Andy's new movie ABOW has set good results in China & HK, but in TW its promo falls entirely on Jacob. All the main actors for different reasons cannot come. Korean actor Choi Si Won who had initially scheduled to come tomorrow has cancelled the trip at the last minute.

Fans who have waited for him to release hundred over lanterns with Mo Gong written on them to the sky @ Ping Ji are all very disappointed. Choi Si Won himself is also upset.

In ABOW, Choi acted as the Liang prince, who could not accept Ge Li at first, but he was finally subdued, & sacrificed himself to save others. Choi in Chinese period costume looks handsome. Jacob is satisfied with his acting.

Due to shooting Blood Brothers in Beijing ndy is unable to come, Fan Bing2 cannot come due to travel document glitches. Nicky for personal reason in emotional matter is also absent. Ahn Sung Ki due to time cannot make it.

Fans still hope Choi can come when the movie opens on Dec 8.

Movie distributors trust that good movie needs no fear, the good reviews of ABOW will set a good box office. To thank those who had signed up for the lantern release, the organizer has arranged 300 sets of postcards for them, first come first serve.

In ABOW, Nicky was the No1 archer in Liang City. His credit in protecting the city was however misunderstood by the emperor, who ripped off his hands. Nicky's agility & steadiness in the battle, his calmness & strength when he was convicted, his respect & trust on Ge Li, & his despair on seeing the civilians cheering the emperor, leaves a deep impression on the audience. Finally when he left in silence, his sword standing in the soil was like piercing into the audience's heart, it was painful to see him leave.

Many will not have forgotten this dark archer was one the member of the now defunct boy band Small Tigers.

Nicky has endless things to say on movies & manga. He has read Mo Gong for 14 years, & is the one most familiar with the manga in the set. His house in Beijing is Jacob's work shop. Though he is not the main lead, he had turned down all the offers half a year ago to so as to be fully involved in the promo activities of Mo Gong.

Been in circle many years, this is the first time Nicky Wu worked with big brother status Jacob & Andy. This cordial collaboration has set forth a desire for a further collaboration. Accordingly, Andy has plans to invest in a wuxia movie next year, he is thinking of getting Nicky to be a first time director. Andy praised that Nicky had during shooting enthusiastically learnt from the director & the cinematographer whenever he had time, he believes this bold move may bring another miracle. "Even if he feels that he is not ready to be a director, I will invite him to play a role in the movie," said Andy.

Haken & Emily gave the media only 15 min to take photos, granted no interview. When the reporters asked them to kiss, they pretended not to hear, but once in the hall, they kissed now & then, making the guests screamed again & again!

Blood Brothers had begun shooting yesterday. This movie, played by Andy, Jet Li & Takashi, have actors coming from China, HK & Japan. The female lead is still a mystery. Maggie Cheung, Shu Qi, Fan Bing2, Zhou Xun were once rumored. It was reported yesterday that the real person is actually Xu Jin Lei, who had just finished shooting Pain of Confession, but she cannot be open with it yet as no contract has been signed.

SOURCE: SOHU.COM
TITLE: ANDY WAS SPOTTED AT THE SHOOTING LOCATION YESTERDAY

After the dinner for camera-opening ceremony on Nov 30, Blood Brothers had started shooting yesterday Dec 1. The 3 male leads were all present at the shooting location. But due to the strong wind, the director let a few with make-ups on had some simple shots.

Early in the morning, the crew set off to a location at the outskirts of Beijing. It was said an big ancient building of the Ming/Qing period was rented. At noon time, the 3 actors came one after another. Andy & Jet Li used hats to cover their newly-shaved heads. They were in thick down jacket, as such, their screen looks were completely concealed.

Takashi who needs not shave also had a big piece of cloth covering his head. When he came down the car, he accidentally revealed a v tattered costume underneath, it makes one understand why he has thick beard, it is most probably his role is very desolate.

Xu Jin Lei as the female lead is almost certain. Mainland investor had assigned a mainland actress for Peter, Zhen Li. A pity Zhen Li has signed up with another movie. In Confession of Pain, also directed by Peter, the female lead Xu Jin Lei was the wife of Tony Leung, she will play the role in BB. The director had once said the female must be one that can set the hearts of the 3 men aflutter, & willingly die for her. Not sure if Xu who always plays pristine roles can give what sort of image to the audience this time.

Shooting will last 4 months, & aims to open during the lunar new year.

SunDream Motion pictures movie, ABOW, one week after screening, box office in China & HK reached 40 million, this is indeed excellent. The movie opens on Dec 8 in TW. Jacon during the promo in TW received media interviews one after another continuously in the 2 days, until he did not even have time to eat. Jacob only asked for cup noodle, he reminisced the time when he shot movie in TW the best food he had was cup noodle. He was called "The Director who likes cup noodle the most."

