China Showbiz 2013/02/25

Ang Lee wins Oscar for Best Director

"Life of Pi" director Ang Lee (back right) attends the 85th Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24, 2013, in Hollywood, California. Lee won Best Director for "Life of Pi."

Ang Lee, director of "Life of Pi," won the Oscar for Best Director Sunday night at the 85th Academy Awards. In true sharing-the-wealth mode, Oscar voters spread honors among a range of films, with "Argo" winning three trophies including Best Picture, but "Life of Pi" still leading with four."Life of Pi" was nominated for 11 Oscars - including Best Picture. Starring newcomer Suraj Sharma, the film was lauded by critics for Lee's ability to bring the complex book to life.
"Thank you movie god," Lee said to a big laugh from the audience. "I really need to share this with all 3,000 - everybody who worked with me on 'Life of Pi'."
Lee, 58, won his first Academy Award in 2006 for directing "Brokeback Mountain," the story of a complex love affair between two men.
Lee won in a year in which the director's race was one of the most controversial for its exclusions, most notably Ben Affleck, the director of "Argo" who picked up the top award from his peers at the Directors Guild and a slew of other awards.
"I really want to thank you for believing this story and sharing this incredible journey with me," Lee said.
"Life of Pi" is an adventurous tale featuring a young man named Pi, who is the son of zookeepers in Pondicherry, India,who finds the world as he knows it swept away when his family sells their zoo and sets sail for Canada with a handful of its remaining animals. When a storm capsizes the ship, only Pi escapes and is set adrift in a lifeboat that also serves as a refuge for one enormous Bengal tiger.
Coming from China's Taiwan, the 59-year-old Lee won the Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 for "“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and got another Oscar award for Best Director in 2005 for "Brokeback Mountain." He is the first person of Asian descent to win the Oscar for Best Director.
"Life of Pi" also won for Mychael Danna's multicultural musical score that blends Indian and Western instruments and influences, plus cinematography and visual effects.

Ben Affleck poses with his award for best picture for "Argo" during at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles.

"Argo" won the Oscar Award for Best Picture, together with Awards for Best Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay Writing.The film by Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, featured a joint action of Hollywood, CIA and Canada in a rescue mission when six Americans took refuge in the Canadian embassy in Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis.
The film succeeded eight other nominated films to win the golden statutte.
Other films nominated for the award are "Amour" by Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" by Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, "Django Unchained" by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, "Les Miserables" by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, "Life of Pi" by Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, "Lincoln" by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, "Silver Linings Playbook" by Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, and "Zero Dark Thirty" by Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison.

Lawrence took a fall on her way to the stage, tripping on the steps.

Jennifer Lawrence, who stars in "Silver Linings Playbook," won the Oscar for Best Actress, while Daniel Day-Lewis, who stars in "Lincoln," won Best Actor Sunday night.Lawrence succeeded over Jessica Chastain who stars "Zero Dark Thirty," Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour," Quvenzhane Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild," and Naomi Watts in "The Impossible," to win the goldern statutte.
In the film, Lawrence plays Tiffany, a troubled young widow who begins a complex relationship with a man recently released from a psychiatric facility.
The 22-year-old performer has won most of the major awards in the season, including the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lawrence is the second-youngest woman to win best actress, behind Marlee Matlin, who was 21 when she won for "Children of a Lesser God." Lawrence also is the third-youngest best-actress contender ever, earning her first nomination at age 20 two years ago for her breakout role in "Winter's Bone," the film that took her from virtual unknown to one of Hollywood's most-versatile and sought-after performers.
Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Abraham Lincoln in the months prior to the president's assassination, as he works to persuade Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment that would outlaw slavery.
Day-Lewis's win was a widely expected result. The other nomineees in the Best Actor category were Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook," Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables," Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master" and Denzel Washington for "Flight."

