Books/Film Roundup: August 2009

What better place than the fantasyland of film to forge ties that ought to exist in reality? China’s cinema scene is blazing trails on several fronts these days, most notably with Taiwan and the United States. Recently, Culture Minister Cai Wu stated that China will permit Taiwan’s entertainment industry access to the mainland, meaning Taiwan-based companies will be allowed to both shoot and distribute their films here.

Director John Woo (The Killer, Face/Off) and his L.A.-based production company are teaming up with the China Film Group on a movie about the Flying Tigers, the American fighter pilots who trained the Chinese air force to fly against the Japanese in World War II (see photo, above).

There have been several previous attempts to make a Flying Tigers movie, but in a year that marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between China and the US, Woo’s film, to be shot in Yunnan, is the first to have gotten a green light from the government.

In local cinemas, this month’s noteworthy openings includes one for the kids – Pixar’s Up (Aug 4) – and one for the kids of the ’80s: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring Marlon Wayans and Dennis Quaid (Aug 7). On August 14, we get Sophie’s Revenge, a zany rom-com starring talented eye candy Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing, followed by State of Play, the government spy conspiracy flick starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck (Aug 18).

Books of all sorts are migrating towards Beijing as the city gears up for the Beijing International Book Fair. The fourth biggest fair of its kind in the world, the event is slated for Sep 5-6 … but more on that next month.

On July 12, Beijingers mourned the passing of one of the country’s greatest literary minds, Ji Xianlin. Premier Wen Jiabao called the Peking University scholar, who had been awarded the highest honors in literature by both China and India, “the symbol of the nation’s intellectual tradition,” and bookstores across the country have moved his works to front shelves in memoriam.

Ji is not the only venerable member of China’s literati in the headlines. In Lanzhou, the usually “scholarly and refined” Yan Zhengping, a 74-year-old retired literature professor, has “declared war” on unsafe drivers. After hearing that six pedestrians in six months had died from being run over, Yan traded his pen for a brick, stationed himself by a zebra crossing near his house, and began running after cars that ran red lights, smashing them with his brick of vigilante vengeance. So far, he has vandalized 30 cars. Mr. Yan, may I just say: You are my hero.