In TW, at a celebrity movie preview he attended, he was given only 2 min to speak. After his finished talking, an audience shouted, complaining that the organizer showed no respect for the director by giving him only 2 min to speak. It was quite an embarrassing sight. Actually it was due to the location he was forced to gave the speech in a hurry. Jacob smiling, said that the audience likes the movie, has thus reacted this way. He is lucky that the audience complaint the time to talk was too short, & did not complain abt his movie!

Tickets to most of the premiere have all been snapped up.Jacob hopes the movie can revive the TW market.

Jacob said he will always remember Dec 24, as all the temp actors disappeared to celebrate Xmas eve, it impeded the progress of their shooting.

The Artiste Award to honor artistes was held yesterday. Winners to 11 award categories were announced, each in order of Gold, Silver & Bronze based on the number of votes received.

Andy alone nabbed 3 awards. As he was not in town, the organizer had prerecorded his thank-you speech, he thanked all those who had voted for him, he has filmed only a movie ABOW this year, he hopes he can help spread the ideology of Mo Zi, his future career in music & movie is also going to be on universal love.

Ah Sa went up the most times to get the awards, as Gillian & Andy were shooting in China & absent, she was entrusted the duty to receive the awards. On helping Andy to get the award, she said, "This is a rare chance, a female singer gets a male singer award, even Andy said it is not easy!"

1/12 @ 10:00 PM
THE ANNUAL ARTISTE AWARDS 2006

The Annual Artiste Awards 2006, jointly organized by the 6 most popular weekly in HK, namely Sing Tao, Touch, Oriental Sunday, newmonday, weekend HK, & FNB, had since Oct 2006 invited the whole of HK citizens to vote. The award items covers music, movie, TV, radio broadcasting stations & stage drama. It is the first award that was covered by the media. One man one vote, to pick his most favorite artiste in HK.

Winners to the 12 categories are as follows:

In order Gold, Silver & Bronze:

1)My Most Favorite Male Singer: Leo Ku, Andy Lau, Eason Chan

2)My Most Favorite Female Singer: Joey Yung, Mirium, Kelly Chen

3)My Most Favorite Newcome Singer: Yong Er, Hu Xin Er, She Shi Man

4)My Most Favorite Group Singer: Twins, Hard Soft, S.H.E

5)My Most Favorite Female Actor: Mirium, Sammi Cheng, Karina Lam

6)My Most Favorite Actor: Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Tony Leung

7)My Most Favorite Male TV actor: Lam Feng, Guo Jin An, Wang Zhong Zhi

8)My Most Favorite Female TV actor: She Xi Man, Ada Choi, Molie Hu

9)My Most Favorite Stage Actor: Su Yi Hua, Chan Sui Wen, Adam Cheng

10)My Most Favorite Model: Chou Yi Qi, Chiling Lin, Le Ji Er

11)My Most Favorite DJ: Shen Mei, Lam Hai Feng, PI Li

12) King of Votes : Andy Lau

Total box office of ABOW has exceeded 40 million. Jacob went to Taiwan to promote the movie, as the schedule was so packed in the 3 days 3 nights when he was there, he had no time to eat. He said he likes eating cup noodle the most, he had in the old days eat only cup noodle when he was shooting in TW, he is being called "The director who likes to eat cup noodle the most."

Jacob was in Taiwan to promote ABOW. In the media interview, he indicated he had worked with Andy 20 over years ago in 'The Last Eunuch In China', at that time he already felt that Andy is a true good worker who is professional & serious, 20 years later when they again collaborate, it reaffirms his feeling on Andy, the only difference is, Jacon feels that there are more things in Andy's eyes nowadays, it makes Andy's acting skill richer & has levels.

Said Jacon confidently, Andy's acting is always good, if it was to attract all the people in Asia to see ABOW, the first male actor that comes to his mind was Andy, Looking at Asia, Andy is the one most suited in playing the role & taking care of the market demand!

As the disciple of Mo Zi in the movie, Andy has sacrificed his look by being unkempt & dirty, he personally acted in the dangerous scenes.

A few scenes opposite Fan Bing2 were eye-catching, Jacob indicated in the scene when Andy jumped into the water, both of them were actually almost frozen, as it was minus zero degree at that time, they could not even blow air to keep warm, as white smoke will form, they endured the cold, it was really tough !

The battle scenes are great to see too, he had used in reality 1,300 army, there was some CGG. But it was a sight to behold.

Fan Bing Bing had openly blames Andy for not inviting her to dinner privately, Jacob said this is because Andy being a superstar, he has to be v careful with his actions.

