WOW!!! Wednesday was cooooool, but busy here at World Geek Headquarters. First off; Harry and Father Geek had to race over to the Arbor Theater in North Austin for a run-thru screening of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON at 9am. We met Robogeek there and the three of us enjoyed a private viewing of what I feel is the most complete, multi-dimensional Kung Fu film in history. There may be films that contain a better fight scene (although I can't think of one right now) and there are probably some better Chinese dramas out there, and some better movies on Chinese mysticism, but I can think of no film that combines the elements of all three of these genres as well as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON does, and that's not even considering CTHD's fantastic cinematography, and awe inspiring score. All things considered this motion picture is elevated out of its genre pigeon-hole and on to the level of truely great cinema. Well, that's Father Geeks opinion anyway.

Secondly, my daughter, affectionately referred to as Sister Satan on this site and our Latin-AICN editor LOBO got married in a wonderful tented backyard ceremony at their home. It was an intimate gathering of about 45-50 friends and family. LOBO's dad flew in from Mexico and my mother made the trip up from San Antonio with my niece and her daughter. The scent of the backyard rose garden was enhanced by several flower arrangements and after dark it was all illuminated by 8 torches and a dozen candles. Beautiful! Very coooooool! You can congratulate the couple by writing Sister Satan , or the lucky groom LOBO.

Thirdly, AICN hosted the Austin Film Festival-Heart Of Texas Screenwriter's Conference screening of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON last night at a jammed packed sold out viewing, and it went over phantastically with the mixed crowd of industry pros and just plain film fans. Harry introduced the movie and then sat back to enjoy it for the second time in a 12 hour period. Well. enough of Father Geek, here's Darius25 and this week's Asia-AICN

Asia-AICN #27

Hey all. I hope you've all had a good week. We have lots of new stuff for you today, including an extremely long list of winners of the Philippine Star Awards. I won't delay you any longer so here's the latest from Asia.

INDIA

- Producer Boney Kapoor's Indian remake of "Not Without My Daughter" is already pretty much dead before the first scene was canned. Rumours indicate that both of the principal leads, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, have walked off the project. Kajol left first, because of a dispute between her husband, Ajay Devgan, and Boney's brother, Anil Kapoor. SRK then didn't feel confident in doing the project and supposedly has left as well. The question still remains of whether Boney will continue with the film (with replacements) or scrap it altogether.

- Director Mahesh Manjrekar has written a script specifically for current the Miss Universe, Lara Dutta. There's no word yet of Dutta's agreement but it's highly probably that she'll agree to the film. The title of the film has not been made public as of yet.

- Tejaswini Kolhapure, the sister of former actress Padmini Kolhapure, will make her big screen debut in Paanch (Five). The film, directed by Anurag Kashyap, is about the rise and fall of a female rock group. Post production work has already been completed, and the film will be releasing in theatres shortly.

- Aamir Khan has dropped out from director Yogesh Bharadwaj's Border Hindustan Ka (India's Border). Aamir was supposed to do a special appearance in the film but has now dropped out due to the similar-themed Refugee's disappointing BO status. The film stars Aamir's brother, Faisal Khan.

- Producer Rajiv Babbar (not the same person as actor Raj Babbar) has signed actors Govinda and Nana Patekar for a new film to be directed by Aziz Sejawal. This will be the first time the comedian and the artiste will work together. The film does not yet have a title.

- Director Mehul Kumar has released details on two of his upcoming films. The first one, titled Kitne Door Kitne Paas (Far and Near), will star Fardeen Khan. The second film, Kabhi Kabhi Aaise Bhi Hota Hai (It Happens Sometimes), will star Nana Patekar and Mahima Choudhary. The second film will star principal photography in December.

- Mehul Kumar has also been signed to direct Mr. Black & Mr. White. The film will star Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar in the lead roles.

- Amisha Patel has been signed to star in the film Suno Sasurjee (Listen Father-in-law). She will star opposite Aaftab Shivdasani in the romantic comedy.

- Actor Anupam Kher has signed to be the temporary host for the TV show Sawal Dus Krore Ka (A Question of 10 Million Rupees). The show, of course a millionaire clone, was originally offered to actress Madhuri Dixit, who is still deciding. Kher will be the host for the first three months, after which Dixit can come in, if she wants. If she decides not to do the show, then Kher will stay on as the host.

