January 8, 2008
Peter Chan’s new martial arts epic, “The Warlords,” has beaten Ang Lee’s much bankable “Lust, Caution” to secure the No.1 spot at the 2007 Chinese-language box-office.
As of Sunday, “The Warlords” has raked in 260 million yuan (US$35.74 million), ten million more than “Lust, Caution,” the second strongest box-office winner, said a report on Web portal Sina.com.cn.
“The Warlords” is being or has been screened in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. It reaped 200 million yuan on the mainland alone, making Peter Chan the second Chinese director, following Zhang Yimou, to have crossed the 200-million-yuan boundary.
The film, starring Andy Lau, Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei, revolves around the story of three sworn brothers in the Qing Dynasty in the 1860s.
[Cri]
January 8, 2008
Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki has written on her fansite on Friday (Jan 4) that she would continue singing despite losing her hearing in her left ear.
Ayumi said that an ear examination last year has confirmed her hearing loss… she started to lose the hearing in her left ear in the summer of 2000 when momentary deafness forced her to cancel several concerts.
Ayumi will start her Asia concert tour in April to mark the 10th anniversary of her singing career.
December 17, 2007
Top hallyu actor Kwon Sang-woo has drawn contrasting responses in Korea and abroad recently for his role in a new TV drama after a two-year hiatus.
The drama, entitled Bad Love, recorded domestic viewer ratings of just 6.1 percent on Dec 3, when its pilot episode aired.
But its exports to Japan and Taiwan have been anything but sluggish, posting export revenues of three billion won in Japan alone. In fact, Bad Love and the epic drama The Four Guardian Gods of the King, starring actor Bae Yong-jun have been paving the way for a revival of the hallyu boom.
A person from the production crew of Bad Love said Asian fans have been looking forward to Kwon’s acting after his long hiatus and that some 100 foreign fans visit the drama’s filming sites every day.
[KBS]
November 20, 2007
Korean pop star BoA will sing the original soundtrack for a Japanese movie.
The Japanese daily Sankei Sports has reported that BoA will sing the OST for a movie slated to open March 15. The singer has so far dubbed a U.S. anime film in Japanese and performed an OST for a Korean movie, but it’s the first time she will sing for a Japanese movie.
[KBS]
October 22, 2007
Japanese star Takuya Kimura attended the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) on October 5 and talked about his latest film, Heroes with the press.
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