BEIJING (AP) — Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s media arm announced a partnership on Oct. 9 to co-produce films for global audiences. The deal adds to a multibillion-dollar string of Chinese ventures with Hollywood studios to capture more of the profits from China’s growing media market. Alibaba Pictures will acquire […]
COMMENTARY: Low interest at home, kung fu master opens secrets to the West
By Andrew Lam New America Media Lam Chun-fai, a master of Southern Chinese kung fu style, Hung Kuen, is the first of the kung fu
EDITORIAL: Ang Lee serves as an example
Taiwanese American director Ang Lee has a lot going for him. He just won a second Best Director Oscar for “Life of Pi” to go with his first Oscar award from “Brokeback Mountain.” He has become one of the most in-demand directors, successful both overseas and in the States, and has twice beaten out Steven […]
“The Dragon Pearl”
Reviewed by Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Australian director Mario Andreacchio’s “Dragon Pearl,” filmed mostly in China, aims straight at being a Steven Spielberg family-friendly yarn in which the kids save the day. It succeeds, although not spectacularly. Irish actor Sam Neill, always affable, anchors the adult cast as archeologist Chris Chase investigating the tomb […]
Not a film, but a triumph
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “This Is Not a Film,” a documentary by co-directors Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, opens with a man seated at his breakfast table, preparing to eat. He takes a phone call, puts it on speaker phone, and seems to tense up in his shoulders, bending slightly to avoid looking […]