Part two of the news links catch-up but first some reader interaction …

In the comments from News Links: July 27th, 2009, Gleen Glenn writes:

What are your thoughts on Kelly Chen babygate?  Did she fake the pregnancy?  It’s someone else’s baby?  Just nasty gossip?

When I first read the rumours about Kelly Chen’s pregnancy being an elaborate cover-up for a pregnancy caused by her brother Victor Chen, my initial reaction was: “What?  Is this the 1950s?  Would someone really bother to concoct such a complex scheme in an age where the term “baby daddy” has become firmly entrenched in the cultural lexicon?  Do families still send their pregnant kids away to “distant relatives”?  Do “rest homes” that cater to unwed single mothers still exist?  Didn’t Richard Li and Isabella Leong just proudly celebrate the birth of an out-of-wedlock child?”

Then, I put aside my Western sensibilities and remembered that we’re talking about the shame-based Chinese culture where “young models” are a source of controversy for the Hong Kong Book Fair so, yeah, maybe someone would go to ridiculous lengths to cover-up a pregnancy.  Like the earlier rumours about Ronald Cheng’s extra-curricular activities involving photos of Charlene Choi, these rumours are so absurd, you can’t possibly have formed them just out of your imagination.  It’s like the Little Vito shower situation in the “Chasing It” episode of THE SOPRANOS, you don’t just dream up scenarios like that without some sort of real-life kernel inspiring it.

So, do I think the rumours are true?  Not really.  Some HK girls are alarmingly thin but otherwise healthy, like my 89-pound cousin Agatha, so it’s not like Kelly Chen’s slight weight gain is out of the norm for HK women.  However, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it turned out, years later, that the rumours were true (see one Bobby Darin).

I can’t believe that I just spent time breaking that down … 

Onto some links …

PRODUCTION NEWS:

BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS:

‘Infernal’ Lau joins ‘Bodyguards’

Latest Stills of ‘Bodyguards and Assassins’

After 112 days of shooting, principal photography of BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS wrapped on the weekend.  Among those present was Michelle Reis who has a small part playing a woman who has a “profound effect on Leon Lai’s ‘beggar’ character”.

RELATED LINKS:

• Sina.com article and photos
• Xinhua article

Shaw Bros. returns with trio of films

Sundream joins IHQ and Polybona for Let’s Fall in Love

HK indie filmmakers taking the lead

Production still of Jet Li in THE EXPENDABLES

This film look likes it’ll be dynamite but, with such a star-studded cast, they couldn’t make room for Jean Claude Van Damme?  I can understand not wanting Steven Seagal (since he looks like he weighs 300 pounds and has less mobility than Zhang Fei in DYNASTY WARRIORS 4) but no love for The Muscles From Brussels?

One more comment, a project like this is what Jackie Chan should be doing instead of KUNG FU KID.

Chinese filmmaker Feng Xiaogang begins shooting earthquake movie

COMING SOON:

Message of ‘Overheard’: Don’t Be Greedy

McDull’s Big Success at Box Office

FEATURES:

Lee Byung Hyun (Korean actor who has a role in G.I. JOE: RISE OF THE COBRA):  You can’t see his face on the posters

EASON CHAN:

HK singer Eason Chan’s marriage in trouble?

Eason Chen breaks down in tears during his concert

Photo of Constance Chan and Hilary Tsui at the Beyond concert where Eason Chan was a guest performer

AROUND TOWN:

‘Tracing Shadow’ Premieres

More photos courtesy Xinhua (Gotta love that dress on Pace Wu)

Donnie Yen celebrated his 46th birthday on July 27th with a party at a HK nightclub.  Among the attendees were his real-life wife Cissy Wang, his on-screen wife Lynn Xiong, producer Raymond Wong, Andrew Lin Hoi, Vincent Kuk Tak-Chiu, Cheung Tat-Ming and Leon Lai.

RELATED LINKS:

• Photos courtesy Sina.com
• Photos courtesy Xinhua

Jessica Hsuan, Kate Tsui, Amanda Strang and Ivan Ho Sau-San attended a press conference on Monday for their new TVB documentary series 《活着》 (trans. LIVING). For the series, the artistes will visit Ethiopa, Kenya and Sawarak among other locales.

• Photos courtesy Xinhua
• I wish I was the meat in a Jessica Hsuan, Kate Tsui sandwich — that Ivan Ho is one lucky bastard.
• I almost want to join Facebook just so I could be Jessica Hsuan’s friend.

