My blog
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MAGGIE Q: IN THE BEGINNING...
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 9:14AM / News / Hong Kong Cinema
I’ve just published the first part of my Maggie Q pre-Hollywood interview on my new “Action Queens” blog. She’s talking about her modeling experience and the first Hong Kong movies that she made (“Model from Hell” and “Gen-Y Cops”).
Before gaining her fame in Hollywood with US blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible III” (2006) and “Die Hard 4.0” (2007), Maggie Q was already a star in Hong Kong, where she played in several movies since 2000, including Ching Siu-tung’s “exploit-action” movie “Naked Weapon” (2002). The following interview was made in Hong Kong in 2004 at the Drop, a club owned by Colette Koo, producer of “Taped” (photo below by Morgan Ommer), a short erotic drama directed by Antony Szeto (“Wushu”) that Maggie Q shot the year before ...
MAGGIE Q PRE-HOLLYWOOD INTERVIEW (PART 1)
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IVY LING PO: "THE 14 AMAZONS" INTERVIEW
Monday, Jul 27, 2009 7:15PM / News / Hong Kong Cinema
I’ve just created a new blog, linked to my website dedicated to “Action Queens” (Do I really need to explain what’s is about?). I already started to put some news a few weeks ago, but from today, I’m starting to put online the exclusive interviews (old and new). The first one is with Asian Movie Queen Ivy Ling Po, the most famous Huangmei diao actress from Hong Kong (and mother of director Kenneth Bi for those who still don’t know)...
Ivy Ling Po as Mu Kuei-ying in "The 14 Amazons" (1972)
Born in China in the early 40’s, Ivy Ling Po 凌波was THE most popular Hong Kong actress and singer of Huangmei diao genre – to make it short, it’s a mix between musical and historical drama inspired by Chinese Opera - in the 60’s, with classics produced by Shaw Brothers studios, from “The Love Eterne 梁山伯與祝英台” (1963 – she received a special award for it at the Golden Horse in Taiwan) to “The Three Smiles 三笑” (1969).
"The Love Eterne" (1963)In the second half of the 60’s, martial arts were becoming more and more popular in Hong Kong, and Ling Po tried this genre as well in some swordplay movies like “Temple of the Red Lotus 江湖奇俠” (1965) or “The Sword an the Lute 琴劍恩仇” (1967), where she doesn’t do much (physically speaking).
"Temple of the Red Lotus (1965)But in 1970, she started the shooting of her most intense movie, “The 14 Amazons 十四女英豪”, one of the biggest and craziest martial art epic ever produced by Shaw Brothers, where she played a warrior princess an tactician from the Northern Sung’s dynasty, Mu Kuei-ying 穆桂英, who led hundreds of female warriors to avenge her husband (and most of the males of the Yang family) and defended the country against the invaders from the Western Xia.
Ivy Ling Po, on the set of "The 14 Amazons" (1970)
Released for the first time in Hong Kong on July 27th,1972, “The Fourteen Amazons” was screened in its restored version 34 years later, first in Hong Kong on January 5th, 2006, for a screening hold by Celestial Pictures and Women In Film and Television International (WIFTI) - Hong Kong Chapter. Then, “The 14 Amazons” was ‘officially’ screened in France for the first time (there had been some unofficial screenings in the 80’s in a Chinatown theather in Paris) at the Cannes Film Festival (in the Cannes Classics section) in May 2006, before its official French theatrical release on June 7th, 2006.
French 2006 new poster of "The 14 Amazons"The following 2006 interview of Asian Movie Queen Ivy Ling Po was previously used (partly) for “The 14 Amazons” French press-kit and an article for the magazine Kumite. Enjoy...
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TEDDY CHEN TALKS "BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS", "PUNITIVE HOMICIDE" AND... JACKIE CHAN
Friday, Jul 24, 2009 7:43PM / News / Hong Kong Cinema
I interviewed director Teddy Chen 陳德森twice so far. The first time, it was in 2004, and I started with a “career interview” and asked him of course, to talk about about the great action movies that he made in the 90’s like “Downtown Torpedoes 神偷諜影” (A kind of Hong Kong version of “Mission: Impossible” starring Takeshi Kaneshiro) and “Purple Storm 紫雨風暴” (The first movie where I really noticed Daniel Wu’s potential). But actually, the purpose of this interview was to talk about “Infernal Affairs II 無間道II”.
