These few days, director Tsui Hark and Andy Lau were in Venice to promote Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

The yule.sohu team managed to arrange a photo shoot at the beach, they were asked to challenge each other.

news from: yule.sohu.com

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a Huayi Brothers Media Corporation production, directed by Tsui Hark and produced by Chen Kuo-fu, with a cast of Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau, Deng Chao, Tony Leung Kar Fai released its second extended trailer yesterday. In this 2 minutes 21 seconds trailer, not only it revealed more mystery drama of the film, the Tang Dynasty created with $130 million yuan was also revealed in the trailer. With some calculation, this trailer estimated to cost $930,000 yuan per second, it can be considered as an expensive trailer.

Huayi Brothers announced that the film will open in the cinema on 29 September in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South east Asian countries. It is said that the trailer will be a trilogy, with its inclusion as the trailer before the screening of After Shocks, it cause some reaction. Some audience even exclaimed that they wanted to watch the film immediately, some from the showbiz said: “Although it’s only 2 minutes, but it can be seen that the film had displayed the most romantic and elegant side of the Tang Dynasty, the suspensive drama and magical colors, adding to the anticipation of the exciting action scenes, it should be especially addictive.”

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is directed by Tsui Hark, adding The Message’s Chen Kuo-fu as producer, Ip Man’s Sumo Hung as action director, this golden triangle will collaborate for a new dimension in Chinese film. For the creation of a new viewing angle, the production fees kept increasing, Huayi Brothers revealed that the production fee is as high as $130 million yuan, it can be comparable to China box office record holder After Shocks. With the lead of a cast boasting Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau, Deng Chao, Tony Leung Kar Fai, adding to 11 distribution rights sold within 3 days at this year’s Festival de Cannes, surely this film will be influential both locally and overseas.

When the trailer was announced to the media, Huayi Brothers specially invested to produce in high definition in order for audience to observe the details.

Andy appeared throughout the whole trailer, from observing the burnt corpse to the fire in the kitchen till the fight with the secret opponent, in the last scene he did a somersault from high ground, it do show that Tsui Hark is trying to create Andy as a new hero for Chinese films.

Tsui Hark express that Detective Dee is a perfect person, his handsome and calm outlook is secular, with a sense of modern, deep inside his heart filled with high responsibilities and determination for his mission, Andy’s outlook and charisma is suitable to what Tsui think of Detective Dee Renjie, all these perfect fit Andy.

After all the tough shooting, Andy feel that although his Detective Dee had many difficult stunts, but his character is like a real person, and he also have a feeling being a modern period person.

Note: Upon uploading, the file’s audio and video does not match, you can watch the video here

news from: ent.163.com, ent.qq.com, yule.sohu.com

Detective Dee is another heavyweight production of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation after After Shocks, this film broke a record of clinching 11 distributor rights sold during this year’s Festival de Cannes in a short period of 3 days.

A Huayi Brothers Media Corporation production, directed by Tsui Hark and a cast of Andy Lau, Li Bingbing and Carina Lau. The film is scheduled to open in cinemas nationwide on 29 September.

Huayi Brothers Media Corporation released the extended trailer of the film which reveal the magical mask of the film, but producer Wang Zonglei expressed that director Tsui Hark and Chen Kuo-fu created a “exceeded imaginary” Tang dynasty. With the release of this trailer, audience can go into the cinema to experience this “exceeded imaginary” world. Normally films’ trailer are revealed in press conference and audience would get to watch it on television and Internet, but the high quality picture and sound effect are unable to show. In order to enhance the viewing experience, the company made an effort and assign budget in hope that audience can experience the effect of the film directly thus it chose to premiere before the screening of After Shocks.

Huayi also reminded audience to enter the cinema earlier in order not to miss the surprise before the screening. The trailer will be a trilogy as the third trailer will be revealed next month which will reveal more details of the film, this would add more mystery and enjoyment for Detective Dee before it hit the cinemas.

In the trailer, it reveals the mystery cases that Detective Dee is handling, it also showed off many battle scenes. The audience is also treated with one of the 8 shooting locations which is the Ghost Market.

It is known that Detective Dee’s official screen date is the same as last year’s The Message, also a production of Huayi Brothers, the latter managed to attain a high box office collection of $250 million, thus the same date was decided, it can be seem that Huayi Brothers had high expectation that Detective Dee would break a new high box office collection.

news from: ent.163.com, yule.sohu.com, Ming Pao, ent.tom.com

Currently scheduled to be screened on 2011′s Valentine’s Day, What Women Want held its meet-the-media session and press conference at China (Huairou) Movie & TV Industry Zone in the afternoon of 14 July. Director Chen Daming, cast Andy Lau, Gong Li, Yuan Li, Banny Chen, Hu Jing and others were present. This collaboration between the “king and queen” Andy and Gong Li is their first time collaborating, it’s also the first collaboration between Banny Chen and Yuan Li after joining Polybona Film Publishing Company, it’s also Hu Jing’s first film project after giving birth. This film is the remake of Hollywood’s What Women Wants which starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, Polybona Film’s first project after purchasing overseas film’s copyright.

