And because Chan has the biggest boner for the Chinese government, it's a historic epic that will coincide with the centennial of the Wuchang Uprising, when Sun Yat-sen's forces overthrew the Qing Dynasty and founded the Republic of China. Called 1911, it will be released simultaneously in China and the U.S. in October.
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Considering how its release over here was panned as one of China's worst movies that year, I hope American audiences don't go into this thinking it'll be the next House of Flying Daggers or Hero. Say what you will about the quality of those movies, but at least they were entertaining. more ›

It may still be six days until the 34th anniversary of the Tangshan Earthquake, believed to be the largest earthquake disaster of the 20th century, but Aftershock, the movie based on the tragedy, opens today to the public. more ›

Following in Kevin Spacey, Pierce Brosnan is now set to act in a Sino-American collaboration called Double Lives. more ›

Despite generally middling to low reviews for its latest film, the team behind New York, I Love You and Paris Je t'aime is now allegedly bringing its romantic short story collection making antics to Shanghai. Shanghai, I Love You (maybe Shanghai, wo ai ni?) will supposedly start shooting in October and details will be announced around April, says City Weekend. We're curious about the love stories they'll feature - and desperately hoping this one will be closer in kind to Paris than New York. more ›

Ever since the China Media Group's uber-unpopular decision to pull out uber-popular Avatar from 2D screens for Confucius, there have been multiple rumblings about the philosophical implications of Chinese audiences abandoning the centuries-old sage for blue-skinned aliens. While we won't completely dismiss the "Avatar = nailhouse troubles" argument, based on our recent viewing of Confucius, we think there's a much simpler reason people are avoiding it: It sucks. more ›

This season's much watch holiday movie, Bodyguards and Assassins is a highly anticipated action drama and studded with almost as many stars as Founding of the Republic. But this debut film of Cinema Popular, a collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland filmmakers, is not your typical kung fu flick. more ›

• China's internet 'spin doctors' [BBC] China is using an increasing number of paid "internet commentators" in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news - and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion.
• Why Western Media Mistakes Matter [ChinaGeeks] Every time we post something critical of a story in the Western media — which, for the record, isn’t that often, about 20 posts of our total 197 — this question gets asked. Yesterday it was commenter Hemulen, who phrased it thusly: "I don’t understand why you spend so much time criticizing Western media for not getting everything exactly right and being 100 per cent accurate." It’s a valid question, or at least, one to which the answer might not be readily apparent. After all, the Chinese media routinely commits graver ethical sins as a matter of policy. Shouldn’t we be going after them, instead?
• HIV prostitute' blog hoax zooms on cyber-privacy [China Daily] "A blog that falsely proclaimed that a Hebei province woman is HIV positive was a hoax by an ex-boyfriend intent upon revenge - and a case study into the debate about people's right of privacy in cyberspace. The woman, Yan Deli, a native in Hebei province, tested negative for HIV/AIDS Monday by the local disease control center. Police of Rongcheng county in Hebei province said the blog with indecent photos and words was written by Yan's ex-lover surnamed Yang, in a bid to get revenge on Yan. Yan met Yang in Beijing."

Today was the opening of "建国大业," which seems to have changed its English-language name at some point from "The Great Cause of China's Foundation" to the less bumbling, but also less fun title of "The Founding of a Republic." The movie began showing on theaters everywhere at 2pm today, according to Sina. more ›

Youku Buzz says that Chinese netizens dubbed it "the biggest paean pic all time". They also said the movie's director, Han Sanping, told reporters that nobody cared what the international market thinks of the film and even stated that foreigners probably wouldn't like it in the same way that Chinese people don't care about American Civil War epics. more ›

A lot of us are led to believe that when it comes to choosing which movies to watch, the Chinese are fond of copying their American counterparts. However, after looking at the current top five movies at the Chinese box office, we think maybe the Chinese aren't getting the best of the West (or East): more ›