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The Korean Society of Cinematographers Golden Cinema Awards were announced today. It's an award judged by one's peers for having the best cinematography in a film from the previous year.

This year's awardees were Kim Hyung-gu for Rikidozan (Golden Prize), Lee Jun-gyu for Arahan (Silver Prize), and Seok Hyeong-jing for R-Point (Bronze Prize). I've seen Arahan and R-Point and both were pretty. I haven't seen Rikidozan so I can't say much on that.

The Best New Cinematographer award was shared between Kim Hyo-jin for Liar, Kim Dong-cheon for Bunshinsaba, and Park Sang-hun for Spin Kick.

via Koreanfilm.org.

HUGE thanks to Brian for pointing this out ...

Slated to appear at this year's Jeonju Film Festival is Soul Dancing, a new 23 minute short from Kiyoshi Kurosawa starring Tadanobu Asano! I'm just about to start looking for more info on this, but in the meantime the official festival listing is here and a batch of photos is here ...

Fresh of its six award performance at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards, Sony Classics has announced release dates for Wong Kar Wai's 2046. The film will launch on August 5th in New York and LA before rolling out to a wider release ...

God bless Alexis Moore. Who? The lovely Sony PR lass who, despite my complete ignorance that such a thing even existed, just dropped me a note to say that I had somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty packs of Kung Fu Hustle trading cards merrily making their way through the postal system to me. I know absolutely nothing about these other than the fact that they are now up for grabs. Want some? Here's what you've got to do: drop me an email here laying out, in detail, what mystical kung fu power you most desire and why. Those who make me laugh loudest win. I'll give you a couple of weeks on this one ... entries accepted until April 15th ...

*** UPDATE ***

I just got JPGs of the cards and they're using the same designs as those character based one sheets we linked to a while back ... they've apparently got vital stats of all the characters on the backs ...

I will admit that a sense of dread came over me when I heard that the hit BBC britcom The Office was being remade for American television. Not surprising for a nation that continually borrows good ideas from other countries [British comedy and Japanese horror to name a couple] but I was not ready to watch them bastardize it. However, upon viewing the first two episodes I may change my tone. Still waiting though. Nothing definitive yet. But, if they continue to roll with just the concept of the series and simply not rehash the other eleven episodes and double episode Christmas special they may very well succeed.

Having said that and gotten that off my chest [what's with the chest references tonight?] I will proclaim to the massess that Steve Carell is a very funny man. From his days on The Daily Show to delivering the best lines in Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and now the oh-so despicable boss, Michael Scott, in The Office Steve Carell is on the rise to further stardom. He's wrapped up shooting on Bewitched and is currently shooting The 40-year Old Virgin.

And today we received word that he is part of the remake of the 60s television show Get Smart...

"They're developing right now, and they are in the process of writing the script so it's somewhere down the road. Right now, the approach is modern day. The basic premise is that both CONTROL and KAOS have fallen on hard times and are not being funded by the government. They're not getting the same kind of funding as (the) CIA. They have one last mission to try to get back on top - it's not retro at all."

Steve Carell is on his way to being a household name. I just hope we don't see the trend of saturating the market with a comedic leading man like we're witnessing with Will Ferrell right now.

via ComingSoon.

You know its been a slow news day when...

Dear lord I hope they mean the kind of chest that is made of wood and full of good and booty, and not Bloom running around with a shirt off. Fingers crossed folks.

I liked the first one. Twas a good romp. Not overly excited about the next ones but I need to keep busy and posting this is keeping me from doing harm to my houseplant while I wait for someone to seed tonight's episode of The O.C.

Click here for a larger version.

via film247.net.

Just been over again to homevision.com to see if they're up and they're up...! Here are small versions of the American discs artwork for Kiyoshi Kurosawas astonishing 'Seance' and 'Charisma'.

Head over to their site to see larger version at each films page; click the relevant name above and then on the small preview shown there.

Cunninghams 'Rubber Johnny' short is due during May on DVD, here in the UK at least. Warp have taken the time to interview Chris about the piece, and have included a few great pictures from the six minute film. Don't look at them in front of your employers or your kids though. Shocking (but cool) stuff. See and read it here.

The Japanese omnibus film female (fîmeiru) was screened at the 29th Hong Kong International Film Festival last Saturday (March 26), and will be screened there again this Saturday (April 2). female is comprised of five shorts. "Momo", based on a story by Kaoruko Himeno, was directed by Tetsuo Shinohara and stars Kyôko Hasegawa (Hasegawa Kyouko). "Taiyô no mieru basho made", based on a story by Yuzuki Muroi (Muroi Yuduki), was directed by Ryûichi Hiroki (Hiroki Ryuuichi) and stars Chihiro Ôtsuka (Ootsuka Chihiro). "Yoru no shitasaki", based on a story by Kei Yuikawa, was directed by Suzuki Matsuo and stars Saki Takaoka. "Megami no kakato", based on a story by Asa Nonami, was directed by Miwa Nishikawa and stars Nene Ôtsuka (Ootsuka Nene). "Tamamushi", based on a story by Mariko Koike, was directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto and stars Eri Ishida.

Dang it! I hate hearing good news about about this film!!! Hurry up and do your theatrical run so I can buy the DVD already!!! Dang it!

Positive review and brief film overview over at The Korea Times. Attention: possible spoilers.

Well this just plain sucks. Having no previous connection with the Dr. Who universe I rather enjoyed Christopher Eccleston in the title role but the BBC has reported that he has quit the BBC's new Doctor Who series after just one episode of the new series aired. The actor only signed for the current series of 13 episodes.

The first episode attracted around 10 million viewers in its premiere on March 26, and Eccleston feared being typecast, the network said. He said that he is planning new projects and that he found filming the series gruelling. Christopher, who is dating TV actress Siwan Morris, said he found it demanding being away in Cardiff to film the 13 episodes.

He hinted that he could be set to quit, saying: "I might be the first Doctor to just appear in one series, It's been brilliant to make but it's hard work. It's a long time to be away from home. It's hard on anyone in a relationship. It would be great to have a 10th Doctor, then an 11th. The show will go on and on - it's not about me."

Talks are taking place to replace him with the star of the BBC3 show Casanova, David Tennant. According to DailyRecord other contenders included Love Actually star Bill Nighy, Harry Potter actor David Thewlis, and comedian Eddie Izzard.

The good news is that Billie Piper, who plays Doctor Who's assistant, Rose, and is incredibly hot, is expected to continue her role. I could watch her run away from evil all day.

Eccleston's last appearance is expected to be in a Christmas special.

via BBC and DailyRecord.

A lot of people have already commented on how Sin City is the most faithful comic book to film adaptation ever which prompted the good people at FilmRot to ask the question "Can it really be that close?" Apparently the answer is yes, yes it can. Click here to check out their fantastic comparison of comic frames and still shots from the various trailers ...

Just gave the Jeonju Film Festival website another spin and although it's still not fully functional - the english option doesn't seem to be there yet - I was able to turn up some very worthwhile stuff including the first images from Shinya Tsukamoto's Haze, Song Il-Gon's The Magicians and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Worldly Desires! I'm itching to see the anthology project these are part of ... three fantastic directors with very different styles that I think will work very well together. Song's effort looks very theatrical and I'm intrigued by it being a one take film, Worldly Desires reminds me a lot of the fantastic Tropical Malady and just what is that in shot number five from Haze!?! Tsukamoto's got something odd up his sleeve ...

The entire festival lineup is available here, all nice and alphabetical ...

This has the look of an 'official' leak to me, but even so I doubt it'll be available for long, so act quickly if you want to see it ...

The opening sequence of Danny the Dog (AKA Unleashed) has turned up online and it includes the entire first fight sequence - almost three minutes of goodness. The video file is a little bit dark but it was definitely taken direct from an official source so it's all crisp and clean. Is it good? Oh, yes. And definitely the most brutal fight sequence I have ever seen Jet Li involved in ... just wait till he starts bouncing the guy's head off the floor ...

Happy times start here.

Thanks to Ian for the link.

Okay, all you pinko lefties! Who wants a free copy of The Corporation? 'Cause we've got two of them to give away, the fancy two DVD edition, even. But I want to make sure they go somewhere that they can do the greatest good possible so if you want one, here's what you have to do: email me here detailing your sweatshoppiest guilty pleasure. Got a Nike fetish? A secret stash of Kathie Lee fashions? Gimme your list and the two I judge most needy will be the proud owners of their very own Corporation DVD. You've got till April 5th ...

One of the obvious benefits of running a site like this is that I am often exposed to excellent films that I would otherwise miss entirely. Such is the case with Head On (Gegen Die Wand), a brilliant, searing film that has received little notice on these shores despite winning major awards around the world. I guess there's just not much of a market for Turko-German social critique ...

Head On revolves around Cahit and Sibel, a pair of Turks living in Germany. When we first meet Cahit - a forty-something man who makes a living cleaning up empties at a goth-punk bar - he is about as unappealing as is humanly possible. Unwashed and unshaven Cahit is in the midst of a massive drunk, so degraded and desperate for alcohol that he finishes the last stagnant dregs found in abandoned glasses at his cleaning job. He staggers from bar to bar becoming more abrasive, more abusive at each stop. The binge comes to an abrupt end when Cahit drives his car head on, at full speed, into a brick wall. This is ruled an attempted suicide and Cahit is forced into a psychiatric hospital.

Continue reading "Head On (Gegen Die Wand) Review"

Mmm. Good. Got a note today inviting me to take a quick look at a pair of short films from Simon Burrill, a young film maker out of the UK and they are good stuff. Horseplay is an odd little three minute absurdist piece chock full of fantastic cinematography while Mr. Theobald is ... well ... hard to describe, but pretty fantastic if you're of the Lynch / Maddin appreciation set. Which I am. The player size is frustratingly small but definitely give those two a look ...

The host site is well worth kicking around in as well ... it's a short film site hosted by the BBC to showcase new talent ... in Burrill's words "there's less crap than the usual overflooded shorts sites" which, after a quick perusal, I am quite happy to confirm. Check it out.

Gah! Just went to finish up my order for SARS Wars (see below) and saw that also out today is the Thai VCD of Godzilla Final Wars! This hasn't even been announced anywhere else yet, as far as I know, so go ahead and ask me: do I care that it's dubbed into Thai and doesn't include subtitles? Not a bit. Hell, it's a Kitamura film so it's not like the dialogue's going to matter at all ...

Thai DVDs generally follow the VCD releases by about a week ... I'll drop a note and see what I can find out. In the meantime the VCD is here. And deep inside I just know you want this one, too. How could you say no to Dolph and Jerry?

I have no idea why I'm looking forward to this one so much ... there's just something about the premise that's so incredibly ridiculous that I can't help but smile when thinking of it ... anyway, the Thai DVD for SARS Wars is out now, and English subs are included. A-shopping I will go ...

It's the rumor that won't die ... despite the assertions of director Tsui Hark that the film will not be through the editing process on time to screen there CRI Online is again reporting that the film - along with Jackie Chan's The Myth and Chen Kaige's The Promise - will be premiering at the Cannes Film Festival. They don't cite a source for the information and CRI is not always the most reliable of sources, so take it with a grain of salt ...

Thanks to Chelle for the pointer.

This has got to be just about the biggest piece of news to hit horror circles in a good while ... By now most fans of the genre should be aware of the Masters of Horror, an informal circle of film makers who meet bi-monthly for dinner to shoot the breeze about their chosen genre. Well, Showtime has just commissioned a thirteen part series from the group with the shows made up of single hour films from many of the key directors. You want new Argento? It'll be here. Same with Romero, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and a slew of others. The most exciting news for me was that Don Coscarelli's entry will be based on a short story by Joe Lansdale, the author of Bubba Ho Tep. Sweet! Here are the relevant bits from the Variety report:

"Spurred by the recent string of box-office horror hits, Showtime has nabbed rights to "Masters of Horror," a series of 13 hourlong films to be helmed and/or written by the genre's top names. IDT Entertainment's New Arc unit, Industry Entertainment and Nice Guy Prods. are producing "Masters," the idea for which sprung from a bimonthly dinner attended by several of the participating directors ... Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Roger Corman, Don Coscarelli, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, John Landis, Tobe Hooper and George Romero are slated to direct installments ... Showtime will shell out more money than some of the B-movie auteurs are used to getting, according to Greenblatt. He says the budget per film will be comparable to the per-episode cost of a first-season scripted drama --typically $1 million-$2 million ... As for the individual films, helmers will produce new projects and adaptations as well as retellings of classics. Among them are "Deer Woman," which Landis co-wrote with his son Max; "Jenifer," to be directed by Argento based on the comicbook by Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson and adapted by and starring Steven Weber; "Incident on and off a Mountain Road," adapted and directed by Coscarelli and Stephen Romano from Joe Lansdale's short story; and "Chocolate," which Garris will direct based on his own short story."

From Comingsoon.net, Hollywood Reporter too: 'Stars' or 'Actors' are Kristen Bell of UPN's "Veronica Mars" and newcomer Steve Talley. Release is by Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Walt Disney-free Dimension Films label. Commercial director Jim Sonzero is making his feature debut on the film.

And just listen to how they describe it and get worried now, "The story revolves around a Web site that turns out to be run by a sinister force. As more people go to the site, the supernatural force begins to dominate the lives of those that log on. Bell and Talley's characters team up to unravel the mystery." Blimey, I am slowly losing all hope to live. If I remember correctly, as it has been a couple of years since I watched Pulse, it's a computer emulation that represents the relationship between people - am I right? They seem to have shifted elements of the story around "a little". It's not about technology as much as its about people and human nature.

Comingsoon also note : The script was written by Wes Craven and rewritten by Vince Gilligan. Craven was once attached to direct.

I'll freely admit that I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan. Yes, the man has a mildly embarrassing over-reliance on big Surprise Twists but he also shoots some gorgeous film and tends to layer some interesting subtext into his scripts. That said for some reason I just couldn't muster a lot of enthusiasm for the news a couple days back that he was setting up a new film - The Lady in the Water - over at Warner Brothers. That is, until now.

Variety has just announced that Paul Giamatti and Bryce Howard will be playing the lead roles. Howard was by far the best thing going in The Village and Giamatti is simply an outright genius who has been jobbed by the Oscars two years in a row now ... I'd go see this on the basis of cast alone pretty much regardless of who the director is but put those two with a guy who writes intelligent scripts and who I still believe will land at least a few major technical awards before he's done and I'm there with bells on. Tinkle, tinkle.

Now hopefully someone at Warners will convince him that he's a good enough writer to drop the whole twist ending angle ... and I have no idea what this film means for his long rumored adaptation of The Life Of Pi, which had been widely touted as his next film ...

I suspect the notion of whether or not to see Queen Latifah’s new movie “Beauty Shop” is either a solid “yes” or a solid “no”, with very little room for “maybe”. I admit that I would’ve ordinarily came down on the side of “no”, but I had nothing else going on the night of the screening, and hey, it was free. That said, I haven’t seen either of the “Barber Shop” movies, which this was spun off from. I hear they’re both pretty funny, succeeding in transcending the obvious racial barriers inherent in such urban-entrenched subject matter. As far as Latifah herself goes, I’ve always perceived her as more of a personality than an actress. (I mindlessly thought this even after she did so great as Mama in “Chicago”. But those ads for “Bringing Down the House” and “Taxi” did little to make me reconsider.) With that in mind I figured why not see what all the hoopla’s about (with both the “Shop” franchise and Latifah’s career as a leading lady.) So how did a suburban white geek like myself enjoy the movie? All in all, it wasn’t great, but I admit it was a lot more watchable than I though it would be.

Continue reading "Beauty Shop Review"

If you’re any kind of fan of documentaries or artists that defy classification, you won’t to miss “In the Realms of the Unreal”, filmmaker Jessica Yu’s affectionate exploration of the work of Henry Darger. If you’re asking who Henry Darger is, and why he’s deserving of your attention, well, that’s the central issue Yu attempts to unravel.

Darger died in 1973, just another quiet and reclusive old man, as far as anyone else knew. He lived very much alone and in poverty for most of his life in Chicago. But inside his small apartment, Darger had meticulously constructed a vivid fantasy world replete with characters and places echoing some of the more traumatic parts of his life. This whimsical but also dangerous world was depicted in hundreds of original breathtaking paintings, as well as a monumentally epic 15,000 page, single-spaced typed novel, “In the Realms of the Unreal”.

Continue reading "In the Realms of the Unreal Review"

Do I honestly need an excuse to post a picutre of Zhang Ziyi? In case I do, both MonkeyPeaches and CRIENGLISH briefly covered todays press screening of Ziyis first Japanese film Tanuki Goten [Raccoon Dog Palace].

Zhang Ziyi says the genre of the film is new for her. She had to memorize a lot of Japanese songs and took singing and dancing classes in Japan to prepare for the part.

Director Seijun Suzuki says he has no complaints about working with Zhang Ziyi saying she is a multi-talented international star. CRIENGLISH

There are other pictures of todays events at Sina.com.

Has A Bittersweet Life become the new Oldboy for the Twitch gang? Admittedly, we're taking a huge risk here ranting and raving about a film that we haven't seen yet. But, we have placed our faith in what we have seen and read about the film and will not stop giving you more info about it. Either you're as excited about this film as we are or you're sick of it. Meh. We like what we see.

Here's another short article in Chosun.com giving director, Kim Ji-woon, and lead actor, Lee Byeong-huns thoughts on different aspects of the movie.

Okay, I lied ... still not sleeping - and I must say that this sort of running commentary would work much better if the site didn't put the newest articles at the top, thus making the commentary run in reverse - but only because this is far too cool. Yep, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the book) expounding on matters relavent to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the movie), all in the soothing, dulcet tones of Mr. Stephen Fry. You know you want to try it.

Oh ... and if you're one of those Winamp-y sorts of people, you can get a HHGG skin for that here.

Could be ...

I'm not going to sit here and re-iterate what someone else has already done a fantastic job of saying, so I'll just say that I agree with everything Moriarty says here and redirect you to the article at AICN ...

And now I go to bed.

I have to get up at five tomorrow to go to work so I really should be in bed right now, but ... but ... Paul Thomas Anderson is making another movie!!!

Why yes, I am a fan. Magnolia is as near to a perfect film as has ever been made. Thus any PTA news is good news for me. Unless, of course, the news is that he's dead. Which this news is not.

Word is he has written an adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel Oil and the early money says that Daniel Day Lewis will star. As of right now everything's apparently ready to go but the financing. Someone give the man some money!

Originally via PTAnderson.com but I spotted it at AICN.

Okay, I've been open in the past about my dislike for Lynch's Dune - the weakest of his films, in my opinion - but if this is true, I'm so there. So very, very there.

"fantastic news today regarding the recently delayed Dune extended edition dvd--it appears that the release date was pushed back b/c lynch had a last minute change-of-heart and decided to revisit the film (which he had previously claimed he was done w/ forever). this means that we will finally get to watch a lynch-approved director's cut of Dune, which is infinitely better than the previously-announced crappy alan smithee tv edit. considering that lynch should have some 5+ hours of footage to work with during the re-edit process, hopefully this new version will add a significant amount of lynch-y goodness and flesh out the scope of the cool-yet-flawed theatrical version. this was totally one of those things, along with fincher revisiting Alien 3, that i thought would never ever happen. very happy about this...

from:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents"

Big thanks to Jung for the note ...

