Going ion to the Sundance Festival this year one of the big question marks was Brick.  The film is a modern high school drama, whih is familiar enough territory.  But where things get interesting is that it is also a classical film noir.  Apparently this thing gets all Bogart on you.  It’s an interesting fusion if done well - if nothing else the stark imagery and buried emotions of film noir make for a fantastic re-imaging of the high school experience - but it definitely had the potential to crash and burn on a massive scale. 

Well, judging from the critical response the film is a massive success.  Sadly the trailers have been removed from the website but there’s plenty there to nose around in.  And can I say that I’m happy to see Lukas Haas working again?  Great actor who always does interesting stuff ... rest of the cast looks good, too ...

Great site, Midnighteye.com. Anyhow, some noteable stuff in relation to what has generally been obviously going on in Japanese cinema from most fans points of view, and some surprises to be found (as always). Firstly, their review of Izo by Takashi Miike is up here

Secondly, a nice interview with Japans master of the nasty film, Teruo Ishii is here, as is a review of his 1969 film “The Horror of Malformed Men” here.

Thirdly, the writers have put up their best and worst of 2004’s films. Vital, Doppelganger, Nobody Knows, Izo, Innocence, Mind Game, Howls Moving Castle, Appleseed, Memories of Murder, Last Life In The Universe, Running on Karma, Breaking News, Paranoia Agent, and Blood & Bones are many of the top selections most will be familiar with, with some surprising nominations for films like Casshern and Steamboy amongst the worst. See the fill list here and find some new films we’ve all completely missed it seems.

I am so glad there are a couple of really high-ranking mentions for Mind Game, which some people have begun to pick up on now (still selling well at Yesasia.com) - for me not only one of THE best films of 2004, but one of the best blind-buys I’ve ever had, and they’re 95% of what i go for. Jasper Sharp says, “...the relative disappointments of Steamboy and Howl’s Moving Castle were more than offset by the astounding Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and Studio 4C’s flabbergasting Mind Game, a magical work that appeared as if from nowhere.”.

For the top of Midnighteye ...

Saw the banner ad for this over at AICN, the official site for Danny Boyle’s latest, Millions. Nick and I saw this at TIFF last September and we both had very good things to say about it. And is so happens that the rest of you will be able to see this on March 11th. It appears to have a full release on this date.

Can’t wait until March 11th? Live in New York or L.A? Then by a stroke of marvelous luck you can go to a free screening on one of two dates in those areas.

Tuesday, Feb 01 7:00 PM AMC Empire 25, New York
Wednesday, Feb 02 7:00 PM AMC Burbank 16, Burbank
Thursday, Feb 17 7:30 PM AMC Santa Monica, Santa Monica
Thursday, Feb 24 7:00 PM Irvine Regal Spectrum Theatre, Irvine

Read my review of Millions from TIFF here.

Todd and everyone else at Twitch are probably sitting seeing this thinking “Prince Of F**king Tennis? Has He F**king Lost It?”. Hmmm… Maybe, but the thing is the animation is by Production I.G and they don’t get involved in many things, and what they have touched has been top-notch.

Anyhow, even though i’ve seen the site before, you can go over there are check out the trailer to at least look at the masters of animation in action.

The film opened yesterday in Japan.

With all the well deserved hype around Tony Jaa claiming the international martial arts star throne there’s a pretty major risk of overlooking some significant talent a little closer to home ... I’ve had some readers prodding me to look into a DVD release of the Besson-produced Banlieue 13 (no word anywhere on a French release yet, my hunch is that we’ll see a Russian DVD first, and the Russian stands a better chance of being subtitled) and has just pointed out the stellar websites for Banlieue stars Cyril Rafaelli and David Belle. 