Anne Hathaway went from propping up leaden sidekick James Franco at the Academy Awards to hefting a golden statue of her own with a supporting-actress Oscar win as a doomed mother-turned-prostitute in the musical "Les Miserables."
Christoph Waltz won his second supporting-actor Oscar for a Tarantino film, this time as a genteel bounty hunter in the slave-revenge saga "Django Unchained." Tarantino also won his second Oscar, for original screenplay for "Django."
"Argo" also claimed the Oscar for adapted screenplay for Chris Terrio, who worked with Affleck to create a liberally embellished story based on an article about the rescue and part of CIA operative Tony Mendez's memoir, AP reported.
The award for best foreign language production went to Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke's old-age love story "Amour," which had been a major surprise with five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Haneke and Best Actress for Emmanuelle Riva, who turned 86 on Sunday and would be the oldest winner ever.
The top prize winner at last year's Cannes Film Festival, "Amour" follows the agonizing story of an elderly man (Jean-Louis Trintignant) tending his wife (Riva) as she declines from age and illness.
The Scottish adventure "Brave," from Disney's Pixar Animation unit, was named best animated feature. Pixar films have won seven of the 12 Oscars since the category was added.
The upbeat musical portrait "Searching for Sugar Man" took the documentary feature prize. The film follows the quest of two South African fans to discover the fate of acclaimed but obscure singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, who dropped out of sight after two albums in the 1970s and was rumored to have died a bitter death.

Pop star Adele performed her theme tune from "Skyfall," which won her Best Song.

There was a rare tie in one category, with the Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" and the James Bond tale "Skyfall" each winning for sound editing.The performance-heavy Oscars also included an opening number featuring Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum, who did a classy dance while MacFarlane crooned "The Way You Look Tonight." Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt then joined MacFarlane for an elegant musical rendition of "High Hopes."
Halle Berry introduced a tribute to the Bond franchise, in which she has co-starred, as the British super-spy celebrated his 50th anniversary on the big-screen last year with the latest adventure "Skyfall." Shirley Bassey sang her theme song to the 1960s Bond tale "Goldfinger." Later, pop star Adele performed her theme tune from "Skyfall," which won her Best Song.
Barbra Streisand injected some musical sentiment into the show's segment memorializing Hollywood figures who died in the past year as she sang "The Way We Were," the Oscar-winning song she performed for the film of the same name.
A salute to the resurgence of movie musicals in the last decade included Oscar winners Zeta-Jones performing "All That Jazz" from "Chicago," and Jennifer Hudson doing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls." Hathaway and Jackman joined the cast of Best Picture contender "Les Miserables" to sing a compilation of songs from their musical.

Director and producer Ben Affleck (L) and producers Grant Heslov and George Clooney (R) accept the award for best motion picture for "Argo" at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 24, 2013.

The 85th Oscars: list of winners

Best Picture"Argo"

Best Actor in a Leading Role Daniel Day-Lewis ("Lincoln")

Best Actress in a Leading Role Jennifer Lawrence ("Silver Linings Playbook")

Best Director Ang Lee ("Life of Pi")

Best Foreign-language Film "Amour"

Best Animated Feature Film "Brave"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role Christoph Waltz ("Django Unchained")

Best Actress in a Supporting Role Anne Hathaway ("Les Miserables")

Best Adapted Screenplay "Argo"
(Written by Chris Terrio)

Best Original Screenplay "Django Unchained"
(Written by Quentin Tarantino)

Best Cinematography "Life of Pi" (Claudio Miranda)

Best Production Design "Lincoln"
Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration)

Best Costume Design "Anna Karenina" (Jacqueline Durran)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling "Les Miserables" (Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell)

Best Visual Effects "Life of Pi"

Best Film Editing "Argo" (William Goldenberg)

Best Sound Editing "Skyfall"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Sound Mixing "Les Miserables" (Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes)

Best Original Score "Life of Pi" (Mychael Danna)

Best Original Song "Skyfall" from the Movie "Skyfall"
(Music and lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth)

Best Live-action Short Film "Curfew"

Best Animated Short Film "Paperman"

Best Documentary Feature "Searching for Sugar Man"

Best Documentary Short "Inocente"

RAINIE YANG AND WHAT A WASTE OF SPACE

Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) is doing her usual "I'm so pure I don't have a boyfriend or sex" routine and the hole she's digging just gets deeper.