- Ok, this isn't really news but I saw the newest trailer of Mission Kashmir, and I just HAD to tell you all about it. Trust me, from the looks of it, this will one of the best action films EVER!!! Well, even if that is an exaggeration, it still looks pretty awesome. The trailer starts off with a boat exploding on a river along the Himalayan mountains, then you see Sanjay Dutt (still young though) dressed up as a militant storm through an enemy hideout with 20 people guns blazing. The scene cuts through to Hrithik Roshan screaming. Then you see both Dutt (now older with grayish hair and a moustache) and Roshan beat the shit out of each under in a dockyard while destroying everything in sight. The scene cuts to a helicopter flying through the Himalayan mountains, a bunch of people running, and a whole lot of gunfire. The words "One man bound by duty" show up and you see Dutt in a police uniform shooting criminals in a warehouse. Then you see the words "One man filled with hatred". Roshan screams again while shooting a bunch of people and then FLIES straight up while the camera pulls a 360 degree turn like "The Matrix". You then see Hrithik walk up walls and do a very Matrix-y move (kind of like a bicycle kick in Mortal Kombat). Finally, you see the names of the actors - Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, and Jackie Shroff. You then see Sanjay Dutt take off a mask and COMMAND - "Tell me about Mission Kashmir NOW!!" Right after you see Hrithik Roshan pointing that big-ass gun just like in the picture in Asia-AICN # 23. Afterwards, the title shows up - Mission Kashmir. Pretty damn AMAZING. Cool music aswell, with only one line of dialogue. It's too bad this one isn't online but you can view many short TV spots for the film.

"Here is the a link to the same trailer that I saw but it has some scenes missing (notably the final scene I described just now). The trailer is in Real format and it's pretty hard to see but it's WORTH it! See it at: This Location

Click here to see one of the TV spots (in MPG format). In this one, you'll see Sanjay Dutt take off the mask like above, and then a song (with Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta) for 15-20 seconds followed by various action clips including a brief flash of Hrithik Roshan doing The Matrix-like flip kick. Watch it at: This Site

- Last week's new release was director Mahesh Manjrekar's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai (The Land in which Ganga Lives), which was produced by Jackie Shroff. The film stars Govinda, Sonali Bendre, Rinke Khanna and Shakti Kapoor. Even though it has two heroines, this is out and out Govinda's film. Back from his experimentation role in Shikari (Hunter - see last week's column), here he stars as a village simpleton who discovers that he was adopted and he is really the son of a rich industrialist. His real father comes to the village and takes him home. The rest is the usual "fish out of the water" type comedy as Ganga basically causes chaos in his new family's life. It's just a bunch of jokes until his family finally accepts him. Even though we've seen this material before, I liked most of the jokes and found them to be pretty funny. There were a few dramatic scenes but I felt that they were blended in nicely with the comic stuff so it was pretty evenly structured. Govinda does his usual idiot/retarded routine (same as Adam Sandler) but I think that he excels in this and was quite happy to see him return to comedy rather than the negative role in his last flick. Sonali Bendre had about 5-10 mins of dialogue, but she's in almost every single song and looked ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. Javadevil, you have to see this!! Rinke Khanna also did well for her bit part. The rest of the cast was fine. Now, I have to add a warning note to all music haters - stay away from this film. I LOVED the songs, but there are 8 songs in a 2 and a ½ hr film - roughly every 15 mins. There's even a song after the story ends. The placement of the songs wasn't very good and it did distract from the narrative. But I liked the songs so I didn't mind it - some of you may have a problem with this. Other than this, I found the film to be pretty good. Just like the recent "Meet the Parents", this stuff isn't new, but quite entertaining.

Here's a pic of the beautiful Ms. Bendre:

Here's a picture of Rinke Khanna and Govinda:

- This week's recommendation is the film that basically made Mahesh Manjrekar, Vaastav (Reality). The film stars Sanjay Dutt gives a tour-de-force performance as an average young man who ends up being a ruthless, coke-snorting Mafioso. It's yet another gangster film with the typical characters but it should be watched just for Dutt's acting and Manjrekar's direction. I should mention that the final scene has one of the most harrowing portrayals of drug addiction ever to be shown in Bollywood. Just that last scene alone gave Sanjay all those awards this year for Best Actor. The supporting cast is excellent as well with the most impressive being Shivaji Satham who plays Dutt's father in the movie. Namrata Shirodkar, as the prostitute who eventually marries Dutt, and Reema Lagoo as Dutt's mother are pretty good as well. The songs are nothing special, but there's only 3-4 of them and they don't really distract from the movie. The direction and the script are very tight. The film remains suspenseful all the way through, even though you already know the ending from the very start of the film. All in all, if you want to see a pretty good gangster film with GREAT acting, see Vaastav.

CHINA / HK

The following was reported by "The Accidental Spy":

- John Woo and his partner, Terence Cheung, are starting up a video-game software label named "Digital Rim". The new label will develop software for "Playstation 2" and the "Xbox". The company is also co-founded by "Digital Dream Studios" and "Rainbow Studios".

