SHANGHAI ENCOUNTERS: Postcards from the Bund at the city’s 10th film festival.
I’m just flying back from the Shanghai Film Festival. This was the 10th anniversary of the event, which is held in China’s largest city. The festival is seen as an opportunity for the Chinese film industry to show off the range and sheer number of its local productions.
Most of the Mainland-produced films on offer were rural dramas, period war epics or very local comedies. Despite the fact that there are literally hundreds of thousands of martial artists practicing in the country, China produces very few kung fu movies per annum. So how do all the kung fu film film choreographers, stuntmen and actors stay busy? They work on martial arts TV series, of which dozens are produced per year. While I was in Shanghai, the Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse, who I’ve known since the Gen-X Cops days, was shooting such a series at a near-by film studio. Nic is the most diligent of the new generation of actors, in terms of consistent martial arts training. He’ll soon be seen in Benny Chan’s latest cop socky actioner, Invisible Target, which we hope to bring you on Dragon Dynasty in due course.
One of the guests of honour at the festival was Maggie Cheung. She now lives and works in Europe. I’ve always thought it a shame that some Hong Kong performers leave the local industry for good, preferring to work exclusively in the west. It would be great if they could bring their enhanced star power to local films produced in the place that made their names. In Maggie’s case, she cites the intrusive Hong Kong paparazzi as a major reason she has, so far, declined to work on further films there. If she and Chow Yun-fat were teamed for a Chinese New Year romantic comedy, it would bring a huge boost to the local business.
My old friend Donnie Yen was on hand to launch his upcoming film, Paint Skin (working title). At the opening ceremony, he was wearing a white tuxedo and black bow tie. “You look like a Chinese James Bond,” I observed. He examined my black Mao jacket. “And you look like a gwailo Bruce Lee.” (I wish…!) Donnie has been a fan favourite for so many years, it’s great to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves in his native territory. Apart from his film work, he also gets offered all manner of lucrative product endorsements for the China market. Paint Skin is based on a story by Pu Song-ling, whose Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio previously gave the world A Chinese Ghost Story. Yen was planning to stay on in Shanghai for the week to do press for his film Flashpoint, which gets a theatrical release in Hong Kong and China on August 2nd.
I was the lucky guy who got to walk the red carpet with actress Ankie Black (AKA Beilke). Ankie is of mixed Chinese and German parentage, and speaks English, Cantonese, German and a fair bit of Mandarin. She’s starred in various German movies, and had a cameo in Andrew Lau’s Confessions Of Pain. She’s a devout yoga practitioner and is currently training in kung fu so she can take the jade screen by storm. Ankie came to the event wrapped in a stunning Dolce and Gabbana evening gown (“Don’t say D and G”, she advised. “You have to say Dolce and Gabbana. They’re two different things…” So now you know!)
The opening film was the Johnnie To producer, Yau Ngai-hoi directed Eye In The Sky, a police thriller about a special surveillance unit. The transport from the reception to the theatre was organised with the grace and efficiency of Saving Private Ryan’s opening reel. A list stars stood stranded while the ‘organisers’ yelled at each other in Shanghainese. It was a half hour wait for a five minute limo ride. The red carpet, when we finally got to walk it, was a great buzz. A PA system blasted a bi-lingual introduction of who was who. “And here’s the French contingent!,” came the cry, as Ankie and I strolled into view. Go figure…
We arrived inside the theatre for the pre-opening film show. This began with a Broadway-style dance number, and I was very impressed by the principle performer. At one point, a prop camera fell to the stage, and, without missing a beat, she kicked it off stage and kept on dancing. Maybe this girl should follow the Cheng Pei-pei/Michelle Yeoh flight path of ballet to ballistic?
A Mongolian boy band lumbered onto the stage, pulling their pet yak behind them. (Okay, just kidding about the last bit.) They wore various exotic combinations of leather, fur and metal. Cool, I observed, singing Klingons! You geek, muttered Ankie. Various awards were presented to long-time veterans of the Chinese film industry, and the festival jury was introduced. Next, a burly Chinese tenor came out to perform Nessun Dorma, the magnificent aria from Turandot that somehow got hijacked by Pavarotti and the World Cup. I once played the executioner, Poo Tin-pao, in a British performance of the opera. ‘Nessun Dorma’ means ‘none shall sleep’. You can say that again, I thought, contemplating the Shanghai nightlife ahead…
Comments
- Don Jariyasunant, La Palma, CA | 2007-06-22 12:14:14
- m89, China | 2007-06-26 00:18:32
- T, Vancouver | 2007-07-01 03:25:41