North American trailer out for The Flowers of War!
The film's beautiful flowers are finally revealed in the new English trailer
Narrated by one of the choir girls in the film, the English trailer has been released for The Flowers of War! I was doing screen caps of this, and pretty much every screen cap is frame-worthy because of how gorgeous Zhang Yimou films are.
The trailer is almost all in English, and finally shows Christian Bale alongside the gorgeous leading actresses Ni Ni and the cherubic Zhang Xinyi.
Wrekin Hill is releasing it in the U.S. and has set it for a qualifying run December 21 in New York and December 23 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by a later bow nationwide.
Watch the trailer below or in better quality on the official website here.
Christian Bale and Zhang Yimou featured on Hollywood Reporter
Bale and Zhang shares tales of bonding and awkwardness.
As December finally comes, the long-silent The Flowers of War finally begins its promotions. The December issue of The Hollywood Reporter features an interview with director Zhang Yimou and actor Christian Bale. See some highlights below, and read the entire story, with an especially important discussion on Chinese – Hollywood crossovers, here.
Zhang talks about what attracted him to this story, and the process of making it.
“The story of the Rape of Nanking has been told before in films, and is a very political and serious subject,” Zhang says, “but what intrigued me about this story was that it’s actually told from the female perspective, so it’s more humane and has a personal touch.”
The movie’s original title was The Heroes of Nanking, but it was changed midstream to emphasize the female aspect of the storyline.
Zhang researched the Rape of Nanking for more than three years, and some of the film’s more graphic scenes were drawn from actual photographs, while the movie itself was based on Geling Yan’s novel The 13 Women of Nanjing.
The story also tells of how the two came to work together - Bale was recommended to Zhang Yimou by former Universal studio chief David Linde and director Steven Spielberg.
“The Flowers of War” releases Chinese and International concept posters
Fragility and strength, the beauty of love and the cruelty of war, all comes together in "The Flowers of War"
Following the release of the International concept poster for Zhang Yimou’s war epic “The Flower of the War 金陵十三釵” last week, the Chinese concept poster was also released today.
I love, love the idea of the International Poster, and its contrast with the almost serene beauty of the Chinese version. The metallic strength of usually-fragile flowers depict the lives of these woman, while the piercing bullet acts a force of both destruction and one that perhaps forced into blossom the true nature of the flower . Meanwhile, the Chinese version of the poster recalls images of its Chinese name, a reference to the thirteen beauties of Nanjing in the Dream of the Red Chambeers. The blood butterfly flies freely atop a war-torn city, perhaps symbolizing the transient yet brilliant nature of life. Meanwhile, the vibrant plum blossoms, a traditional symbol of resilience in the coldest of winter, show that even in the darkest time, there is life that blooms brighter than ever.
Which poster do you like better? Click on the pictures below the cut to see bigger posters.
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“The Flowers of War” releases first trial trailer
Zhang Yimou‘s major motion picture on the Nanking Massacre, The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗, released its first trial trailer for the “war” part of the film, still keeping the “flowers” hidden. There are currently two teams working on the final trailer alone, including this team and the team for the Terminator, and that will be released later this year. Personally, while I like the scenes depicted in this trailer, I think the trailer could’ve been much better cut, so I’m hoping the Terminator guys do it better. Unlike what the trailer suggests, I hope the film will focus more on the stories inside the church rather than the battle scenes outside of it.
Starring Christian Bale, Shawn Dou, Tong Dawei, Nie Yuan and the still secret group of new female actresses, the film is Zhang Yimou’s return to serious films.
Watch the trailer below from LimboIsland
Christian Bale to star in Zhang Yimou’s Nanking Massacre Film
“Christian Bale will star in Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s new project about 13 young prostitutes who help save compatriots from Japanese troops rampaging Nanjing, the latest film exploring a World War II-era atrocity that stirs nationalism in China.
Bale, currently co-starring in the boxing drama “The Fighter,” will portray an American priest in the movie, which is expected to start filming in Nanjing on Jan. 10, the Chinese director told reporters Wednesday.”
