I'm real sorry this column is soooooo late but ol' Father Geek here was in London with Harry for the unveiling of his book AINT IT COOL and couldn't get to a PC to post my Thursday thru Sunday Reports. I hope you'll forgive me... This one from Darius, AccSpy and pigmon in Japan is crammed with coolness...
First, before the regular report I have this bit that may interest you readers living in the South Central USA...
Hi! Hope even people who don't like Dallas can come for a super-cool long weekend of Asian films showing at the new (and also super-cool) Magnolia. Most have not been seen before on a big screen in this part of the state. Here's the sched (still subject to change, blah blah) and URL.
The 1st Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas http://www.affd.org
Thursday, March 28
NOWHERE TO HIDE
Friday, March 29
THE KILLER
CURE
VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST
Saturday, March 30
RAISE THE RED LANTERN
THE CHINESE FEAST
RUNNING OUT OF TIME
FALLEN ANGELS
TELL ME SOMETHING
Sunday, March 31 (at the Dallas Museum of Art)
SHORTS PROGRAM
THE SEVEN SAMURAI
Closing night film to be announced
More info available upon request . . .
- Peter Martin
AFFD Volunteer
Father Geek back... Now here's Darius with his excellent column...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’ve had a great week.
We have a packed column for you with lots of cool info, including news on Dreamz Unlimited’s new films, ““Shubho Maharat (Auspicious Night)”, “Majnu (Lover)”, the sequel to “Visible Secret”, a new film adaptation of “Tekken”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, and a remake from Takashi Miike titled “Zoku Jingi No Hakaba". We also have the 2002 HK Film Awards nominations. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- It looks like Shahrukh Khan isn’t closing up shop on his production company after all. The company’s fourth film will be directed by Aziz Mirza (who’s also a partner in the company) with SRK and Aishwarya Rai rumoured to be starring in the lead roles. Mirza is currently writing the script for his film and plans to shoot it around this winter.
- Meanwhile, it is pretty much confirmed that Sohail Khan has bagged the secondary leading role in choreographer Farha Khan’s directorial debut. The film, which will be the third production of Dreamz Unlimited, will star SRK as Sohail’s elder brother. Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, and Vivek Oberoi were in the running for the role but it looks like Sohail beat them to it. The film will go into production this summer.
- Director Rajat Rawail has announced that his new film, with Aaftab Shivdasani and Bipasha Basu in the leading roles. The producers are waiting for the casting to be completed, before commencing on principal photography this summer.
- After starring together in “Daag"(Stain) nearly 30 years ago, legendary actresses Sharmila Tagore and Rakhee will now appear in a new film titled “Shubho Maharat (Auspicious Night)”. The film, being directed by Rituparno Ghosh, will be a detective thriller featuring Tagore as a filmmaker and Rakhee as a housewife solving the mystery in her spare time. Nandita Das also stars in the film, this time appearing as a journalist.
- Producer-Director Subhash Ghai has announced the name of his new production – “Majnu (Lover)”. The film will be directed by Satish Kaushik and will star Arjun Rampal. Kareena Kapoor was to be in the film originally, but the producers have now opted for a newcomer for the female lead. It will be released this October.
- Last week’s new release was the much-anticipated Salman Khan-starrer, “Tumko Na Bhool Payenge (I Won’t Forget You). Directed by Pankuj Parasher, the film stars Diya Mirza, Sushmita Sen, Inder Kumar, Mukesh Rishi, and Sharat Saxena. Right off the bat, I have to say that this film has got to be the most entertaining one so far in this dull year. After last week’s horribly boring film, it was a nice change to see a fun, loud movie with great songs and some CRAZY action sequences. Salman stars as a villager, Veer, who starts experiencing haunting visions and hallucinations. The images start to disrupt his normal life, and things get worse when the guy gets attacked by armed men during his engagement party. All of a sudden, the seemingly-harmless Veer turns into a lethal weapon and manages to kill his attackers in various lethal ways (watch out for lots of gun and wire-fu!!). Realizing that he’s suffering from amnesia, the hero sets off to Bombay to find his true identity. To reveal anything more would ruin your fun. Let me just say that there is a somewhat different plot here, which is not present in the usual Bollywood action film, and there is very little romance (despite the title).
The action scenes are superb and presented in a very slick and stylish manner that would make John Woo proud. You’ll get all the blood and guts in the climax but there’s enough wire-fu, hand-to-hand fights, two-fisted gunplay, and even knife fights to satisfy throughtout the entire movie. With the use of some clever camera angles, and some long takes (no sharp or fast edits here), you’ll actually believe that it’s Salman Khan doing all those moves. His performance is surprisingly restrained and he brings just enough attitude to act like a real BADASS!! The actresses are just present for the oomph factor, and more than manage to accomplish their jobs. Sushmita is pretty much wasted, but we get to see A LOT of Diya Mirza, which is VERY good. The music is SUPERB – I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for nearly a month and I still haven’t been bored of the songs yet. The songs are adequately placed in between the drama and action scenes and helps get the pace moving even faster. The cinematography is very good (especially in the first half) while the overall direction is top notch aswell. In the end, I’m still on a high from watching this film twice in 3 days and I couldn’t find anything weakness. It is a popcorn no-brainer, but I think any action fan would love it. Don’t miss it!
