Father Geek here with Darius25 and our new Korean spy Cyber Samurai with another issue of our regular Thursday Asia-AICN Report... but as usual I have a bit that came directly to the Geek Headquarters Compound in Austin, Texas...
Found a link to the trailer of the prolific Takashi Miike's latest film, "True Story of Ando's Gang - Legend of Outlaw Fire (aka Violent Fire)" here: http://www.sanchodoesasia.com/sdtm/sdtm_violent_fire.htm
Here is a direct link to the trailer (Real Video) : Just Click Here To View It
And here's a link to the film's official site: The Site's Right Here
The trailer reminded me of the first installment in Miike's DOA series. Very hyper-kinetic, very rock'n'roll. Riki Takeuchifrom (DOA) is featured in this one. I'm very much looking forward to this one.And I know by the time I see it Miike will have at least ten more waiting for me...
johnny ambulance
Now here's Darius with the Bollywood news...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’ve had a great week. We’re back with some more news from Bollywood and Korea, including scoops on “Kaante (Thorns)”, “Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (Who the Heart Wants)”, “Shakti – The Power”, “For the Glory of My Family”, "The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl", and “YMCA”.
INDIA
- Those looking forward to Sanjay Gupta’s mega-gangster film “Kaante (Thorns)” will have to wait just a little longer. The film was shot in one complete schedule last fall but post-production delays have caused an unusually long wait, and postponed the release date till Christmas this year. The first original print is now being process and Gupta says that the film will be ready by mid-October. However since due to a large number of films hitting the theatres during the “Deewali” period (late Oct.-early Nov.), the director has decided to release the film in December. The filmmakers are also pushing for more aggressive promotional strategies (which is already in full force), hyping up the film to the MAX. And for those who don’t know, this is the mega-star hyper-violent remake of “Reservoir Dogs”, with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Kumar Gaurav, Mahesh Manjrekar, and Lucky Ali.
- Actress Aishwarya Rai has been replaced by Karisma Kapoor for Atul Agnihotri’s directorial debut film, “Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (Who the Heart Wants)”. The film was initially a two-hero war/romance with both Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan but now Salman is the only male lead. However one more lead actress has joined the cast, Preity Zinta, to make this a love triangle. There’s no word on whether this will be set in a war-time setting or if it’s just another modern day romance. In either case, filming is set to begin early 2003 with a tentative release date of winter next year.
- Some new stills have been released from the sets of director Tinu Verma’s “Baaz – The Danger Bird”. The action film stars Sunil Shetty as a crooked cop, along with Karisma Kapoor, Dino Morea, Preeti Jhangiani, and Jackie Shroff. The filming is currently on the way and is set to wrap by Christmas. The film is expected to release next spring.
Director Tinu Verma with Jackie Shroff (right): Go Here Now
Jackie and Sunil: Click Here
From left to right, Verma, Preity Jhangiani (whats with the black eye?), Jackie, Karisma, and Sunil: See All Of Them Here
Jackie, Sunil, and Dino: Click
SHAKTI – THE POWER
The first of last week’s major release was producer Boney Kapoor’s highly-anticipated “Shakti – The Power”, directed by Krishna Vamsi. The film boasts a powerful starcast headed by Karisma Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Sanjay Kapoor, Deepti Naval, and Shahrukh Khan (in a minor cameo). Director Vamsi has remade his own Telugu-language film into this Bollywood adaptation and managed to retain the rustic settings and buckets of gore from the original version.
And you’ll find that like the other new release for this week, “Shakti” is also a female-oriented film about a woman taking on the big bad world by herself. Karisma Kapoor stars as a rich Indian girl, Nandini, who lives a happy and fullfilling existence in Calgary. She gets married to a family friend, Shekhar (Sanjay Kapoor), and all is well for the next 5 years. However an incident back in India prompts the couple to visit Shekhar’s hometown in rural India – causing a nightmarish situation from which almost no one recovers. We discover that Shekhar had actually fled India from his dominating father, Narsimha (Nana Patekar), who’s the local crimelord and also a very powerful arms dealer. It doesn’t help that he’s also rude, cruel, and an all-around loathsome creature. Certain situations follow that will leave Nandini and her young son abandoned in the village – under the ruthless arms of her father-in-law. She attempts several times to escape, but finds it to be a physically daunting task – until she gets help from a greedy two-bit criminal (Shahrukh Khan).
