Actress Moon So-ri [문소리] (32) and director Jang Jun-hwan [장준환] (36) will be tying the knot at a small gathering on Christmas eve. The couple met in 2003 during the making of a music video directed by Jang and starring Moon. The two have been dating seriously for a year now. Debuting in 1999 in Peppermint Candy [박하사탕], Moon subsequently appeared in Oasis [오아시스], A Good Lawyer’s Wife [바람난 가족] and Bewitching Attraction [여교수의 은밀한 매력] and picked up the Best Actress award from the Stockholm International Film Festival and the Grand Bell Film Awards. For Oasis she also won the Marcello Mastroianni Award as best newcomer at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. Most recently, Moon’s performance in Family Ties [가족의 탄생] was recognized along with that of the three other female leads at the 47th Thessaloniki Film Festival. Jang’s Save The Green Planet! [지구를 지켜라! ] (2003) earned top new director awards at the Moscow International Film Festival and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

[Source: Chosun Ilbo]

There is something delicate, quaint, tactile and hermetic about stop-motion animation. This is true from the glossy work of Henry Selick, to the homey feel of Aardman Studios to the downright creepy work in Rhinoceros Eyes. I can think of nothing more suitable to capture the feeling of a tea party which those same adjectives (if only to add one more: feminine) could be applied. It makes Jan Švankmajer’s Alice a spectacular re-telling of Lewis Carroll’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Christiane Cegavske’s Blood Tea and Red String goes beyond this and takes Alice, who in these types of fairy tales is the bridge into this stranger world—the character we can relate to—right out of the equation. And yet even further, she removes verbal language, opting to tell the story entirely free of dialogue if you exclude the occasional animal-like squawk. The result is an artistically rendered act of world construction and non-verbal storytelling which jumps directly into Cegavske’s subconscious.

Continue Reading "DVD Review - Blood Tea and Red String"...

There is much to be excited about now that the Dubai Int’l Film Festival has posted their entire program on their website.  This whole event is going to be one big ol’ love fest for me.  I sorta feel like all those overly excited geeks the week before Comicon comes to town. 

Overwhelmed by all this new information, I must start somewhere. All I know (and care) about are the Arabic films (I don’t know about the rest of you, but I ain’t flyin’ half way around the world to go watch Bobby) and I think that the shorts are fair place to begin.

Two excellent Palestinian shorts are competing in the Muhr Awards/Short Film Competition Program.  Oddly, they’re both about little kids.  Perhaps both the directors recognize the need for the world to see Palestinians as human beings.  And really, aren’t cute kids a little more human than the rest of us jaded and bitter assholes?

ITAMANAH (Make a Wish) by Cherien Dabis was funded and produced (at least partly, I think) by the National Geographic All Roads Film Project.  It’s about a little girl in Ramallah who attempts to raise enough money to buy a birthday cake.  Pushed to the edge in desperation, she and her little sister become quasi-hustlers for a day.  It’s beautifully shot and the performances Cherien got out of these two little girls was quite remarkable. 

BE QUIET by Sameh Zoabi won 2nd place at Cannes for best short in 2005.  It has some similar themes as La Vita e Bella, in that a father attempts give his son an optimistic view of the world in the most hopeless of situations, but in this case it’s while travelling through the Occupied Territories. 

Finally, showing in the Arabian Nights Program is SABE’E KELAB (The Seventh Dog) by Zienna Durra.  This short addresses the issues that two privileged young Arabs face/d while living in New York City after 9/11.  I expect some critics will say, “When you’re a rich Arab living abroad, engaging in politics is optional. Why should we care about this couple?” In response to that, I say that this short conveys a simple and important point to which people should probably give a little more credence: “Don’t hate Arabs!  They’re so hot and stylish!”

Make A Wish Clip
The Seventh Dog Trailer

It’s the biggest Korean film in history and in an uncommon burst of common sense it’s slated to hit US screens hot on the heels of the Korean DVD release meaning the good people at Magnolia actually have a chance that people may see it in theaters rather than picking up cheap bootleg copies on DVD. And believe me, you want to see this on the big screen.

It’s also got itself a brand new trailer and once again demonstrating their unusual common sense it’s a red-band trailer that goes straight for the throat rather than playing it safe for the masses. We like this film rather a lot. Go see it.

The Host Red Band Trailer (exclusively at CHUD)
My review
Opus’ review.

When two hapless electricians go out on a job, they have every reason to believe that it’ll be a job like any other. But the bumbling two-some soon find themselves zapped into a virtual reality war zone. This Zone is an artificial dimension set up by Iria, a cute, tough-as-nails bounty hunter and her super-intelligent computer, Bob, to do battle with Zeiram, a seemingly indestructible alien that’s been genetically engineered to kill.

