China’s Film Stars are spread out all over Asia! I decided to do a quick photo post to locate all of them…first is Pusan, because not that many Chinese people that went, and also it came first chronologically, so it’s easier to just get it out of the way.
The Message cast in Pusan: Alec Su, Huang Xiaoming, and Li Bingbing
I’m unfamiliar with Fashion Weekly (风尚志) magazine, but I guess these are for Wheat promotions? Wheat’s not doing very well at the box office, trumped not only by Jian Guo Da Ye (The Founding of a Republic) and Feng Sheng (The Message), but also by My Fair Gentleman, which is getting very positive reviews for both the movie and the acting from Sun Honglei and Kelly Lin (Lei Zu He!), and a sequel is already in the works.
I’m again backlogged with posts I want to do, so going to try to catch up from this past week and may be going in reverse chronological order.
I knew I had forgotten at least one movie in my previous post, and Wheat’s one of them. It also opens on the 28th; My Fair Gentleman has some really stiff competition. This is the comeback movie of director He Ping, whose last movie was 2004’s well-received Warriors of Heaven and Earth.
Huang Jue is probably unknown to anyone who doesn’t follow Chinese dramas, but he gained a popularity boost this yearwith the series Qing Cheng Zi Lian. He’s always had some fame though. His last film was rock movie Air Diary with Xu Fei (yeah…I had no idea either, but I like the theme song). And I’m sure you know Fan Bingbing from a gazillion different things this year . I wonder if she is tired of shooting movies or photoshoots yet. Probably not. I wish I had her energy.
Trailer for wheat, a quote from Huang Jue on Fan Bingbing, and more pics behind the cut.
Summer films are upon us, and leading ladies are not only arriving in theaters but hitting the magazine stands in China, so let’s take a look them, and the mags themselves because these shoots were much nicer than the last set I posted. Wang Luodan, in her film debut does a small shoot for Elle, while Zhang Ziyi gets the cover. Other leading ladies are the usual crowd, Fan Bingbing in Harpaar’s Bazaar and Sun Li in L’Officiel, in futuristic looking shoots. Jacqueline Li Xiaolu does Hotspot, my fav weekly magazine. Also looking gorgeous are the contestants for Dragon TV’s show Dragon Angels, which promises future leading ladies.
Cast of Sophie's Revenge working the red carpet.
This is one of the two A-List film festivals in Asia, the other being Tokyo. Despite starting late (1993), organizers have been working hard to make this as prestigious as possible, a subjective measure, and it does seem to be a step up from last year with Danny Boyle heading the jury, and various other stars walking the red carpet. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of these pictures already, sorry for the lateness! I’ll post on the SIFF again later.
L-R Ruby Lin, Yao Chen, Zhang Ziyi, and Peter Ho
The Chinese/Taiwanese cast members of Sophie’s Revenge minus Fan Bingbing who was probably busy with one of her six upcoming movies, helped launch the official site for the movie yesterday.
Included on the websites is Sophie’s Revenge first teaser trailer. This was released at Cannes, and it did a pretty good job because the rights were sold to five countries. Although it’s not featured here, Cao Xuanbin will be writing the theme song. Can’t wait to see how will make it reflect the feel of this film.
A few more pictures from the launch and some new HQ stills from the movie below. The latter is my real reason for making this post.
Fan Bingbing recently graced the cover of ELLE magazine, who labeled 2009 as the “Year of Fan Bingbing Movies”, a very apt description. Fan Bingbing starred or will be starring in 7 movies: Shinjuku Incident, Sophie’s Revenge, Wheat, Bodyguards and Assassins, East Wind. Rain, Future Cops and an unnamed one. She’ll also be starring her own production, the drama ,The Last Night of Madame Chin.
We’re including in this post as well, several other photoshoots that we found pretty, but were too lazy to make their own separate posts for. There’s He Zhuoyan who idarklight likes, from the upcoming HSDS adaptation, Sun Feifei, a tv actress who most people seem to like, and Ma Tianyu who we’re curious to see act and pass judgement on. And then there’s Zhang Ziyi, and the director/cast for Nanking! Nanking! who we thank for already giving us ample to pass judgement on.
Nicholas Tse, who just released his purported “last” album, has begun filming for his new movie, Bodyguards and Assassins, set in Hong Kong during the Qing Dynasty. Despite playing a rather bottom of the rung character, who is billed as “the rickshaw driver”, he is the lead of this star-filled, big-budgeted tale about many who protected Dr. Sun Yat-sen during a trip the famed leader took to Hong Kong in October of 1905 (the film title in Chinese is Besieged in October).
This summer, fight for love. This is the tagline issued by the first poster for the romantic-comedy Sophie’s Revenge, officially proclaiming that the movie, even though still in post-production, is already entering into the promotional stage.
When two-time Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone was invited for a photoshoot of iLOOK’s issue titled “The World is flat,” he requested to work with a Chinese actress that he admired, and sent her picture to the editor-in-chief Hong Huang. That actress was Fan Bingbing. (more…)
