---

Arya, I definitely agree that he looks hot. My point is that he doesn't *try* to look hot, he just *is*. I was amazed when I saw the photo set that Amanda de Cadenet took at his house, because that was him putting some effort into looking hot. I almost had a heart attack because it was so unexpected. :-D

---

That shoot is exactly what came to my mind when you first said he doesn't try to look hot. It probably ís a good thing that he doesn't, because every time someone else 'makes' him look hot like Amanda did, one gets into a nearly-fainting-state and I can only imagine that's not nice to have people do that around you all day. :-D

---

I remember the day we first saw those pics from the Vogue Hommes mag. The fandom were atwitter with excitement, myself included...

---

Atwitter?? I had a whole series of fatal heart attacks as I looked at one photo after another. I've never died so much in my entire life. I'm sure that at least 90% of fandom breathed their last sigh that day. Repeatedly.

What we need next is Amanda dC photographing Our Man as he demonstrates his 10 minute routines for getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. His morning shower also needs to be thoroughly documented. For scientific purposes, of course.

Additionally, we need irrefutable evidence of him standing in front of his closet choosing what to wear. I refuse to believe that this has ever happened until I see photographic documentation from boxer shorts onwards. Also for science, I hasten to add.

http://my.opera.com/celebfan2/albums/show.dml?id=876215

I think the entire collection is there and worse, you can zoom in on some of them :/

(With this shoot especially I get the feeling that he's just toying with our minds)

it's also the photographer's merit for creating the right atmosphere...
he trusts Amanda, and the camera captures that.

But actually, I think maybe he's just deeply mocking the whole media-image-model thing by posing for those shirtless, wet, and in-the-bed shots, with that slightly ironic expression. Like he is saying, "This isn't really me. I'll never give you the real me. I'll just give you this, because that's what people expect of hot celebs, and let you make it be whatever you want it to be. Or will I? How do you know who the real me is? Maybe this is me. Or sort of me. Or sometimes me. Or not."

On another note, I am detecting a bed-related recurring theme...this photo shoot...the recent comment about tying himself to the bedpost when he feels like taking a demon ride...the German interview with his comment about how wonderful his bed is...

Whew. Didn't mean to wax philosophical there. He just does that to me, somehow.

OK, all better now!

---

But actually, I think maybe he's just deeply mocking the whole media-image-model thing by posing for those shirtless, wet, and in-the-bed shots, with that slightly ironic expression. Like he is saying, "This isn't really me. I'll never give you the real me. I'll just give you this, because that's what people expect of hot celebs, and let you make it be whatever you want it to be. Or will I? How do you know who the real me is? Maybe this is me. Or sort of me. Or sometimes me. Or not."

---

... wow. this should have been the header of that article. or the closing paragraph.

Universal Pictures is boarding Keanu Reeves' directorial debut Man of Tai Chi, which will be shot in China and co-financed by Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, China Film Group, Wanda Media and Universal.

Reeves, who also will co-star in the martial arts pic, has been in talks with Village Roadshow Asia and China Film Group for months regarding the project. Village Roadshow Asia's affiliates will distribute Man of Tai Chi in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, by China Film Group and Wanda Media Group in China and by Universal in the rest of the world.

Man of Tai Chi reteams Reeves and Village Roadshow, which co-produced and co-financed The Matrix franchise with Warner Bros.

Set in contemporary Beijing, Man of Tai Chi headlines Tiger Chen, who was part of the kung fu team in The Matrix. In Man of Tai Chi, Chen stars as a young martial artist whose fighting skills brings him to a realm of vast opportunities, and painful choices.

Reeves, who is currently in China, will shoot the film in Mandarin and English, and is slated to start production in February.

"We are pleased to announce Man of Tai Chi under the Village Roadshow Pictures Asia label and to extend our long-standing relationship with Keanu," Village Roadshow Entertainment Group CEO Glen Basser said.

Universal International president David Kosse said the opportunity to become further involved in the Chinese market, as well as to bring Chinese films to audiences around the world, is a priority for the studio. "Man of Tai Chi has an amazing pedigree of filmmakers and we're thrilled to be a part of Keanu's directorial debut," he said.

---

On another note, I am detecting a bed-related recurring theme

---

There was a couch-related recurring theme before. He kept talking about his couch and how much he loved it. If I remember correctly he mentioned missing his couch when he lived at the Château Marmont.

I don't mind at all if he continues with this new, bed-related theme. Keep going, Ke, we're all ears. :-D

... which reminded me of the posts on page 2 here and the talk on how Lao Li should be translated..
now we have an official translation :)

Ken Liu's translation is good. Many people believe that the Third Body Problem would not win the award if not have Ken Liu as the translator. I also believe this is one of the key factors. I myself haven't read the book and never gonna to. CX Liu's style of writing in his original language is much like an elementary school pupil, and some people would agree that it is better to read Ken Liu's edition.
The brief introduction of the story and the female roles make me sick, and which is worse, there are some public activities in which CX Liu showed totally no respect to females, arousing unpleasant controversy, the huge number of fans of CX Liu they just bite whatever against their side. Sometimes I wonder that the writer could divide people into groups, some as noble as himself, while others as sacrifices to them.

Wasn't aware of the controversy around Liu Cixin - but even if I were, I'd probably have read the books anyway, because one of the things the Matrix movies taught me was to make my own damned mind about things. So I will read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies out of curiosity. At other times, I will be voting with my wallet - as in giving box office returns to movies I choose to (no that the box office in Romania matters to anyone, anyway...)

At the same time, I have access to many books only through translations... so if you're saying his writing style is simple, then you know better, since it's your language and culture...
Even with the translation, the books felt half-alien to me, because of cultural differences...

The original cultural background is complex, people of CX Liu's generation experienced more political transformations than we do now. And CX Liu's opinion only represent some of his generation, and you know, I don't agree with him. So I think it is just ok that you don't get cultural meaning in his book, it maybe a good thing. I am not talking that CX Liu's writing style is simple, I mean clumsy sometimes unbearable, and as a comparison, George R.R.Martin's is simple and easy to read, and so is Ken Liu's. CX Liu's translated edition in USA has been demanded to modify and remove contents of sex discrimination and this causes dissatisfaction to his fans here who take him as an unshakable belief.
You are not alone. I also read translations, apparently it takes too much time to read the original language edition for me. Once I try to read the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. There are several translated editions from the mainland and TW. I figure out meanings of sentences are not always the same, so I fetch the original English edition. Some words are really hard for me to understand, and by dictionary and web searching, I find out that the translators also didn't do a full work, I mean, they are right, but you know, words have multilevel meanings, Ursula used some words that have particular meanings in philosophy, while some philosophical concepts are quite unfamiliar to common people with our education background.
Take another example. Chinese phonetic annotation is a historical product, it made a great contribution to education. But it is not good enough in linguistics, because the phonetic annotations are not standardized, and meanwhile should not be used directly as words in translation. There are articles criticizing using phonetic annotations instead of words. One of the most famous ones is a complete story, written by Yuanren Zhao, with about a hundred Chinese characters, each Chinese character with the same phonetic annotation, then how could people tell what is talking about merely by phonetic annotations?
So I guess it is inevitable, words lose some meanings, sentences lose some rhythms, and stories lose some cultural backgroud. Yet, we still enjoy books even through translations, only that this would not help us being a professional literature researcher. :)