The Message (风声)

[fridaythe13th]

Has anyone seen The Message? With Li Bing Bing, Zhou Xun, Alec Su and Huang Xiao Ming?

It is a very interesting and intense movie. Well received, however brutal it may seem.

[loislane]

What a coincidence! I just watched this last night. For me, THE MESSAGE is perfect, minus the torture brutal scenes XD

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Sets in 1942, Nanking, China...

Ever since China established a puppet government runs by the Japanese imperial army, there had been many rebellion actions and assassinations. Their aim is to release the Chinese government from the Japanese influence. One of the rebellion action is lead by someone with the code name, "Magnum".

One of the five officials working in the Counter-Insurgency Center (the anti-rebellion center built by the government to defeat the rebels in the country) is suspected as a traitor who works for Magnum. His/her codename is "Phantom" and he/she receive orders directly from Magnum. Phantom and the other members receive orders from Magnum through the ads message board in town.

Colonel Takeda (Huang Xiaoming) know the underground group is currently targeting General Tsukeda for assassination. And so he sets a trap by sending a false message to the Counter-Insurgency Center(CIC) that there will be a meeting in a certain hall and General Tsukeda will come to the meeting.

"Phantom" must have been someone who directly had contact with the messages all these times. So this time Takeda and his men pay attention who were directly had contact with the message in CIC.

The message was then displayed on the message board which means "Phantom" was fooled, took the bait and delivered the message to the town's message board through a crippled old man, who used to work at the CIC as a janitor.

The result is there were five people and so the "Phantom" has got to be one of them.

Takeda summoned the five officials acts by Zhou Xun, Li Bing Bing, Zhang Hanyu, Wang Zhiwen and Alec Su to a certain castle in a secluded mountain area to interrogate them. They were treated well in the beginning with luxurious rooms and luxurious foods. But as soon as proofs comes in. One by one were tortured brutally. And Takeda is very keen on knowing who and where this Magnum guy is.

So, who's the "Phantom"?

The mystery was quite enticing plus the 1940s atmosphere makes it all more interesting and mystique. The camera work was excellent. The directing was great.

The actors and actresses did a great job! Gu Xiaomeng(the mailroom staff) is quite a different character than Zhou Xun usually plays. Gu has so many sides, including tough yet has feminine side too. I loved all of her acting performances from when she was drunk, when she seduced a guard, when she cynically argues with Captain Wu esp. her climax showdown with Huang Xiaoming.

Zhang Hanyu plays as Captain Wu (CIC Captain Chief). Thanks to this movie, I've become a fan of Zhang Hanyu! This 44 yrs old guy is just awesome. I watched The Equation of Love and Death, because I was interested in Deng Chao and then I watched this movie with more interest in Huang Xiaoming, but in BOTH MOVIE, I was drawn alot more to Zhang Hanyu's performance! His acting performance is just captivating and he has a great onscreen presence. Deng Chao was suppose to be Zhou Xun's boyfriend in Equation, but somehow I thought Zhou Xun would suits Zhang Hanyu more^^

Alec Su as the transverstite homosexual CIC Commander Aide(or secretary?) was awesome!! I never really liked Alec's acting, but his acting as a sissy, feminine guy here is really great! hehe, never thought he had it in him XD I was shocked! And I can't help but to laugh everytime he speaks or walks. This commander's secretary is said to have a "unique" relationship with the commander himself XD You get the idea, LOL.

Li Bing Bing as Li Ningyu, the Decoding section chief, is really awesome too, she had so many emotional scenes and she did it naturally. Wang Zhiwen, the CIC military officer, the fat guy did a fairly great performance too!

Huang Xiaoming was just so-so as Colonel Takeda. Hey, I'm actually a fan of HXM esp. his performance as Wei Xiao Bao in Royal Tramp! But he didn't really shine in this movie, I dunno why. Perhaps the other casts outshined him. Or perhaps bcoz his Japanese dialogues were dubbed by a native. One of his most "supposibly" significant and crucial scene was in Japanese, and it was dubbed It just felt less interesting. Makes me wonder why didn't they just cast Takeshi Kaneshiro for this role? He's fluent in both Japanese and Chinese, I'm sure he'd pull off the role even better being a half-Japanese.

I love the ladies 1940s costumes that Zhou Xun and Li Bing Bing wears in this movie! A classic combination of cheongsam and the 40s European ladies' dress. Very elegant and classy^^

The music scores are TOP-NOTCH! I'm so in love with the scores. They were all composed by a Japanese composer, Oshima Michiru, who is well-known as Gokusen series' scores composer, and he had also composed MOHOUHAN movie's scores, which I think sounds very similar with this movie's scores. If anyone know where I can get the OST of this movie or when will it be released, pls let me know!^o^

There's a news published already that they will make this movie a trilogy, with a prequel and sequel! yay!
http://zhouxun.chungta.com/2009/11/m...on-agenda.html

And now onto my most favorite scene of the movie that contains HEAVY SPOILER!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCH!

