Yet another report from the ongoing New York Asian Film Festival.  This one being a review of the hugely acclaimed, and just announced on HK DVD, film Kekexili by Josh Ralske.

One interesting thing about covering a great festival like Subway Cinema’s New York Asian Film Festival is that no matter how little you know about the film they’re showing on any given night, your expectations are relatively high. While this reduces the chances of being pleasantly surprised, it’s still a nice feeling to know you’re almost certainly going to be entertained. I knew very little about Kekexili walking in. The film’s writer-director, Lu Chuan, previously made The Missing Gun, which I haven’t seen. The wildly exuberant Grady Hendrix introduced Kekexili with tremendous enthusiasm, but he always does that. Just prior to the screening, Grady asked me what I had thought of Marathon, and when I told him, he expressed shocked dismay, and (jokingly?) suggested that I have a stone where my heart should be. So I was determined to be open to whatever emotional experience Kekexili offered. Thankfully, it turned out to be austere, unsentimental, morally complex, and grimly realistic—in short, much more likely to have a cold fish like me reaching for his Kleenex than the slick button pushing of Marathon.

Continue Reading "NYAFF Report:  Kekexili Mountain Patrol Review"...

Wow ... this story just gets weirder and weirder ...

When I first heard about Domino, the latest flick from Tony Scott, I was interested purely because it had a script written by Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly, who I think is one of the most interesting young American film talents today.  Then I started reading up a bit on the back story of the model turned bounty hunter and realized that this could be just fantastic material if done right.  Then the trailer hit.  Done right?  Oh, yes.

But then the film got delayed and the rumblings were that it was due to some fairly serious legal trouble the actual Domino Harvey had gotten herself into.  Wouldn’t want the negative pressing spilling into the film.  And today the news broke that at the age of thirty five Domino Harvey has been pronounced dead after being found unconscious in her bath tub.  Police aren’t releasing any more details until their investigation is complete but the bath tub unconsciousness scenarios I can come up with are all rather unpleasant.

Deatils at The Hollywood Reporter.

Have I mentioned recently that pretty well nobody in the world packages DVDs as well as the Koreans?  Oh, the Japanese may out-do them on a high priced uber-edition from time to time but as far as the run of the mill, every day releases ... zowie.

With all the fuss we’ve made about A Bittersweet Life around here I feel like we’ve gone and neglected the other big film out of Korea so far this year, that being Crying Fist.  The thing did win a major award at Cannes, after all.  Anyway, Logboy emailed me pictures of the packaging for the film’s upcoming DVD release - and yes, it does include English subtitles - and I’m feeling all warm and tingly knowing that I’ve already got this bad boy ordered.  Click here for a shot of all the goods laid out and making eyes in your direction ... yummy.

Crying Fist is available for preorder now at YesAsia.

When Tartan released their poster for Chan Wook Park’s Old Boy it left me a bit underwhelmed.  It wasn’t horrible by any stretch but to my mind it didn’t catch the flavor of the film.  This one though?  Zowie.  Very, very nice.  Black Film’s got it all nice and big-like.

Thanks to Peter from A Better Tomorrow for giving me the heads up on this ...

The Boston Globe is encouraging fans to send in their photos of the set and stars of The Departed and has posted a gallery of submitted photos here.  They’re mostly fan poses but there are some nice shots of people in costume in there and, for me anyway, a couple surprises.  I had no idea that Donnie Wahlberg had joined his brother in the cast, but apparently so, and I’d forgotten about Martin Sheen, too.  Yes, this is how Scorsese makes a “small” picture:  Damon, DiCaprio, Nicholson, Wahlberg, Sheen, Baldwin and another Wahlberg.  Nice cast if you can get it.

No more shots of Nicholson with his prosthetic appendage, though.

I feel a case of misleading advertising coming on ...

An internet only trailer for Dark Water has turned up online and it’s really trying hard to sell this thing as a jump-a-minute scare fest.  Thing is, it isn’t.  At least the original, like all of Nakata’s films, isn’t and from what Canfield told me after he caught a screening of the remake this has stayed pretty true to the original intent. 

