June 14th, 2007 by admin
盛夏光年 (2006)
Leste Chen . Taiwan 2006. 1h35m. 35mm. Mandarin with English subtitles. 15.
Cast: Bryant Chang, Chang Hsiao-chuan, Kate Yeung
4:30
Royston Tan. Singapore 2005. 1h33m. 35mm. Korean, English and Mandarin with English subtitles. 18
Cast: Kim Young-jun, Yuan Xiao Li
Red Doors
Georgia Lee. USA 2005. 1h32m. 35mm. 15
Cast: Tzi Ma, Jacqueline Kim, Elaine Kao, Freda Foh Shen.
March 10th, 2007 by Lu Pin
I want to praise Edinburgh’s Cinema China 07’s organisers to choose Centre Stage (a.k.a. The Actress) as the opening film. Not only this gives them a good reason to invite Maggie Cheung, of whom I am a fan, to come to the festival, but also this is a fitting opening for a festival that celebrates a century of Chinese cinema.
I first watched this film more than ten years ago in Hong Kong. At that time I was already interested in the history of Chinese cinema and had begin working on my project Chinese Movie Database. The impact of this film on me, looking back now, was that it made me realise that the early (1930s) Chinese films could be attractive and sexy. The beautiful and enigmatic Ruan Lingyu became this focal point of my interest in early Chinese cinema. This film tells the history of the Shanghai era of silent cinema through Ruan Lingyu, with great passion. I guess there must have been some influence from Peggy Chiao, the film producer and critics from Taiwan, who provided the concept of this film. We saw the director and actresses interview the characters they played, and be interviewed. Scenes of the lost films were re-constructed. And when Zhang Damin visited Ruan Lingyu’s new home unexpectedly, I could almost see a glimpse of The Goddess.
February 26th, 2007 by Lu Pin
I’m very proud of the fact that I had watched Fei Mu’s 1948 masterpiece Spring in a Small Town (小城之春) in cinema. I can’t help keeping telling my friends at every opportunity that how I watched it with excitement, how I love this film and how I fell for the leading actress instantly. My friends probably have been tired of my bragging, half of them having no faintest idea what I talked about.
I watched Spring in a Small Town Hong Kong, during a retrospective of Fei Mu’s work held in Hong Kong Arts Centre in mid-90s. That was a rare event, because this movie disappeared from the public sight after initial release in Shanghai and was only re-discovered in 80’s, which makes it extremely difficult to locate a copy. The copy I watched was in excellent condition though. After the screening,
I approached Fei Ming Yi, the master’s daughter and one of the organisers of the retrospective, asking her where she got the copy. She said she borrowed it from Beijing Film Archive and, certainly used her influence to get the deal, had to ‘garantee the return on my life’. Afterwards, I always take it as a badget of honour as being in that cosy small theatre that evening.
There have since been VCDs and DVDs of the movie available. But nothing compares with impact of watching the film on big screen. This film is made for cinema, although it tells a story only involves five characters in a small town.
It has now been regarded as one of the best Chinese films ever made, an excellent and innovative fusion of Chinese literal and opera tradition and western cinema language.
So you can imagine my surprise and delight to see Spring in a Small Town features in the programmes of Chinese Cinema 07 organisied by Edinburgh Unversity and Filmhouse cinema. Claimed to be ‘UK’s the biggest ever festival of Chinese film’, it will show about 30 Chinese films from 1940’s to the latest - a preview of Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower, not mention the presence of Maggie Cheung. For those 1940’s films though, such as Ruan Lingyu’s Goddess (with a specially-commissioned musical accompaniment conducted by my friend Kimho Ip), Crows and Sparrows, and Spring in a Small Town, this is indeed a chance not to miss. So cancel your another engagement, travel by air, land and sea, and come to Edinburgh in the spring.
The article first appears on WaterInk
February 18th, 2007 by Lu Pin
17 Febuary 2007. Chinese film, Tuya’s Marriage, directed by Wang Quan’an, won the Best Film Golden Bear Award, the top award, at 57th Berlin Film Festival, on the Chinese New Year’s Eve. The Golden Bear is awarded to the producer Le Wang.
Tuya’s Marriage tells a story about a woman’s attempt to find a new husband who must also take care of her current disabled husband, starring Yu Nan.
January 30th, 2007 by Lu Pin
Ghosts (2006)
Director: Nick Broomfield
Cast: Ai Qin Lin, Zhan Yu, Wei Zhe
I saw the poster of Nick Broomfield’s Ghosts in Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema some time ago. There have been more press coverage when it released recently, but I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to watch this film. In the evening of 5th Febuary 2004, I was travelling on a train from Manchester to Edinburgh along the west coast line. As in early Febuary, it was dark outside. When I arrived home I heard the news about the missing Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay. The next day it was clear 23 Chinese illegal immigrants were found dead or missing there. Looking at the map, I suddenly realised that on that cold Febuary night, when my train was travelling in Lancashire countryside, I was not too far away from my fellow country men and women who were about to be swallowed by the rising tide.