Teddy Chen (Hong Kong - 2004)
At that time, I was actually preparing my short documentaries about the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy for the French distribution company Studio Canal. And since “Infernal Affairs II” was my favorite among the three movies, I wanted to interview as many people as I can who worked on it. Finally, I could have Andrew Lau 劉偉強, Alan Mak 麥兆輝, Felix Chong 莊文強, Anthony Wong 黃秋生, Edison Chen 陳冠希, Andrew Lin 連凱 and Teddy Chen. Unhopefully, Andrew Lin and Teddy Chen interviews had to be edited out for a length reason (the documentary had to do 15 minutes maximum).
Teddy Chen in "Infernal Affairs II" (2003)
Teddy Chen was not behind the camera for “Infernal Affairs II”. He worked on the movie as an actor for a small part where he played a gangster who got badly burned. He actually started in the film industry as an actor. “When I was 16 years old, I was playing bowling, and somebody came to me and asked me if I wanted to act for a TV drama. I said to him that I never acted before, but he answered that it was not a problem, and I was in the business. It was thirty years ago. ”
Teddy Chen spent 8 months acting for TV: “I’m too shy to work in front of a camera. But I liked the feeling when I’m was on a set. So I tried to work behind the camera. That’s how I started to work as a scriptwrite for TVr”. After two years, Jackie Chan’s manager came to him, because Jackie Chan needed an assistant : “He just finished “The Druken Master” at that time. He was looking for someone who could speak English and Mandarin. Jackie liked me and I became his first assistant in the late 70’s.”
Jackie Chan's "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" (1979)
Working for Jackie is maybe a dream for millions of people, but it wasn’t for Teddy: “I was the personnal assitant of Jackie. I was so exited to work with Jackie. I thought I’d have many chances to learn new things about movies and big productions. But it wasn’t really the case. I helped Jackie to pick cars, to look out the new house, to take care of his fans from Japan or Taiwan, and bring them to shopping, to see Jackie’s movies in the lab. I was under one people and over ten thousand people. A very powerful position! But I was not happy. One day, I talked to him, and I resigned. He was very surprided. He said to me : ‘Did I not treat you good? I buy three t-shirts, you have one t-shirt. I treat you as a brother.’ And I said to him ‘I’m sorry Jackie, I want to be a director’. He stepped away but I saw his reaction in the mirror. He was smiling. I cried that night. I was 19. The next day I resigned and he told the manager to talk to me and asked what I wante to do. I said that I wanted to start from the lowest, and do script continuity. That’s what I did on the next jackie Chan movie.”
During the years, Teddy Chen worked for several directors and not only Jackie Chan : “Usually, a assistant follows a director for 5 or 7 years. Then, if the director becomes a producer, the assistant has a chance to be a director himself. But I didn’t want to work for one director only. I worked for Tsui Hark, Kirk Wong, sometimes Teddy Robin. I wanted to know more about directing by working with many of them, to understand how they think too. I was the last assistant director at that time to become a director. And I directed my first movie in 1989. It’s a called Alien Wife.”
Kirk Wong's "Gunmen" (1988) and Ching Siu-tung "Chinese Ghost Story II" (1990) Produced by Tsui Hark. Assitant director: Teddy Chen.
After he became an established director, Teddy Chen had the opportunity to work with Jackie Chan again, by directing “Accidental Spy”: “I was very touched when Jackie Called me. We haven’t met for 20 years. One day, he called me for a dinner. That was strange. At that time, I was writing a script for a 24-year old actor for Golden Harvest. Jackie Chan heard about it from his manager Willie Chan. He read it, liked it and asked me if I wanted to direct the movie and If I could change this 24 years old charcater to a 40 something because he wanted to play in the movie. I said to Jackie : ‘Are you sure you want me to direct it? 20 years ago, I was your first assistant.’ And he anwsered : ‘During those 20 years, I followed your work discretely. You were working very hard and I appreciate the movies that you made. So, from this moment, I’m not Jackie Chan. I’m an actor, you’re the director. That’s it.’
