Big budget films from Greater China, albeit three very different ones, dominated the nominations for the 2012 edition of the Asian Film Awards. And Iranian drama A Separation Jodaeiye Nader az Simin continued its run of accolades.

Amassing the biggest haul was Hong Kong-Chinese 3-D action film Flying Swords of Dragon Gate ???? with seven nominations, just ahead of Christian Bale-starring The Flowers of War ????? from China, and Taiwanese mega-production Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale ??????, with six each. A Separation claimed five nominations and Hong Kong-Chinese actioner Wu Xia ?? four.

The awards will be presented in Hong Kong on 19 Mar 2012 on the eve of the territory’s annual film industry convention, Hong Kong FilMart. Prizes will be decided by a jury headed by Singaporean director Eric KHOO ??? (pictured).

The six best film nominees included four foreign language Oscar contenders – Japan’s Post Card ?????? (2010), China’s Flowers, Taiwan’s Seediq Bale and Iran’s Separation – as well as Hong Kong/China co-production Flying Swords and India’s Zindagi na milegi dobara ???????? ?? ?????? ??????.Continue Reading

Christian Bale packed up, bid his family farewell and went off to war.

The Welsh actor was drafted by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou (“Hero,” “Curse of the Golden Flower”) to star in the country’s most ambitious and expensive film ever, “The Flowers of War,” a brutal, yet ultimately uplifting tale set during the Japanese assault on Nanjing in 1937. The movie, which opened in New York Dec. 21, goes into wider release Friday.

That Bale, 37, would be working in a country where he didn’t know the language, the sole foreigner on the set in a culture that didn’t believe in coddling the crew with days off — there are no union protections there — wasn’t going to dissuade him. He is a guy, after all, who dropped one third of his body weight for his role in 2004’s “The Machinist.”

“This was a Chinese production, a Chinese director, I was going to be very isolated in terms of the language,” Bale told the Daily News. “[But] that novel experience was something I wanted to enjoy.”

Not all of his experiences in China, though, were enjoyable.

Accompanied by a CNN camera crew and reporter, Bale took an eight-hour pilgrimage to a small village in Shandong province to pay his respects to a blind lawyer who has been put under house arrest and regular harassment by the Chinese government. The Batman actor’s attempt to visit Chen Guangcheng, an activist against forced abortions as part of the country’s one-child policy, was foiled by plainclothes security guards who roughed up Bale.Continue Reading