VENICE  Sept 14, 2005   Director Stanley Kwan, accompanied by actors Sammi Cheng, Su Yan, Hu Jun and Daniel Wu appeared to generate publicity for their film Everlasting Regret. Sammi appeared in a golden yellow deep V backless dress in her virgin appearance on the Venice Film Festival's red carpet event.

Her grace and elegance silenced the crowd and she seemed to be very happy, even waving at the fans in the crowd. The premiere was full and the pre-show segment drew more than a thousand fans to witness the entrance of the stars.

At the end of the show, the audience stood up and gave the cast and crew a standing ovation and the applause lasted 10minutes. The reaction from the crowd was very positive, and one foreign journalist said, "I liked the film better than <In the Mood for Love>. I like the film very much." Mainland Chinese journalists also said, "As a woman, I was really touched."

The results for the Best Actress prize is a little further down, and even though Lee Young Ae appears to stand a better chance at getting the award, Everlasting Regret's scriptwriter Yong Chi Sum thinks Sammi still stands a good chance. He pointed out that because the Hong Kong media was familiar with Sammi, they went into the cinema with pre-conceived notions of Sammi. The foreign media, however, were not familiar with her at all and they all had positive comments about Sammi's performance. He also cleared the matter of dubbing up for Sammi, saying that all the lines were recorded by Sammi. When he was laughed at for pushing Sammi to illness, he said, "She was sick, but definitely not as sick as was rumored. She was very happy during the filming process." Everlasting Regret is slated to start showing in cinemas in Hong Kong on September 29th, while it will hit Chinese cinemas on the 1st of October. Yong also said that the cut by the Chinese authorities only lasted 15 seconds, and not the length was rumored.

After the movie premiere, the whole casts and director cut a cake at the Hotel Villa Laguna to celebrate. Sammi's acting in ER was praised. She said, "Quite a lot of scenes were cut but I hope that these scenes will be added back into the DVD. I was really emotional during the filming of banging my head on the wall scene. I had also experienced having 67 NG takes and became very stressed. I'll faint (expression) if I had to film this type of movie three times a year. (People said you'll win.) As long as I don't get last, but the first and second place also does not mean anything. If I really win, I'll give the award to Ah Kwan to thank him for giving me this chance."

FROM "REGRET" TO "LOVE"

One of few openly gay directors in Asia, Kwan made his name abroad with "Rouge" in 1987. In 2001, he completed the ground-breaking "Lan Yu", based on an anonymous Internet text about a businessman and a college boy who fall in love after a one-night stand in Beijing.

He is one of Hong Kong's biggest names along with Wong Kar-Wai, director of the acclaimed "In the Mood for Love" and "2024", close in color and texture to Kwan's offerings.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL RESULTS