- There’s not much to report in terms of box office numbers, but everyone was surprised as I was that Evangelion 1.0 opened so huge. It was apparently so huge (280 million yen on just 84 screens!) that one cinema couldn’t even accommodate the crowd after moving the film to a theater 5 times larger.

- Slightly outdated, but reviews for Shinji Aoyama’s latest Sad Vacation are coming in. Variety gave it a bit of a pan, while Twitch seemed to like it. Honestly, I’ve never seen a Shinji Aoyama thing, fearing that it’s not really my thing.

- Variety also has a review of Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises, with Derek Elley calling the film’s enjoyment dependent on individual tolerance for cranked-up visuals and acting. Does that mean there’s not much beneath the visuals and acting?

- This has absolutely nothing to do with Asian films, but rather pure interest. Wes Anderson’s latest The Darjeeling Limited had its premiere in Venice, but sadly under the shadow of star/co-writer Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt. The reviews from the two big trade papers are out, with Variety saying that it’s closer to The Royal Tennenbaums than The Life Aquatic (that would be a good thing, although I liked both very much). However, Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennett calls it a third rate Hope and Crosby movie with no big laughs and nothing to say.

- Sorry to those who had tickets to the last two Jacky Cheung concert: the second-to-the-last show was canceled at the very last minutes because the legendary singer got ill and he claims that he couldn’t even sing one-third of the songs, failing his basic requirement as a singer. When his cold didn’t get any better, he canceled the final show last night as well. Still, I’ll bet he sings better than those Twin girls even when he’s sick…

Anyway, if you hold those tickets, go and redeem the tickets for the make-up shows at the end of January 2008.

- Imagethief goes over point-by-point on how the report of China Film Group chairman Han Sanping said about China needing more patriotic films is not something that should happen to the Chinese film industry. This quote sums it all up: “…government involvement in any aspect of popular culture, unless it is simply cutting a check, is generally bad form. This is because politicians and bureaucrats are, by and large, crappy arbiters of taste.”

- MCL, whose Kornhill cinema is honestly not that great, is working with a property firm named Shaw (not THAT Shaw, right) to open the largest multiplex in Hong Kong. I hope they have sound separation better there then MCL Kornhill.

- A trailer for the Hollywood remake for the Japanese horror flick One Missed Call is up. I never saw the original, but anyone still complaining about PG-13 horror movies should know that it didn’t even get any restrictive rating in Japan (maybe a PG-12?)

- The live-action Grave of the Fireflies has started filming, but there’s still no information on who’s behind the film.

- Not sure who’s interested, but the Canadian period film Silk, starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley (her in another period film??) will be closing the Tokyo International Film Festival this year.

- There’s not much to report in terms of box office numbers, but everyone was surprised as I was that Evangelion 1.0 opened so huge. It was apparently so huge (280 million yen on just 84 screens!) that one cinema couldn’t even accommodate the crowd after moving the film to a theater 5 times larger.

- Slightly outdated, but reviews for Shinji Aoyama’s latest Sad Vacation are coming in. Variety gave it a bit of a pan, while Twitch seemed to like it. Honestly, I’ve never seen a Shinji Aoyama thing, fearing that it’s not really my thing.

- Variety also has a review of Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises, with Derek Elley calling the film’s enjoyment dependent on individual tolerance for cranked-up visuals and acting. Does that mean there’s not much beneath the visuals and acting?

- This has absolutely nothing to do with Asian films, but rather pure interest. Wes Anderson’s latest The Darjeeling Limited had its premiere in Venice, but sadly under the shadow of star/co-writer Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt. The reviews from the two big trade papers are out, with Variety saying that it’s closer to The Royal Tennenbaums than The Life Aquatic (that would be a good thing, although I liked both very much). However, Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennett calls it a third rate Hope and Crosby movie with no big laughs and nothing to say.

- Sorry to those who had tickets to the last two Jacky Cheung concert: the second-to-the-last show was canceled at the very last minutes because the legendary singer got ill and he claims that he couldn’t even sing one-third of the songs, failing his basic requirement as a singer. When his cold didn’t get any better, he canceled the final show last night as well. Still, I’ll bet he sings better than those Twin girls even when he’s sick…

Anyway, if you hold those tickets, go and redeem the tickets for the make-up shows at the end of January 2008.

