Movies

"The Banquet" news archive

11/08/05 - Below is a advertisement for The Banquet which ran in an industry publication, probably Variety. From the ad we learn that a promo reel for the film was shown last week at the American Film Market, an industry convention where the distribution rights to films are sold. Beside the ad is a new set picture showing director Feng Xiaogang, along with actor Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers) who was visiting the set.

11/04/05 - A few pictures from the set of The Banquet.  Ziyi does not appear in any of these but there are some nice shots of the costumes and of one of the sets. Thanks to Billie-Jean and Fanqiemeimei for these pics.

10/29/05 - From a press conference today comes the first picture of Zhang Ziyi as the Empress in Night Banquet,

Here are pictures from the press conference.  Artwork for the film's title, based on ancient Chinese script, can be seen in the back.

Ziyi at the conference

Below is a low-quality video with the first production footage from the film, and it appears from the clip that the English title they are using now is simply "The Banquet."  Alongside is a video of Ziyi at the press conference.

Banquet clips - 2 MB wmv	Press Conference - 7 MB wmv

Complete videos from the hour-long press conference can be found at Sina.

9/22/05 - Pictures from the set of Night Banquet, where a little ceremony was held to mark the start of filming on the Beijing set with the main cast (some outdoor scenes without the main cast were filmed earlier this month.)  In the background of these pictures you can see what I believe is the set of the Main Hall, where much of the film will take place.

Thanks to Fanqiemeimei for collecting these pictures.

09/13/05 - Night Banquet began filming last week in Inner Mongolia with outdoor scenes featuring large armies.  None of the main cast members was needed for the filming there.  Today, director Feng Xiaogang has returned to Beijing to begin filming indoor scenes with the main cast, and recently both he and the actors gave interviews to the media.

Below are pictures of the Main Hall, one of the 20 sets designer Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) made for the film. The first picture is a design sketch, the others are actual photos of the set.  At 180 meters long and 60 meters wide, it is by far the largest set ever built in Beijing (actually located in Xiaotangshan, just north of Beijing.) According to reports, the color scheme will be dark coffee with touches of burgundy and gold, under dark, atmospheric lighting.

Decorations, including a palace lantern.

And concept sketches of the Emperor, Empress, and Prince (played by Ge You, Zhang Ziyi, and Daniel Wu.) As you can see, Ziyi's costume will be similar to what she wore in the dance scenes of House of Flying Daggers.

Here is the plot of Night Banquet, with details taken from the various articles and interviews:

The Emperor (Ge You) usurped the throne by murdering the previous Emperor. He marries the Empress (Zhang Ziyi), wife of the previous Emperor and stepmother to the Crown Prince (Daniel Wu). At first the Empress seeks only to protect herself, but as the new Emperor grows suspicious of all those around him, she realizes that only by helping the Crown Prince kill the new Emperor can she hope to survive. Together with the Chief Minister (Ma Jingwu) she tries to carry out this plot. But when the Prince is wracked by indecision, she devises a new plan and seeks the throne for herself.

The Crown Prince was never interested in court politics and did not look forward to becoming emperor. He instead pursued a life of art. When he faces the need to kill the man who murdered his father and usurped the throne, he is torn between his desire for revenge and his instinct for peace. The daughter of the Minister, Qing Nü (Zhou Xun) to whom he is engaged loves him unreservedly, but as she watches him drift away into melancholy and confusion, she falls into unreasoning passion.

As all these plots move towards their climax, the emperor calls for a lavish royal banquet, where each will seek the end of their enemies.

Night Banquet differs from Hamlet in that it does not focus on the prince, but examines the feelings of each character. According to director Feng Xiaogang: "If Hamlet is about a prince who must make a choice involving life and death, then Night Banquet is about how each character must face a choice of life or death... All are motivated by desire, but as soon as they have begun their plans must grow more extreme, and they move step-by-step towards the abyss... They do not intend evil, but turn to it out of self-preservation and ever-growing ambition."

The Empress was originally to be the Prince's mother, rather than stepmother, but when Ziyi choose to take the role, they made the switch since she is too young to play a woman old enough to be Daniel Wu's mother.