Jacob said admirably on Andy, after so many years of success, he is still so energetic, professional, no wonder his status is so steady. He feels that Andy has not changed much in 20 years, still good looking, he looks more calm & steady nowadays, from him one can see idol does not depends on the age.

Andy in ABOW had to piggy-ride Fan Bing2 in one scene. Many are curious what feeling he had at that time, Andy gave a bitter smile, he replied it was cold & heavy, what was there to feel? No wonder people chided him for being lacking in emotion!

Andy jumped into a pond of water with Fan & dragged Fan who could not swim up to the water, he carried her on his back to the camp. It was end of autumn during shooting, the temp was at the most 5 degree, the temp in the water was even colder. So when both were in the water, it was so cold till he shivered, he had to control his teeth from chattering, so as not to have NGs, how to have any thought of romancing? Fan said, "At that time Hua Ge was shivering, so pitiful."

When they were on the land, though they had dried themselves, there was no place to hide from the wind, the cold wind pierced to the bones, in addition, Fan was wearing an armored suit, though lying on his back, hair billowing around his face, the only feeling he had was, So heavy!

ABOW is opening in TW soon, Andy due to shooting Blood Brothers was not able to come, Jacob alone came today, in 2 days time, Choi Si Won will be in TW, it is hoped that this war epic will be liked by the audience.

(A news reported Choi will delay the trip!)

TITLE: JACOB THOUGHT OF GOING TO NORTH KOREA IN SHOOTING ABOW

During the preparatory stage, Jacob had once contacted people in North Korea, he had even brought action director Dong Wei to make a study in N Korea the possibility of shooting there. But at the end they found that the place is not suited to shoot outdoor scenes, also there was concerns that the movie may not be able to be shown in Europe & America, the plan was thus scrapped.

Even when shooting in China Jacob had to adjust to suit the locals in some aspects, employing the locals as temps they can be more arrogant than the set.

The only flower in the set, Fan Bing2 despite having love rumor in every movie she shoots, is v professional, Jacob gave her a thumb up.

Directed by Peter Chen, trial shooting of 240 million rmb Blood Bothers has begun in Beijing last few days. Andy arrived on Nov 29 after he had attended Haken's wedding, the 3 male leads are all in Beijing now.

The crew held a camera-opening ceremony at the hotel where they stay yesterday. Next Monday, a launching ceremony will be held, when the female lead will be announced.

In BB, as can be seen at the moment, Jet Li is playing the role of Ma Xin Yi, who turns from good to bad, Andy is the one whose wife is snatched & is killed, Huang Zhong, while Takeshi plays Zhang Wen, who completed the action of 'piercing the horse'.

At the Golden Horse Awards last week, Takeshi had already shown part of his screen look---a shocking beard long on both sides of the face. The reporters had earlier asked Peter, telling him many of Takeshis fans find it hard to accept, Peter was surprised, said, "Don't you think Takeshi look very suave like that?"

In addition, as BB backdrop is Qing dynasty, the 3 males have to shave. Andy had last night finished shaving. But according to reliable sources, Andy is not having a complete bald this time, it was like having 'receding hairline'.

As for the female lead, though Shu Qi is the most probable, some say she may be Zhou Xun. Peter however still has his lip sealed, he will tell only on Monday.

TITLE: BLOOD BROTHERS STARTS SHOOTING TODAY

Blood Brothers has started shooting today, according to HK tradition, a praying ceremony was held this morning, shooting will be in Beijing these few days. Some fans said they saw Peter Chen & Jet Li in Liang Ma He area a few days ago. It was said Andy & Takeshi looks are more ugly in the movie, said Peter "Andy & Takeshi indeed looks different from what u can imagine."

A press conference was held yesterday for the 29th Top 10 Chinese Gold Songs music awards, chief executive Chou Guo Feng announced the nominees for the Golden Pin award, which includes Andy Lau, Faye Wong, Adam Cheng, famous opera singer Bai Xue Xin, Guan Zheng Jie, father of concerts Zhang Yao Rong, musician Lu Guo Zhan & Li Xiao Tian, & an opera troupe. As the nominees belong to popular artistes of different era, it means that Andy & Faye are crossing the border to challenge the seniors.

Attendees included Mirium Young, Denise Ho, Joey Yung, Twins Ah Sa, Leo Ku, Stephy Teng & others. The ceremony will be held on Jan 27 @ the Coliseum. Xu Xiao Feng once a Golden Pin winner was the special guest present.

Zhou Guo Feng indicated Golden Pin award is a grand honorary award, the winner needs to have contribution & achievement in the music arena, & the award is not to be counted for the Media award. The award had been given to not only singers, those behind the scene included the late James Wong, Zheng Guo Jiang & others had been honored. It does not put one onto the altar, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Jacky Cheung had received it before, after that they can still remain active it the circle. Of course due to personal reason, some may reject the award.