PHOTO GALLERYS:

Li Bingbing on the cover of the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar

Sina.com slideshow featuring Vicki Zhao Wei

Donnie Yen on the cover of L’Officiel Hommes

BRUCE LEE:

Bruce Lee legend remains strong in Hong Kong 36 years after his death

Hollywood Reporter:

• Bruce Lee museum in design phase 
• Bruce Lee’s family OKs biopics

HK Standard: New Bruce Lee flick to focus on his life and loves

Xinhua: Kungfu star Bruce Lee’s new movie to be shot

Associated Press: Bruce Lee’s siblings authorize Chinese biopics

Variety:  Bruce Lee museum, biopic unveiled

Design competition held for Bruce Lee museum

New York Times: Design Competition for Bruce Lee Museum

BEYOND HK:

Ken Zhu hopes to take nude photos of Kelly Lin

Vic Zhou: I won’t conceal my future relationships

Jolin launches own fashion label in America

CULTURAL NEWS:

Alarm sounded as youth ditch reading for idol worship

Book fair seeks model behavior - or else

Drug war and sexy models spice Ani-Com 

* * * * *

Best wishes to Shing Fui-On who, according to reports in HK papers, has suffered a recurrence of the nasopharyngeal cancer that he battled in 2004.  Incidentally, this is the same kind of cancer for which I received treatment.

Apologies for the recent lack of posts.  While Asia was plunged into darkness by a total eclipse of the Sun last week, I was plunged into darkness by a total eclipse of the heart, getting a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by.

Kidding, kidding.  No need to worry for my mental health.  I’m not sitting in the dark, drinking myself into a stupor like a TVB protagonist after he’s had a stupid misunderstanding with his love interest.  It’s just that talk of the eclipse put Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” back onto the radio for a couple of days and the tune turned into a mindworm that burrowed itself into my brain.

If you want to worry about something, worry about how Earth’s brilliant scientists missed spotting an object as big as the Pacific Ocean approaching Jupiter.  If they didn’t see an object that size gunning for Jupiter, how are they going to spot massive objects coming towards Earth?  Disconcerting — no?  Related links:

• All Eyepieces on Jupiter After a Big Impact
• Like Earth, Jupiter’s a duck in celestial shooting gallery
• Jupiter: Our Cosmic Protector?
• How an amateur beat the pros in spotting Jupiter collision 

Now that I’ve planted seeds of anxiety in your mind, allow me to distract you with some links.  As I’ve missed almost two weeks, I’m splitting the links up into smaller more manageable posts.  Here’s post number one:

FEATURES:

Stephen Chow’s Short List

The rise and fall — and rise? — of Hong Kong cinema

Aaron Kwok: Tortured Soul

Everything Will Change: An Interview with Wai Ka-Fai

Charmaine Sheh: Charmaine speaks her mind

RELATED LINKS:

• HK actress Charmaine Sheh tackles romance rumours
• Charmanine Sheh dating Kevin Cheng? 

Moses Chan: The pursuit of happiness

RELATED: Moses Chan only loves coffee and not women?

Michael Hui: Just For Laughs

Carl Ng (son of Richard Ng Yiu-Hon):  Journey to the East

My Interview with Francoise Yip

Regular reader Glenn nabs an interview with Yip Fong-Wah.  There’s a link to his review of MOTHERLAND below.

Stefanie Sun: The Stage is a Career and a Challenge

PRODUCTION NEWS:

Wong Jing  to live and die with ‘Mongkok’

DETECTIVE DEE:

• Detective Dee Talks to Animals
• ‘Sick’ Detective Deng Smells out Clues
• Li Bingbing back to Tang Dynasty

Looking for Kung Fu Girls for Andy Lau’s New Film ‘Unshakeable Military Orders’

Stanley Kwan, Christopher Doyle Chase Solar Eclipse for New Film

37:

• Stellar Megamedia boards Dennis Chan’s 37 
• Charlie Yeung sacrifices hair for art
• RELATED: Sina.com photos of Charlie Yeung from event

POKER KING: The Asian Poker Tour Macau To Star As Backdrop For New Chinese Poker Film

Stephen Chow salvages romance ‘Jump’

Preview of the Set in Zhang Yimou’s “Three Guns”

Chinese director Jia to make 1st big budget film

COMING SOON:

