Lovers? Enemies? Xu Jinglei and Stanley Huang pair off together again in Dear Enemy.

Director – actress Xu Jinglei is back again with Dear Enemy 亲密敌人, the major modern film of this holiday season.  Up against major blockbusters The Flowers of War and Flying Swords of the Dragon Gates, Xu Jingelei says that she won’t move her film’s release date despite it going against the two major films.   She’s especially confident that her cosmopolitan film is unique amongst the December releases.

Watch her costar Stanley Huang‘s MV for the film below from fountainpark723@YouTube.

Following the success of Go! Lala, Go!, Xu Jinglei directs another business romance where business ambitions and true love find each other.

Following her become the only female director to have a box office exceeding  100 million RMB after Go! Lala, Go!,   director/actress Xu Jinglei is back again with business romance “Dear Enemy 亲密敌人.”  In addition to starring Stanley Huang and herself, the film also features Gigi Leung, Aarif Lee and Zhao Baogang, the director who first brought Xu Jinglei to film.  The movie is shot in Hong Kong, Chengdu, England, Australia and South Africa, and will air December 23rd.

Watch the black and white trailer below:

After the huge success of Go! Lala, Go!, Stanley Huang and Xu Jinglei teams up for a new film.

After costarring in the inspirational romantic comedy Go! Lala, Go! film that made Xu Jinglei the female Chinese director with the single most profitable film, the two will costar in Xu Jinglei’s next directorial pursuit, Close Enemies 亲密敌人. Labeled an upgraded version of Go, Lala Go!,  亲密敌人 will be a tale of business-building woven with romance .  Xu Jinglei also said this will be the last movie where she will both direct and act.

source: sohu

Xu Jinglei’s new self-directed and self-acted, metropolitan romance movie “Go Lala Go!” with Pace Wu, Stanley Huang, and Karen Mok will shown in major theaters in mainland China on April 15th.  The story tells of a college graduate who works her way up the corporate ladder and romances her boss along the way. Xu Jinglei, who in real life can be considered one of the most successful Chinese actresses, having directed award-winning films, having the number 1 blog on technorati, and her own web-magazine for women, had originally felt she was too old to star in her own movie but to do financial and other reasons ended up playing the part and hand-picked Stanley Xu for the role of Wang Wei, her boss in the film.

When talking about their cooperation, Xu expressed that they had a chance to work together years ago, but unfortunately did not work out. “We didn’t knew that we had the honor again to work together last year, except that the movie theme has gone from ancient to modern.” Xu says, “Although Huang on stage appears energetic and outgoing, he’s actually a quite reserved person in private, and very polite.”

The actor in “Lala” later received many praises from friends working as executive officers, and Xu proudly complimented herself, “It proves that I have good taste by choosing him.”Xu Jinglei had a hard time hiding her admiration towards Stanley Huang, “He’s handsome, quite talented, and I feel calmed whenever I look at him.” The two sat together yesterday, and frequently exchanged words by each others’ ears. In the movie “Go Lala Go”, Huang is acting as the boss of Xu, but in real life Xu is directing Huang, and this has caused some confusion for Huang, who often had trouble identifying the perspectives of Xu’s lines. - translation by ixiedin

Director Ivy Ho and Tang Wei posing for a Sina Interview

This is not the only film out this April in China by a female director. A total of four films are hitting theaters in China by female directors. Besides Du Lala, there’s “A Side B Side” (or Double Life) by famous sixth generation director Ning Ying will be released April 8th. Starring Zhang Jingchu, it is being billed as China’s first mental institute-based black comedy. Crossing Hennessy  marks the return of Ivy Ho AND Tang Wei. And nominated for nine Golden Horse Awards, Hong Kong director Clara Law’s Like a Dream starring Yuan Quan and Daniel Wu will finally be released nationwide in theaters this April.

Zhang Jingchu is living the "Double Life" in Ning Ying's "A Side B Side"

Actress Fan Bingbing further proves that she is such a workaholic with two gorgeous photoshoots. See more here and here.
Meteor Shower’s second female lead Peng Yang dances and eats with a tiger in a cute Beijing TimeOut photoshoot here.

Which photoshoots do you like and why?

Director-actress Xu Jinglei and Singer-actor Stanley Huang releases third wave of pictures for Du Lala’s Promotions here.
Actor Zhang Hanyu poses with a car here.

Multiple-gold medalist and badminton player Lin Dan brings his hotness to Men’s Uno here.

Singers Jane Zhang and Li Yuchun both tip their images in their new photoshoots. Jane Zhang loses her classy glam and wore a Hello Kitty outfit here, and Li Yuchun does a dress photoshoot for the first time here.

