49th Golden Horse Awards--Kwai Lun-mei, LBB, Lin Chi-ling...

Kwai Lun-mei was named Best Actress at the 49th Golden Horse awards held Saturday, breaking an otherwise clean sweep by artists from Hong Kong and the PRC.

Jackie Chan and Li Bingbing presented the award. LBB's dress looked beyond conservative and almost too dull although it was a great color.

Kwai Lun-mei looked pretty amped at winning for her role in GF*BF:

And seemed to not quite believe it as she exited--this is also where we see that Li Bingbing's dress wasn't quite as conservative as it looked from the front.

Backstage

With Lau Ching-wan who won Best Actor for Life Without Principle:

Qi Xi with her trophy for Best New Actress for Mystery:

Liang Jing won Best Supporting Actress award for Design of Death:

Lin Chi-ling almost stole the show and dominated the coverage in much of the Chinese entertainment press--Sina ran a story with 67 pictures of her in this dress. It was designed by Versace and possibly constructed by Taiwanese engineers that build cantilever bridges:

All the "netizens" were suitably outraged at her when she mimed a kiss with Huang Bo before presenting the Best Picture award:

Denise Ho and Mavis Fan were in the audience and on the red carpet. Denise Ho, who recently, to the surprise of no one at all, came out as a lesbian had a real "don't mess with me" look:

Mavis Fan looked great--and pretty tough herself--in her tattoos and little black dress:

Sina; Xinhua; Yahoo SingaporeChinese Films

Giorgio Armani doubles down on China, rounds up glam usual suspects

Giorgio Armani and his many Armani brands remains exuberantly successful throughout Asia and particularly in China where sales grew by 45% last year over 2010. His “One Night Only In Beijing”, a special fashion show with 15 Armani Privé pieces (ultra-luxury couture, if you have to ask you can't afford it), created especially for the event along with some highlights of the more downmarket (pieces cost thousands of Euros instead of zillions) collections from the Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani labels. He pulled together a real murderer's row of Chinese movie stars: Fan Bingbing, Shu Qi, Kwai Lun Mei, Michelle Yeoh, all the Chinese top models in town and put on quite a show.

Giorgio accepts applause from his group of mannequins:

Niece Roberta Armani shares the spotlight with Fan Bingbing:



Shu Qi works her sneer:

But almost cracks a smile.


Kwai Lun Mei looked relaxed:


Michelle Yeoh was simply elegant:


Assuming the Chinese economy doesn't implode Armani should prosper. It has its mono-brand boutiques and selling points in 50 major cities across the PRC and adds selling space all the time. Like Willie Sutton or Woodward and Bernstein, he goes where the money is.

Chinese Films; China.org; Fashion Wired Daily

Mavis Fan punked out, Kwai Lun-Mei elegant for Berlin red carpet

Nothing bothers Tsui Hark, not even encountering a possibly unexpected set of spikes. He does keep his hand at a safe distance on the red carpet for the premier of "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate".

Mavis Fan and Kwai Lun-Mei were a study in contrasts but both of them looked great.

Mavis's fans seemed appropriately hyped:

(the spiked back on that gown seems impractical for sitting through the premier)

while things were enthusiastic if a bit less frantic for Kwai Lun-Mei.

Zimbio continued to lead the way in quality control, this time identifying Mavis Fan as Zhou Xun. Such as in this picture and caption:

Ifeng; Sina; Zimbio

This is not a good idea: Remaking "Comrades, Almost a Love Story"

Remaking a classic and much loved movie can be a minefield of artistic and financial decisions that can blow up in one's face. It isn't exactly drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa or painting the Parthenon DayGlo orange since the original is still there; updating characters, narratives and images can be useful to reach a new audience; there are only seven (or five or ninety-nine) basic stories anyway so something is always being retold; blah, blah, blah.

The original almost ran the table of awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1997. It deserved to win every award offered anywhere in the film world that year. If Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk had never made another movie--actually if this was the only movie she ever made--she would still be a huge star. Everything about Peter Chan's script and direction worked beautifully.

But remake it they will as covered in Chinese Film. "Boyfriend Girlfriend" will star Kwai Lun-Mei and Hsiao-chuan Chang and will be directed by Yang Yazhe. There is probably a sound PR reason for them to make the announcement while sitting on exercise equipment.

From the original

Best use of a McDonald's hat ever.

ITP; HK Cinemagic

"Love In Space" pins hopes for box office on B-List cast

Apparently accepting the long discredited idea of "quantity becomes quality", a vulgar-Marxist notion that one imagines wouldn't be congenial to the cultural cognoscenti of the People's Republic, the producers of "Love In Space" piled up the second tier stars because "one is not enough but several altogether can attract more fans," according film critic Hu Liang.

Here are the stars back in March celebrating the beginning of principal photography for the movie not realizing that their efforts would be relegated to the late summer ghetto of non-prime players.

A poster featuring Angelababy that carries an impressive set of website watermarks.

China "Vogue" dressed up some of the stars for its October issue.
Angelababy

Rene Liu

Kwai Lun-Mei

Xinhua
Chinese Films; CF
Filmofilla (don't bother clicking on this one--it will start with a 15 second ad that has no "skip this ad" button)

Kwai Lun-Mei goes to Paris; fashionistas are not amused.

Kwai Lun-Mei was in Paris for the fall couture shows. Here she is standing next to Karl Lagerfeld.

On the set of the Chanel show.

Waiting for the show to start. The camera caught a few "who is that?" or perhaps "who does she think she is?" looks from those around her. The two highlighted below seemed outraged--understandable since the one on the left with the glasses took the trouble of wearing a pair of slacks that could take her straight from the fashion show to the hog barn.

Another not too happy denizen of the front row. The woman behind her is either horrified or just has a catatonic look about her.

Interviewed by French TV. With her degree in French literature from Tamkang University, Taipei and graduate study at the University of Lyon, Kwai Lun Mei probably handled it pretty well.

Sina through Roast Pork from a Rusty Cleaver that has a link to the "good" slide show at Sina, not the one with the crummy pictures that I always find when trying to navigate that site.