THC Music "20 Love Songs"

爱 音 乐 20
Somebody Help Me [Full Blown Rose]
Remember To Breathe [Dashboard Confessional]
Brokenhearted [Vaughan Penn]
Beautiful [Goldfrapp]
Broadway [Goo Goo Dolls]
Wait [Get Set Go]
Don't Know Why [Norah Jones]
Suddenly I See [KT Tunstall]
Naked As We Came [Iron and Wine]
Publish My Love [Rogue Wave]
Portions of Foxes [Rilo Kiley]
Good Life [Francis Dunnery]
There´s a Girl [The Ditty Bops]
Learning to Breathe [Switchfoot]
Fools In Love [Inara George]
Fighting For My Love [Nil Lara]
Your Body Is a Wonderland [John Mayer]
Could Be Anything [The Eames Era]
Nothing Better [The Postal Service]
Cosy in the Rocket [Psapp]

Sylvia Chang (Actress, Taiwan)

Sylvia Chang (Ai-chia)

Sylvia Chang was born in the Chia Yi County of Taiwan in 22 july, 1953, but spent part of her childhood in Hong Kong and her early teen years in Riverdale, New York. Returning to her birthplace, began appearing in films in the 1970's, having debuted at the age of 16. Actually she began at radio programs, and singing. With only 18 years old, she signed a contract with Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest Productions and made her acting debut in Tattooed Dragon.

In 1973, credited as Sylvia Channing, she appeared alongside Chuck Norris in Slaughter in San Francisco (Huang mian lao hu). In 1977, she co-starred with Brigitte Lin in the Shaw Brothers’ Dream of the Red Chamber / Jin yu liang yuan gong lou meng . Back home, she appeared in films like 800 Heroes (1975), and in tv movies.

In 1979, got married and moved back to Hong Kong, where she established herself for good at the movie industry. In 1979, starred in King Hu’s Legend of the Mountain (Shanzhong chuangqi) and also served as his assistent director on Raining in the Mountain; was the female lead in Ann Hui’s The Secret/ Feng jie (1979), an important new wave film that so happened to be produced by a company that Sylvia had co-established with friend Selina Chow.

Chang began to reduce her onscreen appearances in the mid-80's and instead focused on directorial work. In 1981, after having been the a.d. of Lung Gong (on Hiroshima 28), was asked by Raymond Chow to direct a melodramatic production called Once Upon a Time (Jiu meng bu xu ji).

With 26 years old, made a guest appearance on USA tv series M*A*S*H*. Other foreign works include 1982´s australian Attack Force Z (with Mel Gibson), Mike Newell´s Soursweet (1988, a British adaptation of Timothy Mo’s novel), and the canadian sucess Red Violin/ Xiang Pei (1998).

With more than 90 films to her credit, Chang is one of Asia's most prolific cinema professionals. Chang has written, directed and produced numerous projects of her own. In 1996, she started up Taipei's cable channel Go Go TV of which she was General Manager for two years. She has a very sucessfull career as a singer, with seven platinum albums to her credit. She is happily married mother of two.

Aside from being a well-known figure in the film industries of both Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chang is also renowned internationally. London and Toronto Film Festivals have screened her works as retrospective specials, and she also was a member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival.

Some awards include:

Golden Horse Awards´s Best Supporting Actress in 1976 for her performance in Posterity and Perplexity.
Best Actress for My Grandfather/ Wo de ye ye (1982).
Best Actress at the Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance in Passion/Zui ai (1987, also scripted and directed); scripted and directed Siao Yu (1995, USA, Ang Lee´s production), garnering the Best Film and Best Screenwriter awards at the Pan Asia Film Festival.
Best Screenplay winner for Tonight Nobody Goes Home (1996) at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
HK Film Awards´s Best Screenplay winner for Tempting Heart / Sam dung (1999), and Best Actress winner for Forever and Ever/Di jiu tian chang (2001).

