Free Planet Press

It's their loss as China director moves

Chinese film director Lou Ye has found himself banned from working in China -- so he’s plying his trade outside his homeland. The moviemaker showed Summer Palace at Cannes last year, despite it not having been officially approved, and was punished with a ban on working in China until 2011.
          So Shanghai-born Lou is making a film in the Middle East, based on the story of a man he met at a writers’ program in Iowa, in the United States.
            The tale: Ahmad, a Palestinian, is released after a decade in an Israel prison, and returns home to his wife Ameena. After waiting all those years for a reunion, they are horrified to discover that prison has left him impotent.
          Lou says that he is excited not just by the human drama of the story, but by the evocative locations: Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah. The working title is Ameena in Chinese, and The Last Hour in English.

Remake curse is lifted

THE REMAKE CURSE has been spectacularly defeated by The Departed, Martin Scorscece’s hard-hitting remake of a movie first made in Hong Kong.

Asian titles, Western movies

Asia gives bizarre new titles to Western movies. This pic shows Julia Roberts in "The Sparrow Becomes the Empress", better known as "Pretty Woman"

Quentin making Hong Kong movie

THE MATRIX was a Hong Kong movie, and Quentin Tarantino is Chinese, argues Lindy F.

Ninja Turtles back in Hong Kong

Best or worst Bond film?

The new James Bond stinks. The new James Bond is the best ever. Which is it? Two Bond fans, filmmaker Ced Chan and author Nury Vittachi duke it out.