"All About Women" actress Zhang Yuqi's costume photo shoots for her upcoming film are released online. The budding actress plays a dance hostess in kungfu comedy When Blade Meets Smile (or 'Dao Jian Xiao' in Chinese) which is slated for theatrical release in May of 2010. [Photo: ent.163.com]
Check out this group of photos showing Oscar-winning American actor Kevin Spacey off the set with other cast members of the Chinese film "Inseparable".
"Inseparable" is an urban comedy directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Dayyan Eng. The film is currently being shot in Guangzhou, in southern China.
Kevin Spacey won a best actor Oscar for "American Beauty" in 2000. Previously, he has won an Oscar for his supporting role in "The Usual Suspects".
In "Inseparable", he acts alongside Chinese stars Daniel Wu and Gong Beibi.
Shooting on the all-star costume action comedy "Flirting Scholar II" is underway at the Hengdian film base in Zhejiang Province.
The latest released on-set photos show a very intimate moment shared in the rain between two protagonists. In the film, scholar Tong Bak Fu, played by actor Huang Xiaoming, teaches Zhang Jingchu's Chau Heung how to write.
Hong Kong director Lee Lik Chi's new work is reportedly a prequel to the classic 1990s comedy "Flirting Scholar" led by legendary comic Stephen Chow Sing-Chi.
Huang Xiaoming was selected by the director for his versatile performing skills and great potential as demonstrated in the 2009 spy thriller "The Message."
"Flirting Scholar" tells the story of a scholar in search of true love who disguises himself as a houseboy and indentures himself to a rich family in order to pursue the ravishing servant girl who has stolen his heart.
The name conjures up images of neat lines of poetry but The Verse is actually a homegrown old-school funk band.
Started by Huang Bo in 1999, it is still delighting crowds around the country, although like many indie bands, it hardly rivals the so-called mainstream music scene.
They don't mind playing the old hits, as they are still getting the same warm and spirited reception as they did when they first played these songs
In 2007, The Verse expanded from a four-person to a 12-person lineup of three guitarists, one bassist, one drummer, three playing horns, two vocalists and two sound mixers.
The band made their debut at the Midi Music Festival, the country's oldest and biggest annual outdoor music festival, and impressed both the audience and critics with their black American music and high-energy performances.
"Live performing is the core of funk music," Huang says. "We have various ways of making music - sometimes, we just wait for inspiration, especially while standing and dancing on stage."
Following the tradition of funk and soul, the band is one of the nation's most-watched live bands and offers original funk tunes with both Chinese and English lyrics.
"I like the music of the 60s and 70s. And I think black American people's music is the root of today's music - from rock and jazz, to punk to pop. We want to take Chinese music lovers back to the old-fashioned music genre," Huang says.
Moonlight Utopia is one of their most popular songs in their live shows and is a jumpy, electro track with funky bass lines.
The Verse will celebrate their 10th anniversary this April, and will appear tomorrow evening at Yugong Yishan as part of the Hope For Haiti charity concert to raise money for the quake-hit nation.
On the afternoon of Feb. 8, Ji Lingling, the agent of Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi made a public apology over the matter of the stars "false donation". She said it was a fact that Zhang had donated 160,000 yuan less to the Red Cross, but that was because of an error by working staff, and that part of the money had been donated to the Red Cross on the day.
In addition, Ji, who takes charge of Zhang's team of brokers, blamed her own bad management and would accept any criticism from the public.
Back in May 15 2008, Zhang Ziyi said she donated 1 million yuan to the people of earthquake-hit Sichuan in her blog. However, after a period of time, the public discovered the actual donation was only 840,000 yuan. Because the "false donation" Zhang suddenly became untrustworthy in the eye's of the public.
As Zhang's agent, Ji finally admitted her mistake finally citing her own bad management of the brokers' team. In her apology, Ji was totally different from her strong attitude couple of days ago.
According to Ji, Zhang did ask her brokers in Beijing to donate 1 million yuan to disaster-affected area after the earthquake happened. However, because both Zhang and Ji were abroad at that time, they did not keep eye on the executive donation process until the "false donation" was exposed by the public.
When Ji investigated she found the donation was indeed 160,000 yuan short, and that it was because of a communication problem between the two executive brokers for this program. After knowing the truth, Ji told Zhang the story and she immediately donated another 160,000 yuan to the Red Cross following Zhang's request.
In addition, Ji said she felt deeply sorry about bringing so much bad press on Zhang because of her mistake and as a consequence she would like to accept all the criticism from the public.
After Ji's apology, a representative of the Red Cross said that the 160,000 yuan had been transferred to there account through the Industrial Bank.
Some netizens said the apology was much better than their earlier tactic of denial. What the public needs is the sincere apology, not silence.
