Jiang.jpg (Photo : Reuters )
Chinese director, screenwriter and actor Jiang Wen appeared relaxed and pleased in photographs during the Monday premiere of "Gone with the Bullets" which was held at Beijing's Olympic Sports Center.
Jiang's sequel was prevented from opening earlier by China's censorship board, which did not publicly reveal its issues, and the public release on Thursday is the version that complies with the standards of the film bureau. The director was not vocal about any censorship matters at Monday's grandiose event.
"Gone with the Bullets" is the highly anticipated sequel to "Let the Bullets Fly," a 2010 cinema release that was heralded as a major box office success. With $19.5 million in pre-sales tickets already sold, Thursday's release is likely to fulfill predictions that it will be the highest grossing film in China in 2014, even though it has emerged in the final two weeks of the year.
The film stars Zhou Yun, Ge You and Shu Qi, who all appeared with the director on the red carpet, prior to entering the temporarily renovated Olympic Center, which had been converted into an IMAX cinema just for the premiere.
Both critics and fans alike watched the sequel on a specially built 26-meter-wide and 14.5-meter-high screen. An orchestral performance also greeted the guests, as the China Philharmonic Orchestra played live, leading the Global Times to describe the event as a "symphonic gala" rather than a movie premiere.
Monday's spectacle occurred after Jiang was banned from filmmaking for seven years following the release of his 2000 black comedy "Devils on the Doorstep," which depicted a narrative set in the final period of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This time, Jiang received the support of Buyilehu Film Company and Chinese video website iQiyi to explore Shanghai's most notorious murder cases during the 1920s.