In the film, Andy is a handsome advertising firm manager who think highly of himself, his chauvinistic won the flavors of many female colleagues whereas it has no effect on the new beautiful boss Gong Li. They had an argument during a meeting discussion on a female cosmetic product commercial, Andy was scolded by the boss that he accidentally discovered that he has the special ability to read minds as he could understand the thinking of every woman.

The collaboration between heavenly king Andy and Best Actress Gong Li had caught the media attention since the preparation stage, it’s a refreshing collaboration, the love relationship in the office had became the talking point of the press conference. The sweetness in the film had extended out as Andy and Gong Li held hands to make an appearance.

Andy is the confirmed male lead of this film since the preparation stage, but the female lead did not managed to be confirmed. When Andy was told that he would be partnering Gong Li whom had been venturing in Hollywood for long periods, he was too excited as he revealed: “I also wanted to collaborate with Gong Li, thus I was very nervous when I met her just now, feeling pressurize. Finally got to collaborate with Gong Li, it’s worth it no longer how long the wait is.” In an act of respect, Andy always address Gong Li as “elder sister”.

As it was a relaxing atmosphere during shooting, Gong Li was delighted during shooting and did not put on any airs which Andy can relax. Their collaboration got closer as Andy also changed his ways of addressing Gong Li, “In the past I addressed Gong Li as sister, now it’s changed, doesn’t matter she’s “younger sister” or “darling”.” With regards to the different addressing, Gong Li expressed that she does not mind, “elder sister” is respect, “darling” is an expression of closeness.

In the film, Andy had the special ability to “read minds” as he could understand all woman’s mind. In order to familiarize the thoughts of the actresses in the film, Andy would take the initiative to chat with them during shooting.

In order to test if he really could read a woman’s mind, Andy requested Gong Li to give a thought and he mischievously said: “She seriously want the press conference to end early, this will do for her to accept this film.” However Gong Li did not give face to Andy as she expressed that Andy made the wrong guess because she wanted to spend more time with Andy, “I was thinking that shooting could start immediately, because Andy would be leaving tonight, I must cherish the time to be with him.” Andy then used the term “hard to read a woman’s mind” to explain his misjudgment, it do seems that Andy and Gong Li need to communicate with each other more in order to read a woman’s mind!

When asked on the collaboration, Gong Li said: “Although this is my first time collaborating with Andy, but he’s very professional and easy going, he always made everybody happy. It’s relaxing shooting this film, there is nothing else except fun, the director made a good atmosphere, believed the comedy effect will be great.”

When talked about Andy’s mind reading ability won her heart in the film, Gong Li expressed: “Andy is great in this, he got tangle with numerous woman’s thinking in the film.” When asked if she could accept a man with such ability, she expressed: “I will accept such man, it’s rather nice.”

With regards to Banny’s saying that Andy’s wooing tactics in the film is worth learning, Andy said that his only tactic is “true heart”, “I’m a divorced man in the film, thus having an empty heart, you can refer him as a playboy but all his tactics came from the bottom of his heart, only a true heart can move a woman’s heart.” Andy then demo his wooing tactics by complaining Gong Li refuse to give him her contact numbers as she burst into laughter.

Andy expressed his “frustration” that more time was spend on the lighting rather than shooting during shooting, this shows that the director’s high requirement, thus he request the press conference to end earlier as he need to rush back to continue shooting.

As per the director’s request, the press conference is short and sweet. Towards the end of the press conference, questions were asked with regards to Gong Li’s recent divorce, she expressed that she did not hear the question properly and the compere immediately end the press conference. Andy also took the initiative to stand out saying that the press conference cannot be extended as they need to rush back for shooting, thus ending the press conference early.

Video link of the press conference (Andy and Gong Li appeared at run-time 12:00)

news from: ent.qq.com, yule.sohu.com, ent.163.com, ent.sina.com, Headline Daily, Hong Kong Daily, Wei Wen Po, Sing Pao, Apple Daily News

On the opening of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, audience got to hear the theme song A—LA—NONG: Better City Better Life which is a collaboration between Mainland China’s well know Chinese contemporary classical composer Tan Dun and Quincy Delight Jones II, the Mandarin version of the song was unveiled earlier, it is a duet between Andy Lau and Jane Zhang. They were picked based on their international charisma and influential in the music industry.

Jane whom collaborate with Kitaro in the Grammy Awards earlier, later she would collaborate with Jacky Cheung for the Mandarin theme song of the World Cup, she is representing as a Mainland China singer on the World Expo 2010 stage.

