Shower is making me annoyed…the comment about “why is everything in Meteor Shower going so wrong?” in the previous news article was from me.
on the other hand, I’ve never seen this before…Zheng Shuang looks a bit like Tao Le in these pictures:
http://www.eemedia.cn/news_view.aspx?info_id=6441
did you see this article about meteor shower?
http://www.eemedia.cn/news_view.aspx?info_id=6432
i thought the pic was of xiao S
I wouldn’t be the first to cry out “discrimination” regarding US attitudes to foreign films. The American film industry is much more developed than those of other countries — even advanced, English-speaking ones. It has great directors, actors, producers, technicians. It has more funding to make movies. So, typically, a movie made in the US with a $250 million budget is going to be of a higher quality than a $20 million Australian film.
That’s not to say that American audiences would necessarily understand/appreciate the themes/languages of foreign cinema despite this, but it’s something to note. It’s easier to identify with something that you’re familiar with.
But the US is a cultural exporter, and much less of an importer. Just like Japan. Japanese music is popular throughout Asia, but the reverse is not true. Even with the Korean Wave now, Korean artists going to Japan still adopt a Japanese style of music. Similarly, when British or Australian actors go to the US, they speak in American accents.
It’s always difficult to compare these cases to China, though, because the main producers of Chinese entertainment aren’t actually based in Mainland China. I guess we’ll see how things are a decade from now.
@ Nepheliad
I agree with what your saying and I also hope one day China’s entertainment industry will be powerful enough that quotas aren’t needed.
As for the “cultural decline in interest in foreign films,” I think some of that attitude might be based on the U.S. government’s past discriminatory policies (e.g. Jim Crow laws, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment, etc.).
These kinds of things tend to create an environment where the general public is very biased against anything foreign—even towards British or Australian films.
So America’s “natural” quota system isn’t something that’s entirely free of government intervention.
Well… SARFT could probably ease up on restrictions since so many of the films in China now are becoming hits, whether bad or not, which is a sign that there’s little competition.
But there’s a good reason not to ease up on import restrictions. This way, US companies have an incentive to co-produce, which so far, seems like it’s been helping China develop their movie industry at a faster rate than most countries.
“It’s hilarious that the MPAA is requesting China to “open up” when America itself is so close-minded about foreign films.”
Objection – the US doesn’t have legal restrictions on foreign films; it has a cultural decline in interest in foreign films, which it has had for decades. Meanwhile, SARFT legally restricts the number of foreign films it allows to be shown. The end result is no different, perhaps, than the 65-75% affiliation of movie distributors with American companies in the US, but it’s arrived at in rather different ways. To use tea as an analogy, it’s as though China has a quota for tea imports while Americans just don’t like imported tea that much. Since Chinese people are still notoriously big fans of Hollywood, though, the MPAA is worried about revenue lost to piracy that might otherwise have been earned by people wanting to see movies on the big screen. So perhaps it’s really more like not liking the tea much versus having a quota that causes people to generate a black market (or as they’d say, steal). It’s understandable that the MPAA is frustrated, and considering the differences in the root of the issue, not really hypocritical.
I’d like to see the day when SARFT doesn’t feel a need to restrict the number of foreign films, though, because that’d be the day that the Chinese film industry’s wings have hardened. For the time being, though, the quotas are probably a good thing.
It’s hilarious that the MPAA is requesting China to “open up” when America itself is so close-minded about foreign films.
Damn, I wish I could have made it out there maybe next year. If you get a chance, check out the teaser for my short film, Yellow: American Dream, Chinese Ambition.
It’s about two former Chinese best friends who meet in Chinatown for one last deadly encounter. Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78o0v6YOXqk
Hopefully we can submit it for next year once its finished.
Best,
Tony Murphy
writer.producer.
Yellow: American Dream, Chinese Ambition
Tang Yan’s so pretty…I still haven’t gotten to her in CP3, yet. I really hope she’s an excellent actress.