January 26th, 2007 by Lu Pin
Two Chinese films have entered official competition of 57th Berlin Film Festival which will be held the second week of Febuary 2007.
Tuya’s Marriage (图雅的婚事 tu2 ya3 de hun1 shi4), directed by Wang Quanan (王全安), is about a woman named Tuya in the northern rural China tries to find a new husband who can allow her to continue to support her current, disabled husband.
While Lost in Beijing (苹果 ping2 guo3), directed by Li Yu (李玉), tells the story of several characters in this huge metropolis, starring Tony Leung Ka Fai (梁家辉) and Fang Bingbing (范冰冰). The director said she has to hurry up the post-production in order to show it at Berlinale.
Another Chinese director, Zhang Lü (张律) directs a South Korean-France co-production Hyazgar (Desert Dream). His previous work, Grain in Ear (芒种), is international acclaimed.
January 18th, 2007 by Lu Pin
Director Tsai Ming-Liang’s new film I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone is about to release in Taiwan. However Taiwan’s Government Information Office (GIO) censored the poster as well as classifed the movie as Restricted (only 18 and over are permitted to watch the movie), which caused objection from the director and supporters.
GIO’s ruling means the poster in question, which is from one scene of the movie, is prohibited from being displayed in public. GIO cited the reason as the image on the poster may encourage the recent trend that teenages take pictures of their own body parts and post them on to the internet. GIO also classified the movies as Restricted because of some explicit sexual scenes.
December 28th, 2006 by Lu Pin
An earthquake in the Pacific could affect Chinese Movie Database’s visit number, and that’s what just has happened. Most of the visitors of Chinese Movie Database come from Asia, while the server of dianying.com is located in the US. An earthquake that struck off Taiwan’s southern coast, although did not claim many lives, damaged the submarine telecommunication cable connecting Asia and US as well as Europe. The authorities of Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Korea all reported interruption of telecommunication and reduced capacity.
So on the pageviews of the Jianti (simplified Chinese) version of Chinese Movie Database was down from 20k to 5k, while the Fanti (Traditional Chinese) version was down to half, from 8k to 4k. The English version, which is used mainly by visitors from outside Asia, was not greatly affected.
It’s said repairing the cable could take weeks, but most of the usage should be back to normal within days. I’m looking forward to that.
December 6th, 2006 by Lu Pin
How is Your Fish Today?
UK 2006 In Putonghua with English subtitles
director: Guo Xiaolu
writer: Rao Hui, Guo Xiaolu
Screenwriter Rao Hui is writing a script for a thrill for a TV movie. His protagonist is a young man of similar age, Lin Hao, who kills his girlfriend in an arguement and flees from his southen hometown, travels across China on train, briefly stops in Beijing and meets a unnamed girl, then sets off towards the northest point of China, a village called Mohe, a place romanticised for this tranquility and beautiful arora in Chinese school textbook. Meanwhile, Rao Hui wanders around his Beijing flat, tries to keep his plant and gold fish alive, drinks tea, and watchs pirated western movie DVDs. While deciding the fate of Lin Hao, he decides to travel to Mohe himself by train. Will Rao Hui, and Lin Hao, find the answer in Mohe?
December 1st, 2006 by Lu Pin
There is a sudden surge of interest in the actress Zhang Yu lately. Although actress Zhang Yu (张瑜) was famous in the 80’s of China and no doubt a screen lover of many Chinese young men of the time, who subsequently came back to the screen after marriage, she’s not the person the search is aimed for.
The person at the center of attention is the actress Zhang Yu (张钰), an actress who is, let me put it this way, still looking for her first breakthrough. Since 2000, she’s appeared in several TV series playing minor part. Not many people noticed her, until now. She claimed recently in her blog that several persons in the industry demand “sex for part” and their promises have never materialised after the sex. To prove her point, she did the fasionable thing. She posted a couple of ’sex videos’ on the internet, along with ‘a letter to the nation’. And she promised there are more.
What’s interesing is that in the YouTube age, the preceived victims of such scandals now can fight back with the shaky, blurred and pixelated videos, a suitable weapon for the industry. For Zhang Yu (张钰), she is having her 15 minutes fame now. There is even a blog entry dedicated to document her appearance in every TV series she’s in. A sort of fan site really. Whether she will get a major part in a movie/TV series after all these is quite doubtful.
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