PERHAPS LOVE ARTICLES

[timmyer]

Perhaps Love shown From December in China

Article: 22th November 2005

Source: 202.101.38.42/www_jfdaily_co...39365.html.big5


Perhaps Love directed by Hong Kong director Peter Chan will be shown
to the public on December 2 in the China. This is reputable Hong Kong director Peter Chan's first movie which is made and shown in China.
Perhaps Love was in the Venice film festival which declare a position overseas and was praised by all in the film industries, chinese and foreigners. In September the Hong Kong producer association also announced it will participate in the 78th session of Oscar foreign language piece on behalf of the Hong Kong area the
contention.
This spent 8,000 ten thousand Renminbi the dance movies of a love story starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhou Xun, Jacky Cheung and Ji Jin Hee about a love story started 10 years ago.
Come from a poor family background Sun Na (Zhou Xun plays the part of) in order to survive with the success, after abandoned lover Lin Chien tung (Takeshi to play the part of), for director Nie man (Jacky played the part of) with the his help her movie star dream came true.
After ten years, Sun Na starred in a movie directed by the Nie, but actor was past lover Lin Chientung, three person of between love hated the entanglement also in light of this to launch.
South Korea's actor Hee "the storytelling person" role, will occur under the different time, the different scene three stories connects.
Peter Chan said that, PL consist of magnificent dances, still semblance a traditional Chinese type love story, the dance partial lengths only approximately 30% of the film, but we make every effort through like this to be direct and the exaggerating performance this way to impel the audience to the love and understand this movie"
Chan said that, at present the movie overseas release situation "extremely ideal", but he regards as important the inland market. "The story occurs in Beijing, is possibly easier to cause the inland audience's sympathetic chord, therefore I am more confident for the inland box office."
In 1997 Chan directed the movie "Was sweet" and it scocped 9 big awards Hong Kong movie golden statue award. This is a movie of a love story which acted the leading role by Maggie cheung and Leon Lai, which had opened the gateway for Chan to the China market.

Thanks to JEAN s2.invisionfree.com/la_creme_d_asie/

[timmyer]

Perhaps Love's media preview, Takeshi Kaneshiro's tears smashed many hearts

Article: 23th November 2005

Source: www5.chinesenewsnet.com/Main..._43_07_949.html


According to "Beijing Entertainment Letter Newspaper" reported yesterday morning, After long anticipation Peter Chan musical movie Perhaps Love had held a first public media preview in the Beijing beautiful-star international film city. The movie was highly praised by the media,many reporters were moved by the exquisite love and the recollection of their own experiences of love, many of them were in tears even the male reporters cannot hold their tears back. The reporters were mostly impressed by Takeshi's exceptional crying scenes and Zhou Xun pain and struggling to choose between love and vanity.
It is reported PL will be shown in China starting on December 2 , the dates had changed because they could not schedule vacancies to show this movie near Christmas.

Thanks to JEAN

s2.invisionfree.com/la_creme_d_asie/

[timmyer]

A TALE OF PASSION AND FAME

BILLED as the first Chinese musical feature film in 35 years, Perhaps Love boasts a stellar cast of stars from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Korea, and acclaimed behind-the-scenes film makers.

Veteran director Peter Chan is joined by Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Asian heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers), ‘Heavenly King’ Jacky Cheung, up and coming Chinese actress Zhou Xun (The Little Chinese Seamstress and Suzhou River), and popular Korean actor Ji Jin-Hee (famed series Jewel In The Palace).

Renowned Bollywood dance choreographer Farah Khan helmed the musical scenes while the film’s original music is by Hong Kong’s Peter Kam and Leon Ko.

The US$10 million (RM35 million) production, shot in Beijing and Shanghai, is a touching love story. It is also filled with spectacular set designs, breath-taking circus performances, mesmerizing Broadway-style musical numbers and punctuated by beautiful songs and dances.

Perhaps Love has been selected to be screened at the Venice Film Festival and is chosen as Hong Kong’s entry to the 78th Annual Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Set in modern day Shanghai, this movie-within-a-movie features a love triangle plot between Zhou Xun, Kaneshiro and Cheung that parallels the actors' lives. Their jealousy, hatred and passion ignited by memories of the past collide and culminate through the intervention of a seasoned muse or a modern-day Cupid, who shares their joy and sorrow.

It begins when a muse, Montage (Ji Jin-Hee), appears in Shanghai yearning to taste genuine human emotions and puts himself out as a beacon for lost souls.

Famed actor Lin Jian Dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro), the star in a new musical helmed by renowned director, Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung) meets co-star Sun Na (Zhou Xun), who is an old flame from a decade ago. Sun is now in a relationship with Nie, who made her a star.

