By Angela Chen
CANNES, France (AP) --Actress Gong Li made a head-turning return to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, but the "Memoirs of a Geisha" star said she's disappointed at the absence of Chinese films at the festival this year.
Not a single Chinese film is in competition, out of competition, or selected for any other category. Gong said she believes that's a sign of an industry that cares too deeply about the dollar sign.
"Of course this is about money," she said Wednesday. "We need to tell everyone that a movie is not merely for entertainment. It might leave you with something much deeper for your soul. It's not just for laughs, not just for jokes. It's more than that. There's not a lot of people talking about that in China right now."
The 50-year-old actress, who has previously starred in films in competition at Cannes and who has served as a jury member, this year is a guest of the french cosmetics brand L'Oreal, for which she's an ambassador.
With close to three decades in the business, Gong has worked extensively with Chinese director Zhang Yimou on films like "Ju Dou," ''Rise the Red Lantern" and "To Live." She also worked in Hollywood in the early 2000s, appearing in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Miami Vice."
When asked if a lack of roles for Asian actors has kept her from a larger Hollywood career, Gong said that the issue was less about ethnicity than gender.
"There are a lot of male roles, but not a lot of female roles. There are a lot of great actresses in the U.S. and there aren't enough roles for them. It's even hard for them to get a good female role, never mind a Chinese actress. How do you integrate that into the script? That's very hard. How do you mix a Chinese actor with a group of foreigners? It's not easy."
Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games
Sony's profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony's latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gilmour's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."
One area where Sony's business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
Read More