Cutting-edge love

Three new movies will be released this weekend. An Empress and the Warriors, by Hong Kong film director Ching Siu-tung, continues to showcase Ching's skill as an action choreographer. The story is set in ancient China, where a dying king commands his daughter, Princess Fei-Er (Kelly Chen) to take over and defend the kingdom with help from general Xue-Hu (Donnie Yen). But Fei-Er's cousin, Wu Ba (Guo Xiao-Dong) has his eyes on the throne and sends assassins to kill the princess. Duan Lan-Quan (Leon Lai) manages to save Fei-Er from a grisly fate and they fall in love. Fei-Er must now choose between following her dreams and eloping with Duan and submitting to her duty to defend her kingdom. Ching is more famous as an action director in such projects as The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, Hero and Shaolin Soccer.

Deadly Delicious by mainland director Zhan Tianyu also opens this weekend. It is said the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but here, the women are not after his heart. In this tale, a man's wife and her lover conspire to kill him slowly by offering him various foods which are delicious on their own but, according to ancient wisdom, poisonous once they reach the stomach. The film stars Chinese actress Yu Nan (In Love We Trust, Tuya's Marriage) and Hong Kong actor Francis Ng.

Another new film opening this weekend is the South Korean food comedy, Le Grand Chef.

Based on a popular Manga series that began in 2002 (more than 600,000 copies have been sold), Le Grand Chef is an action-packed comedy about Sung Chan (Kim Gang-woo), a young Korean chef who loses his confidence after a terrible incident caused by his food. Nevertheless, he enters a national competition organized to find the true heir to the last royal chef of the Chosun Dynasty, who will inherit a famous knife and restaurant. This movie features thrilling sets, humor, mouth-watering food and a skillful interweaving of stories.

Other films in the cinemas include:

Mad Detective, bringing together Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai for the first time since the 2003 Andy Lau drama Running on Karma. It is about a loony cop who solves crimes through intuition rather than by using logic.

Joe Wright, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award-winning director of Pride & Prejudice, has reunited with his filmmaking team and his Academy Award-nominated actress, Keira Knightley, for another classic British romance, Atonement, co-starring James McAvoy opposite Knightley. Shot on location in the UK, the film's story spans several decades. Another British romance in the cinemas is Becoming Jane, the story of the great, untold romance that inspired a young Jane Austen, played by Anne Hathaway.

Then there is the Hong Kong thriller Playboy Cop starring Chen Kun and Shawn Yue, the romantic comedy Marriage Trap and the magical The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

Chen Nan

(China Daily 03/08/2008 page6)