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Chinese director reveals the challenges of making the Winter Games documentary.

Amsterdam and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films has scored international rights to Lu Chuan’s Olympics documentary Beijing 2022 and is launching sales at the European Film Market.

Shot over more than two years, the official film of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing goes behind the scenes to share the stories of international and Chinese athletes, volunteers, medical personnel and officials – against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

An international team extended coverage to the US, France, Belgium, Austria and beyond to record the preparation of athletes. More than 1,200 hours...

One of the most prominent Chinese propaganda films of the year is set for a flashy, state-sanctioned premiere as the opening night selection of the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival on Friday. The sweeping period drama “1921” will be celebrated despite recent nationalist blowback of the kind that over the past year has felled China releases for films like Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and video game adaptation “Monster Hunter.”

Backed by Tencent Pictures and Shanghai Film Group, the film was developed as a tribute to China’s ruling Communist party for the 100th anniversary of its founding, which falls on July 1 — the day “1921” will hit theaters. The movie re-enacts the story of the Party’s early years.

As such, it was necessarily vetted by censors and producers with extraordinary care to ensure that it could in no way be deemed to send the wrong political message.

Even so, hot-blooded online...

The Shanghai International Film Festival (Shiff) will kick off this year with the Chinese propaganda film “1921” as its opening night gala. The announcement was made late Tuesday evening local time with just three days to go before the premiere.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party on July 1, a key political date that for the past year already has sent censors into high alert and film companies scrambling to develop content lauding the Party’s history and achievements.

Shiff’s 24th annual iteration takes place just before the anniversary itself, running from June 11-20.

Its opening night will be used to showcase the star-studded, Tencent Pictures-backed retelling of the Party’s early history, which is set in Shanghai in the year 1921.

Although Shiff has historically been China’s most internationally minded festival by far, its choice to honor a propaganda...

An angelic chorus of young boys set the scene at a big Tencent press conference held last week to announce new production strategies and a huge slate of upcoming content.

“The blood which fills our chest has boiled over, we must struggle for the truth! Arise, slaves, arise, we shall be the masters of the world!” they warbled, singing the version of “The Internationale,” the Socialist anthem, translated into Chinese from Russian in the 1920s by a poet friend of Mao Zedong.

Though the song was also taken up in 1989 by the pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, it was here deployed as a segue into a half-hour presentation on one of the tech giant’s biggest upcoming film projects: “1921,” a blockbuster about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party intended as a tribute on the 100th anniversary of the occasion.

It’s no surprise that despite all the uncertainties of...

Shah Rukh Khan-starring romance “Zero” has been set as the closing film of the Beijing International Film Festival. The sprawling festival will open with “The Composer,” a forthcoming Chinese-Kazakh co-production, as its opening title.

The festival, which runs April 13 to 20, 2019, has revealed its full selection of 261 titles. The decision to program “Zero” in such a prominent slot underlines the growing success which Indian films are enjoying with Chinese audiences. Directed by Aanand L. Rai and released in December, the Hindi-language “Zero” is Khan’s most expensive film yet. It features the star as a person with dwarfism in a love triangle with a scientist with cerebral palsy (Anushka Sharma) and a famous actress (Katrina Kaif).

“The Composer” is the first movie to emerge from a cooperation agreement between China and Kazakhstan under Chinese president Xi Jinping’s infrastructure-building project, the Belt and Road Initiative. Directed by Kazakhstan’s Xirzat Yahup,...

As the People's Republic of China approaches its 60th anniversary, the Communist Party is attempting to woo the nation's youth with a new movie that's celebrity-rich.

According to an Associated Press report, Jian Guo Da Ye, which translates to The Founding of a Republic, opens in theatres in two weeks. It will retell the story of the Communist Party's triumph, and feature brief appearances by Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Stephen Chow, and many others.

The film represents a tactical shift for China's ruling party with regards to getting its message out. In the recent past, the nation's state-supported film and TV industry produced predictable fare on conservative budgets, which mostly appealed to older audiences. Those films, featuring dowdy revolutionary heroes, were considered out of touch with the more slick, well-dressed action stars and pop singers coming out of Hong Kong and South Korea.

Meanwhile, Chinese artists who made it abroad...

This Teaser Trailer for Bodyguards and Assassins (aka Dark October) isn’t exacly brand new but since I haven’t seen it on any niche news site and I noticed that I haven’t typed a single word on director Teddy Chan and producer Peter Chan’s latest project I thought I should post it anyway.

The film is set on October 15th 1905 with the father of the Chinese Revolution, Dr. Sun Yat-sen visiting Hong Kong for negotiations. During his one-day stay, forces from the collapsing Qing Dynasty send out assassins to get rid of the politician and only the brave bodyguards coming from the streets of Hong Kong can prevent it…

[See post to watch Flash video] Like in (or maybe because of) Jian Guo Da Ye (The Great Cause of China’s Foundation/Founding of the Nation), Peter Chan managed to lure in a truck load of stars like Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Eric Tsang,...

Normally I wouldn’t write an entry about the trailer for Jian Guo Da Ye (The Great Cause of China’s Foundation/Founding of the Nation), Peter Chan’s tale of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China but it somehow amazes me how the producers managed to convince about every Chinese superstars to wear a uniform and smirk into the camera. I clearly recognized Andy Lau, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Zhang Ziyi, Zhao Wei and Tony Leung but couldn’t find names for some other familiar faces. I think I saw John Woo (1:21) and Chow Yun Fat (1:11) but they don’t even appear on the cast listing…

[See post to watch Flash video] Jian Guo Da Ye will open on October 1st to celebrate the People’s Republic 60 anniversary.