Chinese MoviesChinese Movieshttp://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2013-04-21T02:45:27ZSquarespaceOld Boys 度青春系列电影（老男孩）http://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2011/3/30/old-boys.htmlZhou Xiaosui2011-03-30T03:17:26Z2011-03-30T03:17:26Z
BEIJING - What does it take to touch a generation?
It's a question faced hundreds of times by Xiao Yang, whose online film Old Boys is resonating deeply with Chinese born in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the movie, Xiao plays a wedding party host who loves singing, while his real life business partner Wang Taili plays a hairdresser who loves dancing.
But their youthful dreams have been replaced by reality.
At the end of the movie, the two old boys walk onto a talent show to realize their dreams, even though everyone is making fun of them.
When they sing a beautiful elegy to youth, a lament for all the things lost along the way, many were in tears. The song features the music of Ohashi Takya's Arigatou, with lyrics written by the pair, known in the film and in reality as the Chopstick Brothers.
The film has been viewed online more than 26 million times since its Oct 28 debut.
Xiao Yang, 31, director of the hit online film Old Boys, prepares music in a studio in Beijing on Tuesday. The film has been viewed online more than 26 million times since its Oct 28 debut.
]]>Top 10 Chinese Movieshttp://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2010/12/28/top-10-chinese-movies.htmlZhou Xiaosui2010-12-28T07:07:19Z2010-12-28T07:07:19Z
Chinese Movies
Top 10 Chinese Movies for 2010
The year has seen Chinese cinema mature with films that have not just performed well but pushed the boundaries in terms of plot and execution. Raymond Zhou picks the top 10.
Chinese cinema is expected to pass a milestone in 2010. Its gross box-office revenue is likely to be more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for the first time (counting just the mainland). That's roughly the same as the US box office in dollar terms. If you factor in the currency disparity, per-capita, consumption and the ancillary market such as television and DVD rights, it is still minuscule, but hints at the vast potential that has been tapped into seriously only in the past five years.In terms of the quality of offerings, Chinese cinema has always been the target of public ridicule. Simply put, it is an industry people love to hate and yet cannot stop talking about. This year, diversity has taken reign and big-budget period dramas with their all-too-familiar sequences of kungfu fighting have given way to a rich crop of genres, some hard to categorize. Whatever your taste, you will find something to your fancy. The following are 10 feature films our editors consider worth recommending.
Let the Bullets Fly
This is a year when China's triumvirate of top filmmakers (Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang) all had new releases, but were upstaged by someone who calls himself "an amateur".
Jiang Wen is an actor-turned-director and has made only four full-length features since 1994. But the scarcity of his output correlates with high quality.
His new movie (pictured above), set in the early 20th century, is a fast-paced heist movie. Well, "heist" could be a misnomer because the coveted object is the position of a county magistrate and all the loot it comes with. It also has the feel of a western when scenes move outside the county town.
Jiang has a sense of humor that's not just black, but pitch dark. Many of the lines have layers of meaning, which may yield contradictory interpretations. His subtle use of anachronism and the symbolic meaning of many scenes and props have become an object of cinephile obsession. All actors are perfectly cast.
Monga
Gangster movies have been done to death in Hong Kong. So, when Taiwan's Doze Niu tried his hand at this hoary genre, nobody expected him to breathe new life into it. The story is predictable, but the way he tells it, with a refreshingly good-looking young cast, has turned heads and created a box-office bonanza.
Though not shown officially in the mainland, the movie has strong word-of-mouth and was avidly downloaded and watched. Essentially this is a coming-of-age story framed in a gangster narrative. The chase and fight sequences exude a vim and vigor that's more musical than a crime spree. The theme of bonding has a sincerity reminiscent of a good love story.
Echoes of the Rainbow
This intimate story of a Hong Kong family struggling through the 1960s and 70s is a microcosm of the British colony and its Chinese inhabitants on the verge of an economic miracle.
Based on the family history of writer-director Alex Law, it is full of bittersweet details. Simon Yam and Sandra Ng deliver top-notch performances of restraint and refinement.
Deep in the Clouds
This small movie has not had a wide release yet, though it won several accolades at the Shanghai Film Festival. It is about a mountain village caught between the need to protect the eco-system with its black bears and the yearning for a better life.
Using locals who had barely seen a movie and an ethnic language not even understood by the director, the movie has an authenticity and also a lyrical beauty rarely seen in a message film.
Aftershock
Book-ended by two major earthquakes, beginning with the Tangshan earthquake of 1976 and ending with the one in Sichuan in 2008, this is supposed to be a disaster film, but Feng Xiaogang mustered the courage to turn it into a family drama of love and generational misunderstanding.
Perhaps it is easier to approach the movie as a Chinese equivalent of Sophie's Choice. There are details in the movie about survivors hardly known to outsiders, such as the annual ritual of burning paper in the early morning of the anniversary of the loved one's death. Xu Fan's performance packs a punch in portraying a survivor's guilt and the love of a mother under life-and-death circumstances.
Lost on Journey
This little comedy could have been inspired by Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a Steve Martin laugh fest about the trials and tribulations of a journey back home. The Chinese version consists of uniquely Chinese situations, with the duo of comedians representing two halves of society.
The movie is perfectly paced, with plenty of comic chops to keep one laughing. It also has a heart that goes to those less fortunate. While all ends well, the journey is symbolic on a certain level of what the country is going through on the whole.
Vegetate
This is social realism at its most critical, the kind of movie enshrined in Chinese textbooks yet rarely seen on the big screen. This sharp criticism of China's pharmaceuticals industry, which churns out so many products you'd wonder if there is any testing or inspection, is built on a series of twists and turns that's melodramatic on the surface yet hint at inner truth.
A worthy follower of Julia Roberts' Erin Brokovich or Russell Crowe's The Insider, Vegetate falls short on casting and the absence of star power hinders its box-office performance.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
This lavishly produced whodunit shows China during its most extravagant period, the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906), with the sole female ruler in its history, Empress Wu Zetian, on the throne. The intricate plot keeps the audience on edge and the starry cast is matched by the mammoth but ingeniously conceived set.
It is a Chinese response to the new Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr., but Detective Dee, though a historical figure, was mostly created by a European sinologist. So, cross-cultural influences go to the very root of this action suspense thriller.
The War of Internet Addiction
This is not a theatrical release, but an online feature made by maneuvering visual elements in games, but with an original storyline and dialogue dubbed by people all over the Net.
But the movie is more than a technical feat. It gives voice to a huge swath of the online population whose frustrations at being cut off from their favorite online game has come to exemplify an age of angst and anger. The climax scene is so heartfelt it has the effect of a bolt of thunder.
Love in a Puff
Pang Ho-Cheung captures the urban vibe in this quietly observant study of modern dating.
The free-flowing plot is a reflection of a new generation with its laissez-faire attitude and hard-to-define notions about love.
Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is considered one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century, and a cultural icon.
Lee was born in San Francisco, California in the United States, to parents of Hong Kong heritage but raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Upon reaching the age of 18, Lee emigrated to the United States to claim his U.S. Citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.
His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films, Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973), directed by Robert Clouse; and The Game of Death (1978), directed by Robert Clouse posthumously.
Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films. While Lee initially trained in Wing Chun, he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead to utilise useful techniques from various sources in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist). (Wkipedia)
Jun Fan Gung Fu
Lee began teaching martial arts in the United States in 1959. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee's Kung Fu). It was basically his approach to Wing Chun.[30] Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who later became his first assistant instructor. Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.
