Ol' Father Geek here with Darius25 and AccSpy for the regular Thursday morning Asia-AICN column, but before I turn you over to our far East Editor here's this bit of sadness...
I hadn't seen this reported anywhere until I noticed it on the Dead People Server....I dunno, maybe I'm living under a rock, but Vietnamese-American actress Thuy Trang, who played the Yellow Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and who was in The Crow 2, died on September 3rd 2001 in an auto accident. I thought it was pretty sad that there has been nothing mentioned about it, probably due to the events of 9/11/2001, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you hadn't heard.
Thanks,
Alex
Father Geek back... Thuy's fight with Ashe (Perez) in CITY OF ANGELS was outstanding, infact her entire character in that film kicked ass royally, but I'll never forget the 1st time I saw her on the screen, as THE masseuse in 96's SPY HARD. WOW! Got ol' Father Geek's attention. Ms. Trang was killed in a tragic auto accident on California's I-5 between LA and San Francisco... alot of great potential cut short by the carelessness of another driver, sad.
On another more up note here's this...
What about ASOKA and teh fortchoming big Bollywood movie (Karan Johar's second feature afte rteh phenomenal Kuch Kuch Hota Hai)?
Well, by teh way, Asoka is directed by Santosh Sivan (whose movie The Terrorist has been so lauded on your site) and teh star is Sharukh Khan - the Bollywood equivalent of Tom Cruise/Tom Hanks.
rana
Then there's this...
The Japanese film site, "http://www.midnighteye.com", has just posted an
english review of Seijun Suzuki's latest mind-bending release "Pistol
Opera". They also have a very recent interview with Suzuki about the film
taken from the Venice Film Festival. Please post this info and get the word
out, WE MUST GET AN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION FOR THIS FILM! Seijun Suzuki is
one of the greatest living filmmakers around and I say its about time for
the comeback of the century.
Call me DAve
Father Geek back one last time simply to introduce Darius25 and his report for this week...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’ve had a fine week. Things are still slow in the film industries everywhere, but it looks like we’re starting to recover (if very slowly). We managed to find some pretty interesting stuff for you this week including news on J.P. Dutta’s “Line of Control”, director Anil Sharma’s next film, director Sanjay Chhel’s “Yahoo”, “Running Out of Time 2”, Wong Kar-Wai’s “2046”, and a US release date for Stephen Chow’s “Shaolin Soccer”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- Ending months of speculation, director J.P. Dutta has finally confirmed several details on his new film. Yes it will be a war film dealing with the situation in Kargil in Northern India, but it will not be titled “Tiger Hill” or “Tiger Hills”-instead, the official title is the MUCH better “Line of Control”. The plot will deal with several different aspects of the current situation in Kargil, including the political and domestic fronts – expect the recent activities in the area to show up aswell. The confirmed leads are Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan and Akshaye Khanna. Along this already high profile cast are Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Nagarjuna, Ashutosh Rana, Mohnish Behl, Rahul Khanna, and Karan Nath to provide support. The female cast is still being completed but you can expect Kareena Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, and possibly Karisma Kapoor to join the film as well. If everything works out, this will be the first time that the two Kapoor sisters will appear in the same project. You can expect more news in the coming weeks as several formal announcements will be made prior to the film’s shooting, which begins this November. “Line of Control” is slated to release late next year.
- As you already know, director Anil Sharma is teaming up with his “Gadar (Revolution)” star Sunny Deol for an upcoming project, but now the heroine of the previous film, Amisha Patel, has joined in aswell. The film is also set to star Priyanka Chopra and it will start shooting early next year. Not much is known on the project besides the fact that it covers the subject of terrorism like most Sunny starrers and will probably showcase Sunny as a badass commando beating, shooting, killing and mutilating the crap out of terrorists!! Not very PC, but it should be fun nonetheless.
- This is just a minor speculation but apparently, Hrithik Roshan is the first person to join director Farhan Akhtar’s next film. As you already know, Roshan was offered Saif Ali Khan’s role in Akhtar’s previous film (Dil Chahta Hai – Desires of the Heart) but had to decline to participate in the Subhash Ghai disaster, “Yaadein (Memories)”. There’s probably no truth to this rumour (as Akhtar is in the process of writing the script) but it should be interesting if everything falls into place.
- Producer Sudhakar Bokade, who had a string of hits in the early ‘90s, is back with a new film that could possibly star Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff. The film will be an all-out comedy (with very little action) and will be directed by Anil Mattoo (“Yeshwant”). Bokade is supposed to make a formal announce later in the coming weeks.
- Actor Chunky Pandey is apparently back from the dead (had to say that!) and is about to replace Saif Ali Khan in director Sanjay Chhel’s “Yahoo”, which also stars Govinda. The film (with the help of its absurd title) now has absolutely zero potential because a Govinda-Chunky starrer is likely to gather any interest from the audience. To be fair the two stars were the leads in the colossal hit, “Aankhen (Eyes)”, but that was in the early ‘90s and it was made by a much more stable director, David Dhawan. Let’s hope for the best and see if this new one will be any good.
