EastSouthWestNorth has uncovered Zhao Bandi (赵半狄), the man behind the Kung Fu Panda protest, as an unabashed panda lover and a fashion designer who has a line inspired by the national treasure. Check out the images from Zhao's fashion show below. Apparently he got China's internet celeb numero uno Furong Jiejie (芙蓉姐姐) to model for him and that one picture of her is priceless:......

On the list of things that seriously really piss us off children’s movies, Americanized kung fu and animated pandas don’t exactly play a starring role. In fact, it’s probably fair to say they don’t even make a cameo. Unfortunately for artist Zhao Bandi (赵半狄), all these things seem to be at the top of his list, and all these things are clearly evident in DreamWorks’ new film Kung Fu Panda. To display his righteous outrage,......

As previously mentioned, Shanghai's 11th annual International Film Festival kicked off this weekend (albeit not too smoothly) with an eclectic mix of movies showing all day and night at its 23 theaters. In a place like China that receives so small a selection of international features, this is an incredible opportunity to see works you otherwise wouldn't have a chance to catch in a theater. We only made it to two screenings, but both......

Left: American Gangster trailer; Right: Across the Universe trailer The 11th Shanghai International Film Festival had a rocky start on Saturday, when the opening film, Olympic Dreamers, failed to arrive, leaving confused media stranded in the rain after an unusually brief opening ceremony. Critics from around the world have noted that the event has less energy this year, a change from a decade-long trend of increasing prestige. Chinese organizers point to the earthquake as......

By Sue Anne Tay The screening schedule for the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, running from June 14 to 22, is out and categorized by the cinemas that are screening the movies. You can get your tickets at the 23 cinemas participating in the Film Festival or book tickets through East Tickets 东方票务at 962388 (website). The (confirmed) prices of the tickets range from 40, 50 and 60 RMB, but the one tricky logistic is that......

By Sue Anne Tay Tickets for the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, which will be held from June 14 to 22, are reportedly on sale at 23 appointed star-graded cinemas across the city. Alternatively, you can call East Tickets 东方票务at 962388(24H) or visit their website to book tickets. The ticketing company says the full screening schedule will be released online in a day or so, and tickets will range from RMB30, RMB40 to RMB60. Some......

Tonight is the first public screening in Shanghai for Boomtown Beijing, a documentary by Singaporean filmmaker Tan Siok Siok which debuted in April at the 21st Singapore International Film Festival. The production is a very commendable effort by Tan and her students at the Beijing Film Academy which she got to know as a visiting lecturer there. In the film, she follows the Olympic dreams of three ordinary Beijingers. A 11 year old boy wants......

From Panthea Lee and Dan Shemie, two very tired organizers of Shanghai's Pangea Day movie marathon that wrapped up not too long ago: So after weeks of plotting, scheming and ceaseless fretting, our Friends of Pangea Day event in Shanghai has gone off without a hitch. For those unfamiliar with the situation, a brief explanation: the Chinese government has launched a serious crackdown on cultural events in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. Case in......

By Jay Caplan How often can you encourage world peace by kicking back and watching movies? Pangea Day Shanghai is your chance: a 12-hour movie marathon of short and feature length offerings from local filmmakers, culminating with a 4-hour global simulcast of 24 international short films. In 2006 filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won a TED Prize: $100,000, and one wish. Noujaim wanted peace, and believed mutual understanding the key to achieving it. Save for travel, film......

“That’s the coolest thing I‘ve ever seen.”Academy Award-nominated actor Terrence Howard in Iron Man Maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but it’s hard to argue that Iron Man is the best English-language film to hit Chinese theaters in a very very long time. And as far as the comic book movie genre is concerned, this may be one of the best offerings to date. The Iron Man movie more or less follows the story......

Chinese reports have been saying that around May 1, Google China unveiled its Onebox search function, which allows you to find movies and movie times. If you've used Google in the US, you are probably familiar with this function, it's the thing that sits atop the regular search results, as you can see in the pictures. The main key words are the movie, the name of the theater, and the city that you live in.......

This self-orientalizing piece of crap has a few good moments. Since they are few and far between, we'll just tell you what they are. Li Bing Bing plays the white-haired witch, and has the best lines in the movie, like "all men are liars" (this line rendered in Chinese, as 天下男人都是騙子), and, as a retort to Liu Yifei's "I should have killed you, witch" Li Bingbing says something like "I'll kill you first, bitch!". We......

Shanghaiist spotted John Cusack at Bar Rouge on Friday. Ensconced in the bathroom-sized VIP room on the club's terrace and guarded by a bevy of beefy bodyguards, Cusack was playing with his phone and appeared both tired and bored (who recommended BR anyway?). Doing the rounds of Shanghai nightspots, he was spotted at MAO the night before until the wee hours. The American actor of High Fidelity fame, is presently in town shooting Shanghai, a......

We are truly blessed by the availability of such a wide selection of affordable bootleg DVDs from around the world. With so many to choose from, though, it's easy to get a little carried away and more often than is probably wise, we find ourselves selecting titles that are ill-advised at the offset. But hey, it's only 7 RMB*, why not? For variety's sake and to satisfy those dark cravings, we often prefer picking up......

