Jackie Chan (成龍) and Jet Li (李連杰) say they had so much fun making their first movie together they are planning a second one, The Forbidden Kingdom. "The first day we started filming [the first movie], it felt like we had worked together for many years," Chan said, adding, "after filming this movie, we didn't have enough fun." "In four months (of filming), we went from friends to becoming brothers," Li said.
Chan said their fight sequences went so smoothly that cinematographer Peter Pau told them to slow down.
The Forbidden Kingdom follows an American teenager's fantasy journey to ancient China, where he meets several characters from Chinese mythology such as the Drunken Immortal, played by Chan, and the Silent Monk, played by Li.
Chan, the older of the two at age 53, said the two stars seldom talk about kung fu in private. He said Li, 44, a devout Buddhist, often explains Buddhist scripture to him, leaving him "very confused." Director Rob Minkoff said bringing Chan and Li together was a difficult challenge that involved hiring a top-notch supporting crew, including famed kung fu choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, known for his work on The Matrix trilogy.
A Tokyo cinema has decided not to screen a controversial documentary by a Chinese director about Japan's Yasukuni war shrine, the movie's distributor said Tuesday.
Yasukuni, by filmmaker Li Ying, looks at the controversy surrounding the shrine, which was built in 1869 and now honors 2.5 million war dead - including notorious war criminals from World War II.
The site has become a rallying point for Japan's far right, while in much of Asia it is seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
Wald9 Cinema in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's major entertainment districts, was among four places in the Japanese capital that had planned to start showing the documentary on April 12.
But operator T-Joy Co informed distributor Argo Pictures that Wald9 Cinema had dropped the plan.
"T-Joy told us that it was due to a problem in its screening schedule," said an official of Argo Pictures. "But the other three theaters still plan to show the movie."
But Kyodo News quoted a T-Joy official as saying the film may cause "trouble."
"The film is talked about so much that it may create trouble and we don't want to cause inconvenience to building tenants," the official was quoted as saying.
The film looks at the shrine through the viewpoint of an ageing maker of swords that were traditionally used by Japanese military officers.
"What I am hoping to do with this film is look at history and help people to realize that there are different sides to every story," Li said last year at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea.
US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is moving the filming of his new movie Shanghai to Thailand and England after being blocked from shooting in China, a Hollywood trade publication reported Wednesday.
Variety's Asian news Web site reported that Weinstein, the co-chairman of The Weinstein Co, said filmmakers considered Hong Kong and other Asian countries but decided on Thailand.
Chinese film officials said last month that they were blocking Shanghai from shooting in China over concerns about its script. They have refused to elaborate on their concerns.
The movie is about an American who is investigating his friend's death in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during the World War II era.
RSS