We’ve linked to these before, but it’s worth doing it again ... Rafaelli and Belle are two of the originators of a new form of martial arts that fuses traditional fight styles with gymnastics.  They like to jump off buildings and generally defy gravity a lot.  If you’ve seen the Yamakasi films - and if anyone has solid news on subtitled releases of either Yamakasi or Les Fils Du Vent, I’d like to know about them - you know what I’m talking about.  Both of the artist sites above contain extensive video archives ... click and be prepared to scrape your jaw off the floor ... the videos don’t appear to load properly with Firefox, so if you’re having problems try IE ...

Just realized that whilst linking to the League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse trailer I had neglected to include the poster.  So there you have it.  All big and pretty, even.

People have been buzzing about this film ever since the first images turned up online.  If you’re a mech-geek at all, there’s an awful lot to like about that robot design ... unfortunately nobody’s been able to see it move or see anything to give any kind of clue about the general tone of the film until now.  The trailer has just released and it’s intriguing, although flawed ... if the film comes in at the bottom end of the possibility spectrum we’re looking at Short Circuit with better robot designs.  If it comes in at the high end, though, it looks as though it could be pretty exceptional ... check the website out here ...

Go ahead.  Try it.  Go get a stick and just you try.  Your arm will get tired long before you run out of links to peruse.  Trust me.  I just tried getting through them all and bailed about a third of the way through.  Too ... many ... films ...

Want to know what’s happening in the Japanese film industry?  Go here.  Yeah, that just went straight into my bookmarks file ...

There’s an awful lot of stuff in there ... the Bayside Shakedown spin off flick and the Azumi sequel that people have been talking up for a little while, a ridiculous modern army vs Samurai war picture, and a sign that KSS Films have finally realized that no budget need not equal no story and lousy film work.  That’s just on first perusal, though ... click around and let us know what you find ... I gotta stop before my head explodes ...

MonkeyPeaches has been busy the past couple days. Yesterday they reported that Rogue Pictures released the Unleashed trailer on their web-site and it comes in glorious freaking awesome Quicktime! We’ve seen it hundreds of time and think about it when we sleep at night.

Then today they link to 44 images from the movie over at the fan site Jet Li Online. That and the North American poster, neither of which I had seen yet. Click here to see a full sized image of the North American Unleashed poster.

I think they’re nifty. And so should you. Or I will take my collar off and there will be hell to pay. Like it. Like it now.

This past week the S Korean entertainment industry had been rocked by a 113-page report in a Microsoft Power Point file, dubbed the “Entertainers’ X-Files,”. Created by Dongseo Research for Cheil Communications the file was a research document which would be used to determine the value of potential models and minimize risk factors for advertisers. [Ed note: Dongseo interviewed 10 reporters, who were given vouchers worth 200,000 Won each for their information - Approx $500 CDA]

The report first scores “present position”, describing how entertainers became known and what they do as well as their “prospects”. Other categories, “Attractions/talents”, “self-management” and “rumors” are scored in a separate table.

The “rumors” category has become especially troublesome. There are unconfirmed and potentially defaming rumors. Keywords and phrases like “bisexual,” “scandals involving the sons of a certain business tycoon”, “love affairs with entertainers”, “sponsors have recently changed”, and “had a friendly relationship with a certain Cabinet minister” appear in the report.

Sadly, attention has mainly focused on the “rumors” category. Comments and posts on message boards about this file and categories are mostly nasty than supportive. The contents of the file have been expressed in crude fashion. Many ridicule the rumored sexual tendencies of some of the stars in very colorful language. Others claim to be of a higher moral standing and resort to expressing their disgust with the poor personal morals of some of the entertainers. Of course this is something that is so much easier to do with the anonymity of the internet. They’ll never know who you are so go ahead and slander them!

Since Monday, 55 of the 99 celebrities mentioned in the document have filed a class action suit against Cheil Communications and Dongseo Research. Also, 359 people from the show business industry have expressed their intentions to boycott Cheil. “This incident isn’t just about the entertainers, but about the violation of an individual’s privacy,” said Hong Jong-goo, a representative of the entertainers’ group. “We’re going to take every action and see this to the end.”