- TVB Network (the biggest TV broadcasting company in HK and founded by Sir Shiu Yi-fu, who is also the founder of the Shaw Brothers Studio in the 60 & 70's), has re-opened their movie department. Their first project is titled "Chaos of Comics (lit. title)", a story about a famous comic book artist who falls into his comic book. (Cool World anyone? - D25) The movie is stars Eason Chan ("Twelve Nights", "City of Glass"), Chilam Cheung ("Option Zero") and Ruby Lin (the now-shooting "Chinese force Strike"), with a special appearance by Nicolas Tse ("Time & Tide", "Gen-X Cops). The film will start filming next month and is scheduled to release next February.

- Eason Chan is one hell of a busy man in HK as he has also joined the cast of "Feel 100% 3(temp. title)", the second follow-up to 1996's successful comic book adaptation which starred Ekin Cheng, Eric Kot, Sammi Cheng and Gigi Leung. The new installment has a totally new cast including Mariam Yeung, Denial Chan ("A War named Desire") and Joey Yung. The romantic comedy is being directed and produced by Joe Ma ("Feel 100%" and "Feel 100% Once More") and the screenplay is again being penned by Matt Chow, who has won the HK critic award with his screenplay for "Bullets over Summer" earlier this year.

- Sammo Hung is now in Northern China to shoot "Springing Dragon, Jumping Tiger" (uhh...no kidding, this is the literal title), a martial arts film which also stars Jade Leung ("Black Cat") and Cheng Pei-Pei ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Here's some stills from the film.

Sammo Hung:

Sammo Hung with Jade Leung:

Sammo Hung with Cheng Pei-pei:

- Here's an interview article with Tony Leung in TIMEASIA. Tony talks about winning the Cannes award for Best Actor, Wong Kar-Wai's bizarre direction and what he dislikes about "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"(ouch!): Its Located Here

- Last weekend at the HKBO, a Hollywood horror film "Cherry Falls" debuted at no.1, and the funny thing is, the film has not been released in North America yet (I believe it's going straight to Video - D25). "Cherry Falls" is your typical teenage horror movie about a psychotic serial killer who starts a bloodthirsty murder rampage at Cherry Falls high school that only kills the local high school virgins. "Healing Hearts" was forced to slip down a place to no. 2. Dennis Quaid's "Frequency" debuted at no.3, "In The Mood for Love" was at no.4, "Chicken Run" was at no.5, while two other new films, "Being John Malkovitch" and "The Skulls" landed at no.7 and no.9, respectively. Tsui Hark's "Time & Tide" will open next week and is expected to score big since no HK action movie has released since May's "Double Tap".

JAPAN

The following was reported by "Pigmon":

- Toho has announced Godzilla 2002 which will start shooting next May.

- Say goodbye to Takeshi Kitano and hello to Takashi Miike. Since 1995, he has directed 30 projects including feature film and TV movies. He just keeps on making strange films.Most of his films feature brutal and extreme violence. Takashi has four films in 2000 titled "Audition", "The Hazard City", "Dead Or Alive" and "Men From Heaven". He already has 3 more movies to direct for next year (including his first musical!), but everyone is waiting for "Zatoichi", which is yet another version of the famous blind ex-samurai story.

- I was at an advance screening for Toho's "Yo Ni Mo Kimyo Na Monogatari (What A Strange Story)". The film was made up of 4 short stories and all of them were of different genres (horror, comedy, suspense and romance). I thought that the film was very good but I found that the best story was The best one is "Chez", which was about a famous athlete.

- This week at the Japanese box office, X-Men topped the charts, followed by Being John Malkovitch , Autumn in New York, The Kid, U-571, The Patriot, Nagasaki Pura Pura Bushi, Gojoe, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Whiteout, respectively.

KOREA

The following was reported by "Matrix1966":

- Lions Gate confirmed the release of the acclaimed Korean film, "Nowhere to Hide," directed by Lee Myung-Se. The film will be released in New York and Los Angeles in December. Lions Gate's co-presidents Mark Urman and Tom Ortenberg confirmed this on October 5th in a prepared statement. The film, which screened in the World Cinema section at Sundance and the New Directors/New Films festival, stars Korean comic actor Park Joong-Hoon and veteran Korean actor Ahn Sung-Ki.

"Lee Myung-Se has crafted an ingenious, stylistically inventive crime thriller which we feel has major crossover potential," commented Lions Gate's Ortenberg in the prepared statement. "We are looking forward to introducing one of the best works to date from this veteran Korean filmmaker. U.S. audiences will thrill to the discovery of this versatile cinematic artist, who is a household name is his native country," added Urman.

PHILIPPINES

The following was reported by "AznFob55":

- According to Manila Bulletin, Lorna Tolentino is this month's star of IBC 13's "Viva Proudly Presents". This month-long tribute will feature a festival of Lorna Tolentino's most prized movies. The festival has began since last week and will continue on for the next three weeks.

