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Bringing the house down
Zhang Yimou's new release A lavish extravaganza, broadcast to the nation live from Beijing, heralds the release of Zhang Yimou's latest film. It was the global premiere of Zhang Yimou's newest cinematic offering, "The House of Flying Daggers", and the evening had all the essentials of a glittering launch. True, high heels were sinking into the sodden red carpet to the entrance of the Beijing's Worker's Stadium that had been soaked in the sudden rainstorm - but still, celebs and plebs alike turned out, spirits undampened, to celebrate the grand master of Chinese cinema's latest release on July 10.
Before we go any further, however, one thing should be made clear: there was no film shown at the purported "global premiere". And showing the film was never on the schedule for that evening - and the official cinema release date was July 16. The extravaganza - said to have cost Y20 million, with no corporate sponsorship allowed to infringe on artistic purity - was instead a mass media party to celebrate what is expected to be the hottest release of the summer, from the director of classic Chinese movies such as Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, and The Road Home.
Not managing to catch the Y290 million film seemed to be fine with the audience, however. Tickets packaged in supposedly pirate-proof wooden cases cost between Y450 and Y1800, and although few people in the expensive seats seemed to have parted with the cold, hard cash, excitement levels were running high.
Beijing Television reports in the following week said that Zhang Yimou had done the impossible: learned how to actually make money from the media event, broadcast live around the nation - and managed to turn a profit on event.
Given that "The House of Flying Daggers" was not actually on show at the premiere, movie promoters chose instead to transport the audience into a mock-up of a portion of the film set whereon a line-up of stars including Andy Lau, Kelly Chan, S.H.E, Twelve Girls, Pu Shu, Han Hong, and even actress Zhang Ziyi serenaded the masses at the three-hour event; opera supreme Kathleen Battle was flown in to sing the title song in the grand finale of the event.
A small portion of the evening extravaganza was given over to a tribute to actor and singer Anita Mui, who pulled out of the film prior to shooting due to ill health; she died from cancer in December 2003. Devastated by her death, director Zhang insisted on cutting her role from the movie rather than recast. For this event, Andy Lau sang a duet of Mui's hit song The Moon Reflects my Heart (Yueliang daibiao wo de xin), singing along with her voice in a Nat King Cole/Nathalie Cole style duet.
What the premiere proved more than anything else, however, was that if you have the cash it's possible to do top-notch events in China. Zhang Yimou may have a reputation as being the Western arthouse cinema favorite, but he's got an eye for China's mass market too. So far, early reviews of the actual movie have been lukewarm - but only time will tell if it'll hit a sweet spot with moviegoers or not.
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