Lee dropped out of college in the spring of 1964 and moved to Oakland to live with James Yimm Lee (嚴鏡海). James Lee was twenty years senior to Bruce Lee and a well known Chinese martial artist in the area. Together, they founded the second Jun Fan martial art studio in Oakland. James Lee was also responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to Ed Parker, royalty of the U.S. martial arts world and organiser of the Long Beach International Karate Championships at which Bruce Lee was later "discovered" by Hollywood.(Wikipedia)
Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do originated in 1967. After taping one season of "The Green Hornet", a show later replaced by "Batman", Lee found himself out of work and opened The Jun Fan Institute of Gung Fu.
A controversial match with Wong Jack Man influenced Lee's philosophy about martial arts. Lee concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques.
He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted, including fencing and basic boxing techniques.
Lee emphasised what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalised approach which Lee claimed was indicative of traditional styles. Lee felt the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was even too restrictive, and eventually evolved into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist.(Wikipedia)
The Jeet Kune Do emblem is a registered trademark held by the Bruce Lee Estate. The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol read: "Using no way as way" and "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless interaction between yang and yin.
FILMS
Marlowe 1969
James Garner is so good as Raymond Chandler's philosophical gumshoe Philip Marlowe that you forget he's totally wrong for the part. Based on Chandler's The Little Sister, Marlowe involves the detective's efforts to locate the missing brother of Orfamay Quest (Sharon Farrell). He follows the clues to two men who deny any knowledge of the brother's existence. Since both men soon find themselves on the wrong end of an ice pick, Marlowe deduces that there's more to this caper than a mere missing-person case. The plot thickens as more 'dramatis personae' are added to the intrigues, including TV star Gayle Hunnicutt, Hunnicutt's gangster boyfriend H.M. Wynant and stripper Rita Moreno. A pre-stardom Bruce Lee shows up as a karate-happy thug who lays waste to Marlowe's office shortly before suffering a spectacular demise.
Fist of Fury (The Big Boss) 1972
Bruce Lee kicked around Hollywood for years looking in vain for an American break when Hong Kong came calling. As Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet he had become an Asian star (the series was renamed for his character when it crossed the Pacific) and ripe for his own vehicle. This raw, low-budget effort, called The Big Boss in its native Hong Kong, is a generic revenge drama enlivened by Lee's intense screen presence and martial arts prowess.
He's a country boy who takes a job at a Thailand ice-packing plant and discovers it's a cover for heroin smuggling. Lee is held back through the first half of the film by a promise he made his sweet, gray-haired mom not to brawl (which means you have to wait to see him in action), but his indignation turns to fury as friends and coworkers disappear and the boss sends thugs to take care of the brooding, intense country boy. The final half of the film is a series of violent confrontations, culminating in a marvelously choreographed showdown at the ice plant.
Lean, mean Lee, with a physique that looked sculpted in bronze, became an overnight sensation with this film, breaking all Asian box-office records and starting an international kung fu craze, but none of the pretenders ever touched Lee's cool cinematic charisma or his martial arts grace.
Fist of Fury (The Chinese Connection) 1972
Bruce Lee's second blockbuster kung fu film "Jing wu men" (1972), is arguably his best movie and captures Lee at his most lethal, charismatic and heroic. Set in turn of the century Shanghai, Bruce Lee is the Chinese kung fu school's most promising student (Chen), and he returns home to find his Sifu (or Master) has died. A very upset Bruce refuses to accept his teacher's death, and his suspicions are further aroused by a hostile visit by members of the local Japanese Bushido school bearing a banner insinuating that the Chinese are the "sick men of asia".
Suffice to say, that getting on the wrong side of Bruce Lee is like sticking your hand into a hornets nest, and Bruce is shortly dishing out retribution against the bullying Japanese with his stinging fists and spinning kicks. Produced on a rather modest budget by Golden Harvest Productions, "Fist Of Fury" relies on a relatively simple plot line, however Lee demonstrates during the movie his acting depth and that he is equally capable of playing a lethal avenger, a broken hearted pupil and even a grinning, buffoonish telephone repairman. The film was also the first time Bruce showed off his prowess with a pair of nunchuka.....how many people after seeing this film ran out and bought a pair of nunchuka, and then proceeded to clobber themselves black and blue trying to imitate Lee's whirling technique ?
When "The Chinese Connection" aka "Fist Of Fury" was released in Hong Kong in 1972, it had an even greater box office impact than Lee's first kung fu spectacular "The Big Boss". Once again, Chinese film fans flocked in their thousands to see this handsome, virile and athletic Chinese actor who wasn't afraid to say he was proud to be Chinese, but more than that, he throttled his Japanese adversaries and made them respect him and his Chinese kung fu. And when Bruce goes strolling into a park and is denied entrance due to a sign saying "No Dogs or Chinese Allowed", he vents his anger on mocking Japanese students, and then splinters the sign with a leaping front kick. It's interesting to note that Bruce Lee had a similar effect on Chinese audiences, in much the same way that "blaxploitation" films of the same period hit the right note with African American audiences. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Bernie Casey were very similar to Bruce Lee....good looking, hard hitting tough guys who didn't take insults lying down, and they took a stand and fought back. No wonder highly popular kung fu and blaxploitation films often turned up on double bills across the USA in the mid 1970's !
There is also an interesting story regarding the USA release title/s of Bruce's first two kung fu films. After the huge success in 1973 of "Enter The Dragon" in the USA, National General released Bruce Lee's three prior kung fu films, but there was a mix up in the titles. Bruce's first big success was "Tang shan da xiong" (1971), about an ice factory being used for heroin smuggling, and with the success of the Gene Hackman film "The French Connection", it was decided to release Bruce Lee's film about crooked drug dealers in the USA as "The Chinese Connection". However, somehow the prints of "Tang shan da xiong" and "Jing wu men" were mis-labeled, and "Jing wu men" was mistakenly released in the USA as "The Chinese Connection", and "Tang shan da xiong" was released as "Fists of Fury".
The DVD on Amazon with the red tinted cover is unfortunately the Region 1 CBS/FOX non-widescreen version, dubbed with English voices and only presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.
HOWEVER....over many many years, I've purchased and owned numerous versions of "The Chinese Connection" aka" Fist Of Fury" on VHS, LD and DVD....thus I think I've come across the finest example of them all. Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends have released a Special Collectors Edition DVD that is just jammed full of fantastic features. First off, it's a digitally remastered razor sharp print in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, secondly the soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio for BOTH the dubbed English language version, plus it includes the original Cantonese soundtrack. WOW....those kicks and punches now reverberate through my surround sound system with real cracks and thuds.
There's also a wonderful audio commentary by martial arts practitioner and cinema guru, Bey Logan, which is both informative and entertaining, an animated biography showcase, the HK & UK theatrical trailers, and four photo galleries. Plus to cap it all off, there are recent interviews with two of Bruce Lee' s co-stars from "The Chinese Connection" aka "Fist of Fury", Tony Liu and Max Lee. To the best of my knowledge, the Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends version is only available in Region 2 and Region 4 DVD, however that's no issue if you have a multi zone DVD player. So, if you want to see Bruce Lee's finest film, in its best presentation to date, then definitely hunt down the Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends DVD release...it's readily available on the Amazon UK website.
