Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's martial arts epic The Banquet, starring Memoirs of a Geisha actress Zhang Ziyi, will have its world premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival on September 3.

 

 

It will be the first full-length showing of the film after last year's promotion in Berlin, Cannes and the US, Wang Yang, spokeswoman for Huayi Brothers Film Investment Co. Ltd., China's biggest private film maker, told Xinhua Wednesday.

 

Feng and actors Zhang Ziyi, Ge You and Zhou Xun will promote the film at the festival, she said.

 

The US$20 million film, coproduced by Huayi Brothers and the Hong Kong Media Asia Films Company, will be released across Asia on September 15.

 

Set during the tumultuous Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-979), The Banquet recounts the tragedy of an empress, played by Zhang Ziyi, who is destroyed in a struggle for power inside the palace, Feng said.

 

The 130-minute movie was composed by Oscar winner Tan Dun and choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping, both acclaimed for the Oscar winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

It represents a major change of style for Feng, one of the most bankable Chinese film directors, who has shot modern comic movies like Big Shot's Funeral, Cell Phone and A World Without Thieves.

 

The movie's distribution rights in the UK, France and Spain have been sold, according Wang.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2006)