Hurray for us! Sometime this afternoon Twitch rolled over the five hundred thousand visitor mark. Not bad ... in just slightly over six months we've gone from four or five hundred page loads a day to four or five thousand with the numbers continuing to climb all the time, and those numbers don't even include our forum traffic.

To celebrate I went out and ponied up for another ten gig of bandwidth per month because we maxed out again yesterday.

The Hollywood Reporter has just announced that the Disney / Weinstein Brothers split is complete with Disney retaining the Miramax name and the Miramax / Dimension back catalog while the Weinstein's will take the Dimension label with them on their exit. Bob and Harv will stay with Miramax on a non-exclusive basis until September 30th at which point they're gone for good ...

The big question for me, and the unanswered one, is what the new guy will do with all the titles Miramax is still sitting on ... read the full story here.

Or at least that's the rumor ... I can't turn a list up on Google and the festival's official site won't load up for me ... a little help?

Alright all you commie pinko Canadians, listen up. Tp celebrate the DVD release of The Corporation - It just won a Genie award, you know. Did the broadcast cross the magical Brampton line this year? - director Mark Achbar will be loitering about Toronto on April 1st and 2nd and making himself available for widespread adulation and fondling by groupies.

Okay, I made part of that up. He is going to be here, though. Read on for the full press release. And we should have a couple copies to give away in a contest, probably starting tomorrow if the FedEx notice I found on my door today means what I think it does ...

Continue reading "The Corporation DVD Launch in Toronto"

Title says it all, really. Not bad for a film shot in eight days ...

Well, according to Davis DVD you'll only have to wait until August, when Lion's Gate will be putting it back on the shelves ...

"Lions Gate Home Entertainment plans on re-releasing Takashi Miike's incredible film Audition on DVD sometime this August. Previously released through Ventura Entertainment, Audition will include a new introduction and on-camera interview with Miike, select scene commentary with Miike, a Q&A at the American Cinematheque, a Tour of the Egyptian Theatre, an interview with author Ryu Murakami, a photo gallery, trailers and more."

Another one courtesy of Logboy ...

No specs yet but word is that the Hong Kong DVD of the Pang Brothers' Eye 10 will release May 17th. I haven't seen anyone talking about this one on different asian film boards ... is it just that the Pang's appeal has taken a beating with their recent string of sub-par films or is it so bad that it's not worth saying anything about? I'll probably pick this one up if it's cheap but I'm certainly not itching for it like I have with past Pang efforts ... here's hoping Recycle lives up to that early test footage ...

Via Logboy and DVDAnswers ...

I just got a note from Jung pointing out that the 2005 San Francisco Film Festival site has gone live and, although the program hasn't officially been announced, you can find this year's films here. Yes,yes that link says 2004 on it but I did some poking around and those are really the 2005 films. The list of films having their premieres at the festival can be found here ...

I just got a note directing me to the website for a little film titled Red Doors that looks pretty fascinating ... the director has worked with Scorsese in the past and had a decent number of shorts do the festival rounds and it looks as though she's gone majorly autobiographical with her feature debut. No trailer yet, but I'm writing to find out when one will be available ... here's the word from a student who helped edit it:

"Hi guys, I've always loved the site and finally have something cool to tell you! I attended The Edit Center in NYC this summer as part of a college project for Penn State and 6 months later the dark asian comedy my class worked on has actually materialized into a real film! And it's good! (Edit Center lets folks learn final cut helping on small features, big deal right? They do deserve coverage in their own right, I got to meet Craig McKay and listen to him talk about cutting 'Silence of the Lambs', not shabby for a college kid from PA).

Here are the sites:

reddoorsthemovie.com
bdcfilms.com

It's in competition at Tribeca this year for the NY prize.
The director has won awards for her shorts and was Martin Scorsese's apprentice on Gangs of NY, so there's talent there."

Thanks to Michael for the heads up ...

Oh, sweet lord ... I was one mighty pleased boy when I heard that Tony Scott was going to be shooting a film based on a Richard Kelly script. Why? Though overshadowed by his bigger, splashier brother I've always found Tony to be the more consistent of the two and also the one more willing to take risks that pay off large. His entry in the BMW films series was the strongest of the lot in my view and he's already shown with True Romance that he's more than able to take a script loaded with independent spirit and make it into something that manages to be larger and glossier without coming anywhere close to losing its soul. Which brings us to Domino.

As has been pointed out in the old thread here where the trailer first came to my attention this thing looks like a Tony Scott film - which means big, gorgeous and technically superb - but I, for one, can also see Kelly's fingerprints all over this thing. If there's a big mainstream director out there who shows more respect to his writers than Tony Scott I don't know who it is. For big summer fun that doesn't entirely involve checking the brain at the door, click here. Yum.

Many people including myself have been enjoying the first season (from 2002) of 'Stand Alone Complex', and like me you might have spotted the Second Gig (second season, from 2004) has been coming out in Japan on DVD. When do we get it then? Well, fairly soon after the First Season ends is the answer.

Hopefully this time there will be no slight hiccups in the audio on the discs, which seamed to plague the first couple of discs. Additionally, I know the scale of the story telling goes up and the production values might even get better if that's possible.

There's a great inteview with the Director of the show Kenji Kamiyami at Patrick Macias blog here.

Thai horror flick Shutter is a film that has arrived a couple years too late. Had it been made in the early going of the current Asian horror boom it very likely would have been hailed a minor classic, mentioned in the same breath as Nakata’s Ringu and Kurosawa’s Kairo. Coming this late in the game, however, it seems that a good number of people have taken a look at the early materials, branded it a derivative knock off, and thought no further about it. Those people are certainly justified in their thinking – Shutter IS quite derivative, owing a large debt to Nakata in particular, but it also succeeds in taking what is now a rather tired formula and re-injecting it with life, creating a film that is significantly more than the sum of its parts.

Continue reading "Shutter Review"

No news on English Subtitles. Special Edition catalogue number is BBIJ-5422, and the Standard is BBIJ-5423. The American disc is due in 2005, but loads of us are hoping this first and probably best edition will have Subs when we find more details. For now, just hope.

Man ... this thing just looks better and better the more I see of it ...

Filmacco has spotted the link to the new Japanese trailer for A Bittersweet Life. This one's got fewer 'money shots' in it than previous trailers but thanks to a gradual build that follows the emotional arc of the story I think this is my favorite trailer for the film thus far. It definitely does the best job of balancing the story with the action. It's only available in streaming Windows Media format, which is unfortunate, but at least it loads up fast ... check it out here.

Yes that's right - a decent British film, 'cos it's not trying to be anything other than a film about the British as they are now (well, a slice of the society anyway), and it's not trying to sell itself to anywhere else. It's a titles that's starting to get some decent recognition and reviews. Ashley Walters is being heavily praised for his 'top job' in the lead and from the trailer alone he looks like a very promising talent. It's also worth pointing out the music is by Robert Del Naja (3D of 'Massive Attack').

The 'Verve Pictures' site for the film has the downloadable trailer in QT and WMV (two different sizes for each also) here. The movies official site is here. Great looking film.

The official website for Kittikorn Liasirikun's The Bullet Wives (The mia) is online. There's a downloadable 2 1/2 minute trailer (6 MB WMV file) for the film on the site here.

The Bullet Wives was produced by Avant Co. Ltd. - a subsidiary of RS Promotion PCL. It's scheduled to be released theatrically in Thailand by RS Film & Distribution Co. Ltd. - also a subsidiary of RS Promotion - on April 6.

The nine principal cast members of The Bullet Wives - all of them women - are as follows: Nussaba Punnakan, Methinee Kingpayome (a.k.a. Luk Ked), Apasiri Nitipon, Taranya Sattabusya, Penpak Sirikul, Naowarat Yuktanan, Pornwadee Pongsatit, Pimsiree Pimsee, and Vichitra Triyakul.

Did a bit of searching based on that Udine list tonight and I came up with this one ... Pattaya Maniac is a comedy from the director of Rahtree that apparently did quite well in Thailand.

From what I can tell it's a story of petty thuggery revolving around a low grade karaoke bar. A bit of gangsterism, a bit of slapstick ... the director is known for genre hopping and this looks to be more of the same. It's already out on Thai DVD, but no subs ...

Check out all the familiar faces in the trailer. If you've got even a passing interest in Thai film there are a handful of people that you'll recognize ...

Teaser, trailer, music video one, music video two.

Sweet ... Dreams, the quasi-official Terry Gilliam fansite - has just interviewed the production designer for Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm and have posted a series of design sketches with the article. Just sweet, sweet stuff ... check 'em here.

Via Greencine.

Did we tell you so? I'm fairly certain we did ... the Hong Kong Film Awards have wrapped up with 2046 and Kung Fu Hustle both taking home six awards including a Best Picture nod for Hustle, a best actor for Tony Leung and Best Actress for Zhang Ziyi, and best cinematography to Christopher Doyle. Bai Ling picked one up for Dumplings and Oldboy went home with Best Asian Film. Check the full list here.

The complete lineup for this year's Udine Far East Film Festival has been announced and I find it a little odd in that these are films that I've either already seen - about half of them - or have never heard anything about. Which isn't to say that I know everything about Asian film but you'd expect to at least here a few rumblings about films slated to hit as major a festival as this one ...I'll be doing my best to dig up info on the ones I don't know and any input would be appreciated ... read on for the full list and check out the official Udine site here.

Via the Asian DVD Guide Forums.

Continue reading "Udine Far East Film Festival Lineup Announced"

Didn't like that first Kung Fu Hustle onesheet? Well, you've got ten more to love or loathe now, one for each of the major characters ... this is the sort of thing generally reserved for a major release, so it's nice to see Hustle getting this sort of attention. Check all ten out here.

Via Filmacco.

Sha Po Lang hasn't even released yet but apparently director Wilson Yip knows a good thing when he sees it so he is already chasing after star Donnie Yen to star in and choreograph his next flick, Dragon Tiger Clan. They're still looking for financing but I can't imagine that'll be a problem for long ... the film is based on a popular HK comic about three brothers fighting against evil.

More details at Wu Jing ...

Some would call it dedication. Some would call it research for my impending trip. I call it a distinct lack of social life. Here are a whole bunch of trailers for films appearing at the upcoming Philadelphia Film Festival ... I made it about three quarters of the way through their program before the brain started to melt and I gave up and I'm not including trailers to any of the films (such as Kontroll or IZO) that we've talked up plenty in the past. A good number of these are not work safe, so bear that in mind ...

Stratosphere Girl. Wow ... this one is pretty much a must see, I think. The story of a young German girl who wants to be a manga artist while living in Japan and working as a hostess. Dark, inventive, beautifully shot ... If the finished film is nearly as good as the trailer this is one to look out for.

UNO. A dark Norweigian thriller about a young thug forced to decide between loyalty to his dying father, his mentally disabled brother and a gang of petty criminals. Another must see for me ... there have been a few films in the past year that have really rekindled my interest in Scandanavian film and this one definitely looks to rank up there ...

Erbsen Auf Halb 6. Not really sure how to summarize this one ... a German romantic comedy? Road movie? Both? Neither? Whatever ... it's about a guy who loses his site in a car accident and travels across the country with a young blind woman. The footage looks stunning and frequently very funny. Funny Germans? Who knew? Those genes must have skipped my family ...

Antares. A fairly grim Austrian film that tracks three inerlocked stories of love gone wrong. Very wrong. Not much in the way of brightness and cheer, here.

Astronautas. A Spanish film about a recovering middle aged drug addict trying to live a 'normal' life only to have it interupted by a teen aged girl looking for her missing brother.

Too Beautiful To Lie. Korean comedy about a female con artist.

This Charming Girl. A quiet Korean character study following an introverted woman's life. This one's picked up some major critical buzz and it's pretty easy to see why ... beautifully shot and the trailer's enough to say that the performance of the central character is pretty impressive ...

Lautlos. Another German entry - there are a lot of German films playing this year - this one a spin on the 'hit man with a heart of gold' genre. Cool-ly professional hitman falls in love with intended target, angry boss sends swarms of new hit men to take out original. Much violence ensues. With cross-bows. And, evidentally, a great deal of German cursing.

Somersault. Australian coming of age drama that has won a stack of awards and, again, it's pretty obvious why. Fantastic film work meets a solid lead actress ... it's a good combination.

Quiet As A Mouse. Another German one, this one a broad slapstick comedy. My limited German was enough to have me laughing aloud at the narration on trailer number three ... "Du hast angst ..."

La Promesa. Spanish chiller that I'd likely think much higher of if they'd done even a passable job encoding that trailer ... ick ...casting a frumpy, aging house keeper as the central character may just be a mark of genius, though ...

Mon Tresor. The story of a girl living with her prostitute mother in Tel Aviv. Bright and cheery and it won the Camera D'Or at Cannes.

Kammerflimmern. Another one from Germany ... may be trying a little too hard to be 'edgy' and 'hip' or I may just be being over critical. Definitely a lot to like in there though I'd hold off on the Tykwer comparisons just at the moment ...

Thanks to Aaron - whose eyes are evidently keener than mine since I totally missed this despite reading the same article - for pointing this one out ...

Buried at the bottom of a Hollywood Reporter article on the HK Filmart recently was a wee note - surprisingly not picked up anywhere else - saying that Tartan Films has bought rights to Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves - his follow up to Last Life in the Universe. This thing hasn't even wrapped filming yet so the purchase is a surprising bit of good news. Hopefully they'll get it released promptly ...

Oooh ... thanks to Roraz for pointing this out ...

All five episodes of the second series of Clone Wars are available online at the official Star Wars site here. Cartoon Network's got 'em online, too, but will only let people in the USA watch them ... the Star Wars link is good everywhere ...

Impressive. Not only did the BBC have the guts to bring back something decent, they gave them enough money and freedom to reinvent it sufficiently yet the writers chose to also keep in linked to the past. Christopher Eccleston is a fine choice, very capable and dynamic actor. Rose (Billy Piper) is the ideal side-kick: young, strong-minded, attractive. The relationship looks natural and strong right from the start.

Continue reading "Doctor Who. First Episode 'Rose' Just Finished Here In The UK."

We'll be accepting entries up until April 12th ... in the menatime check out the official website for DIG here and Reconstruction here.

As always, read on for the rules and regs.

Continue reading "Dig and Reconstruction DVD Giveaways!"

Whee! Palm just passed along their coming release schedule and there's some great stuff due to hit DVD soon ... Voila:

May 24 Freestyle
Jun 14 The Nomi Song
Jun 28 Gunner Palace
Jul 12 JSA
Jul 12 Victim
Aug 09 Full Alert
Aug 09 Memories of Murder
Aug 30 The Work of Director Mark Romanek
Aug 30 The Work of Director Stefan Sednoui
Aug 30 The Work of Director Anton Corbijn
Aug 30 The Work of Director Jonathan Glazer
Oct 11 Bomb the System
Oct 11 Calvaire
Nov 08 Cronicas

Oooh ... something I pulled off the KineJapan mailing list ...

"The Council on East Asian Studies, the Department of East Asian
Languages and Literatures, and the Film Studies Program of Yale
University present

Japanese Film Director Aoyama Shinji

Combining genre cinema with a rigorous critique of postwar Japanese
society, Aoyama Shinji is one of the leading figures of contemporary
Japanese culture, directing award-winning films such as Eureka (which
the Los Angeles Times said "will become one of the landmarks of the
world cinema of the first decade of the 21st century"), writing
prize-winning novels, and becoming an intellectual force with his
criticism and theory. Yale University is pleased to have Aoyama visit
for nearly two weeks to show four of his films, direct two weekend
workshops, and participate in several discussions on Japanese film and culture.

Continue reading "Shinji Aoyama Spending Two Weeks At Yale! Screenings and Discussions O'Plenty ..."

Yeah, I've only seen one film in the series - and I honestly didn't care for it all that much - but I just love the poster images. Seriously, what's not to love about a head in a bag?

Jiangtou continues to roam about the far east and taunt us with photos from the HK Filmart ... check 'em out ... poster for a new Oxide Pang produced film down below ...

Continue reading "More Shots From the HK Filmart"

A reader just sent this in and he makes one mighty good point ... I'm pretty shocked a major paper would print this ...

Hi Twitch,

I urge your readers to send Rex Reed of the New York Obsever a message of utter contempt due to his insensitive and almost racist remarks regarding his review of Oldboy, of which he obviously did not like. As quoted from this link : http://www.observer.com/pages/onthetown.asp

"For sewage in a cocktail shaker, there is Oldboy, a noxious helping of Korean Grand Guignol as pointless as it is shocking. What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs? "

I would understand if he were to focus his opinion towards the film, but not generalize the whole of Korea.

Bloody News has just posted an extensive interview with Paul Schrader and it's a pretty fantastic read. Want the dirt on what went on behind the scenes throughout the whole Exorcist: The Beginning debacle? He spills it he spills it with a good bit of humor and a lot less bitterness than you might expect ... really great stuff. Check it here.

To those people who have written recently asking for news on the Banlieue 13 DVD release, my speculation that the Russian release would likely be the first English option is just wrong, wrong, wrong. My apologies. The French DVD was announced - without specs - months ago for a May release and I've been working on the assumption that, like the large majority of French DVDs, it would not include English subtitles since none were listed in the early announcement. Well, I did me a little looking this morning on something of a whim and while I still haven't found a listing that says anything at all about subtitles you really need to check this out. I've seen that confirmed on a couple other sites, so I consider it pretty solid: Besson and co. have included a Dolby 5.1 English language audio track on the DVD. Yep, they've gone and dubbed it. And though there's nothing specific said about subtitles I can't for the life of me imagine that they'd go to the effort and expense of providing a dub without also including the much, much cheaper subtitles for original language purists ...

The disc is out May 11th. Amazon France has got it here.

So, I gave the long absent Nick a call a couple nights back to see what the story was with our long wayward soul - he's actually just been obscenely busy since starting film school - and received a message on my voice mail in return, one that ended with something along the lines of "Well, I've got to go to this Sin City screening and party now ... you want me to write something up?" Uh, yes? So here are his thoughts ... positive would be an understatement ...

Continue reading "Sin City Review"

When myself and numerous other people had preview discs of the upcoming Angel Guts : Nikkatsu Box Set the discs were simply VHS transfers with non-removeable subtitles. Early reviews then were limited to discussing what was available there on screen in that form. Later, as the discs were completed, final box sets were sent out (i've had mine a few weeks or maybe more), and many updated their reviews with grabs from those final pressings. The discs are beatifully done and the colours rich considering the age, budget and genre of production.

So I am taking this chance to point out you can read my (very long) reviews if you search the archives; i suggest reading the background piece too if you're inclined to. Additionally, I will point out the best three reviews that i've seen and read including grabs so you can see what you would get for your money. For me, this is a great introduction to a genre that comprises the large majority of Japanese cinema over several decades. Not for everyone perhaps, and that's a shame, because there's so much on offer. Over the weekend look at these then : DVDManiacs Review(s), 10K Bullets Review(s), and finally Mondo Digitals Review(s). There's also a whole heap of others linked into via the Artsmagic site here.

There are relatively few Imamura movies on Subtitled Discs, so anything is a welcome addition. Out there already are 'Warm Water Under A Red Bridge' (with Koji Yakusho), 'Unagi' aka 'The Eel' (it seems the R3 Korean is the best edition), and also coming soon in HK on R3 disc is 'Black Rain'. So, now another one : the 1979 crime drama which was a huge award-winning release in its day, and stars Ken Ogata.