The production is about an amnesiac woman who forgets everything, even her lover, but saved from the streets by a generous circus owner. They fall in love. But when she recovers her memory, she finds herself torn between her past and present..

While Lin and Sun play the lead role, Nie also co-stars and plays the circus owner, unaware of his two stars' previous relationships. The memories of Lin and Sun come back to overwhelm them and the romance of their past is rekindled as the production of the musical progresses...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


THE CAST

DIRECTOR Peter Chan on his cast members, whom he picked not for their singing abilities but for their aura and physical resemblance to the characters he had in mind.

Takeshi Kaneshiro
"Takeshi plays an extreme character, a tormented soul, hurt in love 10 years ago. His character cannot close his eyes at night and gets hyper and does strange things. His life is an irony.

"I think Takeshi played the role to perfection. He brought a lot to the screen and he brought the character to life. Such a character, if not handled carefully could be ridiculous. But he really lived the role.

I didn’t even give him direction for some of the most emotional twists and turns in the movie. He developed the scenes himself.’’

Jacky Cheung
"He can sing and act and I can’t think of anyone else that could play that character, who together with Takeshi, make a triangular relationship with Zhou Xun.

"The fact that he is not that good looking but has a persona of a mature, good husband makes a girl difficult to leave him.

"Jacky is one of the best and is probably the most under-rated actor in Hong Kong."

Zhou Xun
"Zhou Xun makes you cry. She was not chosen because of her popularity because to be honest, I think no actress in China is really that popular to command the box office.

"The investor’s first choice was in fact to cast someone totally unknown but I couldn’t find anyone from about 1,000 I saw, besides Zhou Xun.

Ji Jin-Hee
"Although he only came on board later to replace the original person I had in mind (Andy Lau), I feel I could not find someone else to play the role of the muse better than Ji Jin Hee.

"With his mellow and reliable disposition, he balances the extreme characters of Takeshi and Zhou Xun and he fits this remote character perfectly."

Perhaps Love, funded by Astro Shaw (a subsidiary of Astro), with worldwide distribution by Celestial Pictures, will open in Malaysian cinemas on Dec 8, 2005.

source: Malay Mail Online
thanks to daomisyel of tsinoy.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/takeshi_phils

[jean]

LOL...Just feel free to use what you like. I thought it looked familiar...haha.

[Mercedes]

Here is an article I found when I went to a Japanese Takeshi site.
Mercedes

Entertainment News »




Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 06 December 2005 1433 hrs

Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro not interested in spotlight anymore
By Jeanine Tan, TODAY






So young and so handsome, yet he cooped himself up in his hotel room like a recluse when he wasn’t needed for the day’s filming.

That was how director Peter Chan described Takeshi Kaneshiro, the star of his new film Perhaps Love, during a press conference yesterday.

Chan, Kaneshiro and Chinese actress Zhou Xun were in town to promote the film, which opens here on Thursday. The way Chan talked about his leading man made Kaneshiro, 31, seem like a bit of a curious character.

While he took his director’s comments with good humour, his retort was half-hearted.

“It’s because I make fewer appearances so people say I’m reclusive. I do go out when all of you are filming, only it’s a little less often than everyone else,” he said.

“When I’m in my room, I fill the bathtub with water and submerge myself to practise for the underwater scene in the film,” he said with a laugh.

But the ribbing about the actor’s supposed eccentricities did not stop there. Chan praised Kaneshiro, saying he was impressed with the actor’s emotive portrayal of a heartbroken lover, but added with a laugh that he didn’t think someone so handsome could have had his heart broken.

And it was here that Kaneshiro made this surprising proclamation: “It’s no use being handsome.”

For someone blessed with such flawless features to say something like that smacks of irony. But in the evolution of his decade-long career, which has included making movies in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, Kaneshiro has steered clear of typecasting, even if he hasn’t gone so far as to downplay his looks.

As a 15-year-old studying at the Taipei American School, Kaneshiro — the son of a Japanese businessman father and Taiwanese homemaker mother — launched his career as a slickly packaged teen idol.

He wasn’t much of a singer, yet he released his fair share of albums. He wasn’t a polished actor either, but he still managed to make a name for himself in Hong Kong films.

The toothy grin that characterised those early days of stardom is flashed less often now. He has since remade himself into a serious actor who seems to have eccentric taste in movie projects. These days, his image is more brooding than cute — and if media reports are to be believed, the man is occasionally more temperamental than congenial.