Ang Lee, in a recent trip to Vancouver BC, talks with the mayor and Vancouverites about a proposed bill that would deny tax money to filmmakers whose content does not reflect Canadian values. On a recent trip to LA, Lee was asked about how new "President" Ma Yingjiu (馬英九）of that province which has been, is, and always will be part of China, will affect the movie bidness there, to which he replied that this is......

We saw this movie in the theater, in Paris, which it seems is one of the only places where this movie could be seen on the big screen other than at film festivals. The film is actually from a few years back, but was never shown in China, and while we think there are probably DVDs floating around, we can't say that we've seen any of them. The film is about a down and out......

Shanghai filmmaker Shu Haolun (舒浩仑） made a name for himself a few years back with his personal documentary Nostalgia 《乡愁》, an exploration of the nong tangs where he grew up and which are slated for destruction. He's just come out with a new film, a 20 minute fiction film called Young Blood 《少年血》, that also explores 1980s Shanghai life, telling the story of young teenage love. There was a screening last month (sorry to be......

Wong Kar-wai is celebrating the opening of his shit movie My Blueberry Nights in the US this Friday by selling some merchandise — most notably, $95 t-shirts, $50 posters, and $25 postcards. And if you want to thank him for ripping you off in person, you'll get your chance in New York at a fashion boutique store called Opening Ceremony, where Wong is going to be on Wednesday afternoon. We hope that someone tells him......

We can see it now. Fast-forward to 2010. An ancient Tibetan god called Gozer arrives atop an apartment building near Xintiandi in Shanghai, where it tells the neighborhood's restaurateurs that the next thing they think of will be the form Gozer will assume to destroy their world. Despite their efforts to clear their minds, Bob Boyce imagines Haibao, the irksome mascot of the 2010 World Expo. As he explains, Haibao "just popped in there" as......

From Slate V: In Slate V's ongoing effort to bring you the worst in world cinema, our bad-movies curator, Mark Jordan Legan, has a sampling of good vs. evil epics from China, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The China entry is actually from pre-handover Hong Kong, but wow — it sure is crappy. File these films (can we use that word here?) under the so-bad-they-are-good category. We think we might like the Filipino one the best,......

Do films with titles like "Feathers of Dongtan" and "Sounds. Breaths" give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there's still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. "Vision Shanghai", like "Vision Beijing," is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length......

'The Easter Bunny Hates You' from Black20.com The Easter Bunny, skipping along with its little basket of Easter eggs and floppy ears, is really cute right? Wrong. Sure, for one day of the year this fairy-tale creature might be an adorable chocolate-distributing fluffy friend, but for the other 364 days it's an absolute animal. Like the video? See how it all started after the jump.......

From Current TV:This is the story of an ordinary Chinese fishing community, living on a beautiful island, discovered by the Chinese media and transformed into a tourist hot zone. This is a side of China not usually shown in the West. More from Shanghai-based Daedalum Films.......

From taiande of Current TV: What happens when Texas Holdem Poker, the "gambler's game," is introduced to the world's most populous and heavy wagering nation? We explore this question beginning in Shanghai, the epicenter of mainland China's fast growing poker scene. More from Shanghai-based Daedalum Films.......

The idea is simple: get five internationally reknowned directors to make short, impressionistic films about Beijing, showing the people of Beijing in their everyday lives and as they prepare for the Olympics—and in the kindest light possible. The five filmmakers were: Patrice Leconte (France), Andrew Lau (Hong Kong/China), Majid Majidi (Iran), Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy), and Daryl Goodrich (UK). You can find a rundown of each film's style and content as well as a link to......

Of how many movies of late, or any time, can you say that "it took courage to make this film"? Summer Palace (颐和园), can be safely said to be one of those films. We've been seeing copies of it around the stores and snapped one up, but didn't get around to watching it until now. This is the only honest piece of Chinese filmmaking we've seen in a long time. Get a copy of it......

Worst. Wong Kar-wai movie. Ever. Wong Kar-wai movies used to be mini-events in our lives, so we were probably more disappointed than the average viewer. It's hard to believe that My Blueberry Nights (MBN) was made by the same guy who made a gem of a road movie about ten years ago, Happy Together (HT). Both are road movies about lonely souls and wayward lovers, so it's hard not compare the two, but unfortunately,......

Photo from Why Democracy If you think Chinese children can't get any more obnoxious, go watch Please Vote for Me (via YouTube in five parts - p1, p2, p3, p4 and p5), an award-winning indie documentary and pay special attention to Cheng Cheng, the pudgy kid who is one of the three students running for the position of class monitor. He then gets increasingly irksome as he sabotages fellow elects and manipulates his classmates......

It’s cold, it’s wet. It’s the perfect time to catch up with the overseas movie scene. Coincidentally, it’s Oscar season and a whole slew of ‘good’ films are just appearing in the shops here. A widely heralded good year for quality films (2007) has come face to face with the WGA writer’s strike, now into its third month in Hollywood. The Golden Globes were reduced to an hour long press conference announcing the winners. If......

So the movie did finally get made after all. Last Thursday evening at the Paramount was the premiere of Milk & Fashion, touted as the first film to feature "non-Asian actors speaking Chinese in lead roles of a feature film for the first time ever". The crowd gathered as early as 7 pm to feast on the buffet. The room was packed with a diverse population of foreigners, Shanghainese ladies and numerous dubious characters. The......