Zhou Xun and Gao YuanYuan in "Beijing Bicycle"

Beijing Bicycle is a 2001 film by Wang Xiaoshuai that begins as a story of young love and becomes a harrowing, blood drenched look at class conflict and the its potentially murderous consequences in China's capital city. It begins with shots of men from the countryside being interviewed as bicycle messengers for a busy document delivery company. They are the almost perfectly unsophisticated, unable to estimate how much they were paid while in the country and willing to do just about any job available. One of them is Guei who becomes the top earner in the company, able to make enough in a month to buy the mountain bike and getting a much better payout from the company. Guei lives with Mantis an older friend/cousin who has a tiny store in an alley, where they are able to look upon Qin, a resident of a luxury building that overlooks their alley. Qin, played by Zhou Xun, is as much a part of the "real" Beijing as the building she lives in or the high fashion outfits she wears. Their only contact with her is when she stops into the store occasionally to buy soy sauce.

The day that Guei finishes paying for his bike it is stolen and he is fired. Since the bike is the only way Guei can earn enough to stay in Beijing and also because he has a single-minded determination to find his it, he tracks it down. The bike is with Jian, a working class teenager who strives to be like the group of guys in his class at a private school and who are from wealthier families than he. The bike itself is an example of this--Jian doesn't have a bicycle when we first encounter him but is able to buy a used bike--Guei's bike. His friends all have new bikes given them by their parents, people who could live in the same type of apartment as Qin, the unobtainable beauty who entrances Guei. Jian now fits in with his buddies and has the self confidence to approach Xiao a beautiful classmate who, it turns out, has had her eye on him. She is played by Gao Yuanyuan.

Neither of the young actresses in this film have much to do. Zhou Xun's character is superfluous to the plot and structure of the movie--her scenes could be cut and not missed. Qin's story could be told as a short film in itself. Gao Yuanyuan has more screen time than Zhou Xun and Xiao, unlike Qin, actually has a few lines to speak.

This is not a review or summary of Beijing Bicycle but only serves to establish the characters played by Gao Yuanyuan and Zhou Zun.

First Zhou Xun, dressed and made up in borrowed finery, comes with her bottle to filled with soy sauce. Guei and Mantis can are so finely attuned to her movements that they can hear the "tip-tap" of her high heels from around the corner.

Having effortlessly cast her spell on the guys she leaves.

It isn't until much later in the film that Guei literally runs into Qin as he turns into the alley without looking. Oops.

Qin suffers from the malady that affects the characters played by beautiful young actresses: even after being run over and knocked unconscious her hair still falls perfectly around her face, her make-up remains unsmeared and the only apparent injury is a tread mark on her arm.

She awakes from her collision induced slumber, looks around and tries to figure out what is going on.

Qin returns the next day and desperately goes through everything in the tiny house/store, wordlessly trying to find something that she may have lost there and slumps in dejection when she is unsuccessful.

Zhou Xun doesn't get to do much but looks ravishing during every second she is on screen not doing it.

We first see Gao YuanYuan as Xiao when she encounters Jian in a well done "meet cute" scene that centers around a bicycle--hers in this case. She needs help with it but seems reticent to ask although she overcomes her shyness.

They become something of a couple. On a ride into a park Xiao decides it is time for things to get a little more serious between them and effectively draws Jian toward her. This is a lovely sequence of attraction and response.

It is interrupted when Jian sees Guei ridding away with Jian's bicycle with is also Guei's bike.

The next day in school Jian is upset and refuses to be comforted although Xiao tries. Note Gao Yuanyuan's reflection on the far left side of the screen. Someone much more versed in the semiotics of representation and the deconstruction of narrative filmic text through signification should explain what the reflection means. As far as how it looks--it is striking.

This is only a few small pieces of Beijing Bicycle which is uneven but brilliant in parts and which I may revisit more analytically (with fewer pictures of actresses) later on.

Christian Dior 2011 Resort Wear show, Shanghai--who was there and what they saw.

The Christian Dior Cruise Wear show dropped anchor in Shanghai to show off John Galliano's most recent ideas of how wealthy women should dress while in St. Tropez and to support the gala opening of the Christian Dior flagship store on the Bund. This is the "Blue Mood" campaign with Marion Cotillard localized for Shanghai.

