Actor Andy Lau who was in 67th Venice Film Festival, recently he accepted an exclusive interview by Xinhua News Agency, he feel that Chinese film could expand its area of genre in order to break into international market, but there is no need to “accommodate the foreigners”.

With regards to how to allow Chinese films to break into the international market, Andy said that there are more Chinese commercialize films in recent years, “If the genres can be expanded, the foreigners will be more interested, but do not need to accommodate them by choosing some strange genres, this balance must be maintained.” Andy quipped: “It’s a pity that I could not control this balance, if not I will become a director!”

Andy followed Tsui Hark to 67th Venice Film Festival for Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. He said: “This is my first time participating in Venice Film Festival. Actually I’m the same as a commoner, I does not understand this film festival. Venice is a beautiful and romantic place. The people here is engrossed in films, I had already watch many different films.”

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame which is competing in the 67th Venice Film Festival.

It was Andy Lau who is an actor for 30 years first time at Venice Film Festival.

The end of September is his birthday, despite busy he still celebrate his birthday in advance.

He was delighted when eating the cake and didn’t forget to lick his finger.

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Two nights ago, Huayi Brothers organized a “Back to Tang Dynasty” party in Venice to celebrate the success of Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame premiere. Huayi Brother’s CEO Wang Zhonglei, director Tsui Hark, Andy Lau, Li Bingbing and Carina Lau attended the event. Large number of film-makers, film distribution companies and international media were also attracted and came to the event. Director of the Venice International Film Festival Marco Müller was also present as he mischievously did a “clench fist” greetings which is normally seen in kungfu films to greet Tsui Hark upon his arrival, he also addressed Tsui as “swordsman Tsui”.

Li Bingbing whom always exclaimed that she’s Andy’s fan once again show her charm towards Andy. She tried to seduce Andy in the film, other than Andy showing off some skin and also splash water on her face. Li Bingbing said: “It’s so long, so long, big tummy, can hold his breathe for so long and can control the flowing speed of the water, indeed he’s a singer.” With regards to the scene which he “splash” water at Li Bingbing 3 times, Andy admitted that it’s his idea.

With regards to his lean figure, Andy also showed his confidence as in the trailer of What Woman Want, the opening scene is a bathing scene, he stressed: “I specially train for it.”

To accommodate the promotion of Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame, Huayi Brothers specially manufacture figures of the film’s main characters – Di Ren Jie, Shang-guan Jing-er and Bei Dong Lai, they are displayed for the first time in the party. Andy was excited when he saw the figures, Tsui Hark whom love to collect figures also kept looking at Di Ren Jie’s figure. Andy also mischievously move the body parts joints of the figure, he’s enjoying it.

Director Doze Niu don’t dare to shoot Andy’s ‘Da Yan Jing’ music video

Andy revealed that being in showbiz for close to 30 years, he would be singing his favorite songs during his childhood in his latest album. He will include oldies like ‘Da Yan Jing’, ‘Zhang Sheng Xiang Qi Lai’, ‘Gu Er Lei’ and ‘Xiao Chou’ in the retro album.

He specially invited director Doze Niu to direct the music video of ‘Da Yan Jing’, he wanted to be a triad member from Hong Kong going to Taiwan, wearing the fame flower shirt in the film Monga, even at his death he still wanted to look at the big-eyed beauty, but he was rejected by Doze with the reason that he would be nervous.

Andy once collaborate with Doze in the film Island of Greed, he admire the creativity of Monga and encourage director Doze Niu to continue shooting film with triad theme, he said: “Infernal Affairs ended after 3 films, it’s really a pity, to create a trend we must continue shooting.” Director Doze Niu expressed that he currently busy writing a new script, thus could not spend time on Andy’s music video but he expressed his thanks to Andy’s encouragement.

Hope to collaborate with Maggie Cheung in As Tears Goes By sequel

In addition, Andy expressed that he once collaborated with Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar Wai’s As Tears Goes By in 1988, he hope that the original crew could come together again to film the sequel about 22 years later story of the life of the male and female lead. He once again stressed that his character did not die, Maggie sent oranges for him everyday during shooting, then he acted out as he was eating orange.

Andy also sighed that he had not collaborate with Lee Ang, John Woo and Sylvia Chang.

Andy’s acting in Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame is very natural and stable, there is hope of winning a Best Actor award, he said in a modest tone: “It won’t be this time, I’ll try again next time.”

news from: Macao Daily, Liberty Times, Apple Daily, Headline Daily, Hong Kong Daily, Sing Pao, Ming Pao

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame held a party at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September. Director Tsui Hark and wife Shi Nansheng, the cast Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Andy Lau and Huayi Brothers boss Wang Zhonglei attended.

Carina whom was wearing a cleavage revealing dress played mysterious during entrance as she held a mask. Carina and Tsui Hark’s wife both wore red for the party whereas Li Bingbing wore a shoulder revealing black dress, despite her low profile black dress, but the diamond bracelet on Bingbing’s hand was eye catching.

All males – Andy, Tsui Hark and Wang Zhonglei wore Western suits for the event.

