Tag Archives: Film

[BLOG] Godfrey Gao Cast in City of Bones

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I have some really exciting news about my husband (shh, he doesn’t know yet) Godfrey Gao. He has been cast as Magnus Bane in the upcoming blockbuster movie adaption of the best-selling book “City of Bones,” first in the “Mortal Instruments” series – a very popular children/YA book series, maybe some CAPS kids read these?

Check out the official announcement here, it’s quite funny.

There are so many reasons I am excited for this. First and foremost – duh, I love Godfrey Gao. I mean, just look at him! A quick introduction: he’s 27, Taiwanese, raised in Canada, and hailed as the “first Asian male supermodel” following a lucrative deal with Louis Vuitton. He has dabbled in acting, with various parts in Taiwanese dramas.

The second reason I am so happy about this – and this is something you would THINK we could take for granted, but no – secondly, I’m really excited that they cast an Asian actor. News just broke that the blond, blue-eyed Liam Hemsworth (of Hunger Games fame) has been cast as Middle-Eastern legend Ali Baba in Arabian Nights. Really?! Reminds me of Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia. The character of Magnus Bane is only briefly mentioned as having Asian features (and being half Indonesian), so it would have been easy for the casting directors to just cast someone Caucasian and call it a day. That they cast a full Asian is impressive.

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[BLOG] Film: The Flowers of War

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Christian Bale (of Dark Knight fame) plays the starring role in China’s top-grossing film of 2011, also the most expensive Chinese film ever made, Zhang Yimou’s epic The Flowers of War. See Christian Bale talk about it here.

The film is set in 1937, Nanjing, China, during the “Rape of Nanjing“, at the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This is a period that is glossed over in American history classes but was a truly terrible time for China, and is the reason why many Chinese citizens still bear a serious grudge against the Japanese (my mother included).

In the film, Christian Bale plays a mortician who pretends to be a priest to protect Chinese Catholic schoolgirls against imminent rape by Japanese soldiers; he also helps shelter a group of Chinese prostitutes, who ultimately decide to sacrifice themselves in place of the schoolgirls when the Japanese army requests their presence. I haven’t personally seen it yet but CSA is hoping to organize a screening of it at Princeton. It looks really good! Check out the American (English) trailer here. Get your Kleenex ready…  Continue reading →