Crienglish is reporting that Maggie Cheung is going to have a small part in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming remake/retool of the war film, Inglorious Bastards.
I suppose, as a fan, I'm kind of disappointed in her choice but sure that she'll make it into something interesting.
After Tarantino's completely empty set of martial arts, yakuza, and samurai references in Kill Bill 1, I'm not sure why an Asian actress of Maggie's stature would want to help QT pillage another genre.
(That said, I did enjoy Kill Bill 1 a lot when it was first released all the while realizing that it was like a "greatest hits" reel of other, better films.)
Maggie was in attendance at a recent Dior exhibition, along with a ton of other celebs.
And the new Shu Qi film, from director Feng Xiaogang is set and ready to go. The article mentions costar Ge You but I'm also guessing that this is the film that Shu Qi was shooting with Andy Lau recently, though this article does not mention Andy.
And Charlene Choi was out-and-about at a charity gig, doing her part to help in some cause. Perhaps the cause of just looking adorable? Her latest, Butterfly Lovers, is already up for pre-order at YesAsia.com and you can get it here.
[Photos: Crienglish/Tungstar/Xinhua]
8 comments:
Hi Glenn --
Count me in as another fan who feels disappointed -- and isn't happy -- upon reading reports that the Magster will work with Tarantino. Maggie, Maggie: Now this is what I'd call slumming. (Not such as your "Heroic Trio" work with Johnnie To or even "Boys are Easy" work with Wong Jing!)
Yeah, Boys are Easy was not that bad, really. Great cast. I remember being disappointed a bit when I finally saw it but only slightly.
Well, I loved Heroic Trio. It's a film I had seen bits of and read about before getting into HK cinema beyond Jet Li, John Woo, and Jackie Chan.
And it's got Anita, Michelle, and Maggie!
The only thing I can knock that film with is that it could perhaps lead someone -- like me -- to assume that most great HK films are that wild. I kept trying to find stuff like that for years before I watched other HK offerings like City of Glass, for instance, or Comrades, Almost A Love Story.
But it's a good starter film, eh?
Disappointed? Glenn and Yvonne, I'm seriously starting to question your devotion to Sparkle Motion!
Hahaha, not to sound like a slobbering fanboy (oh, who am I kidding?), but I would literally—LITERALLY—watch Maggie read the ingredients panel on a cereal box. I'm just saying. And as divisive as QT can be (I think everyone can at least agree that he's a better director than he is an actor!), he does have quite the talent for taking well-known actors, be they hot and of-the-moment or long-since faded from the limelight, and giving them interesting, surprising roles. And besides, there's only so many WKW and Olivier Assayas films made each year, Maggie's gotta do something besides watch ads in the meantime!
Oh, and Yvonne, Heroic Trio was one of my favorite movies when I gained access to my first Chinatown video store. I know it's corny, but I still love that movie!
I really hope Maggie gets her wish, which she related in an interview a year or so ago, of doing another screwball comedy with Stephen Chow. She was so good in All's Well Ends Well, which, incidentally, was the first film she made after the über-serious award-magnet Center Stage.
Well, I agree with you, Jason, about watching Maggie do anything on film.
That said, I just wonder why she had the good sense to turn down Memoirs of a Geisha -- Chinese superstar actresses pretending to be Japanese and speaking English in Oscar bait written by a bunch of Americans? -- and yet Tarantino's film is worth doing?
And I am still sick of how Tarantino and the Weinsteins and Bey Logan seemed to have turned Asian films into simply a brand of DVDs in the US.
Like Tarantino was some god bestowing Chungking Express and Hero on us poor dumb Americans who would never have heard of such things without his help? (Sarcasm over)
[Thank god the Criterion of Chungking Express is coming out next week so I can have a nice DVD of it w/o QT's name being larger than the title on the box and w/o his ludicrous introduction segment!]
And I still don't understand why Stephen Chow is making the Green Hornet -- playing *the* stereotypical sidekick to Seth Rogen!
At least Chow is directing the film so maybe it will be more of a Chow film than a Seth Rogen film but I'm not exactly hopeful.
What's next? Anthony Wong as Charlie Chan?
So that's a long answer.
Let me say for the record, that if we were talking about, say, Isabelle Huppert, I would have the same doubts about said actress slumming it in a Tarantino remake.
We're not talking about the Tarantino of 1994 but rather the one that just gave us Kill Bill and Death Proof.
His free pass is up.
Hi Jason --
To quote Glenn: "We're not talking about the Tarantino of 1994 but rather the one that just gave us Kill Bill and Death Proof.
His free pass is up."
Hi Glenn --
Really couldn't say it better myself!
Also, I like "The Heroic Trio" a lot. Ditto "Boys are Easy" -- Glenn, did you see it with or without the classic bowling scene?? (There are some severely cut versions of the film out there.) It's just that Maggie doesn't seem to. :S
Oh man. My memory is bad. I really don't remember any bowling scene. Refresh my memory. I think I watch too many things and then don't remember them enough.
I do recall being vaguely disappointed with Boys are Easy because of the great cast.
Like Eagle Shooting Heroes which I watched but I'm sure I didn't get 90% of the jokes at the time.
Hi again Glenn --
I get the feeling you saw the cut "Boys are Easy". Otherwise, you'd surely remember Tony Leung Ka Fai and Yuen King Tan singing a duet in a bowling alley! ;b
Re "The Eagle Shooting Heroes": The first time I watched it, I had a headache -- some of the clothing was way too shiny, among other things! The more I have learnt about Hong Kong movie history, popular culture, etc., the more I have come to appreciate that movie and its scattershot barrage of jokes. And just the sight of virtually the entire "Ashes of Time" cast -- and more! -- being unafraid to make themselves look stupid just endears that movie to me. :)
I really do feel like I must watch things too inattentively if I can't remember stuff like that.
I can't remember all the details of all the Eric Rohmer films I watched 10 years ago either.
I keep dreaming of a future when I'm caught up on my movies and have time to leisurely rewatch stuff.
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