Way of the Dragon 1972
This is perhaps the best martial arts (from a basic, pure karate perspective) movie, from the man who had started the whole martial arts revolution on screen and made it a household name. There are probably many martial artists who are, and were better than Bruce Lee, but no one compares to him when it comes to understanding the arts and how to project it on screen. His sense of choreographing fight scenes is still unmatched in the world of cinematic martial arts. This is the one simple reason what makes 'Return of the Dragon' the best of Lee's movies. The climatic battle scene with Chuck Norris remains the best-choreographed karate demonstration on screen, so far. He was perhaps the only true movie martial artist who could take of his shirt and have the male audience want a body like him. Like, 'Enter the Dragon', this movie didn't have a host of big-name martial arts stars like Jim Kelly, Yang Ze, and others. It had a relatively unknown Chuck Norris (to the rest of the world) after his reign as a seven-time US Karate champion, but the movie did make Norris a household name. Return of the Dragon remains Lee at his best, without all the glamor and high budget extravaganza of Enter the Dragon. If you like Bruce Lee, and martial arts, the buck stops here.
Enter the Dragon 1973
The last film completed by Bruce Lee before his untimely death, Enter the Dragon was his entrée into Hollywood. The American-Hong Kong coproduction, shot in Asia by American director Robert Clouse, stars Lee as a British agent sent to infiltrate the criminal empire of bloodthirsty Asian crime lord Han (Shih Kien) through his annual international martial arts tournament. Lee spends his days taking on tournament combatants and nights breaking into the heavily guarded underground fortress, kicking the living tar out of anyone who stands in his way. The mix of kung fu fighting (choreographed by Lee himself) and James Bond intrigue (the plot has more than a passing resemblance to Dr. No) is pulpy by any standard, but the generous budget and talented cast of world-class martial artists puts this film in a category well above Lee's earlier Hong Kong productions. Unfortunately he's off the screen for large chunks of time as American maverick competitors (and champion martial artists) John Saxon and Jim Kelly take center stage, but once the fighting starts Lee takes over. The tournament setting provides an ample display of martial arts mastery of many styles and climaxes with a huge free-for-all, but the highlight is Lee's brutal one-on-one with the claw-fisted Han in the dynamic hall-of-mirrors battle. Lee narrows his eyes and tenses into a wiry force of sinew, speed, and ruthless determination. --Sean Axmaker
Review
So here it is... more than 30 years since the original theatrical release of Enter the Dragon, Warner Brothers releases the definitive 2 DVD Special Edition. It's a fine offering, long overdue, and considering the reasonable price, really offers a lot of nice extras, though most of them have been available elsewhere and have therefore been seen before (at least by rabid fans like me).
To start with, there is of course the movie Enter the Dragon (ETD) - Bruce Lee's magnum opus that was not released until after his unfortunate death in 1973, but sealed his immortality. The plot is simple enough - Bruce is a modern day Shaolin monk who is somehow enlisted by the British/Hong Kong government to infiltrate the island of Dr. Han (Shieh Kien), a crusty old renegade Shaolin gone bad who holds a yearly martial arts tournament to recruit talent for an international opium and prostitution racket. Roper (John Saxon), or "Loper" as Bruce says his name, is the established Hollywood caucasian star brought in because of reservations about Bruce's ability to carry the film, while Williams (Jim Kelly) is the token blaxploitation character who, this being the 70's, is kind of a Shaft/Superfly ass-kicker and, in the spirit of horror movies, is the first to die at the hand of Han - actually, at his artificial, interchangeable, iron, and oftentimes bladed hand. Even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, as young Hong Kong stuntment before they became stars in their own right, make infamous appearances as guys on the receiving end of Bruce's wrath. But the real point, or value, of this movie is that Bruce Lee shines throughout with his incredible fight sequences - he once again casts Bob Wall as whipping boy, hitting him with lightning fast punches, an insane skip side kick, and a great groin shot that still makes me wince despite hundreds of viewings; he has some fantastic weapons sequences with staff, double escrima sticks, and nunchaku; and he more than lives up to his reputation as the "man with three legs" as he demolishes armies of scrawny Asian guys whose gung fu is pitiful in comparison (check out the guy laughing in the background as Bruce connects three successive roundhouse kicks to one sap's head in the final mob fight). This was totally innovative and amazing in 1973 as the first ever martial arts movie made in Hollywood and despite all the subsequent copycats and modern day wire-fu flicks, no one has ever matched Bruce's intensity, charisma, and moves. There are some classic dramatic sequences as well with Bruce speaking English in his own voice (unlike all of his Hong Kong movies whose English versions are horribly dubbed), such as Bruce teaching a student and rapping him on the head as he expounds some homespun Zen philosophy or Bruce poignantly asking "why doesn't someone just pull a .45 and settle it?" Incidentally, this is the uncut version of the movie with some extra scenes not included in the theatrical release - basically Bruce talking quasi-philosophy (well, actually, it's someone else dubbing in Bruce's voice) with his Shaolin elder that he later recalls in the final fight sequence.
Of course, few people who buy this DVD don't know all this already, so what's new? Well, there is a commentary track by producers Paul Heller and Fred Weintraub - there's some interesting tidbits, but overall it's disappointingly uninspired. Then there's "Blood and Steel: The Making of Enter the Dragon" - a newly produced documentary short that includes some rare and new footage - a clip from Bruce's Hong Kong TV appearance in which he breaks 4 dangling boards; an interview with John Saxon, Lalo Schifrin, and the kid who gets smacked on the head by Bruce in the movie (now apparently a well-known Hong Kong director); and several minutes of on-location footage shot with Ahna Capri's handheld Super 8 camera that has never been seen before (it's short of amazing, but it's new and therefore gold to diehard fans). On disc 1 there's also a soporific Linda Lee (Cadwell) interview, another "making of" featurette with on-location footage shot by the AD, John Little's short "In His Own Words" featuring most of the Pierre Burton interview, and some old black and white movies (with sound) of Bruce kicking his buddies and hitting his heavy bag in his Los Angeles backyard - though these have all been previously available in one place or another (including the 25th Anniversary ETD DVD).
Disc 2 includes all of the TV and theatrical trailers for the movie (somewhat repetitive) and two previously released Warner Brothers documentaries - Warrior's Journey, which captures and knits together the lost Game of Death footage (GOD) in its available entirety, and Curse of the Dragon, a George Takei (Sulu of Star Trek fame) narrated documentary released around the time of Brandon Lee's death. These are both decent films, with Warrior's Journey a real gem with the GOD footage - the definitive way to watch Bruce in widescreen duel nunchakus with Dan Inosanto and try to deconstruct Kareem Abdul Jabbar's fighting style while sporting the iconic yellow and black tracksuit revived by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol 1. Curse of the Dragon is interview heavy (Kareem, Taky Kimura, Paul Heller, James Coburn, etc.) but also includes clips from Bruce's childhood movies, his Green Hornet screen test, his appearance at Ed Parker's Long Beach Karate touurnament, and some backyard work-out footage with Coburn. But once again, these films have already been released before on their own, so while decent, they're less than revelatory.
And so, what we have here is by far the best available version of ETD that now exists and probably ever will, complete with a lot of nice extras, most of which have been available elsewhere. It's nice to have it all in one package (there's no apparent need to sell Warrior's Journey as a standalone product anymore) at a reasonable price. On the other hand, Lee worshippers will no doubt wish that there was more - why not include the complete Green Hornet screen test, or a Jim Kelly or Jackie Chan interview or commentary track, the complete James Coburn training session footage, all of the Ahna Capri film, more ETD outtakes, or maybe even "Kentucky Fried Movie," a parody of ETD released many years ago... but what can you do - Bruce died 31 years ago and this is the legacy he left behind.