- Imagethief goes over point-by-point on how the report of China Film Group chairman Han Sanping said about China needing more patriotic films is not something that should happen to the Chinese film industry. This quote sums it all up: “…government involvement in any aspect of popular culture, unless it is simply cutting a check, is generally bad form. This is because politicians and bureaucrats are, by and large, crappy arbiters of taste.”

- MCL, whose Kornhill cinema is honestly not that great, is working with a property firm named Shaw (not THAT Shaw, right) to open the largest multiplex in Hong Kong. I hope they have sound separation better there then MCL Kornhill.

- A trailer for the Hollywood remake for the Japanese horror flick One Missed Call is up. I never saw the original, but anyone still complaining about PG-13 horror movies should know that it didn’t even get any restrictive rating in Japan (maybe a PG-12?)

- The live-action Grave of the Fireflies has started filming, but there’s still no information on who’s behind the film.

- Not sure who’s interested, but the Canadian period film Silk, starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley (her in another period film??) will be closing the Tokyo International Film Festival this year.

- Hong Kong Sunday box office was pretty well spread out across the top 10, partly because it’s the last weekend before schools start in the city. Standing out above and beyond Evan Almighty, which is performing and holding up surprisingly well. From just 29 screens, the underperformer (at least in North America) made another HK$810,0000. After 11 days, the film has already made HK$8.62 million. Not a blockbuster, but a very healthy take for a sequel with an unknown leading man.

As for those 7 opening films, only 3 made it to the top 10. Disturbia got bumped down to third place with HK$290,000 from 24 screens to make it the best performer out of the 7. After 4 days, the teen thriller has made HK$1.19 million, perhaps only fueled by the success of Transformers. The Korean puppy film Hearty Paws saw an increase over the weekend, making HK$270,000 from 20 screen for a 4-day total of HK$800,000. Hearty Paws bumped down Alfred Cheung’s Contract Lover (my pan here), who almost made the HK$1 million mark on Sunday by making only HK$250,000 from 26 screens. After 4 days, the lazy Mainland Chinese comedy made HK$960,000.

One film noticeably missing from the top 10 is the Japanese animated film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The late-afternoon screening I attended yesterday of the Japanese version was COMPLETELY full, but the performance in the Cantonese-dub theaters was probably too weak to push it up to the top 10.

HK$7.8=US$1

So now the Hong Kong summer box office is officially over, the top 3 foreign films this summer are: Harry Potter (HK$50.4 million), Transformers (HK$39.1 million), and Ratatouille (HK$24.61 million and counting). Sadder is the top 3 Chinese films this summer - Secret (HK$13.89 million and counting), Invisible Target (HK$13.21 million), and the award-winning Simply Actors (HK$9.35 million). The general consensus amongst the Hong Kong market is that Hong Kong films need to adapt to the greater Chinese market. Didn’t Hong Kong films work once without having to do that?

- In Korea, the end of summer means a quiet box office. May 18 and D-War is finally on their way out, replaced by Disturbia. The best news is Korean films have rebounded to take 48.5% of total box office in Korea after falling to 42% before the big D-War/May 18 invasion.

- In Japanese attendance rankings, the animated film Evangelion 1.0 took the top spot. However, it seems like you can’t access any video content from outside Japan, so I can even see if it’s any good (oh, don’t worry, you can see it here). The tearjerking biopic Life Tengoku de Kimi Ni Aetara bumped off Harry Potter to take second place for its second weekend. Poor Rush Hour 3 got pushed way down to 7th place.

Speaking of Rush Hour 3, its opening was only 80% of the second film, and the final weekend gross was even bumped up by just over 1 million yen from what was first reported. It was close, but did they want first place that badly?

- Hong Kong Sunday box office was pretty well spread out across the top 10, partly because it’s the last weekend before schools start in the city. Standing out above and beyond Evan Almighty, which is performing and holding up surprisingly well. From just 29 screens, the underperformer (at least in North America) made another HK$810,0000. After 11 days, the film has already made HK$8.62 million. Not a blockbuster, but a very healthy take for a sequel with an unknown leading man.

As for those 7 opening films, only 3 made it to the top 10. Disturbia got bumped down to third place with HK$290,000 from 24 screens to make it the best performer out of the 7. After 4 days, the teen thriller has made HK$1.19 million, perhaps only fueled by the success of Transformers. The Korean puppy film Hearty Paws saw an increase over the weekend, making HK$270,000 from 20 screen for a 4-day total of HK$800,000. Hearty Paws bumped down Alfred Cheung’s Contract Lover (my pan here), who almost made the HK$1 million mark on Sunday by making only HK$250,000 from 26 screens. After 4 days, the lazy Mainland Chinese comedy made HK$960,000.

