Award-winning Director Peter Chan, acclaimed producer Andre Morgan, mainland actress Zhou Xun and heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro were all smiles when they stepped into the Garden Suite at Oriental Hotel for their romance musical extravaganza, “Perhaps Love” press conference.

Guess who’s the favourite target amidst the hordes of reporters and media personnel that were present? The answer is none other than Mr Takeshi-drop dead handsome-Kaneshiro. The actor with a mixture of Chinese-Japanese parentage who is renowned for his aloofness was teased constantly by Director Peter Chan. The director of “Comrades: Almost a Love Story” was puzzled at Takeshi’s behaviour when he is not spotted being seen outside his room during the filming period of “Perhaps Love”. And these can last at least for days when he’s not scheduled for filming. But this bizarre behaviour was quickly retorted by the man himself who jokingly insists he was in his room preparing for his role.

Takeshi further explained that nowadays he finds it hard to venture outside without being pictured by hoarding media, to an extent that his family members refused to go out with him and rather stay at home for meals. But don’t worry about this charming fellow, if you wish to catch sights of him, try the States where he says he still roam around freely.

With a US$10 million budget on hand, “Perhaps Love” can be considered quite a hefty Hong Kong production in recent years to grace the silver screen especially when it do not belong to a popular genre such as Kungfu or martial arts. So did Director Peter Chan compromise on his artistic values during the filming of “Perhaps Love”? To that, Peter gave a pretty zen-like answer, he says honestly to be frank, it’s impossible to listen to just one person especially for a production where million of dollars are invested and at risk. He feels he is already very fortunate to shoot his favourite romance genre (which doesn’t guarantee box-office results as mentioned earlier) but in a different form. In fact, he told Producer Andre Morgan that the Hollywood system has conformed to his usual filming approaches rather than vice versa. At this point, Producer Andre Morgan chuckled at Peter’s comments and has nothing but only praises for his cast and director when prompted by the host.

Mainland actress Zhou Xun was asked how similar she was in terms of character to her onscreen counterpart. In her husky low voice, she explained there’s of course certain qualities in her character that are quite close to her in real-life and in addition, she’s glad to put some of her past dancing skills to good use in the movie.

Director Peter Chan who spoke in fluent mandarin is astonished at how much Takeshi’s acting has touched him especially the underwater sequence. A scene that requires Takeshi to be of extreme sadness stature and amazingly, a charming man liked Takeshi is able to convey this message right across in pressurized underwater condition. Certainly, Takeshi has proven to have achieved a pretty good track record in his acting chops in recent years.

And with that, the short 20 minutes press conference ended with a sweet note and the “War of the Cameramen” ensured as the photo session of the stars began.

“Perhaps Love” was voted the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Queens International Film Festival (QIFF), New York and competing against four other films in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 78th Academy Awards (films from India, Turkey, Croatia and Fiji).

Industry and Academy screenings of “Perhaps love” in Hollywood have brought praise and positive reactions from mainly industry and media audiences. Special preview screenings of the film for Academy award and Golden Globe consideration are continuing as this article is being churned out.

So click onto our 5 stars review of “Perhaps Love” here and also the launch ceremony coverage. Perhaps you will be mesmorised by it and purchase a ticket to catch this Asia Broadway style musical when it opens in theatres this Thursday! The songs and drama of Heavenly King Jacky Cheung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhou Xun and Ji Jin-Hee is waiting for you.