Joan Chen

Up for best picture "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" Daniel Day-Lewis / Released: Dec. 26 8 Nominations Production budget, In millions: $25 Total U.S. gross, In millions: $8.5 Number of theaters At opening: 2 Before nomination: 389 Now: 885 "NO COUNTRY FOR...

HONG KONG -- Ang Lee's spy thriller "Lust, Caution" and Peter Chan's historical epic "The Warlords" led with six nominations each in the shortlist for the second Asian Film Awards announced Thursday. Other top contenders include Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also...

CANNES, France -- By necessity, Jia Zhang-ke is a filmmaker who responds to current events with the instincts of a newshound. Not only is the 38-year-old director the most prominent Chinese filmmaker of his generation, he also has come to assume the...

As the Olympic torch made its way through the streets of Paris, London and San Francisco, tens of thousands protested China's treatment of Tibet and the Dalai Lama. But inside some Chinese American communities, notably the San Gabriel Valley, the view of...

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's erotic espionage thriller, "Lust, Caution," has been given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, signaling to parents that the film may be inappropriate for audiences 17 and under, and restricting...

Ang Lee continues his Sherman's march through the genres of world cinema - he's already tackled domestic drama, Jane Austen, martial arts and hetero/homosexual westerns. So it might be time to ask just what an Ang Lee film is. Does he have a style? Is...

Rating: Director Ang Lee is a master at fashioning love stories out of dangerous friction, in the case of "Lust, Caution" between loyalty to one's nation and one's heart. Trapped in a Japanese-occupied China during World War II, a young theater troupe of...

(C+) Not just to embody but to act the throes of passion, with every inch of flesh exposed - that's what first-time movie actress Tang Wei does to the hilt, and way beyond the hilt, in Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's otherwise ponderous tale of intrigue in...

Release dates are tentative, and some films play in limited release. Late April: ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM: The corporate train wreck unfolds through insider interviews and company video and audio tapes. THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES: An outgunned...

MAY 13 A Hole in One Drama. The idea: A young woman considers a lobotomy to solve her problems in 1953. With: Michelle Williams, Meat Loaf, Bill Raymond. Writer-director: Richard Ledes. So? Extreme solution Kicking and Screaming Sports comedy. The idea:...

There's a scene in "Saving Face" in which Joan Chen, playing a pregnant character known only as "Ma," wanders into a video store on the Lower East Side and haltingly asks for the Chinese section. The clerk points the way, and Ma soon finds herself...

3 stars (out of four) Writer/director Alice Wu's "Saving Face" might best be described as a dramedy of dueling taboos. Sexy without being steamy, smart without being overtly dogmatic, "Saving Face" is the kind of movie you could take your mother to...