SOURCE: THE SUN
TITLE: JANICE OVERTAKES JOEY & MIRIUM

RTHK announced the trend of winners at the press conference yesterday. Janice with 5 songs successfully overtakes Joey Yung Mirium & Denise! Male singers are led by Haken Li, Andy Lau & Justin Lo with 4 songs each!

Janice has been in the circle for only 2 years, but she has 5 songs beating the no.2 Joey & Twins, Mirium is not even on the top 3! Janise was surprised to be put to sit on the first row, as she never thought of sitting the first row at all.

For male singers, Justin Lo whose popularity is increasing, is the same as Andy & Haken, while Leo is not even amont the top 3!

The organizer also announced that the nos of awards will be reduced by more than 10, including Most Promising New Singer will be one each for the male, female & group....

Watching ABOW, reminded me of a few of the poorly-accented Cantonese filthy rich who bided for the self-designed car plates, because of having money they were able to bid the numbers home, HK people could only standby to watch.

Jacob should be a Hongkonger who is not rich. His previous 2 movies failed at the box office, after a long time then he came out with ABOW. Zhang Yimou & Cheng Kaige did glamorous things for glamorous sake, horrifying emptiness with only a shell. Jacob gets an Andy Lau to play Ge Li, with tattered clothes & disheveled, there was no Yunan fairyland, no golden armor on the chest, but only a broken city billowing with dust, there is also no monsters that agitated the audience as in LOTR, what it has is a few attack-defence down-to-earth scenes. This bet is indeed v big.

Adapted from comic books, Andrew Lau had picked sure-to-win Initial D, Cheng Bao Sui picked Jun Zi, Jacob picked Mo Gong, really a little silly. The original is good, the characters are well defined, the battles are rich in stages, to make into a movie, if it is not well done, it will bore the audience to death. Under limited resources, the scenes in some parts do not connect well, the characters change of mood is not too natural, luckily there is Ge Li who through the scenes spread the anti-war message. This is impressive.

Afraid that u cannot take a war movie well, an emotional segment between Andy & Fan was added in, the after result is up to individual to comment, it does not really matter.

Compared to Hero, HOFD, The Promise, The Banquet, ABOW is 9 times better to watch, really solid. Really a good story. At least the Korean stars also know their stuff well.

SOURCE: NEXT MAGAZINE #873
TITLE: HAKEN'S MILLION DOLLAR WEDDING

The wedding banquet of Haken & Emily was held at Hotel Intercontinental 2 nights ago. The banquet started at abt 9:30 pm. The couple entered amid the song You Are My Sunshine & popping sounds of the paper crackers from the guests. The couple had a passionate kiss in front on the stage.

A screen showed how their wedding photos were taken in England at Manchester United football field & Chatworth ancient palace.

All the guests who came with the Moon Light box were given a photo album. On the first page was written Dearest Emily & their lucky nos 711. They make a pack of 10 years that they will celebrate 10th anniversary in 2016. The photos included that of Haken & Emily kissing, Emily jumping up with legs around Haken's waist, photo taken at the Manchester audience seats & the changing room. Included also how they got to know each other in England, & how they held hand the first time. Haken had followed the Miss HK hopefuls to overseas outdoor shooting & was attracted by her beauty, he fell in love with her after the first sight. The first time they held hand was in a movie Lethal Weapon when Mel Gibson was to cut red or blue wire. Haken had promised Emily that when they married he would bring her back to the old place at Manchester field.

At the speech, Emily was moved to tears, said emotionally, "Haken is a very good husband, marrying him is my honor." Hugging her, Hakne told her to say more, as he likes to listen. Haken said that Emily is the one he loves the most in his life, they have been together 14 years & she is his right choice as life partner. Emily cried several times in the night, after crying she laughed, after laughing she cried again.

Haken's father praised that Emily is a good daughter-in-law, at the speech he thanked TVB, as TVB gave Haken the Most Popular Singer award, he had waited to see them married till his neck was long like giraffe. Emily arranges for him all the things, including accompanying him to play golf, book hotel, visa, tickets, etc, the speech moved Emily to tears again.

Emily had 3 to 4 changes of gown, she was beautiful.

At the throwing of the flower, Gigi leung, Ada hoi, 2R & others stood out. The first time it was too far & dropped to the floor. The 2nd time was caught by Race, who is a member of 2R band, & rumored to have just married a millionaire in Singapre. When she left, she passed the flower to her elder sister & denied she is married. Gigi denied she was eager to get married, she quipped she joined the fun.