The label is Eureka!, and their 'Masters Of Cinema' sub-label. Coming through 2005 is a whole range of earlier Japanese films, a couple from Akira Kurosawa dating back to the early 1950s for example.

See Eureka(s)! page for 'Vengeance Is Mine' here. Click on 'News' to head to a page listing their entire catalogue so far.

The official website for Jira Maligool's The Tin Mine (Maha'lai muang rae) is online. On the site, there's a trailer (in a ZIP file) for the film, as well as some stills here and there. The film is based on a collection of short stories by Ajin Panjapan (b. October 11, 1927). It stars Pijaya Vachajitpan as Ajin Panjapan (at age 22), and Donlaya Mudcha as La-iad. The principal cast also includes Sonthaya Chitmanee, Jumpol Thongtan, Niran Sattar, and Anthony Howard Gould. The film was produced by Dedicate Ltd. and GMM Tai Hub (GTH) Co. Ltd.. It's scheduled to be released theatrically in Thailand by GTH on May 26.

There's a synopsis of The Tin Mine in English here. There are some photos of its cast here; the first one's of Vachajitpan, the second one's of Chitmanee, the third one's of Mudcha, the fourth one's of Vachajitpan and Panjapan....

Not a whole lot of new footage, but IGN's got a new US trailer for Unleashed here in downloadable Quicktime. There may not be much new, but it's still mighty impressive ... this is going to be a great year for martial arts films ...

A plan aiming to back new generation Asian directors titled "Focus: first cuts Asian Young Directors" has been launched.

Andy Lau [House of Flying Daggers and Infernal Affairs] announced he would donate money to finance 6 young directors from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong to shoot Chinese movies.

He told the press that they had already asked established Chinese mainland directors to recommend several outstanding young directors from the mainland to fully implement the program.

Whether this is part of reviving a struggling industry was not clear in the article. One can only assume. Speaking from someone who wishes he was watching a lot of hockey, it is good to have a farm team developing.

via CRIENGLISH.

Loads of DVD companies official sites go for months without an update and then when you think you spot one, it might have been there for ages with nobody having spotted it, or at least you're not sure whats new in the information and what isn't. So, here's a huge list of upcoming Synapse releases : renowned for their top quality jobs at restoration and presentation, they do some great obscure films on stunning DVDs.

BIZARRE (aka SECRETS OF SEX / 1970), THE BOOBY HATCH / LIBERATION OF CHERRY JANKOWSKI (1976), COMING DISTRACTIONS: WEIRD AND WILD FILM TRAILERS (VOL. 1), DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD: REMASTERED, EDGAR ALLAN POE’S ANNABEL LEE, EFFECTS (1978), EXPOSED (aka THE DEPRAVED / EXPONERAD) (1971), HOME SICK (2004), LET ME DIE A WOMAN (1978), LONG WEEKEND (1978), LUCKER THE NECROPHAGOUS: DIRECTOR CUT (1986), MADAME O (1967), NAIL GUN MASSACRE (1985), OLGA’S GIRLS (1964) [Release Date: April 26, 2005], ROCK ‘N’ ROLL NIGHTMARE (1987), ROSARIGASINOS (aka GANGS OF ROSARIO) (2001), SINGAPORE SLING (1990), STREET TRASH – 2 DISC DVD LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION, COMING TO HD-DVD (Late 2005/ First Quarter 2006), THE IMAGE (aka THE PUNISHMENT OF ANNE) (1976), LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL (1974).

For more details visit their site here.

Run Time: 118 minutes
Color
Directed by: Inagaki Hiroshi
Starring: Mifune Toshiro and Katsu Shintaro
Extras: Original Theatrical Trailers; Cast & Crew Biographies; Character Biographies; Interactive Program Notes

I would like to imagine that when Mifune Toshiro and Katsu Shintaro agreed to star in a film made by the other that the deal was settled over Sashimi and Sake. As should most movie deals. And so in 1970, two of Japans biggest stars released films starring each other. Mifune brought his Yojimbo [Bodyguard] character to the screen in Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. And in return, Katsu portrayed the destitute doctor, Gentetsu, in Incident at Blood Pass, the last time Mifune would appear as Yojimbo on screen.

In Incident at Blood Pass Mifune plays a nameless Ronin [Masterless Samurai] accepts an assignment to go to the village of Imo and wait. He is to receive a letter with a single symbol on it. If it is ‘Mountain’ he goes to Nakasendou, however, if it is ‘Three’ he is to go to Sanshuu Pass and wait until something happens. Yojimbo receives the message with the character 'Three' on it. Sanshuu Pass awaits. Before he reaches the pass he rescues a woman, Okuni, from her abusive husband. She follows him to the pass and they stop at an inn where a collection of characters gather; Yatarou, a young Ronin, Ibuki, an overzealous officer, Oyuki, a young woman who lives at the inn with her grandfather with dreams of something better and Gentetsu, a discredited doctor who lives in the barn behind the inn, intent on keeping his identity secret. Throw in a Kendo drum group, a gang of bandits, shogunate gold and the mysterious employer known only as ‘The Crow’ and you have a recipe for tests of loyalty and betrayal on a massive scale.

When the Ronins assignment becomes clear, to help the gang steal the shogunate gold, he's ordered to kill the inn's residents, including Okuni. He's reluctant to murder innocent people; then he learns that the gold shipment is a trap and he's part of a double cross. How he sorts through these divided loyalties will test his honor and his love for this woman he rescued.

Continue reading "DVD Review: Mifune Toshiro in Incident at Blood Pass"

Some more photos and some sad news from Jiangtou in Hong Kong ... Chungking Express was my first exposure to Wong Kar Wai so this stings a little bit ...

on our way back from a night of drinks and chats about HK film, a
friend and I walked by Midnight Express from Chungking Express and were
upset to find the following.

some locals at the bar next to it said it has been closed for 2
months...

sad sad sad. an example of ignorance and lack of appreciation for
cinema pop culture in HK

Continue reading "RIP Midnight Express"

A couple of days back I got an email from a regular reader asking if I wanted a review of Danny the Dog from a private preview screening. Uh ... yes? Big thanks to M.J. Blackman for sending in his thoughts on one of my most anticipated films of the year ... it's a great read ...

Before we begin, I’d like to point out that, yes, I am aware that the film has been universally (or at least, to my belief) retitled as Unleashed, and many feel as if this is a superior title; I would like to also point out that they are wrong. Anyone who claims to care about serious action cinema as a means to tell tender, heartfelt and sometimes severely profound dramas on life itself will agree with me. But then some find Bad Boys II a pleasingly moronic, yet effective and (shockingly) highly entertaining paradigm of the stereotypical ‘rip-roaring rollercoaster’ of mainstream entertainment. Myself included (shockingly).

Continue reading "Danny the Dog (AKA Unleased) Review"

I suppose that there's an inherent trade off to independence. On the one hand Cory McAbee's fiercely independent work ethic must have been absolutely integral to the creation of The American Astronaut, as distinctively surreal a film as you're ever likely to see. On the other hand McAbee's insistence on controlling all aspects of the film has ensured that virtually nobody has had the chance to actually see the thing, a situation only just beginning to change now that the film is available on DVD.

The American Astronaut is the stuff that cult legends are made of. Shot for no money by a little known performance art band in starkly beautiful black and white the quasi-musical sci-fi flick occupies a space somewhere between David Lynch and Guy Maddin but with a far goofier b-flick sense of humor.

Continue reading "The American Astronaut Review"

Survive Style 5+ is, on a few different levels, one odd little film. Dressed up as an absurdist, hyper stylized comedy the film proves to have some serious art house aspirations. Far less manic in tone than the trailers and synopsis would have you believe, the film is a multi layered experiment in metaphor and narrative structure dealing - in wildly surreal terms - with the creation and destruction of different relationships and the consequences thereof.

Does it work? Not entirely ... the serious ambitions undercut some of the wild humor while the tongue in cheek tone sometimes takes away from the serious goals. There are moments when it needs to more fully commit to exactly what sort of film it wants to be. But when it's on it is ON, coming across as a much funnier and more thoughtful, distinctly Japanese take on Tim Burton.

Continue reading "Survive Style 5 Review"

Yoshihiro Hoshino's Cursed ('Chô' kowai hanashi A: yami no karasu) and Ataru Oikawa's Tokyo Psycho (Tôkyô densetsu: ugomeku machi no kyôki) are being released on DVD in Hong Kong on Thursday (March 24). Both DVDs apparently will be all-region NTSC, and have English subtitles. The Japanese official website for Cursed is here; the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) entry for it is here. The Japanese official website for Tokyo Psycho is here; the IMDb entry for it is here. There's an English-subtitled trailer for Cursed here, and one for Tokyo Psycho here.

Thanks to Mike Thomason, whose "Okay, what the heck are these?" post over on the DVD Maniacs Forum brought these upcoming releases to my attention.

GP Museum Soft is releasing Katsuya Matsumura's Beau-ti-ful? (Ki-re-i?) on DVD in Japan on Friday (March 25). Unfortunately, that region 2 NTSC DVD (catalog no.: DMSM-6046) won't have English subtitles. There's a trailer for the movie on GP Museum Soft's website, however, and the imminent DVD release provides a good excuse to post this link for it. More info on the movie is available on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) here.

Matsumura previously directed the All Night Long (Ôru naito rongu) pentalogy, as well as Concrete-Encased High School Girl Murder Case (Joshikôsei konkurîto-dume satsujin-jiken) - a controversial movie from 1995 that was based on the same real-life murder case as Hiromu Nakamura's 2004 movie Concrete (Konkurîto).

The full lineup for this year's Philadelphia Film Festival has just been announced and it's a good one with a hugely broad range of stuff making it in. Even better I just realized that this trip I had planned to the west coast that just fell through overlapped with the festival dates so this big block of open time I've been griping about means that I can actually head to Philly and catch some flicks ... Anybody got couch space for a tall Canadian?

Check out the official Festival Site here and read on for the full press release.

Continue reading "Full Philadelphia Film Festival Schedule Announced"

Man ... remember how I said yesterday that there was a lot of buzz around Sha Po Lang at this year's HK Filmart? Well, here's a wee example of how much. It was announced yesterday that Darclight Pictures had picked up international sales rights for the film and I just got a note from Chelle at DonnieYen.us - if you think I'm a fan of the man you aint seen nuthin' till you've headed over there - saying that distribution rights have already been sold for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and France, with Darclight having already made arrangements for Pathe to distrubte the film in France. That, boys and girls, is a good day's work. The rest of the world can't be too far behind. She also pointed out that the film has now been assigned a mid-November release date in its native Hong Kong. It's a bit longer than I'd really like to wait but at least this means that things are falling into place and - thinking purely on selfish terms - a November HK release could very well mean a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September. I know you're reading this Mr. Geddes. You shall bend to my will.

A full news article on this is up here and I just noticed that they've also converted the trailer into Real Player format for those who'd prefer to download it.

Firstly, the Premiere for 'Final Wars' by Ryuhei Kitamura will be in June in the USA : at the 'Giant Monster Festival' which takes place at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. No news on USA widespread cinema release or any subtitled DVD yet.

Secondly, TokyoMonsters has put up a 13 minute preview video for the 'Final Box' set which contains all the movies and comes out on 22nd of April 2005, without subtitles though.

Follow the information you see when you go to the site for the location of the file.

Thankfully, as i am not a stamp collector and not used to looking at things stamp-sized like the first issue of the trailer in QT. So try again, and actually see what's going on here.

Wow! I'm in the minority on this one. I liked it. Hideo Nikata does recycle elements from Dark Water and other Ring films but he remains truer to the essence of the Ring mythology than many fans have given him credit for. And he has the guts to tell a more interesting ghost story than most directors who are content with a simple series of loud BOO!'s.

Continue reading "THE RING TWO REVIEW"

A pair of excellent new interviews with Terry Gilliam turned up on the Tideland website today. Hit the website here and click the 'Behind the Scenes' link to check out his thoughts on the casting process and working with his young star ... sounds like that's twice now that Gilliam has had good luck with Canadian female child stars ...

The first TV spot for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has turned up online and, well, it falls into pretty much every cliche the previous trailer mocked. Which is disappointing. It does, however, feature some mighty pretty new footage ... check it here in downloadable Quicktime.

And I can't find a source on this, but I'm hearing that Jason Schwartzman has a voice role, which I'm rather pleased about ...

Oooh ... just got a note from Jiangtou who is currently attending the Hong Kong Filmart ... he's promised to send along a bit of a write up of his experiences there (apparently the buzz on Sha Po Lang is pretty massive) but in the mean time he's just sent along this batch of photos to, you know, taunt us all with the fact that he's there and we aren't ...

Continue reading "Photos From the HK Filmart"

Ooh, those lucky people at Bloody Disgusting, they tease ... they tease ...

Apparently someone over there has managed to get hold of the trailer for Lucky McKee's The Woods, a fact they're gloating rather smugly about. As would I. They can't share it yet, but they have posted a good stack of screen grabs - just shy of thirty new shots - lifted from the trailer here. Looks sweeeeeet ...

We were unsure about this when we posted about it last week and it still seems no one knows who is doing what and when. MonkeyPeaches reports the following...

According to Chinese media, an assistance to Hsu Li-Kong, one of the producers of the original film, denied the rumor that Ang Lee would start making the prequel. An assistance to Ang Lee said the financier of the prequel had quit and Ang Lee had already abandoned the prequel. But according to a representative from Zoom Hunt International Productions Co., Ltd., a Taiwan-based studio co-produced the original film, screenwriter Wang Hui-Ling still works on the script of the prequel and there is no plan of making it this year.

So that leaves us with the cow allowed to stand next to the house, but only on Sundays and Tuesdays, and only after having completed its advance calculus homework... and... erm. More confused than ever.

If this is true, it rules.

I have long wondered at Donnie Yen's exclusion from the club of Asian stars making a mark in North America. He's a great fighter, looks great on camera, is a solid actor and, most importantly, speaks flawless English having been largely raised in Boston. And yet while Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Jet Li were struggling with their command of the language up there on screen for all to see - and being ripped for it something awful in the mainstream press - Yen was left doing fight choreography for a horrific Highlander sequel. I just don't get it ... if nothing else the man is in serious need of a new US agent ...

But wait! At the tail end of an article Monkey Peaches just posted about some Chinese model turned actress apparently being approached to star in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming martial arts flick the throw in this little bone: "Martial-art star Donnie Yen also said there was a good chance that he would work with Tarantino but he did not say more."

Yen in a Tarantino flick? Could happen ... he is the lead star of Iron Monkey, a flick Tarantino lobbied hard to get into North American theaters, so they're certainly familiar with one another. There's no source on this, so I have no idea how reliable the information is, but this could very well be the break that brings Yen into the western world in a big way ...

*** UPDATE ***

The quote isn't quite the same so I doubt that it's the same source, but here's Donnie bringing up the possibility himself in an interview for Seven Swords: "If I can make a great film, I believe it's worth every effort. Recently, I have had a talk with Quentin Tarantino and we may work together in the future." Complete interview is here, that quote is part of his response to whether he will continue to work in both China and North America.

Choi Min-sik [Shiri, Old Boy, Crying Fist] wishes to return to his acting roots and find a part in a small theater production late in the year.

"I would like to play on stage at the end of this year if I have such an opportunity. I am thinking of just some small theater play -- nothing grandiose," said Choi.

"Theater imbues me with fresh energy. I am already excited about the prospect of playing on stage soon. I was inspired when I saw my juniors act on stage the other day," said Choi.

Choi plans to suspend his acting in the spring to prepare for his role in a play. Just as long as he comes back to the screen afterwards I've got no beef with this. Choi is a damn fine actor.

via KBSGlobal.

A Bittersweet Life director Kim Jee-woon spoke to the Korean press yesterday after a preview screening of his latest film.

"This movie basically deals with relationship breakups resulting from small communication breakdowns," Kim said. The characters in the film are very stylish, but the movie is actually about "the foolishness of men" who don’t know how to communicate, the director said. "Just one trivial mistake or decision leads them to an irrevocable situation. And I think that’s what life is like."

Lee Byung-hun, the star of the film said, "I decided to take part in the film because I really liked the story... And as a fan of Kim, I was also very curious about what it would be like if he made a noir film."

50 minutes of footage was cut during post production, trimming the film down to 2 hours. Some scenes not included in the film were used by Lee Byung-hun as part of a music video he directed for singer Yangpa which we featured here a couple weeks ago. So if there was something in the video that you really liked don't be upset if it's not in the film.

Release date in South Korea : 2005/04/01

via TheKoreaTimes.

My Korean is limited to just pleasentries and politeness right now but here's a 5 minute interview clip I came upon over at HanCinema. Includes footage of a photoshoot and behind the scenes shots, some of which were already seen in some shorter behind the scenes clips we've linked to in the last month. If I've lost track of anything forgive me, we've just been posting so dang much about this film it's hard to keep track.

Fangoria reports that Tsukamoto has been at Argentinas' Mar Del Plata Film Festival, and openly talking about his plans to do a third 'Tetsuo' movie. The man says, ""And this time I might have American co-producers. It´ll be a throwback to my first films, and you can expect to see a flying Tetsuo." ...staying well clear of that "American Co-producers" comment - it's a bit loaded, at least potentially.

Going on to talk of the theme of the movie, ""Well, I´m not even sure what it´ll be about yet, but I can tell you this time the main theme will be war." Sounds cool. Sounds stunning even. But, i don't know if it will do him any good and i don't know if i wouldn't prefer another film that's clearly different to those late 80s early 90s 'Cyberpunk' films. Another film like "Vital" or "Snake Of June" would be nice.

Additionally, the first of the 'Tetsuo' films being reissued on a new DVD in America looks set to appear in June 2005.

via Fangoria.

I'm a little underwhelmed by this bit of news ...

The Hollywood Reporter has gotten word that Wings and Sideways actor Thomas Haden Church has been cast as the villain for Spider-Man 3. There's been no word on which villain he'll be playing but the Sandman and Venom rumors continue unabated and he certainly has the look for either of those.

You could do worse than Church, but personally I think his performance in Sideways was hugely over rated ... that film was carried on the backs of Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen, mostly Giamatti, with everyone else just along for the ride ... He's no Dafoe or Molina, that's for sure ...

Yes, yes, I'm late on this ... "real life" has been intruding ... anyway, congratulations are due to our contest winners. For those who weren't able to find the trivia answers, Takeshi Kitano's stand up partner was Beat Kiyoshi and Joe Odagiri will soon be appearing in Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon.

Our Dolls DVD Winners are:
Jesus Alvarado
Brian Ruh

Bright Future goes to:
Dave Blondel
Chris Bales

Over the weekend, the official website for Paul Spurrier's P ( pี ) was updated for the first time since the film was in pre-production. Some new information about the film and its lead actress, Suangporn Jaturaphut, has been added to the site. There's now also a gallery with 47 large JPGs (totalling approx. 63 MB in size); the first one is a poster for the film (see left), while the rest are production and film stills. There's no trailer yet on the site; however, Todd posted this link for one back on February 27.