- Last week’s release was the wonderful comedy from director Priyadarshan, “Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar (This is Our House)”. Much like the director’s last film, “Hera Pheri (The Con)”, this new film is a throwback to the comedies from the 1970’s where humour came from day-to-day situations and things were kept mainly simple. Though things are placed on a realistic level, everything is really innocent here (no one is under any real threat or danger and problems of the society are of no concern to the characters). Sunil Shetty really controls the films as Dayashankar Pandey, a highly neurotic (and borderline psychotic) villager with some financial problems. To ease his troubles, he decides to sell his father’s house in Bombay. When he gets to the city, he finds out that the current tenant, a headstrong woman named Saraswati (Mahima Choudhary), refuses to move out of the house. Things get absolutely chaotic (and hilarious) as Daya tries EVERYTHING in order to take control of the place. I won’t go into any more plot details, but Sunil Shetty is an absolute delight as Dayashankar Pandey. Everything about him, from his rough looks to his absurd mannerisms and his violent eruptions just scream for laughter. Mahima Choudhary is almost as good and manages to match Shetty in certain scenes, providing us with an equally villainous (or sympathetic, depending on your view) character. Paresh Rawal is also a scream as Shetty’s best friend, a cop who falls in love with Saraswati (ooops I spoke too much!!). He gets a surprisingly small role but it’s ok as this is Daya’s film all the way. The songs are very few (4 in total) and are pleasing to the ears while the pacing is brisk and extremely fast paced. The editing is fine and the direction is superb – Priyadarshan just lets the characters loose, free to create chaos all over the place. My only gripe with the film comes from the absurd and abrupt solution to the plot, which didn’t really satisfy me at all. The writer just took the easy way out by placing the usual dramatic plot twist and wrapping things up TOO cleanly. Several questions were left answered while the audience was left screaming WTF??!! But the journey is the main thing and I enjoyed the ride while it lasted. If you’re looking for a simple film with LOTS of great laughs, look no further than “Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar”.
Sunil Shetty as Dayashankar Pandey – the violent idiot you can’t help rooting for: See What We Mean Here
Daya in action: Join The Action, Click Now
Sunil screams while Mahima Choudhary looks amazed: Feel The Fear Simply By Clicking
Daya gets his cop friend (Paresh Rawal) to help him on his quest: Join The Adventure Here
But the cop has other ideas: See Them Here
Don’t ask: Just Go Here Now
CHINA / HK
Here is the latest report from “AccSpy”:
- At long last, "Shaolin Soccer" has scored a US release date: The film is now set to be open on April 5, 2002 in about 350 theatres across America. Stephen Chow is expected to come here for the promotion. In the meanwhile, Tsui Hark's "Black Mask 2" is also looking at being released in February in both HK and USA. If it happens then this would be the first HK movie ever to do open simultaneously in both HK and the US.
- Wong Kar-Wai has accepted an honourary knighthood from a HK chief executive last week. After the ceremony Wong stated that the re-shooting of "2046" will take place in China and start later this month. Wong didn't deny that some old cast members had to leave due to the ever-changing production while some actors from Korea are expected to join the cast. Rumors also strongly suggest that Japanese superstar Kimura Takuya has already left the film.
- A critical problem has happened on the sets of "Running Out of Time 2". Director Dante Lam has left his job due to his lacking a complete script of the movie. Producer Johnnie To in now stepping in to direct the film (Good news and bad news – D25).
- Director Andrew Lau will direct his boss Andy Lau and Sandra Ng in a romantic comedy taking place around a dancing competition for Andy's Teamwork pictures. Andy's another project, titled "PC0927" and co-starring Shu Qi, will be delayed to next year.
- Leslie Cheung's next project is a psychological thriller titled "Ghost Dream (lit. title)" where he will play a psychiatrist discovering a horrifying secret about of one of his patients, played by Taiwanese actress Kareena Lin. Kareena will soon be seen in Jackie Cheung and Anita Mui's "Man at Forty".
- Francis Ng will star in director Wong Jing's new gambling film titled "Last Tango in Vegas (lit. title)".
- An exotic drama from Thailand starring Christy Cheung, "Jan Dara", about a love affair between a step-mom and her step-son, debuted at no.1 last week with an estimated $2.9 million HKD. Lau Ching Wan's great comeback vehicle "La Brassiere" was at no.2. The comedy has collected an estimated $16 million in 18 days. The Francis Ford Coppola-produced "Jeepers Creepers" and Luc Besson-produced French ninja action film "Yamakasi" debuted at no.3 and no.4 respectively. "Mememto", opened in only 4 theatres last week but also enjoyed a sweet debut at no.8.
