[2016.06.12] THE SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OPENS

courtesy of singtao.com

Ruby Lin

Charmaine Sheh

Fan Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka Fai

Victoria Song

Ha Ji-Won, Chen Bo-Lin

Song Ji-Hyo

Jackie Chan and RAILROAD TIGERS team

Kris Wu, Liu Yifei

Daniel Wu, Zhang Jingchu
courtesy of mingpao.com

Daniel Wu does his homework and greets the crowd in Shanghai dialect

Nicholas Tse

Chow Yun Fat

Fan Bingbing

Tiffany Tang, Lee Min-Ho, Wallace Chung

Simon Yam, Aaron Kwok

Jackie Chan

Shu Qi

Jelly Lin

Huang Xiaoming , Angelababy

Karena Lam
courtesy of on.cc

The 19th Shanghai International Film Festival opened last night. Jackie Chan appeared to be in a great mood at the opening ceremony, aside from giving high fives to the fans, he also turned into "walking emojis" with "young fresh meat" like Darren Wong and Tao.

Jackie Chan first walked the red carpet with the Liu Tao starred new film ORDINARY PEOPLE. Jackie Chan also led RAILROAD TIGER's team including "young fresh meat" like Darren Wong and Tao on the red carpet, as the entire team turned into "walking emojis" and played cute.

At the opening ceremony, Huang Xiaoming shared his film experience. He said that this year was the 100th birthday of film masters Huang Zuolin and Sang Hu. He too had ambitions and hoped that his films would be like these masters' and passed on for generation after generation. He mentioned that his recent film XUANZANG and said that he sympathized with Xuanzang's loneliness because every filmmaker was questioned and not understood like Xuanzang; but also because of past perseverance they were able to receive the audience's recognition and encouragement.

Famous director Ang Lee also attended the opening ceremony and unveiled the Golden Goblet Award competition nominees. This year 2,403 films around 114 nations and regions applied for the competition and reached a new record high. Finally, 14 films qualified for the Golden Goblet Award competition. Cao Baopin's COCK AND BULL, Liu Jie's DE LAN, and Zhang Yang's SOUL ON A STRING will represent the "Chinese contingent" in the Golden Goblet competition.

The Golden Goblet jury president is the famous Serbian director Emir Kusturica. Other jury members included Canadian director Atom Egoyan, Hong Kong actress Karena Lam Ka Yun, Italian director Daniele Luchetti, Chinese director and screenwriter Pema Tseden, Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako and Chinese American writer and screenwriter Yan Geling.

The Best Actors Tony Leung Ka Fai, Aaron Kwok Fu Sing and Chow Yun Fat starred COLD WAR 2 has been selected to be the officially opening film. The closing film will be Mainland director Sherwood Hu's LORD OF SHANGHAI.

Three film productions that appeared on the Shanghai International Film Festival red carpet had heavyweight casts with Huang Xiaoming and his wife Angelababy, Jet Li (Lee Nin Kit), Fan Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Kris Wu Yifan, Lee Min-Ho from films LEAGUE OF GODS (FUNG SUN JUEN KEI), L.O.R.D: LEGEND OF RAVAGING DYNASTIES and BOUNTY HUNTER (SEUNG GUM LIP YUN). Some Hong Kong and Taiwan stars greeted the crowd in Shanghai dialect on the red carpet.

Huang Xiaoming joked that because he was "er", in LEAGUE OF GODS he would play Erlang Shen. Jacky Heung Jor then said that he was very "thunderous" and thus was assigned to play "Leizhenzi".

The Chinese Korean co-production BOUNTY HUNTER was the film festival's Jackie Chan Action Film Week opening film. Korean hunk Lee Min-Ho, director Terra Shin, producer Raymond Wong Pak Ming and other actors Wallace Chung Han Leung, Tiffany Tang Yan, Karena Ng Chin Yu and Jeremy Xu (Tsui Chi Hei) appeared on the red carpet together. However Lee Min-Ho arrived on an early flight to Shanghai, then after interviews he appeared on the red carpet and flew to Chengdu to prepare for BOUNTY's promotion next day. On the red carpet Lee Min-Ho and Chung Han Leung appeared in black and white. The crowd screamed with it caught a glimpse of them.

The film S STORM (S FUNG BO) starred Louis Koo Tin Lok, Vic Chou Yu Man, Julian Cheung Chi Lam and Ada Choi Siu Fun. This year the Shanghai Film Festival changed its rules as actors could only walk the red carpet for two films at most. Goo Jai only took the red carpet for the earliest release THREE (SAM YUN HUNG) and gave up his other films. Yet during the film festival he would still promote for other films like S STORM. Jai Jai could not attend due to a Taiwan television series production. This year the S STORM red carpet duty then fell to director David Lam Tak Luk, actors Cheung Chi Lam, Choi Siu Fun, Bowie Lam Bo Yi, DaDa Chan JIng and Janelle Sing Kwan.