The lovely Diya Mirza: Catch Sight Of Her Here
The lovely Sushmita Sen (along with Salman Khan): View Her Here
Salman Khan – the new Rambo???: Just Click
HK / CHINA
Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:
The 21st HK Film Awards has announced its nominee lists on Wednesday. "Shaolin Soccer" pleased the public to receive 13 nominations out of 18 categories, and brought Stephen Chow back to the Best Actor category for the first time since 1995. "Lan Yu" came close with 11 nominations and Jacky Cheung's comeback vehicle "July Rhapsody", which was opened for just 2 days last Dec in order to be eligible for this race, was mentioned in 8 categories. Sammi Cheng shocked the world with not one, not two, but THREE Best Actress nods. The last actor who scored three nods in the same category is Chow Yun-fat in 1986, who was nominated for City on Fire, Prison on Fire and An Autumn's Tale and won for the former film. Here's the full list:
BEST MOVIE
BEST DIRECTOR
BEST ACTOR
BEST ACTRESS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
BEST NEW ACTOR/ACTRESS
BEST SCREENPLAY
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST EDITING
BEST ART DIRECTION
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY
BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE
BEST ORIGINAL FILM SONG
BEST SOUND EFFECT
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
BEST ASIAN FILM
- On Tuesday Hong Kong Film Critics Society has held a ceremony to present this year' s awards to the winners, here's some pics.
Sammi Cheng won Best Actress, with presenter Jade Chan, one of the most popular HK actress in 60's: See her right here
One more of Sammi: She's Here
Stephen Chow with his Best Film of the Year trophy: Click to See
Another pic of Chow: Go Here
Ann Hui won Best Director (along with Chan): Click Here
Stephen Chow and Sammi together (Best Actor Lau Ching Wan didn't attend the ceremony): Click
- Currently shooting in HK is the sequel of "Visible Secret". Ann Hui will only be the producer this time, while the screenwriter of the original, Kong Man-wai, will step in and direct this sequel. Eason Chan is back and Cherrie Ying ("Fulltime Killer", Dance of a Dream") would replace Shu Qi as the female lead in the sequel. Jo Kuk, whose appearance had to be censored out and could only be seen on DVD for the first time, will also be back for this sequel. Here's an on-set photo with Eason Chan: http://www.hkdailynews.net/20020226/entertain/images/26ef04ab.jpg
- Chow Yun-fat has finally flown to Toronto for the shooting of "Bulletproof Monk" which is aiming for a Christmas release in US. Here's the proof, with Mr.& Mrs. Chow at the airport: http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20020223/img/e01022314_big.jpg
- Last weekend, HK had a surprise hit at the box office from Korea. The Korean romantic comedy "My Sassy Girl" topped the chart with $3 mil HKD during the weekend, pushing down "Monsters Inc." to the second place. "Fat Choi Spirit" and "Marry a Rich Man" were still grossing strong at no.3 and no.4, respectively.
JAPAN
Here’s the latest report from “Pigmon”:
- Mamoru Oshii is currently attached to 2 projects. One is an unknown live action film and the other is the sequel to "Ghost In The Shell"(which is coming close to final deal with Toho).
- There will be another Godzilla movie later this year. Because of the huge success of “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah : Giant Monsters All-Out Attack", Toho has decided to make one more giant lizard film. Shusuke Kaneko will not be back as the director this time around.
- GAGA Communications has announced that "Tekken: The Movie" will start production next year with Namco and Crystal Sky. Graham Yost ("Speed") will write the script.
- Inside rumours are suggesting that Ron Howard may take over the reigns for “Memoirs of Geisha”, now that Steven Spielberg has abandoned the project.
- Takashi Miike will remake an old Yakuza movie, "Zoku Jingi No Hakaba", which was originally made 27 years ago by Shinji Fukasaku. This movie is based on the real-life story of the famous Yakuza member Rikio Ishikawa. The shooting has started already and Goro Kishitani is playing the lead role. The film will release this summer in Japan.
- Actor Yosuke Kubozuka (“Go”) will produce "Kiyoki No Sakura" in which he will star with Yosuke Eguchi. The film focuses on a conflict between young boy (Kubozuka) and a Yakuza member (Eguchi) and will be set in Shibuya. Music-video director Kenji Sonoda will direct. Shooting will start by the end of March while Toei will distribute this later on in the year.
- Director Yoshimitu Morita ("Family Game") is shooting his new film, "Mohouhan", which is based on a best-selling novel. It will star the lead vocalist of SMAP, Masahiro Nakai, in the leading role. The film will be releasing by Toho this June.
- One of last year's best documentaries, "Project X", will now be a feature movie. The doc focuses on the Victor Company engineers created the VHS. Documentarian Sasabe will make his feature-film directorial debut while Toshiyuki Nishida will play the main engineer. Shooting starts February 26th and the film will release later this summer through Toei.
- One of most popular TV shows, "Trick 2", has now moved to the big screen. The show revolves around a beautiful magician girl (Yukie Namaka) and a psychic guy (Hiroshi Abe from "Godzilla 2000) who solve paranormal incidents, just like the X-Files story but with a much better plot. The shooting starts from 26th of this month. The director is the same one from the TV series, Yukihiko Tutsumi.