It is said that A—LA—NONG: Better City Better Life has the newly created water rock element, after recording the song, Jane exclaimed that Tan Dun as “creative”, “This song is the combination of Oriental and Western element, this is a first creation of a musician, the water element is also full of imagination, Tan Dun is too creative!”

Having won many awards in many international music award ceremonies, he exclaimed that his greatest dream is to make music to the level of “1+1=1″, that’s nature and human getting along well, heaven and human into one. In the song, A—LA—NONG: Better City Better Life, Tan Dun combined the sound of human being and water together, combining the Western and Oriental culture elements. Tan Dun introduces in his Shanghai studio that the song made use of the natural sound of hitting on water, with beat of water and Chinese orchestra instruments to bring out a natural green idea. The sound of water brings out the energy of African dance music, adding Namibia water element, this music displayed the open and understanding culture attitude. In water, people see the world’s hope, from water we can bring all countries, all races and cultures together. In the lyrics, the world A-LA-NONG kept repeating, it’s a word from the sea that many familiarize. The word is a traditional full-stop in culture, it represent the traditional and future of Mainland China.

The song which was sang by Jane Zhang and Andy Lau whom are singers of different style which could represent China’s charisma and bring out the different idea of local and international singers.

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news from: ent.QQ.com

After one year of shooting and post production, Huayi Brothers’ Detective Dee which was directed by Tsui Hark had a press conference to reveal its poster and first trailer. The 2.5 minutes trailer display the colorful side of the film and also revealed the outlook of Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau, Deng Chao and Tony Leung Kar Fai and the action scenes. The film is scheduled to screen in the cinema on 23 September.

The trailer opened with a “international city” and Andy’s Detective Dee was instructed to investigate a burnt corpse case, Deng Chao’s “white detective” came out with a sentence: “This fire was started within the body” which label this case as a mysterious one, Detective Dee then went to the “ghost market” and several exciting fighting scenes, the trailer is full of huge scenes and shattering special effects, it’s can be comparable to a Hollywood production.

Detective Dee is a famous Chinese detective, his stories had been around for a long time. although there are previous films representation but the effects is minimal. In everybody’s heart, he is always been shadowed by Sherlock Holmes, Huayi Brother’s Wang Zhonglei believed that this film will make Detective Dee famous.

With regards to Andy’s Detective Dee who is well verse in fighting and educated, Andy feel that most importantly is to display the character’s charisma, thus he would input some of his imagination. In the heart of Tsui Hark, Detective Dee is a perfect person: “Clever people are perfect, clever people can help resolve many problems, they looked at things accurately, because people like Detective Dee existed, we would feel that the world is very interesting, we had hope for many things.”

Tsui Hark expressed that although Detective Dee is an official, but he always encountered dangerous situations when investigating cases, thus he need to protect himself, so I arranged him to be well verse in marital arts, his weapon is also special.

The relationship between Detective Dee and Empress Wu Zhetian is a myth, any chemistry between Andy and Carina is also the media’s attention. Tsui Hark said that the two characters’ relationship is positioned as understanding between two experts, “Their relationship is rather strange, it’s not so simple, both are extremely clever, they treated each other importantly and special.”

The film is scheduled to open in the cinemas on 23 September during the National Day holidays. In addition, the title of the film suggested that Huayi Brothers had the intention of shooting a sequel, Wang Zhonglei admit that they already had the script for the second film, if the first film does well in the box office, Detective Dee has hopes of shooting into a series of films. Wang revealed that other being screened in Japan and America, the film distributors of the film all over the world had been confirmed, thus he has high confidence of the film.

news from: Sina.com, ent.163.com

Expo 2010 Shanghai China would kick off on 1 May, the organizer specially gather all the ambassadors which includes Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, Li Bingbing, Liu Xiang and Li Ning to duet for the Expo’s opening song 2010 Waiting For You. The music video has all the stars singing in a happy mood with a excited background.

However netizens said that the tune of the song copied Japanese singer Okamoto Mayo’s 1997 song ‘Yuan Lai De Ni Zai Na Li’ (そのままの君でいて), the netizens stressed and criticize that the Expo which protects copyright is “thief catching thief”. With these comments, it is rather disappointing.

そのままの君でいて Youtube video

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news from: Apple Daily News

Emperor Motion Pictures released poster of Shaolin.

After 6 months of ups and down, Andy Lau once again stand in-front of everybody, from his eyes you could not see any embarrassment, hesitating, he is still gentle when answering questions. Magnanimous.

Andy who is 48 years old, in showbiz close to 30 years, more than 120 films and 300 concerts to his name, years of non-stop working allowed him to feel the benefits and sacrifice, he said: “For one thing, you contribute for it, that’s not sacrifice, it’s balance, because this is your own belief.”

Full collection of photos by Tony Zhao here