Incidentally, " pี " isn't a Thai character; rather, it's a Latin small letter 'p' (U+0070) with a Thai character 'sara ii' (U+0E35) above it. The film's working title was "Phii Borb", which apparently was Spurrier's romanization of " ผีปอบ ".

I managed to find the back of the Chirashi for Yokai Daisenso. Remember, Chirashi are small (A4 almost) leaflets for films that exactly represent the same design for the full-size poster. Occasionally there are other designs, but most interestingly is the information given on the back of Chirashi, as they often contain pictures from the movie and character names, perhaps a little plot information too.

Hopefully in the coming weeks we will get the trailer. For now, a bigger version of the picture to the left pops up in a window when you click this.

Perhaps a quick DVD release is in order then? On average $4000 per screen is the opening weekend takings for Steamboy on its' USA release.

According to Anime News Network, "Steamboy earned approximately $150,000 this past weekend at the 39 theaters the premiered the movie. This is significantly better than the $80,000 earned by Appleseed in its opening weekend (31 theaters), but significantly lower that the $318,000 earned by Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (47 theaters)."

It's a shame these great films don't take much. Not because of the money issue iteself, but the indication that there's not a lot of interest in them. Having said that, films are taking little in box office compared to DVD sales all too often these days.

Highly Recommended. Another recent British Comedy, for all your newish fans of the stuff living in other countries. This time a truly Bizarre animated show, using photographs montaged together on computer and used to tell the story of a range of weird animals escaping and living away from an animal experimentation lab. It really is the best thing in some time...

The show stars Steve Coogan (aka Alan Partridge), whos company Baby Cow made the show, and also features Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Amelia Bulmore, Kevin Eldon, and Artur Mathews. It was original broadcast about a year ago, and thankfully know you will be able to watch it for yourselves.

More information about the show can be found here. Scan down the page to find several clips to watch too. The BBC announcement for the disc is here also.

Don't forget : Amazon.com account holders can order through Amazon.co.uk to get R2 Discs.

Yes, it opened this past weekend in the USA : the American 'Ring 2', and the sequel to the original remake (if there is such a thing) from October 2002. It took.... $36m, and should easily take $100m soon. And there is already news that the third sequel is being written, hints that it will be the last, no talk of who will direct this one.

With all the differing reviews giving me an (overall) negative impression of Ring 2, I don't know if i will be pleased with it when i eventually get to see it. I love Nakatas' work, perhaps too much.

Park Road Post, the New Zealand-based post production company, founded by Peter Jackson and well known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is setting up to work with a Korean film company.

The Korean investment firm, Daesung Group, announced last week that it will sign a 'memorandum of understanding' this Monday with the film studio. The goal is to further develop and promote the Korean movie industry in the international film market. Korean film has experienced enormous success in other Asian nations of late, a movement that has been coined the 'Korean Wave', and this success and growing international acclaim for Korean film should help the market establish itself in more international markets now.

Daesung Group has invested money in local movies such as Old Boy, Marathon and The Big Swindle. Park Road Post did post-production work on the Ring series and The Last Samurai.

via KoreaTimes.

The North American trailer for Eros - a red-band trailer, no less - is now available in downloadable Quicktime here. Not surprisingly the footage used in this one draws heavily on the Soderbergh segment of the film and on the whole I like the cut of this trailer better than the international version we linked to a few days back. But that preference extends to the cut and actual footage only ... what on earth were they thinking with that music and narration? They make the film look like bad late night cable soft porn, which it very definitely isn't. Man ... a little respect for the source material? Just a bit?

Via Monkey Peaches.

Logboy has just passed along a good number of links and images for Takashi Miike's Big Spook War, including that beauty to the left, the official poster. Click here for a larger version of that one. Also of interest are these three sites that include a batch of behind the scenes photos from the film ... at least one appears to be a personal diary from a make up artist, so there are some good creature shots to be had. And if you missed it the first time around you can still stream the official press conference and see a few of these beasts in motion in both Real Player and Windows Media formats.

Okay, I wasn't so impressed by the trailer but Logboy just sent me this pics of a figure from the Rinjin 13 film and I've got say that this is pretty sweet ...

Pål Sletaune's psychological thriller Next Door (Naboer) has been released theatrically in Norway, after having premièred at Filmport 05 in Oslo on Thursday March 10. (The English title that Nordisk Film International Sales is marketing the film under is "Next Door", not "Neighbour"/"Neighbor".) The film stars Kristoffer Joner as John, Cecilie A. Mosli as Anne, Julia Schacht as Kim, Anna Bache-Wiig as Ingrid, and Michael Nyqvist as Åke. It was scored by Simon Boswell.

Columbia TriStar Nordisk Film Distributors AS:
Next Door (Naboer) official webpage
http://www2.filmweb.no/ctn/article.jhtml?articleID=41842

Columbia TriStar Nordisk Film Distributors AS:
Next Door (Naboer) trailer
http://www2.filmweb.no/template/kunder/ctn/components/chooseTrailerSize.jhtml?articleID=47667

Nordisk Film International Sales:
Next Door (Naboer)
http://www.sales.nordiskfilm.com/ws/E_NewTitles.asp?film=765

Spillefilmkompaniet 4 1/2 AS
http://www.fourandahalf.no/
[production company co-founded by Pål Sletaune]

Internet Movie Database (IMDb):
Pål Sletaune
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0805760/

The official website for both Tomie: Beginning and Tomie: Revenge is now online. Both movies were directed by Ataru Oikawa, who also directed the first movie in that franchise. In Tomie: Beginning, Tomie Kawakami is played by Rio Matsumoto; in Tomie: Revenge, she's played by Anri Ban. Tomie: Beginning premières at the Theatre Ikebukuro in Tokyo on Saturday April 9, where it will play for a week; the following Saturday - April 16 - Tomie: Revenge premières there, where it, too, will play for a week. The official site includes downloadable trailers for both films.

Tomie: Beginning and Tomie: Revenge official website
http://www.tomie-movie.jp/

Rio Matsumoto official website
http://www.matsumoto-rio.com/

Levie Productions K.K. (K.K. Revi Purodakushonzu):
Anri Ban
http://www.levie.co.jp/artists/ban.html

Tokyo Psycho (Tôkyô densetsu: ugomeku machi no kyôki) official website
http://www.takeshobo.co.jp/movie/tokyo_densetsu/

[Tokyo Psycho was directed by Ataru Oikawa]

The website for Takashi Miike's big budget kids movie Yôkai daisensô has gone online here. It's limited to a flash intro so far, but you do get to see some new creature shots ...

Thanks to Chino for the link.

Nice ... eleven minutes of goodness here. Streaming Windows Media format.

Spotted a note over on AICN that the trailer for Michael Bay's The Island is up so I just had to take it for a spin ... I've got to say that when he stays away from the "GO USA!" rah rah that I really like Michael Bay. I can't think of anyone working today who blows stuff up better than Bay and for that fact alone - well, that and the fact that he dropped expensive cars off the back of high speed transport trailers in his last film - the man has a place in my heart.

So ... The Island trailer. The format is far too small. That is the only bad thing I have to say about it. Beautifully shot, great cast, solid premise and the first half is enough to make you think that the man has turned a corner and gone out and made himself a thoughtful piece of philosophical sci-fi, something we don't get nearly enough of on these shores. Then stuff starts blowing up, people run frantically and, yes, another high speed car wreck. Nummy. If he comes even close to balancing the two sides of this one out it'll be the big summer blockbuster for me ...

So the trailer had me thinking good thoughts about the man. Then I went to the website and was treated to a lovely string of Michael Bay glamor shots. Stop that Michael. You're not actually that attractive and nobody much cares what you look like. Just blow stuff up. And stop trying to sell your movies based on the fact that you made Pearl Harbor. People don't like that one.

Tartan Films has launched a website for their North American release of Old Boy. In and of itself this is nothing much of note for readers around here as most of us have already seen the film - the site is very well put together, notwithstanding the inclusion of some possibl spoilers among the pictures used - but the big news is that they've included the full list of theater locations that will have the film and on which dates. From the looks of things they only have six prints that they're moving around so if you've got the chance to see it, go. The site is here, theater list here.

The folks at Wu-Jing have turned up the official poster for Tsui Hark's Seven Swords ... nothing spectacular, but here's a larger version for your perusal ...

Must go over to play.com a traul through the upcoming DVD lists, as even though it will take hours, there must be some more gems stuck in there. First spot this morning : right at the top of the upcoming Anime releases is 'Steamboy'. After the disappointment of finding the French R2 release, initially said to contain English Subtitles, i feel a little better knowing that this R2 UK disc is likely to be the first Subbed disc anywhere - that we know of at this point anyway.

There seems to be two different editions : a bog-standard, and a special edition (the one labelled at the Director Cut of the film). So, this goes on my preorder list, and is unlikely to be surpassed by a fast USA R1 release.

Another quality find from The Gomorrahizer here ... he's already done all the work, so I'll just copy and paste away ...

The official website for Jun'ya Satô's Otoko-tachi no Yamato is now online, and the names of the film's eight principal cast members have been announced on it (see below). The screenplay for the World War II film, about the Japanese battleship Yamato (hence the all-male principal cast), is based on Jun Henmi's non-fiction books Ketteiban otoko-tachi no Yamato (ue) and Ketteiban otoko-tachi no Yamato (shita). The film is being produced by Tôei and Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho. It's scheduled to be released theatrically in Japan in December.

Cast: *
Takashi Sorimachi
Shidô Nakamura (Nakamura Shidou)
Ken'ichi Matsuyama
Dai Watanabe
Kenta Uchino
Hiromi Sakimoto
Ryô Hashizume (Hashidume Ryou)
Tatsuya Nakadai

* in the order in which they're credited on the official website
Otoko-tachi no Yamato official website
http://www.yamato-movie.jp/

Wikipedia:
Japanese battleship Yamato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato

Takashi Sorimachi official website
http://www.ken-on.co.jp/sorimachi/

Shidô Nakamura official website
http://www.shidou.jp/

Hiromi Sakimoto official website
http://www.hiromi-s.com/

Tatsuya Nakadai official website
http://www.nakadai-tatsuya.com/

Another Apple Japan find - a new trailer for martial arts fantasy epic Ashurajo, the end of which makes it clear that Japan is where we send our aging, faded pop stars when it's time to put them out to pasture. A lot of the same footage in this one as in the original trailer but - and maybe it's just the improved file format - I like it a lot better this time around ... check it here.

Ooh ... this must've gone up this morning sometime because it wasn't there yesterday when I was digging around on the site ... the full trailer for Hinokio (Inter Galactic Love) has turned up on the Apple Japan site in large, Quicktime-y goodness. Looks sappy as hell but mighty good nonetheless ... check it out here.

Big thanks to Madison for pointing it out ...

Apparently so. Surprisingly enough I actually see this working ... the man has always tucked a lot of dark comedy into his work, particularly with The Kingdom, The Idiots and even Dogville so I'm more than a little curious to see how this turns out. And why hasn't D-Dag turned up on DVD anywhere yet? It can't be that bad ...

Via Greencine.

Wow ... just stumbled across this in the koreanfilm.org discussion boards ...

For those who don't already know Song Il-Gon is the director of Spider Forest, a solid psychological horror / head trip of a film that made the festival rounds in 2004. His next film will be The Magician, part of an omnibus film with segments also contributed by Shinya Tsukamoto and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (say it three times fast ... I dare you) with the whole thing commisioned by the Jeonju Film Festival.

Okay ... that parts old news. Mack posted it all here months ago. Here's where it gets fun. Song is also preparing a full length version of The Magician that will release as an eighty minute film shot in a single take with the camera moving between two floors of a house and an external forest set while also tracking the characters in flight. Just go ahead and put me down for a copy of this now ... I really hope this hits TIFF 2005 ...

The speculation has been a summer release for Howl's Moving Castle here in North America and that has just been confirmed ... according to Movie Marketing Asia Howl's will open in New York and L.A. on June 10th before expanding to an additional sixty cities on the 17th.

After the relatively recent Appleseed remake in CGI, we now get 'Dominion : Tank Police' (also originally written by Masamune Shirow) in CGI form, with a small title change. The news story announcing the production was only a couple of days back, and now it's worth reporting there's an update to the official site which contains the trailer in various forms and file sizes. Go here.

Let me be blunt. I have no interest in economics. Banking gives me a rash. Talking stocks breaks me out in hives. If it were possible to have a negative degree of interest in something that would describe my general relationship to the world of finance. I know the minimum required to prevent my bank from abusing me in an unsavory manner but that is all I know, or care to.

I exaggerate, but you get the point. If someone were to tell me, “Here, watch this movie about economics, it’s good,” politeness may keep me from laughing in their face but I certainly wouldn’t be looking to them for much in the way of future suggestions. But here’s the strange thing. After months of hearing good things about The Corporation – a documentary film from Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan – I finally sat down to watch the thing and – gasp! shock! – it actually is quite good. Excellent even. Starting with a brilliant premise and bolstered with a never ending array of dead solid interview footage The Corporation manages the difficult tasks of both making its subject matter interesting while also presenting an unrelentingly leftist viewpoint without entirely driving all the right wingers out of the room.

Continue reading "The Corporation Review"

The North American website for Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake has just gone live here. It's a good one, too, though I must say that I find the use of an iron - you know, for flattening clothes - as a central image a little alarming. And, in sadder news, I've been told that my earlier hopes that a red band trailer for the film was in the works are in vain. What we've got is what we're getting.

Chaos! Destruction! A sobbing Dakota Fanning! All sorts of good stuff. Yeah, Spielberg films tend to be big, stupid and emotionally manipulative but they're also pretty damn entertaining. I'm looking forward to it. In Quicktime here.

Okay ... it's not really news, but it deserves to be said. As most of you are aware by now I was robbed over the weekend and lost most of my DVDs, including a just arrived copy of GORA. Well, after spending a couple of days spent installing a new front door, filling out insurance paperwork and the like I figured it was about time to start picking up some of the hard to find stuff again. So yesterday afternoon I put an order in for a replacement copy of my GORA DVD, this time from Machiavel DVD. Note that this was done yesterday afternoon. I did not pay for express shipping. It was in this morning's mail. Holy crap. Obviously this is one of those rare occassions when Canada Post is firing on all cylinders and being abnormally efficient, but still ... I was pleased enough just to get an email back telling me it had been shipped and that they had just watched and enjoyed the film there themselves, but for it to show up in less than 24 hours? Best. Service. Ever. Their catalog is great, prices are reasonable and, obviously, they ship things as soon as the orders come in. They're gonna get a whole lot more business from me.

Nice. Zenarchist just posted a note in our forum - which you really should be a part of, you know - that he'd come across the trailer for the latest from Japanese cult auteur Sogo Ishii. Titled Kyoshin - or The Mirrored Mind - it looks to be a quiet, meditative piece worlds away from the anarchy of his early films like Burst City or Crazy Thunder Road, both of which are still sorely in need of a decent DVD release. But different is good, or so they say and this thing certainly looks pretty. Check it out on the Apple Japan site here.

Four young kids in urban Japan must fend for themselves with very little money or resources while their deadbeat single mother leaves them alone for extended periods of time. The two younger children are not allowed out of the tiny apartment (even onto the veranda), while the older girl slowly becomes increasingly despondent and withdrawn. This leaves only the fourteen year-old boy to manage things, a job that becomes increasingly difficult as necessities like money and running water become no longer available. So he wanders the streets (a lot), and does the best he can in these horrible circumstances, scrounging, but also attempting to maintain an air of normalcy.

No, that’s not a sampling from a “100 Neediest Cases” type of real-life tragedy – although it very well could be. That is the rough description of the new film from Japanese writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda, entitled “Nobody Knows”

Continue reading "Nobody Knows Review"

In both NTSC and PAL editions, including a 40 page booklet of original drawings and photographic work... it may only be 6 minutes long, but it's 6 minutes of pure genius : the man behind videos from Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Placebo, Jesus Jones, Leftfield, and Portishead to mention just a few.

Warp says it, "..documents a 16-year-old, inbred mutant's solitary existence, locked in a pitch-black basement by his ashamed parents. They are TV addict rednecks who occasionally feed Johnny and yell at him for making noise. Johnny's only company in the basement is his little dog. His dog's I.Q. far outstrips Johnny's, who is a completely insane, bi-polar imbecile."

Hopefully this piece will expand into the promised 10-part TV series. I for one have been looking forward to this for ages. Maybe years. Can't remember.

You will be able to buy it through Warpmart nearer the release date.

Mmm. Pretty. Click here to see it all big-like. If you're one of the unfortunate souls who has not yet seen the trailer here it is in lovely, though small, Quicktime.

Via AICN and the Latino Review.

There have been rumblings about this for ages - Crouching Tiger was based on one small part of a huge literary epic - and Monkey Peaches is now floating, skeptically, a rumor that Ang Lee is ready to start shooting his Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon prequel in China's Yunnan Province starting this summer. I understand the skepticism but with Lee just wrapping up Brokeback Mountain it is a legitimate possibility and I, for one, would love to see him go back to this world ...

The full article is here, along with another rumor regarding Jackie Chan playing Genghis Khan. I find the Crouching Tiger one far more plausible than that ...

HOT DAMN! I probably should have checked the little dinging sound in my mail box before posting that other article lamenting the lack of a trailer for Sha Po Lang just a minute ago, because ... well ... there is one. Huge thanks to Chelle at Donnieyen.us for both hosting this and letting me know about it ... it's in grotty flash format only at the moment but it looks AMAZING. Definitely THE martial arts film of the year. You don't see a whole lot of Sammo in action but Yen and Wu Jing both look incredible. Check it out here.

It's a crappy streaming Windows Media file, but the Japanese trailer for Jet Li's Unleashed has turned up online and it's got some new footage in it ... I'd much rather have this in a better format but it's definitely worth taking a look. The Japanese site is here, trailer here.

Via Monkey Peaches.

Stumbled across this over at Filmacco and it was good for a chuckle ... it looks as though the Pang Brothers are taking themselves a little less seriously with The Eye 10 ... click here for a larger version ...

It feels like we've been waiting forever for this one and there's still no trailer, but according to Wu Jing Sha Po Lang cast member Cheung Chi Yiu is floating the possibility of a May or June release for the film ... this is one that really can't come soon enough for me ...

You want Steamboy clips? We got Steamboy clips. Or, rather, Coming Soon's got Steamboy clips. Lots of 'em. Right here. In a variety of formats. Click away.

Link by Logboy.

The Gomorrahizer just dropped a note following up his earlier news on Flower and Snake 2 - the follow up to the infamous Japanese exploitation film - to say that there is now a trailer available here in streaming Windows Media format. Definitely not work safe ...

One of the films that I really wish I'd been able to work into my schedule at last year's Toronto Film Festival is Yuthlert Sippapak's Buppha Rahtree, a hybrid horror / romance / comedy that has generated some good buzz wherever it has played. I still haven't been able to catch it but the website for the sequel - Rahtree Returns - has just gone online here. As seems to be standard these days the site exists in both Thai and English versions and includes a trailer, image galleries and a stack of other good stuff.

On a little side note it looks as though the original film has gotten itself a new Thai DVD issue, this one including English subtitles. Ethai and Thai CD Express aren't listing the subtitles on their listings for it, but the production company very clearly says that they are there. I've ordered one and I'll let people know what's up ...

Thanks to The Gomorrahizer for the link.