She speaks: "I've learned so much about directing from my acting in the past 20 years. It's such a big help to me. I can better understand the feelings of the cast. I'm a trouble-shooter. I can quickly find ways to solve their problems."

Selected Filmography (1980-2006):

White Jasmine/Mo li hua (1980, best actress nominee Golden Horse Film Fest)
Aces Go Places/ Zuijia Paidang (1982, as a tough policewoman, making up a comedic duo with actor Karl Maka; HK Film Awards: Best Actress nominee, Best Mandarin Movie)
That Day On The Beach/ Haitan de yitian (1983 Taiwan's New Wave, dir. by Edward Yang)

Shanghai Blues/ Shanghai zhi ye (1984)
Passion/Zui ai (1986 Best Director nominee at GHFF)
Lucky Stars Go Places/ Zui jia fu xing (1986)
The Game They Called Sex/ Huang-se gushi (1987, dir. only)
Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (Taiwanese box office hit)
The Game They Call Sex /Huang-se gushi (1987)
All About Ah-Long/ You jian A Lang (1989)
Full Moon in New York/ Ren zai Niu Yue (1990)
Eight Tales of Gold/ Ba liang jin (1990)
Queen of Temple Street/ Miao jie huang hou (1990)
Sisters of the World Unite /Sha sha jia jia zhan qi lai (1991, also writer/producer)
Mary From Beijing/ Mungsing Sifan (1992, writer/director only)
Three Summers/ Ge ge de qing ren (1993, Dir. Lawrence Ah Mon; writer, exec. prod., singer)
In Between /San tung gui shut doi (1994, also director)
Eat Drink Man Woman/Yin shi nan nu (1994)
I Want to Go on Living/ Wo yao huo xia qu (1995, also writer/director)
Tonight Nobody Goes Home/ Jin tian bu hui jia (1996, writer/director only)
Bishonen/Meishaonian zhi lian (1998, executive producer)
Tempting Heart /Xin dong (1999, one of the top ten grossing films of the year)
Princess-D/ Xiang fei (2002, writer/director only)
20:30:40 (2004, also writer/director)
Rice Rhapsody /Hainan ji fan (2004)
American Fusion (2006)
Bibliography:
http://www.brns.com/
http://hkfilmart.com/
http://www.filmbug.com/
http://www.imdb.com/

Inside Man Movie OST

Music Notes

Spike Lee´s Inside Man Movie Soundtrack

Bollywood´s Dil Se Original Movie Soundtrack
Track: “Chaiyya Chaiyya”

Á La Vertícale De Lété (Vietnam) / Yi Yi (Taiwan)

My DVD Collection



Mua he chieu thang dung (Á La Vertícale De Lété)
(DVD/ Vietnam, France/ 112 min./ 2000)
Director and Screenwriter: Tran Anh HungActors: Tran Nu Yen-Khe, Nhu Quynh Nguyen, Le khanh, Quang Hai Ngo, Chu Hung, Manh Cuong Tran, Le Tuan Anh, Ngoc Dung Le.

Yi Yi (DVD/ Taiwan, Japan/ 173 min./ 2000)
Director and Screenwriter: Edward Yang
Actors: Nianzhen Wu, Issey Ogata, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang.
“Yi Yi” won the awards of best film (National Society of Film Critics of the EUA) and best director (Cannes Film Festival).

Dragon Tiger Gate News

The website for Dragon Tiger Gate is now online with a short teaser available.
Visit the official site at http://www.dragontigergatemovie.com/main.html


The $10 million action flick, from director Wilson Yip (SPL), is adapted from Hong Kong cult comic book The Gate of Dragon and Tiger and is scheduled for a Summer 2006 release date in Hong Kong.


The film stars Donnie Yen (Seven Swords), Nicholas Tse (A Chinese Tall Story) and Shawn Yue (Initial D), with art direction by William Chang (2046).

