News Links - 4/9/08

[dleedlee]

Stanley Tong, Malaysian investor to build film studios in China
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/ ... tudios.php
Lion Group envisions Dream City
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111798 ... id=18&cs=1
China Hollywood dreams of major hits in film world
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 80409&fc=4

Miriam Yeung Quits TVB
http://www.batgwa.com/news.php

Strange chemistry between Rene Liu, Louis Koo
Run Papa Run
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 79/1/.html

Duo to spice up "Dim Sum Funeral" set
Bai Ling to play lesbian, cast includes Russell Wong, Kelly Hu
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5865/1/

Reviews
"Fine, Totally Fine" (Japan)
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5863/1/
"Adrift in Tokyo" (Japan)
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5864/1/
"Kung Fu Dunk"
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5862/1/

"The Guard Post" tops Korean box office
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5866/1/

More female leads in war epics
An Empress and the Warriors
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies
Reel femmes fatales
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies

Cecilia Cheung visit Nic Tse in Thailand
Shooting Storm Riders 2
http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/h/p/2008-04-08 ... 7767.shtml

Vivian Chow Helps Poverty Alleviation in Yunnan
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/04/09/176@343629.htm
Vivian Chow Shares Memories Of China
http://www.batgwa.com/story.php?id=761

Tang Wei in Paris


http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/m/p/2008-04-08 ... 7855.shtml

Li Bingbing (Forbidden Kingdom)

http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/m/2008-04-06/14381975585.shtml
Jackie as 80 year-old in The Forbidden Kingdom

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/p/2008-03-26 ... 2797.shtml

Louis: Mum's Stopped Telling Me To Marry
http://www.batgwa.com/story.php?id=763

Vivian Hsu Shows Sexy Side
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/04/09/176@343605.htm

Maya Karin in Duyung (Mermaid)
Having mermaid costume glued to her was sheer HELL
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/story ... 49,00.html?

Joanna Wang Taiwan New Jazz Star Starts from Beijing
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/04/08/1261@343385.htm

2008 Music Chart Awards Unveiled in Beijing

http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/04/09/176@343552.htm

Beauty's Traffic Direction in Chongqing Helps Drivers Mind Behaviors
http://english.cri.cn/3100/2008/04/08/168@343394.htm

[JohnR]

Taiwan singer and actress Vivian Hsu shoots a new series for a photo album, revealing her feminine and sexy side.

That's the only side she has!

[dleedlee]

Joan Chen wrote an editorial in the Washington Post today and gave her views on the Olympic torch protests and associated brouhaha:

Let the Games Go On
I was born in Shanghai in 1961 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. During my childhood, I saw my family lose our house. My grandfather, who studied medicine in England, committed suicide after he was wrongly accused of being a counterrevolutionary and a foreign spy.

Those were the worst of times.

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China. Changes that few ever thought possible have occurred in a single generation. A communist government that had no ties to the West has evolved into a more open government eager to join the international community.

A state-controlled economy has morphed into a market economy, greatly raising people's standard of living. It's clear that the majority of the Chinese people enjoy much fuller, more abundant lives today than 30 years ago. Though much remains to be done, the Chinese government has made rapid progress in opening up and trying to be part of the international community.

Last month I went to China and spent four weeks visiting Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. The people I met and spoke with are proud and excited about the Beijing Games. They believe that the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to showcase modern China to the rest of the world. Like many Americans, most Chinese people are disturbed by the recent events in Tibet. But after watching the scenes of violence and arson by the rioters, the Chinese believe that the government is doing the right thing in cracking down to restore order.

The Olympic torch is in California and is to be carried through San Francisco today. In a resolution criticizing China, Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said that demonstrating against the torch relay would "provide the people of San Francisco with a lifetime opportunity to help 1.3 billion Chinese people gain more freedom and rights." To his credit, Mayor Gavin Newsom did not sign Daly's resolution.

This statement could not be further from reality. For one thing, the Chinese are a proud people. They want freedom and greater rights, but they know they must fight for them from within. They know that no one can grant them freedom and rights from afar. The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past, and Chinese people do not want their domestic policies to be dictated by outside powers. They also do not want the United States to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles accomplished nothing. A U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies in Beijing would be counterproductive for relations between the two countries.

For decades, anti-China human rights groups in Washington have spent millions of dollars denouncing China. To many Chinese, it seems that this lobby is the only voice that's acceptable or newsworthy in the U.S. media and to the U.S. government. But times are changing. We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies. Remember what a little ping-pong game did for Sino-U.S. relations in the 1970s? Let's celebrate the Olympics for what the Games are meant to be -- a bridge for friendship, not a playground for politics.

The writer is an actress and director. She became a U.S. citizen in 1989.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02907.html

[Brian Thibodeau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802907.html

Well, that just puts a big ol' smiley face on everything, doesn't it?

I realize rhetoric comes from both sides of just about any issue dealing with China and the West, I really hate it when people—especially entertainers, on either side of an issue—weigh in with these kinds of simplifications of decidedly, and necessarily, political topics like this one. "Can't we all just get along, people?"

Since the Cultural Revolution ended in the late 1970s, however, I have witnessed unimaginable progress in China.

The stigma of Western imperialism and the Opium Wars also remains a strong reminder of the past

So it's OK to downplay the Cultural Revolution because of all the positive after-effects but still carry deep-seated grudges towards western imperialism and the opium wars? If Chen's acting/directing career ever dries up (which hopefully it won't), she'd probably make a good writer of Chinese grade-school history textbooks.

It seems her poor grandfather didn't train in ophthamology. If he had have, he could have treated her myopia before he was driven to take his own life.

Anyone know whether Bai Ling will be providing a rebuttal tomorrow?

[Brian Thibodeau]

Trailer for FALLING FOR GRACE (directed by and starring Fay Ann Lee)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independe ... e/trailer/


.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Trailer for BANGKOK DANGEROUS (Nicolas Cage, Charlie Yeung)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gat ... s/trailer/


.