But in an interview after the press conference, Kaneshiro was, thankfully, in a good mood. While famously defensive about his personal life, he was fairly candid in his responses. When his overly protective publicists leapt into action whenever a personal question cropped up, he would wave them off.

“Appearances aren’t important to me. Looks are a factor if you’re a model, an actor or a singer, because you are presenting yourself to an audience. But in real life, the way you interact with people has little to do with how you look,” he said.

“When it comes to work, your looks get you noticed but it’s the other things that determine whether you progress beyond that stage.”

Kaneshiro has certainly progressed far beyond the stage when he was known primarily as a pretty face, but he does not deny how he got his start.

“In the beginning, it was easy to be typecast as a pretty face. But even pretty faces have their role in a film and you do learn a lot even if you’re only in a film as a pretty face.”

“My looks came from my parents and I can only say I’m blessed. A lot of people look good and everyone has different tastes so there’s no saying who is the most handsome.”

He also spoke about his so-called mysterious nature. His singing career ended long ago and, in recent years, he has made an average of just one film a year.

As his official public appearances have become increasingly rare, one would think the paparazzi would try harder to dig up details about his personal life. But if they have tried, they haven’t been too successful.

“I’ve stopped being in the limelight so much that people think I’m mysterious. I don’t see the point in attending events. I’ve always been an introvert and I don’t like to be in crowded places.

“Whenever I’m out in Taiwan or Hong Kong, people tend to be very friendly when they see me. This makes it awkward for my friends and family, so they would rather not go out with me.”

Nonetheless, there were reports recently that Kaneshiro was spotted with another man on a hotel balcony at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

While he did not refer explicitly to that incident, he said: “People can say whatever they want, I’ll only be unhappy for awhile. Then I’ll think: They’re really clever to be able to write something like that. It’s not something that you can do anything about.

“Not being in the public eye actually helps my films a lot. The less news about your personal life there is out there, the more people are able to take you seriously in the roles you play.”

It’s hard to imagine a pretty face saying that. Those seem like the words of a serious actor.

“Of course, I’ve changed. No matter whether I work with a famous director or a little-known director, everything is an experience.

Even if you have the best director, cast and script, that doesn’t mean the film will be the best film ever. Working with so many people over the years, I’ve l e a r n e d quite a lot.”

TODAY /ra

[Mercedes]

Here ia another article. It takes a very negative view of Takeshi but I think it says a lot about the reporters. They were trying to get personal information out of him that he did not want to give. I would react negatively to an attitude like that.
Mercedes
I apologize if the format of the articles is too long. I tried to compress it.

