Word: kaneshiro
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...shooting in mainland China for the first time was enticing, and Chan saw an opportunity to make a modern musical without compromising dramatic complexity. With Morgan, the producer behind Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, and a $10 million budget, Chan assembled a starry cast: Taiwanese-Japanese icon Takeshi Kaneshiro, rising mainland actress Zhou Xun and Jacky Cheung, the one Heavenly King of Canto-pop who can really sing. But would audiences accept a big-budget Asian film without a flying kick or aerial swordfight? And was Chan?a Hong Konger best known for delicate, tightly-observed dramas such as Comrades...
...break out in song, but Chan avoids cheesiness by embedding the musical scenes in a movie being shot inside his movie. Arty director Nie Wen (Cheung) is making a blockbuster musical in Shanghai, starring his longtime lover Sun Na (Zhou) and a hot Hong Kong idol, Lin Jian-dong (Kaneshiro). Nie's musical is set in a Chinese circus, which allows Chan to use acrobats, contortionists, fire-breathers, trapeze artists, clowns and dwarves to liven up the dance numbers. But the musical inside the movie is just a shadow play for the complex drama behind the scenes...
...Almost a Love Story, can stop worrying. The early word is that his musical, Perhaps Love, is brilliant. The $10 million movie was selected for the closing spot in the Venice Film Festival before Chan had finished post-production. (The movie will be released in December.) Indie icon Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers), pop idol Jacky Cheung (Ashes of Time) and luminous mainlander Zhou Xun (The Little Chinese Seamstress) star as actors in contemporary Shanghai filming a musical set in the decadent 1930s. A love triangle ensues, giving the stars a chance to work out their feelings in song...
...late years of the Tang dynasty, an insurgency has arisen, led by the mysterious Flying Daggers group. Government officers Leo (Andy Lau, of Infernal Affairs) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are assigned to stamp out the conspiracy. Their first stop is a bordello, where the madam tells Leo she has a lovely blind girl, Mei (Zhang Ziyi), to dance for him--a dance of love, deception and death...
...cast list is like a convocation of the Three Chinas: Taiwan's Kaneshiro, Hong Kong's Lau and the mainland's Zhang Ziyi. All are terrific, but the lady shines brightest. Fierce in a battle with eight soldiers, coquettish as she bathes before the enrapt Jin, Zhang is charisma incarnate. She is already nearing American stardom, playing the lead in Memoirs of a Geisha. You can bet she will reveal a new kind of star quality, even as the dazzling Daggers shows Hollywood how to make an action film with depth and pizazz. --By Richard Corliss