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is the only Chinese film competing in 67th Venice International Film Festival, after receiving high praise in the preview, the world premiere was held at the film festival on 5 September. Director Tsui Hark, producer Wang Zhonglei and Shi Nansheng, the cast Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau and Deng Chao walked down the premiere’s red carpet at Lido Island. Maggie Cheung also showed up to wish Carina all the best to win the Best Actress award, but she did not attended the premiere.

When the entourage entered the screening hall, the audience immediately stand up to applause in welcoming them, the cast in turn waved to thank the audience. When the name of Tsui Hark appeared on the silver screen, the audience began to applause, it was the same reception received when Andy, Li Bingbing and Carina’s name appeared on the screen, this is a sight hardly seen in premiere.

After the screening, the applause last 10 minutes as the world once again witness the exciting wuxia film of Tsui Hark. Other than the enthusiastic audience, the head of the judging panel – Quentin Tarantino was also among the audience, his presence resulted in a small commotion.

With regards to the audience’s concentration on the film, in several exciting action scenes, the audience paid close attention. During the first fight between Andy and Bingbing, at the segment when Andy splash water on her, the audience burst into laughter. Andy also smiled and looked at Bingbing. When the entourage was leaving the cinema, Carina walked rather fast, Andy whom was walking behind her scolded her: “Wu Zhetian! Walk slower!”

There was a canoeing competition in Venice that day, most of the route needed to be changed, the entourage need to walk from their hotel to the boat that bring them to Lido Island. Along the 5 minutes walk, the international audience screamed and took photographs of them as it does not lose out to the red carpet.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame win high praise in the festival, as internally recognized film magazine Variety gave it 7.6 points, this is the highest point rated on a film for the past 5 days in the festival. The festival opening film Black Swan rated 7.1 points, Norwegian Wood rated 5.7 points and Somewhere rated 7 points.

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Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame worldwide premiere was held on 5 September in Venice, the two male leads Deng Chao and Andy Lau have their own charisma and performing characteristic, no matter it’s facing the media or in the film, using “twin heroes” to describe their trip in Venice is not exaggerating. Deng Chao is the youngest Chinese film representative, as “CHAO” pronunciation is pretty close to Italian “how are you”, so for the past two days, everybody was saying “CHAO” everywhere in Venice.

On the night of the premiere, after the film’s screening, the audience applause at the end of the film, among the Chinese media rating in Venice, Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame can considered to won the highest recognition. Every character surprised the audience, Deng Chao’s character Bei Dong Lai fit Chen Kou-fu’s rating: “It will be unforgettable for the audience when he appeared.” A media from China expressed: “Initially thought that Tony Leung will have a heavy role in the film, but Bei Dong Lai is the pivot of the story development.”

With regards to this, these “twin heroes” completely shown in Venice as Andy and Deng Chao can be considered as friends or foes. Before shooting starts, Tsui Hark wanted to create another “detective dee” — Bei Dong Lai who is also an expert detective, but his way is different from the norm. Although the character was touted to be at loggerhead with detective dee, however when investigating the case, what chemistry could sparks between them? How is he going to report to the imperial court? When compared with the clear identity of detective dee, Deng Chao’s character is hard to guess. In order to bring fresh elements to the film, detective dee is not alone as Deng Chao’s Bei Dong Lai to form a golden partnership, one hard one soft, together both of them push the development of the case in the film.

After the screening, the media have a deep impression in the exciting fighting scenes and beautiful images, the scenes with detective dee and Bei Dong Lai also won praise, the steady detective dee has his slow reasoning, the eager young Bei Dong Lai was fast to reveal the clues. Their collaboration will solve the case.

news from: ent.qq.com

Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame premiere at the 67th Venice Film Festival was held on 5 September.

The red carpet ceremony was held at 7:30pm.

The film is the only Chinese film competing in the festival, the film company is very focus on the film’s appearance in the festival. Director Tsui Hark arrived in Venice early to present life achievement award to to his old friend John Woo. Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Carina Lau, Deng Chao rushed to Venice hoping that the world premiere of the film will do well.

The truth showed that other than the focus on the premiere, the film is also watchable, no wonder local and foreign reporters gave the film high points after watching. Since Seven Swords, Tsui Hark had not “touched” a wuxia theme film for close to five years, thus Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame can be considered as his home-coming production. With Sumo Hung as the action director, the action scenes won recognition by the reporters.

The weakness of the film, when compared to the beautiful action scenes, Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame is selling the suspense detective story but does not reach the expected effect. However this does not affect the audience love for the film, because the additive action scenes and beautiful images satisfied the audience.

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On 4 September in 67th Venice International Film Festival, the crew of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame held a small cocktail party in Venice.

Andy Lau, Li Bingbing, Tsui Hark and Wang Zhonglei attended.

Li Bingbing wore a black dress as she cheers with Andy, it seems that she’s in a happy mood.

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Andy Lau and Li Bingbing set off last night around 10pm for the 67th Venice International Film Festival, their Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame will be a film competing in the festival.