- Pops Fernandez is back with a new film that is said to be violent and racy (it was first given the kiss of death by the film board). The movie is "Gusto Ko Nang Lumigaya" (I Want To Be Happy). This is a follow-up to her movie, "Linlang" (Trick) which gave her a few best actress nominations nods.

- Philippine's Drama Queen, Judy Anne Santos, is set to tackle more mature roles (as Manila Bulletin published). She is now ready to "almost" bare it all and go a little racy and mature on future roles. I guess she's through with teeny-bopper romances.

- Finally, two stations GMA and ABS-CBN reigned supreme on the Star Awards having won almost every single award. Here are the winners:

Best Children's Show - Batang Batibot (GMA 7)

Best Children's Show Host - Five & Up Kids (ABC 5)

Best Educational Program - Beauty School Plus (RPN 9)

Best Educational Program Host - Ricky Reyes (Beauty School Plus / RPN 9)

Best News Program - Frontpage (GMA 7)

Best Female Newscaster - Mel Tiangco (Frontpage / GMA 7)

Best Male Newscaster - Mike Enriquez (Saksi / GMA 7)

Best Magazine Show - The Probe Team (GMA 7)

Best Magazine Show Host - Che Che Lazaro and Co. (The Probe Team / GMA 7)

Best Morning Show - Alas Singko y Medya (ABS-CBN 2)

Best Morning Show Host - Christine Bersola / Julius Babao, Cheryl Cosim / Mon Ilagan (Alas Singko y Medya / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Public Service Program - Hoy! Gising (ABS-CBN 2)

Best Public Service Program Host - Ted Failon (Hoy! Gising / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Public Affairs Program - Debate with Mare & Pare (GMA 7)

Best Public Affairs Program Host - Winnie Monsod & Oscar Orbos (Debate with Mare & Pare / GMA 7

Best Documentary Program - I-Witness (GMA 7)

Best Celebrity Talk Shows - Today with Kris Aquino (ABS-CBN 2); Partners Mel & Jay (GMA 7),

Best Celebrity Talk Show Hosts - Kris Aquino (Today With Kris Aquino / ABS-CBN 2); Mel Tiangco & Jay Sonza (Partners Mel & Jay / GMA 7),

Best Showbiz-Oriented Show - The Buzz (ABS-CBN 2)

Best Female Showbiz-Oriented Show Host - Kris Aquino (The Buzz / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Male Showbiz-Oriented Show Host - Boy Abunda (The Buzz / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Youth-Oriented Show - Tabing Ilog (ABS-CBN 2)

Best Game Show - Sing-Galing (ABC 5)

Best Game Show Host - Allan K and Ai Ai Delas Alas (Sing-Galing / ABC 5)

Best New Female Personality - Carla Guevara (Star Drama Mini-Series "Bum" / ABS-CBN 2)

Best New Male Personality - James Blanco (Click / GMA 7)

Best Comedy Show - Kool Ka Lang (GMA 7)

Best Comedy Actress - Rufa Mae Quinto (Ispup / ABC 5)

Best Comedy Actor - Michael V. (Bubble Gang / GMA 7)

Best Drama Series - Kirara (Ano Ang Kulay ng Pag-ibig? ) (GMA 7)

Best Drama Anthology - Maalaala Mo Kaya (ABS-CBN 2)

Best Drama Mini-Series - Pira-Pirasong Pangarap (GMA 7)

Best Drama Actress - Gladys Reyes (Saan Ka Man Naroroon / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Drama Actor - Dominic Ochoa (Labs Ko Si Babe / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Gag Show - Bubble Gang (GMA 7)

Best Musical Special - GMA Gold (GMA 7)

Best Variety Show - Eat Bulaga (GMA 7)

Best Musical Variety Shows - A.S.A.P. (ABS-CBN 2); S.O.P. (GMA 7)

Best Female TV Host - Pops Fernandez (A.S.A.P / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Male TV Host - Janno Gibbs (S.O.P. / GMA 7)

Best Single Performance By An Actress - Lorna Tolentino (Pira-Pirasong Pangarap "Tinig ng Kawalan" / GMA 7)

Best Single Performance By an Actor - Jericho Rosales (Maalaala Mo Kaya "Pasa" / ABS-CBN 2)

Best Station - GMA 7

Ading Fernando Lifetime Achievement Award - Tito, Vic & Joey

Vic Silayan Memorial Award - Alicia Alonzo

Male Star of the Night - San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada

Female Star of the Night - Pops Fernandez

Teen Star of the Night - Desiree del Valle

Whoa!! That was a LONG list! Anyway, I think it's time to end the column for this week. Make sure to send us any info you may have at My Asia-AICN Office . See you all next week.

- Darius25