One film noticeably missing from the top 10 is the Japanese animated film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The late-afternoon screening I attended yesterday of the Japanese version was COMPLETELY full, but the performance in the Cantonese-dub theaters was probably too weak to push it up to the top 10.

HK$7.8=US$1

So now the Hong Kong summer box office is officially over, the top 3 foreign films this summer are: Harry Potter (HK$50.4 million), Transformers (HK$39.1 million), and Ratatouille (HK$24.61 million and counting). Sadder is the top 3 Chinese films this summer - Secret (HK$13.89 million and counting), Invisible Target (HK$13.21 million), and the award-winning Simply Actors (HK$9.35 million). The general consensus amongst the Hong Kong market is that Hong Kong films need to adapt to the greater Chinese market. Didn’t Hong Kong films work once without having to do that?

- In Korea, the end of summer means a quiet box office. May 18 and D-War is finally on their way out, replaced by Disturbia. The best news is Korean films have rebounded to take 48.5% of total box office in Korea after falling to 42% before the big D-War/May 18 invasion.

- In Japanese attendance rankings, the animated film Evangelion 1.0 took the top spot. However, it seems like you can’t access any video content from outside Japan, so I can even see if it’s any good (oh, don’t worry, you can see it here). The tearjerking biopic Life Tengoku de Kimi Ni Aetara bumped off Harry Potter to take second place for its second weekend. Poor Rush Hour 3 got pushed way down to 7th place.

Speaking of Rush Hour 3, its opening was only 80% of the second film, and the final weekend gross was even bumped up by just over 1 million yen from what was first reported. It was close, but did they want first place that badly?

I apologize for the lack of news all around, but at least it makes the daily entries easier to read.

- Way to make a multimedia project - Japanese pop rapper Kreva’s latest single “Because” not only comes with a 9-minute short film (seen here, comprised of just two people talking a lot without subtitles), but also a mobile novel written by the same person who wrote the short film. That mobile novel is so popular that it received 10,000 hits in the first two days. Can anyone that understand Japanese watch the MTV and tell me if it’s THAT good?

- Twitch originally had more information about Koji Yakusho’s latest, but the site went down just as I’m writing this entry, so you can read it for yourself when the site gets back up.

- The same goes for their review of Alexi Tan’s disappointing Blood Brothers. But the review is written by contributor Stefan anyway. I would actually really like to see Twitch head honcho Todd’s reaction, especially after he looked so forward to it.

- Speaking of reviews, Mark Schilling of the Japan Times has a review of the drama adaptation film Hero, starring Kimura Takuya. Apparently this one is expected to do as well as the Bayside Shakedown series, but it has to be good first, don’t it?

- For your information, I wrote a short review of Alfred Cheung Kin-Ting’s Contract Lover, starring Richie Ren and Fan Bing-Bing, on the spin-off blog.

- The censorship of free information on the internet continues to rear its ugly head as the Thai government finally decided to lift its ban of Youtube only after the site has the technology to immediately remove any video that offend the king.

- In addition to the lead actor being Kenichi Matsuyama, there is finally more details about the Death Note spin-off film L, including additional casting and even bits of the plot. Please, please, please not let there be a cute kid involved.

- Apparently the opening weekend for the sexually explicit flick Shortbus was quite successful, making 2.69 million yen over two days, attracting audiences of all kinds. However, no admissions figures are available

I apologize for the lack of news all around, but at least it makes the daily entries easier to read.

- Way to make a multimedia project - Japanese pop rapper Kreva’s latest single “Because” not only comes with a 9-minute short film (seen here, comprised of just two people talking a lot without subtitles), but also a mobile novel written by the same person who wrote the short film. That mobile novel is so popular that it received 10,000 hits in the first two days. Can anyone that understand Japanese watch the MTV and tell me if it’s THAT good?

- Twitch originally had more information about Koji Yakusho’s latest, but the site went down just as I’m writing this entry, so you can read it for yourself when the site gets back up.

- The same goes for their review of Alexi Tan’s disappointing Blood Brothers. But the review is written by contributor Stefan anyway. I would actually really like to see Twitch head honcho Todd’s reaction, especially after he looked so forward to it.