There were great looks on the runway and in the front row. The "frontest" front row with the boss, Bernard Arnault, his wife and Charlize Theron. Note to Fan Bing-Bing and her advisors: this is how to look while taking in a fashion show as the next seat guest of the owner of the house:

Across the way, Marion Cottilard, Zhou Xun and Barbie Hsu were front row guests. Zhou Xun looks like she enjoys being treated like a MOVIE STAR:

Maggie Cheung was in town. Here she looks a bit stern:

Caught with her eyes half closed but still quite fetching while posing with Syndey Teledano, CEO of Christian Dior:

Tang Wei looked lovely and was having a great time but had trouble with the idea of getting your picture taken and getting out. In the first picture below it looks as if she is being encouraged to hurry it up; in the second she is all but being hauled away by the equivalent of fashion show bouncers:

Li Bing-Bing is a red carpet veteran:

Barbie Hsu could use some coaching on how to project while just standing there, although she has the 1,000 watt smile down pat:

Charlize Theron, who has been to a few of these, would serve as a good starting point:

And someone needs to tell Barbie Hsu that a major show for one of the biggest fashion house that will be publicized everywhere is not the place to wear cheap shoes:

Dong Jie had the whole package: dress, shoes, accessories, attitude:

Guei Lun-Mei was very lilac and flower-like and full of confidence:

And had a better look than model Michaela Kocianova in the first appearance of the same dress although Kocianova would be at a disadvantage wearing a basted together, hurriedly assembled piece for a photo shoot instead of a properly constructed dress:

Guei Lun-Mei wins the "runway vs. reality" face off in this case.

Some of the other looks on the runway:
Liu Wen:

Danni Li:

Shu Pei:

Bonnie Chen:

Kelis performed after the show:

Images from WWD (I think every image on the net of this show can be traced back to the coverage by WWD/Style.com)

Awards and honors from the United Nations

duriandave asked in a comment made to the post "Zhou Xun is a Champion of the Earth" below what Zhou Xun had done to deserve her award, a very reasonable question. While I am still not entirely sure, here is a vidio from the United Nations Environment Programme which illustrates, at least according to UNEP's criteria, her "well publicized statements, advice and lifestyle choices which are influencing millions of her fans to become more environmentally conscious citizens and consumers".



The UNEP award is different from being appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for one of its agencies. UNICEF was the first to use civilians in that role and, along with UNESCO, has the majority of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers from Peace since only the hardest of hearts could be opposed to children, education and culture. UNICEF is very upfront about their needs: they want famous people who will publicize the agency and help them raise money. Maggie Cheung is the latest Ambassador and Dennis Lee has the story here. This is one of the pictures from the event announcing the honor and since it is Maggie, jeans, low ankle boots and a blazer are now OK to wear for an awards luncheon in which you are getting the award. The UNICEF site which hasn't been updated yet to show her Magginess as being on board and which is very open about why they want singers, actors and atheletes is here

Maggie spent some time in a village in Yunan Province that has a significant number of HIV infected women and their children as part of her UNICEF duties. This article from "China Daily" has some coverage of the visit and a few pictures from it.

Zhou Xun is a Champion of the Earth.

That isn't a new Marvel Comics superhero but an award given by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). She got the "Inspiration and Action" award and immedeately donated the cash prize to earthquake relief in western China. You can read about it here or just take a look at the pictures, all of which are from UNEP.

The presentation of the the fierce looking award by Yaun Xikun, the artist who created it. The black lightbulb floating above the lion is on the backdrop and not part of the award although it might have worked--"Lights out for lions" or something like that.

A UNEP official gives her a scroll fittingly enough made from recycled glass. This may have been toward the end of the show--six awards were presented--since it seems as if her hair is getting a little unruly. Actually a nice look for Zhou Xun.

An informal moment with some of her fellow awardees. "So a polar bear, a black rhino and an ivory-billed woodpecker walk into a bar..."

More from the Shanghai International Film Festival red carpet

Another look at some of the most beautiful actresses in the world on the red carpet at the opening of the Shanghai International Film Festival. As is always the case at events like this there were some great looks along with a few that were stunningly bad.

This is Yuan Li who has the figure to be this generation's Amy Yip. A classic little black dress doesn't distract from her signature look. Since she isn't wearing any accessories this shot may be from a lighting or tech rehearsal.



If Lin Chi-Ling can't make a dress look good no one can. This number looks tacked together from curtains and tableclothes so she can't.

Tang Yan has such a delightful smile that it almost makes you forgive whoever decided to stick her in a dress made from a shower curtain. At least it matches her purse.


And here is Tang Yan in "La Lingerie". She doesn't need a shiny dress to look good.

Charlene Choi and Yumiko Cheng look pleased to be on the red carpet, and to have escaped whatever caused some of the other actresses to wind up in such odd outfits.


Zhou Xun wearing an atrocious gown with the biggest, pinkest bow imagninable. This dress is a bad joke and Zhou Xun looks like she is tired of hearing it. Check out the bottom of the pink shell/cloak/thing in the second picture--it looks unfinished as if someone had grabbed a pink satin sheet, tied a big bow and hit the hem with pinking shears backstage just before she came out. She has a real "When will this be over" look. From the casual standing-around look of the background in the top picture it might also be from a rehearsal and by the time of the official red carpet walk she really understood the horror of her outfit.



In contrast to the unfortunate Zhou Xun, here is Huang Yi in a perfect combination of a little black dress with simple but lovely accessories. Less can be more.




To end this post on a positive note, Chen Hao is delightfully coquetteish glancing over her shoulder in a blue dress--great color for her--with a deep U back.