Kaiju Shakedown

DVD updates

We announced a while back that HANA was coming out on DVD from Funimation on June 24. They had a nice cover for the disc, and it's a great, albeit overlooked, film. Apparently there was some issue with the image they used on the cover and they've sent out new artwork which still looks nice and it's still set for June 24:

[...]

Shanghai Film Park

Went to a press screening of THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI last night, which is the new flick set in WW II China starring a couple of forgettable white people, Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh, and the first thing that struck me was, "Oh yeah, there's Shanghai Film Park again." Whenever you see old Shanghai in a Chinese or Hong Kong movie, chances are you're looking at the Shanghai Film Park. Although not as big or quite as the famous Hengdian studios five hours south where pre [...]

Johnnie To: Master of Cinema

Masters of Cinema is a prestige DVD line in the UK, similar to the Criterion Collection in the US. They've put out special edition DVDs of world cinema classics like FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES, METROPOLIS, VENGEANCE IS MINE and...MAD DETECTIVE? Yep, Johnnie To's MAD DETECTIVE will be one of the line's first Blu-Ray discs. This will be the first modern movie Masters of Cinema has released in almost 20 years (previously their most recent film is 1989's nutso GANDAHAR).

[...]

Rain keeps falling

Korea's big, hunky slice of singing, dancing, supercelebrity man meat, RAIN (aka Jung Ji-Hoon) is having a run of bad luck ever since he left the world of pop stars to try to become a movie star. His first film, I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK, directed by Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY) wasn't the world's biggest hit, but it was one of the best Korean movies of 2006 and he acquitted himself well in it. Unfortunately, he followed that up with SPEED RACER that just opened this past we [...]

Death Note dubbed

I've been congratulating Viz on trying a new theatrical strategy for their release of the live action DEATH NOTE movies as special events on May 20 and 21 only, but I had to pause recently when I found out that, despite Fangoria announcing they were subbed, the films will be screened dubbed. The confirmed voice cast (via Viz) are:

Light Yagami - Brad Swaile

L/Ryuzaki - Alessandro Juliani

Soichiro Yagami - Chris Britton

Death God Ryuk - Brain Drummon [...]

So much for Mongol

Warners specialty division, Picturehouse, has been responsible for some of the highest profile foreign film releases in the US in recent years including LA VIE EN ROSE, PAN'S LABYRINTH and THE ORPHANAGE, so it seemed like a good idea that they were handling the belated US release of Tadanobu Asano's Genghis Khan flick, MONGOL. Well, that's not such a good thing anymore because Picturehouse was just shuttered by Warners and MONGOL is going to be the last foreign film they release [...]

Pencil stabs eye

Movies, schmoovies. If you want to get all jacked up on craziness, undiluted and straight from the source, then you need art. Art! It's just some weirdo locked up in a room with his pencils and all they want to do is jab that pencil in your eyes. The premiere eye-jabber of all time is Kazuo Umezu, whose manga have been adapted into movies many times (AKANBO SHOJO, LEFT HAND OF GOD RIGHT HAND OF THE DEVIL, DRIFTING CLASSROOM) but never have the movies been able to capture the sheer, shud [...]

Jackie on Kamal Hassan

Jackie Chan flew to India for the launch of the soundtrack for Kamal Hassan's jaw-droppingly huge DASAVATHARAM and had this to say about it:

"The movie, DASAVATHARAM, is truly a sight to behold. The story, directing, acting, camera work, special effects, everything about it is amazing. It really opened my eyes to modern Indian cinema. Of course I had seen Indian films before; I admire many of the actors, and really like the music and dancing. But this movie is really s [...]

Two teases

First, the poster for the astonishing looking TOKYO GORE POLICE, featuring Eihi Shiina , the actress who burned her way into unprotected brains with her insane performance in Takashi Miike's AUDITION.

Then, there's a long, very detailed report and review on the advance screening of THE LAST PRINCESS, Toho's remake of Akira Kurosawa& [...]

The trouble with Korea?

What's the matter with Korea? Programming this year's New York Asian Film Fest is presenting all of us with the simple, bald, glaring fact that there weren't very many good movies from Korea last year. Beyond the handful of good flicks, the bad ones share similar problems: terrible scripts that don't know what they're about, bloated running times, no sense of a single unifying presence behind the camera (be it a director, a script or a producer) to give the movie a point [...]

Street Fighter shooting

The live action STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN LI which already sounds like it could be the American retitling of a Jet Li movie, has been shooting for a while in Thailand, helmed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (ROMEO MUST DIE, CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE). Like all official movies, it now has an official blog and they've been posting some pictures of cast members in their costumes, and storyboards.

Wedding Crashers go Bollywood

The Indian press is abuzz because after years of illegally remaking films from overseas (most notoriously, illegal OLDBOY remake, ZINDA) Bollywood shingle, Orion Pictures, is now in talks with Warner Brothers to do an official remake of WEDDING CRASHERS. They're saying that they're going to get two big stars for the film (Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan would be a great couple) and the Indian press says it's a done deal.

Not so. Talks are definitely on-going but there& [...]

Raining on Kelly's parade

Is Kelly Chen actually trying to come across as vain and stupid?

As one of 120 of the great and the good from Hong Kong � meaning mostly bureaucrats, celebrities and high-paid business leaders � selected to run with the Olympic torch around Hong Kong on Friday (May 2) Kelly Chen Wai-lam has been in the media a lot of late. But every time she opens her pretty mouth she puts her foot in it.