The menu comprised of delicacies, including suckling pig, abalone, spiral shell, fish, chicken & others. 30 over cartoons of red wine were opened. The couple toasted to every table. Best man Andy, brother team Alan, Nat in charge of drinking. Eric Tsang was already drunk even before the shark fin dish, he was thus not seen. Only Alan is good at drinking, the final drinking was done by Andy, Felix Wong said admirably, "Alan & Andy counter the most drink offers."

At 12 mn, the atmosphere was high, the newly-web sang love songs to one another. Andy, Warner sang to congratulate them.

Xu Xiao Feng came in private route, & was on the same table as Liu Jia Chang & his wife.

Other than the million dollar wedding, Haken had given his in-law dowry 2.88 million, & 5 caret ring to Emily & other jewellery to Emily.

They left at around 230am. Most of them were in a drunkard stage. TVB senior officer Yi Ling needed Guo Jin An to support, a drunk Lan Zi yelled I wish to get married. Alan was supported Peng Jian Xin when coming down the stairs. Andy face was v red.

Carol & Li Fang were asked when will their wedding be, Li said he had been with Carol for 12 years, know each other 15 years, is he waiting to get Most Popular Singer award like haken before he marries her, they quipped, "Maybe, nothing is impossible!"

In white wedding gowns & suits the newly-wed walked through a stairway lined with thousands of fresh flowers & golden candles. It was a romantic & touching sight, just like the wedding of the prince & princess in the fairy tales. The fresh flowers were roses, lily & orchids. Green leaves & fresh flowers adorned 2 arches, to make the atmosphere even more romantic .

The first movie to release for the new year period, ABOW, has grossed 4 mil on the opening day, the weekend takings broke 20 million. Before the release of Curse of Golden Flower, upcoming movies include After This Our Exile, & Yun Shui Yao, these 2 movies will counter ABOW at the box office.

According to sources, ABOW tops in all the few big cinema lines in China. In HK, collection in the first weekend was 5.74 million, the distributor said the trend is steady. In Shanghai & Guangzhou, due to the weather, Sunday taking was evn higher than Saturday.

But that on Monday differs widely from the weekend, in Beijing one cinema line collected only yuan 200,000. The i/c said market however still belongs to ABOW. He added Curse of The G F will definitely a winner, as for the other movies it is whether their slots are ideal to avoid COGF. ABOW has the most beneficial slot this year end, there are still 2 weeks to go to the opening of COGF.

@ Chapman's wedding last year

Haken who will be 39 next month, & Emily Lo, 33, after 13 years of romance, finally got married yesterday @ Tsim Sha Tsui Hotel Intercontinental.

The newly-wed appeared around 6pm, more than an hr late. The bride in low-cut wedding gown was glamorous, with diamond ear-rings, necklace, & 4 rings, she was full of glitter. Perhaps due to weight loss, she kept tugging her gown , the front chest portion even slipped down. She looked anxious & her smile was rather stiff. The bridegroom, in white formal suit smiled brilliantly all the time, he was so excited that he kept perspiring . His wife helped him to arrange the bow tie, while Alan helped him to wipe away the sweat.

Haken did not accept any media interview, he clasped his hands & said to the media, "It has been hard on you! Many thanks for all the concern!"

After photo taking the couple went back to the banquet hall. Accordingly Haken's wedding was simple, there was no bridal car, no traditional way of receiving the bride, or paid door-opening sum. The banquet at about $27,000 per table, cost 1.24 million for 46 tables. The cost included arrangement of the hall, invitation cards, & make-ups.

To make easy for the media, Haken had released a note to them telling them the run-down of the wedding, he described it as simple but grand, & added humorously, "I did not buy an apartment for my in-laws, no lucky draws, no plans to have next generation yet, this is just to gather my good friends for a meal."

When the banquet started, Haken's old song You're My Sunshine was played. The song was chosen as it was the first song he wrote for Emily when he was wooing her. The special prog during the wedding was to show the wedding photos taken when they were in England.

The note also said that the menu is v simple, there was no goose liver with fish source, as reported before, & Warner band will hold their concert during Chinese N Y @ the Coliseum, not at their wedding!

He thanked the make-up artistes & the wedding saloon for sponsoring the trip to England. Finally he said, "Today is our big day, please give us your blessings. As for our feeling, we can only use 3 words to describe, V happy." He stressed that there is no honeymoon, the work is as usual, promo activity as usual, plug songs as usual.

Alan said he will sing Love Is So Sweet & To Love Somebody for the couple that night & together with Warner band they bought a ring, & gave them a red packet.

Andy gave Haken a red packet & a digital photo stand showing the photos he had taken with Haken.