The original Dark Water is a mood piece about a broken family that takes all of a mother’s fears of losing custody of her child and gives them a supernatural focus.  It builds slow with the otherworldly stuff held to a minimum so as not to spoil the ultimate reveal.  There ARE some great jump shots, yes, but they’re not at all the focus of the film and there aren’t nearly enough of them to sell the film on that basis ...

I really like the original Dark Water, prefer it to Nakata’s Ringu actually, but if people go into this film expecting the scarefest that that trailer is selling they’re going to go away pissed, and justifiably so.  But I guess the opening weekend numbers are all that matter these days ...

Now this is just strange.  First Terry Gilliam’s Tideland shot there and now the Pang Brothers have set up in Canada’s Very Flat Place (a.k.a. Saskatchewan) to shoot their English language feature for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures with Mandate - Ghost House’s partner on The Grudge and Boogeyman - and Blue Star Pictures also on board.  News about the film first started to circulate under the title of Scarecrow, but that title has now been set aside with the film being referred to only as “The Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project”. 

The film’s got a solid cast in Panic Room’s Kristen Stewart along with Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller and John Corbett.  Corbett’s hit and miss for me but I see him working in this setting and McDermott is a guy who has proven himself hugely talented on television but has yet to really find his niche on the big screen. 

With Collateral’s Stuart Beattie behind the original script, since re-written by Mark Wheaton, this should finally be a case where the Pangs have some substance to back up all that style after a little run of films ultimately betrayed by soft scripts.  Okay, the guy from Jason X worked on it, too, but Beattie’s really, really good.  Bangkok Dangerous, One Take Only and The Eye are all just solid, solid films so here’s hoping they’re given the chance to really show what they can do here ...

Read on for the official press release.

Continue Reading "The Pang Brothers’ Untitled Ghost House Pic Starts Shooting!"...

How on earth did I miss this ...

Was just browsing the ever informative Stauffen and realized that he posted a link to the trailer for We Are Looking For The Moon a little while back.  Stauffen’s a regular read for me - and should be for all of you reading this, as well - so I have no clue how I managed to overlook this since it’s one that I’m quite looking forward to.

Why?  Well, it marks Yosuke Kubozuka’s return to the big screen following his brush with death last summer.  I’m a big, big fan of Kubozuka - if you haven’t seen Ping Pong or GO run, don’t walk, and track them down - and really believe that the young actor could end up being the next Tadanobu Asano, though slightly prettier.  I’ve enjoyed co-star Taro Yamamoto in everything I’ve seen him in as well.  I’m also more than a little curious to see if Kenta “Son of Kinji and co-director of Battle Royale 2 following his legendary father’s death” Fukasaku will be able to step out of his famous father’s shadow now that he has a chance to work on something purely his own.

Verdict on the trailer?  Looks pretty sweet without giving away anything in terms of plot and definitely a good step away from pa’s work.  Check it out.

Another in my increasingly frequent (yet occasional and very selective) pieces on British Comedy shows and personalities.

This one is Graham Fellows (aka ‘Jilted John’ - pop star of days gone by) as his alter-ego John Shuttleworth. Remember, British Comedy is about the British Personality in all its’ guises. Oddballs a plenty to be found here in this small island the size of some pratically unpopulated American states.

John is a northern entertainer, keyboard player, story teller, and generally very nice (but very strange) chap who lets you into his life in an almost ‘video diary’ manner in this particular show. I seem to remember there was one series before this, but John mostly releases CDs, so you can tell it’s very musically based. And yes, it’s one of hundreds of comedy shows from Britain over the years, and one of the most memorable but relavitvely little-seen from back in 1997.

For more on John, you can visit his official site and download a whole heap of MP3 files and more. There’s photos and lots of general background information too. Again, I wouldn’t be pointing out this if it wasn’t highly recommended. Superb.

Go to the Official John Shuttleworth Site.

Note: The synopses and trailers linked to below are all on the website of international sales agent TF1 International SA.

There’s a synopsis for Yves Angelo’s Grey Souls (Les âmes grises) here, and a downloadable trailer (3:34) for it there. The movie is based on the eponymous novel by Philippe Claudel. It stars Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jacques Villeret, Denis Podalydès, Marina Hands, Joséphine Japy, and Cyrille Thouvenin.