Ok first things first – this film is not for those who are easily offended. We’re talking brutal violence (especially towards women), gore, torture, crude laughs (at the expense of women and politics), and generally un-P.C. like behaviour. The director wishes to prove a point (that women are certainly equal as men), but not before subjecting his characters to constant violence and abuse. As good as Nana Patekar’s performance is, this is certainly a controversial role that will most likely get him in trouble with all sorts of female-rights activists and advocates. He’s easily one of the most loathsome creatures in Bollywood history.
Now, considering the fact that this film IS offensive, it also boasts some excellent performances. Karisma is excellent – first as the innocent woman getting adjusted to a different (and unpleasant) environment and then as a determined soul willing to do anything to get back home. Her transformation in the second half is really impressive and she manages to match Patekar’s performance in ever scene. Nana himself is very, VERY good. His crude jokes towards women will most likely offend everybody, but would probably make a few of us laugh aswell (with a very uncomfortable feeling though). He manages to make his character really hated by the audience and at no point do we ever get to sympathize with him. Sanjay Kapoor is tolerable in his small role, but his character is just there to set up the main conflict between Nana and Karisma. Shahrukh Khan is largely wasted in an unnecessary role (he doesn’t appear till the last hour of the film) but manages to bring some much needed humour in this very serious tale. Even though the humour is completely unnecessary (and somewhat uncomfortable), atleast it’s not as offensive as Nana Patekar’s dialogues. And it was a nice change to see SRK playing a hoodlum role as opposed to the clean-cut romantic roles he’s so famous for. Deepti Naval is ok as Nana’s wife (and the only person sympathetic to Karisma’s character), but doesn’t get to shine until her final scene towards the climax.
The direction by Krishna Vamsi is somewhat good and would have been excellent if he had completely played this as a serious drama. The cinematography is amazing and there were some pretty fantastic camera angles. However, the director should have hired a better editor to trim out all songs and comedy scenes which are spliced between many different scenes of violence and torture. I know that the songs and comedy are supposed to provide a break for the audience, but what am I supposed to feel when I see Karisma being beaten senselessly by Nana, while SRK tries to break out of jail in a comedic manner, followed by an upbeat techno musical segment. And right after the song we see Karisma locked in a dungeon-like room!!
However despite the awkard song placements and comedy scenes, this is a film worth watching. The subject matter is very daring for a commercial Bollywood film and the acting by the two leads is first-rate. Oh and that SRK song is very catchy aswell! “Shakti” is definitely a must-watch film at the theatres.
Nana Patekar (center), surrounded by his henchmen: BadAssssss
Karisma Kapoor (holding the kid) and Sanjay Kapoor: They're just a Click Away
The real scene stealer – Shahrukh Khan and Karisma: Check It out Here
Another scene of SRK and Karisma, this time during the bloody climax: The Action's Here
And yeah, the catchy “Ishq Kameena” song with SRK and the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai: Great Stuff Right Here
GUNAAH (Crime)
Last week’s other new release was a very different type of thriller, marking the reunion of Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea, the leads of February’s blockbuster hit “Raaz (Secret)”. However unlike the supernatural story, this is a very different type of movie – a brutal gritty crime story which has Bipasha as a strong-willed cop facing prejudice and corruption on both sides of the law. The direction by newcomer Amol Shetge is ok enough, and the film has enough skimpy outfits and gratuitous violence to keep the casual viewer entertained.
Even though she gets secondary billing, this is Bipasha’s film all the way. Here she plays a cop (second time in a row after “Chor Machaaye Shor – Thief Makes Noise”) named Prabha investigating a crooked Assistant Commissioner, Pandey (Irfan Khan). Her case gets stronger evidence when she catches a mysterious murderer, Aditya (Dino Morea), who seems to have some sort of a personal vendetta against the crooked cop. Prabha falls in love with Aditya, but still goes about her duty investigating his background while Pandey foils her at nearly every step. Of course the criminal and the corrupt cop end up in a violent showdown while Prabha’s on the hunt for both guys. The climax is somewhat idiotic, but atleast dares to be radically different than almost every single Bollywood movie.