Articles

Zhang Ziyi's Next Film: Night Banquet   - HelloZiyi.us, 7/20/05

First rumored a month ago and the subject of intense speculation in China for the past week, it is now officially confirmed that Zhang Ziyi's next film will be Night Banquet (Ye Yan), a loose adaptation of Hamlet by famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang.

Of the story, Monkeypeaches says "Night Banquet is set in an empire in chaos. The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Minister and the General all have their own enemies they would like to finish off at a night banquet" and he adds "Night Banquet is concerned with the emotion of desire and will protray the uncertainty of fate through fighting, dancing and story telling."

Ziyi will be playing the Empress. Her costars will be Daniel Wu as the Crown Prince, Zhou Xun as the Prince's lover, Ge You as the Emperor, and Ma Jingwu as the Minister.  The film is expected to have acrobatic fight and dance scenes reminiscent of House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Of  Zhou Xun's role it is said she will have an elaborate dance scene and will possibly sing as well.  Ziyi is also mentioned as possibly having a dance scene. It isn't clear if any of the actors will have an actual "leading role" or if this will be a true ensemble piece. [update: more recent reports unambiguously describe Zhang Ziyi as having the leading role, this has also been confirmed by her manager.]

Composer Tan Dun and Art Director Tim Yip, both of whom worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will lend their talents to the film. Famed action choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping, also of Crouching Tiger, will be the film's executive producer.

Reports say that Ziyi was approached with the script while at the Cannes Film Festival. While she was not planning to make any more films this year due to her tight schedule with Memoirs of a Geisha, after she read the script she decided she would accept their invatation to participate in the film.

The film is reported to have a $15 million budget and to begin shooting at the end of September.

07/20/05

Cast for 'Night Banquet' named - Shenzen Daily 7/21/05

THE long-awaited naming of the final cast for Feng Xiaogang's upcoming film, "Night Banquet," was announced Tuesday. Zhang Ziyi, Ge You, Zhou Xun, Daniel Wu , Huang Xiaoming and Ma Jingwu were selected as leading actors.

According to a source from the movie's investor, Beijing-based Huayi Brothers & Taihe Investment Company, contracts for the six leading roles had already been signed. Filming will begin in September in Beijing.

Described as a Chinese "Hamlet" featuring royal conflicts and revenge set in 10th century China, the US$15m film is to target both domestic and international markets — reflected in the casting, which took into consideration both Chinese and foreign tastes.

Zhang Ziyi, the most familiar Chinese face with worldwide audiences, will play the leading role of queen; her dominant presence in the movie is regarded as an engine for international box-office success. Sources close to the movie have said that Zhang was approached for the role as early as May this year, and immediately accepted the invitation after reading the film script.

Rumor has it the queen character in "Night Banquet" has a very weak and sentimental personality — which has fuelled public curiosity over how Zhang would handle the portrayal, as she is best-known for her performances as a strong-minded woman with deft martial arts skills, as in "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers."

Ge You, who is in almost all Feng's films, will play the emperor, a rare "ancient epic" part for Ge, who is better known for appearing in more contemporary film settings; although the actor's long-standing association with Feng is expected to pull in domestic audiences.

Hong Kong's Daniel Wu takes the role of prince, which will see him showing off in a lot of kung-fu scenes; the prince's plot-line counterpart, the son of the chief minister, will be acted by Huang Xiaoming; Veteran Chinese actor Ma Jingwu will be chief minister.

Zhou Xun is named as the prince's lover, a role which is expected to see her dance her socks off. A source with the production's investor expressed great confidence in Zhou, who recently showed she has outstanding dancing skills in "Perhaps Love" a musical by Hong Kong director Peter Chan.

Zhang and Zhou are two of Chinese mainland's "four filming queens" ["Four Famous Actresses"] a collective title in praise of their many star performances to date and wide box office appeal. The coming together of these two of the four "queens" in "Night Banquet" is a much anticipated cinematic-first, with audiences eager to compare how the two match up in dancing scenes, with Zhang also having made something of a name for herself as a dancer in a spectacularly choreographed scene in "House of Flying Daggers."

The other two "film queens" are actress-turned-director Xu Jinglei and "The Princess of Pearl" actress Zhao Wei.

(by Maggie Tang)

07/21/05

 

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