Father Geek here with our regular Asia-AICN Column for this Thursday from Darius25 with the "Bollywood Report", AccSpy and the news from Hong Kong and China, annnnnd this week we also have an appearance of the Cyber Samurai and his news from Korea, but first there is this that came directly to Father Geek here at the barbed wire enclosed World Geek Headquarters Compound in Austin, Texas...

Beware of Spoilers!

Beige Babapapa here from Hong Kong.

One of these days I'm going to write in with a positive, rave review of a decent Hong Kong film. I thought it might have been "The Touch" but that was a sad disappointment. Then I thought "So Close", Corey Yuen's chic, stylish and sexy new flick might be the one. It's being heavily marketed and packaged and playing, unashamedly, off of the back of "Charlie's Angels", and is really being promoted heavily across Asia.

Could this be the saviour to kick start and refresh this ailing but once mighty industry. Alas, NO. I was amazed to see an 8.2 rating on IMDB followed by a rave review...it almost shouted plant but I'll give the poster the benefit of the doubt. For those who are not familiar, it stars Shu Qi (soon to be seen in "The Transporter"), Karen Mok (seen in several Stephen Chow films but notably for her role in "God of Cookery")and Zhao Wei (last seen in Shaolin Soccer.)

Qi and Wei are sisters who are "assassins" with impressive gunplay, computer smarts and chop-socky elegance. Mok's an independent, attitude-heavy forensic policewoman and the equal of the sisters in every way.

I won't go into too much spoiler detail, suffice to say you won't be to shocked with the storyline or overall outcome. There is a thinly weaved love story, a poorly executed explanation as to why the sisters are experts in their field, a poor (but not unsurprising given the current offerings from HK) script with badly weighted lines and character development and more than a few instances of sub-par CGI. If and when this gets to your shores, those who have no Cantonese skills will not notice the dubbing for Wei's Mandarin accent(so prominent in Shaolin Soccer; those who do will be appalled.

What is good about the film is some excellent and original choreography for the fight scenes and ....well the obvious. The Girls. Shu Qi is hot...no argument. Wei is also pretty appealing and Mok, although not being your archetypal beauty, gives off enough "fuck you" attitude to make her interestingly attractive. You get your standard Hong Kong plot devices, bad guy, revenge motive, mutual respect and eventual friendship. What is a bonus is a confusing and ambiguous lesbian insinuation between Mok and Wei...well that's how I read it anyway!

Overall, it's a mediocre effort with some impressive fight sequences. The issues may lie with us who reside here and have to endure the continual rubbish that's been pushed onto the screens here. Shaolin Soccer was the best to come out of HK in many a year, but as for "The Eye", "Visible Secret" and "Zu Warriors 2" it's just average hack fodder.

It's a shame that "So Close" is so contrived. The question of when the HK industry will wake up and stop trying to replicate the past with poorly scripted dialogue and direction which almost borders on parody, and start to make some original HK style and HK driven movies, remains unanswered. The support and resources are here but everyone wants the quick buck and fame. For those wanting to check out some potential contenders might do worse than renting any Fruit Chan or Daniel Chan films...at least there's potential!

It pains to be the messenger of bad tidings but I haven't given up hope...yet.

Beige Babapapa.

Father Geek back... Now, here's Darius and the 125th edition of...

Asia-AICN

Hey all, we’re back to give you the latest scoops from the East. This week we have some more Korean film news including this wicked new film called “The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl”. Now any self-proclaiming film geek HAS TO see this film, which looks possibly even better than “Avalon”, and could be a worthy successor to “The Matrix”. Check out the trailer provided and drool on it a bit more. Besides Korean stuff, we also have news on “Armaan (Desire)”, “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (Hearts and Love)”, “Sur (Rhythm)”, “Nine Girls and a Ghost”, and the upcoming mega-starrer actioner “Mo Gan Doo”. Enjoy!