Game of Death 1978
Most Bruce Lee fans HATE this movie. They (or I should say "we", since I'm a Bruce Lee fan) note the use of very transparent doubling by Kim Tai Chung & others, the drastic change of plot from Lee's original story-line, & the use of footage from Lee's actual funeral in the film.
I understand why these fans dislike "Game of Death" so much & I respect their beliefs. However, I think these fans are reacting a bit too strongly.
There are some good points to this movie:
1. The high production values. Remember, this is 1978. Hong-Kong movies from THIS time period weren't what they are today. Jackie Chan was just starting to find his way with "Snake In The Eagle's Shadow" & with the exception of the Shaw Brothers, most Hong-Kong films from this time period were cheap, exploitation flicks. We're still a few years away from John Woo, Tsui Hark, or Ang Lee.
2. The John Barry musical score. Remember him? He's the one behind "The James Bond Theme."
3. The opening title credits by John Christopher Strong the Third. The floating games of chance, combined with John Barry's musical score give the film a "classy" action-movie feel, like a Bond film, quality-wise, that is.
4. The major American stars Dean Jagger, Hugh O'Brien, Gig Young, & Colleen Camp. Okay, this is supposed to be Hong-Kong & one reviewer pointed out that in real-life, the heads of Hong-Kong's papers & crime-syndicates would be Chinese. But again, this is 1978. Lee did want to break out onto the mainstream by working with major "American" actors. (Lee himself, of course was an American, since Lee was born in San Francisco, but raised in Hong-Kong.) "Enter The Dragon", while being an obvious James Bond swipe, was successful, not only because of Lee's great talent & charisma, but also because that film featured American stars at the time. (If you can consider John Saxon a "star", that is.)
5. The locker-room fight. No, that's not Bruce Lee fighting Bob Wall, it's doubles Kim Tai Chung & Chen Yao Po. But it still is impressive & for this scene, at least, the cutting in of clips from "Way of The Dragon" (or "Return of The Dragon") actually works.
6. The plot. Okay, some people don't like the story, but it's obviouse that writer Jan Spears based the story on the rumors surrounding Lee's death. (In truth, he died of an allergic reaction to the pain-pill Equagesic, causing his brain to swell with an edema. However, there were rumors, and that's all they were, just rumors, that he was killed by the Triads for refusing to give them a piece of his successful film-company.) The character of "Billy Lo", faking his death after an attempted murder, so that he can do battle with the syndicate, is based on the Bruce Lee MYTH. (Kind of like the way the 1957 Elvis vehicle "Loving You" is based on the Elvis Presley myth.)
I'm not arguing with the fans who hate this movie. They are fans of a true innovative genius of the martial-arts & so I can't say that they are wrong. However, the REAL script & missing additional footage from Lee's original "Game of Death" wasn't uncovered until the mid-1990's. I'm not saying Raymond Chow & Robert Clouse weren't thinking of money when they "finished" "Game of Death." (After all, the film industry is a business.) But I don't see an exploitation picture when I watch "Game of Death." Instead, I see a well-intentioned (if somewhat misguided) tribute to the genius of Bruce Lee.
P.S. To see what Bruce Lee intended for his original version of "Game of Death", watch "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey." This documentary has a detailed rendering of Lee's script outline, as well as over 30 minutes of completed footage for the film's finale.
A Warriors Journey - Documentary on Bruce Lee 2001
Bruce Lee's life, philosophy, and final film are examined in this reverent documentary, which traces the master's path through the development of his own style, his battles with mainstream Hollywood and martial arts traditionalists, and his emergence as the world's top box-office draw. Just as interesting as Lee's life is the chance to see lost footage from The Game of Death, Lee's final, unfinished film.
Outtakes offer the opportunity to see Lee's perfectionism in action, and the reconstructed storyline reveals how Lee's personal martial arts philosophy shaped the film. And yes, there is a spectacular nunchakau fight. Interviews with Lee and those close to him highlight his energy, intelligence, and remarkable charisma.
Fans of Lee will welcome this new insight into his filmmaking, and those unfamiliar with his life and work will come away with a new respect. The DVD includes a Lee filmography, the theatrical trailer for The Game of Death, and audio commentary by the director. --Ali Davis
Summary
Bruce Lee was an enigmatic, legendary figure at the time of his death in 1973. His popularity has never waned and this 2001 documentary on the black belt movie star attempts to explain some of his magnetic appeal. Included in this biographical film is footage of The Game of Death, the film that Lee was involved in at the time of his death. Pieced together by Lee aficionado John Little, the film's finale is a flurry of images of the master in action for over 30 minutes.
Review Comment
The real gem of this documentary comes at the end. For the first time. The full thirty minutes of Bruce's lost footage for the Game of Death is revealed and let me tell you it's glorious to behold. These thiry minutes featuring some of the greatest martial arts I've ever seen on film. If there ever was any reason to think that Bruce Lee was the master it's proven in this footage. Had he lived to finish the film it could of possibly been his masterpiece.
Game of Death II 1981
Review I
Like most kung-fu movies, it is known by another name: Goodbye Bruce Lee. But here it has been edited and changed around. Goodbye Bruce Lee was a psuedo-documentary in which Bruce Li was introduced as the man who would complete Bruce Lee's unfinished movie Game of Death. There was even a short interview with Kareem Abdul Jabbar at the beginning, as well as some shots of Li working the high-bar, giving us a peek at his acrobatic skills. Then, mid-course through this documentary, a "movie" began, in which Li fought some crooks and eventually rescues his fiancee, who is held in a martial artist-filled pagoda.
This edit of Goodbye Bruce Lee features all of that, save for the Jabbar interview and the original narration, which have both been removed. Now it is made to resemble just a regular movie, and not a documentary at all. However the editing has left it very odd. For example, it still begins with Li working the high-bar. But instead of narration explaining who this man is, the theme music (a very Blaxploitation sounding song called "King of Kung Fu") plays relentlessly, and there is no dialog.
Then Li is taken to a producer's office, where he's told that he's been chosen to complete Bruce Lee's movie Game of Death. Li agrees, and the producers have him and his girlfriend sit down in a projection room, so they can show him "the portion of the movie that Bruce finished." The projectionist starts the movie and from there on we're into the New Game of Death. There is no more mention of Bruce Li and his girlfriend in the projection room. Sound confusing? It is.
As for the movie itself, it's confusing too - and I think this is mostly due to the English dubbing. Back when this was released, I think US distributors just tried to get the dialog to match the movements of the actors' mouths - they weren't so worried about accurately-translated dialog. And that really shows in this movie. Several times it's very obvious that the dialog has nothing to do with what's going on.
And as for the fighting, well it isn't that great. Bruce Li was no Bruce Lee. As if you didn't already know that.
There are some saving graces, though: the pagoda guardians are fairly interesting in a campy way, and Li does the best with what he's been given in this film. Two scenes that had me laughing: Li's brother discovers that his apartment has been trashed as the opening chords of the James Bond theme blast on the soundtrack. And two, Li walks into his trashed home, steps into a room, and steps back out in the black and yellow tracksuit that the real Bruce Lee wore in his Game of Death.
Review II
Game of Death II (aka Tower of Death) is a dichotomy of a film. It is a Bruceploitation film (though it is one of the better ones) and it is an exiting revenge flick. Raymond Chow had apparently not made enough money off of the insipid Game of Death and was slowly leaking "newly found" footage of Bruce so it was bound that he would create another film with spliced in footage, redubbed dialog and, of course, Bruce's namesake.
