Hi to all, Father Geek here along with Darius25 to post up our Thursday morning Asia-AICNfor this week. But first this on Kitamura's great feature motion picture "Versus"...
Here's my brief thoughts on this movie:
VERSUS
The director Ryuehei Kitamura describes his movie as : "Freefall Ultra-Violence Non-Stop Entertainment Action"
Sound good so far? I thought so..
Imagine a movie that combines the slickness of the Matrix, the humour and zombies from Evil Dead 2 and the kung fu of Crouching Tiger.
No CG or bullet-time, just good ol'kung fu, swordfighting and gun-fu with some wirework.
Kitamura is obviously inspired by Sam Raimi (he even mentions this in the Q&A after the movie) and it works... it works very well.
Plot? Well, there's a bit of stuff regarding the Forest of Resurrection.. blah blah.. it's basically a whole lot of fighting in a forest (man vs. man, man vs. zombies, gunfights, swordfights)
The characters are great.. lots of humour and inventiveness among the various people.
One of the best scenes involve a Matrix joke that sent the whole theatre into a gut-busting, tear-inducing laughter spasm.
I don't want to give anything away so let me say this:
If you liked any of the following films: Evil Dead 2, Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Highlander, Desperado... and so on.
You will love this movie...
Cheers,
Modboy
Father Geek back... Man I love that flick, kicks major genre ass! Now on to Darius25 and our Asia-AICN column...
Asia-AICN
Hey all. Not much news this week as the whole world is dealing with last week’s unfortunate events. I did manage to find some Bollywood news though, and wrote up a couple of reviews for two BIG films, “Asoka” and “Shaolin Soccer”.
Now here’s what I managed to gather from last week.
INDIA
- Model/actress Anupama Verma has replaced Simone Singh for producer Satish Khanna’s “Mohabbat Ho Gayi Hai Tumse (Falling in Love with You)”. The film stars Sanjay Dutt and Chandrachur Singh as the two male leads while Shamita Shetty is rumoured to be the second actress in the film. Reportedly, Simone was forced to back out of the film due to an on-set conflict with the producer.
- Director Yash Chopra is all set to launch actress Kajol’s younger sister, Tanisha, in an upcoming film which he will produce (and possibly direct). The newcomer will be seen opposite Jimmy Shergill in the film, who is the only confirmed cast member so far. This may be the next big Yashraj Films project that we’ve been hearing about – if it is, then it might possibly star Chopra regulars, Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan.
- Actress Tabu has been signed to appear in Sanjay Gupta’s “Kaante (Thorns)”. The highly-stylized remake of “City on Fire” is about to be shot (or has already begun) in US very soon, with Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Shetty, Kumar Gaurav, Lucky Ali, and Mahesh Manjrekar onboard as the leads. Raveena Tandon replaced Shilpa Shetty recently for the film, but she too had to back out, leaving the producers with one more role to fill.
- Some new stills were released online from producer Vashu Bhagnani’s “Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Me (Living in your Heart)”. The film marks the Bollywood debut of South Indian star R. Mudhalvan and model Diya Mirza.
Here’s a pic of Mudhalvan and Diya (who looks A LOT like Aishwarya Rai) Click Here
Another pic of Diya Mirza: Click Now
And yet another pic of Diya: Just Click Here
- The only new release last week was “Ittefaq (Coincidence)”, directed by Sanjay Khanna (who?) and starring Mukul Dev, Pooja Batra, Mohan Joshi and a very bored Sunil Shetty. Don’t be fooled by the posters folk, Sunil isn’t in the film for a long period of time, instead he pops up now and then for a couple of action scenes only. A thriller only in name, the plot is the same old tired tale of a naïve guy coming to Bombay (Mukul Dev) who gets in trouble with the bad guys and falls in love with a local girl. The bad guy hire ruthless killer (Sunil Shetty) to kill the hero, but the killer turns good and starts blowing up the bad guys. Much boredom later, the film ends with all the bad guys dead and the heroes singing a song!! Well, not really, but you get the point. Any film featuring Mukul Dev and Pooja Batra in the lead is a dead give away of a B-grade film and this is no exception. Both actors lack any sort of chemistry (or much acting ability for that matter), and are much better suited for the straight-to-video market. Sunil Shetty is ok, but you just know this is one of the films he signed many years ago, and he’s just in it for the money. The story is boring, the acting is non-existent and the action is just clichéd. The movie’s not even worth a video rental.
- I did see another Indian film at the Toronto Film Fest last weekend, which left me with some rather mixed feelings. The film in question is the much-anticipated “Ashoka”, with Shahrukh Khan taking on the role of India’s most famous king, Ashoka the Great, along with Kareena Kapoor, Hrishita Bhatt, Danny Denzongpa, and Ajit Kumar. It was directed rather awkwardly by Santosh Sivan, who seems better suited to making smaller works like “The Terrorist” than films on such as epic scale as this one.
Before I get into my feelings on the film, let me tell you the excellent story which supposedly took place in real life. Roughly, Ashoka was one of the heirs of the Mauryan empire during the 200s B.C. Rather notorious for his brutal victories in many campaigns, the prince managed to capture the crown with wile cunningness and proceeded on to conquer the many surrounding countries in the region. He finally managed to unite India under one regime and became the Grand Emperor following a brutal invasion of Kalinga (a neighbouring country) in which a 100 000 people were killed while thousands more were injured and made slaves of the empire. The story takes a rather drastic turn here as the emperor undergoes a spiritual transformation. Almost like a fairy tale, the king realizes the brutal truth behind his victories and denounces all forms of violence. He becomes a Buddhist monk and spends the rest of his life preaching the ways of peace all over the continent (and even into Africa). Now, does all this happen in the film – A BIG NO!!
Don’t get me wrong, but the starting of the film is all wrong. The first half of the story focuses on Ashoka as a carefree prince. A typical spoiled brat, a role which Shahrukh is famous for, and reminds that this movie is just about Shahrukh under a getup, not an epic based on the life of a great and brutal emperor. Certain circumstances follow which separates the prince from his girlfriend (Kareena Kapoor) and makes the prince return home with a different, more violent take on life. He starts waging wars and eventually becomes the king (2/3 into the film) after killing his brothers. Now this is where the movie becomes really interesting as Shahrukh slowly and slowly slips into the role of the vicious king. Ashoka becomes power-hungry and slightly psychotic, and starts to being hated by all. The climax of the film shows the brutal invasion of Kalinga in which all the stops are pulled – killings, decapitations, massive violence on an epic scale, etc. The film ends very suddenly just as Ashoka realizes the consequences of his victories.
You should be able to see some of the problems behind the film. The story focused too much on the romance angle at the start, and the songs tended to distract too much from the plot. One doesn’t expect to see light-comedy in a film like this and it looked like it was included to draw in the usual Bollywood goer. SRK looked like he was doing his usual young guy impression that he has done many times in the past, and he just didn’t fit the role of a young prince. However, the second half is much better as Ashoka transforms into an ambitious mogul and the film starts showing us the darker side of the emperor. SRK disappears into the role and now we do believe that there is a psychotic king in front of us. We fear for him and for his followers. His transformation at the end does come rather suddenly, but SRK pulls it off with ease, making us sympathize with his character, and feel sorry for his actions. The last scene is pulled off with style – many few actors could be convincing in that final scene, and SRK did justice with the emotions involved. In terms of performances, this is the actor’s most complicated one to date – what seems like a type-casted role in the beginning turns into a very difficult one at the end, and I’m happy to say that the actor won me over by the climax.
One problem that didn’t win me over was the weird direction. Speaking truthfully, the film lacked the scope of many epic films and didn’t feel like it belonged in the same genre that includes “Braveheart”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, and “The Ten Commandments”. The camera angles were weird (no long shots), the editing was choppy (many quick cuts), the music wasn’t impressive (kind of dramatic but not enough), and the battle scenes weren’t very thrilling. Part of this could be due to problems with the budget, but one should be able to derive some sense of the period in which the film takes place. Instead of showing us big palaces, we’re treated to dark interior rooms and rather dirty looking forests. The fight scenes were shown from a really close distance that just ended up confusing the audience and making us wonder what was happening on screen. Thank god, no wires were involved.
Yet despite its problems, I would recommend this film based on the subject matter alone. The emperor’s story IS worth being told and Shahrukh does something impressive with the role. The story and direction are lacking, but not enough to take away too much enjoyment from the film. “Asoka” is an important film, even if it does have its flaws.
HK / CHINA
There is no news this week but I happened to watch “Shaolin Soccer” on DVD, here’s a few thoughts:
Man, right away, WHAT AN AWESOME FILM!!! Imagine taking a light-hearted sports comedy and mixing it with some of the most mind-blowing special FX since “The Stormriders”, and providing it with the same excitement and energy one gets while playing awesome games like “Street Fighter 2” or “Gran Turismo 3”. That’s exactly what “ Shaolin Soccer” is to me. I won’t go into the plot much, but let’s say it’s about a failed coach (Ng Man Tat) who assembles a rag tag bunch of ex-Shaolin monks (led by a hilarious Stephen Chow) into a profession Soccer (Football) team. Each member brings his own mystical power to the field and we get to watch as the team kicks its way to the championships. The final match is worthy is just DROP-DEAD AWESOME as the monks face off against genetically-enhanced athletes with the help of fireballs, flying kicks, aerial attacks and a gigantic whirlwind!! Sure it’s unrealistic, but very very cool and 100% entertaining. Watch out for some hilarious parodies of “West Side Story, “Saving Private Ryan”, wire-fu films including CTHD, several Bruce Lee films, and many others. I highly recommend the film and would definitely advice all of you to see it.
The video and audio is very good on the DVD. The original aspect ratio is shown in a mostly blemish-free transfer and is anamorphically enhanced. The print is new, and the colours are bright and crisp. The video can easily compare with many US DVDs. The DTS track is very good with many directional effects and a really good front sound stage. The voices are clear and distortion free while some bass is present. My only complaint in this department was the lack of a 0.1 LFE channel encoded in the soundtrack – my subwoofer was pretty much dead during the film (it worked fine with my other DVDs though). The DD track is pretty much the same but DTS completely blows it away in all aspects!!
The extras are decent for an HK disc from Universe. There is a 20-min documentary which includes talking heads and some behind the scenes footage. There are also some FX segments which shows us all the effort that went into making the CGI enhancements. There is also a director’s cut option which allows you to view the film with the added footage by pressing the enter button at appropriate times. It’s kind of like “Follow the White Rabbit” feature on The Matrix DVD and it works ok, but I wished the extended version of the film could be viewed as a real film. As for the footage itself, it’s not that bad and includes some funny outtakes and a really funny parody of Hollywood and Bollywood musicals.
All in all, Universe has done a really good job (perhaps their best work yet) with the “Shaolin Soccer” DVD. Practically everything you need is present here – good transfer, good sound and some decent extras. The fact that its non-region coded (RO) for NTSC players is an extra advantage (it’s playable in ALL DVD players and ROM). Don’t wait for the film to be released here, just pay the $12 bucks US and watch the film repeatedly, it’s definitely worth it! The DVD should be available at Chinese video stores everywhere, but you can buy it online from: http://www.dddhouse.com