INDIA

- Actor Hrithik Roshan has been added to the cast of “Armaan (Desire)”, being directed by famed screenwriter Honey Irani. The film stars Anil Kapoor, Gracy Singh, Amitabh Bachchan, and Preity Zinta in the leading roles, while Roshan will have an extended cameo apperance. It is currently in the midst of production right now and is set to wrap this winter. The film is set to release early next summer.

- Some new stills were released from Producer Vivek Vaswani’s “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar (Hearts and Love)”. The musical blockbuster features a large cast of up-and-coming actors (such as R. Madhavan, Namrata Shirodkhar, Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri) and features 14 of famed music director R.D. Burman’s greatest hits as its songs. The film, directed by actor Anant Mahadevan, is due out on October 18. Here’s the pics.

Namrate Shirodkhar and R. Madhavan: Click To See Them Now

Rakesh Bapat, Sonali Kulkarni, and Bhavna Pani: See All Three Here

Sonali Kulkarni: Just Go Here

Namrata Shirodkhar: Click Here

SUR (Rhythm)

Last week’s major release was the new drama from director Tanuja Chandra, which marks the acting debut of mega pop-star Lucky Ali and television actress Gauri Karnik. It’s a low-budget drama set in the music industry, with some great songs and decent acting.

Seeing as Lucky Ali (which is NOT his real name) is already past 40, he can’t star as some young teenage heartthrob – so here he plays Vikramaditya, a popular music teacher who kept on waiting for the lucky break that never came. He discovers talent in a young student, Tina (Gauri Karnik), and teaches her to hone her skills to reach the maximum potential. However once he discovers that she might actually be better than himself, he shatters her confidence and forces her to drop out of the school. Eventually he realizes his mistakes, convinces Tina to come back, and makes her into a famous popstar – before going back to his profession. The film is really a character study of this one teacher who struggles all his life to make it big before finally accepting his fate as a normal, everyday citizen. It’s touching (and quite emotional), and works well as a small drama. I wouldn’t say it doesn’t has any flaws, but I was pleasantly surprised – and the fact that there is no romance between our two leads is also a plus aswell (and thank god for it!).

As expected, Lucky Ali makes a great debut and does really well in the acting department. We like him in the beginning, and despise him for his later actions, but eventually come around to forgiving him by the end. This is his story all the way, and I believed in his character. And yes he also sang all the songs which are just AWESOME if you happen to like slow, melodious music. Gauri Karnik is ok in her role and does her part without any major annoyances. She’s not the best actress but plays well opposite Ali, and is pretty convincing during the dramatic scenes.

Another highlight of the film is the music. Since the plot does have a musical background (and stars a pop star), the film has to back it up with a great soundtrack – which it does!! All of the songs here are vital to the plot and help provide some great way of expressions for our lead characters. They’re of the slow variety, but are nonetheless very pleasing to the ears and never drag the pace down.

The direction is also very impressive. I’ve never really liked Tanuja Chandra’s work in the past (as most of her films were ripoffs of Hollywood thrillers like “An Eye for an Eye” and “Silence of the Lambs”), but here she shows that she can do some great work with an original story (which she wrote herself). Yes, I realize that this kind of story has been done before but atleast it doesn’t ripoff any movie word for word. Anyway, the acting is great and the film’s pacing is slow yet never boring. And since this is set in a small picturesque town, one can expect some great cinematography with gorgeous visuals. And Chandra’s work is really subtle here, with slow tracking shots and nothing too flashy or over-the-top – she lets the story and the acting take the center stage.

All in all, “Sur” is a great little drama with some good acting from star Lucky Ali. If you happen to like musical dramas or good student-teacher films then you’ll probably love this one. It’s nice to see a subtle, story-oriented Bollywood film once in a while.

Lucky Ali and Gauri Karnik: Click

CHINA / HK

Here’s the latest report from AccSpy:

- Edison Chan plays a suit-wearing handsome happy ghost seeking help from nine college girls(canto-pop girl group Cookies) in horror comedy "Nine Girls and a Ghost"(lit. title) from Mandrain Pictures, now shooting in HK. Here's some shooting ceremony pics:

Edison Chan: Just Click

2/3rds of the Cookies: YUMMY!!!

