SHANGHAI, China, Dec. 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- As part of the promotion lineup for the latest Wong Kar Wai movie “My Blueberry Nights”, “Seeking Dream by Blueberry Bus”, an event jointly organized by Shanghai Film Group, Jet Tone Production Co. and China’s renowned community website iPart, announced that the “Blueberry Dream Bus” has reached its final destination in Shanghai. The ten “Blueberry Girls” selected by online voting ended their one-month road show in ten cities across China in promotion of the film and returned to Shanghai successfully.
(Photo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/200712251605.jpg )
“Seeking Dream by Blueberry Bus” is an attempt to recreate in real life Wong’s concept of self-searching -- a theme revealed in “My Blueberry Nights”. Ten “Blueberry Girls” that were chosen among thousands of applications by online vote boarded the “Blueberry Dream Bus” for a one-month itinerant promotional campaign for the film in ten cities across China. On November 20, in a press conference in Beijing, the “Blueberry Bus” departed from the foot of the Great Wall with blessings from director Wong Kar Wai in person. Boarded with ten dream seeking girls with a mission to promote “My Blueberry Nights”, the bus toured Beijing, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou and Nanjing, before reaching its final destination in Shanghai. At every stop the “Blueberry Bus” promoted the film and was welcomed by local citizens, as the girls thrive to win the hearts of as many as possible, in competing to become the one and only “Blueberry Angel” in the online contest.
“The Blueberry Bus” also participated in the World AIDS Day during its stay in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, with the Chinese Red Cross Foundation inviting the “Blueberry Girls” as special volunteers to help spread AIDS prevention messages with their young, healthy and energetic images. The “Blueberry Girls” launched an initiative, calling people in all walks of life to help AIDs patients and care for children affected by the disease.
As one of the organizers of “Seeking Dream by Blueberry Bus”, iPart conducted the online vote of the ten “Blueberry Girls”. More than 100,000 people voted on the first day as soon as the voting area was launched, a number far exceeding iPart’s expectation. The winner -- “Blueberry Angel” was revealed on December 20, same day as the movie premiered. At the first show of “My Blueberry Nights”, the director Wong Kar Wai and iPart CEO, Zhang Jiaming jointly announced the winner -- Di Zhuxiwen, No. 8 Blueberry Girl, of winning the special honor of “Blueberry Angel” with 508,252 votes. 5 million online votes were casted when the voting ended on December 20 in the one-month period, with nearly 100 major media following the whole course of the journey which passed ten cities and covered 12,000 mileages.
Director Wong Kar Wai was pleased at the outcome of the unique campaign that involved real life experiences of ten young girls. As he commented at the press conference on the day when the campaign was launched: “The campaign itself has surpassed the film by far”. He noted “My Blueberry Nights” was a story about a female seeking true love courageously. Wong was also delighted when he learnt that Wu Mengsi, a Blueberry Girl, decided during the journey to apply for marriage registration at Christmas with her boyfriend for many years, and remarked that it was “My Blueberry Nights” that helped bring about this union.
“Seeking Dream by Blueberry Bus” is a new promotion concept by Jet Tone Production Co. in working with a website for the first time. China’s female social network community website, iPart, has more than 12 million registered users on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The user orientation nature of the website coincides with the character in the film, i.e. both are female, and both their purposes are hitting the road to seek love. The campaign’s success demonstrated the strength of iPart and Director Wong’s outstanding vision.
"My Blueberry Nights"
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Screenwriter: Wong Kar Wai and Laurence Bullock
Leading characters: Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Tim Roth,
Natalie Portman and Ed Harris
How long before one can find love?
Elizabeth experiences many of life's flavors after her first taste of blueberry pie in Jeremy's coffee shop. Jeremy is there for her during some of the harder moments of her life. The complicated and confusing kiss they share brings yet another sensation to mind. Elizabeth leaves New York and embarks on a journey across the American continent. She goes through big cities and small towns, witnessing all kinds of sights and sounds. At the bar in the Blue City, she encounters a drunk and lonely policeman. In a gambling city in the West, she finds both enthusiasm and disappointment with a rebellious girl who happens to be a high-stakes gambler. When she comes to the final stop of her long journey, she knows she has finally found a restarting point. Although she has come a long way and finds herself still very far from home, she knows there's a coffee shop around the corner where she can write Jeremy a postcard.
"My Blueberry Nights" is directed by Wong Kar Wai, produced by Jet Tone Film Production, Shanghai Film Group and Studio Canal, and stars such great actors and actresses as Norah Jones, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. "My Blueberry Nights" is a journey to look forward to, the pursuit of love and oneself.
Website: http://blog.ipart.cn/html/action/071101/blueberry_index.php
About iPart
http://www.ipart.cn is the biggest SNS dating community website for females in China and has over 10 million registered users in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Its main users are female university students and female whitecollars in big cities across China. Its overall style is fresh and healthy and it has a good brand image, attracting many famous stars and artists. Users can create their own cozy home for seeking love and showing oneself. http://www.ipart.cn was elected one of the 100 strongest high-tech companies in Asia for 2007 by Red Herring, an authoritative magazine, in August and was also elected as one of the candidates for the magazine’s global 100 strongest high-tech companies.
The originality of iPart is reported not only by CCTV, BTV, Phoenix TV, Liberation Daily, sina.com, netease.com, TVBS, 800tv.com, ETTV, TTV and China Television Media Ltd., but also by renowned media in America, Japan, Sweden, Singapore, Britain and South Korea, to name but a few.
Introduction to the Activity
“My Blueberry Nights” stars Norah Jones as Elizabeth and is directed by Kar Wai Wong, and the film will be released over the Christmas Period. In the story, following Elizabeth’s disappointing love affair, she meets Jeremy, played by Jude Law, who is the manager of a local coffee shop. However, distressed, she decides to travel across the Great West of America, starting a searching journey. She meets many people and many things happen along the way, but in the end she finds the person she loves is waiting for her at the coffee shop.
It was in this vain that Director Kar Wai Wong created the “Blueberry Bus” activity in the hope of having his film shown on the Chinese mainland. For this purpose he cooperated with iPart to give girls nationwide the chance to enter their names for the possibility to take part in a dream searching journey, which will last for 30 days, cover 10 cities and cover some 6,000 km.
A 1,000-character tour plan was written by over 10,000 of the 10 million netizens of iPart on the Chinese mainland as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and ten girls were selected. A big press conference was held at the foot of the Great Wall in Beijing and the girls are now already on their way.
The aim of this activity is to let the ten girls realize their respective dreams. The ten girls have different backgrounds and experiences, which may be the epitome of thousands of young girls' dilemmas and wishes of realizing dreams on the Chinese mainland. There are some 30 million girls nationwide who have similar growth backgrounds and the desire to seek their dreams. Now the "Blueberry Bus" activity is intended to tell girls nationwide that dreams are just in their hands and love requires them to march forward courageously.