The first act of the movie is the least interesting and worst part of the film. Bruce Lee stars (posthumously edited in) as Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) who visits his friend Chin Ku (Hwang Jang Lee) who is currently beating up an under-classed challenger. After an reestablishment of friendship between the two (never a good sign in a Kung Fu film), he visits an abbot (Roy Chiao revisiting his role from Enter the Dragon so they can reuse and redub footage) to discuss about his contumacious brother Bobby Lo (Tong Lung who also starred in Game of Death).
Of course, the scenes that compromise the first act are not only exploitative of Bruce Lee they are also poorly done. The most obvious is that the backgrounds do not match between Bruce's footage and the new footage. Also check out the sculpted back muscles of Bruce and compare them to his double. It is not even close. The fight scenes with Bruce (and his double) do not flow well. However, anytime you see a fight scene and that Bruce (or his double) does a difficult move such as a flip you will notice that it is the incomparable Yuen Biao (he even has a small role toward the beginning.)
Bruce later visits the funeral of his friend Chin Ku and he is prevented from examining the body (this must mean something to the plot.) When the ceremony takes place a helicopter comes by and snags the coffin. For some strange reason, well to dispose of the fake Bruce character, he jumps on the coffin as it is flying away and is hit with a dart and falls to his death. This is absolutely absurd. Though this is not as bad as the 70s clothes at the funeral or the tacky real funeral footage of Bruce Lee that would come next.
Now the movie gets more interesting and less exploitative. Bobby learns of his brother's death from his father who tells him to meet Sherman Lan. Sherman tells him to go to the Palace of Death. Now this is an interesting place. It is owned by Lewis, played by Roy Horan who has been an executive at Seasonal, an actor who also acted in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, a student of Hwang Jang Lee and currently a lecturer at HK Polytechnic University; obviously his life is more interesting than this film. Bobby suspects Lewis as the culprit behind his brother's death. Lewis likes to eat raw meat, is surrounded by lions (who are fed the fighters that he defeats), Killer Peacocks and a one-armed valet (oh my). The one-armed assistant, a monk from the Fan Yu temple) does not seem that he could be of great use to Lewis, but Lewis says that he is faithful and he has known him for a long time (do not dwell on this fact because the absurdity of what happens later is quite hilarious). I really do not trust one-armed people in Hong Kong films unless they are played by Jimmy Wang Yu.
Lewis tells Bobby of a tower built by abbot Hung Kuang. However, it cannot be found above ground. The abbot had it built underground (this is a nice twist until you see how much they spent on the set design and how many levels there actually are). Obviously there is going to be a show down there with Bobby fighting however is behind all of this madness. I will not give it away (or tell what happens at the Palace of Death) but it is fairly obvious who it will be.
The final act of the film leads to some good fighting scenes, obviously with the help of action director Yuen Wo-Ping, as Bobby makes his way down the tower (try to see how many times Yuen Biao is used as a stunt double; hint check every other move Bobby makes). Most of the film is entertaining (not counting the irritating and unnecessary flashbacks). There is always going to be tackiness involved anytime you invoke Bruce Lee's inimitable name; but once the movie gets past that it is fun to watch. In fact it is the best Bruceploitation film out there -- though that does not necessarily mean that much.
The Bruce Lee legend never fades but it might surprise some to learn that among his legion of fans was Chairman Mao, who called him a hero.
Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and Bruce Lee the martial arts legend (1940-1973) both declared - in their unique ways - that the Chinese people had "stood up".
Mao made this proclamation on the founding of the People's Republic of China, on Oct 1, 1949, Lee said it in a cinematic way that needed no translation when he kicked and smashed a wooden panel bearing the words: "Chinese and dogs not allowed", one of the iconic scenes steeped in fiery nationalism from Fist of Fury.
The words are supposedly from notices at the entrance of public parks in colonial Shanghai, and have come to symbolize the country's humiliation.
It turns out the Great Helmsman was a huge fan of the kungfu legend.
The man who was Mao's hero
By 1974, Mao was diagnosed with a cataract and was advised by his doctors to refrain from reading. Thus he turned to movies. After a heavy dose of foreign biopics, such as those on Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon, he moved on to Hong Kong fare.
The task of collecting these films fell to Liu Qingtang, then deputy minister of the Ministry of Culture, a ballet dancer who shot to prominence by affiliating himself with Jiang Qing (Madame Mao) and starring in her "model repertory".
At that time there were no cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland. Liu flew down to Guangdong and sought the help of the local authority, but it had no recourse either. Finally, the Hong Kong bureau chief of Xinhua News Agency was summoned. He knew an attorney who was a friend of Sir Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong's movie mogul at the time.
Shaw was reluctant at first, it was said, fearing his films would be the target of mainland political campaigns. He relented, however, without knowing exactly who would be watching the movies. Among the prints on loan were three films starring Lee, then totally unknown to most mainlanders due to China's self-imposed isolation.
Reeve Wong, a noted film critic from Hong Kong, who shared the details with me, says there is one inaccuracy in the above account: Lee's main body of work was by Golden Harvest, a competitor of Shaw's studio. Wong says even so, Liu Qingtang insisted it was Shaw who loaned the movies. Here, Wong reasons that it could be a slip of the tongue, or Shaw's name stood for all the people who loaned films, because he had the biggest name.
Liu, who sat with Mao during the screenings, said he watched The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon. Mao would burst into eulogies when he got excited.
While watching Fist of Fury for the first time, Mao dissolved in tears, Liu recalled, and said "Bruce Lee is a hero!" Mao watched the film twice more. Liu said he did not know of any other movie that Mao viewed three times.
When it came time to ship the prints back to Hong Kong, nobody dared do so lest Mao got another urge to watch them. Only after he was terminally ill were two of the movies returned.
Think of it, had Mao publicized his approbation, Lee would have instantly become an exalted figure like Lei Feng, the good Samaritan every Chinese student was encouraged to imitate.
But Lee did not need Mao's help. He became more than just a national hero, transcending geopolitical boundaries. As Mao correctly observed, Lee's movies portray the fight between good and evil and Lee invariably embodied the good. That's something everyone can relate to.
A few years ago I was asked by a film magazine to name the biggest Chinese film star of all time. After a long period of deliberation, I picked Lee. Agreed, he was not the best thespian, nor the best looking, and he had a very limited oeuvre. Yes, he was a brilliant kungfu fighter, but we trained them by the busloads in martial arts schools or opera academies, didn't we? But Lee had an appeal that went beyond the screen, or kungfu for that matter. He personified an aesthetic that shattered the stereotype of the Asian male.
It is very difficult for an Asian man to take the center stage in Hollywood productions, which shape public consciousness on a global scale. In the early years, Asian male roles were portrayed by non-Asians who resorted to painting their face yellow, slanting their eyes and adding buckteeth. Asian females had a relatively easier time of it compared with their male counterparts. Although their roles were highly restricted, they at least got to impart exotic beauty. Men were relegated to nerds, axiom-spewing sages or bad guys.
Even if you take into account the accomplishments of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun-fat, the situation is not much better. They are niche players with obvious limitations. And none of them project such a robust image of the Asian male as Lee did. (Japan's Toshiro Mifune, an Akira Kurosawa regular, had an opportunity to do so, but he rarely strayed from period dramas, which were too overblown to be a role model for contemporaries.)
Lee combined dexterity with a virility that busted the hoary stigmas of the Asian male. Alas his reign was too short-lived.
There is a new biopic of Lee in his youthful days, Bruce Lee, My Brother. Interestingly, the filmmakers dug out details of his life that contradicted his public persona. For example, he suffered from severe myopia. (Can you imagine Bruce Lee wearing a pair of thick glasses?) As a teenager, he was sometimes shy and would rather dance with his brother than ask the girl he had set his eyes on. Of course, tales of his street fighting are even more legendary.