Other artistes present included Simon Yam, Edmond Leong, Kwan Shu Yi, Gigi Leong with her brother, Vivian Chow, Eric Tsang, carol Cheung & beau Li Fang, Chen Hui ian & her dr bf, Wang Jia Qiang & pregnant wife.

Eric teased that he would counter any drink offer to the groom & asked them to prepare a wheel-chair for him. Simon said he had given the groom tips to eat more fish.

SOURCE: WEN WEI PO/TA KUNG PAO
TITLE: 4 STATIONS KOINT MUSIC AWARDS SET DATES

2006 3 Stations Joint Music Awards held a press conference yesterday to announce the results of the draws. Leo Ku, winner of last year Song Award, Outstanding Performance Award winners Liu Hou Long, Ivana Wong were invited to attend. Leo & Ivana thinks Andy Lau will become the winner of Media Grand Award, while Liu Hou Long bets on good friend Denise Ho.

Metro Broadcast will give out Song Award on Dec 26, Commercial Radio on Jan 1 to give Album Award, TVB gives out Outstanding performance Awards on Jan 13, while RTHK will hold the closing Media Award on Jab 27.

Leo & Ivana picked a song 'Hua Sha' which is a song written by the latter to the former as winner, while Liu Hou Long picked Zheng Rongs song Traffic Light. Leo picked Andys album Voice as Album Award & Media Award winner. …

Today is the wedding day of Haken & Lo Shu Yi. Haken had started dressing up since 9 in the morning. He met up with best man Andy Lau, together they set off to the bride's house. Haken who openly announced that he will married before 40 finally has his dream fulfilled.

Haken & Lo has been together 14 years since 1992. In 1992 Haken was the performance guest of the HK Beauty Pageant when Lo was crowned Miss HK.

After winning the title, Lo went into retirement, she ever declared, "The greatest benefit I get in this circle is to meet Haken."

Haken appears blissful whenever her gf was mentioned, even in the major music awards, he acknowledged her. After winning Most Popular Singer consecutively 2 times he openly declared that he will marry her before he turns 40. Alan Tam has agreed to be the witness while Andy the best man a year ago.

Andy is the only invited by Haken to be the best man.

Today before 12 noon the bride was brought to the groom's house. The dinner will be held @ Hotel Intercontinental.

SOURCE: SINA.COM

Haken married Lo Shu Yi today. Andy is the best man while Alan Tam the wedding solemnizer. The bridesmaid was Lo's sister . The brothers & sisters team comprised of Liang Si Chong, Liu Wei Hen, Qian Guo Wei, Chong Li Qi, Chai Shao Fen, Che Wan Wan & others. Nat Chan & many other stars turn up to congratulate. Close to a hundred media turned up.

Haken under the blessing of all brought his bride out, he was all smiles, it was a sea of merriment.

There was no registration ceremony, the newly wed did not receive any media interview, except posed 10 min for the media to take photos. Haken had pre-prepared a speech to narrate his feeling & the marriage arrangement.

The banquet of 46 tables was held at Hotel Intercontinental

A BATTLE OF WITS $1.72 mil Total in 4 days 5.74 million.
The Guardian $350,000, total 4.21 million in 11 days
Ghost Train, $250,000, total 960,000 in 4 days
Heavenly Mission, $190,000 , total 2.89 million in 10 days
Promise Me Dad $170,000, total 2.78 million in 11 days
Death Note $100,000, total 14.26 million in 24 days
& others.

SOURCE: WEN WEI PO
TITLE: A BATTLE OS WITS INVOLVED

A B O W , a 10 year effort of Jacob Cheung, 4 days after screening scored a good box office of 5.7 million in HK & 21 million in China.

Never thought few days ago a script writer in Hunan named Li Shu Xin claimed that Jacob infringes on his script signature right, at a press conference.

Li indicated that in Aug 1998, Jacob had invited him to do a correction on the script that was adapted from Japanese manga Mo Gong. Li had re written the script, & in April 1999 handed over the completed version of Part I & Part II script to Jacob. Li claimed that on the credit roll in the movie, his name is being omitted from the list as scriptwriter. This is infringing on his right. His lawyer Zhang Yue indicated will file a suit seeking apology from the concerned party, & paid a compensation according to the box office of the movie.

But when Jacob was contacted by the media in the mainland, he indicated that at that time Li was called in to write the dialogue of the first draft & 2nd draft. After the script was given to the investor, it did not pass through.

Later Jacob sought another person to write the dialogue, it was also not accepted. As the copyright he bought from Japan is expiring soon, he had no money to get any more scriptwriter to write, so he personally wrote the script, then only he could find an investor.

The reporter had seen the movie, at the beginning it was written Scriptwriter/Director Jacob Cheung, but at the end of the movie at credit roll, it was written Script Production: Deng Zi Jun, Qin Tian Nan, Li Shu Xin.

