April 22nd, 2007
Leftovers
Today I get rid of all the news I’ve been holding since Friday, but there are a couple of surprises along the way too.
- I don’t like Tokyo’s nationalist governor Shintaro Ishihara, and I don’t look forward to his new film “I Go to My Death For You” (he’s the producer and writer), about Kamikaze pilots during World War II. It looks like Kazuyuki Izutsu, the director of the acclaimed film “Pacchigi!!” and its upcoming sequel, doesn’t like it either. In his protest of the recent trend of nationalist Japanese film that seem to glorify war, he warned at a press conference that films like Ishihara’s might create “warlike people.” Of course, star Yosuke Kubozuka has some strong words for Izutsu too.
- I posted a link to Twitch’s report of Ryuhei Kitamura’s latest Lovedeath a while ago. Now a second trailer that looks even sillier (and more violent) is out. Too bad it only got a PG-12 rating (Battle Royale got R-15), which usually shouldn’t be an indicator of how good a film is, but it only seems like an appropriate indicator for this film.
Just in case you missed it like I did, trailer 2 is actually under trailer 1 on the website.
- While Sony’s PS 3 continues to underperform pretty much everywhere, its PS 2 actually ruled the console sales chart in North America last month. Too bad that PS2’s price is only 21.5% of PS3’s.
- Speaking of ratings, Herman Yau’s latest horror film Gong Tau got the category III in Hong Kong. Considering it has no big stars and a cult director at the helm, that pretty much seals the deal in terms of box office.
- There was a hearing in the Hong Kong legislative body about just how the newly-established film council and the $38.5 million film fund will work. Too bad many of those on the government side don’t really watch movies, and the fund is limited to only commercial films with a certain number of Hong Kong workers.
- An English review of the possible hit film (look here for context) Tokyo Tower is finally up thanks to the Daily Yomiuri. Looks like it might actually be good, despite an overload of this story in Japanese pop culture right now.
- Grady Hendrix explains why the controversy surrounding Oldboy and the Virginia Tech shooter is very misguided. It would be nice if the press that reports it have actually seen the film and realizes that Oldboy is a film that’s about the futility of revenge rather than a film that glorifies it.
- In Grady Hendrix-related news, Asian Cinema - While on the Road reports at the end of a recent entry that Grady and Kaiju Shakedown is on the way back. Yes!