Continue Reading "DVD Review: Keita Amemiya’s ‘Zeiram’ R1"...

Though it is not yet listed on the Mandrill Films website word is beginning to trickle out about their latest starring vehicle for Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror.  Zaror has re-teamed with Kiltro director Ernesto Diaz to create Mirageman, in which he plays a security guard who foils a robbery while masked to protect his identity and thus keep him safe from later reprisal.  When word of his actions hit the news it inspires some degree of improvement in a young, mentally disabled boy he is close to and so he decides to don the mask full time, becoming the masked crime fighter Mirageman.

During the American Film Market at the beginning of this month I ran into Zaror and producer Derek Rundell completely by chance and the duo were toting around a sample reel of footage from their new film, which had completed shooting just three days before.  So what they showed me was totally raw - no finished sound design, no color correction, no nothing - but looked very impressive.  Zaror, impossibly, seems to have gotten even faster since shooting Kiltro in which he was already far too fast and agile for such a big man.  There are zero wires in this, zero CGI, so the action is much more raw.  According to Zaror they often didn’t even pull their punches.  It’s a bit of an unusual beast style wise, fusing the typical South American verite style with a bit of a 70’s low budget Hong Kong chopsocky feel and, yeah, the mask and premise are pretty goofy but in pretty much exactly the right way.

We’ve been promised footage and stills to show you all in the near future, but in the meanwhile you can take a gander at the first released stills here.

My Kiltro review here.

Been a relatively good year for Masumura, in comparison to many well thought of Directors from Japan’s past, with the release of ’Blind Beast‘ and ’Red Angel‘ in the U.K - and ’Red Angel‘ made it out on a slightly better R1 USA DVD also, thanks to Fantoma, the usual home for his films in America, on DVD.

As far as unusual and substantial, solid films go, Masumura pushed the envelope frequently, though he was a little subversive with it also. Watching the recent ’Red Angel‘ release was another example of a situation which had me thinking, wondering, why more aren’t apparently picking these films up. Well, they’re good films, and Fantoma has done a good job getting some subtitled releases to the American market, and there has been a slew of unsubbed Japanese DVDs this year also - still, an odd place for another Subtitled release to appear is HK, but that’s exactly what is happening with ’A Lustful Man‘; likely to be a port of the R2 Japanese DVD, as these Kadokawa & IVL DVDs seem to be… although this (and HK’s own ’Blind Beast‘ and ’Manji‘ DVDs - coming out on the same date) were scheduled for and earlier date than this, they make a delayed release just in time for Xmas. No YesAsia listing yet, but just glad all is now set.

Synopsis, ”Yonosuke was lived in insatiable pursuit of love affairs with women and men as well, and a celebrated courtesan; the son first made love to a woman at the age of seven. Thereafter, always devoting himself to the affairs, Yonosuke ended up, at 60, sailing to Nyogogashima ("Isle of Women"). This film was adapted for the famous novel, Koshoku ichidai otoko which narrates 54 years of his adventures in affairs of women.” [Source : Asian DVD Guide].

Fantoma‘s R1 USA DVD of ’Red Angel‘ Review by Jon Pais, Review by Logboy.
Article on Yasuzo Masumura at Chicago Reader.
‘Blind Beast‘ Trailer at YouTube.

Quark Henares’ big budget superhero movie poster, trailer and music video has just been released. Let’s see how our boy does with a lot of money and Mother Lily (our most famous Filipino film producer) breathing down his neck.

All the stuff are located at supernoypi.com.

Or here’s the YouTube trailer.

The Nantes Festival Of Three Continents was where Malaysian director Ho Yuhang got his first international recognition, and this makes his Best Director award, for Rain Dogs, all the sweeter.

Nantes official website - winners list

Continue Reading "Ho Yuhang Wins Best Director At Nantes"...

The Cinémathèque Française is organizing the largest retrospective ever devoted to Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-young, with 18 films to be screened. Director of The Housemaid (regrettably unavailable on DVD), Kim Ki-young made 32 films (of which only 22 remain) in a career that spanned over 40 years (1955-1995). ‘Le Cinéma de Kim Ki-young’ takes place from November 29th through December 24th. A round table discussion featuring actress Lee Hwa-si, professor Kim Hong-joon and director Bong Joon-ho will be held Saturday, December 2nd. Creator of erotic melodramas, psychological dramas of astonishing violence and harrowing thrillers, the films of Kim Ki-young are above all the work of a pitiless observer of the relations between the sexes.

Kim Hong-joon is a professor at the Korean National University of Arts. He was assistant to Im Kwon-taek. In 1994, he directed La Vie en Rose. From 2001 to 2005, he directed the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. From 2000 to 2005, he was a consultant to KOFIC (Korean Film Council). Kim is a co-programmer of the Kim Ki-young retrospective.