click to show/hide spoilers

Gu Xiaomeng(Zhou Xun) is the PHANTOM. I immediately guessed this already ever since she burst out laughing(when she was drunk) when one of Takeda's man said they'll confine them all there for awhile until they find out who the Phantom is. Plus, she's the lead of this movie, what do you think?
The biggest and shocking revelation for me is that MAGNUM is Captain Wu! Wow! Didn't see that coming! But I've already guessed this since Gu was shot to death and Magnum's mystery was still not revealed. I thought MAGNUM must be one of the familiar face. It's either Takeda's man or Captain Wu, I thought. And yes, apparently its Wu.
The MOST touching scene for me, was Phantom and Magnum's last conversation T_T It was when Wu told Li what has happened and it was a flashback scene. Gu/Phantom doesn't know and never meet Magnum and she only receives orders from him via the msg board. The first time they came to the castle they didnt know that they were both members of the underground group. But through a song code Wu sang, Gu finally realized this and they recognized each other. That time Gu knows that Wu is one of the underground group, but she doesn't know he's Magnum yet.

At the very last, when Takeda has narrowed down his suspicion to these two(but he didn't suspect at all that both are members of the underground group) and locked them both. Gu and Wu talked by writing the characters on their hands(coz the room had microphones). It was really touching, coz Wu told Gu to run away and get the message out, but Gu says it should Wu who escape as she's responsible of having sent a false msg. Before Wu told her already that she won't be able to stand the torture and so he insist. And then he revealed to her, "I'm MAGNUM, I hereby order you to turn me in,". The LOOK on Phantom's face when she read this, was priceless. I loved Zhou Xun's expression the most here!
And thanks to this scene, I was hoping there would be something romantic happens between Phantom and Magnum XDDD Ahhh, how I wish! They really have great chemistry together! And it might be just my imagination, but Captain Wu seem really care about Gu and doesn't want her to get hurt T_T oh well...

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! And I'm sure this movie will win so many international awards!

[fridaythe13th]

I loved the movie too. Great acting, and not just some pretty faces to promote it. Try not to do anymore spoilers here, but the plot was really captivating, and it was intense to the point where you want to see what happens next.

I heard that they are already planning to make a sequel (or prequel) to the movie. Would be very interested to see what that has in store for us....

[loislane]

I really love the music scores and would like to collect the OST.

Does anyone know if the Original Soundtrack CD has been released? When? Or is there any download link for it?

I had been searching for the OST like crazy to no avail

[loislane]

The Message film prequel (Takeshi Kaneshiro)

Takeshi Kaneshiro has been invited to take part in the shooting of the next part of The Message (Feng Sheng) movie.

According to sina.com, Kuo-fu Chen, the director of the film has invited Takeshi to take part in the shootings which will be held in Summer 2010. Mass-media in Asia considers such invitation of the half Taiwanese and half Japanese actor who is considered to be the whole Asian star as the promotion for the new film. Even despite the fact that this year movie attracts attention of the viewers on the festivals.

source: http://ent.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/sh.../361819/1.html
http://www.tkfanclub.do.am/news/the_.../2009-11-02-75

[loislane]

The Message film prequel (Takeshi Kaneshiro)

Takeshi Kaneshiro has been invited to take part in the shooting of the next part of The Message (Feng Sheng) movie.

According to sina.com, Kuo-fu Chen, the director of the film has invited Takeshi to take part in the shootings which will be held in Summer 2010. Mass-media in Asia considers such invitation of the half Taiwanese and half Japanese actor who is considered to be the whole Asian star as the promotion for the new film. Even despite the fact that this year movie attracts attention of the viewers on the festivals.

source: http://ent.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/sh.../361819/1.html
http://www.tkfanclub.do.am/news/the_.../2009-11-02-75

I tried to google-translate the chinese article. It seem TK will be playing the role as Takeda(HXM)'s senior in the prequel?

[Lady Zhuge]

Just saw this. It definitely needs a prequel, but I'm not sure about a sequel. I thought Zhou Xun did a better job than Li Bing Bing even though the latter won the Golden Horse Award, maybe because her character was more complex and interesting. Alec Su's role surprised me, in a good way. He should play that type of character more often. Huang Xiao Ming's voice being dubbed over ruined his character for me.

[mind_wander]

I have a copy of it,but didn't watched it yet.From watching the trailer,it does looks promising with a wide cast.Once finished,glad to post up my thoughts about it.

[kandie]

im kinda slow on this , watch the whole movie but kinda confusing who is the bad guy Huang xiao ming or zhou xun

[sehseh]

im kinda slow on this , watch the whole movie but kinda confusing who is the bad guy Huang xiao ming or zhou xun

click to show/hide spoilers

Huang Xiao Ming is the bad guy. In the end, it was revealed that the interrogation was conducted illegally, HXM just want to salvage his tarnished military career.

Zhou Xun is the Phantom aka the heroine in the movie.

[Dragon Heiress]

I just watched Feng Sheng and...wow, it's amazing! I rarely cry in movies but I cried twice in this one:

click to show/hide spoilers

First in the final scene between Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing, just before LBB reports ZX to the officials. The second time was at the end when LBB was reading the message ZX put on the dress.