Thursday, December 13, 2007

Movie celebrities galore and more! :)


Brutal, bloody and serious --
Not your usual festive season blockbuster!

Peter Chan Ho-Sun. Chapman To. Will Smith. Akiva Goldsman. Francis Lawrence. I don't mean to gloat or brag but, really, last week was quite the week as far as being in the same room as movie celebrities go! (And you don't want to know what the week before that was like!!)

Still, before you start gnashing and grinding your teeth too much, be rest assured, dear reader, that if you follow the links provided below, you'll get access to some of what was said at my interviews with the director and producer of The Warlords, the producer and one of the cast of Trivial Matters, and the out-and-out star, writer cum co-producer and director of I Am Legend... ;b

Alternatively put, another issue of bc magazine has come out -- both in hard copy forms over here in Hong Kong as well as on-line -- and the following are my contributions to it:-

i) Peter Chan and The Warlords -- the article that is the result of *two* interviews with, as I told him to his face, the director of one of my top five favorite movies of all time (and for the record, that would be He's A Woman, She's a Man (1994));

ii) A Poor Nose -- an arts feature about The Chung Ying Theatre Company's Cantonese language (with English and Chinese surtitles) production of Cyrano de Bergerac;

iii) Daksha's Daring Dance -- another arts feature, this time about the Daksha Sheth Dance Company's BhuKham: Circus of Earth & Sky;

iv) Not So Trivial Matters -- Chapman To talks about Pang Ho-Cheung's upcoming movie (which To co-produced and can be seen playing a producer named... Chapman To!);

v) Review of The Warlords;

vi) Review of Persepolis;

vii) Review of Mad Detective;

viii) Review of I Am Legend; and

ix) The Editor's Diary for the period from December 13 to January 2.

In addition, fans of Hong Kong pop culture might wish to check out an article on Grasshopper by Kathleen Allard (another name that should be familiar to long-time Mobius Asian Cinema discussion board readers... ;b)

Happy reading? And do please feel free to say (write) so on the comments section if you do! :)

10 comments:

Glenn, kenixfan said...

Well I am now going to try to read all of these features. But, I read the Chapman, Chan, and Warlords review already.

Peter Chan directed Comrades, Almost a Love Story which is pretty much a classic. Has Maggie working in a McDonald's which is like seeing Catherine Deneuve working at Starbucks or something.

I saw the sequel to He's The Woman... and was thoroughly confused. I think I should watch the first one first.

I don't have much hope for the Warlords BUT I am happy that it's not going to be more wuxia-style wire-fu as even I am getting sick of that.

Chapman To was surprisingly good in Isabella and now he's gone in my estimation from clownish to respectable.

Madara said...

I'm intrigued by the "Swim! Donald, Swim!" cover on the side of your "I Am Legend" review. I'm assuming it's Donald Tsang. Is the magazine exhorting Hong Kong's "chief executive" to swim back to Beijing?

YTSL said...

Hi Glenn --

Yes, "Comrades, Almost a Love Story" is another Peter Chan gem. "Three: Going Home" also is highly recommended.

Re "Who's the Woman, Who's the Man?": I much prefer the first movie -- less confusing and Anita Yuen's character is more fun there. Also, Carina Lau really is superb in HAWSAM.

Re "The Warlords": Maybe it helps to go in with low(ered) expectations. It worked for me!

Re Chapman To: He can be very funny indeed in real as well as reel life but yes, do believe that there's substance to him.

Hi leo86 --

Um... Donald Tsang can't swim "back" to Beijing as he is from Hong Kong. Rather, the "swim" reference was to get him to clean up Victoria Harbour so that it would be clean enough for him and others to feel comfortable swimming in. (For more, click on that bit of the bc website that attracted your attention.)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your great work and celebrity interactions :)

I too have already read Chan interview and Warlords review.

And as a person who always liked Chapman To, I'm very happy to find out that he left a good impression on you too!

Anonymous said...

ytsl,

Thoroughly enjoyed your articles.

I also agree with glenn's & eliza's comments about Chapman To. I think he's a very talented guy.

Yeah to Kathy Allard for her article too!

YTSL said...

Hi "eliza bennet" --

Good to hear from you once more and thanks! :)

The Chapman To interview was a lot of fun. But if truth be told, I REALLY rate Peter Chan after the interviews. He was amazingly articulate, thoughtful as well as thought-provoking, etc.

Hi sbk --

Glad that you read -- and enjoyed reading -- Kathy's as well as my articles. :)

Willow said...

I remember watching "He's a woman, She's a Man." Thought Carina was great as the gf reminding Anita that she herself is the "real" woman and patted her own ample chest. I don't recall why Anita had to impersonate a man....

My first cinema experience in HK last week was watching "Mad Detective." I had an okay time with it. The ending wasn't expected but was of no surprise.

Gritty "Warlords," eh? I don't think I'll be clamoring to watch this one. Even with the beauty that is TK. haha.

YTSL said...

Hi Willow --

"I don't recall why Anita had to impersonate a man...."

She went for a singing audition for which it had been specified that the powers that be (i.e., Leslie Cheung's character) was looking for a *male* singer... ;b

"Gritty "Warlords," eh? I don't think I'll be clamoring to watch this one."

Yikes! Since the aim of my review had been to recommend the movie, not dissuade people from checking it out! :(

Willow said...

Re: Gritty Warlords
Just not into watching a lot of slicing and dicing (carnage), if you know what I mean. I'll probably buy the disk though and watch it in small spoonfuls or something. ;D

YTSL said...

Hi again Willow --

Okay, can see your point. It's just that HK cinema needs all the support it can get, you know? ;S