The Beijinger Blog - Film

Tuesday Film Roundup: Red Cliff 2

thebeijinger — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:16:52 +0800

According to yesterday’s newspaper, the second part of Red Cliff will officially premiere on January 7 2009, 2pm. The first part broke box office records in Asia as 2008 Chinese summer blockbuster of choice. John Woo is going to set another fire on this He sui Season with his massive epic period war film Red Cliff 2. The comical exchanges between actors, prevalent in the first part, will still be conspicuous. Presumably Red Cliff Part 2 will hopefully propel John Woo's Asian film return to a much higher level. A short trailer of the second installment has also been proving popular on video sharing sites.

Tuesday Film Roundup: New Year's Comedy Season is on!

thebeijinger — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:00:34 +0800

After a series of spoof, or " Shan Zhai/ 山寨"- the Shan Zhai Spring Festival Gala, shan zhai CCTV News, Shan Zhai Lecture Forum( 百家讲坛), the spoof culture became an acceptable form of the expression of contemporary Chinese Internet creativity. However, Bollywood seems to be able to do it best. Chandni Chowk To China (月光集市到中国), to be released next year, is the first ever Bollywood Kung Fu Comedy. It follows one man's journey from being a medicore cook to an alleged reincarnated kung fu fighting legend. From the streets of Chandni Chowk in Delhi, India, to the Great Wall of China and beyond this hilarious comedy that spoofs movies such as Kung Fu Hustle and Curse of the Golden Flower will keep you laughing and on seat's edge through scene after scene of amusing situations.

The Young Fool Who Made a Film: Profile of the Director of Yugong Yishan Documentary

thebeijinger — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:00:29 +0800

Yugong Yishan is one of the best live music venues in town. It's won the Best Live Music gong at the Beijinger's Readers Bar and Club Awards every year for the past 5 years and this week Kaiser Kuo told Beijing Boyce that he considers the new digs on Zhang Zizhong Lu to be one of the 5 best Beijing live music venues of all time. Where else can you see a French trip-hop DJ on Friday night, then on the next night catch a raucous blues show and then on the following day go and watch Peking Opera with the local Peking Opera society? On Friday night they'll be screening a 30 minute documentary about themselves by director Joanna Vasquez Arong. Steven Schwankert caught up with the director of the film last month and we've included his profile of the director below.

Tuesday Film Roundup: Next, Diving in Mongolia and EFF

thebeijinger — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:00:36 +0800

European Film Festival
Many of the European embassies in Beijing have come together to present China’s first Annual European Union Film Festival. The schedule consists of films from over 20 countries and includes popular films like Once from Ireland, La Môme (My Life in Rose) from France and The Last King of Scotland from the UK. For a complete schedule click here. The screenings will take place in four locations: the French Cultural Centre, Instituto Cervantes, Italian Institute of Culture and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Each film will be screened in its original language, with English and Chinese subtitles. Free. ID required at certain locations.

Weekend Options: Win Tickets to Kylie

thebeijinger — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:00:31 +0800

Aside from Kylie Minogue gracing the Workers' Gymnasium with her presence on Monday (see this week's 7 days newsletter to find out how to win tickets), there are also plenty of other international performers visiting the capital this week. Finnish rockers Moses Hazy take to the stage at both 2 Kolegas and Mao, Dutch DJ Secret Cinema spins at Yen Black, Swedish indie pop musician Jens Lekman along with both DJ Qbert and The Click Five from the US will also perform later in the week.
The tail end of The Sixth Beijing International Theater & Dance Festival throws up some quality shows: the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Best of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and TNT Theater's production of The Canterville Ghost . One of the best community events on Beijing's calendar - the annual German Christmas Charity Bazaar - takes place on Saturday. There's also some interesting films be shown around town with both the North Korean Film Fest and the Documentary: Hovsgol Nuur: Diving in the Land of Chinggis Khan. Finally, Hilton's 11th Food & Wine Experience puts on a grand spread this weekend.