China’s film market growing in size means that you now have enough money to hire famous crew. While I normally would rather these jobs go to rising Chinese artists, so that the industry can actually build up talent, who can say no to Patricia Field? She’s the stylist for Sex and the City, Devil Wears Prada, etc. She flew from New York to Beijing in order to be a consultant for the movie, Du Lala’s Promotion, an adaptation of a very popular novel in China, and the much publicized directorial comeback of actress-director-screenwriter Xu Jinglei.

While Xu Jinglei has had nominations and awards for her films, she would also fit into that ever-increasing group of indie Chinese directors turning commercial; by today’s standards her past three directorial efforts were lower budget so I have no idea what to expect if she tackles this. Her warm-up exercise before directing this, the MV for Supergirls 2009 was pretty, but it was also rather boring. Xu Jinglei is a decent actress but she seems a bit too old for a role about a girl’s first job.

This casting decision isn’t the only one being questioned. People wondered why Taiwanese American hip hop artist Stanley Huang was casted as the male lead, a Beijinger in the original novel. Xu Jinglei said that she wouldn’t be following in the book exactly, raising curiosity, and that the boyfriend character was changed to an ABC. I like Stanley Huang…but together, they are going to be one tall, lanky couple. The rest of the cast also boasts an array of tall, skinny actors from all over…Karen Mok from Hong Kong, Pace Wu from Taiwan, and mainland China’s model turned actors, Li Ai and Song Ning.

L-R Stanley Huang, Patricia Field, Xu Jinglei, Pace Wu, Li Ai, Song Ning

Adding to the high-profileness of this project are the bigshots from various fashion magazines in China, such as the editors from Harper’s Bazaar, Comsopolitan, and Hong. Various people from the fashion world may guest in the film. With Sophie’s Revenge teaming up with Elle for their posters (in my opinion a bad move) this type of partnership between movies and magazines is become a trend.

Too bad eeMedia isn’t willing to shell out big bucks just yet for their tv series…they should have gotten Abigail Lorick as a consultant for Meteor Shower.

Xu Jinglei and Daniel Wu, who have worked together before in the movie Shinjuku Incident teamed up for a magazine (unnamed) shoot.  I was going to put this in the News Roundup, but since both have so much going on professionally, it was a nice chance to talk about their upcoming projects. Sorry for such a lame post title.

Daniel Wu sums up Xu Jinglei: “She’s like a detective story…the more you get to know her, the more interesting she becomes”. Which could be true and not just random flattery. She seems sort of bland in interviews to me, but her work is so interesting. She’s gotten great leading roles as an actress, directed award-winning movies, had the #1 most read blog in the world, and started an e-Magazine for working women. So what is she doing next that combines her lauded talents and her girl power attitude? You’ll never guess…

Xu Jinglei will next be directing the Supergirls finalists MV. Hopefully it’s better than Lu Chuan’s MV Superboys MV which, like idarklight stated once, showed off his directing skills, but didn’t really show the best side of his subjects, a statement that could be applied to his other work . But I’m quite excited to see what Xu Jinglei has in store. She will also be directing Du Lala’s workplace story,a drama based on the book of the same name.

Daniel Wu will next be in a Taiwanese film with Yuan Quan, Like a Dream, which I was excited for, oh about a year ago, but the buzz on it is quite dead at the moment. Instead he’s been promoting another star-studded Hong Kong film, Overheard.

eeMedia’s Zhang Jie sings the theme song:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RySq3oAfsrk]

Because eeMedia has investment in this movie, the manly cast of the crew, Daniel, Louis Koo, and Lau Chingwan will go on the shows Happy Camp and Behind the Story to the delight of all the females present I’m sure.

Who has time to think about Zhang Jie when you have Daniel Wu's arm around your shoulder?

Usually, this cast of proven, charismatic leading men would pique my interest as well, but I feel like they’ve all acted together way too much for this casting to feel fresh. Also adding to the feeling of deja-vu is ubiquitous Zhang Jinchu as the leading lady, since she acted with both Daniel and Louis in Protege. Still, I’d probably see this film just for the eye candy.

And on a related note,  if you’re wondering why I didn’t put up photoshoot pics from Xu Jinglei and Daniel’s photoshoot besides the one at the top of this post, that’s because it’s the only one with Daniel. How can you have a photoshoot with Daniel Wu and not take more pictures of him?

Love or hate her, you’ve got to admit Liu Yifei was one of the most adorable children ever.

More of cute adorable children behind the cut. I think it’s really rare for Chinese people to do plastic surgery (as of now) so this won’t be one of those “spot the differences” posts. This took a lot of time and effort to put together, so PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND POST ANYWHERE ELSE, w/o permission.