OVERHEARD:

• Lau Ching-Wan: The Spy Game
• Behind the scenes 
• Tapping into the craze for stocks
• ‘Overheard’ the best Chinese film this summer
• Louis gains 14kg for ‘uncle’ role
• Photos from the Beijing premiere courtesy Sina.com

ON HIS MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE:

• New Film Guarantees Laughs and More
• Louis Koo Becomes a Robot in Golden Armour
• Hong Kong movie ready to open

MCDULL KUNG FU DING DONG: Never a McDull moment

The Storm Warriors to create new Wuxia world with more special effects

Battle Film “Wheat” to Be Released in September

RELATED: Sina.com Photo Gallery

Critics Give Thumbs-up to “One Night in a Supermarket” Ahead of Release (Link to Variety review below)

Ge You ‘Gasps’ out Funny English

MOVIE REVIEWS:

MURDERER reviews: Hollywood Reporter, HK Magazine, bc Magazine

WRITTEN BY: bc Magazine review

SOUNDLESS WIND CHIME: bc Magazine review

PLASTIC CITY: Channel News Asia review

ONE NIGHT IN SUPERMARKET: Variety review

MOTHERLAND: Review from A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed

GENERAL NEWS:

Vicki Zhao:

• Zhao Wei to marry boyfriend
• Agent Denies Zhao Wei’s Hiatus Rumor 
• Vicki Zhao delays graduation for ‘Mulan’
• Unsuccessful Graduate Zhao Wei to Halt Career for School

Kelly Chen:

• Kelly Chen faked pregnancy?
• Slim New Mom Kelly Chen In ‘Surrogate Mother’ Suspection 
• Kelly Chen goes home with baby
• Sina.com photos of Kelly Chen and baby Chace

Hong Kong Book Fair:

• Stephy Tang and Theresa Fu encourage each other
• HK Book Fair marred by idol-related books controversy

Charlene Choi: Ronald Cheng is not a Casanova

Nicholas Tse encourages wife to have second child

Sonija Kwok searching for Mr. Right

Leon Didn’t Announce Wedding at ‘Dream Wedding” Concert

Edison Chen re-engaged as jeans endorsee

Taipei Times Pop Stop: Edison Chen, Zhang Ziyi

Jackie Chan to Donate All Property after Death

Taipei Times Pop Stop: Jackie Chan, Little S, more

Shu Qi seen in Stephen Feng’s house

RELATED: Photos courtesy Xinhua

Zoe Tay, Stephen Fung graces Cartier’s flagship opening

Raymond Lam:

• Raymond Lam taking on detective drama 
• Hong Kong star bores Vietnam at outset of Asian tour
• Raymond Lam Fung meets fans ahead of concert in Vietnam 
• Hong Kong singer, TV star gets warm reception in HCM City
• Chinese superstar says “Hello” to HCM City 
• Hong Kong star opens heart to local audiences

Denise Ho:

• HK singer Denise Ho comes out of the closet
• Denise Ho out of the Closet?

Fann Wong plans to follow Kelly Chen’s footsteps

Paulyn Sun: Wealthy ex walks free after model punch rap

Ekin Cheng promotes HK tourism in Japan

CoCo Lee goes futuristic gold for East To West

BEYOND HK:

Phyllis Quek (you may remember her as the compelling hot babe from Aaron Kwok’s 2000 AD): You Can’t Have Best of Both Worlds

RELATED: Phyllis Quek loses sleep over her role as Kidnapper

Rocker Wu Bai refuses to be a “Fashion Dog”

Andy Lau and Jingle Ma inaugurate Cheryl Yang’s journey in showbiz

Sam Lee Sheng-Chieh: This balladeer’s shy about ballet past

Fiona Xie:

• Fiona, Where Are You?
• Fiona Xie OUT! Eelyn Kok IN!
• If not Fiona Xie, then who?
  
• Fiona Xie quitting MediaCorp?
  

HONG KONG MOVIES ABROAD:

Asian American International Film Festival debuts in NYC

BOX OFFICE NEWS:

Johnnie To’s VENGEANCE is indeed hitting the screens in Hong Kong on August 20th.  For more information, you can check out the official English-language website at:

http://www.vengeance-lefilm.com/_en/vengeance.html

In answer to the question by EverSoFine from Coming Soon: Release Dates for Upcoming HK Movies about availability in the United States, it’s impossible to say when foreign films will get a theatrical release in the United States.  Sometimes, they are released within weeks.  Other times, it may take years for a foreign film to reach American shores.  It all depends on distribution deals and so forth.