Sun Dream Movie Productions indicated, Jacob is one who will never harm others, & is not one who will not copy, he is one who thanks everyone who has helped him in all these 10 years.

SOURCE: APPLE DAILY TAIWAN
TITLE: ANDY A PAUPER HERO WINS BOX OFFICE

In ABOW, Andy shook away his handsome good look, not only he was in gray earthen attire, he was engulfed by fire, went under icy cold water, there was no intimate scene at all with the lead actress who is said to have electric eyes, it can be said tough yet zero return.

But to Ah Xie's eyes (the writer) Andy is a super idol, even in pauper attire he looks so natural, it does not make his handsome good look any less. In the movie he had not many scenes acting opposite Fan Bing2, Ah Xia feels more at ease, as this gives less chance for media to create love rumors. He goes into fire, down to the water, it is tough. The box office in China is not bad, this proves that a movie need not depends on love rumor for promotion.

SOURCE: UNITED DAILY NEWS
TITLE: ABOW SELLING WELL IN CHINA. ANDY WANTS TO MAKE A SEQUEL

Andy has put in lots of effort shooting ABOW, box office in HK & China are both good. In Beijing shooting Peter Chen's Blood Brothers now, Andy is delighted, saying his effort has not gone into waste.

Andy likes the manga a lot, he admires the character of Ge Li who promotes universal love. As the movie ABOW uses only 1/3 of the original manga, there are even more interesting stories from the original for development. Since the movie by Jacob is doing well, he is willing to shoot the sequel.

His role is one of a loner, assisting Liang City in the Warring Period involving 7 Kingdoms. He is heroic, righteous, & has made the female cavalry lead Fan fell in love with him. At war time they admired one another, in one scene, Fan even unrobed herself willingly to give herself to him. But she failed to enter Ge Li's heart who only has the country & human lives in it.

Nicky Wu as a archer, has quite a meaty role, he is heroic & handsome, even better than Orlando Bloom in LOTR. Korean actors Ahn Sungki & Choi Si Won voice were dubbed, their acting style differs from the Chinese, this is refreshing.

There were many long shots in the movie, the battle scene is fierce & grand. The myriads of weapons arrows, sky lanterns & other mysterious weapons, chemistry involving use of sulfur, tunnel war, water & fire scenes, are entertaining. Andy promotes anti-war message, in the massacre sees an element of Zen.

In accordance with the sky lantern in ABOW, on the 4th Dec, at Tian Deng Square there will be a 'Universal Love Sky Lantern' activity, a few hundred lanterns will be released that night.

Andy was transformed into a designer of time who is full of love & has high taste, in a commercial for Neway CEO karaoke . In it, Andy dreams to design a good place that is good for people to celebrate the beautiful time of their lives. In the Garden of Eden, he has many concepts, he hopes the place can make one accomplishes & realizes the important moments of life. At the end Andy puts himself in the Garden designed by him, & accomplishes his own dream.

He picked a song Xin Gan Bao Bei from his album Voice as the theme song for the advertisement. The scene was taken in a hotel room, he needed only one take, shooting was smoothly completed.

SOURCE: APPLE DAILY
TITLE: A BATTLE OF WITS

Mo Gong is a set of great comic books, there is idealism, philosophy, the story is exciting & closely-knit, it is very captivative, after reading it the feeling lingers, for a long, long time. Zhang Zi Liang is a famous serious director, after reading the comic 10 years ago he was v touched by it & bought the copyright. After years of running about, the one with ambition finally succeeds, he turned the comic into a film, using the big screen to depict the anti-war story in front of the audience.

Ge Li is a mystic fighter in war time, using retreat as advance, & defence as attack, he understands in a war, the winner is never a winner, once the war breaks out, the final end point is no one is a winner.

This role, played by Andy is the most convincing. His eyes has a tinge of sadness, yet full of worries & pity to the mankind. (Interesting to note that Jacob's eyes also carries this charisma of worries). In a time of chaos this set of eyes set hearts of many at ease.

It is only in Andy that even during the Warring period he in infantry uniform does not look shocking or funny with a beard.

The most shocking thing in ABOW is the way the story is being told. In the big & small battles, the script uses eyes of Ge Li to see the bitter encounters of civilians, in a mammoth way the lens narrated the battle tactical situation, in another scene the lens focused onto an unimportant figure, the person maybe courageous, timid, successful or defeated, or dead, or alive. Through the eyes of the nobody-notice unimportant person depicted the cruelty of war. The blood flows like a stream, flesh & blood flying all over the placesin the books. Be it won or lose, the ones that suffers are the innocent civilians.