Everybody: They;re All Right Here

A geeky Wong Kar-ming and Edison: See Them Here

- Karena Lam, Candy Lo and Dior Wong will play best friends seeking their other halves in the Sex and the City-like romantic comedy "Women on Top, Men at Bottom"(lit.title), produced by Universe Pictures.

- Just when you think Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong, Kelly Chen, Edison Chan and Sean Yu all being in one movie is not enough, Sammi Cheng has been added for a cameo in Andrew Lau's undercover epic "Mo Gan Doo". Sammi is set to play Andy Lau's ex-girlfriend. (In correction, Kelly Chan is in fact playing Tony Leung's psychiatrist.) The movie has been wrapped and is slated to release this Christmas.

- At the HK box office last weekend, "Eight Legged Freaks" debuted at no.1 with about $1.7 mil while Eason Chan's "If You Care" fell to no.2 with total grossing of $5 mil since Wednesday. From no.3 to no.7 are Corey Yuen's "So Close", "Haunted Office", "Jason X", "Spy Kids 2" and "About a Boy".

KOREA

Here is some a report on the latest Korean films from Cyber Samurai:

This past weekend, three Korean films opened in Korea, including the highly anticipated “The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl”, directed by Jang Sunwoo (“Lies”). The official box office estimate has yet to be announced but the #1 movie seems to be “Family Honor”, a yet another gangster comedy - this time about the sons of a crime family trying to marry off their sister when she wakes up next to a handsome businessman. At first, they try to beat him up but when they discover he went to Seoul National University law school (the Korean version of Harvard Law School), for the family honor, they decide to make him their brother-in-law. The cast is mostly TV actors except for Jung Joon Ho who starred in the excellent “My Boss, My Hero”. The #2 movie this week was “Romance Novel”, a romantic comedy starring Cha Tae Hyun, the lovable hero from “My Sassy Girl” which is being remade by Dreamworks and Maverick, I hear.

But the biggest news this week was the unveiling of “Match Girl”. It was expected to be the Korean answer to “The Matrix” (the movie cost $10 million, the most expensive Korean movie ever) but it is now being considered as the biggest disappointment. Critics seem to like it because it's more of an art film that an action adventure. The story goes like this if there's one. A video game-mad Chinese food delivery boy meets a little match girl who sells him a lighter. He dials the number on the lighter, which leads him into a cyber game called The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl. So he enters the game to rescue the girl... Well, I haven't seen the film but even those who did had a hard time understanding what the movie was about. Apparently, there's a lot of references to Buddhist philosophy on top of a ton of explosions and wire-fu action. I'm sure this film will hit the festival circuit soon. Who knows? A flop in one country can turn into a cult classic in another. Comparisons have been made to “Avalon” by the way. Click here to download an AWESOME trailer for the film: Its Right Here!

What worries the filmmakers in Korea, however, is the backlash by audiences. Many big budget movies bombed at box office this year, creating fear among the investors. A year ago, so much money was around that anybody with a script could get a movie made. Kind of like the dot com boom and bust, isn't it? It's encouraging that it's more selective but it's affecting every single project in development at the moment. Maybe everyone will be making gangster comedies. It seems like the only sure genre.

Anyhow, Korean films are still red-hot. Next month, two big movies are opening: “YMCA Baseball Team” and “Independence Day Amnesty” (from the filmmakers of “Attack the Gas Station!” and “Kick the Moon”). Last year, the market share for Korean films was 46%. This year, it will even top it. A good example of how hot Korean films are is that last week, Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen visited Korea to promote “XXX”. More Hollywood stars make sure to stop over in Korea as Hollywood films suffer greatly in Korea. Cyber Samurai

We have now reached the end of this week's column. Remember, if you have information regarding any film industry in Asia, please contact our Asia-AICN offices at The Cool-Mahal. See you all next week.

Darius25