Most times, the DVD of a Hong Kong film should be easily available to people in North America at a local Chinese video store or an online merchant like YesAsia.  Generally speaking, you can get your hands on the HK DVD of a film within a couple of months of the HK theatrical release.

BOX OFFICE NUMBERS:

Bad word of mouth didn’t stop MURDERER in its tracks because, as of July 16th, it has made HK$7.68 million (33 screens, 9 days in theatres).  WRITTEN BY, the new Wai Ka-Fai/Lau Ching-Wan effort, has taken in HK$2.59 million (20 screens, 9 days).   On its way out, appearing on only a handful of screens, SHORT OF LOVE has earned HK$3.76 million from 21 days in theatres.

As it was everywhere else it was released, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE was the top-grossing release in HK last week.

Compiling a news links post which should be appear shortly but I couldn’t resist throwing in my two cents after coming across this item about Jackie Chan:

Jackie Chan praises kung fu of Will Smith’s son

RELATED: Jackie Chan’s blog post about THE KUNG FU KID

Once again, Jackie Chan throws his son under the bus.  It’s weird that he constantly feels the need to take these public digs at his kid.  What’s even more off-putting about this instance is that Big Brother Jackie seems to be doing it for thirty pieces of silver.  Doesn’t it come across a little bit as him singing the praises of Jaden Smith because he’s sucking up to Will Smith?  There have got to be countless ways to make the same point without going out of his way to slam his own flesh and blood.  Did he really need to say this: “He put my son to shame!  I provided my son with the best martial artists in the world, and he could not be persuaded to try it.”

Isn’t this odd behaviour for a public figure?  How many famous people continually denigrate their offspring in the pubic eye?  When Richard Li and Isabella Leong announced the birth of their son last month, Li Ka-Shing didn’t go on Twitter and tweet about how he wished his son spent more time making money and less time having children out of wedlock with starlets.  Instead, he told the press that he was happy to be “promoted to grandfather status”.

Jackie Chan’s behaviour reminds me, a bit, of something the great Tracy Jordan said in the 30 ROCK episode “Tracy Does Conan”.  In it, he revealed:  “I like to walk around my house naked, to remind my oldest son who’s still got the biggest ding-dong.”

With an old man like Big Brother Jackie, it’s remarkable that we haven’t had any news stories of Jaycee Chan crashing his Ferrari in the Central district or inappropriately touching a taxi driver while in a drunken stupor.

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES:

- A quick merci to m for the French lesson in the comments section of the last post.

- Speaking of comments, I’m temporarily switching the blog’s discussion function to “moderated” because the comments section has been overrun, of late, with spam.

Back later with a news links post.

Joyeuese Fête Nationale à tout le monde!

Or is it Joyeux Fête Nationale?  Also, do I need the à or can I just go with “Joyeuese Fête Nationale tout le monde!”  Apologies to all of the francophone readers out there, it’s been a long time since I took high school French and even longer since I watched late-night movies on CBC French.  Hey, when you’re a 13 year-old boy, Fanny Ardant films can be quite, uh, intriguing even if you can barely understand what’s going on.  These days, of course, I’m sure 13 year-old boys have the ability to cast a wider net when it comes to that sort of thing.  Back in my day, the Sea of Titillation was not as vast and definitely not as bountiful.

What was I saying before I got distracted by remembrances of things past?  Oh right, Joyeuese Fête Nationale or, for the rest of us non-francophones, Happy Bastille Day!  On this day, 220 years ago, the French people stormed the Bastille and kick-started the process of turning France from a monarchy to a republic.

Let’s celebrate with some box office news and a few links.  But first, congratulations Kelly Chen:

• HK Standard: Baby brings early joy for Kelly Chen
• Channel News Asia: New mom Kelly Chen to return to work next month
  
• Straits Times: Kelly back at work in August
• Channel News Asia: Hong Kong star Kelly Chen gives birth prematurely
• Yahoo! Singapore: Kelly Chen gives birth to baby boy prematurely in HK 

FEATURES:

Simon Abrams interviews WRITTEN BY director Wai Ka-Fai

Electric New Paper on Michael Hui Kwoon-Man: ‘It’s like your chicken rice’

Carol “DoDo” Cheng Yu-Ling: Too much plastic surgery

PRODUCTION NEWS:

Chan Ho-Nam and Chicken together again, sort of:  ‘Affairs’ team to become ‘Gangsters’

Stephen Chow:

• Chow quits Green Hornet role 
• Stephen Chow Drops Out Of ‘The Green Hornet’
• ‘Green Hornet’: Chow out as Kato; Rogen stays
• Though the Jack Black superhero movie doesn’t sound much more promising, I think Stephen Chow dodged a bullet here.  I hate to be a “crow mouth” but I think a Seth Rogen backlash is brewing and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it manifests itself against this movie.