While her fans are mainly young and naive, you have to wonder if they're stupid too.
For those of you playing catchup, she was caught out recently on a Hawaii vacation with Prince (王子), from the Taiwan boy band JPM.
They wore matching sunglasses and spent most of their time together.
Their heartbroken fans were so upset that they might have sex lives, they started blaming the other party.
So, you have the ridiculous situation of a couple who claim not to be together.
Their fans assume they are, but think it's the other one's fault.
And the two sets of fans pursue an online war against each other.
It's all fluff and lies, yet I guess the story's taking up space and keeping the couple in the news.
So it's a result for the record company. Which means Rainie and Prince benefit. And the fans get to play out some faux war game.
Win-win-win.
What a waste of time.

Source: May Daily

Taipei February 25, 2013

The Story of a Family (Part 2) - Tian lun (xia ji) (1961)

Ng Wui (天倫 (下集))

Love Deposit - Ai qing yin hang (2013)

Qu Jiang-Tao (愛情銀行)

Kate Tsui & Ruco Chan Cheated through 10km Marathon; HKTV Artists Jogged the Whole Way

TVB, HKTV, CRHK and other individual artists signed up to participate in a marathon yesterday. Although TVB sent out over 40 artists, only half of them were really jogging, the other half faked it. Kate Tsui, Ruco Chan, Sai Sai Lap (May Chan), Jerry Koo and Priscilla Wong just did the jogging for an hour and was done with it. Ricky Wong's HKTV sent out 20 artists and jogged the whole 10km. The artists included Noel Leung, Leila Tong, Yuen Wah, Kwok Fung and Catherine Chau. There were massaging and buffet services as well. Hilary Tsui and Annie Liu were fully prepared to face the challenge. They jogged for 58 minutes and 1 hour and 5 minutes respectively. They each broke their individual records from last year.
Kate and Ruco did not seem dressed appropriately for the occasion. Kate was dressed in black leather pants, while Ruco had jeans on. They explained because they still have to go to work after the marathon. Asked if they feared that people will say they only have the posture and not the actual practice? Kate said: "I tried my best. I have a supportive heart. I got out of bed at 2am and got here at 5am." She claimed her health isn't good, she was afraid participating in this 10km marathon, she still wouldn't finish if she walked for 2 hours. "To avoid embarrassment, if I jogged until I ran out of breath, that would be embarrassing." When asked if she's helping TVB counter HKTV? Kate said: "How am I qualified? After all, TVB told me to come."
This is the first marathon 200 pound Sai Sai Lap participates in. She laughed: "I've never really do exercise. The majority of my exercise is napping. Actually, this isn't considered a really long run, just along the East District's slanted highway , but it still feels like a long run. I'm so tired. This is already enough challenge for me." She laughed, next year she'll consider actually participating in the competition: "Exercise is good. If I can't jog, I can walk. The organizers will supply water and bananas. 10km, I can eat 10 bananas."
! The 10km Marathon Results
Mark Ryan - 36 minutes
Kelvin Kwan - 51 minutes
Kathy Yuen - 57 minutes
Hilary Tsui - 58 minutes
Annie Liu - 1 hour, 5 minutes
Stephanie Cheng - 1 hour, 5 minutes
Sherman Chung - 1 hour, 10 minutes
HotCha - 1 hour, 15 minutes
Jade Cheung - 1 hour, 40 minutes
Completed half marathon: Deep Ng - 2 hours, 8 minutes
Completed whole marathon: Steven Cheung - 5 hours, 50 minutes

Myolie Wu Gets Intoxicated From Drinking Milk; Kenneth Ma Accidentally Calls Myolie "Nancy Wu"

