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Posted: 12 Oct 2011 12:41 AM PDT

AFTER the success of his 2000 romantic comedy Summer Holiday, Hong Kong filmmaker Jingle Ma had always wanted to make another movie showcasing the pristine beaches of Malaysia.

Summer Holiday grossed HKD21mil (RM8.46mil), became the second best-selling film after Needing You in Hong Kong and was nominated in four categories at the 20th Hong Kong Film Awards.

However, Ma's dream only materialised some 11 years later and it is in the form of his latest release Love You You.

Considered a sequel of sorts to Summer Holiday, Love You You retains some of the elements that made its predecessor an enduring success.

While its predecessor was in Cantonese and starred Hong Kong pop diva Sammi Cheng and Hong Kong-based Taiwanese Mandopop heartthrob Richie Ren, Love You You is in Mandarin and features Taiwanese heartthrob Eddie Peng, 29, and Hong Kong-based Angelababy, 22, (also known as Yeung Wing).

The story revolves around pretty Xia Mi (Angelababy) and hunky You Lele (Peng), who fall for each other despite initial misgivings.

Xia Mi hates the sea because there's where she lost her parents. But the law firm where she works assigns her to investigate island resort operator You for alleged fraud and other illegal practices. Watch the sparks fly between the two as they uncover each other's secrets.

"The story is more touching this time. The beach is just as breathtaking and the scenery just as magnificent. I like this movie a little bit more. It's more cinematic and the plot is thicker. Personally, I like movies that move me so this one works better for me," said Ma in a phone interview from Hong Kong.

Love You You's leading lady Angelababy added: "Moreover, the response has been very encouraging and the feedback we've received online has been quite positive, too."

Notably, the romantic comedy showcases the clear waters and sandy beaches of the tropical islands off Malaysia's beautiful east coast. The movie was shot entirely at Lang Tengah Island, located between Redang Island (where Summer Holiday was filmed) and Perhentian Island off Terengganu.

Filming in Malaysia was almost like a beach vacation for Peng, who "loved the wonderful weather".

"What I loved most were the azure skies and emerald waters. You can swim in the sea all day and there's no one to bother you. And, the water is especially clean and clear."

Angelababy also gushed about how she really liked the place. "You can see the oceanbed, near the harbour. I even saw a marine turtle. And the sky was full of stars at night. It was so beautiful.

"One day, we were returning to the main island where we were staying from another island. And, we looked up at the sky and saw that it was covered with stars that were so close together. It was as pretty as wallpaper. We also saw the Big Dipper. City dwellers like us have never seen such a lovely sky. At that moment, I felt so fortunate and content with my life," shared Angelababy.

"And, that moment came right after a crying scene. So, I felt it was all worth it. As a newcomer like myself, crying scenes are actually very difficult. I've to feel a lot of pain inside in order to cry. But, director Ma was very helpful and gave me a lot of guidance.

"In one scene, where I had to sit in front of the computer and cry, director Ma was right beside me telling me stories until tears rolled down my cheeks."

Praising his young leads, Ma said: "They're the golden pairing of the new generation. These days, it's not easy to get good actors in their 20s, so these two are a good bet. They're the future of Chinese cinema so my expectations are very high."

Angelababy said she enjoyed working with Peng, whom she described as a very humorous fellow.

"On the set, Eddie is extremely popular with the ladies. Many of the make-up and costume crew would find all sorts of excuses to try and get close to him. As an actor, he's very diligent and works hard preparing each scene."

Peng too enjoyed teaming up with the actress who is easy-going.

"It's fun working with Baby as she is a bubbly girl with a boyish personality.

"This movie's a romantic comedy and my character's a rugged and rebellious chap with a kind heart. He's definitely a very appealing character. I hope I can be as dashing and care-free," offered Peng, who has been nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming 48th Golden Horse Award for his role as a gymnast in Taiwanese sports movie Jump Ashin!.

Like Summer Holiday, which features homegrown Mandopop stars like Michael Wong and Aniu as guitar-strumming beach boys, Love You You also includes local actors Steve Yap (as You's scheming half-brother), Alvin Wong (You's spineless sidekick) and Bernard Hew a dishonest agent).

The movie soundtrack features the smooth vocals of Singaporean Mandopop singer-songwriter JJ Lin. – Seto Kit Yan

Love You You opens in local cinemas tomorrow.

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The Oscar debate

Posted: 11 Oct 2011 11:42 PM PDT

A look at the fine lines of motion-capture animation films.

SHOULD a film made using the motion-capture technique qualify as an animated movie at the Oscars, or is it something else?

Does the answer to that last question change if Steven Spielberg is the guy making the movie?

Those are two of the questions facing the Academy at a time when the expanding use of performance capture has the potential to wreak havoc in the Best Animated Feature category.

And it's also confusing the acting category, where voters have to figure out if a performance can be awards-worthy even if the actor's face is never seen onscreen.

"I think there still needs to be a lot of education, because there's still a reasonable amount of fear,'' said actor Andy Serkis, who's delivered several of the most compelling performance-capture performances and who appears in two of the films in the thick of this year's discussion, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and The Adventures Of Tintin.

The performance-capture process, in which a performer's movements and facial expressions are recorded and then translated by computer into the movements and expression of an onscreen character, has been used to great effect in the Lord Of The Rings' films, in Avatar, and more recently in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

It has also given rise to a whole genre of films that skirt a middle ground between live-action and animation, from Robert Zemeckis's The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol to the Oscar-winning Happy Feet.