Jackie Chan in Teddy Chen's "Accidental Spy" (2001)
Five years after our first interview, I had the chance to meet Teddy Chan a second time during the Hong Kong Filmart 2009 where he was presenting two projects. One at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum called “Punitive Homicide”, a horror thriller written by Su Chao-Pin (“Double Vision”, “Silk”) and the other one, “Bodyguards and Assassins”, had a big presse conference at the Filmart a few weeks before the beginning of the shooting. The whole interview about those two movies was published on Twitch two weeks ago. Check it out right here:
“BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS” + “PUNITIVE HOMICIDE” – Teddy Chen interview - FILMART-HAF 2009
Promo posters of Teddy Chen's "Bodyguards and Assassins" (2010)Frédéric Ambroisine (July 24th, 2009)
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WHO WANTS TO BE IN "A VERY SELFISH DOCUMENTARY"?
Wednesday, Jul 22, 2009 2:18PM / News / Hong Kong Cinema
Here is her presentation of “A Very Selfish Documentary”:
“We live in a very compact city. Conflicts are what we experience every day. We constantly suffer from or witness certain selfish behaviours in this city. The most common ones could be: the person who enters a building before you lets the door bang at your face, people who "stand by" their finger on the "close door" button long time before you get out from a lift, landlords ready to do every dirty things to discriminate certain people in order to keep the price of their properties, or EVEN WORSE!
How do we react to these behaviours? Some of us go to talk to those people. Some of us keep silence. Some of us talk about that with friends. Some of us seek help from authorities when the behaviours become too much of an offense.
With my so-called artistic mind, I want to make a documentary that can do some impact on our way of seeing urban life in Hong Kong, a city that we all share.
I am looking for some people who accept to be filmed to talk about their unique experience and point of view of "selfish behaviours". As long as you live in Hong Kong, ALL AGES and ALL NATIONALITIES are welcome. This documentary will be done in a relaxed tone (even funny at some moments). I am not putting any judgement onto those behaviours. I simply need your point of view and your personal experience.
We look for communication, understanding, different voices, different cultures and the love of sharing life experience!
If you are interested, please feel free to contact me and I will discuss with you how and where to film your part.
But since it is a self-financed project, I can’t offer any money in return (I hope I will one day!).
Hope to see you through my camera lens some day!
MERCI !”
Last year, Adeline directed another 26-minute documentary in Hong Kong for the "La Caravane des 10 Mots" (The Caravan of 10 Words), a cultural project about French language, created in France in 2003, which became international since 2006.
"La Caravane des 10 Mots - Hong Kong" (2008)
In her documentary, she explores a tough, loving and unsettling Hong Kong through the eyes of contesting artists, questioning youths and stories by long-established dwellers.
You can watch it below in original language (French, English, and Cantonese) with French subtitles only.
For those who want to contact Adeline about her very selfish documentary: adelineckayee@gmail.com
Frédéric Ambroisine (July 22nd, 2009)
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BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS 十月围城 TOP-NOTCH CAST & CREW @ FILMART 2009 (UPDATE JULY 6TH, 2009)
Sunday, Jul 5, 2009 9:29AM / Event / Hong Kong Cinema
“Pre-press conferences” (press con of movies before they’re even shot) are often uninteresting, because there is gererally not much to say, especially for the actors (remember “The Storm Riders II 風雲2” in 2008). But for 1st press conference of “Bodyguards and Assassins 十月围城” (ex-“Dark October”) at the Hong Kong Filmart 2009, it was not the case. During almost one hour, Manfred Wong interviewed producer Peter Chan 陳可辛, director Teddy Chen 陳德森, and one - big - part of the amazing cast of the movie (Here we go: Donnie Yen 甄子丹 Simon Yam 任達華, Tony Leung Kar-fai 梁家輝, Nicholas Tse 謝霆鋒, Fan Bing-bing 范冰冰, Eric Tsang 曾志偉, Leon Lai 黎明, Hu Jun 胡軍, and Wang Po-chieh 王柏傑) about this very exiting project. All the press con was conducted in Mandarin, and hearphones for the simultaneous English translation were provided. Perfect! Enjoy the (120) screencaps and the promo trailers below. More stuff coming soon...
Frédéric Ambroisine (July 5th, 2009)"DARK OCTOBER" IN DEVELOPMENT HELL (2006!)
"DARK OCTOBER" TEASER TRAILER (2008)
"BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS" PROMO TRAILER - 2'50 (2009)
"BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS" PROMO TRAILER - 4'30 (2009)
Stats
- Born in Istres (France), Frederic Ambroisine studied mathematics, then filmmaking in Paris in his twenties...
- Occupation: Director , Screenwriter , Magazine Editor
- Age: 34
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 344,702