Lee's screen debut was in 1950 with The Kid. I saw the movie and he was so good it is no exaggeration to say he was a child star on a par with the best in the world. In 1957, he played the idealistic younger brother in Thunderstorm, adapted from the classic play, still the stepping-stone for many a young thespian hoping for a breakthrough. It is not easy to catch snippets of Lee's early movies, but they show Lee with multi-faceted talents. Given proper guidance, he could have become Hong Kong's king of drama.
I was also surprised when I heard Lee speak English - in documentaries of course. Sure, he was born in San Francisco, but he was 3 months old when he headed to Hong Kong and only returned to the United States when he was 18. I can only say he was a quick learner.
In terms of cinematic charisma, Lee was in a league of his own. His best-known work was made in Hong Kong but gained an unprecedented following worldwide. He did something nobody had done before and nobody in Chinese cinema has surpassed since. The Chairman was spot on when he declared Lee "a hero".
]]>10 Famous Chinese Female Movie Starshttp://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2010/12/2/10-famous-chinese-female-movie-stars.htmlZhou Xiaosui2010-12-01T21:20:18Z2010-12-01T21:20:18Z
10 Famous Chinese Female Movie Stars
(There are videos for each actress, please allow time for the page to download, it is worth the wait)
1. Ruan Linyu (1910-1935)
Ruan’s virtuoso acting talent brought her universal acclaim both in the film world and among the Chinese cinema-going public. The first of her 29 starring roles was the 1927 film, The Couple in Name. During her short life Ruan played women from all social backgrounds, breaking the tradition of stylized roles and bringing Chinese cinema into the realm of social realism. Her most acclaimed performance was in the movie Goddess, in which she plays a woman forced into prostitution to support her son. Socially shunned and exploited to the point of madness she is eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for striking out at her tormentor. Cineastes in the east and west agree that Ruan’s performance in this silent movie is as outstanding today as it was in 1934. Her every gesture and facial nuance is loaded with expression that still has the power to mesmerize the most sophisticated of film goers and critics. As Australian film writer Lesley Chow says in an article in Bright Lights Film Journal, “This is an actress who shows excitement down to the curl of her fingers, and whose face reveals every kind of mercurial change.” Ruan’s suicide just one year after she starred in Goddess constituted an indictment of media persecution as well as a tragic loss to world cinema.
2. Butterfly Hu, (1907-1989)
A contemporary of Ruan Lingyu, Hu's acting career started at the end of the 1920s. Having successfully maintained her star status in the transition from silent movies to talking pictures, she was at the top of her profession in the 1930s and 1940s and retired in 1967. Hu starred in China's first talking picture, Songstress Red Peony in 1931. In it she plays a goodhearted but simple woman incapable of retaliating against her husband's abusive behavior, instead unquestioningly accepting it out of a sense of duty and lack of alternatives. Hu's most acclaimed role is in the 1933 film Twin Sisters, in which she portrays twins separated at birth, reared in entirely different environments and consequently with completely different characters. It is regarded as her best film. Hu's other roles include maid, loving mother, teacher, actress, prostitute, factory worker, farm girl – every type of woman in China at that time. Hu Die is rare among film stars in having both a successful film career and family life. After retiring from public life in 1967 she emigrated to Canada, where she died of natural causes in 1989.
3. Bai Yang (1920-1997):
Bai Yang rose to fame in the 1936 movie Crossroads, one of the genre of that time that made explicit references to the Japanese occupation. She features in the romantic sub-plot wherein Zhao (played by Zhao Dan) falls in love with a young textile factory technician Yang Yiying (Bai Yang) not realizing that she is his hated rooming-house next-door neighbor. Bai Yang convincingly portrays in this film the image of a naive but ambitious young woman, full of hopes and dreams. Her finest role is generally regarded as that of Xiang Lin Sao in the 1956 film adaptation of Lu Xun’s short story New Year Sacrifice. Her later roles, in such films as For the Sake of Peace, Jin Yuji and Dongmei epitomize the grace, strength and refinement of Eastern women.
4. Shang Guan Yun Zhu (1922-1968):
Petite, and never a beauty, Shangguan Yunzhu’s vitality and ability to imply a host of emotions, through a slow blink or slight turn of the head, nevertheless captivated her audience. In Xie Jin’s groundbreaking film Stage Sisters of 1964 Shang took the role of Shang Shuihua, a fading star of Shaoxing opera whose public had abandoned her. Her tragic portrayal of a woman left behind in one of China’s many tides of change merits her a place among China’s finest exponents of critical realism. But Shangguan Yunzhu’s stardom came to a tragic end, when she, like Ruan Lingyu, took her own life.
(This Video is downloaded from China, so it may be a little slow - it is in Chinese, but the film is very interesting)
5. Zhou Xuan (1920-1957):
Zhou Xuan, born Su Pu in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, rose above her miserable childhood to become one of China’s most popular singing and acting performance artists. Zhou never recovered from the pain of losing touch with her blood parents, having been sold as a child by a drug-addict uncle and eventually adopted by the Zhou family. In 1931 Zhou joined the Bright Moon Song & Dance Troupe in Shanghai, and stole the show in her leading role in Express Train. The vulnerable quality of her exquisite vocals soon made Zhou one of the most successful and enduring recording artist of the gramophone era. The Chinese public, having taken her to their hearts, voted her top of the ten best singers China in 1934 in the Shanghai TV network Golden Voice singing competition. Zhou’s starring role as Xiaohong in Yuan Muzhi’s Street Angel -- a comment on the plight of women in an overtly patriarchal society -- established Zhou as an accomplished actress as well as singer. After the September 18 incident in 1931, when the Japanese invaded northeastern Shenyang and prepared to set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, Zhou performed in the grand modern drama, Safeguard Lugou Bridge. She later traveled with the Shanghai Drama Group to the Philippines on a morale-boosting tour. Zhou returned to Shanghai in 1950. She spent her remaining years in and out of mental institutions, and died in 1957, possibly from encephalitis after suffering a nervous breakdown.
周璇 Zhou Xuan, 阮玲玉 Ruan Lingyu - 夜上海 Ye Shang Hai (Nightlife in Shanghai)
6. Qin Yi (1922- ):
Famous Pingju opera singer Xin Fengxia once described Shanghai-born actress Qin Yi as, “the most beautiful woman in Chinese performing arts.” During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Qin and her peers Bai Yang, Shu Xiuwen, and Zhang Ruifang were honored in Chongqing as China’s Top Four Actresses of stage and screen. Qin returned to Shanghai in 1947, after the war had ended. One of her early films is The Family with Chivalry, about an intelligence gatherer during the Japanese occupation. She came to fame in the movie Remote Love, about a university professor who attempts -- and fails -- to use his maidservant as proof of his theories about women. After the establishment of New China, Qin Yi worked at the Shanghai Film Studio and was later Deputy Head of the Group Arts Center. In 1983, she appeared in and was also artistic consultant for the TV series Under the Roofs of Shanghai. Qin has appeared in more than 30 films and is a perennial favorite among generations of movie fans.