Actresses

Mainland China

Liu Yifei, with her mother, whose always with her

Alan

Bibi Zhou Bi Chang

Chen Hao

Eva Huang Shengyi

Fan Bingbing

Gao Yuanyuan

Li Bingbing

Li Xiaolu (Lu Lu) (w/ her mom)

Vicki Zhaowei

Yuan Quan

Xu Jinglei

Jane Zhang Liangying

Zhang Liyin

Zhang Ziyi

Zhou Xun

Hong Kong

Faye Wong

Cecilia Cheung

Charlene Choi

Gillian Cheung

Gigi Leung

Kelly Chen

Maggie Cheung

Singapore

Stefanie Sun

Taiwan

Angela Zhang

Big S and Small S (Barbie Hsu and Dee Hsu)

Ariel Lin

Jolin Tsai

Bridgette Lin

Cheer Chen

Vivian Hsu

Selina

Kelly Lin

Rainie Yang

Rene Liu

Male Celebrities

Mainland China

Anson Hu

BoBo

Jing Boran

Fu Xinbo

I always laugh at this picture.

Deng Chao – He’s the lead in the next HDSD btw

Gao Xiaochen

I don’t know how many of you know who he is, but he is the guy that is everywhere on this site.

HIT-5

Hu Ge

Chen Kun

Han Geng

Huang Xiaoming

Jacky Xue Zhiqian – He was so pretty as a child!

Jet Li

Kimi Qiao Renliang

Li Yapeng

Lu Yi

Ma Xueyang (from Top Combine)

Pu Bajia

Zhang Xiaochen

Wei Chen

Wang Yuexin

Yu Haoming

Zhang Junning

Hong Kong

Andy Lau

Daniel Wu

Bosco Wong

Edison Chen

Donnie Yen

Ekin Cheng

Leslie Cheung

Tony Leung

Louis Koo

Nicholas Tse

Anthony Wong

Raymond Lam

Singapore

JJ Lin Junjie (so cute!)

Taiwan

Danson Tang

Eddie Peng

Jay Chou

Jimmy Lin

Joe Cheng

Ming Dao

Mike He

Roy Qiu

Shin

Wang Leehom

He's the fatter one, stuffing the cookie into his mouth. The other is his brother

Wallace Huo

Wilber Pan

F4

Sorry, this pic is incredibly dated

F4

From L-R in group pic:

Vanness Wu

Ken Zhu

Vic Zhou “Zai Zai”

Da Mouth (yeah, I stuck A Sha here too)

A Sha

MC 40

Harry

Dj Chung Hua (Taiwan born but ethnically Japanese)

Fahrenheit

Aaron Yan

Farenheit: Wu Zun

Fahrenheit: Calvin

Athletes

Yao Ming

Guo Jingjing

Tian Liang

Liu Xiang

Chen Yibing

Li Xiaopeng

1. Actress Li Xiaolu has begun promotions for her new EP, Oriental Beauty. I don’t really think she should be singing, but she is promoting woman power and Asian beauty, so I guess that’s a good thing. It certainly makes for pretty pictures. I just love that Qi Pao she’s wearing even if it does seem kind of slutty at the same time. Listen to her song at Youtube or better yet, watch the About Love movie she was in because she was so great in that. Please act more and sing less!

More on Shin’s new MV’s leading lady, Kimi Qiao Renliang’s photoshoot, Chinese Backstreet Boys, an A Lan and Wei Chen duet, and Rainie Yang’s first single below.

2. Taiwan’s rocker Shin and Chinese actress/director Xu Jinglei are collaborating for a mini-movie clocking in at 19 min long for the special edition his newest album release. This collab has attracted much attention, and it had better at an estimated 1 million RMB to make it. This will be Xu Jinglei’s first time starring in someone else’s MV and Shin’s first bedroom scene in anything (although not for Xu Jinglei). The MV will feautre a shortened version of the play “A Crying City”.

3. Punk-rock singer Qiao Renliang released a series of photos for the “I Love Rock” concert in Shanghai, ushering in the fall season.

4. The Chinese Backstreet Boys actually have some songs for download. But the big news is that Sohu is charging you to download these songs. One step in the right direction for anti-pirating.

5. A Lan, the Tibetan singer and Sichuan province native who beat out thousands in an Avex talent search in China, is pairing up with Superboys top 3 winner Wei Chen, whose youthfulness and voice have made him a hit in China. That is, until he made a funny pose with the national flag at half mast in the background, mourning those lost in the Sichuan earthquake. Oops. While A Lan was out collecting money for her disaster torn home, Wei Chen was absolutely oblivious to the days of mourning China had. But it seems that they are actually friends, from a competition in Shanghai before they were famous and so differences are probably easily forgiven. They sing a song “Jia You! You Have Me!” for Printing powerhouse EPSON. Apparently an MV is also supposed to come out as well. Download here.