- Speaking of reviews, Mark Schilling of the Japan Times has a review of the drama adaptation film Hero, starring Kimura Takuya. Apparently this one is expected to do as well as the Bayside Shakedown series, but it has to be good first, don’t it?

- For your information, I wrote a short review of Alfred Cheung Kin-Ting’s Contract Lover, starring Richie Ren and Fan Bing-Bing, on the spin-off blog.

- The censorship of free information on the internet continues to rear its ugly head as the Thai government finally decided to lift its ban of Youtube only after the site has the technology to immediately remove any video that offend the king.

- In addition to the lead actor being Kenichi Matsuyama, there is finally more details about the Death Note spin-off film L, including additional casting and even bits of the plot. Please, please, please not let there be a cute kid involved.

- Apparently the opening weekend for the sexually explicit flick Shortbus was quite successful, making 2.69 million yen over two days, attracting audiences of all kinds. However, no admissions figures are available

Call me lazy, call me tired, or just call it plain Thursday syndrome, but there’s again not all that much news out there.

- Everyone is trying to break into that China market, and the only way is co-produce them with China, and the only way to do that is to get Chinese government approval. The first successful Australian production to pull this off will be Roger Spottiswoode’s The Children of Huang Shi, co-starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. In traditional ethnographic gaze, the film will be about a British journalist who team up with an Austrlian nurse to rescue Chinese children oppressed by the Japanese during World War II.

- The Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (smaller than the Hong Kong International Film Festival and a different organizer) will feature some pretty huge films this year, including Ang Lee’s Lust Caution (which is opening the festival), Lee Chang-Dong’s Secret Sunshine, Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises, and Jia Zhangke’s Useless.

- Speaking of Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, Lee said that while his film did get the most restrictive rating the American censors could give (NC-17 - no one under 17 may be admitted), he hopes to use it to change perceptions about the rating itself. While I would like to see Lee pull that off, I doubt it would be an Asian espionage triller that will do it. An NC-17 itself means that it won’t reach beyond the urban areas because newspapers won’t even advertise them, and theaterowners are too conservative to show them.

On the other hand, category-III films (no one under 18 may be admitted) are able to get wide advertising and theater bookings here in Hong Kong. And yet, society is somewhat more conservative. What’s the deal here?

- This all sounds a little complicated (it’s easy to get broadband TV here in Hong Kong, but how do you do it in the states, where all kinds of infrastructure problems can prevent it), but there is now a new way to get Asian programming into your American homes, thanks to (for once) American Chinese video content distributor Tai Seng.

- Jason Gray continues to try to spread word-of-mouth for the Pia festival winning film This World of Ours. I just requested for a copy of the film with the director Ryo Nakajima, so I’ll be checking it out and hopefully help him spread word. Why? Because I believe in good karma, especially for an aspiring director like myself.

- About freaking time. NHK chairman actually asks at a committee meeting to reduce license fee by 10%. That way, corrupted producers will have less money to pocket.

- Remember that “Sing this song and you’ll die” movie with the creative advertising? Densen Uta opened this past weekend in Japan on 106 screens and managed to make only 31.21 million yen, outside of the top 10. That opening is only 74% of the opening for the last teen girl-infected horror film Ghost Train.

Call me lazy, call me tired, or just call it plain Thursday syndrome, but there’s again not all that much news out there.

- Everyone is trying to break into that China market, and the only way is co-produce them with China, and the only way to do that is to get Chinese government approval. The first successful Australian production to pull this off will be Roger Spottiswoode’s The Children of Huang Shi, co-starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. In traditional ethnographic gaze, the film will be about a British journalist who team up with an Austrlian nurse to rescue Chinese children oppressed by the Japanese during World War II.

- The Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (smaller than the Hong Kong International Film Festival and a different organizer) will feature some pretty huge films this year, including Ang Lee’s Lust Caution (which is opening the festival), Lee Chang-Dong’s Secret Sunshine, Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises, and Jia Zhangke’s Useless.

- Speaking of Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, Lee said that while his film did get the most restrictive rating the American censors could give (NC-17 - no one under 17 may be admitted), he hopes to use it to change perceptions about the rating itself. While I would like to see Lee pull that off, I doubt it would be an Asian espionage triller that will do it. An NC-17 itself means that it won’t reach beyond the urban areas because newspapers won’t even advertise them, and theaterowners are too conservative to show them.

On the other hand, category-III films (no one under 18 may be admitted) are able to get wide advertising and theater bookings here in Hong Kong. And yet, society is somewhat more conservative. What’s the deal here?

