As many people know, Korean actress Jeon Ji-Hyun will be credited as Gianna Jun (why not?), perhaps an unheimlich alliterative echo of her much talked-about stint for Giordano.

More importantly perhaps, the direction of the movie has changed hands. Initially piloted by Ronny Yu (Yu Yan-Tai), the $35 million live adaptation of Kitakubo Hiroyuki’s japanimation work based on a script by Chris Chow, is now helmed by French director Chris Nahon, for whom this will be the second action movie.  Nahon is working with the martial arts choreographer/director Corey Yuen, who is overseeing action sequences, as he did on the somewhat mediocre Kiss Of The Dragon. In defense of this uninspired Jet Li movie, this was a first collaboration that did have a couple of original concepts (a Chinese cop lost in a postcard-lookalike city of lights, who becomes friendly with an American prostitute… what are the odds) but suffered from a number of problems of execution. For one thing, Corey Yuen has none of the pyrotechnical grace of some his peers like Yuen Woo-Ping, so that his fights, full of blood and violence, in Kiss Of The Dragon in particular, are often closer to pure and simple brawling. This could suit the visual style of Blood though. Wait and see… (I, for one, am a little worried, I must admit, considering Nahon’s pale record as a director)

Ronny Yu will remain involved in the project, but as a producer and screenwriter. The shoot has already started and some paparazzi pictures (from China, I think) leaked and are, like all things Korean these days, or so it seems, just about everywhere on the internet.

 

In the meantime, if I may indulge myself for a moment, here are a few more pictures of Jeon Ji-Hyun (or should I say, Gianna Jun…), as a Korean odalisque. One of the most sought-after post-hallyu star, the following photographs of Jeon, in a series of reclining postures, are personal moments of punctum (for a clear explanation, please look up Roland Barthes’ essay, Camera Lucida). Enjoy: