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.

But how much will they release it? It's slated for a June 6 opening and while they've been doing some marketing for it I would imagine that this is now a low, low, low priority for all 43 employees at Picturehouse as opposed to, say, job hunting. Expect it to come and go like an tiny mouse in the night. I'll bet the release will be radically scaled back and I'd give it about a week in theaters.

(In other news, Warner Independent Pictures was also shuttered. They were the distributors of THE PROMISE and THE PAINTED VEIL)

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, shuddering insanity of his manga, such as Drifting Classroom, which makes Lord of the Flies read like Dick and Jane.

The folks over at Same Hat! Same Hat! have been pimping the works of the psychologically unsanitary Shintaro Kago for a while now, resulting in one of Kago's lip-rippers appearing on the cover of Vice magazine where it will hopefully make the fashionably hip children soil their American Apparel.

Same Hat! has scanlations of several of Kago's short, brain battering manga that look something like this:

There's Abstraction and Blow-up to get you started. Also, if you really want to feel your eyes rolling down your cheeks then try Wanted: Cheap Manga's scanlation of the primitivist Human Clock by Tokunan Seiichiro which was written in the 60's and is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect an office building janitor to write immediately before they dug up his shack and found fifteen castrated schoolboys.

North Korea has tried to do crazy manhwa before, but this is about as close as they get:

You can go here for a complete scan and translation. The DPRK may have dropped the ball in the "freedom of expression for lunatics" sweepstakes but just over the border, China knows crazy. Even its signs are crazy.

But no one is crazier that Hong Kong manhua artists. These guys have been putting together comics with covers like this for years:

Kung Fu Fridays even links to a 1973 Esquire article that contains a translation of Hong Kong manhua, which is so insanely violent that it cannot be reproduced here. But decades later, in 2008, Hong Kong illustrators and artists are still reaching for the crazy stick when it comes to illustrating crimes and natural disasters for the local papers, including this drawing done for Apple Daily to illustrate a story about a bus fire in Shanghai.

I like to call it, "Don't take the bus."

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 something else. Every element was amazing to me; and all the elements together just made a perfect and incredible movie! I won’t spoil anyone’s surprise by revealing the story now, since I think everyone should watch this movie. But I will say two things: watch for the environmental message, and all you directors in Hong Kong and China, watch this movie and start working harder than ever, because very soon now, Indian cinema will overtake us in the eyes of the international audience!"

I'm not sure how much of the movie he saw since it was just a launch for the soundtrack, but okay. At least he's enthusiastic. Of course, he also got into trouble with the press but not as much trouble as actress Mallika Sherawat, who had an official complaint filed against her by S R Kaniraj, secretary of the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) for causing "mental agony" to the people of Tamil Nadu by wearing this outfit:

My own personal mental agony was sparked by this, however:

Kamal Hassan's daughters get to sit on thrones?

Thrones?!?

I hate my parents. 

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's classic THE HIDDEN FORTRESS that took place recently at UCLA, of all places. The review/report is appropriately thoughtful and full of big words.

(See THE LAST PRINCESS trailer here)

(See four minutes of jaw-dropping TOKYO GORE POLICE footage here)

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-of-view, and an inability to "close the deal" with the audience, ie, deliver an ending that wraps up and holds together everything that's come before.

A punishing interview from Eiga Hiho magazine with Sai Yoichi, the Japanese director of BLOOD AND BONES and SOO (which he shot in South Korea with a Korean crew) has been translated by the kindly ones at Ryuganji and it boils down the trouble with Korean cinema to this: the young generation of filmmakers working today are unprofessional. SOO is not the greatest movie, and it flopped in Korea, but the whole interview is an eye-opener, and the following quotes give you a taste:

"Sai Yoichi: Alright, quiz time: do you know what the young generation of South Korean filmmakers places the most importance on?

Eiga Hiho: Hmmm, I wonder.

SY: Appearance. Looks, in every sense of the word. The offices of these film companies are amazingly unnecessary and lavish. A bit like Roppongi Hills. With two gorgeous surgically-enhanced receptionists sitting side by side [laughs]. The same applies to the rest of their staff, and the first stylist I thought of using for “Soo” was one too. She showed me the work she’d done in New York, and it was all patched together from the kind of costumes you’d see in some trendy cop show, so the content of her work was underwhelmingly shallow. As if she had absolutely no grasp of the basics....In the middle of the shoot, the art design team ran out on me. There were about 15 of them, but every single one ran away one night [laughs].

EH: I hear that your shoots are famous for their severity, so were you in a situation where you had to push the crew hard?

SY: No, of course not. The things that were necessary for the sets were already written in the script. Despite that, they tried to put single sheets on a double bed, so I had no choice but to tell them they’d messed up. As a result of them running away the shoot was shut down for a month, which did cause problems, but as the director I couldn’t let that go."

You can read the entire interview here.

How did it come to this? I don't know, but if you want to see a veritable list of things not to do in a movie, check out this trailer for the Korean film, A TALE OF LEGENDARY LIBIDO, out now. Here's what I never want to see in a Korean movie again:

- a bitchy, tough woman yelling at her husband

- arousal indicated by a bloody nose

- you think it's a hot chick but then...it's an old lady!

- gay predators who can't keep their hands (or feet) off the straight boys

- someone getting hit in the nuts

- women using an inanimate object to tell other women about the size of their lover's junk

- women who don't want it, but then they're forced to take it, and then they like it!

- spit takes

- Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" being used in any movie that powerful streams of urine moving boulders

Avoid these simple things, and maybe next time...a good movie?

(A TALE OF LEGENDARY LIBIDO trailer)

(Read a review of SOO)

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.

Why should Asian film fans care? This is going to be the Hollywood debutante party for Hong Kong actress Josie Ho, now under the management of the same people who took Maggie Q to Hollywood. It's also got stunts by Yuen Wo-ping team member Dion Lam and it's co-starring legendary Shaw Brothers and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON actress, Cheng Pei-pei.

Japanese theater is something that's not covered nearly enough overseas, and as a consequence you might have missed the miracle that is METAL MACBETH (or, METARU MAKUBESU). A heavy metal version of Shakespeare's MACBETH, it's set during Japan's metal boom of the 80's and in 2206. And the writer? None other than the amazing Kankuro Kudo who was responsible for writing PING PONG, GO and directing YAJI X KITA: THE MIDNIGHT PILGRIMS.

For a sample of his work, try this famous speech from the original MACBETH after the murder of Duncan:

"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!' the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast."

Which Kankuro Kudo turns into a metal anthem with these lyrics:

"Beauty is dirty except me,
EVERYTIME, I am beautiful!
Being Cool is not cool except me,
I am perfect all day long.

My body is full of scorpions
To erase my poison,
I put new poison into my body

Macbeth kills his sleep,
He kills his king and then his sleep
Macbeth never gets sleep."

"Macbeth goes well with the heavy metal sound since it is associated with high drama. It's easy to put to music," says producer/director Hidenori Inoue. While the show took place in 2006, the trailer has finally hit the internets to promote the DVD of the show.

(Feel the burn of the METAL MACBETH trailer)

(Wanna buy the DVD?)

(More info)

(Thanks to these nice folks who translated those lyrics)

(Read an interview with Kankuro Kudo)

(And thanks to logboy, who spotted this and raised the alarm)

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's no deal in place.

Frankly, licensing Bollywood remakes would be a great revenue stream for Hollywood and Bollywood's going to be remaking their films anyway. While the press is saying that Warners will send out "a trade warning" about their ownership of the film's copyright, they might want to talk to Showeast, owners of OLDBOY, about the difficulties of pursuing an intellectual property case in Indian courts for an overseas company. This is one of those cases where the carrot will go a lot further than the largely ineffectual stick.

The Mighty Morphin' Wedding Crashers. 

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.

          Take Friday's South China Morning Post, for example. "It is actually a lot simpler than I originally thought. I thought I should pretend to run a bit like an athlete and act cool, but the organizer actually wants us to keep the pace slow and wave and smile to the crowd. I am not at all concerned about the running part but I am just a little worried about the outfit. Our clothes will be provided. It looks nice but I was also told that I would have to tuck the top into the trousers, which I never do. I'm a bit concerned I won't look good in it."

          On Thursday Bloomberg News carried a video with her saying that she wasn't worried about the running bit, but was concerned that about the road surface. Maybe I'd step on a stone and hurt my (pretty) foot, she said.

          But stop, Kelly, think. What about your hair? Friday morning in Hong Kong and it is drizzling.

What do you watch if you live in North Korea? Apparently, you watch action movies that feel like they were made in 1979, which isn't all bad. The notorious 2006 hit North Korean movie, PYONGYANG NALPHARAM, tells the tale of evil Japanese coming to North Korea to steal super exciting top secret martial arts manuals. Variety gave it a ho-hum review when they saw it back in '06 at the Pyongyang Film Festival, but someone recently posted some action scenes from the film on YouTube. More impressively, they seem to have shot this footage inside a theater showing the movie, so that means that this pirate had the brass to get to work while actually inside North Korea. Who said piracy wasn't a force for good?

(Check out the footage of PYONGYANG NALPHARAM here)