《长江7号》– 电影 CJ7

A hilarious story about a Chinese migrant worker and his son and their encounter with a magical outer space toy (CJ7) directed by Stephen Chow, who himself portrayed the father who works in a construction site merely to make their ends meet while sends his son to an expensive private school to get the education which he couldn’t when he was young. The story touches a lot of layers of Chinese lives nowadays: rich and poor, old and new, snob and sincere… Stephen Chow’s typical black humor, as usual, makes the bitter story not only funny, but also warm and full of hope.



I personally like the cheongsam the leading female character wore in the movie very much. This beautiful, caring and genial young teacher dressed in white or baby blue cheongsam is like a breeze in this busy and chaotic world the story happens in. The design is simple, minimum and naturally fits into the movie setting without a bit of abruptness or tackiness.



I’d like to see more traditional Chinese fashion highlights rediscovered and used appropriately in today’s arts and everyday lives.

Path to Power 《权力之路》

I read a news today about Ziyi Zhang (章子怡) and Wendi Deng（邓文迪） are teaming up to start a film company and the ladies are ready to add another title to themselves. This is without any doubt a very powerful combination. With Wendi Deng's powerful network a.k.a media mogul husband and Ziyi Zhang's celebrity coverage overseas, it is going to be a promised business if executed well. Actually, it is quite common in Hollywood for movie stars/starlets to morph into producers. Drew Barrymore is one of the successful examples with her Flower Films and Charlie's Angels Trilogy

Rumor has it that their first film would bring Wu Ze Tian(武则天), the only Chinese empress in history, to big screen. This actually sounds a great idea especially if Hilary Clinton won the U.S. presidential election later this year. If however the film wants to win overseas, they need to find a special angle to depict this powerful woman in China history in a way western audiences can understand and relate to. They might need to pick up brains from The Last Emperor.

Speaking of powerful Chinese women that have more or less impacts in presenting and influencing Chinese culture overseas, Joan Chen (陈冲） is one of my favorites and has a lot of my respect. There is so much to say about her and it is going to be another blog later.

Wendi Deng makes me think of a very popular class named Path to Power offered by Stanford GSB. Unfortunately, I didn't take the course back then. My classmates told me the course was quite an experience. The course's final assignment was a case study about a powerful individual and how s/he had made all the way up. Wendi Deng was one of the targets for Chinese students. I think that must be quite a study.

As for Ziyi Zhang, there has been a lot said and done about her. I have no intention here to analyze how she climbed the social ladder in just several years. But she was the actress came to my mind after I watched All About Eve, another great movie from 50's which I am about to blog later.

One thing that came to my notice is that both of the women have learned how to appropriately dress themselves over years' trial and error. Good for them! As pictured below, Wendi Deng looks gorgeous in that little black dress (LBD) and this is so far the best picture I have seen of her.

Path to Power, do you have what it takes to climb to the top?