The moody prince

By Mak Mun San
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 2005-12-06



Looks aren't everything, of course, but when that person is the almost perfectly formed actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, then looks are definitely worth every precious inch of editorial space.
Sadly, though, looks are the only reason newspapers would want to feature the Japan-based actor. For no other celebrity could possibly grant a more painful, boring, tedious interview, and yet get away with a cover story devoted solely to His Gorgeous Highness.
Despite -- or maybe because of -- his revulsion to interviews and the media in general, Kaneshiro remains one of Asia's biggest superstars, albeit a very reluctant one.
The last time he gave press interviews here was in 2003 to plug his movie Turn Left, Turn Right. Then, he was cold, elusive and irritable when he met Life! in an interview.
His uncooperative manner prompted correspondent Teo Pau Lin to liken the chat to a "painful leopard-crawl through a minefield".
It was deja vu all over again when Kaneshiro, 32, came to town on Monday to promote the new Peter Chan Mandarin musical movie, Perhaps Love.
This is the 34th movie in a career that has seen the son of a Japanese businessman and a Taiwanese housewife go from being a singer called Aniki Jin to acting mostly romantic roles. Besides his brooding good looks, his low, rumbling voice sends teenage girls into raptures.
When he was 15, he was recruited by a Taipei artiste management company to be a pop idol. But it was two years later before he appeared in his first soft drinks TV commercial.
Eva Yao, his long-time manager, told Time Asia magazine in 2003: "It took us two years to make him realise what he needed to do to be a pop star. I would have to explain a lot of things to make him understand why he couldn't smoke or why he had to cooperate."
He has clearly forgotten his early training.
Like in the last interview, the first thing you see at the interview is his back.
He stands gazing out of the window of an Oriental Hotel suite, MTV-style, seemingly deep in thought. He is tall and broad shouldered. It is a sight to set any fan's heart a-flutter.
But then, he suddenly raises his right hand and bangs repeatedly on the full-length glass panel.
This unexpected action is eerily reminiscent of a trapped animal yearning to escape from its cage.
It takes him a few seconds before he realises he is not alone in the room.
He tears himself away from the window, draws the curtain and sits down at the swivel chair at one end of the conference table.
He offers no handshake, just a faint smile and an almost indiscernible tilt of the head to acknowledge your presence.
His thick mop of hair is snipped fashionably with a neat fringe hovering nicely just above his bushy eyebrows. And then there are those trademark sideburns.
In his V-neck white T-shirt, black leather jacket and a pair of torn jeans, he looks every bit as beautiful as his movie self.
He would have scored 10 out of 10 if this publicity call to Singapore was based just on that, looks.
After all, his performance during an earlier press conference, held together with Chan, actress Zhou Xun and producer Andre Morgan, was close to perfect.
In front of more than 100 reporters from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, he oozed charm and fielded questions in Mandarin obligingly.
But our interview got off on the wrong footing when the Lianhe Zaobao reporter ignored repeated warnings from his minders earlier and asks him a personal question on the first try.
During the press conference, Kaneshiro had said that he could play the lead character Lin Jiandong, who is tortured by lost love for 10 years, because he has also been jilted before.
How many times has he been jilted in his life, asks the Zaobao reporter. There is no reply, just a non-commital "Oh".
The reporter does not give up. "This is very important," she says in a pleading voice.
"It's not important," he retorts with a chortle, "why would this be important?"
Then, he leans forward and challenges in a displeased tone: "What is the point of this question?"
It is the cue for his minder to jump in and remind us that only questions related to the movie will be entertained.
End of discussion.
The rest of the 12-minute conversation is largely painful, with him dishing out half-hearted, colourless quotes and us trying to pry into his jealously guarded inner sanctum by pretending to discuss his languid thoughts about the movie.
For example, when you ask if he thinks he can sing, he pauses, then says: "I don't think I sing very well."
You know you have failed in your nightmare assignment when the only snippets with an ounce of news value are that he also goes to karaoke lounges to sing sometimes, and that Hong Kong singer-actor Jacky Cheung, who is his co-star in Perhaps Love, is his idol.
He has an annoying habit of responding to your questions by repeating certain keywords in a disdainful voice, or smiling in a sneering way, or both.
Like when you ask if he thinks there is anything worth indulging 10 years of one's life, he pauses for a full five seconds before repeating "zhide?", which is Mandarin for worth.
"Everything is worth it, isn't it?" he mutters.
Then, he launches into a lengthy yet boring reply about why people indulge in things, before concluding: "So I guess for me, the only thing I've been indulging in this past 10 years is making movies. That's all."
Ironically, the most fascinating insight to the real Kaneshiro comes courtesy of someone else - Chan, who drew laughter at the press conference when he says he finds the dreamboat "very weird".
"He is so young and handsome. Why would he want to hole himself up in the room all the time? I really don't know what he is doing in there," says the director.
He goes on to reveal that there was once when Kaneshiro hid in his hotel room for a week when he was not needed at the movie set.
To this, the actor explains: "I was preparing for my role by submerging my face in the bathtub." There is a scene in the movie where he cries while floating in a swimming pool.
"I disliked crowds even before I became a star. Now, my family members and friends don't like to go out with me. They'll say, 'Let's stay at home instead'," he says.
"Actually, I do go out when I'm in the United States."
Then, Chan teasingly comments that he finds it hard to believe that someone as handsome as Kaneshiro can understand the pain of being out of love.
That was when the heart-throb claims he has been jilted before, too.
"What's the use of being handsome?" he muses loudly.
Indeed.

[lisab]

Well, it's their job to try to get something personal and titillating out of him. No wonder they don't like him. He doesn't want to live in the public eye. They're at cross purposes---it's like a war!

[tatiana]

" Actually I do go out when I'm in the United States"

Well, I think that Takeshi needs to come back to the US.... obviously!!

[tania]

I can't believe how rude Mak Mun San from "The Straits Times" is! Thanks for posting the article Mercedes! Some reporters are so unprofessional!! I would respond like Takeshi as well if I don't want to answer personal questions. I think Takeshi is very humble, he never boast about his gorgeous looks, he is nice to fellow actors and actresses and directors etc, he is professional and does his job REALLY WELL, he answers questions in relation to the movies and his career. Can't they respect his privacy? He gives honest answers and is down to earth, he doesn't make answers up, but he just want the reporters and paparazzis to leave his personal life out, and they have been warned prior to the interview NOT to ask him any personal questions! So, this reporter is asking for trouble! I think Takeshi is very obliging and polite already! He asks the reporter " what's the point of the question?" (when asked if he has been jilted before), really why is this question important? I think Takeshi handled the question very gracefully and tactfully! Who's business is that? They want to find dirt or gossips on him, so they keep probing, but in vain, so to make things up and make the interview more "interesting" they have to find fault and call him "the moody prince". How unprofessional is that? He does go out, he just want to go out as himself eg when he is in USA! A lot of celebrities are really rude eg hit reporters, swear at them...Takeshi is nothing like this!!!Even if Takeshi doesn't like to go out, what's wrong with that? They have to "find bones in an egg" (a chinese saying, meaning finding fault out of perfection). Well, I am sure Takeshi's fans won't believe in this reporter, if anything this will make us love him more and hate the reporter.

