Damn You, Kozo briefly returns from the dead. In celebration, Yotsuba says “Hi.”

“You’re still reading this blog? Poor saps.”

It’s a new month, but I doubt I’ll be able to spend much time on Damn You, Kozo. That’s because the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is occurring in just one week’s time, and before then I still have to write a review for PAINTED SKIN and maybe BUTTERFLY LOVERS. We’ll see how it goes. If I can I’ll squeeze in one or two entries between screenings.

Hong Kong movies will actually be pretty sparse for October. After the one-two punch of PAINTED SKIN and BUTTERFLY LOVERS, the only large theatrical releases will be Jacob Cheung’s new drama TICKET, which bows at the HKAFF before getting a 10-23 theatrical release, and Wong Jing’s THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME, which is probably self explanatory. Here’s a photo to give you a general idea:

Yeah, this looks like quality

In case you don’t know, the above photo is meant to spoof the poster for LA LINGERIE, and actually features two actresses (J.J. Jia and Maggie Li) who were also in that film. Here’s the comparison:

I’m already guessing that this movie is better.

The other people in THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME are TVB star Roger Kwok, Wong Jing “It” Girl Natalie Meng Yao, model Ankie Beilke, eternal B-list actress Winnie Leung, and model Tanya, who may be known better as Chang Chen’s girlfriend. The guy playing the vampire is former Anita Mui protege and mired-in-mediocrity B-list actor Samuel Pang. This is the part where I start talking about how some of these people would have greater careers if not for Hong Kong Entertainment’s dire straits. I’m sure at least one or two could have achieved better things. You can figure out who yourself.

Clearly this girl has great talents…uh, talent.

THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME opens September 16th, which means it’ll compete with the HKAFF for my valuable cinema time. I’m considering letting it slide to DVD, but if that happens it may fall into the same trap as THE SPARKLE IN THE DARK, FATE, and CHAOS, a.k.a. three Hong Kong films that got DVD berths that I have yet to watch. They just sit on my end table, right next to DVDs of A DIRTY CARNIVAL, MY SISTER MY LOVE, and GOD MAN DOG. Yeah, like I’ll ever get around to watching those DVDs.

Anyway, the main point of this post is simply to talk about Batman again. I said in an earlier post that Batman would get a LoveHKFilm Embargo^TM since he’s not Asian Film related. The exceptions would be if I bought any Batman-related toys or if the subject was Edison Chen-related. Sorry to disappoint, but there will be no Edison Chen dish this time. Even that subject has gotten somewhat old around here. We won’t talk about Gillian Chung, either.

“SHHH! They’ve almost forgotten about the photos!”

Nope, we’re breaking our LoveHKFilm Embargo^TM because I did happen to get a new Batman toy. In this case, it’s from Bandai’s Movie Realization line, and features a very, very cool Batman figure along with a replica of his signature new vehicle, the Bat-Pod. Here it is, sitting on my desk at work.

So far, this toy has not hurt my productivity

This figure is not a straight-on likeness of Christian Bale and his Bat-Pod, but has been reimagined by manga artist Masakazu Katsura to be slightly edgier and obviously a tad anime-influenced. It’s also smaller than the best Batman and Bat-Pod combo around, which was made by Hong Kong company Hot Toys. That’s right, some of the toys discussed in this blog are developed and made right here in Hong Kong, thereby providing rationale for why I can continue to  be so off topic.

Here’s a picture of the Hot Toys Batman and Bat-Pod, neither of which I own. Yet.

The above toy is 1/6 scale, meaning the figure is about 12 inches tall and the Bat-Pod is scaled to match. I don’t have the exact measurements, but that is one BIG toy. They have it on display here in Mongkok and it’s massive. Not as massive as the 1/6 scale Batmobile (a.k.a. the Tumbler from BATMAN BEGINS), but it’s still far too large for my dinky Hong Kong apartment. Plus, if I kept that at work I’m sure I would be fired.

Another glimpse of the Bandai version I bought:

Not as amazing as the Hot Toys Bat-Pod,
but still pretty damn great.

The thing that’s awesome about this toy is that it’s smaller and fits on my work desk, and still has an inordinate measure of detail and coolness. It’s also is the perfect size to interact with my Revoltech Yotsuba action figure:

In this photo, Yotsuba is Robin

Here’s a picture of them speeding on the highway:

“Hang on, Yotsuba! We have to go save the sister
of that other cowboy from Brokeback Mountain!”

After their highway trip, the two decided to catch insects together:

He lived to become the babysitter

And here’s the full complement of Yotsuba schwag from Kaiyodo, minus all the pesky variants that I don’t have money for:

Really, there’s also work-related stuff on my desk, too.

I feel a bit guilty talking about toys on this blog because really, this is supposed to be an Asian Cinema site and not some repository for all my personal crap. I have not yet devolved to talking about my daily lunch activities or *gasp* politics just yet, though who knows, maybe I’ll start if I get more and more disenchanted with the main LoveHKFilm.com site. As the site nears the end of its seventh(!) year online, I have to admit that it’s getting a bit worse for the wear. Writing reviews has become more difficult recently and traffic is down 20% (no!). However, thanks to the bloggers, there is a little more life left in the site. Also, we have yet to meet Ekin Cheng, which is the one thing that must happen before the site closes down.

 
“I can’t believe LoveHKFilm.com has been around
for seven years! When will my nightmare end?”

Sorry Ekin, I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.

If something interesting comes up in the next couple of weeks, I’ll post about it then on Damn You, Kozo. I still have one or two more post ideas kicking around, plus there may be a couple new blogs on the site too. If that happens, you’ll be the 37th person to know.

In the meantime, I’ll see you at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. I’ll be the sleeping person in Row J.

Batman and Yotsuba will see you to the door.

“Bye!”

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Toys, Movie News, Ekin Cheng, Random Crap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.