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith start filming ‘Kid’

MY COUSIN TONY:

A Tale Of Two Tonys: The National (Abu Dhabi) on Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

My cousin Tony breaks his arm:

• Channel News Asia: Tony Leung suffers broken arm during martial arts training
• CRI English: Tony Leung suffers broken arm during kung fu training
• Associated Press: Tony Leung breaks arm in training for kung fu film

WEDDING NEWS:

Gigi Leung to wed?

RELATED: Xinhua article featuring photo of Gigi Leung with her man

Zhang Ziyi:

• Zhang Ziyi’s wedding postponed 
• Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi postpones wedding
• Ziyi-Vivi wedding postponed,says tabloid

STEFANIE SUN:

Stef’s head-over (clumsy)-heels in love

Stef Sun, Singapore’s Anita Mui

A more confident and self-assured Stefanie Sun returns to S’pore

Sun’s comeback concert

Stefanie Sun wows fans

Shiny style, subdued Sun

ASIAN FILMS IN NEW YORK CITY:

Ang Lee Heading To Lincoln Center

Asian Film Fireworks for the Fourth: Richard Corliss on the New York Asian Film Festival

BOX OFFICE RESULTS:

Weekend box office figures aren’t available yet but here are the numbers from Friday:

MURDERER, 36 screens, 2 days, HK$1.01 million total

WRITTEN BY, 32 screens, 2 days, HK$301,000 total

SHORT OF LOVE, 14 screens, 15 days, HK$3.62 million total

MURDERER is off to a fast start but it should fizzle out quickly as it’s getting killed here on LoveHKFilm (Kozo’s review, The Golden Rock blog post) and on Chinese-language discussion boards.  I’m always dispirited when I hear that a highly-hyped film looks like it’s a dud.  I believe that it’s these types of films that are killing the industry more than anything else as the casual HK film fan who only sees a handful of movies a year will pick up on the hype, watch the movie then have the notion that “HK films suck” reinforced in their minds.

In other box office news, reader Mark Shaver wrote in to report that Johnnie To’s VENGEANCE is hitting Hong Kong screens on August 20th.  It hasn’t popped up yet in the “Coming Soon” sections of various movie ticket buying sites but I’m sure it’ll show up in the near future.  In the meantime, you can console yourself with the news that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is coming to Hong Kong on December 17th, 2009 — just in time for the holidays!

芝麻綠豆 (SESAME SEEDS AND MUNG BEANS): 

Finally watched the Michael Jackson Memorial (hey, with my need for ten hours of beauty sleep and my two-hour, three-martini lunches, I can only devote 12 hours a day to watching TV).   A few thoughts:

• You’d have to have a very cynical mind and a very cold heart to think that the Paris Jackson speech was staged to launch a show business career.
• It’s normal to heap praise on someone upon their death but I think it went a little too far with the King of Pop.  The notion that without Michael Jackson, there would be no Tiger Woods, no Oprah Winfrey and no Barack Obama is giving Michael Jackson way too much credit.  I think Tiger’s skill has more to do with Tiger being a global icon than Michael Jackson paving the way.  I think Oprah Winfrey’s drive has more to do with her success than Michael Jackson and I think Barack Obama’s vision and ambition had more to do with his becoming President of the United States than Michael Jackson making “blacks” acceptable in the eyes of “whites”.
• It could be because I’m a big sports fan but when anyone says MJ to me, my first thought is always Michael Jordan not Michael Jackson.
• Ten to fifteen years from now — if I have the good fortune to find a lovely bride or if I finally save enough for a mail-order bride — when my kid asks me why people thought Michael Jackson was an all-time great, I think I’ll answer by playing “I Want You Back”.  Even now, forty-years after the song became a hit, it’s hard to believe that a ten year-old gave that performance.