Mew "Wherever" Single

Music Notes

“Wherever” By Mew

http://www.mewsite.com/site_fr.html

Book: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

My Library



I´m currently reading (again) ”Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” how the sex-drugs-and rock´n´roll generation saved Hollywood, by Peter Biskind (Simon & Shuster Ed., 1998). The book tells the story of the last golden days of Hollywood, when Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas created the blockbuster cinema, changing the movie bussiness forever. It´s a very funny material, interviews with all the Hollywood people in the 70´s, onscreen and off.
Now, there´s a documentary of 2003 about the book. But many of the subjects profiled in author Peter Biskind's book, including directors Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert Altman, and William Friedken all declined interviews for the documentary. So, better read the book!

Vacations

paradise now
this is why I couldn´t write last month. too busy at paradise. It was like beeing at the Lost island, without the invisible monsters :-) (by the way, this Lost story reminds me so much of the Shakespeare´s play The Tempest).

Art: Andy Goldsworthy

I´m fascinated by this artist: Andy Goldsworthy, a sculptor/photographer of the nature. It´s hard to explain the impact of his work, you have to see it to feel the power and the beauty, it´s like to surprise a garden inside a natural landscape. You can read a good assay about the artist in http://d-sites.net/english/goldsworthy.htm,

and google him to apreciate the photographs of his works.

Happy Xmas!

Wishing you a holiday filled with

oceans of memories

and waves of fun!

Asian Cinema (DVD)

“Green Tea”

1.The Returner (DVD/ Japan/2002) ***
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Actors: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Anne Suzuki, Goro Kishitani

2.After Life “Wandafuru Raifu” (DVD/ Japan/ 1998/ 118 min) ***
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Actors: Takashi Mochizuki, Shiori Satonaka

3.Dolls (DVD/ Japan/ 2002/ 115 min) ****
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Actors: Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima

4.Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... ***
(Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom)
(DVD/ South Korea/ 2003)
Director:Ki-duk Kim
Actors: Yeong-su Oh, Youg-min Kim, Yeo-jin Ha
 5.Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War***
(DVD/ South Korea/ 2004/ 140 min)
Director: Je-gyu Kang
Actors: Dong-kun Jang, Bin Won

6.Ong-bak (DVD/ Thailand/ 2003) **
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Actors: Tony Jaa, Petchtai Wongkamlao

Books: Cinema

My Library

Dictionnaire du Cinéma/Les Réalisateurs
by Jean Tulard

Le Cinéma Selon François Truffaut

col. by Anne Gillain

Dictionnaire des Films
by Georges Sadoul

Les Films-Clés du Cinema

by Claude Beylie

Stephen Chow Sing-chi (bio)

Stephen Chow Sing-chi

Born in Hong Kong in June 22, 1962 and grew up in Shanghai.

A big fan of martial arts, specially of star Bruce Lee, while was in school took three months of Wing Chun classes with the Master Wong Shun-leung, one of Lee's martial brothers. Though Chow's formal martial arts training was brief, he has ably integrated martial arts action into many of his comic film roles, for which he is best known.

In 1983 he graduated from acting school and was hired as host of a children's television program entitled Space Shuttle 430. After that he worked his way into dramatic TV roles; they led to his first movie part, in the 1988 film Final Justice, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor honor at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards. After that, Chow has builted his carrer as Asia's top comedy star.

Beginnig with the success of All For the Winner in 1990, to starring roles in two sequels to God of Gamblers. Established an important trend in Hong Kong's comedy films culture known as “Mou Lei Tau”.

Parodies would become popular in Chow´s films, like Fist of Fury 1991 , Justice My Foot (1992, Best Actor of Asia Pacific Film Festival), Beijing with Love (1994), All's Well, Ends Well (1997). We have the period films King of Beggars and A Chinese Odissey Part 1 and 2 (as the chinese literary hero, the Monkey King).

Chow started working behind the camera with From Beijing with Love. After that came The God of Cookery (1996), as writer, producer, director and star.

The start of international sucess came with Shaolin Soccer (2001), when he mixed kung fu action with soccer. His last production, Kung Fu Hustle (2004) was a big hit, winning the best film prize at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Don´t Make a Drama!