Bingbing hope that both the film and director Tsui Hark could win. She expressed that there are many sponsors for attending the festival as she would dressed up for the festival. When asked if she would hold the hands of Andy to walk down the red carpet? She exclaimed that she had yet discussed with Andy, when she board the plane she would suggest to him. She added that she would seize the time to rest during the flight as the promotion works in Hong Kong is tough, it would also be a tight schedule in Venice.

Andy whom was wearing a white shirt, black specs and hand carrying a file. He said he brought 3 sets of sponsored clothes to Venice but he expressed that he would not be wearing any jewelleries. When asked if he would walk down the red carpet with Carina Lau, he exclaimed that there is no arrangement yet, if to walk down the red carpet together, it would also be together with the crew members.

Fans were also at the airport to sent off Andy. With the fans following behind him, he looked like a handsome tour guide in white. His popularity cannot be rival as wherever he goes attracted screams. Andy quipped that he’s going “tuition”.

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Directed by Tsui Hark, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame will open in the cinema soon, Andy Lau and Li Bingbing were at Hong Kong’s Madame Tussaud’s to unveil their respective wax figures.

As it would require 6 months to make changes to the wax figures, thus the image of the figures could not be change to accommodate the promotion of the film as it remained in their old images.

Although the wax figures remained the same, but both of them were still excited upon seeing their wax figures. When Andy took the initiative to kiss Bingbing’s wax figure, she also kissed Andy’s figure.

As it would require 6 months to make changes to the wax figures, thus the image of the figures could not change image to accommodate the promotion of the film as it remained in their old images. In order to promote this film, Li Bingbing’s figure was air-freight from Shanghai, she quipped: “It’s tough coming from Shanghai.” She revealed that the costume that the figure was wearing was what she wore when collecting the Best Actress award in 2007, thus it has a special meaning for her. Upon hearing, Andy immediately joked, “This image was specially prepared for me to collect the Best Actor award next year.” Actually the image of Andy’s wax figure is tailored according to his character in Infernal Affairs.

Despite being the old images, both of them were excited seeing their own wax figures. They had not met each other for more than 6 months, having collaborated for 4 films, Andy and Bingbing had a strong chemistry as after unveiling the wax figures, Andy took the initiative to stand beside Bingbing’s wax figure and made an action of kissing “her face” which the fans reacted with screams. Li Bingbing whom was standing beside Andy’s figure could not follow the kissing action as Andy’s figure is taller than her, she could only rest both her hands on the figure’s shoulder to make a kissing action.

The unveiling of the wax figure was to promote Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, thus the topic does not escape about the film. During the interview, Li Bingbing kept singing praise of “Andy looked handsome during fighting”, Andy immediately sing praise of her “fighting well” as well, unexpectedly Li Bingbing quipped: “That means that I’m not bad in beating you!”

Andy could not hide his mischievous self by reveal Li Bingbing’s “mishap”: “Her weapon in the film is the whip, although she handle it well, but the whip does not have eyes, thus other than it hitting onto the crew members, then it’s me, everybody was scared of her! Whenever she used her whip, everybody ran away or went hiding.” Andy then added that whenever Bingbing used her whip, he would run to a distance far away from her and shout: “Attention, Bingbing is going to use her whip!” The crew members did not know whether to smile or cry after hearing Andy.

Earlier there was reports that Andy’s concert at the end of the year had cut down 8 nights, the reason was due to the drop in popularity with him hiding the truth of his marriage, he clarified: “The reporter whom wrote this article should be a newbie, he don’t understand that from my past concerts, I sell my concert part by part from the 10th nights. Actually the concert only start selling tickets today, actually we started selling tickets from the 12th night.” With regards to such news, Andy expressed that he could do nothing: “What you want me to do? You want that pen to write me dead?” Reporter asked him if he still concern the feelings of normal readers? Andy said: “Who said I don’t care, what if it was writing about you?”

In the beginning of the year, Andy’s Future X-cops was touted to be a “lousy film”, Andy was once given the title of “King of lousy films”, with regards to this, he said: “All of you should understand why I accept to be cast in this film, those whom scolded this film is always a small group of people. Maybe the film did not meet the expectation, but Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame will also be scolded if it opened in the cinema? Impossible.”

With regards to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Andy had lot of feelings to it, although he had know Tsui Hark for many years, but he really collaborate with him starting from this film, he said: “It’s surely a homecoming production by Tsui Hark, don’t you feel that I looked like him in the film? Actually I’m him in the film.” With regards to Tsui Hark’s saying that he was picked to be Detective Dee because he is “clever”, Andy asked the reporter: “Do you think that I’m clever? Actually I’m not good at managing finance.” For his latest invested film – Gallant, despite rounds of promotion, but it does not make a profit for Andy.

When talked about Empress Wu in the film, Andy said: “I feel that it’s good, it’s different from what I thought. It does not require Carina Lau.” He also express that his Detective Dee is the same as himself, a person with society responsibility.” He initially does not support Wu Zhetian to become Empress, but he later found out that no man could do better than her, thus he agree and request that the throne to be passed to her son.

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