[kimiko]

Big budget films go head to head -
:
Taipei Times (Taiwan)
December 23, 2005
Author: Ho Yi; STAFF REPORTER
Estimated printed pages: 3

Two Chinese-language films, both contenders for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar next year, are slated to battle for local audiences this weekend.

Chen Kaige's fantasy epic The Promise packs a martial arts punch, whereas Perhaps Love by Hong Kong director Peter Ho-Sun Chan is the first grandiose Chinese musical for 30 years and looks set to elevate the romance genre from the status of vignette to a theater of magnificence.

Both films not only had gigantic budgets, star-studded casts and A-list production teams, but they also deal with a common subject matter: a love triangle and a celestial stepping in to the story to navigate the courses of the characters' lives.

Having the biggest production budget (NT$1.3 billion) of any Chinese-language movie to date and taking three years to complete, The Promise is a blockbuster and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

Set in ancient China, the film revolves around a love triangle between a princess (Cecilia Cheung), a general of the Crimson Army (Japanese veteran actor Hiroyuki Sanada), and his slave Kunlun (Korea's Jang Dong Gun).

Cursed by a goddess when little, the princess is given ultimate beauty and wealth but is destined not to experience true love until time can flow backwards and the dead can come back to live.

Destiny is the driving force throughout the story and leads the characters to a grand finale in which the slave, who can run faster than light, uses his extraordinary power to break the princess' curse.

With heavy special effects, the film is a show of exquisite cinematography combined with a conventional storyline and sometimes geeky dialogue that occasionally draws unintended laughs from the audience.

The characters, though not fully developed, beguile with their narrative simplicity. Both Hiroyuki Sanada and Jang Dong Gun give tasteful performances when delivering lines in Mandarin. Nicholas Tse succeeds in giving a rather camp portrayal of the chief villain.

Stylish and flashy, the film is an astounding visual spectacle which offers a delightful viewing experience for moviegoers who enjoy a simple plot and impressive action scenes.

Perhaps Love is a return to director Chan's favorite subject: love. It's a love triangle wrapped in a movie within a movie.

Hong Kong actor Lin Jian-dong (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro ) arrives in Shanghai to star in a musical by director Nie Wen (played by Jacky Cheung ) and finds out the film's leading lady Sun Na (played by Zhou Xun ) was his puppy love in Beijing a decade previously. His reignited passion meets the indifference of the actress who just wants to leave history in the past.

The story journeys back to Beijing ten years earlier when Lin and Sun first met and fell in love. Poor and down-on-her-luck, Sun leaves Lin for Nie who can help her on the way to fame and fortune.

Unaware of their past relationship, Nie tries to reclaim his diminishing fame through taking a part in a musical about a love triangle which mirrors the characters' real life situation.

As Lin and Sun's old love is rekindled, the fictional and the real inextricably intertwine and push Nie to reflect on what's happening.

The film also has its fair share of fantasy elements.

A character named Monty (played by Korean actor Ji Jin-hee) narrates the film. Longing for genuine human emotion, Monty pops up in a number of disguises throughout the movie to guide the characters and help them rediscover the emotions and memories they have long forgotten or denied existed.

With the help of Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan, whose works include Monsoon Wedding (2001) and Vanity Fair (2004), the musical sequences are delightful to watch. Jacky Cheung proves himself to be a rare actor whose rich vocals lend him charisma in the musical numbers.

The cinematography is worth a mention as award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) created the Shanghai scenes which contrast starkly with the bleak Beijing scenes created by internationally acclaimed Christopher Doyle.

Chan's 1996 classic Comrade, Almost a Love Story earned him a reputation as he was able to bring to life the myriad emotions that constitute love.

As Chan stressed, Perhaps Love is not a conventional musical where actors break into songs. It's foremost a love story that encompasses multitude aspects of love and relationships.

Perhaps Love is not your usual musical that fosters warm and sweet feelings. It depicts a more realistic portrait of love composed of desire, affection, sacrifice, selfishness, hatred and all the disturbing and alluring emotions that it is.
Copyright, 2005, Taipei Times