Lee Hwa-si starred in several of Kim Ki-young’s films: La Transgression (1974), Love of Blood Relations (1976), I-Eoh Island (1977), The Soil (1978) and Story of Ban Gum-Yon (1981). Following the censorship of the latter, Lee acquired a scandalous reputation and was prohibited from acting in Korea. She later went into self-imposed exile in Canada for political reasons.

[Source: Cinémasie, La Cinémathèque Française]

Thanks to KFCC for this new trailer for Derek Yee’s (One Nite in Mongkok) upcoming action thriller Protege. The film, which stars Andy Lau as a drug lord whose pregnant wife is unaware of his illegal activities, is slated for release on February 15, 2007. The cast also includes Daniel Wu, Louis Koo, Anita Yuen and Zhang Jingchu.

Trailer (Windows media)

[Source: KFCC]

Mitchell Lichtenstein‘s Teeth is scheduled to have its world première at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in January of next year; the movie has been selected to be screened in the festival’s Dramatic Competition - a division of its Independent Film Competition.

The screenplay for Teeth was written by Lichtenstein. The movie stars Jess Weixler as Dawn, and John Hensley as Brad. It co-stars Lenny Von Dohlen, Hale Appleman, Ashley Springer, and Josh Pais.

Here’s a description of Teeth from the official website for the movie: “High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant. Her task is made even more difficult by her bad boy stepbrother Brad’s increasingly provocative behavior at home. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her anatomical uniqueness, Dawn experiences both the pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the vagina dentata myth.”

Those who are interested in Teeth may also wish to read the most recent Twitch article on Takao Nakano‘s Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy (Kiseichû: kirâ pusshî).

Teeth official website
* * *
Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy trailer (downloadable 4.1 MB WMV file - viewer discretion is advised)
GOMORRAHY.com: Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy (w/ trailer)

Like the title says, Sundance have announced their complete lineup for the 2007 edition of the festival.  Highlights to these eyes include the new films by the directors of 13 (Tzameti) and George Washington ... Variety’s got all the details here.

The official website for both Taiichi‘s Eko Eko Azarak: R-Page (Eko eko azaraku: R-page) - a.k.a. “Eko Eko Azarak V” - and his Eko Eko Azarak: B-Page (Eko eko azaraku: B-page) - a.k.a. “Eko Eko Azarak VI” - is now partly functional. BTW, the Eko Eko Azarak: The Complete Collection 3-DVD set (TSDVD-0544; NTSC, region 1, Japanese w/ English subtitles) - released by Media Blasters Inc. on December 27th of last year - contains Eko Eko Azarak I-III, and is available for order from Twitch affiliate Amazon.com Inc. for only $17.99 (see bottom of this article for link).

As was previously reported here and there on Twitch, the screenplays for both Eko Eko Azarak: R-Page and Eko Eko Azarak: B-Page were written by Taiichi and Hiromitsu Amano, based on the manga serial “Eko eko azaraku” by Shin’ichi Koga. ("Eko eko azaraku” was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion (Shûkan shônen chanpion).) Eko Eko Azarak: R-Page stars Narumi Konno, Yûko Itô, Mitsuki Koga, Nana Yanagisawa, Shion Umezawa, Daizô Niizuma (Niiduma Daizô), Seminosuke Murasugi (12th from the top), Kazuki Nanase, Izam, and Eisuke Sasai. Eko Eko Azarak: B-Page stars (Narumi) Konno, Rina Takagi, Rina Akiyama, (Nana) Yanagisawa, (Shion) Umezawa, Hironobu Nomura, (Seminosuke) Murasugi, (Kazuki) Nanase, Ayano Tachibana, Risa Machi, Hiroyuki Hakamada, Takayuki Godai, Izam, and (Eisuke) Sasai.

Continue Reading "Website for Taiichi’s EKO EKO AZARAK: R-PAGE and EKO EKO AZARAK: B-PAGE"...

No, Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest isn’t ready to roll just yet - though apparently it’s getting close - but while we await the sophomore effort from the mad geniuses responsible for The American Astronaut we do at least get this to tide us over.  Cory McAbee - The American Astronaut director and Billy Nayer Show frontman - has been selected as one of six film makers to direct shorts as part of the The Global Short Film Project, sponsored by Sundance and Groupe Speciale Mobile.  This is content created specificly to be streamed to cell phones but hell, it’s been a while and more McAbee is always a good thing.  The downside to this is that the Billy Nayer Show have had to cancel their next tour to give McAbee enough time to complete the project.  But hey, they weren’t coming to Toronto anyway ...

Read on for the full release.

Continue Reading "Cory McAbee Back Behind the Camera!"...