| First rumored in: 2001
Status: In development. CYF is already attached to the
project.
Who's making it: Applause
Pictures.
Director: Peter Chan.
Based on the book by Ha Jin. 1999 National Book Award Winner.
Other info.: Possible co-stars mentioned: Gong Li and Maggie
Cheung.
Language: English
Synopsis:
 Every
summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife,
Shuyu." Like a fairy tale, Ha Jin's masterful novel of love
and politics begins with a formula--and like a fairy tale, Waiting
uses its slight, deceptively simple framework to encompass a wide
range of truths about the human heart. Lin Kong is a Chinese army
doctor trapped in an arranged marriage that embarrasses and repels
him. (Shuyu has country ways, a withered face, and most humiliating
of all, bound feet.) Nevertheless, he's content with his tidy
military life, at least until he falls in love with Manna, a nurse
at his hospital. Regulations forbid an army officer to divorce
without his wife's consent--until 18 years have passed, that is,
after which he is free to marry again. So, year after year Lin
asks his wife for his freedom, and year after year he returns
from the provincial courthouse: still married, still unable to
consummate his relationship with Manna. Nothing feeds love like
obstacles placed in its way--right? But Jin's novel answers the
question of what might have happened to Romeo and Juliet had their
romance been stretched out for several decades. In the initial
confusion of his chaste love affair, Lin longs for the peace and
quiet of his "old rut." Then killing time becomes its
own kind of rut, and in the end, he is forced to conclude that
he "waited eighteen years just for the sake of waiting.
Latest Development:
- 18 December 2003:
Excerpt: Peter Chan Ho Sun expressed, "Golden Chicken
3" will have to wait until 2005 to start production because
the schedule is full for next year with "The Eye 2",
"Three 2", and "The Eye 10". As for the
possible Chow Yun-Fat film "Waiting (Dung Doi)",
it has been tentatively scheduled for the end of next year.
Source: HK SAR Top 10
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