The film is based on Yan Geling’s short novel “The 13 beauties of Jinling,” and focuses on the story of a group of prostitutes, a group of wounded soldiers, 46 convent girls and a Catholic priest hidden in a Catholic church in the midst of the Nanking Massacre. When the Japanese army finally knocks on the church’s doors to “invite” the convent girls to sing for them in their camp, the prostitutes chose to dress up as convent girls and go in their place.
While there have been several films on the Nanking Massacre made in the recent years, none of them have been up to par in quality. Hopefully, with his nuanced storytelling and skilled depiction of emotions, Zhang can finally produce a film as major as the event itself.
Shawn Dou on November’s ‘Men’s Uno’
Under the Hawthorn Tree was a return to form for acclaimed director Zhang Yimou in many ways. Set in the 60s in the countryside, it strikes any follower of his films as a stylistically similar to the numerous arthouse favorite films he made before ‘Hero‘, like Ju Dou and The Road Home. But it was also anreturn to another famous aspect of Zhang Yimou’s films – their ability to propel the leads to nationwide stardom. When he began making blockbusters in the early 2000s, he went with big established name stars. In Under the Hawthorn Tree, a story closer to his own quiet interests and love for the countryside and post-revoluntionary time period he went back to choosing two complete unknowns like he did with Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Dong Jie.
This may be the first time however, in which a Zhang Yimou’s male lead shoots to stardom. Shawn Dou, who was partially raised in Canada, hails from Zhang Yimou’s own alma mater, Beijing Film Academy and this background may have helped him already land follow up projects. It was recently announced he would star in a drama with another Mou-star, Dong Jie.
More pictures of Shawn Dou here, and here. Also gracing Men’s Uno this month, th Fashion version, is Han Geng, whose beautiful photoshoot you can see here.
Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yibai, Tan Weiwei and Pu Bajia films for Shangri-La
“Pudasuo – beautiful girl” is the most recent of the tourism MV/commercials that has became popular recently. With acclaimed directors Zhang Yimou as artistic consultant and Zhang Yibai as director, the MV shows off the beauty of Yunan province’s Tibetan county of Shangri-La as it tells of a tale between a princess and a young man.
Singer Tan Weiwei and Pu Bajia stars in both the song and the MV. While Tan Weiwei is not Tibetan herself, she is well known for her Tibetan music, as Cri English can tell you more about here.
The MV:
Chinese Box Office Soars and Wang Xiaoshuai Goes Commercial
The Chinese Box Office just keeps climbing and climbing. For the first half of the year it reached 2.3 Billion in revenue. The overall box office for the year is estimated at 5.5 million which would show a 32% increase from last year. This is the sixth year in which it has sustained a 25% + growth. Considering that number is a percentage, China’s BO’s ability to maintain it is very impressive. And now formerly indie directors are finding that there’s no reason to stay indie.
Sixth Generation Indie Director, Wang Xiaoshuai who was last heard lashing out at commercially-successful Chinese directors, has apparently decided he has had enough of sitting on the sidelines when everyone else is taking advantage of China’s film goldmine. He plans to shoot a romance film set during the Sichuan Earthquake with a $60 million yuan budget, and says he would like to cast Han Geng. He gave choices for leading ladies as Jiang Yiyan, Tang Yan, and Gao Yuanyuan.
Meteor Shower's female leads and first stills
Chu Yuxun is sad that idarklight wrote her name wrong
Zheng Shuang off-camera
Meteor Shower is a co-production between Hunan TV, EE Media and Beijing Chunqiu. The drama plans to be aired this summer. It will be directed by Taiwanese director of “The Outsiders” and the script took the team of Wang Hanlin over a year to finish. EE Media CEO Long Danni stated that “Meteor Garden” is a combination of the best production team from both sides of the strait.
The director of the drama, He Hanchen, is that of the popular Taiwanese series “The Outsiders.” He said that when choosing the actors, he was not forced to pick the Super Boys. Instead, he said that he picked them for their smiles among a group of candidates. When asked about the complaints of the drama before it even began, he replied, ” I don’t care. I only care that this drama will make people cry and laugh. If it can do that, it’s a good drama.”