After Better Days’ Oscar Nomination, What’s Next for the Chinese Pop Idol and TFboys Member?
After sweeping the board with eight prizes at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, it might come as no surprise that Better Days was chosen as Hong Kong’s official entry into the Oscars this year. However, far more surprising was the news that, among the 97 films submitted to contest the Best International Feature Film Academy Award, Derek Chang’s romantic crime drama was plucked for a place on the final five-film shortlist. “Better Days” sees Chinese star Zhou Dongyu portraying the fragile yet hardworking student Chen Nian, while Jackson Yee, of Chinese pop group TFBoys, brings gangster Xiao Bei to life. As we wait for the winning film to be crowned at the official Oscars awards ceremony, on April 25 in US time, we take a look back at Yee’s upwards trajectory and ask: if the film nabs the Academy Award, could it be his stepping stone to Hollywood? Read more South China Morning Post
APOS: HBO Asia Orders Two Chinese-Language Originals
WarnerMedia unveiled a pair of Chinese-language original series for HBO Tuesday during the first day of APOS, Asia’s leading media and entertainment industry summit. The shows include period drama Legacy, created by the same team behind the blockbuster Chinese series “Story of Yanxi Palace,” and contemporary noir drama “Trinity of Shadows,” which is a co-production with Taiwanese streaming service CatchPlay. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max has yet to launch in Asia, so both of the new series will be broadcast over legacy VOD service HBO Go and via HBO to regional cable subscribers. Other HBO Asia Originals in production this year include the mystery series “Forbidden,” currently in production in Thailand, as well as the action fantasy series “Halfworlds Season 3” produced in the Philippines, and the horror anthology series “Folklore Season 2,” which is filmed across seven different Asian countries. Read more The Hollywood Reporter
