Note: This blog expresses only the opinions of the blog owner, and does not represent the opinion of any organization or blog that is associated with The Golden Rock.
- I was pretty young when I watched that animated series City Hunter on TV. Of course, with the time slot of after-midnight on Hong Kong’s TVB, it was like eating the fruit that is close to the location of the forbidden fruit (which would probably be say…porn), and it should tell you how far it has slip into the back of my mind, considering how young I was when I lived in Hong Kong. Now someone (the news didn’t specify) is bringing it back as a live-action drama with a Korean actor in the leading role.
- Taiwan is pissed because someone who writes for the Venice Film festival identified Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution and Alexi Tan’s Blood Brothers as being from “Taiwan, China” while the Taiwanese art film Help Me Eros used just “Taiwan.” However, the two films are actually Taiwan/China co-productions, so could someone have just gotten lazy with their slashes?
- Know how to tell that Jackie Chan is getting old? He’s hurt himself again on the set of his latest movie, but this time is because he triggered an earlier injury from another movie. Those back pains are no joke at his age.
Sorry for the break yesterday (I actually did write something), but I’m back today with a news post later. But first, your Asian box office report.
- In Hong Kong, only 4 of the five openers made it to the top 10 on the Sunday box office top 10. Evan Almighty is on top, having made HK$1.09 million from 29 screens for an impressive 4-day total of HK$3.97 million. Next on the openers list is the sci-fi flop The Invasion. From 28 screens, the Nicole Kidman-starring remake made an OK HK$470,000 from 28 screens for 3rd place and a 4-day total of HK$1.85 million. Third is the Thai horror film Alone with HK$260,000 from 16 screens for a HK$1.18 million 4-day gross. 4th is the Japanese animated film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, making HK$190,000 on 16 screens and a 4-day total of HK$600,000. It’s hard to call this a disappointment, because it actually only did solid independent film numbers in Japan as well.
So what film does that left us? The John Woo-produced Blood Brothers! Because it’s not even on the top 10, I can’t even tell how much it made on Sunday (definitely less HK$150,000 on 20 screens that aren’t even showing it all day), but Variety reports that it’s only made HK$600,000 so far. At least it’s doing pretty well in China, where they must love all that moralizing about brotherhood. Nevertheless, they already took down that huge billboard for the film at the Kowloon side of the Harbor Tunnel. Such a realistic world this is.
In holdovers, Rush Hour 3 made only HK$430,000 from 34 screens for a 11-day total of just HK$6.69 million (very bad for a Jackie Chan movie); Ratatouille is still going very very strong with HK$580,000 from 30 screens for a 25-day total of HK$23.13 million; and Jay Chou’s Secret (the secret? It kind of sucks) is still around with HK$240,000 from 22 screens on Sunday for a 25-day total of HK$12.89 million, and may very well surpasses Invisible Target’s gross. It’s considered an Hong Kong film?
- In Korea, the period film May 18 retook the top spot, bumping dragon movie D-War down the second place. The two Korean-movie-industry saviors have now attracted 6.61 million and 8 million admissions, respectively. What’s more impressive this week is actually the fact that 8 of the ten films are Korean, showing a resurgence of popularity (or just more attractive movies coming out?) for local films.
- Japanese box office numbers aren’t out yet, but the audience ranking shows that Harry Pot-tah once again takes the top spot, with Rush Hour 3 and the Japanese tear-inducing drama Life Tengoku De Kimi Ni Aetara taking the second and third spot, respectively.
Specifically, the opening for “Life” is actually pretty good, making 194 million yen over its opening weekend. That’s actually 145% of the opening for star Takao Ozawa’s previous film Bizan (which made 1.2 billion yen). However, many of these films require word of mouth to get Bizan’s numbers.
