With John Woo's The Crossing opening later this year in China, Woo and his cast held a press conference in Beijing today where they revealed the first trailer for the film. Starring Zhang Ziyi and Kaneshiro Takeshi, the two-part love story follows three couples fleeing China for Taiwan on a steamer during the 1949 revolution, and it's based on a true story. Earlier this year Woo talked about why he wanted to make the film and said, “I’ve wanted to make this movie for a long time, because people always see me as an action director, but they don’t realize that I can make romantic love stories, too. I wanted to make a film that showed a turbulent period in modern history, to show how love can survive and overcome all difficulties.”
Hit the jump to watch The Crossing teaser trailer and for photos from today's Beijing press conference.
During the same interview, Woo described what The Crossing is about:
“This movie has several themes: It is firstly about fate, which means that in life, many things happen for reasons beyond your control. You can make the best of plans, but ultimately what happens is not up to you. It is also about humanity, about how suffering brings out the best and worst in people. More importantly, this movie is also about hope. No matter what happens to you, no matter how difficult things become, things will always get better in the end.”
According to Beijing Galloping Horse (the producers), The Crossing is slated for release towards the end of December in China and they'll be announcing the date for Part 2 in 2015.
As you can see in the trailer, there is a reason local media in China are calling The Crossing the Chinese Titanic. Judge the footage for yourself below and then check out the Beijing press conference photos.