- This all sounds a little complicated (it’s easy to get broadband TV here in Hong Kong, but how do you do it in the states, where all kinds of infrastructure problems can prevent it), but there is now a new way to get Asian programming into your American homes, thanks to (for once) American Chinese video content distributor Tai Seng.

- Jason Gray continues to try to spread word-of-mouth for the Pia festival winning film This World of Ours. I just requested for a copy of the film with the director Ryo Nakajima, so I’ll be checking it out and hopefully help him spread word. Why? Because I believe in good karma, especially for an aspiring director like myself.

- About freaking time. NHK chairman actually asks at a committee meeting to reduce license fee by 10%. That way, corrupted producers will have less money to pocket.

- Remember that “Sing this song and you’ll die” movie with the creative advertising? Densen Uta opened this past weekend in Japan on 106 screens and managed to make only 31.21 million yen, outside of the top 10. That opening is only 74% of the opening for the last teen girl-infected horror film Ghost Train.

- The Japanese box office numbers are out, as Rush Hour overtakes Harry Potter to become number 1. This is because the Rush Hour movies attract a larger adult audience, who pay a higher ticket price. On the other hand, Harry Potter attracts more kids, who pay a lower ticket price. Hence, more people may have gone to watch Harry Potter, but Rush Hour 3 made more money. Actually, the top 4 movies are fairly close to each other, with Rush Hour 3 making 211 million yen, Harry Potter making 210 million yen, Life Tengoku de Kimi Ni Aetara with 190 million yen, and Ocean’s 13 with 187 million yen.

Michael Moore’s Sicko opened way lower than his last film Fahrenheit 911 with 25.3 million yen. In fact, looks to be only about 10% of its 257 million yen opening.

Oh, Taxi 4 opened at 7th place, at only 65% of Taxi 3’s opening. I almost forgot it opened, just like most of the world forgot this franchise still exists.

- In Chinese box office, Blood Brother loses only 13% of their opening audience, and Alfred Cheung’s Contract Lover (which I’ll be watching tomorrow) lost an astounding 9%. Could it actually be any good?

Sadly, Donnie Yen/Wilson Yip’s Flash Point ended up losing 60%

- Look what movie popped back up on the mid-week top 10 in Hong Kong? Blood Brothers! From 20 screens, the flopper made only HK$80,000, and has yet to cross the HK$1 million mark at a 6-day total of HK$760,000.

Other than that, only two films on the top 10 took in more than HK$10,000 per screen - Evan Almighty with HK$710,000 from 29 screens, and the Thai horror film Alone with HK$240,000 from 16 screens. This Thursday should see a pretty busy top 10 list, as 7 films are opening.

- The Japanese box office numbers are out, as Rush Hour overtakes Harry Potter to become number 1. This is because the Rush Hour movies attract a larger adult audience, who pay a higher ticket price. On the other hand, Harry Potter attracts more kids, who pay a lower ticket price. Hence, more people may have gone to watch Harry Potter, but Rush Hour 3 made more money. Actually, the top 4 movies are fairly close to each other, with Rush Hour 3 making 211 million yen, Harry Potter making 210 million yen, Life Tengoku de Kimi Ni Aetara with 190 million yen, and Ocean’s 13 with 187 million yen.

Michael Moore’s Sicko opened way lower than his last film Fahrenheit 911 with 25.3 million yen. In fact, looks to be only about 10% of its 257 million yen opening.

Oh, Taxi 4 opened at 7th place, at only 65% of Taxi 3’s opening. I almost forgot it opened, just like most of the world forgot this franchise still exists.

- In Chinese box office, Blood Brother loses only 13% of their opening audience, and Alfred Cheung’s Contract Lover (which I’ll be watching tomorrow) lost an astounding 9%. Could it actually be any good?

Sadly, Donnie Yen/Wilson Yip’s Flash Point ended up losing 60%

- Look what movie popped back up on the mid-week top 10 in Hong Kong? Blood Brothers! From 20 screens, the flopper made only HK$80,000, and has yet to cross the HK$1 million mark at a 6-day total of HK$760,000.

Other than that, only two films on the top 10 took in more than HK$10,000 per screen - Evan Almighty with HK$710,000 from 29 screens, and the Thai horror film Alone with HK$240,000 from 16 screens. This Thursday should see a pretty busy top 10 list, as 7 films are opening.