1. Zhou Yu´s Train (Zhou Yu de huo che)

(DVD/ China/ 2002/ 96 min)
Director: Zhou Sun
Actors: Gong Li, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Honglei Sun

2. In The Mood For Love
(DVD/ Hong Kong/ 2000/ 98 min)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Actors: Tony Leug Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung

3. Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie)
(DVD/ China/ 2003/ 127 min)
Director: Lou Ye
Actors: Zhang Ziyi, Liu Ye, Toru Nakamura, Feng Yuanzheng

4. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Xiao cai feng)

(DVD/ China/2002/ 110 min)
Director: Sijie Dai
Actors: Liu Ye, Xun Zhou, Kun Chen

5. 20, 30, 40 (DVD/ Taiwan/ 2004/ 112 min)
Director: Sylvia Chang
Actors: Sylvia Chang, Rene Liu, Lee Sinje
This film is a little pearl, made to hit the heart of every women in their 20´s, 30´s or 40´s. It´s not just about the life of some taiwanese women, but human feelings of any modern girl this days. The guys can see this flick with compliance, but the girls will see themselves like in a mirror.


6. Chunhyang (VHS/ South Korea/ 2000/ 120 min.)

Director: Kwon-taek Im
Actors: Hyo-jeong Lee, Seung-woo Cho"Like the sun and the moon, my love will never change."

Book: The Moonstone

My Library

“One of the wildest of the Palace of Seringapatam related to a Yellow Diamond – a famous gem in the nativa annals of India. The earliest Known traditions describe the stone as having been set in the forehead of the four-handed Indian god who typifies the Moon. Partly from its peculiar colour, partly from a superstition whitch represented it as feeling the influence of the deity whom it adorned, and growing and lessening in lustre with the waxing and waning of the moon, it first gained the name by whitch it continues to be known in India to this day – the name of THE MOONSTONE”.

– The Moonstone, a large, beautiful yet fated diamond, was stolen from an Indian shrine. It is given to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday and, that same night, stolen again. Sergeant Cuff is employed by Rachel´s mother to find the precious stone and has no shortage of suspects. By turns, those on the periphery and at the heart of the mistery tell their version of the events until all is unravelled at the unexpected conclusion.
(A classic detective novel by Wilkie Collins (1871)/ Penguin Books).

Art: Wang Hui

Wang Hui (Chinese, 1632-1717), 1672,
National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Infernal Affairs Movie OST

Infernal Affairs Original Soundtrack
Track: “Wu Jian Dao”
(duet by Andy Lau and Tony Leung)

In The Mood For Love OST

Music Notes


In The Mood for Love Original Movie Soundtrack
Track: “Yumeji’s Theme”
by Shigeru Umebayashi

DVD: HK/ China

“Archaeologic Artefacts”
1. Shanghai Triad (DVD/ China/ 1996/ 107 min)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Actors: Gong Li, Li Baotian, Xiaoxiao Wang

2. The Emperor and the Assassin (VHS/ China/1998)
Director: Chen Kaige
Actors: Gong Li, Li Xuejian, Zhang Fengyi

3. Gourgeus (VHS/ Hong Kong/1999/95 min)
Director: Vincent Kok
Actors: Jackie Chan, Tony Leug Chiu-Wai, Shu Qi, Richie Ren
http://www.tntla.com/










4. Police Story (DVD/ Hong Kong/ 1985/ 96 min)
Director: Jackie Chan
Actors: Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin
The gifted policeman Kevin Chan (Jackie Chan) puts behind the bars the biggest drug dealer in town. Then he has to protect the major witness of the case, the gangster ´s secretary (Lin). When the girl disappears and the bad guy goes free, Chan has the personal challenge of bringing her back, facing all alone the gangsters. The picture images have grown old, but the amazing stunt work and the fightings still make this action movie a great fun.

