Movie reel

Twilight

Twilight, the first installment of the Twilight Saga finally made its way to Shanghai on Wednesday, the same week that part two, New Moon, is playing at theaters in the United States.

Despite the long wait, local critics expect it will still win over Chinese audiences with its cast of pretty boys, vegetarian blood-suckers and its theme of forbidden love.

Edward Cullen, the mystical hero of this teenage vampire series by Stephanie Meyer, is played by British actor Robert Pattinson. He is unlike Hollywood vampires of old; in fact, he's from a different crypt altogether. He is tall and blonde, and serves tirelessly to protect his chick (high school student Bella). The two find each other dangerously irresistible, even though they realize their love can never be. Cullen's moral preference for animal rather than human blood does not make life much easier for them.

Legions of Chinese women became obsessed with the handsome, cool vampire when the series launched last year. Pattinson, 23, has been flying high ever since he appeared in the last Harry Potter movie, while lead actress Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, has also become quite a sensation.

District 9

District 9, a low-budget sci-fi action thriller which depicts aliens as unwanted immigrants in downtown Johannesburg, opens here this weekend.

The movie, which cost less than $30 million, has already grossed over $184 million worldwide. It begins with a series of documentary-style interviews in South Africa 20 years in the future as the aliens, dubbed "Shrimps", are effectively evicted from the planet.

Directed and co-written by South Africa's Neil Blomkamp, the movie was produced by Peter Jackson, the man behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson also edited the Chinese version of Blomkamp's masterpiece.

The cast includes South African rising star Sharlto Copley, who plays a bureaucrat leading the aliens from a Johannesburg slum, called District 9, where they settle after their ship gets stranded there. In English.

Other films now showing at cinemas citywide include:

Hua Mulan

Hua Mulan, a legendary folk heroine from the 12th century who inspired Disney's animated feature Mulan, is back on the big screen with another film named after her.

Directed by Ma Jingle from Hong Kong, the film, apart from its grand and intense war scenes, distinguishes itself with a closer focus on the feminine side of Mulan. The director defies our expectation for a brave, boyish heroine by presenting a much softer and richer character that reminds us of Mulan's identity as a girl. Besides her extraordinary talent on the battlefield, like most girls, she falls in love and has to deal with fear and frustration.

The Robbers

Director Yang Shupeng spent three years producing this violent historical movie. Two thieves stumble upon an isolated village during the Tang Dynasty and accidentally kill a couple of soldiers who are attempting to rape a young village girl. The death leads to a violent gang fight between the soldiers and villagers. From the perspective of the thieves, the director preaches about brotherhood and loyalty between friends while reflecting on the lack of morality in ancient times.

(China Daily 11/28/2009 page14)