Get him whilst he's cheap to hire : Christian Bale plays 'Howl', no weight loss or gain necessary. Jean Simmons plays Old Sophie, no 'Young Sophie' decided upon yet. Lauren Bacall is 'Witch of the Waste'. Billy Crystal will be 'Calcifer', and Blythe Danner will play 'Madam Sulliman'. Some familiar names there, and some that just don't trigger any memories.

The film opens in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on June 10th, then everywhere else (another 60 cities and upto 800 screens in total at these and other locations) on the 17th of June.

In one of those You-Had-To-Be-There kind of moments I was sitting at a Burger King with fellow student ministry workers and one of our youth. This youth was a gold mine of one liners and nonsensical wonder. We cannot recall the movie we were talking about at the time but for reasons unknown this youth perked up and said, 'The musical?'. It's much funnier to this tiny circle of friends mind you but it does lead into this bit o' news.

Lord of the Rings The Musical? Believe it. Toronto is all abuzz with the announcement today that one of Toronto's sons, David Mirvish, after five months of chasing the rights, will bring Middle Earth to the stage in February 2006 at the Princess of Wales Theatre. At $27 million, it will be the most expensive play ever produced. According to news reports throughout the day on local television the production is based out of England but due to lack of a big enough venue The Prince of Wales Theatre and Toronto have been chosen to host this momentous opportunity.

"The director, Matthew Warchus, has come up with a conception of putting the three novels together," explains Mirvish Productions spokesman Jim Aldridge. "And he's creating a hybrid that has never been attempted before because he felt that this is the only way he can truly tell Lord of the Rings."

One friend is ready to buy tickets and another has already contacted his agent about getting an audition. Gotta act fast!

via CP24.com Follow this link and watch unedited video of some pre-production planning for the play.

Continue reading "The Lord of the Rings - The Musical!?! News and Video"

Two separate bits of vague stuff in one post. Firstly, at the weekly recap now up at AICN, there's a mention of another Asano project not mentioned in the filmography at the official site Todd linked too a couple of days back. This time it is 'Mongol, Part One' from Sergei Selyanov (Producer) and Director Sergei Bodrov, and it's about Ghengis Khan.

Secondly, yesterday I read an interview in French with Takashi Miike, and if I am right he is just about finishing over 'Yokai Daisensu' and is working on a project with a French producer - no hint of a title or what exactly this project takes the form of. Miike also made a mention of how he is both slowing down the amount of films he is involved in (at least at this time) and also attempting to tackle the preconception that he is nothing but a horror film Director.

*** UPDATE ***

A couple notes on Mongol ... it is the latest film from the director of Schizo, which played at the 2004 TIFF. You can find Opus' review in the archive. Also, it already has an official website here. Plenty of good stuff, there, including an early teaser if you click on 'Animation'. Some impressive people working on this one, including a producer who was involved with M. Butterfly, The Emperor And The Assassin, Crouching Tiger, Hero and Windstruck among others ...

Like the title says ... if you want to score yourself a free copy of one of these you need to act now. Details are here.

May I suggest that we all observe a moment of silence in honor of the deflowering of the web-monkey's nether regions in the name of medical silence ...

Thank you.

Many thanks to Michael who just sent me this link to still shots and information on Sammo Hung's Legend of the Dragon ... Anybody care to translate?

The good folks at Bloody News just dropped me a note pointing the way to their detailed review of Paul Schrader's Exorcist prequel, which is running with a batch of new still shots. It's pretty safe to say they like it. A lot. Also via Bloody News is this link to the opening sequence of the Schrader version ... I'm not getting any sound for some reason, but it certainly looks nice ...

Okay, it's not film news but we did just talk to the guy a month or two back and it's far too cool to leave unmentioned ... Neil Gaiman is auctioning off the right to name a cruise ship in his upcoming novel Anansi Boys with all auction proceeds going to the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund. So, if you've ever had the urge to be name dropped in a novel and you've got money to burn, this is your chance ... the auction is online here.

Well, the Weinsteins have already built one successful film company on the back of Quentin Tarantino and it looks as though they're ready to do it again ... According to a lengthy interview in Film Focus the recombined, fully colorized version of Kill Bill will be the first film to be released under the new Weinstein banner once the seperation from Disney is complete. And, yes, it will be NC-17 and will include all of the extra footage present in the Japanese version of the film. Tarantino claims it will be receiving a wide release but I'll believe that when I see it ... a limited art house run is far more likely, I'd think ...

The Hollywood Reporter is spreading word that Anthony Anderson has joined the cast of The Departed, Scorsese's remake of Infernal Affairs. Yeah, that Anthony Anderson. The incredibly unfunny man who has largely made a career out of playing 'comedic' secondary roles. The casting of a lead from Kangaroo Jack would give me nightmares if not for the fact that Anderson himself seems to have realized that he's just not a very funny man recently and turned to more serious roles - including a recurring spot on the current season of The Shield - where word is he's acquitting himself quite well ...

Oooh ... a trio of aerial shots of the Australian set of Bryan Singer's Superman film have turned up online. The one to the left is of the Kent farm, the other two are far more interesting looks at the crashed Kryptonian spaceship that brings Supes to our shores ... click here for those.

Via FilmRot

Okay, there are actually 103 and it's a pretty fascinating list. It's no surprise to see the original 1948 Springtime in a Small Town at the top of the list, but at number two? John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. Seriously. Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild comes in at number three. Check out the full list here.

This is one that slipped completely under the radar for me but the Japan Times' Mark Schilling is not generally prone to over statement so when he gives a film a gushingly positive four and a half star rating it's generally cause to pay attention. The object of Schilling's love is Ichigo No Kakera, the latest film from the director of Sakura No Sono that tells the story of a formerly acclaimed manga artist struggling to find continuing inspiration while dealing with a past tragedy. You can find the trailer for the film here and Schilling's review here.

As much as I enjoyed The Bourne Supremacy I never really understood why its director had been tapped as a replacement for Darren Aronofsky to shoot The Watchmen. Until now. CHUD has just run the first part of a lengthy interview with the man and as soon as he starts on about the politics of paranoia his selection starts to make an enormous amount of sense ... Greengrass certainly isn't a typical comic book film director but then The Watchmen is far from a typical comic book and listening to him talk about the process has given me a renewed sense of hope for the film. At the very least I'm now quite confident that he won't be dumbing it down at all ...

Been waiting for the listing to come up at Korean sites to see the price they will be charging for this nice Korean edition of the 8-Disc set for all 3 Infernal Affairs movies: effectively a different packaging of the HK set from late last year. And the price is... $76 plus shipping. So, off to yesasia.com now to see if they will be stocking it.

You can see the listing for Koreandvds.com here. I have copied the specs to keep a record here (below), but go over there for more pictures, and larger ones at that.

For those spotting the slight difference between their date for the release and the one announced, that seems to happen with their site quite often.

Continue reading "Infernal Affairs. R3 Korean 8-Disc Set. April 6th. $75 Seems To Be The Price."

Todd posted the artwork for the DVD of 'Infection' which turned up recently, and today I see Fangoria.com have another in the J-Horror series of films, 'Premonition', showing on their site and now here too. It's out July 5th now, with 'Infection' on May 17th.

Fangoria also have this on Cinema screenings for the films: Both movies will have their North American premieres at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival next month. INFECTION will screen Friday, April 22 at 11:30 p.m., Sunday, April 24 at 11 p.m., Wednesday, April 27 at 11 p.m. and Friday, April 29 at 11:15 p.m.; PREMONITION will be shown Saturday, April 23 at 11:45 p.m., Monday, April 25 at 10 p.m., Thursday, April 28 at 10:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 30 at 11:30 p.m.

Run Time: 122 minutes
Black & White
Directed by: Okamoto Kihachi
Starring: Mifune Toshiro
Extras: Original Theatrical Trailers; Cast & Crew Biographies; Character Biographies; Interactive Program Notes

I had the guilty pleasure of watching what some consider to be one of the greatest samurai films ever made. And while my heart for samurai films is committed elsewhere I will say that Samurai Assassin is a great samurai film that deserves your attention.

What I didn’t know before I watched Samurai Assassin is that it is loosely based on actual events from Japanese history, and adapted from the novel Samurai Nippon by Gunji Joromasa. The story is based on the Sakurada Gate Incident of 1860. A high Shogunate official named Ii Naosuke, the “Demon of Hikone”, was assassinated by a group of terrorists from the House of Minto. Ii's murder marked the beginning of the end for the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the end of the Samurai. You now have your context for the story.

Visit the AnimEigo Samurai Assassin page here.

Continue reading "DVD Review: R1 Samurai Assassin with Mifune Toshiro"

Not even much of a film, the original. Largely seems to be seen as a "beginners" luck film - the Pang Brothers 'The Eye' was reasonable in places, slightly interesting in others, mediocre in most. And now, Nakata has apparently signed to do the American remake. Can't decide: poor decision or wise money-making venture so he can get out quick, go back to Japan and do something decent again. It has been about seven years since the original Ring and he still doesn't seem able to pick up a decent project off the back of it... come of Hideo Nakata, you're better than remakes!

This story is all over the place, so no particular source for it...

There's just something inherently funny about an Asian man with an afro ... Looks like Aikawa's got some pretty good loft to his hair as well ... these shots were turned up by Logboy, who has also managed to turn up the Japanese title for the film: 東京ゾンビ

I came up with a bit more stuff when I googled that but I don't have the time to sort through it all now ...

Does exactly whats it says on the tin. Click below to see which is closest to you. From the official site.
March 18th - March 25th 2005 is when you can catch it.

Continue reading "Steamboy. USA Cinema Release : Theatres List."

Asiandvdguide.com has the full specifications for the legendary (but strangely ignored on DVD for some time) 'A Chinese Ghost Story' boxset, remastered and released by IVL on March 22nd in HK on Region 3 discs.

Digitally Remastered. Letterboxed and 16x9 enhanced. DTS and DD 5.1 (A Chinese Ghost Story).
A Chinese Ghost Story 2 : DTS and DD 6.1. A Chinese Ghost Story 3 : DTS and DD 6.1. Cantonese, Mandarin, Cantonese (Original). Chinese (Traditional), English, and Chinese (Simplified) Subtitles. Extras : James Wong Interview, Yuen Bun Interview.

Artwork at their site : Front Box, Rear Box, First cover, Second cover, Third and final film cover.

I've been keeping my eyes open for news of Peter Chan's Perhaps Love ever since I first caught word of the Takeshi Kaneshiro starring Chinese musical - reportedly the first Mandarin musical since the sixties. Thus, I was greatly pleased when Monkey Peaches linked to some behind the scenes footage a few days back and went just about mental when it turned out that footage was streaming only and hosted on one of the slowest servers known to mankind, which makes it virtually impossible to stream it and, thus, view it. So, I did a bit of digging, installed some spiffy new software, and after a few attempts managed to capture it and mirror it here. There's no audio but you do get some good footage of the director, cinematographer Christopher Doyle and the principal cast hard at work ...

Expect to hear a lot more about this one - and likely see it cross to North America - in the near future. Not only does it have Doyle and Kaneshiro lending some critical weight to it but it's being produced by Andre Morgan, who most recently worked on Million Dollar Baby, and has dance choreography from Monsoon Wedding's Farah Khan.

Ooooh ... while procrastinating on putting my stolen DVD list together today I swung by Tadanobu Asano's official site and happened to notice that the filmography had been updated. Yep, they finally added Nice No Mori on there, but it was the pair of titles a little farther down that caught my eye ...

At the very bottom of the list was Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani, the next film from Shinji Aoyama. Aoyama would've been enough to grab my attention but the fact that he's making a film titled with the last words of Christ dying on the cross got my ol' religious studies student antennae twitching.

Just above that? Tokyo Zombie. The title alone had me sold and then I realized who the director actually was. Sakichi Sato. Name not ringing a bell? Think Gozu. Think Ichi the Killer. He wrote the scripts for both. Whoo!

I haven't been able to turn up anything other than titles for both of these, so anything anybody else can find would be much appreciated ...

*** UPDATE ***

Oooh .... just got a note from Aaron saying that not only is Asano in Tokyo Zombie but his co-star will be Sho Aikawa. A fantastic combination there. Apparently the info came from the official Japanese website which is floating out in the ether somewhere undiscovered by me ...a URL? Please?

Empire's got the full story ... Inglorious Bastards is still next on Tarantino's slate ...

Strange but true ... Monkey Peaches, citing a story in the UK's Daily Mail, is reporting that Gong Li has just been brought on board the cast of Michael Mann's Miami Vice. In an odd side note they mention that Jamie Foxx had to approve her casting before she could be brought on. That's just weird. I like Foxx and all but the idea of his seal of approval being needed to bring someone of Li's status on board is more than a little ridiculous.

My initial reaction to the idea of Gong Li starring ina Hollywood adaptation of a TV show is to say that she's slumming it for the cash but it is a Michael Mann film, after all, so maybe it'll turn out to be something decently worthwhile. Between this, Memoirs of a Geisha and the upcoming Silence of the Lambs prequel it looks as though Li is making a fairly concerted push into the US marketplace ...

A quality Logboy find here ...

Can't wait for the US release of Steamboy? Looks like you won't have to ... the French DVD releases April 6th - in three varieties - and according to this thread on the DVDetective forum it will be the full director's cut - i.e. not the trimmed, subbed version - and will include English subtitles. The sets are a bit pricey by local standards but dirt cheap next to the Japanese releases ...

Aint it Cool is reporting that Guy Ritchie producer and Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn has been signed up to helm the third X Men movie. It's an interesting choice, to say the least ... Vaughn's got nothing in his past to suggest he can handle special effects, but then neither did Bryan Singer when he did the first one ... I assume that this means Vaughn's Man From U.N.K.L.E. remake has been pushed back ...

It seems that while everyone's been fixated on Sammo Hung's upcoming clash with Donnie Yen in Sha Po Lang - still no trailer! argh! - the man snuck out and directed himself another one to call his own. Shot in late 2004 Legend of the Dragon is slated for an April release and sounds as though it's going to be an old school Hong Kong martial arts film ... So far the only english information I can find on this one is from Wu Jing - it's not even listed on Sammo's official site - so here's their summary:

"Legend of the Dragon, a new action movie directed by Sammo Hung in late 2004 sometime after completion of Sha Po Lang and starring Huang Xiao Ming, Sammo Hung, Timmy Hung, Leung Kar Yan, Richard Ng, Carl Ng, is slated for release in China in early April. Apart from Sammo Hung who did the martial arts choreography, China's Taichi champion Li Hui was also roped in to assist in fight choreography, which will showcase obscure martial arts like lizard crawl and bone-shrinking skill, and also see a duel between Taichi and karate. Mainland actor Huang Xiao Ming, whose career is given a major boost since starring in TV adaptation of Jin Yong's Return of Condor Heroes that is wrapping up production soon, takes on the leading role as Qi Le Tian, one who is gifted in martial arts, while Timmy Hung plays Qi Le Tian's buddy and colleague. Both work as couriers and thanks to his agility, Qi Le Tian always gets the parcels delivered on time. Otherwise, he has little use for his skills, until a karate expert, played by Carl Ng, starts nursing grudges against him. So, he seeks help from his father Qi Long (Sammo Hung), a renowned Taichi master."

With the release date so close there must be a trailer out there somewhere, but I can't seem to turn it up ... a little help?

Thanks to Michael for the heads up.

Step aside Criterion and HVE, your Lars Von Trier releases have just been put to shame - not because your relases are bad, but because this one is very, very good.

Germany's Legend Home Entertainment will be releasing a four disc set of Lars Von Trier's Europa Trilogy - Epidemic, The Element of Crime and Europa / Zentropa - in June and this will be the definitive release for these films. All three get new transfers in the proper aspect ratios plus a host of special features plus a fourth disc of additional features AND all features - including commentaries - will be subtitled in English. If you're a fan of Von Trier, this is the set to get. You can get the full specs from the DVD production company here.

*** UPDATE ***

Looks like impatient folks won't have to wait for the German release of this as it'll be rolling out all around the globe giving a whole range of release dates and, I assume, prices. Here's the word from Henrik, who runs a stellar Takeshi Kitano site:

"Hi Todd, About the Europa Trilogy, Electric Parc will release the Danish box in late May, with English subs, for Dkr 299. The box will then be released in other languages by other companies over the summer, first by Legend in German, who substitutes Danish, Swedish and Norwegian with German subs and adds German dub, then later in France, Holland, UK (still being negotiated) and Australia (by Access). Because of copyrights and ownerships, the box cannot be released in the US and Canada. I have been in contact with Electric Parc since January about this box and was waiting for them to mail me specs, which got lost in the mail, and then the Germans beat me to it, and if you hadn't posted it yesterday, I would have send you the specs and news myself."

Via Mobius.

Well, Tartan just keeps on bringing the good stuff ...

DVD Answers is reporting the happy news that Tartan DVD will be releasing Kim Ki-Duk's Silver Bear winning Samaritan Girl - released in Korea as Samaria - in North America on May 10th. The film, which was produced between Spring, Summer ... and 3 Iron, tells the story of a pair of teen aged prostitutes. Yes, I am over simplifying. Check out a larger cover image and the early specs at the link above.

Yet another find from Logboy.

MonkeyPeaches has linked to the Japanese trailer for EROS.

Three short films -- one each from directors Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh and Wong Kar Wai -- address the themes of love and sex. -IMDB

Todd and I saw it at TIFF. The WKW and Sodebergh bits were good and the Antonioni bits was utter crap. Calls them as I sees them.

WARNING: The trailer contains nudity and sexual content. You've been warned, pansies.

The trailer is here.

The Warner Independant site has been updated as well.

More news about Pen-ek Ratanaruangs [Last Life in the Universe & 6sixtynin9] Invisible Waves from MonkeyPeaches.com and Fortissimo Films (and thanks to Fabool for commenting today on the most recent post about the update too). More of the lineup has been confirmed and we finally have a storyline to share with you.

So as you already know from past posts [1, 2] that Asano Tadanobu [Zatoichi, Last Life in the Universe] and Gang Hye Jung [Old Boy, Three Extremes] are starring in the film and Christopher Doyle will once again lend his cinematographic eye to it. Add to the list of actors Maria Cordero [Men Suddenly in Black] and Eric Tsang [Infernal Affairs].

And for the storyline...This psycho-thriller centers around a Macau chef's battle against the guilt of killing his lover and the more immediate threat to his life in Thailand where he is hiding from the justice...this classic thriller delves into the psychology of killers and reunites Ratanaruang with Asano who won the Best Actor award at the 2003 Venice Film Festival for Last Life in the Universe.

They've appeared on the Unearthed site before, possible a couple of years back, and have stuck in peoples minds. They're nasty stuff, the 'Red Room' films (there are two of them) and so apparently is 'Sisters of Blood' from what i've just read.

Anyhow, now Unearthed seem confident enough to announce they've secured the rights to Daisuke Yamanuchis notorious 'Red Room' films once again, and a bit more obviously too. At some point i expect them to announce (again) Yamanuchis' 'Mu Zan E' also.

Via Gomorrahizer, whos site on Yamanuchi is here.

Continue reading "Unearthed Films Announces 'Red Room' Films and 'Sisters Of Blood' Licensed."