Qin Yi singing Shanghai 1948
7. Liu Xiaoqing (1951- ):
Liu Xiaoqing has arisen from her humble origins and modest educational background in Sichuan to become one of China’s most successful actresses. She worked as farm laborer and publicity officer in the Chinese Army before joining the Chengdu Military Drama Group. Since then she has reigned as one of China’s most accomplished and well-paid actors. Among her best roles are her two portrayals in the early 1980s of the Empress Dowager Cixi in The Burning of the Imperial Palace and Reign Behind the Curtain. She also took the lead role in Furon Zhen's film adaptation of Gu Hua's comment on the excesses of the “cultural revolution,” Hibiscus Town. Liu is one of the generation to have survived the three-year ‘great leap forward’ (1959-61) and the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) and has maintained her stardom in the Reform and Opening Up period. Liu attributes her ability to perform a wide range of roles to having lived through China’s most significant modern-day social and political transitions. Although she recently scandalized the media when she was prosecuted for tax avoidance, it in no way tarnished her standing as an accomplished and magnetic performer of two decades.
The Secret History of Wu Zetian Cast: Yin Tao (殷桃), Liu Xiao Qing (刘晓庆)
8. Lin Qingxia (1954- ):
Taiwan actress Lin Qingxia (Brigitte Lin) had a 20-year career after shooting to fame at the age of 16 in the movie Outside the Window. At the age of 21 she played the army woman Yang Huimin, who swam across a river to give the national flag to eight hundred heroes, in the movie Eight Hundred Heroes of 1975, and a year later won the Best Actress award at the 22nd Asia Film Festival. Lin’s most popular roles have been in the film adaptations of Taiwan writer Qiong Yao’s Cloud of Romance and The Misty Moon which she co-starred with Qin Xianglin and her then off-screen lover Qin Han. In 1980, Lin decided to go to the US to improve her acting skills, and in 1984 began a course of study at San Diego University. She retired from movies after marrying a Hong Kong businessman in 1990.
绝美青霞系列-风沙(Brigittelin)
1970s love film MTV
9. Gong Li (1965- ):
Her professional partnership with Zhang Yimou established Gong Li as one of the first internationally acclaimed Chinese actresses. Over the course of four or five years she rose from being a drama student to the first Chinese actor ever to win an international film festival award. Gong Li distinguished her breadth of scope in Zhang Yimou’s The Story of Qiuju in 1992, about a woman farmer’s quest for justice. It won her the China Film Association Golden Rooster award and the Hundred Flowers award and also the Golden Lion award at the 49th Venice Film Festival. Gong holds France's Légion d'Honneur and was named in People Magazine as one of the world’s 50 most beautiful women. She won the Special Prize at the World Film Festival in Montreal, and has been a distinguished guest at the 51st Cannes Festival. The Oscar nominee is now chairwoman of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. She is also the image ambassadress for the French cosmetics company L’Oreal Paris.
Gong Li 鞏俐 - Tribute
Raise of the Red Lantern - Meishan Sings (1991)
The Story of Qiu Ju trailer
10. Zhang Manyu (1964- )
Hong Kong actress Zhang Manyu has an uncanny talent for highlighting the essential beauty of each woman, no matter how different, she portrays. Her role in Wong Karwai’s In the Mood for Love epitomized the suppressed passion and despair of an outwardly poised, eternally elegant Eastern beauty. In complete contrast was her part in the film Clean, which she made in 1994 with her former husband French director Olivier Assay, about a recovering heroin addict determined to win back the custody of her son after the death of her husband from an overdose. This performance won her the Best Actress award at Cannes, making her the first Asian actor ever honored at this most prestigious film festival. Zhang is also a Berlin Best Actress, a five-time Hong Kong Film Award and five-time Taiwan Golden Horse winner, and has won awards at the Asia Pacific Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival and the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival. Among her 70 film roles since starting her career in 1983, Zhang's portrayal of the brilliant, melancholic actress Ruan Lingyu in Center Stage, the vibrant quality of her role in Red Dust, and lust for life of her character in New Dragon Gate Inn stand testament to Zhang's emotional range and acting excellence.
Eileen Chang 张爱玲 was a Chinese writer. Her most famous works include Lust, Caution and Love in a Fallen City.
She is noted for writings that deal with the tensions between men and women in love, and are considered by some scholars to be among the best Chinese literature of the period. Chang's portrayal of life in 1940s Shanghai and occupied Hong Kong is remarkable in its focus on everyday life and the absence of the political subtext which characterised many other writers of the period. Yuan Qiongqiong is a Taiwanese author who draws inspiration from Eileen Chang. A poet and a professor at the University of Southern California, Dominic Cheung, said that "had it not been for the political division between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, she would have almost certainly won a Nobel Prize".
Chang's enormous popularity and famed image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, increasing reclusiveness, and ultimately her sudden death from cardiovascular disease at age 74. (Wikipedia)
Restricted in her homeland, she moved to the United States hoping to break through internationally, but she could not arouse the interest of publishers there.
“These manuscripts were meant to be her calling card,” Michael Duckworth, publisher of Hong Kong University Press, said of the two English-language novels released this year. “But she never made it in the New York publishing scene in the ’60s and ’70s.”
Mr. Duckworth added: “She was not just a brilliant Chinese writer, she also deserves credit as a thoughtful, provocative writer in English. It’s unique that a writer can be dominant in two languages.”
Blocked in China and a failure in the United States, Chang became increasingly isolated. When Chang died, all of her files were sent to Mr. Soong’s parents according to her wishes, even though she had not seen them for three decades. Stephen Soong died a year later and the documents languished in storage. Roland Soong had “no idea” that he would someday become a promoter of Chinese literature. He spent most of his adult life in New York, getting a doctorate in statistics and working for a research company. It was only when he returned to Hong Kong in 2003, after his mother suffered a stroke, that he was approached about making a film from one of Chang’s novellas.
He acknowledged that he had not read it. “So I dug out a copy of the old story in Chinese,” Mr. Soong said. “The first four pages are about some women playing mah-jongg. And I thought, ‘What kind of film is someone going to make out of this?”’ The result was “Lust, Caution,” a thriller set in wartime Shanghai that was so racy that it was given an NC-17 rating in the United States, which restricts the movie to viewers 18 and older.
In 1976, Eileen Chang's close friend, Stephen Soong, earnestly advised her not to risk her reputation as a cultural icon - and her position in the Taiwan literary market - by publishing an autobiographical novel entitled Little Reunion.
"You might not only lose your reputation, your livelihood in the Taiwan literary arena might end and the goodwill accumulated over many years might be swept away. I'm not saying this just to alarm you. I have a lot of experience in PR, I've seen a lot, and I'm not pulling these fears out of thin air."
Roland Soong, owner of the blog EastSouthWestNorth, and the executor of the estate of Eileen Chang, leads us into a closer look at Eileen Chang, bits of her personal life and the relationship she has with popular culture in the greater China.
Eileen Chang’s life in brief
Eileen Chang, or Zhang Ailing, (Sept. 30, 1920 – Sept. 8, 1995) is a famous Chinese writer. She also used the pseudonym Liang Jing. Chang first made her literary name known in the 1940s “island” Shanghai , when it was occupied by invading Japanese forces. Her work is known for its unique feminine elegance and classic beauty. Her amazing grasp of people’s psychology and her particular attitude towards life were seldom seen at the time. Her works frequently deal with the tensions in love between men and women.
Born in Shanghai to a renowned family, Eileen Chang’s paternal grandfather Zhang Peilun was son-in-law to Li Hongzhang, an influential Qing court official. Chang was named Zhang Ying at birth. Her family moved to Tianjin in 1922, where she started school at the age of four.
When Chang was five, her birth mother left for Britain after her father took a concubine and became an opium addict. Although she returned four years later, following her father’s promise to quit the drug and split with the concubine, a divorce could not be averted. Chang’s unhappy childhood in a broken family probably gave her later works their pessimistic overtone.