Yesterday Myolie Wu, Nancy Wu, JJ Jia, Kenneth Ma and Oscar Leung promoted for TVB series Season of Love. After the promotion, Myolie has to fly over to Beijing for work. When asked if she's rushing over to see her Mainland rumored boyfriend? She said: "Who? Don't speak nonsense. I'm not hurried to be in a relationship, leave it to fate!" Last night, Myolie reportedly intoxicated herself at good friend Nancy Wu's house? Myolie laughed: "I didn't drink, just coincidentally the reporter took pictures of me catching the taxi with squinted eyes. I already explained on Weibo. All I drank that night was milk. Fans teased me too, milk can't intoxicate people, just people intoxicate themselves. (Still single, feeling really worried?) No, I'm very happy! Aide from love, friendship is really good too, that night Nancy cooked up big feast for me. (Friends are in relationships, you don't envy them?) Can't rush these things, leave it to fate! (Did Nancy introduce any guys to you?) Not deliberately, I really don't have those plans. (Do you mind if it actually happens?) No, just like meeting a new friend, but why are you all so anxious! (Because you've been hurt before, you don't dare to date again?) No, really just leave it to fate."
Nancy praised Myolie is doing very well, both physically and mentally, she doesn't need to introduce guys to her. Just be natural and that can attract excellent guys. Has Myolie been resisting? "No, she had always been career-oriented. In the past, she really worked too hard, I told her that she needs time to have her own life. After all, we are over 30, no matter where our career is now, we still have to think about marriage, having kids and starting a family. We cannot just incline towards our career, there needs to be a balance. Myolie is doing very well now, let nature take its course."
Kenneth joked during the Lantern Festival, he had several girl friends accompany him. He also thanked the media for giving him so many rumored girlfriends, Natalie Tong, Rebecca Zhu an! d Eliza Sam. He laughed: "My mom thought it was so easy to meet girls. (Who does your mother choose?) She's not as concerned about my love life as the media is." However, he does hope people don't misunderstand because the girls may not think he's a 'suen poon'. Among the three, which one is suitable to be Kenneth's actual girlfriend? He laughed: "The 3 of them are very good. If the media continues to write about us, it won't get anywhere. There will be lots of peach blossoms, but none of them are true." Also, at the promotion Kenneth accidentally called his on-screen girlfriend "Ting Yan" (Nancy), which is actually suppose to be Myolie, looks like he hasn't forgotten about his ex-girlfriend yet and Myolie had to correct him. What an embarrassing situation!
JJ Jia exposed she has a passionate kiss scene with Oscar Leung in the series, and even now she can still remember the taste. Oscar teased JJ asking if her boyfriend Louis Fan could feel it? Asked JJ if her boyfriend is jealous? She expressed: "No, but that scene really left a deep impression. We had to do the kiss scene on the first day of work. It is the most kissing I've ever done. I told him (boyfriend) after we finished the scene. (Did you're boyfriend ask you to do it another time?) Cheh, not necessary. This only happens in acting."

Bai Baihe covers "Grazia"

Bai Baihe covers "Grazia" (Source: Xinhua)

Actress Pace Wu

Actress Pace Wu (Source: Xinhua)

Sexy swimsuit models pose for photos in Guilin

Sexy models pose for Sports Illustrated in Guilin, Guangxi province. (Source: Sports Illustrated)

"An End to Killing" To Be Released in May

"An End to Killing," an epic movie about the real story of the infamous Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan, is slated for release in mainland cinemas on May 22, Mtime.com reports.

The movie was produced by top filmmakers from China, Japan and South Korea.
Rising star Yu Shaoqun, actor Geng Le and actress Li Xiaoran were featured as the lead characters.
"An End to Killing" recalls Khan's conquest of western countries in the 13th century, killed numerous people in the process. By that time, Qiu Chuiji was the leader of Chinese Taoism. He caught up with the Mongolian army and talked to Khan. legend has it that Khan stopped his killing rampage after he heard only one sentence from Qiu.
Source: Chinese Films By Chen Nan