Another report from CRIENGLISH.com. A book criticizing ten of China's leading directors has been published by China Publishing House of Theatre. The book says that the impressions that Chinese films leave on audiences world wide are inaccurate. Impressions such as? The book also claims that there is an illusion that Chinese films are becoming more prosperous and dominant. Okay. But keep in mind that given the state of the industry in only the past couple years the only way you could go was up. I regress...

Directors who are critiqued in the book include Zhang Yimou [Hero, House of Flying Daggers] Chen Kaige [The Emporer and the Assassin, Farewell My Concubine] Wong Kar Wai [2046, In the Mood for Love] and Hollywood's favorite John Woo [the ones that don't suck!].

At this time we are unable to quote any critique specifically but when we find something you'll be the next to know.

The China/HK place in worldwide film has been waining in most recent years but based on the success of Steven Chow's Kung Fu Hustle and Feng Xiaogang's crime caper A World Without Thieves in the new year the industry does have high hopes. A turnaround in the industry would be a welcome thing.

Click here for proof. I've got the sudden urge to buy me some shoes. Michel Gondry is also a genius. Oh, hell. Most of these people are geniuses. Go dig around.

While I found National Treasure lightweight and slim on thrills I cannot deny that the movie itself was an anomaly, being a very family friendly action-adventure movie, and drew in huge numbers and did very well at the b/o. Now word has surfaced direct from director, Jon Turteltaubs mouth about the talks of a sequel. And when you've already grossed $300 million worldwide why wouldn't you?

According to CRIENGLISH Turteltaub says the sequel should be filmed in a romantic and mystical country, and China is top of his list. The first National Treasure is set to open in China next weekend.

While the idea of filming in China intrigues me I also wonder at the same time if this is going to halt the franchise right here. I think one of the things that made National Treasure so popular, especially south of the border, was that it just smacked of Americana and audiences lapped it up. Is staging the next movie in a foreign country going to draw the same numbers? I guess time will tell.

Now I haven't actually seen this one - the REgion 1 DVD is coming soon from Tartan - but someone obviously likes it a lot ... Korean horror flick Memento Mori is slated to receive a six disc ultimate edition release in its native land. SIX DISCS! FOR ONE FILM! That's madness! Here are the specs:

6 Disc UE : 6 Digipac + Diary Book (photo book, 110 pages)

Disc 1
** Theatrical Edition (98min)
- Audio Commentary by Director
- Text Commentary

Disc 2
** Memento Mori : Unedited & Unseen Version (186min)
- Audio Commentary By Director

Disc 3
** Extras : "Behind the Secret Door "
- On the Road Making Film
- Storyboard
- Through the Eyes of Others
- Featurette : KBS "Into the Movie"
- Featurette : iTV "Now on making"
- Movie Festival
- Music Video
- Trailer
- Photo Gallery

Disc 4
** Extras : "Before and After "
- Director's 3 Short Films
- Making of Short Film "Her Story"
- Post
- Meeting with Fans
- Interview with Cast & Crew "Interview after 5 Years"

Disc 5
** WMV HD DVD
WMVHD (only playable in Window Media Player 9.0 or over)

Disc 6
** OST CD

Check out the run times on the theatrical and extended editions ... has anybody seen this film? Does it actually merit this sort of treatment? Does any film, really?

Via the Asian DVD Guide forums.

I had myself a plan today: after getting home from work I was going to bang out a review of The Corporation - an excellent film getting a fantastic DVD release - then kick back and enjoy one of Hellevator, GORA or Survive Style 5, all of which have arrived in the past couple days. But then I got home and found I needed to change my plans. Why? Because I no longer own a DVD player. Or any of those DVDs. Or a camera. Or a stereo. Or any number of things, really. Yep. While I was at work today someone broke into the ol' Twitch abode and cleaned me out. Not entirely, mind you, but close enough.

Sigh. I'm trying to be philosophical about this and remind myself that it's all just stuff, really, but it was my stuff and I liked it. The electronics should be easy enough to replace but the DVD collection has taken a major hit and a lot of what went was irreplacable. Virtually every Japanese and Korean release I had is now gone, though they did leave all the big, expensive sets. Too bulky, I guess. All of my Britcoms are gone. No more League of Gentlemen, no more Little Britain. My signed copy of the original Spaced boxed set? Gone. As is the new three disc release, just for good measure. And what really gets me is that while they left the TV, they took the remote. Evil men! It's a complicated TV and I need my remote!

On the plus side I did have a couple of real life CSI types poking around the house and I got to fulfill a long buried desire of mine and kick in a door. I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been my door but still, that's one I can cross off the list ...

This was a little AICN spot. This reminds me of the Spider-Man LEGO thing I posted ages ago: a kind of movie done entirely in "stop-motion" (of sorts) with character pieces (or at least inspired by them) that are licensed from films. Cool. See 'Batman : New Times' here.

Via AICN.

Whats new? Well, this is the now long 'future releases' list at the BU site has just been updated...

STARSTRUCK (2-Disc Special Edition),Year: 1982, Director: Gillian Armstrong, Stars: Jo Kennedy.
FIRE AND ICE / FRAZETTA: PAINTING WITH FIRE, (2-Disc - 20,000 Limited Edition).
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, (2-Disc Special Edition), Year: 1970, Director: Dario Argento, Stars: Tony Musante.
THE BLIND DEAD COLLECTION, (5-Disc / Includes Bonus - 15,000 Limited Edition).
THE FIFTH CORD, Year: 1971, Director: Luigi Bazzoni, Stars: Franco Nero & Silvia Monti.
FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION, Year: 1970, Director: Luciano Ercoli, Stars: Dagmar Lassander.
THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE, Year: 1977, Director: Flavio Mogherini, Stars: Ray Milland & Dalila Di Lazzaro.
SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE, Year: 1973, Director: Antonio Margheriti, Stars: Jane Birkin & Hiram Keller.
STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER, Year: 1975, Director: Andrea Bianchi, Stars: Edwige Fenech & Nino Castelnuovo.
NEWSFRONT, Year: 1978, Director: Phillip Noyce, Stars: Bill Hunter & Wendy Hughes.
HOW TO KILL A JUDGE, Year: 1974, Director: Damiano Damiani, Stars: Franco Nero.
LA SCORTA, Year: 1993, Director: Ricky Tognazzi, Stars: Claudio Amendola & Enrico Lo Verso.
THE BIG RACKET, Year: 1976, Director: Enzo G. Castellari, Stars: Fabio Testi & Vincent Gardenia.
THE HEROIN BUSTERS, Year: 1977, Director: Enzo G. Castellari, Stars: Fabio Testi & David Hemmings.
STREET LAW, Year: 1974, Director: Enzo G. Castellari, Stars: Franco Nero & Giancarlo Prete.

You may have noticed the recent post announcing this new label 'Panik House' - they have some great titles coming up, and initially they also mentioned some Pinky Violence films had been licensed too, but as of yet they hadn't put up some details. Now they have.

'Sex & Fury' starring Christina Lindberg from 'Thriller : A Cruel Picture' (aka 'They Call Her One Eye') which was one of my favourites of last year on disc. 'Female Yakuza Tale : Inquisition and Torture', 'Criminal Woman : Killing Melody', 'Terrifying Girls High School : Lynch Law Classroom', 'Sukeban Gorrilla' and finally 'Zubeko Bancho : Worthless to Confess'. Great titles, if a little hard to remember.

I recall a mention of two single disc releases and a boxset for a series, so not sure how these fit into these plans, plus i also heard recently that the first 'Zero Woman' movie 'Red Handcuffs' was also licensed for the USA, but by whom i am not sure.

Those interested in the genre may want to also know i asked Yesasia.com to track down the great 1999 Japanese book on Pinky Violence, which is littered with posters of the films, and they've (today) sent me a confirmation they've listed it (almost $30) and it's here.

See Panik House information for these releases here.

Takashi Miike to have a small role in Eli Roth's Hostel? Aint it Cool says so ... nice ...

This one's a little outside the scope of what we usually talk about here, but it just looks too cool to ignore ...

One thing about being a parent is it has made me keenly aware of just how horribly bad most "children's entertainment" is. Seriously ... it's like the studios figure if they just make a bunch of colors move around while making friendly sounds they can sell it to a bunch of kids that don't know any better. This is why my child is being weaned on Miyazaki and Pixar films with just about everything else being kept far, far away.

Now, before seeing the trailer I knew only two things about Zathura. It's directed by Jon Favreau - who is turning out to be one mighty fine director - and is based on a book from the author of Jumanji with which this shares some very common elements. Except it looks much better. I think I'll be bringing the boy to this one. Check it out here.

Oh, wow ... found this over at Filmacco, where they seem to be even more excited about this film than I am ...

If you recall back when we linked to the first full trailer for this I loved everything but the music, which I very much hoped was just a temp track. The later - and much superior - Korean trailer had me thinking that was likely the case and this video has sealed the deal. Some new footage, it looks fantastic, and to call the music surprising would be an understatement. Surprising, but very, very cool. Someone in the know fill me in on who that is, because I think I need to track it down ... it's like a female, Asian take on Calexico. Throw in a mariachi band and some horns and you'd be right there. Sweet.

Huzzah! They spell his name wrong but Coming Soon is reporting that Last Life in the Universe and Ichi the Killer star Tadanobu Asano has joined the cast of Coin Locker Babies along with Asia Argento, Val Kilmer and Liv Tyler. Will this break him into the mainstream? Given the synopsis I kind of doubt it, but it sounds like a fun flick ...

"Liv Tyler, Val Kilmer, Asia Argento and Japanese star Tanobu Asano are in talks to star in Coin Locker Babies, an adaptation from the Japanese bestseller by Ryu Murakami and directed by commercial and music video director Michele Civetta.

Production Weekly says Sean Lennon, son of the late Beatle John Lennon, along with Jordan Galland, Peter Kline and Civetta wrote the film's screenplay.

The story is a surreal coming of age tale about two boys who are abandoned at birth in adjacent train station lockers. They grow up in orphanages and with foster parents on a semi-deserted island until they leave for the city in a quest to find and destroy the women who rejected them in the first place."

I'd not heard of Civetta before, but he's done videos for Sparklehorse and Lou Reed, so he's certainly got good taste in music ...

Huge thanks to Mike for the heads up ...

Ooooh ... here's something I spotted on a League Of Gentlemen email list ... Seasons 2 and 3 of the show, plus the brilliant Christmas Special, are all slated to hit DVD in North America on June 14th. That'll mean everything these boys have done short of the live show will be available domestically. The discs will be available to buy in stand alone editions as well as in a complete League box set featuring the entire run.

This makes Todd a happy boy for two reasons. First, it's a brilliant show that not nearly enough people have seen. Second, when I ask myself why release these now after sitting on them for years I think "Cross marketing". Pure speculation on my part, but this certainly strikes me as a sign that the film may be getting a US release ...

A couple of days ago i posted the artwork for the two different cover designs on the Appleseed USA DVDs... i hadn't seen anyone posting the action figure that comes with the most expensive of the options. But, i've just been over to dvdasian.com which has all three options up to preorder, and they've managed to put a picture up of the 6" tall Brarios figure, which i am cheekily putting here in a pop-up window.

Doesn't look too hot in my opinion, so i am going "mid-range" for the tin thingy.

Animenewsservice quotes USA TODAY, and says that Mr.Williams is indeed an anime fan, in his own words, "I was always a hard-core Warner Bros. fan. Elmer and Daffy and (animator) Tex Avery. I collect a lot of Japanese anime. I am waiting to see "Steamboy." The Japanese are very aware that animation isn't just for kids to the point of making pornography. They make deeply dark movies, science-fiction movies.".

Well, I am surprised. Good on him though, shows us another side to him.

Okay, I'll try to keep this up to snuff as best as I can, but at the time of writing, there are currently only a few active sites carrying the televised Revenge of the Sith Trailer simply because there's a hoard of Star Geeks downloading it and slamming sites with bandwidth problems all across the universe.
At this very moment, these are the ones I can find working: (Movie-list.com's went down)
*This List Last Updated on March 12, 5:00am EST*

*Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Trailer -- Link #1 Mpg (25 Megs)
*Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Trailer -- Link #2<--- Bandwidth-inated
*Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Trailer -- Link #3.. Windows Media. Some guy has it streaming right off his own home page. Brave man.
*Screen Rant's got the Trailer now too...<--- Bandwidth-inated
*ROTS Trailer - somanylevels.com
*ROTS Trailer - Monsters & Critics - Multiple file links
*ROTS Trailer - bananashotgun.com
*ROTS Trailer - flixnjoysticks.com <--- Bandwidth-inated
*www.gotamv.com/swep3 - <--- Bandwidth-inated
*ROTS Trailer

*TORRENTS*
*Star Wars: ROTSr -- This one's 50 Megs - because of better quality.
*Mirror of the Above
*Yet another - very populated - Torrent
BT -Efnet Torrent - over 43,000 completes so far.

More links or less links as they come or die. Whichever comes first. Ah, impatience....
Links via eBaum's Forum, AICN, boogie-blog.com and from Star Geeks everywhere.

Just a quick note to say that I've reset the site to only display the past three days worth of posts on the front page. It had been set to a week but as the traffic to the site has increased - a good thing - our bandwidth usage has also taken a huge spike - a bad thing. Put it this way: we've got about 65 posts in the past week, the large majority of which feature a graphic file that takes up about 10k. Thus, every load of the front page eats 500k. The change will save us money, keep the site from crashing out thanks to maxed limits, and it should help things to load up faster. You just need to make sure that you come back regularly, and if you happen to miss a few too many days there's always the archive links at the bottom of the right column ...

There you go, someone at DVDtalk.com forums spotted this. So now, if you aren't region-free (who isn't?!) then you can buy this one instead of the old UK disc. $30 too.

Apparently the programs have just been sent off to the printers for this year's Philadelphia Film Festival but the Danger After Dark programmer has been kind enough to send along a healthy batch of details, including the entire Danger line up. And this man is evidently a programming god. If I wasn't going to be on the other side of the continent while this was running I'd seriously be looking at making the trip down ... check it out:

Continue reading "Advance Word on the Philadelphia Film Festival ..."

Catching up from a couple long days and I find out that someone is still giving Rob Cohen more projects. I guess some studios still like him as their biotch cause they ain't keeping him around for his artistic integrity. The man makes money off the dumb and weak and as long as plugging him as The Fast and the Furious guy still works the lemmings will still hurtle themselves off that cliff.

Here's what has me is such a tizz. ComingSoon linked to Varietys report that Keanu Reeves is set to take on the role of the famed Arabian sailor, Sinbad, in The 8th Voyage of Sinbad, which has been in the works for several years, with John Singleton most recently attached to direct. But now the helm has been given to Cohen to bastardize with CGI gimmicks, loud explosions and music video pacing. The strong acting skills of Keanu Reeves combined with the Master of Disaster Film Making Cohen? Dear lord when will the drudgery stop?

Set in eighth-century China, Sinbad and his shipmates embark on a quest to find the Lamp of Aladdin. Along the way, they meet a beautiful empress and battle fantastical creatures as well as a rebellious Chinese general who threatens the kingdom with his supernatural powers.

The original script was by Tedi Sarafian [T3: Rise of the Machines] and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley [Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle]. Charlie Mitchell [Cinderella Man] is reportedly using a lot of very big red pens editing the script for production.

And for that matter, Neil Moritz, the producer of this sure-thing suck-fest, should be dragged out into the street for working on an inconceivable seventh picture with Cohen. He must need a new boat or something.

I have scoured many Chinese web-sites attempting to go direct to the source and am coming up empty and lost in translation. I am left citing Wu-Jing.org as my source intead of my lead. Which is not a bad thing. I just like being a little more thorough in my neurosis.

Having said that though I bring positive press about Stephen Fung's House of Fury, set to open on March 24th in Asian cities. What follows are edited quotes from Wu-jing.org. Wu-jing cites their sources on their news page though you may have a dickens of a time finding them.

Jackie Chan... says that House of Fury is a showcase of new wave action sequences that not only incorporates humorous elements but also authentic fight scenes... he was shocked after having watched the movie, for he could not imagine seeing such intensity, and such level of martial arts sequences, taking his hats off to Yuen Wo Ping for having made a breakthrough in martial arts choreography.

Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi are glad to work with Yuen Wo Ping... their skills have greatly improved under his direction.

Being a fan of martial arts films since young, [Stephen Fung - director] has often wished to shoot one such movie. House of Fury... fulfills his dream. He gets to work with Yuen Wo Ping who he finds to be very affable and easy to communicate with.

Hav[ing] done many action films, Gillian Chung has unconsciously built a foundation and she doesn't deny being able to defend herself using martial arts. "There are many actions in House of Fury, and wire was seldom used, but there are more fisticuffs and kicks, so it's much more tiring." She has the deepest impression on the scene where she has to take on 8 persons. Having gradually developed an interest in wushu, Gillian Chung's now training in Taichi to prepare for her next film, perhaps spearheaded by a set of Taichi moves Yuen Wo Ping taught her for House of Fury, after finding her to have great flexibility. [Ed note: Hee Hee]

Oh yeah. I am getting excited about this one for sure.

Yes I know were past that date, but i just spotted this at DVDVisionJapan and checked Amazon to see when it "comes out" because i didn't spot a date at their site, and i see it was out a few days ago.

It's a common enough practice in Japan it seems, to take the frames from some of the more lushly animated films and make them into handy Mangas or "AniMangas" as they're refered to as. 2000 frames from the film are captured, the dialogue added, and the sound effects too (remind anyone of the closed-captions for the deaf / hard of hearing?!). Then, split it into four handy to carry volumes, put them in those nice wrap-around dust jackets you get in Japan, then shove them in a nice sturdy box, and sell it for less than $30.

Tempting.

It's still possible to get the (now uncut) original Manga for 'Ghost In The Shell', as well as the follow up too.

Good bit of timing, a nice English Lannguage interview with Shinji Arakami, Director of the recent CGI 'Appleseed' adaptation of Masamune Shirows classic Manga. You can read what is discussed here

Also a great list of the results for their readers poll for 2004. See what everyone voted for, and what came out on top here. Spoiler : Three different Takashi Miike films in the top 10. Blimey... finally, a nice piece on the great cinemas to be found in Tokyo. Click here.

Hey statesiders! thought I'd drop in a good word for 2005's installment of Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's The Animation Show which should be coming to a city art house theater near you. In Chicago it's playing at the Landmark Century Theater held over until at least the 17th of March. Reep reading for details

Continue reading "THE ANIMATION SHOW COMING TO AN ART HOUSE NEAR YOU!"

A great series which only recently caught my eye, as i asked online in a couple of places about great new shows, and everyone seems to be raving about this one, with people practically waiting outside shop doors with sleeping bags and hot coffee (not really, but you see what i mean...).

There's an official Japanese site here with loads of clips on it. Theres also a nice little fan site worth nosing around which has some nice captures of the opening sequence, which seems based on Klimpts' 'The Kiss' painting - lovely. Anyone downloaded or seen any of it? I am always looking for good solid opinions on anime shows. This one seems to have a reputation for being very violent...

A new Crying Fist trailer has turned up online here, in streaming Real Video only. I'm not really sure what to think of this one ... it looks good but it veers way into melodrama territory, far moreso than I'd expected. It probably just means I need to shift my expectations a little bit ... for those who haven't seen it yet the website is here.

Via Hitman on the KFC Forums.

