Some radical moviegoers have said that various directors, ranging from Zhang Yimou to Chen Kaige to Feng Xiaogang to Stephen Chow, all failed their audiences, despite huge investments and fair box office returns. But young Chinese movie fans nurtured primarily on Hollywood productions have had a few good laughs watching the adventures of the Kung Fu Panda. John Woo went on trial but thankfully he had some successful Hollywood directing experience, his fans said.
John Woo delivers a speech during the banquet.
John Woo said at Wednesday's press conference that Red Cliff is an inspiring film that truly displays the virtues and values of humans, including solidarity, courage and wisdom.
At the Tuesday night charity banquet, China.org.cn reporters watched as John Woo, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Hu Jun, and Taiwan model-turned-actress Lin Chiling walked on the red carpet. During the event they all expressed their hope that the quake-affected Sichuan victims would step out of the shadow of grief and rebuild their homes as quickly as possible.
Loads of artists, including Jet Li, went to Sichuan to personally visit earthquake victims. But as everyone knows, everything a celebrity does always has mixed interpretations.
This time was no exception: initially in Chinese cyber-space, fans adored their idols, but then others argued that the stars were just doing charity work to promote themselves, and that sometimes celebrity presence could even halt or disturb rescue efforts. Ironically, some even mentioned Sharon Stone as evidence: she was doing charity work for AIDS prevention until her controversial "karma" statement on Chinese earthquake and the unfortunate deaths was picked up by the world press.
At the same time, media outlets made a donation list to showcase how much money the stars had given back to society and their supporters at this critical moment. Yao Ming and Andy Lau became embroiled in controversy when their initial donations were not as large as people expected. But at least they helped to ease the suffering of many hearts.
A brand new trailer of Red Cliff
The Red Cliff charity event was co-sponsored by the film staff, Swiss watchmaker DeWitt and Jet Li's One Foundation. The collected 1 million yuan was donated to the One Foundation for Sichuan post-quake revival.
Jet Li founded the One Foundation, an affiliated charity listed under the Red Cross Society of China in 2007. He pledged immediately after the earthquake struck to decline all movie projects in 2008 in order to focus on charity work the entire year.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is by far the final appearance of Jet Li. It will be shown in China as early as August 1.
Veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, successfully bid on a DeWitt, offering 360,000 yuan
Veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, successfully bid on a DeWitt, offering 360,000 yuan at the beginning of the banquet. He came on stage and said that he did this for his friend, Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Peter Lam, and dismissed the impression that he was planted to save the banquet from embarrassment.
After showing a documentary about the disaster relief efforts of the One Foundation, Jet Li stated that the One Foundation had launched a plan for post-quake reconstruction, and all donations would be utilized for that. He called on everyone to save one yuan per month to repair the house before it rains.
Together with Wang Shitao, an official from the Red Cross Society of China, Jet Li awarded a commemoration cup and a certificate of merit to the staff of Red Cliff and the DeWitt Company.
(China.org.cn July 3, 2008)
