Word: kwan
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...leader, Lee Kwan Yew, have managed to create a prosperous state, but at the cost of personal and civil liberty. Of course, there are many countries in Southeast Asia (such as Indonesia) that offer their citizens neither liberty nor prosperity. So few countries have managed the difficult transition from Third World poverty to modern prosperity that Singapore’s achievement—at whatever cost—seems remarkable, and perhaps even admirable...
...date. Now the jumble-toothed, shorts-wearing, former stage designer is setting his sights on winning viewers outside China. Last month, he wrapped up the shooting of a black comedy called Big Shot's Funeral, which stars China's Ge You (known for To Live), Hong Kong's Rosamund Kwan (Once Upon a Time in China) and Hollywood's gravel-voiced perennial Donald Sutherland. Backed by the might of Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Big Shot will try to do a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon without kung fu, swirling costumes or any of the standard chinoiserie?and on a measly...
...making road movies. Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan) and Jacob Cheung (Hong Kong) went to France; Cheung also touched down in Africa, as did Iran's Abbas Kiarostami. And although Hong Kong is now officially part of the People's Republic, a trip to Beijing (for Mabel Cheung and Stanley Kwan) or Suzhou (for Yonfan) can still be a journey into the exotic or forbidden unknown...
...Kwan's trek involved some political peril. He was on the mainland to make Lan Yu and I, based on a gay novel published pseudonymously on the Internet. Kwan, a specialist in soft-focus romantic doom (Rouge, Red Rose, White Rose), filmed in secret and without official clearance. The story, about city-man Handong (Hu Jun) and country-boy Lan Yu (Lu Yue), could be a ripe pile of clichE if not handled deftly, but the clarity of Kwan's view gives the affair a somber tang. "You probably don't know it, but I love you," Handong says toward...
...Though Cheung has directed an hour-long music drama and an all-star anti-smoking film, he will keep acting; he soon joins Anita Mui and Karen Mok in a Stanley Kwan film, and hopes to work with Zhang Yimou and the Crouching Tiger princess, Zhang Ziyi. Still, forever-young Leslie is having midlife doubts about his standing in post-'97 Hong Kong. "I've worked bloody hard for 20 years," he says passionately. "I was penniless, dying hard for my groceries. I can now live in a reasonably sized detached house. I'm still very strong in Japan...