5. Hard Boiled (VHS/ Hong Kong/ 1994)
Director: John Woo
Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Anthony Wong)

6. Fist of Legend (VHS/ China/ 1994)
Director: Gordon Chan Car-Seung
Action: Yuen Woo-Ping
Actors: Jet Li, Chin Siu-Ho, Ada Choi Siu-Fun, Nakayma Shinobu












7. Hard Boiled (VHS/ Hong Kong/ 1994/ 126 min)
Director: John Woo
Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Anthony Wong, Teresa Mo)

 Tequila (Yun-Fat) is a cop frustrated with his carrer, who would gladly change over from the revolver to a saxophone, from the police stationt to a smoky jazz bar (his nickname says all!). This way, he seems to be always running against the clock, performing the missions with a suicidal courage, and what for? To get rid of all vilains and finally dedicate his life to the music and his estranged girlfriend? Alan (Leung) is a killer working to the guns contraband mafia in Hong Kong and also has the desire of an early retirement. He seems sometimes reluctant executing the assasssination job, but is quite brilliant doing it. When Tequila and Alan finally have the paths crossed there´s a mutual recognition of souls. With a ironic difference revealed in Alan´s touching confession:” All I wanted was to be a normal cop”. The fine construction of the characters contrasts with the bloodshed that we´re submitted during the picture. Even so, Chow Yun-Fat holding a baby in his arms and shooting a gun in the middle of fire and explosions is moving, the way just John Woo could make it. Classic!

Welcome to Tea House and Cinema

We´re living privileged times, with so many great films coming to our theaters. Just this year we saw Zhang Yimou´s “Hero” and “House of the Flying Daggers”, and Stephen Chow´s “Kung Fu Hustle”.


Hopefully we´ll close the year with the beautiful “2046”, Wong Kar-Wai´s new tale of love and pain.


On DVD I can name some good candy too. The release of old stuff, the new films that never made the ocidental screens, and even the archaeologic findings in VHS (those are precious!).


Well, we´ll review all of them, so stay connected! I´m listing some of the films I saw this year, with selected links. I count with your suggestions of other titles, or just comments on the list.

“Hero” (Ying xiong) China, 2002, 99´
director: Zhang Yimou
writing: Zhang Yimou, Feng Li, Bin Wang
actors: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi.


The director Zhang Yimou already gifted us with great films, full of solid drama and scenes that will keep forever in our minds (like “Farewell My Concubine”). By other hand, chinese cinema has the unique capacity of combining adventure, action and drama. Ang Lee´s “Crounting Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is the perfect example, and clearly inspired this new fase of Yimou carrer. In spite of never have worked directing action films, “Hero” discloses the director´s talent also in this genre. “Hero” tells us, through a legend, the history of the unificacion of China, about 2000 years ago. And who´s the “hero” of the story? The Nameless swordman (Jet Li), that defeats the rebels? Or the same rebels – Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) e Sky (Donnie Yen)? Or maybe the true hero is the King of Qin (Daomin Chen), for having the boldness of building the great country of China? It´s all open to interpretation, but what really matters in this film are the fight scenes, a very elegant and elaborated coreography. Even if you´re not a fan of martial arts, you´ll be delighted. And the landscapes are truly amazing. Exotic deserts, fantasy forests, highly colored by the hand of the fotographer Christopher Doyle, a brilliant work. Finally, it was a beaultiful experience into the legend plus marcial arts genre. And it seems that Zhang Yimou realy enjoyed the play since he directed afterwards the also amazing “House of Flying Daggers”. Can´t miss it!