As I wrote in The Golden Gate Meets the Lion Rock, I was at the Jacky Cheung concert yesterday. So of course today I would pick a Jacky Cheung song, except I’m actually going to pick a song he DIDN’T sing. For an pop superstar like Cheung, it’s impossible for him to sing every single hits (which was probably the audience didn’t have so much patience), so there is quite a big batch to pick from. Today, it’s a cover song, which Cheung has quite a few in his long list of hits. Easily found on any compilation, it’s “Seeing You Again.”
Guess what? The original song’s name is actually the same, but I couldn’t the video, so there.
- I was pretty young when I watched that animated series City Hunter on TV. Of course, with the time slot of after-midnight on Hong Kong’s TVB, it was like eating the fruit that is close to the location of the forbidden fruit (which would probably be say…porn), and it should tell you how far it has slip into the back of my mind, considering how young I was when I lived in Hong Kong. Now someone (the news didn’t specify) is bringing it back as a live-action drama with a Korean actor in the leading role.
- Taiwan is pissed because someone who writes for the Venice Film festival identified Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution and Alexi Tan’s Blood Brothers as being from “Taiwan, China” while the Taiwanese art film Help Me Eros used just “Taiwan.” However, the two films are actually Taiwan/China co-productions, so could someone have just gotten lazy with their slashes?
- Know how to tell that Jackie Chan is getting old? He’s hurt himself again on the set of his latest movie, but this time is because he triggered an earlier injury from another movie. Those back pains are no joke at his age.
Sorry for the break yesterday (I actually did write something), but I’m back today with a news post later. But first, your Asian box office report.
- In Hong Kong, only 4 of the five openers made it to the top 10 on the Sunday box office top 10. Evan Almighty is on top, having made HK$1.09 million from 29 screens for an impressive 4-day total of HK$3.97 million. Next on the openers list is the sci-fi flop The Invasion. From 28 screens, the Nicole Kidman-starring remake made an OK HK$470,000 from 28 screens for 3rd place and a 4-day total of HK$1.85 million. Third is the Thai horror film Alone with HK$260,000 from 16 screens for a HK$1.18 million 4-day gross. 4th is the Japanese animated film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, making HK$190,000 on 16 screens and a 4-day total of HK$600,000. It’s hard to call this a disappointment, because it actually only did solid independent film numbers in Japan as well.
So what film does that left us? The John Woo-produced Blood Brothers! Because it’s not even on the top 10, I can’t even tell how much it made on Sunday (definitely less HK$150,000 on 20 screens that aren’t even showing it all day), but Variety reports that it’s only made HK$600,000 so far. At least it’s doing pretty well in China, where they must love all that moralizing about brotherhood. Nevertheless, they already took down that huge billboard for the film at the Kowloon side of the Harbor Tunnel. Such a realistic world this is.
In holdovers, Rush Hour 3 made only HK$430,000 from 34 screens for a 11-day total of just HK$6.69 million (very bad for a Jackie Chan movie); Ratatouille is still going very very strong with HK$580,000 from 30 screens for a 25-day total of HK$23.13 million; and Jay Chou’s Secret (the secret? It kind of sucks) is still around with HK$240,000 from 22 screens on Sunday for a 25-day total of HK$12.89 million, and may very well surpasses Invisible Target’s gross. It’s considered an Hong Kong film?
- In Korea, the period film May 18 retook the top spot, bumping dragon movie D-War down the second place. The two Korean-movie-industry saviors have now attracted 6.61 million and 8 million admissions, respectively. What’s more impressive this week is actually the fact that 8 of the ten films are Korean, showing a resurgence of popularity (or just more attractive movies coming out?) for local films.
- Japanese box office numbers aren’t out yet, but the audience ranking shows that Harry Pot-tah once again takes the top spot, with Rush Hour 3 and the Japanese tear-inducing drama Life Tengoku De Kimi Ni Aetara taking the second and third spot, respectively.
Specifically, the opening for “Life” is actually pretty good, making 194 million yen over its opening weekend. That’s actually 145% of the opening for star Takao Ozawa’s previous film Bizan (which made 1.2 billion yen). However, many of these films require word of mouth to get Bizan’s numbers.
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