- Title: Fan frenzy for Fan Bingbing in Berlin
- Date: 23rd February 2023
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 23, 2023) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ACTOR FAN BINGBING AND FILMMAKER HAN SHUAI ARRIVING ON RED CARPET FOR "GREEN NIGHT" BERLINALE PREMIERE / FAN GREETING BERLINALE REPRESENTATIVE FANS SCREAMING AND FILMING WITH MOBILE PHONES FAN SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS / ACTOR LEE JOO-YOUNG WALKING ALONG RED CARPET / FAN TAKING HAN BY HER HAND
- Embargoed: 9th March 2023 22:53
- Keywords: Berlin Film Festival Berlinale Fan Bingbing Fan Bingbing Berlin Fan Bingbing Berlinale Green Night film Green Night movie Han Shuai Lee Joo-young
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA001266123022023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Fan Bingbing, one of China's biggest film stars, strode onto the Berlinale red carpet on Thursday (February 23), marking her return to cinema following a five-year pause.
Her reappearance also spotlighted the return of Chinese-language film to the international stage, as mainland China and Hong Kong have eased zero-COVID policies, allowing for international travel.
Fan disappeared from public view in 2018, prompting international speculation about her whereabouts, before Chinese authorities handed her a 883 million yuan ($129 million) fine for tax evasion months later.
Her role in "Green Night" - a racy thriller by Chinese director Han Shuai set in the crime-infested underworld of Seoul, South Korea - brings that chapter to a close.
"Yes, so of course I'm really happy a lot of fans come to here and saw this movie, yeah. But today it's raining here, so maybe it's very lucky for me," Fan told Reuters on the red carpet.
In "Green Night", which features both Mandarin and Korean dialogue, Fan plays the role of Jin Xia, a Chinese immigrant working as a security guard at Seoul airport.
There, she encounters the Green-Haired Woman, a mysterious and rebellious drug trafficker played by Korean actress Lee Joo-young, who leads her on a journey through Seoul's gritty underworld.
The duo pursue one another through neon-lit backstreets, glow-in-the-dark bowling alleys and grubby eateries, evading dangerous drug barons and murdering Xia's abusive husband, before embarking on a passionate lesbian affair that ends in heartbreak.
"All of it was difficult for me, yes because of the language, about Korean, about the pandemic when we shoot, that time the pandemic is very heavy in Korea, so all of it is really difficult for us," Fan said of the process of making the movie, which was shot last year.
"Actually the language barrier, the language barrier is not a big problem in our project," said Lee of the experience. "Even though we are from different cultures and speak different languages, we share the same heart," she added.
Fan told Reuters she was already preparing for a new film project.
"I'm just reading a new screenplay. Yes, maybe we can we can create another different role, yeah, next time," she said.
(Production: Martin Schlicht, Hanna Rantala) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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