There’s a synopsis for Alan Simon’s O Genghis! here, and a downloadable trailer (2:20) for it there. The movie is a “fictionalized documentary”. It stars Anatol Sangadgi-Gariaev, Batr Mandzhiev, Buvash Ambekova, and Valeriya Shaldanova, “with the voices of Jean Reno (French version) and Omar Sharif (English version)”.

There’s a synopsis for Michele Placido’s Romanzo criminale here, and a downloadable trailer (3:06) for it there. The movie tells “the true story of a Roman criminal gang run by The Lebanese, Freddo and Dandy from the late 1970s into the ‘80s.” It stars Stefano Accorsi, Anna Mouglalis, Claudio Santamaria, Pierfrancesco Favino, Kim Rossi Stuart, and Jasmine Trinca.

There’s a synopsis for Pan Nalin‘s Valley of Flowers here, and a downloadable trailer (2:59) for it there. The movie was “inspired” by Alexandra David-Néel‘s real-life novel Magie d’amour et magie noire - scènes du Tibet inconnu. It stars Milind Soman, Mylène Jampanoï, and Naseeruddin Shah.

There’s a synopsis for Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers here, and a downloadable trailer (2:28) for it there. The movie stars Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez, Usualdo Panameno, Eddie Velasquez, Luis Rojas Salgado, and Carlos Ramirez.

I know the title ‘A Whisper in the Dark’ by Marcello Alipranti. I like the sound of it too, as it’s a Gothic horror from Italy and they’re incredibly stylish, moody and scary too. The other two announcements, two further Sergio Martino movies, are to my taste too. There’s ‘The Big Crocodile River’ from 1979, and ‘Your Vice is a Closed Room and Only I Have the Key’ from 1972 which is an absolute classic giallo.

Specifications are long and difficult to clearly list so please link into the NoShame site via the titles above - all of them seem to be listed for September 27th 2005 release. Hopefully I should be able to get review copies for the two I am most interested in - the first and last films that get a mention here in this post.

It seems these releases have also been restored completely, though later and more detailed studies of the earlier releases brought doubt about the issues of PAL to NTSC conversions; I hope such issues are resolved as the restoration so far has been spotless to my eye and the films are extremely well chosen.

Out Gunner Palace DVD giveaway has come to an end.  Thanks to all of you who entered and congratulations to our two winners, Phil Realmo and Steve Dierks.

Our Howl’s Moving Castle lithograph giveaway wraps up soon as well, so get your entries in soon and keep your eyes open for our next DVD giveaway:  two copies of Chan Wook Park’s JSA!

Well, here’s something we didn’t cover in the DVD release calendar… Man, oh man. What joyous days I could’ve been having had I known this was coming. Corey viewings at my house. Don’t say you’re not jealous. You Are. Shut Up.

Here’s a little something for Mack ... at least it would be for Mack if his computer hadn’t gone and died on him, rendering him completely unable to see this ...

The live action adaptation of popular anime series Initial D is currently tearing up box office records in Hong Kong - apparently Jay Chou is dreamy - but despite the HK site for the film being live literally for months now I’ve never been able to see the trailer because the site is A) insanely flash heavy and B) hosted on what is quite possibly the Slowest Server Ever.  I don’t know about you but I find waiting more than ten minutes just for the bloody splash screen to load up a little excessive, so I’ve just never bothered.  There are direct links to the Hong Kong trailers floating around, but those are streaming only and I direct your attention to point B.

But, happily, the Japanese are here to make everything good again.  The trailer is here, it’s big, it’s Quicktime and it’s downloadable.  Life is good.  Particularly if you like movies with Asians driving cars fast without spilling their beverages.

The short film anthology Eros - featuring work from Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh and Wong Kar Wai - has got itself a Hong Kong release date of July 15th and is available for pre-order at YesAsia now!

Frankly the Antonioni segment is pretty wretched but the Wong Kar Wai and Soderbergh bits are fantastic and well worth the price of the disc.  Plus preordering lands you specialty packaging and a second DVD with interviews from Wong Kar Wai, Gong Li, Chang Cheh and more.  Nice.

Check it out here.