North Korean Film Screening and Koryo Tours Christmas Sale

thebeijinger — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:00:10 +0800

Fans of all things North Korean will delight in the North Korean Film
Festival, which is due to kick off this Sunday at around 6.30pm at Yugong Yishan. It starts with the charming football documentary, The Game of Their Lives, which tells the true story of the 1966 World Cup underdogs North Korea ousting the Italian favorites. Then at about 9pm there follows a screening of The Schoolgirl's Diary which shows the influx of Westernization through the eyes of a young North Korean girl. The night wraps up with a late screening of monster movie Pulgasari at about 11pm.

Tuesday Film Roundup: Beijing International Film Festival and Hell Boy

thebeijinger — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:00:39 +0800

We're a day behind schedule, so keep reading below for details of all the films playing in Beijing this Wednesday, Nov 26.

Beijing Independent Film Festival (BIFF)
Back in October, Angilee Shah wrote a post titled The Best Reporting on the Sichuan Earthquake You'll Never See for one of our favorite sources of China film and book news, China Beat. The article about Beijing director Pan Jianlin's latest film, Who Killed Our Children and the unlikelihood of the film being shown anywhere in China. Well, on Sunday, the film, which examines the sensitive issue of the number children killed in the Sichuan Earthquake, was shown in China as part of the Beijing International Film Festival out at Songzhuang Art Center. Festival organizers kept news of the screening quiet before the event. The rest of the festival program is now available here. Another of Pan Jianlin's films, Feast of Villains, will be screened on the last day of the festival on Saturday.

Weekend Options: Dance, Drama and DJs

thebeijinger — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:00:20 +0800

It's a great week to head to the theater as the The Sixth Beijing International Theater & Dance Festival hits its stride and the capital's stages are inundated with a swag of great shows. Picks of the bunch include the musical Aida, Flamenco Passion and, towards the end of the week, the Martha Graham Dance Company. The Best of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival also continues this week with The End of Everything Ever. There's also plenty of quality DJ and live music events to tempt you out on a chilly winter night, Friday has Wax Tailor take to the decks at YGYS and Long Shen Dao do their Chinese reggae thing over at New Get Lucky. Saturday is rich with pickings, Black Cat Bone are inviting some special guests around to help them celebrate the release of their debut CD, Stone Throw Records' James Pants enters the White Rabbit warren, while some lesser-known new comers take to the stage at Star Live as part of Beijing Calling Vol. 3. For more details on these and other events take a look at the 7 Days e-mail newsletter which normally goes out late Thursday evening, but is running a little late this week (apologies). You can take a look at the online version here.

Tuesday Film Roundup: Karate Kid in Beijing, Babylon A.D. and Red Cliff II

thebeijinger — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:00:22 +0800

Film News

According to Variety, Beijing has been chosen as one of the cities in which Columbia's remake of the 1984 classic Karate Kid will be filmed. The film will star Will Smith's son Jaden and is expected to start shooting early next year.

Keep reading below for more Beijing-related film news and screening times for all the English-language films being shown in Beijing tonight.

Tuesday Film Roundup: International Student Film Festival and Korean Film Festival

thebeijinger — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:00:25 +0800

Film News

International Student Film Festival of the Beijing Film Academy
This year’s festival lineup includes works drawn from an applicant pool spread over 40 countries, and will even show one or two feature films. Each film showing will include a Q&A session, allowing audience members to question the filmmakers, who are all flown into Beijing to be on hand for the event, in an informal setting. The festival organizers and committee members include renowned filmmakers (and BFA graduates) like Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite, The Horse Thief) and Xie Fei (Girl from Hunan, the leading filmmaker of the Fourth Generation). It’s also rumored that Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yimou might participate in the judging and awarding of certain films. The BFA International Student Film Festival runs from Nov 9-15 at the Beijing Film Academy. Tickets are RMB 3 and are available at BFA. See the official site for more details and a detailed schedule.