Warner moves into Chinese film market

Johnny To (杜琪峰) began filming part of Warner Brother's first Chinese-language film, Turn Left, Turn Right (向左轉,向右轉), five days ago in Taipei. The director and his actors are busying working in Peitou and Hsimenting, hoping to finish the Taipei scenes by the end of next week.

With Turn Left, Turn Right, Warner becomes the second Hollywood studio to begin making movies in Asia. The first, Columbia Asia, has already produced several Chinese-language films, including Not One Less, Double Vision, and Big Shot's Funeral.

For its first Asian film, Warner has selected a modern romance story set in Taipei, adapted from the best-selling illustrated book of the same name by Hong Kong's Jimmy Liao (幾米).

Johnny To joins scriptwriter Wai Ka-fai (韋家輝), who cooperated with him on Need You, Wu Yen and My Left Eye Sees Ghosts.

The protagonists are played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, (Chungking Express, Fallen Angels) and Hong Kong idol Gigi Leung (梁詠琪). Kaneshiro plays a violinist and Leung plays an interpreter in the film. The two live in the same apartment building and ought to fall in love, but they have never met because one always turns left and the other turns right when leaving the building.

On Monday, the on-screen couple showed up to a press conference in gray jackets and scarfs, looking exactly like the characters in Jimmy Liao's illustrated book.

Local media reported Richard Fox, executive vice-president at Warner, as saying he has always admired To and Wai's work, and that he believes Turn Left, Turn Right will make an ideal first Chinese-language movie for his studio, due to its star cast and the fact that it is based on a book that was popular in the Greater China region.

The film, budgeted at US$3 million, is scheduled to be released this summer.