It didn't win at Berlin, but the film Lost in Beijing (迷失北京--also released, I've heard, as Pingguo 苹果) was a helluva good screenplay that I really enjoyed translating a few months back--edgy, humorous, timely. I like how it was cast, with Tong Dawei as the hapless An Kun, lovely Fan Bingbing as the foot masseuse at the center of the story, and Tony Leung as her lecherous boss. Derek Elley has a review at Variety here.
But I haven't seen the damn film yet--not the version that screened in Berlin, not the sanitized one that got passed the censors for broader theatrical release here. And last I checked it hadn't made it into my favorite, er, local DVD distribution outlet. This was the second film I worked on with producer Fang Li and director Li Yu: she did a great job on Dam Street (红彦), which I had the honor of subtitling.
Subtitlng films is one of those things I'm going to have to give up since taking the new Ogilvy job. Used to be one of my favorite ways to make a buck. Over the years I've done subtitles or screenplay translations (often with the help of Brendan) at least a dozen films--mostly, alas, of the "underground" genre that have been viewed by, oh, 18 or 19 guys named Dieter in black turtlenecks.
I'm way behind on my films - the last Chinese flick I saw was Daming's new one, which I liked. I bet Joel's seen Lost in Beijing, though. He's got a big thing for Fan Bingbing (or possibly Li Bingbing - I can never remember).
Posted by: Brendan | March 04, 2007 at 05:48 PM