The family moved back to Shanghai in 1928. Two years later, Chang was renamed Eileen (her Chinese first name, Ailing, was actually a transliteration of Eileen) in preparation for her entry into the Saint Maria Girls’ School.
During her secondary education, Chang was already deemed a literary genius, and her writings were published in the school magazine. In 1939, she was accepted into the University of Hong Kong to study literature. She also received a scholarship to study in the University of London, though the opportunity had to be given up when Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in 1941.
Chang then returned to Shanghai. She fed herself with what she did best — writing. It was during this period when some of her most acclaimed works, including Qing Cheng Zhi Lian and Jin Suo Ji , were penned.
Chang met her first husband Hu Lancheng in 1943 and married in the following year. She loved him dearly, despite the fact that he was already married as well as having been labeled a traitor to the Japanese. When Japan was defeated in 1945, Hu escaped to Wenzhou, where he fell in love with yet another woman. When Chang traced him to his refuge, she realized she could not salvage their marriage. They finally divorced in 1947.
In 1952, Chang migrated to Hong Kong, where she worked as a translator for the American News Agency for three years. She then left for the United States in the fall of 1955, never to return to the mainland again.
In New York, Chang met her second husband, the American scriptwriter Ferdinand Reyer, whom she married in August 1956. Reyer was paralyzed after he suffered from strokes in 1961, while Chang was on a trip to Taiwan , and he eventually died in 1967. After Lai’s death, Chang held short-term jobs at Radcliffe College and UC Berkeley.
Chang relocated to Los Angeles in 1973. Two years later, she completed an English translation of The Biography of Hai Shang Hua (Hai Shang Hua Lie Zhuan ), a celebrated Qing novel written in the Wu dialect.
Chang was discovered dead in her apartment on Sept. 8, 1995. According to a will, she was to be cremated without a funeral. Her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
Eileen Chang’s main works :
Tao Hua Yun (The Wayward Husband ) Liu Yue Xin Niang (The June Bride ) Xiao Er Nu (Father takes a Bride ) Yi Qu Nan Wang Qing Cheng Zhi Lian (Love in a Fallen City ) Yuan Nu Hong Meigui Yu Bai Meigui (The Red Rose and the White Rose ) Ban Sheng Yuan (Yuan of Half a Life, also known as Eighteen Springs ) Jin Suo Ji (Record of a Golden Lock )
Directed by Jingle Ma (Butterfly Lovers), the historical action epic Mulan earned its place in the 2009 year-end lineup of Chinese blockbusters with its adrenaline-pumping war scenes and strong star power. After her turn as a willful warrior princess in Red Cliff, Vicki Zhao gender bends again as eponymous folk heroine Hua Mulan, the filial daughter who famously adopted male guise to take her elderly father's place in the battlefield. Defying her father's wishes, Mulan risks death to answer the conscription call in his stead. Faced with the dangers and heartaches of war, Mulan grows into a great warrior and general while working hard to keep her true identity a secret. The legend of Mulan has been adapted into numerous small and big screen productions including a Disney movie.
Aloys Chen, with whom Zhao paired in Painted Skin, plays the general who develops a strong camaraderie and ambiguous romance with Mulan. Hu Jun is charismatically over the top as the ruthless leader of the enemy army, and Jaycee Chan plays a free-spirited soldier. The unique supporting cast also includes Yu Rong Guang (Iron Monkey), CJ7 child actress Xu Jiao, Korean-American Mando-pop singer Nicky Lee, and Russian singer Vitas. Stephen Tung Wai provides the action direction for the film's impressive battle and combat scenes.
Blu-ray Edition comes with 107 minutes of English-subtitled special features including making of, music video, director and cast interview, unreleased scenes, and trailer.
]]>Ladislav Hudec: The Architect Who Made Shanghaihttp://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2010/9/9/ladislav-hudec-the-architect-who-made-shanghai.htmlZhou Xiaosui2010-09-08T22:39:23Z2010-09-08T22:39:23Z
Ladislav Hudec: The Architect Who Made Shanghai
The film “The Man Who Changed Shanghai” chronicles Hudec’s life and his impact on the cityscape during its most iconic period. In his 30-year career, all but one of Hudec’s 65 structures was in China.
Shanghai architecture is framed by its French Concession, the Bund’s neoclassical edifices, and Pudong, China’s own interpretation of the future.
Much of it draws reference from the architecture of Ladislav Hudec, a Slovak who arrived in Shanghai as a World War I refugee. Or was he Hungarian? (WSJ)
László was born in 1893 in Branska, Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Hudec studied architecture at the Royal University of Budapest.
In 1916 at only 23 years of Age, László Hudec was elected to the Royal Institute of Hungarian architects.
Before he arrived in Shanghai László enlisted in the Hungarian Army during the first world war, he became a liutenant but was quickly captured by the russians. He was sent to a prison camp in siberia, where he had to stay for two years. It was close to the chinese border and he jumped on a train from Vladivostok to China and got to Shanghai in 1918.
Hungarians as Shanghainese remember his name up until today (Hu De Ke in chinese) for his contributions to the city that was posed to be remembered well beyond his time.
His works included:The American Club (on Fuzhou Rd), The Normandie (now Wukang Mansion), the all famous park hotel, several residences on xinhua road, the old shanghai brewery.
An epic in every sense of the word, the first part of the major Chinese television drama Three KingdomsRomance of the Three Kingdoms novel from beginning to end, with a focus on legendary characters Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, Sun Quan, and Sima Yi. now arrives on DVD.
]]>Curse of the Golden Flowerhttp://www.kaixin4china.com/chinese-movies/2010/8/28/curse-of-the-golden-flower.htmlZhou Xiaosui2010-08-28T06:41:57Z2010-08-28T06:41:57Z
Curse of the Golden Flower
Curse of the Golden Flower, a fictionalized historical glimpse into the brutally complicated politics of Emperor Ping's (Chow Yun Fat) reign during the Tang Dynasty, shows the viewer just how far a megalomaniac must go to gain and retain power in medieval China. Lavish sets, massive ceremonial displays, and perversely fascinating battle scenes impress similarly to the special effects Americans have come to love and expect from Chinese action films like Zhang Yimou's previous House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. An intricate plot involving the Emperor's wife, Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) and their three sons, Crown Prince Xiang, Prince Jie, and Prince Cheng, most closely follows the Empress's secret plan to force abdication upon her corrupt husband as revenge for his slowly poisoning her with Black Fungus tea. Opening on the eve of the Chysanthemum Festival, 928 A.D., the Empress obsessively embroiders gold chysanthemums to adorn her army's uniforms while hatching plans with Jai to overthrow the Crown Prince for control of the throne. Meanwhile, a side plot develops as the Emperor's ex-wife and mother to Crown Prince Yu reemerges as Yu's lover. By the time the Festival occurs, family members are pitted against each other in a King Lear-ian web of lies that can only result in demise. The most sophisticated narrative aspect of Curse of the Golden Flower is that as the royal family crumbles, the Emperor's death grip on China remains unwavering. Gorgeous scenes set in the palace and costume design displaying China's upper class decadence cannot fail to entertain. The paradox between good and evil, here, is highlighted by how the Emperor successfully rules despite, and because of, his utter cruelty. (Amazon)
Xiao Yang, 31, director of the hit online film Old Boys, prepares music in a studio in Beijing on Tuesday. The film has been viewed online more than 26 million times since its Oct 28 debut.