It's here, the official site for Doctor Who. Don't know when it went up, but something I have noticed since the story about the leaked episode broke is that they've reported it on the national news, begun showing interviews with the stars, and put teaser adverts on the air too.

So, visit the official site to get a legitimate taster of the show. I've seen a long review / breakdown of the show written up in some forum from someone that did the dodgy download thing and it sounds pretty interesting stuff - pictures there now too, so I will try to catch it when it goes out soon.

So says bloody-digusting anyway... it was canned as it was considered too close to 'Ringu' (well, 'The Ring') in its tone, but to be honest it is so different they're not even two side of the same coin. 'Pulse' is a breathtakingly subtle yet devastating story, and 'Ringu' is a little more 'to the point'. Wonder what the tweakes to the script and the feel of 'Pulse' are in order to make it more palatable for funding / USA audiences?

Via Bloody Disgusting.

A little find from Logboy here ...

Tartan Films has announced release dates for their UK DVD releases of both Wong Kar Wai's 2046 and Chan Wook Park's JSA. No specs have been announced yet but both are due to hit shelves on May 23rd.

The North American trailer for Layer Cake - the directorial debut from Matthew Vaughn, producer of Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - has hit online here. The trailer is, intriguingly, specifically labelled as the 'Green Band' trailer which has me thinking that there's a more violent red band version lurking out there somewhere ... I'm looking into that. Read on for the official synopsis of the film.

Continue reading "North American Layer Cake Trailer"

Oooh ... Stauffen has come across a good batch of promo images from The First Contact, that mystery film with Tadanobu Asano and Susumu Terajima that I found advertised in my Taste of Tea DVD and one of 'em, at least, is looking mighty trippy. It almost looks like one of David Cronenberg's famous 'squishy' effects. Check out the full batch of images, including a much larger version of the one to the left, here. And, as always, there's plenty of good stuff on the main page over there ...

The original Flower and Snake has acheived pretty much legendary status in pinku / exploitation circles so I'm more than a little surprised that I hadn't seen word of the upcoming sequel until now. The Gomorrahizer just dropped me a note with extensive links and a translated synopsis. The film's official website does not include any trailer that I could find but, regardless, is most definitely not work safe. Take it away Gom ...

Continue reading "Flower and Snake 2 Website Live"

This one's here for the web-monkey, one time owner of the worst (best?) mullet in the history of mankind.

In the words of my friend Don who sent it to me: The Most Heavy Metal Video Ever. I like the burning skull. And his hair is pretty. I am disturbed by the lack of spandex but they more than compensate for that oversight with the rampant guitar wanking. And what's with the Christopher Lee monologue?

Here it is. What do you think? Larger version popping up in a window when you click this.

Via AICN.

DVDTimes.co.uk have put some nice big pictures of the artwork for the R1 disc of Appleseed up.

Unfortunately they're flat pictures, so no sign of the size of the box / tin for the higher-end editions, but at least the designs follow the Japanese one(s) as far as I remember. Check them out here.

Just a reminder that there's just a little more than a week left to enter our Dolls and Bright Future DVD giveaway contests. Click here for all the details.

Look Magazine has run a new picture of Hugh Jackman in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. This one features Jackman as a Spanish Conquistador in the past segment of the time jumping film. Check out a larger version here.

Via Coming Soon.

No English subtitles on this edition - not until the UK edition, from the looks of things - but who cares? The dialogue isn't even secondary on this one, it's much farther down the line. Tertiary? Quaternary, perhaps? Whatever ... there are two editions, this is the one you want. Deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, animatics ... a pretty good selection of special features, really, all presented in widescreen with 5.1 sound.

Also out on DVD this week is Sagai United, what looks like a Thai take on Shaolin Soccer that we linked to a while back ... that one is English subbed, and yes I'm ordering them both.

Oh my. I don't know how many times I've lamented that Wisit Sasanatieng, the director of Tears of the Black Tiger, seemingly dropped from the face of the earth following that film. There's just something about that film that I adore and I want more! Thus, I just about dropped out of my chair when I spotted a post over on the Asian DVD Guide saying that a film called Citizen Dog was hitting DVD next week and that this was the new - and completely unheard of 'round these parts - film from the director of Tears of the Black Tiger. Glory! Good lord I hope that DVD is subtitled ...

You can hit the official website here or you can just go ahead and download the trailer, the teaser (which is well nigh as long as the trailer), a music video, or another music video. They're all good. Described as a fantasy / comedy Citizen Dog drops the weird period detail of Black Tiger but demonstrates once again that this man is an absolute visual genius.

Big thanks are due to Ian for pointing this out ...

Starting on Thursday is the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival with an impressive lineup of films from - you guessed it - Asian Americans as well as some fantastic work from Asian film makers over seas. Of the local stuff the Joan Chen starring Saving Face look intriguing and there's just too much good foreign stuff to choose from: Old Boy, Turtles Can Fly, 20:30:40 ... a fantastic mix from just about all of the major film producing cultures on the continent. Nice.

Whoo! The BBC ran a behind the scenes feature on The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse last night and the whole thing has turned up on a League fan site here. No film footage but lots of shots of the boys in costume and a few good bits of interview footage ...

Someone needs to give the boys at the Lake County Film Festival a pat on the bum for busting out the funk over on their website. No, really. Go give them a pat. A firm caress, even.

The Lake County Festival is a little affair hosted just outside Chicago and though the full schedule hasn't turned up online yet, they gave us an advance peek. The shorts are definitely the reason to hit this one with the big find, for me anyway, being Lift - a half hour, multi award winning short starring Jean Pierre Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon. Pinon is pure gold in anything he's in - with the possible exception of Alien Resurrection which I like to pretend never happened - and judging from the trailer this one looks to be no exception.For those who can't make it out to Lake County word is that Lift will be screening at the Cinematheque in LA on April 1st with Pinon himself in attendance.

And just because I'm a generous soul who is despairing of Jeunet's short films ever hitting DVD, here's an MPG version of Foutaises (AKA Things I Like, Things I Don't Like), a Jeunet / Pinon short film that is an obvious pre-cursor to the introduction scene in Amelie ... go easy spreading the word on this one. It's a big enough file to kill our bandwidth fast. If any of you tech geeks out there know how to re-encode this thing into a better (i.e. smaller) format, I wouldn't say no ...

*UPDATE* Looking for the new Trailer that aired on the O.C.? Then Click Here!

Well, that didn't take long. A cam version of the Revenge of the Sith trailer has turned up online and it's very, well, cammy. Murky picture and lousy audio but it shows enough that you can tell this is going to be a much, much darker film than anything Star Wars since Empire and could very well be even bleaker than that. The guy that sent it to me specifically asked that I not link to the file but you should be able to turn it up without too much difficulty. If people have a burning desire to see it I'll mirror it here, but you're really better off waiting the extra day or two to get a clear, legit version.

The Hong Kong Film Critics Association announced their winners the other day. Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle won Best Picture but he lost the Best Director title to Yee Tung-Shing [One Nite in Mongkok] which I must see really, really soon.

The Best Actor award went to the always awesome Tony Leung (2046). Rene Liu won the Best Actress award [A World without Thieves]. The Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress titles went to Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle) and Bai Ling [Dumpling - Three Extreme].

via MonkeyPeaches.

Well, what do you know ... I didn't give a lot of credence to this rumor when Aint It Cool floated it late yesterday, but now both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are floating it as well. Word is Quentin Tarantino will meet with execs at New Line later this week to discuss writing and directing a new Friday the Thirteenth film. This totally fits within Tarantino's run through classic trash film genres but, much as I like the guy, I've got to say this'll give Jason an unfair advantage. I mean, everybody will be talking so much that it'll be child's play to sneak up and hack them to bits. And though I think Tarantino would be an interesting choice as a director - certainly far better than anyone else in recent days - I've gotta say it'd be nice if Mr. Attention Span would actually see a project through before announcing any more ...

Effectively Geneon is Pioneer, and they do a really great job of mastering their discs, so I am happy they have reportedly secured the rights to the 52 episode anime series based upon the character(s) from the great Viewtiful Joe games (still got to get the wrapping of the second one and play the damn thing...).

As originally reported by AnimeOnDVD.com and seen at AnimeNewsNetwork here.

The BBC are reporting that someone has managed to obtain and distribute (online) an allegedly early version of the first episode of "Dr.Who" which isn't due to air until the end of the month. Theres a full report which details that the episode sees the Doctor and side-kick (Rose) chased by Autons - shop manaquins that have come to life.

Read the BBC News report here.

For those interested in British Comedy, wether you know and love it or want a taste or two of it - here's some releases out in the last week or so.

Firstly is "The Best Comedy DVD In The World" which the BVA (British Video Industry) has forgone all profits from production, distribution and copyright issues to raise (hopefully) a million pounds for Unicefs' Tsunami Childrens Appeal. 110 Minutes of clips from many famous Comedy names over many decades, and offers something for everyone.

Secondly is "Comic Aid", also a Tsunami Benefit, which offers 3 hours of stand-up and performance (recorded at a specially arranged show) from names like : Jonathan Ross, Jack Dee, Graham Norton, Julian Clary, and Lily Savage, Lee Evans, Dawn French, Jimmy Carr, Ardal O'Hanlon, Johnny Vegas, Bill Bailey, Bo' Selecta! star The Bear, Jo Brand, Jon Culshaw, Omid Djalili, Otis Lee Crenshaw, Eddie Izzard, The League Of Gentlemen with Miranda Richardson, Alistair McGowan, Dylan Moran, Dave Spikey and Simon Pegg with Jessica Stevenson.

I've seen an edited for TV version of "Comic Aid" and it's a stunning show.

Highly recommended by me, the 'Art Of' series of books for the Studio Ghibli films, of which there are too many to keep track of in Japan, and very few of in English. They're issued in English usually as the films make it to the Cinema in America : hence only "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away" until now.

So, one more addition - "Porco Rosso" has made it out in America at the start of the month, and will be available in the UK in a couple of weeks. They're a good couple of hundred pages, absolutely littered with colour illustrations and informative text, which until now is simply Japanese (I have over a dozen of the Japanese Editions). Very Highly Recommended. Available at Amazon.com or .co.uk.

How are people enjoying "Nausicaa" and "Porco Rosso" on DVD in America and elsewhere? Great films, and great reviews everywhere I look.

Click here for sheer brilliance.

Yeah, that's me geekin' it up with none other than Danny Boyle who graciously granted an interview for us while he was on tour promoting his new film Millions. Based on the well known young adult novel, Millions tells the story of two brothers who mysteriously happen upon a huge bag of money just before Britain is set to convert to the Euro. The style is pure Boyle but the story, full of visitations from smoking Saints is a wonderful blend of faith and fantasy.

It was a great conversation that crossed through a lot of subject matter and ended on a case of mistaken identity and a scoop about his new film, Sunshine.

Continue reading "Danny Boyle Interview"

This one's all I've got for today, but it's a good one ...

San Jose's Cinequest festival is offering najor chunks of their entire festival line up of features and short films for free, legal download. You need to register to have access, but it's a free, simple process and there's a load of stuff available there. Check out their website here.

I know that recently it was announced that "Family" and its sequel will be released in the UK this Summer time, and that will certainly contain subtitles, but it's worth noting theres a cheap (1800 yen) DVD coming soon in Japan. Why? Well, chances are it will not contain subs, but at least it's a hint there will be a good source on which to base the UK disc, which potentially dispells some fears at least.

Also, looking around i have managed to find a streaming trailer for the release at an "upcoming titles" page on a Japanese site. Look for the cover I have show here on this page. It's a good chance to geta taster of the film, and will be the first look at one of the half-dozen or so films Miike made in 2001.

Couple of bits regarding this replacement DVD for America. The 'Ghost In The Shell: Innocence' disc that it is replacing is the one originally issued with poor subs. The replacement contains a sub track with the square-bracketed information removed, and they remain in the same position and at the same size apparently.

Some of those in the USA have recieved their replacements through, and I was a bit slow off the mark so still waiting for mine.

Additionally, there was talk that the corrected discs would appear in shops would appear with a sticker saying 'V4' on it. That particular bit of information is actually printed within the text of the security tab down the opening side spine - as in this picture shown here.

This knowledge and the picture was gained through the dvdtalk.com forum.

I don't know why but this put a big ol' smile on my face ... The official Seven Swords website has posted a picture of the actual seven swords Tsui Hark designed for the movie. I like 'em. Click here for a larger version.

Via Monkey Peaches.

I haven't been able to find a trailer for this one yet, but I'll be buying it blind ... Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead is a horror comedy starring kung fu legend Gordon Liu, he of 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Kill Bill fame. You can pick it up at YesAsia here.

For more details check out the press release for the coming UK edition below.

Continue reading "Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead Hits DVD!"

Yeah, I know I'm a bit late on these ... Logboy sent me the link yesterday but I was off working the night shift. And sleeping. Sleep is good. Anyway, a pair of large shots of The Scarecrow from Batman Begins have turned up on a Brazilian site and they look mighty nice. If nothing else every new image from this confirms that Nolan is taking the film in a much darker and more realistic - if you can use that word in relation to a film about a man who dresses as a bat to hunt down bad guys - direction than has been done before. Nolan can do no wrong in my book, so I'm greatly looking forward to this ...

Via Dark Horizons.

A pair of solid Japanese film trailers discovered via Stauffen, where there's a bunch more stuff worth looking at ...

First is The Sea of Trees Behind Mount Fuji, a fantastic looking drama set in the foothills of Mt. Fuji - apparently a popular place to go and commit suicide. Depressing subject matter, but the trailer looks stunning. The site's flash based, so no direct link to the trailer, sorry. It's simple enough to find.

Second, Gyakkyou Nine - a live action sports film based on a manga. Looks to mine a similar sports comedy vein as Shaolin Soccer and Battlefield Baseball comparisons are inevitable, though this looks to be a fair bit more coherent. Again, it's a flash based site, so no direct link. Hit the second tab in the top left to get to the trailer.

The past couple days have produced a whole wack of pictures and stills from the upcoming House of Fury [Jing wu mo sing]. I want to see this really, really bad.

Stop teasing me with your pictures of wire-fu and cute girls! Dang!!!

Shots of the cast and Yuen Wo Ping over at Sina.

2 pics of Gillian Chung over at MyRice.com.

Various cast pics at G-Film.com.

Stephen Fung action shots with Gillian, promo shots with Charlene Choi and various action shots over at Tom.com.

via MonkeyPeaches and Wu-Jing.

Oooh. Not entirely film related but really, really cool nonetheless. I love the animation of Genndy Tartakovsky. Love it! Ever since I saw Dexter's Laboratory, then Samurai Jack and capping it off with the oh-so freaking cool Star Wars Clone Wars I will stop in my tracks to watch Tartakovsky animation.

Hands up how many of you, after watching his Clone Wars series, yelled out, "You see that George!?! You see THAT!?! THAT'S how it's supposed to be done!!!". I thought so. Tartakovsky's stuff just plain rules.

And now I am really grumbling about my poor immigration status and lack of holiday time right now cause I would be planning a trip to bare witness to ANIMATION A-GO-GO! TWO NIGHTS WITH GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood, CA, presented by AmericaCinematheque in conjunction with Cartoon Network, Lucasfilm, and ASIFA-Hollywood (International Animated Film Society).

This two-night mini-tribute will feature everything from student films to sneak peeks at future projects, as well as a hearty helping of classic cartoons by some of Tartakovsky’s animation heroes. Genndy Tartakovsky will appear for an extended discussion each night.

I would SO be there. Click the link below to check the line-up for each day.

via CartoonBrew and AmericaCinematheque.

Continue reading "ANIMATION A-GO-GO! Two Nights With Genndy Tartakovsky"

Picture this. You're having friends over for a night of cocktails and conversation when someone asks where you got your Herman Miller Aalto Armchair. Imagine the look on their faces and the envy burn in their eyes when you tell them you got it at the Tim Burton Garage Sale. You're the life of the party!!!

Previously owned items by director Tim Burton and his former girlfriend Lisa Marie. Designer furniture (Herman Miller, Noguchi, Knoll, Ashland & Hill), clothing (Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, YSL), lamps, ceramic kiln, fine crystal, make-up, electronics, Tiffany & Co. Sterling Silver, movie memorabilia, props from movie sets and tons more. This sale will be held in a warehouse in Azusa, CA, a 45 minute drive from Studio City.

Make some room on your credit cards people! We're going shopping!

Friday, March 11
Saturday, March 12
Sunday, March 13, 2005
207 North Aspan Avenue
Azusa, CA 91702
9:00am - 4:00pm

via CartoonBrew.

Back in October of 2004 it was announced that IVL in Hong Kong had done a deal to license and release a whole range of Teoi Films. So, great obscure Japanese films at good prices for nicely mastered discs. Fantastic.

Follow a huge period of virtual silence and relatively few release in relation to the amount of films they seem to have arranged to put out. The most tempting information that came out (for me) was the inclusion of Imamuras 'Black Rain', an early project on which Takashi Miike worked. Now the date seems to be set - May 2005 for this and 'Ballad of Narayama' according to the translated leaflet that has been put with other recent IVL / Toei releases.

On April 5th you will aslo be able to get 'Genji : Thousand Year Love' and the 2003 version of 'Samurai Ressurection'.

As seen at the AsianDVDGuide.com forum.

Between Koma and The Eye Angelica Lee is running the risk of being typecast as the organ-transplant actress. Unfortunately the movement of human bits and pieces from one body to another is where the comparison ends. While The Eye is a strong example of genre film done right Koma, though showing flashes of style, plays it right up the middle with stock twists and shallow characters. While not a particularly bad film it certainly doesn’t bring much of anything new to the table and fails to execute as well as a good number of others that have tread this ground in the past. If The Eye left you with a burning desire to see what Lee looks like whilst vomiting then this is the film for you, otherwise not so much.

Continue reading "Koma Review"

Wow. Can The Taste of Tea really be a film by the same man responsible for the atrocious Party 7? After a promising debut with Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl director Katsuhito Ishii took an enormous step back with Party 7 - a noisy, pointless, vapid film so bad that even the normally reliable Tadanobu Asano is virtually unwatchable. After that film received a sound critical roasting Ishii took a break of several years from live action film making, returning to the anime world that was his original home. And, frankly, nobody particularly missed him.

And then word began to circulate about The Taste of Tea. Ishii’s third live action feature began to do the international festival circuit and the word was universally positive, glowing even. The footage that made it to the web was fantastic. And now, having finally had the chance to see the film I have to say that this is a completely unexpected masterpiece, a glowing, quietly absurd yet emotionally profound film about the value of family.

Continue reading "The Taste of Tea Review"

The reviews are coming in, so let the debate start: what should a company do when it's so far down the line, has laid out loads of cash getting a license and disc together only to discover they can't do the film justice? Release it - that seems to be happening with AnimEigo's "Samurai Assasin" and "Incident At Blood Pass", the former is out now and the latter is due on the 8th ... they've both apparently not been mastered from prints but video sources as the image is soft and blurry.

DVDTalk.com has put ther reviews up (click the live text above). They slate them. Forums have started to discuss "Samurai Assasin" too. Perhaps we need a labelling system (as i've mentioned elsewhere in a forum) that declares how a disc was sourced, as buying dodgy discs seems as dangerous now as food in supermarkets that are legally required to warn customers of potentially unhealthy contents.

