Hong Kong director John Woo shared a little about his much anticipated Chinese-language feature, The Crossing, at a press conference in Taipei organized by Beijing Galloping Horse, the Chinese studio behind the feature.
Woo described the period film as “an anthem of love.” Set during the revolutionary period of 1949, The Crossing tells the story of three doomed couples from Mainland China who board Taiping, an ill-fated ship bound for Taiwan. The movie has a $40-million budget and has already been dubbed the “Chinese Titanic.” It stars Zhang Ziyi, Huang Xiaoming, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Masami Nagasawa, and Song Hye-kyo.
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“I have always wanted to make an epic, as well as a romantic drama about China and Taiwan,” Woo said.
“There are many touching stories involving [the ship] Taiping, which was brought to my attention by Wang Hui-Ling [the screenwriter of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon], during the shooting of Red Cliff (2008),” he added. “She gave me the idea of the film, and I was fascinated ever since the very first draft. This is a film that celebrates the power of love in the age of turbulence.”