“House of Flying Daggers” (Shi mian mai fu) China, 2004, 119´
director: Zhang Yimou
writing: Zhang Yimou, Feng Li, Bin Wang
actors: Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro
music: Shigeru Umebayashi


This is the second incursion of the director in the martial arts plus epic drama genre, and Zhang Yimou is more experienced and mature. And the challenge is bigger this time. More action, more breath taking landscapes and much more drama. Or I should say, more romance. The story is set when China is a great unified country, but the people still dislikes some governants. This established, enter two policemen (Andy Lau e Takeshi Kaneshiro) that are charged with the arresting of a beautiful young rebel (Zhang Ziyi) hidded at a brothel. They´re surprised to find out the girl is blind, and also a brilliant swordwoman. The tenent Jin (Kaneshiro) has the mission of faking the rescue of the blind girl, to pretend sympathy for the rebel cause, this way being able to discover the hiding-place of the state foes. During this journey, naturaly, the couple falls in love with each other.
So many scenes in this film are memorable, like the raid through the bambual (a scene that can´t miss in a martial arts classic movie) and the final duel at the snow field. Delicate and moving performances, inspired music, in short, another pearl of the director Zhang Yimou.

“Kung Fu Hustle” (Gong Fu) Hong Kong, 2004, 95´
director: Stephen Chow Sing-Chi
actors: Stephen Chow, Chi Chung Lam, Wah Yuen, Qui Yuen, Hsiao Liang
http://www.kungfuhustle.com/

Para mim, o melhor filme do ano, ainda mais que tive o prazer de vê-lo no dia do meu aniversário. Mas deixando de lado razões emocionais, Gong Fu é um filme divertido como a muito não se via, ao menos nas telas ocidentais. E nem dá para comparar com os filmes anteriores de Stephen Chow, que nunca chegaram às telas do Brasil. O que aliás é surpreendente, já que o sucesso anterior do diretor (Shaolin Soccer) combina o kung fu com o futebol, paixão nacional brasileira. Por que esse filme não chegou ao país? Pergunte às distribuidoras de cinema, escravas comerciais do cinema norte-americano. Mas vamos ao aqui e agora. Esse é um filme que surpreende em muitos aspectos, a começar pela direção segura e ao mesmo tempo criativa do Sr. Chow. Outro ponto positivo são os CGI, os efeitos especiais, presentes em grande parte do filme, mas sempre bem pensados e elaborados com grande sofisticação. A estória: nos anos confusos da china pré-revolucionária, gangues sanguinárias aterrorizam as zonas urbanas. Uma dupla de jovens sem-teto (Chow e Chi Chung Lam) sonha em fazer parte da famosa Gangue do Machado. Passando-se por membros da dita gangue, eles ensaiam uma tentativa de extorsão num condomínio pobre, sugestivamente chamado de “Beco do Chiqueiro” (“Pig Sty Alley”). Só que os azarados heróis se vêem diante de um grupo de moradores que lembra muito os daquela pequena aldeia gaulesa, que nunca se rendeu ao império romano, lembra? E quando a sinistra Gangue do Machado entra na festa... é um espetáculo de artes marcias pra fã nenhum botar defeito.

“Breaking News” (Dai si gein) Hong Kong, 2004, 90´
director: Johnny To
writing: Chan Hing-Kai, Tin-Shing Yip
actors: Richie Ren, Nick Cheung, Kelly Chen
http://www.breakingnewsthemovie.com/

Mais um excelente filme made in Hong Kong que não chega às nossas telas, enquanto somos obrigados a ver Robert De Niro estrelando mais uma comédia familiar (que saudades de Taxi Driver e Os Bons Companheiros). Felizmente chegou em DVD e assim pude conferir o talento do diretor Jonnie To. O filme se passa, em boa parte, dentro de um grande cenário, um prédio de apartamentos num bairro de classe média-baixa da agitada cidade de Hong Kong. Uma experiente quadrilha de assaltantes é perseguida por uma força policial de investigadores, que já estava em sua cola por algum tempo. O grupo de ladrões se refugia no interior do prédio, um grande labirinto de corredores e apartamentos apertados. Nesse ambiente claustrofóbico, mas enquadrado com grande agilidade por Jonnie To, os moradores se vêem presos no fogo cruzado entre os bandidos e a polícia. O ator Richie Ren está ótimo no papel de ladrão charmoso e ultra cool.