I've watched Samurai Assasin. Stunning film - disc is soft, and apparently some believe AnimEigo has owned up to it being Betamax-mastered, but not openly. Shame on you.

Okay ... my A Taste Of Tea DVD arrived today (hurray!) and inside the case I found this flyer for a film titled The First Contact, apparently due for a summer release. Check out that top picture: that's Tadanobu Asano and the perpetual Takeshi Kitano sidekick whose name I absolutely always forget even though I've loved him every time I've seen him. I've been doing some digging around looking for more info on this but the English title is too generic to be of any use with Google and it doesn't show up on any of the Asano pages I checked. Can anybody help out with some info? A larger version of the flyer is here.

Still don't know if this works, as the streaming first episode that's at Amazon.com is dubbed, and dubs don't work for me (this isn't the cue for a dub versus sub debate)... you can see it for yourself here. Just click on the clip hypertext under the boxset picture.

There's also a review up at animatedbliss.com and you can read it here.

If anyone know of a good JPEG converter for Mac (OS X) then let me know...

SuperHeroHype has turned up the final Sin City poster and it looks sweet ... even sweeter is the word that a new trailer should be hitting at the beginning of next week. Check out a larger, much higher resolution, version of the poster here.

A teaser for a trailer? How ridiculous is that? Plenty ridiculous, says I, but that's what we've got ... a promo spot advertising the upcoming appearance of the new Star Wars trailer during the next episode of The O.C. has turned up online here. An ad for an ad ... that's just wrong ...

Okay all you classic kung fu fans ... the Asian DVD Guide has got the entire 2005 release schedule for the IVL remastered Shaw Brothers DVD releases here. Check it out and start drooling.

Filmacco has found yet another new trailer for A Bittersweet Life ... this one's the full length Korean trailer, so no subtitles, but there is a lot of new footage including lots of new action scenes. And my issues with the sound track on the international trailer? All gone. This thing looks and sounds incredible, pretty much flawless stuff. Check it out here. Be aware that that site uses ActiveX controls, though, so it won't work in Firefox ... if someone can find the direct link to the video file so I don't need to jump to IE to view it I'd appreciate it very much ...

Well, here's an official end to the Seven Swords at Cannes rumors ... director Tsui Hark has been quoted by Chongquing Daily saying that the film is behind schedule in post production and will not be ready for the launch of Cannes in May. In a surprisingly candid comment he goes as far as to say that The Legend of Zu had some major problems brought on, at least in part, by rushing through the production to meet targeted dates and that he will not make the same mistakes with Seven Swords.

Via Wu-jing

The official site for Terry Gilliam's Tideland has just been updated with a slew of behind the scenes footage as well as a trio of interviews with Gilliam himself. Nice. Hit the Behind the Scenes link for all the new stuff ...

Geert Jan - who's doing a lovely job on the DVD calendar, by the way - dropped me a note last night to point out that YesAsia is currently listing a release date of July 31st for the Hong Kong DVD of Howl's Moving Castle and, yes, it will include english subtitles. Nothing's definite until it actually comes out, but the date makes sense ... Hong Kong likes to get their DVDs out as quickly as possible to combat bootlegging but the chances of anyone being allowed to release a DVD before the film has released in North America - which is supposed to happen this summer - are pretty much nil. If the rumored June theatrical release is correct then a July DVD in Hong Kong makes good sense.

Wow ... here's a fun title coming from Unearthed Films in June: Rock and Rule an animated rock and roll musical from the eighties with music by Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Debbie Harry and Cheap Trick. It was released once on VHS in the mid-eighties and then promptly went away. The weird thing is I actually remember seeing this on Canadian television when I was a kid ... the two disc set features the international version along with the longer Canadian version and a slew of extras ... check out the details from the official press release:

Synopsis: Angel, a member of a punk rock band in the apocalyptic future, is kidnapped by Mok, a legendary super rocker. Obsessed with a dark experiment, Mok plans to use Angel's voice to summon a demon from another dimension. The rest of the band follows Mok to Nuke York in an attempt to get her back."

DVD Specs:

Rock and Rule Special Edition
New fully restored High Definition Anamorphic transfer in 1:85:1
An enhanced 5.1 Dolby track and cleaned up 2.0 Dolby track
The Making of Rock and Rule Featurette
Commentary with Director Clive Smith.
Intensive sketch gallery
Deluxe animated menu's
Restoration comparisons
Liner Notes

Rock and Rule 2 Disc Collectors Set
New fully restored High Definition Anamorphic transfer in 1:85:1
An enhanced 5.1 Dolby track and cleaned up 2.0 Dolby track
The Making of Rock and Rule Featurette
Commentary with Director Clive Smith.
Intensive sketch gallery
Deluxe animated menu's
Restoration comparisons

Disc 2
CBC; Original version of Rock and Rule
The Devil and Daniel Mouse
The Making of The Devil and Daniel Mouse Featurette
PDF File of the script
Massive sketch gallery
Alternate Title Sequence
15 Minute workprint ending of Drats
Collectors Booklet

Unearthed doesn't have a trailer up on their site yet but I have managed to turn up this music video (in Real Video) and this trailer (in .avi) that I'll host here until our bandwidth maxes out.

Another Logboy find here ... I never watched Gigantor - the Americanized release of Tetsujin 28 - as a child but I've loved everything I've seen so far from this live action version and the poster looks fantastic. There's a much larger version here. The trailer, all nice and Quicktime-y is here.

Logboy just came across the poster for Analife, one of my more anticipated films of the year, here and frankly I'm surprised by how ugly it is. Ugly enough that I probably wouldn't have bothered linking to it except it gave me an excuse to run another link to the trailer, which is about as far away from ugly as is humanly possible.

This was posted in the original trailer thread a little while back but just in case you missed it the internet trailer for the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - that'd be the one where the Guide deconstructs movie trailers - is available in beautiful high resolution Quicktime here.

Gorezone.net have translated DevilDeads news story announcing NoShame, set up by an Italian (Michele De Angelis) and an American (Joyce Shen) to release Italian Genre movies to USA audiences. They have worked for Anchor Bay, Blue Undergroung and Alan Young Pictures on DVD releases before, but now they're on their own putting out such stuff as BOCCACIO 70 and YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW in April, then on May 31st, they will release BLADE OF THE RIPPER and CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL. June sees THE KIDNAP OF MARY LOU and Sergio Martino's GAMBLING CITY.

Anyone with any information and opinions on these titles, the genres they fit into please post comments below. I haven't had much time to go looking into them yet.

Tom Mes, of Midnight Eye was at Cinema Nocturna recently for an online chat. The writer of "Agitator - The Cinema Of Takashi Miike" talked in reply to questions from visitors, and the transcript has been made available, unfortunately not in a dedicated URL, but having contacted the site they're not worried about copyright on the work, so click below to read it.

Continue reading "Cinema Nocturna. Tom Mes. Chat Transcript."

The aimless youth film is pretty much a genre unto itself in Japan. There are literally stacks of these films ranging from genre pulp (i.e. Miike’s Fudoh) to the high concept art film (Tsukamoto’s Bullet Ballet) and pretty much every major Japanese director has at least one to his credit. Enter Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Bright Future. Never one to shy away from genre Kurosawa has taken the staples of the aimless youth film, fused them with some subtle structural elements from the classic monster film, and created a beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the clash between generations and cultures. Helping the auteur out along the way are two of Japan’s most compelling young stars in Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri.

Continue reading "Bright Future Review"

Before going anywhere with this review, there are three things that people need to know. First, this is purely a directorial effort from Kitano. He does not appear in it at all. Second, although one of the major characters is a yakuza crime boss, "Dolls" is in no way a yakuza film. Third, Kitano is a filmmaker completely unafraid of silence and open space. Unless it's an outright silent film, you are never going to see a film in which the lead characters have less dialogue than this one.

Continue reading "Dolls Review"

According to Coming Soon Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle has been picked up by Dimension Films and is slated for a September 16th release. Dimension is, however, notorious for shifting release dates around, so I wouldn't bank on that one. Check out this synopsis:

"Steven Chesterman (Kenneth Branagh), a physics lecturer, has just discovered how to move an object from one side of the room to another. Years of research into teleportation have finally borne fruit. Elated, he returns home to tell his wife, Alice (Courtney Cox). Alice has some rather fantastic news of her own: she tells Steven that she is a male alien trapped in a human female body. Her signal has finally been intercepted and she will soon be returning to the planet Nulark. As Steven's life falls apart around him, the doorbell rings. Elizabeth (Heather Graham) enters. She has green skin and pointy ears and she is wearing a space suit. To make matters worse, she has come to take her husband, Alice, back home."

Nice. Canfield has a good sit down with Boyle just a couple days back and he assures me that he got a good bit more info on this one. And he also learned thanks to my incessant nagging - whoopsie - that the Daniel Boyle who worked on Hamish MacBeth is an entirely different person, though they do sometimes receive each other's royalty checks. Heh. Silly me. Two Scottish men with the same name working with Robert Carlyle at roughly the same time ... who knew? Anyway, I'm told that interview should be all ready and online by Monday. Transcribing is the Devil's work, so everybody be extra nice to Canfield for doing it.

Thanks to jjj for the link.

Here we go with our latest DVD giveaway contest thanks to the good people at Palm Pictures. Up for grabs this time are two copies each of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future - my personal favorite of Kurosawa's films - and Takeshi Kitano's Dolls.

This will be a trivia contest once again, with entries accepted here until March 18th. Please label your contest entries clearly.

For the Dolls DVD, answer me this: Takeshi Kitano got his start as part of a comedy duo. Who was his partner?

For Bright Future, answer me this: Bright Future star Joe Odagiri will soon appear in a musical from a revered 1970's era Japanese cult director. Name the director and film.

Read on for the complete rules and regs.

Continue reading "Bright Future and Dolls DVD Giveaway Contest!"

Lion's Gate has released the poster image for Infection, one of their upcoming releases from the J-Horror anthology project, and it's looking sweet. Now if they'd just give us a release date.

Via Bloody Disgusting.

Oh, this rules ... I've expected a lot of things from Nakata's Ring 2, but I never expected it to make me laugh this hard ... check out the new TV spot ...

Via Bloody Disgusting

I couldn't make this up if I tried. They're aiming for a 2007 debut, Cronenberg is directly involved as is M. Butterfly's David Henry Wong. Details here.

Best quote ever:

" ... such charges can only originate from ignorance of my films ... particularly entertaining is something surely nobody would call them!" - Lars Von Trier, knocking his own films.

The Associated Press has just reported that Lars Von Trier has cut the infamous scene of a live donkey being butchered for food from his upcoming film Manderlay out of concern that it would draw attention away from the film's political content.

I'm a little surprised by this considering that he felt strongly enough about its inclusion that he was willing to let John C. Reilly walk off the set over the issue ... Check out the whole article here.

Oooh ... if you're in the Toronto area and want to see some impressive short films, including this year's Oscar winner Ryan, get thee to Camera on Saturday night for one impressive lineup of films. Read on for the details ...

Continue reading "A Stack of Award Winning Shorts in Toronto."

Whee! We've seen lots of talk from Sam Raimi about the possible Evil Dead remake and sequel, but very little from Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell. Until now. Click here for Bruce's thoughts on the Evil Dead stuff, The Man With the Screaming Brain, Bubba Ho Tep Two and Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. Because who wouldn't want to make love like Bruce Campbell?

And in related news, Sam Raimi shoots down the Chan Wook Park directing the Evil Dead remake rumor here.

Thanks to Kurt for both links.

Can someone send me new lungs, please? Ones not filled with slime? Thanks.

Well, this an interesting read. The article isn't dated so I'm not certain when it first appeared, and it looks as though the project is stalled due to rights issues, but it sounds as though there were serious plans in the works to create a Buffy the Vampire Slayer show sans-Joss Whedon. Check it out here.

Thanks to Billy for the link.

A good while back we posted links to the trailer for GORA, a big budget Turkish sci-fi comedy spoofing both current science fiction and the bad, low budget Turkish remakes of yore. I was stricken by the urge ot look in on the film this morning and, lo! The DVD is out! With enough subtitles to keep pretty much anyone of English or Western European stock happy. That'd be English, French, German and Dutch subtitles, just for the record. There's an English-friendly source here.

I don't know what is more fun about this...

One: How refreshing is it to see a bonafied movie star like Hillary Swank chowing down on a burger after her Oscar win?

Or Two: The Babelfish translation of the article from Sina.com?

Experienced has been lucky the rug and the long promulgation ritual, the stomach rumbling with hunger stars marches into the Kodak theater two buildings banquet halls participation "governor the dance party".

Movie queen Hillary Si Wangke one, becomes the evening banquet focal point immediately. "We planned first greatly eats, otherwise I had to faint have passed." Si Wangke said that, "meets us to have to go to ' the fame and fortune field ' to send to, took off shoes afterwards, lets Zha De help me the massage. Cracks a joke! Evening only then just started." The husband Luo river received the speech stubble to say that, "This is an extraordinary night, we too were happy. Many this professions people also obtain the work in the dream, but occupies this position we really to be supposed to thank God." -odd wonderful translation

I meant to get this out a couple days ago but you know that old story.

"Jackie Chan will play a bad guy, "world No. 1 Baddie" according to himself, next year in a new film co-produced by a Korean firm, according to Hong Kong's Oriental Daily and The Sun. At a press conference in Tokyo, for promoting his New Police Story, he said he would recreate Tokyo's Shinjuku district, because it would be very hard to shoot in the real Shinjuku district during the nighttime" Monkeypeaches.com

This likely par for the course in the 'new' Jackie we're starting to see. He has said that he wishes to have more dramatic roles and there's nothing more dramatic than playing the hard-ass. I say, bring it!

MonkeyPeaches was also quick to point out that this is not the first time that Jackie will have played a baddie on screen. They allude to a film he did 'two and a half decades ago, before his breakthrough'. I'm looking at his IMDB file and trying to figure out what that role was. Not Cannonball Run was it? Winners and Sinners: 5 Lucky Stars? As familiar with the Jackie Chan universe as I am I cannot for the life of me remember any movie with him in the role of the bad guy. Someone help us out here.

Take this one with a grain of salt folks. Screenwriter Michael Werb said he had talks with John Woo about penning a follow-up to "Face Off".

"Initially, it was just a similar idea, then we decided we might as well make it a sequel, not a direct sequel, but a sequel all the same. Imagine two females in the Nic and John roles and we're bound for a good time", he said. Werb said he's already suggested Angelina Jolie, as "There's no going past her".

This is just a bad idea. One: IMDB credits Werb with only ONE movie. Two: Face/Off was freaking brilliant and I doubt you can do the same thing again. Three: Angelina Jolie? Uh... dude? Her action films suck nuts man!

Okay. Granted, John's career is going in the tanker with each new project announcement. But, if you're dead set to go ahead, do this, ruin one of my last good Woo memories and you're adamant about casting Jolie you need to cast someone opposite her who is really strong. May I suggest Uma? She's worked with John before in the forgettable Paycheck. She's proven she can handle the action thing with Kill Bill. That, and she's fried gold, baby.

Who else can do it? If this story has any bearing of truth to it and they cast the roles with female leads who should they cast?

via Dark Horizons.

Kim Jee Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters is a brutally difficult film to review. Not because there aren’t plenty of brilliant, fascinating things to talk about but because talking about any of them will almost necessarily mean spoiling some major aspect of the film. What can be safely said, however, is that the film is a modern classic and judging from their excellent DVD release Tartan Films is perfectly aware of what they’ve got and are planning on making it a tent-pole release.

Continue reading "A Tale of Two Sisters Review"

Sideways director Alexander Payne has been named head of the jury for the Un Certain Regard program of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The smaller sub-program of the festival generally doesn't attract a whole lot of attention, a fact the festival's directors are obviously hoping to change with such a high profile director heading the jury.

via Filmstew.

Yep, it's another one. This one's a UK trailer based on the same concept as that talking Guide internet only trailer but with different dialogue and footage. Nice.

The first two prequels were bad, bad, bad but that doesn't mean I won't carve out just a little bit more of my childhood's soul and go see the third one anyway. There are times when I really hate being a completist. Stuart at Cinema Blend says it all better than I would anyway, so here's all the info you need.

Ooh, here's a nice find via Greencine. Andrea Arnold's Wasp is currently streaming in its entirety over on the Channel Four website. You'll be seeing Arnold's work next in that Von Trier produced three director experiment we mentioned a while back.

The first full trailer for A Bittersweet Life has turned up online and it looks AMAZING ... we get to see a good cross sampling of quiet moments along with the finished versions of some of the action sequences shown in the behind the scenes footage we linked to last week and it looks as though Kim Jee Woon has hit it out of the park on all counts. Except for the music, which is wretched and very hopefully just a temp track. What makes this even better is that the film's producers are very obviously eyeing the international market with this one, hoping to ride on the success of A Tale of Two Sisters no doubt, and the entire trailer is English subtitled! Check it out in streaming Windows Media format here. I'm thinking Woo meets Wong Kar Wai. Nice.

Via Filmacco.

Oooh ... I may just have to go and re-subscribe to BBC Canada ... spotted an article in today's Globe and Mail praising the show and promoting its launch on the Canadian digi-net this Thursday. From the character descriptions it sounds as though they'll be running both series in sequence. I'd link to the story but it's in the pay area of their site.

Delegation is a wonderful thing. I've been slacking off on keeping the DVD release calendar lately and rather than feeling guilty about it I've decided to just make someone else do it. Many thanks are due to Twitch regular Geert Jan who has very generously offered to take up the slack on that front. If you know of an upcoming DVD release that should be included in the calendar please drop him a line here. Bear in mind that we're only listing titles that include either an english dub or english subtitles ...

Relatively early on in March (the 8th) we get AnimeEigos disc of "Incident At Blood Pass", followed by Criterion's "Sword of Doom" (the 15th) - two great old samurai movies with good reputations. Looking forward, in particular, to "Incident".

Then in Anime I am seriously tempted by "Cromartie High School" but am unsure because I'm not sure how Anime humour transfers, but it is Production I.G doing the animation, as it is on this month's (29th - first of four volumes) release of "Otogi Zoshi" which I have already preordered. The fifth volume of I.Gs "Stand Alone Complex" is also out, a week earlier on the 22nd.

The final MPD Psycho volume makes it out here in the UK on the 21st. Still to watch beyond the first episode, don't ask why, but have the second volume here with me already. And an odd choice for my final preorder is Paul Naschys "Rojo Sangre" which Media Blasters / Fangoria issue on the 15th and it's cheap too - check out the trailer on the Fangoria site, looks good.

It is a relatively quiet start to the year, so should take advantage and get some of that stuff i've had my eye on for ages - perhaps the Zatoichi movies?...

The big thing you spot when you first look at the cover - it's the same as all the other covers. Small differences though, including the gold text "Special Edition" and then the killer of all killers, a review quote from Paul Ross. Noooooooo!

For those not in the UK, Paul Ross is the lowest of the low in terms of TV personalities and film critics. I am actually surprised he liked the film, then again a lot of people say this movies rubbish (not me). So, have Momentum Asia lost confidence in Casshern?, or do they genuinely think it's worth putting that quote on and getting people to buy into something they might know nothing or little about?

You can see the Artwork and the specs (deleted scenes, 13 minutes of extra footage, trailers (!), plus cast & crew interviews) at DVDTimes.co.uk. Buy the R3 HK Disc.