Multi award-winning Hong Kong and Hollywood film director John Woo is one of Hong Kong cinema's most famous names worldwide and his work will be awarded by the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival this year. The director will be awarded the prize on Friday.
Festival goers will also have the chance to see his new film, Jianyu (Reign of Assassins), co-directed with Su Chao-Pin, which is being screened out of competition, as well as the newly restored version of Woo’s 1989 classic The Killer, arguably one of Hong Kong cinema's most influential movies of all time.
On this day in 1976 Marxist revolutionary Mao Zedong died, but as China gears itself to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, it's clear that the propaganda machine is still alive and well with an epic film - The Founding of a Republic (Jiangguo Daye) - starring the nation's biggest movie stars soon to hit cinema screens. It stars a staggering A-list of actors, including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Stephen Chow, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau - the list goes on and on!
However, some reservations about the film are being voiced in the world's press. The Independent, for example, puts it right alongside some of the most extreme examples of propaganda movies of all time.
As an example of the genre, this one is up alongside Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will or Roland Emmerich's Independence Day.
Propagandist or not, it's certain to break local box office records.
It can have escaped very few Hong Kong movie fans' notice that Chow Yun-Fat is all set to star as Confucius in a major new production backed by the Chinese government.
Since the announcement yesterday, the news was picked up by all the major news and entertainment websites, as a ripple of both curiosity and excitement buzzed quickly through the Internet.
With a budget of HKD $22 million (approx. £2 million sterling) this biopic will be a joint production between Beijing-based company Dadi Cinema and the state-run China Film Group.
Peter Chan's $40 million epic The Warlords about three Chinese mercenaries in 19th century China has won best film at the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars The Golden Horse Awards at the awards ceremony held in the central Taiwan city of Taichung on Saturday. The film, which stars Andy Lau, Jet Li, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, also won Chan the best director prize.
The Internet is buzzing with the news that Stephen Chow is to direct and star in Columbia Pictures' remake of The Green Hornet. Chow will play the role of Kato originally played by the legendary Bruce Lee!
Spot Hong Kong Movie superstars Jackie Chan and Andy Lau...plus a cast of thousands in Zhang Yimou's spectacular closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics!
The staggering opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, directed by Zhang Yimou is now available on DVD!
On August 8, 2008, at 8pm, Beijing made its mark in Olympic history by beginning its hosting of the 29th Olympiad. It's opening ceremony, a near 3 hour event, includes a glimpse into China's illustrious history and culture, of dance and song, as well as the presentation of this Olympiad's 204 country participants.
Now on DVD in a 2 disc set with both Mandarin and English audio, relive the moment again and again or experience for the first time the grandeur of this monumental event.
Long term partners Tony Leung and Carina Lau were married yesterday in the Himalayan nation Bhutan in a ceremony attended by some big names in the world of Hong Kong movies - directors Wong Kar-wai and Stanley Kwan, actors Brigitte Lin, Chang Chen and Ti Lung, as well as singer Faye Wong.
Hong Kong Film Honors article in the New York Times
Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: April 15, 2008
Jet Li, above, was named best actor when the Hong Kong film awards were handed out late Sunday in a glittering ceremony, Agence France-Presse reported. Mr. Li won for his performance in “The Warlords,” an action drama set in 19th-century China that also carried off the prizes for best film and best director (Peter Chan) among its eight awards. Andy Lau, a co-star of “The Warlords,” won the prize for best supporting actor for the crime thriller “Protégé,” and Siqin Gaowa of the quirky tragicomedy “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” was chosen best actress. The award for best Asian film went to Ang Lee for “Lust, Caution,” and a lifetime achievement award was given to Raymond Chow, whose Golden Harvest studios fostered the careers of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Read the rest of this entry »
Controversy at the Hong Kong International Film Festival which is in full swing right now with the shadow of Chinese censorship falling on three movies which have been withdrawn by their producers from the festival pending government approval.
The films are:
* Zhang Yibai's Lost Indulgence, a drama set in Chongqing about a passenger who moves in with the family of a driver after he dies in a car accident.
* Han Yan's Winds of September — The Chinese Mainland Chapter, part of coming-of-age trilogy.
* A Decade of Love, 10 short films, each 10 minutes long, by 10 new Hong Kong directors on the subject of love in Hong Kong.
While the films contain nothing overtly controversial and the Associated Press says no official reasons have been given for the lack of approval, filmmakers are concerned about China's tightening grip on the media in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics in the summer.
Chinese director Lou Ye and producer Nai An were banned from making movies in China for five years after showing their romance, Summer Palace, at the Cannes Festival in 2006 without clearing it with Chinese censors.
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