Goro's Asian Movies and Stuff Blog

Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE : Cecilia Chung info (LINK) (CHI)

KFCCinema has a nice little article/interview with Cecilia Cheung about her experience during the filming of Chen Kaige's new epic period film, WU-JI/THE PROMISE [link].  It's not very deep, but it does give a nice little feel for her role in the film and how it was for her to work with Nicholas Tse and Jang Dong-Kun.

Here's a excerpt from the interview:

Back home, of course, she is a media darling — but she doesn't yet consider herself a bona fide star. Asked whom she really considered big stars, she named Julia Roberts, Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia and Maggie Cheung. "They really have the face, the beauty, the character and attitude," said the award-winning actress and singer.

Chen Kaige WU JI interview (LINK) (CHI)

Over at MonkeyPeaches.com, they have a link to an interview with Chen Kaige regarding his newest film WU JI (THE PROMISE).  He talks about writing the film, the Pan-Asian nature of the cast, the length of time it took to create it, what's left to do, and how it was "a gift from god."  It's a bit light, but still a decent read.

Here's a nice little excerpt:

That the film has more than 1,400 visual-effects shots and promises to be a treat for the eyes had the cast and industry insiders at the press lunch abuzz. But will The Promise be more style than substance?

"I was determined to make a film that people haven't seen before, in many senses. Not just in visual effects, the action and the love story. This story will touch people's hearts. That's the key. I don't use the effects for the wrong reasons."

Read the full interview at the ChannelNewsAsia link.

Weinsteins acquire Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE (WU JI) (CHI)

NO!!!!!  Another project acquired by the evil that is the Weinsteins.  This time, it's the highly anticipated movie WU JI (THE PROMISE).  Nothing at all good can come of this for US fans.  What can we expect? Running time cut down to 100min.  Very small theatrical distribution, despite any good buzz.  Promoted as another HERO (whether it is or not).  Dumped onto DVD.  Parallel imports killed.  *sigh*  So I'm planning on getting the import dvd as soon as possible.

Here's the story from Hollywood reporter.

More WU JI (THE PROMISE) poster pix from Cannes (CHI)

MonkeyPeaches has links to 4 new pretty cool WU-JI Posters from Cannes.
Here they are:

Chen Kaige's WU JI (THE PROMISE) pix from Cannes (CHI)

For me, one of the more anticipated films at Cannes is Chen Kaige's  Wu-Ji.  And Sina.com (by way of MonkeyPeaches) has some nice pix of the booklet and a cocktail party.

It doesn't really give an idea of the sense of the movie, but it does show that the cinematography and art direction look to be incredible.  Chen Kaige has enough of a track record for me to make this a must-see.

Cocktail party [link]
Booklet [link]

WU JI/PROMISE promo event (CHI)

Sina.com (by way of MonkeyPeaches) reports that Chen Kaige's anticipated new period film is going to have a big promo event during Cannes, which will include an 11min promo reel and props and costumes from the movie being displayed.  Hopefully soon after, that promo reel will find distribution on the internet.  Anyway, they also have two posters for WU JI:

WU JI/THE PROMISE Plot Description (CHI)

From the MonkeyPeaches WUJI page:

Favored by the Goddess of Fortune a young woman became the most beautiful royal concubine (Cecilia Cheung) in the world. Spoiled by The King, she lived a life of extreme luxury. But fate cursed her never to enjoy true love until the time flows backwards and the dead come back to life. Then a slave (Jang Dong-kun), sincerely in love with her, determined to lift the curse with his own life as the price. He used his extraordinary close to light speed run broke the shackle fate put on her. She returned to the beginning of her life and obtained the right to choose again.

Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE/WU JI info (CHI)

Look what CROUCHING TIGER hath wrought!  HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH were the next entries in the HK/Chinese large-scale period wu-xia films.  And now, we're getting another Chen Kaige (who last did the violin prodigy movie TOGETHER, but who has also done the period piece THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN)  doing WU JI/THE PROMISE. Hooray.

And from the looks of it, it should be pretty darn cool.  The MonkeyPeaches link has lots of great photos and I'm excited.

The cast looks pretty good also:

Hiroyuki Sanada (JPN) from TWILIGHT SAMURAI and THE LAST SAMURAI.
Jang Dong Kun (KOR) from TAE GUK GI, FRIEND, 2009: LOST MEMORIES.
Cecilia Cheung (HK) from ZU and SHAOLIN SOCCER
Nicholas Tse (HK) from TIME AND TIDE