CHINA: MARTIAL ARTS STAR/ ACTOR MICHELLE YEOH PROMOTES HER LATESYT FILM "THE TOUCH"

Record ID: 392912

  • Title: CHINA: MARTIAL ARTS STAR/ ACTOR MICHELLE YEOH PROMOTES HER LATESYT FILM "THE TOUCH"
  • Date: 25th July 2002
  • Summary: SCU SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) YEOH SAYING: "I'm really happy, but also very stressed, because this baby, this child, is soon going to be born after two years, I feel like it's a fairytale, I'm suffering, but I love it, so many different emotions"
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIJING, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UXVR7UL548UOT086SMAQZOFB
  • Story Text: High-kicking Asian martial arts star and actress Michelle Yeoh is in Beijing to promote her latest movie "The Touch" which will be hitting screens across Asia in August.
    Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh plays the lead in the action-adventure film "The Touch", shot in some of China's most exotic and remote locations.
    The film is Yeoh's first since Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" captivated the world and it also marks Yeoh's debut as a producer.
    A mixture of action, martial arts, romance and thriller, the 20 million U.S. dollars movie stars Ben Chaplin and is directed by Peter Pau, who won an Oscar for his Crouching Tiger cinematography.
    The English-language film focuses on a family of acrobats and their search for an ancient Buddhist artefact and will hit screens in China and Taiwan in early August.
    At a news conference in Beijing on Thursday (July 25), an emotional Yeoh spoke of her baptism of fire as a producer-actor.
    "I'm really happy, but also very stressed, because this baby, this child, is soon going to be born after two years, I feel like it's a fairy tale, I'm suffering, but I love it, so many different emotions," said Yeoh.
    Yeoh is Asia's highest-paid actress and has been chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.
    Even though it has yet to hit cinema screens, confidence in "The Touch" is so high that Yeoh's company has already greenlighted a 30 million U.S. dollars sequel to the movie.
    Shot on location in Dunhuang, Tibet and Beijing, Yeoh paid tribute to her co-producer Thomas Chung for helping her cope with the rigours of film production.
    "I've always been more on the creative side and also because when you're the actor, you're much more protected and you don't know what really goes on behind the scenes, particularly when it comes to the financial or the distribution or the marketing. As the actress, you basically make sure that you know the script, your director really well and do the best for your role, but then it becomes a producer's role, from an idea to a passion, to a reality, all the different steps, so this time I really have to thank my good old partner here, if not for him, this would not have been a reality for me," said Yeoh.
    Despite her fearsome reputation as a martial arts expert who spends nine hours a day working out, Yeoh insisted that she has a softer side.
    "I also have a soft side, a person can be strong and soft, like... silk and steel," said Yeoh.
    Co-producer Chung said he believed the movie would make it big in the U.S. market.
    "It's an Indiana Jones meets Romancing the Stone type movie and up till now, this summer, I'm biasedly speaking, I have yet to see a movie from Hollywood or wherever which is as entertaining as "The Touch". I believe this movie will go very wide in America when it is released by Miramax and it's such a fun and enjoyable movie. Anyone from the age of 10 upwards should go and see "The Touch," said Chung.
    Chung appealed to viewers to go see "The Touch" in movie houses and resist the temptation of cheap pirated copies.
    Piracy is rampant in China and across much of Asia.
    "We worked really hard during the shooting of this film.
    We hope that all the people who want to watch will not buy pirated copies of our film. If you always buy pirated copies, then we won't be able to film another film like this or create another song like the one we heard," said Chung.
    --
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