Kwon Sang-woo [Volcano High/My Tutor Friend], a Twitch favorite, said in recent interview that because of the break-out of the file he has seriously considering quitting show business altogether. Quite sad news since he is set up to work with Yuen Wo-Ping and is also rumored to be up for a role in John Woo’s The War of the Red Cliff.

A total of 368 entertainers, including such names as TV stars Bae Yong-joon and Kwon Sang-woo, belonging to 45 talent agencies announced later in the week that they will refuse to work with Cheil Communications.

Define Irony: This file is leaked and it will likely ruin some amazing entertainers’ careers in Korea. A talentless hack like Paris Hilton becomes even more popular in America after her sex video is released online.

Via english.chosun.com and The Korea Times.

The crazy bastards at CHUD.com have gotten their paws on some images of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy merchandise and we have what appears to be the first image of the Vogons. Huzzah! Along with a couple Vogons we also see Arthur, Zaphod, Trillian, Ford and Marvin plush dolls. Arthur and Zaphod action figures and other collectible goodness.

Follow this link to see images of Vogons, hitchhikers, moody robots and the likes.

‘On no account allow a Vogon to read poetry at you’.

Anyone who has followed the Dogme movement will tell you that Anders Tomas Jensen is a genius.  As the author of Open Hearts, The King is Alive and Mifune you could argue that Jensen is actually a more important figure in the movement than are the directors simply because he’s been the source of the very best scripts.  What Dogme fans may not be able to tell you, however, is that Jensen is a very funny man.  Funny in a bleak, Scandanavian sort of way, but very funny nonetheless.

Enter The Green Butchers, a film both written and directed by Jensen which is just getting a limited theatrical run in North America now.  I missed this one when it played the Toronto Film Festival opting instead for another fantastic Jensen offering (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) which impressed me so much that I immediately went on a quest to find The Green Butchers on DVD.  Thanks to Denmark’s restrictive export laws this was more difficult than you might think, but it was well worth the effort.  Very bleak, very funny, with an incredible cast and very tight writing.

And now Apple has posted the North American trailer.  And it’s horrible.  Not only is the video bleached and bled out but it’s been subjected to a horribly cheerful soundtrack and irritating text panels.  The only thing they didn’t do is lay Mr. Movie Voice on it.  Making matters worse the old Danish website has been taken over by an actual butcher shop so I can’t even point you to a GOOD trailer.  Sigh ... don’t let the crappy trailer fool you.  This is a very good film.  Check it out if you’re lucky enough to have it playing in your neighborhood.

It actually IS a new one this time, much longer, and no irritating Mr. Movie Voice.  A healthy load of new footage ... click here for happiness ...

I couldn’t see any info on whether it has English subtitles or not, so anyone who knows Thaid VCD / DVD suppliers other than ethaicd.com should nose around and see.

Having said that, it’s the most hopeful sign of the possibility of a English subtitled DVD coming out anywhere soon. Personally, I just plumped for a factory-pressed bootleg from eBay incase there wasn’t one for ages, and then the eBay ones might start disappearing too. Anyhow, look at the Thai listing here.

Other Miike news : according to AICN, Miike has a small cameo in “Rinjin 13” aka “Neighbour No.13”.

Finally, Dreamworks has launched a replacement program for those unhappy with the subtitles track on the ‘Innocence’ R1 USA DVD which including captions for the deaf and hard of hearing.

If you are in the USA or Canada, go here. If you are outside the USA, the company that sold you the disc should be able to replace the disc on your behalf through the same scheme, so tell them the URL in that link i just did, and send the disc back to them instead. It may take longer that way, but you will get it done.

Dreamworks said this, “As you know, we have discovered that the Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence DVD was presented with English SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing) closed captions instead of English subtitles on the film.

As this has now been corrected, DreamWorks Home Entertainment is offering consumers who are not satisfied with the original subtitle options the opportunity to replace the DVD with a version that includes English language subtitles.”

So, In time you should get your new disc with a hopefully perfect English Subtitles track.