The city finally ran out of place for burial, stacks of corpses, when the soil is gently stepped on, bloody water oozes out. This makes readers feel the inhumane of war. Funny thing is, in ABOW, there is not much of bloody scenes, not sure if this is the idea of the director or because have to use CGG?

Big films need a big sum of money, the big sum of money needs a wide market, so the actors comes from across the borders, finally the familiar voice of Andy has been dubbed by others. The movie is big but lacks this familiarity.

SOURCE: APPLE DAILY/MING PAO
TITLE: I WANT TO HAVE ANDY LAU SPIRIT

Carina Lau again missed to be named Best Actress at the recent GH Awards. At the celebration, she quipped, "When the result was announced, for a second I felt the lost, but I recovered v fast. I shall be more strict with script in future, I want to learn from Andy, continues to work hard! I told Tony that he had gotten too many & he says he will give me one of his to me!"

SOURCE: TA KUNG PAO

In a promo for a TV serial yesterday, Miao Kiu Wei said, "This serial is not to prmote gambling, rather it is to warn people the harm of gambling." He admitted Andy had earlier on try to get the 4 Tigers to shoot a movie, "Since andy has called, there is no reason to reject, I'm looking forward to collaborate with the rest!"

ABOW opened on Nov 23. Box office in HK on the 23/12 & 24/11 totaled 1.9 million, while in China it hits 4 million on the first day. This result is not bad. Andy's acting is well commended in the mainland. The movie was initially slated for release in Xmas, but due to too many strong movies coming up, including Confession of Pain (Behind The Sin) & Curse of Golden Flower (Wearing Golden Armor) during that period, release of ABOW was brought forward .

SOURCE: APPLE DAILY
TITLE: EXTREME HOT MOVIE---ABOW BREAKS AWAY FROM THE BORING EPIC BLOCKBUSTERS

Movies such as Hero, The Promise & Banquet have made China movies embarking on blockbusters route. However, the more we see, the more disappointed we become. There were all quite a failure, the 3 famous directors had neglected to portray human touch which they excelled in their attention given to both magnificent scenes & exquisite plots. Zhang Yimou, Chen Kai Ge & Feng Xiao gang has a logn way to go to be comparable to Ridley Scott. But there will be a day they can be on par with Hollywood, Jacob Cheung's A Battle of Wits is the first to break away from this boring situation.

Good at shooting art-house movies, after 5 years hiatus, came a sudden transformation, Jacob took charge as director of a period big project. Such transformation happened to Zhang Yimou before too, but Jacob seems to hit it right with the first strike. The product is beautifully done, at the upcoming HK Film awards, the number of nominations is not going to be little.

ABOW first of all wins by being solid in the plot, this is the most important. If there is no precise & concrete script, no matter how much is poured in to build the grandest scene, to employ the best actors, all will have gone into waste. Just because the investment is big, it is v easy to neglect the details.

With a good original there has to be a good scriptwriter to rewrite it. Choosing a black to act as slave, this provided an abstract angle to confirm the outlook in the world of Ge Li.

The rhythm is lively, there is something 'that is to say yet not saying it out', the sensational part stops at the right point. There is a restraint to the use on CGG , the sound echo effect on human voices is well mastered.

There are many points in ABOW that need to be commended. Cinematography is one of the excellent ones. There are many sweeping scenes, truly sweeping tens & thousands of the army.

The movie continuity is perfectly done, the front & back scenes come respectively with the occurrence of events. Other than the brand-new style, most importantly it raised the true feelings of the events. In addition there are intense black color static scenes, at the chaotic shooting of arrows to the Zhao army, the effect is especially shocking.

The deficiency, is it lacks a bird's eye view of Liang City, the audience is blur with the overall layout. They have to imagine the 'city world', to understand it, what is better than to give a bird's eye view?

On the performing skill, it is hard to see that Andy & Nicky have become so 'reserved/constraint', with Wang Zhi Wen as the emperor there will be a chance to get one or 2 Best Supporting Actor awards.

Takashi Kenoshiro assumed the screen look of Blood Brothers @ the Golden Horse Awards last night in Taipei. A pity the beard & moustache cover his handsome face.

SOURCE: ORIENTAL DAILY

43rd Golden Horse Awards was held in Taipei last night. Aaron Kwok won Best Leading Actor award with After This Our Exile, while Zhou Xun was given Best Leading Actress Award with Perhaps Love. The former movie won a total of 4 while the latter won a total of 5 awards.

Crazy Stone was garnered with Best Original Script Award. Director Ning Hao was absent due to incomplete travel documents. The movie company stressed that this is purely non political, after a series of mainland actors including Vicky Zhao & Siqin Gaowa, who were absent due to personal reasons.