Motion Pictures
October 2, 2003
Warner Bros. Pictures’ First-Ever Chinese-Language Film, “Turn Left, Turn Right,” Opens To #1 Box Office Results In Taiwan
(October 2, 2003 – Burbank, CA) - Warner Bros. Pictures’ first-ever Chinese-language film, “Turn Left, Turn Right,” opened to #1 box office results in Taiwan, nearly 90% ahead of all box office competition in Taipei. “Turn Left, Turn Right,” which also recently opened to outstanding results in Hong Kong (#1), Singapore (#2) and Malaysia (#2), has grossed a total of $3.2 million in box office-to-date. These announcements were made today by Richard Fox, Executive Vice President, International, Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The film’s openings in Hong Kong and Taiwan also set records in both territories for the all-time highest opening for a major U.S. studio-distributed local production and the highest opening weekend for a Johnnie To-directed film.
“We’ve made a strong commitment to creating and distributing quality Chinese-language films, so we couldn’t be more pleased with the opening results of ‘Turn Left, Turn Right’ in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, and have high expectations for the film’s upcoming release in China,” said Fox.
Warner Bros. Pictures has worldwide rights to distribute “Turn Left, Turn Right” (except in Singapore, where it co-distributes with Raintree Pictures Pte Ltd., which is based in Singapore) and is scheduled to release the film in China on October 24, 2003.
“Turn Left, Turn Right” stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung and is written and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai (“The Mission,” “Running out of Time,” “Needing You”), one of Hong Kong’s premiere writing and directing teams. The film is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Raintree Pictures and To’s production company, Milkyway Image (H.K.) Co., Ltd.
“Turn Left, Turn Right” is based on the best-selling illustrated love story of the same name by renowned Taiwanese author/artist Jimmy Liao. The film tells the simple, whimsical story of a lonely man, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro (“Tempting Heart,” “Fallen Angels,” “Chungking Express”) and woman, played by Gigi Leung (“Le Brassiere,” “Tempting Heart”), who live in the same apartment building, yet, due to their habitually quirky comings and goings, never meet there. Following a chance meeting at a park, events, meddling acquaintances and pure bad luck conspire to keep the would-be lovers apart as each makes plans to change their lives and leave the past behind. # # #