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch has been grappling for years with the question of whether films based in motion capture are truly animated.

In 2010 the branch added specific language covering motion capture to its rules for qualifying for the Best Animated Feature Oscar.

The rules point out that motion capture "by itself is not an animation technique'' and stipulate that "a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture's running time", requiring that "movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique". '

Three films that could potentially qualify this year are affected by this rule: Simon Wells's March release Mars Needs Moms, George Miller's upcoming Happy Feet Two and Spielberg's The Adventures Of Tintin.

The makers of all three films have been asked by the branch to supply explanations of their intent.

The studios behind Tintin and Happy Feet, meanwhile, are adamant that those films are animated and should be in contention for the award.

(Jon Bloom, a governor in the short films and feature animation branch, declined to comment any further on the process.)

The consensus among those who closely watch the animation category is that the branch will either rule that all three films qualify or that all three don't – and virtually everyone interviewed is expecting them to qualify.

One reason: Happy Feet Two is the sequel to a 2006 film that won the Oscar for Animated Feature; to say that it isn't animated would be to cast retroactive doubt on a previous winner.

(Not that the use of motion capture in Happy Feet wasn't noticed: Pixar's Oscar-winning Ratatouille took a sly shot at Miller's movie in end credits that read, "100% Genuine Animation! No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film".)

Tintin, meanwhile, comes from one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood – someone the committee could be disinclined to cross.

"Spielberg is going to say what he needs to say – and my question is, who on that committee is going to call him a liar if they don't believe him?'' asked one animation insider.

The third motion-capture film, Mars Needs Moms, is a tricker (but perhaps more inconsequential) case.

Zemeckis, its producer, has made a string of films using the technology but in the past has sometimes resisted entering his films in the Animated Feature race.

"To call performance capture animation is a disservice to the great animators,'' Zemeckis said in 2007, before his motion-capture version of Beowulf was originally ruled ineligible by the Academy. But AMPAS later changed its mind about Beowulf (which wasn't nominated), and Zemeckis has allowed his films to be entered in the category.

Still, Mars Needs Moms was such a commercial and critical flop that it'll likely serve only to pad out the category, without any real chance of landing a nomination.

Padding out the category could prove to be crucial: if the three performance-capture films are deemed eligible, that appears to bring the number of competing films to 15. One more entrant is all that'd be needed to bump the number of nominees in the category from four to five.

On the acting side, the problem isn't eligibility, it's that actors are typically disinclined to view performance capture as being worthy of a nomination,

"You don't physically appear on screen as yourself, and I guess some actors would probably object to that,'' Serkis, who portrayed the ape Caesar in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, told TheWrap in August. "Because they feel that their greatest tool is their face, and that's that.''

In fact, he added, performance-capture acting is "incredibly subtle and very pure'' – and no more diluted by outside factors than any other kind of acting. "Every single actor's on-screen performance is enhanced to some degree by what you wear, by the makeup team that works on your face, by the shot size, by the way the director moves the camera around what you're doing.

There is not a single actor's performance on-screen that is not enhanced by other things.''

James Cameron made some of the same points two years ago when Avatar came out, insisting that the actor who played the alien Na'vi characters were not animated, and that the actors deserved full consideration for acting awards.

None were nominated – and, indeed, no actor in a performance-capture film has ever been nominated by the Academy.

"I'd like to think it could happen,'' said Serkis. "I'd like to think it could be understood as being no more than acting. I don't think there should be any kind of special category or anything. The visual effects side of it is the visual side of it, and the performance is acting.

"And if some directors want to enhance or slightly animate, that's moving into something else.''

In other words, this is a world in which fine lines are everywhere: the lines between acting, enhancement and animation, between a motion-capture film and an animated one.

Good luck, Academy. – Reuters

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Actress, director Penny Marshall to write memoir

Posted: 11 Oct 2011 10:53 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters): Actress and filmmaker Penny Marshall, who transitioned from her role as tough-talking Laverne in hit TV show "Laverne and Shirley" to become a pioneering female director, is releasing a memoir about her rise in Hollywood, her agent said on Tuesday.

Marshall, 68, has sold the rights to her autobiography, called "My Mother Was Nuts," directly to Amazon.com Inc, her agent Dan Strone said. The book will discuss her former 10-year marriage to fellow director Rob Reiner, her friendships with John Belushi and Art Garfunkel, and her battle with brain and lung cancer in 2009.

"People have always asked me how I got from the Bronx to Hollywood, so I thought it was time to tell how it all happened. I have had many lives (not in the Shirley MacLaine sense) and you will hear about them all ... Just don't expect any recipes ... I don't cook," Marshall said in the statement.

After playing Laverne De Fazio in the hit show "Laverne and Shirley," which was co-created by her brother, producer and director Garry Marshall, the actress went on to direct such film hits as "Big," "A League of Their Own," and "Awakenings."

The memoir will discuss her humble roots growing up in the Bronx, New York, to her relationship with her brother Garry to her turn behind the camera and dealings with actors such as Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks. It will be published in print and e-book form in the fall of 2012.

The decision by Marshall's agent to sell the book to Amazon Publishing reflects the online retailer's push to expand its operations and compete directly with other book publishers.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Rabu, 12 Oktober 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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