Ok time to discuss the performances. Bipasha Basu not only looks stunning (and wears skimpy outfits!), but acts pretty decent aswell. She manages to give herself a superhero image (and is quite convincing) and pretty much wipes the floor with all of the cast members. This quite rare for a conventional Bollywood heroine, and it’s a great role for the actress – hope she gets more role like this! Dino Morea’s ok as supporting character, but is pretty much wasted. His character is not given any dialogue for about 75% of the movie for no apparent reason. And when he speaks he sounds like a dumbass! Irfan Khan is very convincing as a crooked cop and is given all the best dialogues. He’s the kind of bad guy that you secretly root for and is very convincing in his part. He gets what’s coming to him in the end, but that’s expected. Ashutosh Rana, who had an over-the-top character in “Raaz” is wasted in a small character role here.
The direction is standard action fare. The dialogues are rough and obscene (very rare in our industry), but are also very funny (and you won’t feel uncomfortable laughing at them like in “Shakti”). The film is also very fast-paced with a short run time, while the songs are placed appropriately in the story. The action scenes are fairly good, particularly the awesome explosion in the climax. My one major problem was with the final resolution of the story (it could have been handled in a better way) but I applaud the filmmakers to have the balls to go ahead with a non-commercial ending.
All in all, “Gunaah” is a decent action film which is not note-worthy in any way but provides good entertainment. And it has Bipasha Basu in skimpy outfits, kicking MAJOR ASS! What else do you want?
Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea: They're Both Here
A great pic of Bipasha: Just Click Right Here
Dino Morea and Irfan Khan: Click to See
KOREA
Here’s the latest report from Cyber Samurai:
"For the Glory of My Family" (last week, I called it "Family Honor" but the official English title seems to be the former) turned out to be a huge hit. This past weekend was Chusok holidays (the Korean Thanksgiving - this year, it was a 3 day holiday) and it's traditionally a strong weekend for Korean films. In its first 10 days, the film had almost 2 million admissions nationwide (approximately $10 million) and may even outpass "The Way Home" as the biggest film of the year. The reviews are mixed but the audience seems to love this kind of a gangster romantic comedy.
On the other hand, "The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl" became the disaster of the decade. This $10 million movie only grossed $600,000 in its first 10 days. People are trashing the film everywhere and some are even accusing critics who praised it of having been bribed or biased. Again, I haven't seen it yet but those who have around me said it was merely the director's masturbation. I like Jang Sunwoo's films overall and hate to think this may end his career. This may also disrupt other Korean films either in preproduction or development. Right now, there are several Korean films in production with the budget exceeding $5 million including "Tube" (hostage action drama on subway), "Natural City" (sci-fi action) and "Fresh Wind, Bright Moon" (martial-arts a la Hong Kong sword movies). They may be the last Korean blockbusters you'll ever see.
On a positive note, a new comedy to be released in 2 weeks is getting a great word-of-mouth. It's "YMCA Baseball Team." Starring Song Kang-Ho ("JSA" and "The Foul King") and Kim Hye-Soo ("Kick the Moon"), this turn-of-the-century comedy (actually, set in 1904) about the first Korean baseball team, just had a press screening in Seoul. The reviews have been all positive. What's interesting is that it was directed by first timer Kim Hyun-Suk who also wrote another baseball themed romantic comedy called "If the Sun Rose in the West" about a baseball umpire and a movie star. When I saw it back in 1998, I thought they should at least sell the remake rights. Surprisingly, a year later, a similar movie called "Notting Hill" came out. Personally it was one of my favorite Korean films. More than anything else, the film shows the director's love of baseball (there's a scene with umpires having dinner after a game – absolutely hilarious). This guy could be the Korean Ron Shelton.
Anyhow, "YMCA" follows the story of a young uptight scholar who is introduced to the game of baseball by a modern woman who has traveled to the West (think of Rosamund Kwan in "Once Upon a Time in China") and helps form the first baseball team ever in Korea. The climax features an inevitable match-up with a powerful Japanese team. I have a feeling this could be a huge hit not only in Korea but also in other countries where baseball is understood.
That's it for now, folks.
Cyber Samurai
