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!

The news today come from random corners of the world, so I’m just going to dive right in without much organization.

- Yesterday I mentioned Nikkatsu’s line-up, which includes the Death Note spin-off film about the L character. We find out today that horror director Hideo Nakata, who made the Japanese versions of the “Ring” and “Dark Water,” will take on directing duties. Well, at least he’s better than the director of Gamera films (that would be the guy who did the Death Note movies).

- On the less commercial side of things, Twitch introduces a film from a country we rarely associate with any film not about war - Vietnam.

- Remember the highly-anticipated Jackie Chan-Jet Li project that turned out to be a kids’ movie? Variety Asia offers us more details, including the director (guy who did Lion and Stuart Little), and the plot, about an American teenager transported into ancient China, where he would join a crew of warriors (with it reportedly based on Journey to the West, it would probably be the monk and his disciples, which include the Monkey King) to free an imprison king. Holy ethnographic gaze, Batman!

- Speaking of Jackie Chan, Rob-B-Hood opened this past weekend in Japan to satisfactory results. According to Eiga Consultant, Rob-B-Hood (called “Project BB” in Japan, which is a direct translation of its Chinese title) grossed 25.6 million yen on 60 screens for an OK 426600 yen per-screen average. The opening is 162% of “The Myth,” but only 58% of “New Police Story,” which grossed 200 mill yen.

- Korea Pop Wars offer some random notes about Korean films and beyond (include Korean films playing at beyond).

- While I said that Grindhouse flopped because it lacked the audience, not shows per day, New York Post critic comes out and says that wasn’t the case in New York, where the per-screen average was actually over $30,000! We’ve just found one more thing to blame rural America….

- Last week I posted a link to the poster of director Benny Chan’s upcoming flick “Invisible Targets,” and now Twitch has delivered again with a report from Chinese TV that contains a bit of footage. That roof jump looks mighty impressive, I hope the rest of the movie can live up to that.

- In Shaolin Soccer, there was a goalie character that was a dead ringer for Bruce Lee. Of course we know that it was intentional that the actor was probably casted in that role because of his looks (Stephen Chow held a huge audition before filming, so I wouldn’t be surprised that’s where he found the actor). That man was Chen Guokun. Who would expect that he was actually casted to play Bruce Lee himself in a biographical TV series based on Lee’s life? Well, believe it, because its shoot starts next week.

- The Tokyo governor’s election has been over and done with for a while (with everyone’s favorite xenophobic nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara getting his third term in office, just in time for his movie to open!), and the video has been out there for a while. Anyway, as part of the campaign, each candidate has the right to do a 5-minute video explaining their position on issues and why people should vote for them. Out of nowhere comes Koichi Toyama, an ultra left-wing musician and his kooky campaign video. The reason I waited this long because I finally found an English subtitled version. Someone even made a South Park version of the campaign video, because it’s so crazy, baby.

Of course, he’s not the only guy that’s done a kooky campaign video. Rocker Yuuya Uchida also ran for governor in Tokyo in 1991, and he did a similarly entertaining video as well (you don’t even need English subtitles for this, it’s in English already).

Obviously, Uchida lost the election, but what happened to Koichi Toyama? He was in 7th place with 15,000 votes!

What does this have to do with The Golden Rock, you ask? It’s Asian entertainment, isn’t it?

Today only comes with a few pieces of news, then part 1 of a two-part pictorial feature:

- Hong Kong does triad election, and Japan has a documentary on a real election. In light of the national election going on Sunday in Japan, the Japanese trailer blog has the trailer for a new documentary on just how a Japanese political campaign is. The movie is Campaign, and the trailer is English subtitled too.

- Two pieces of news from EastSouthWestNorth -

First, more details from the Southern Metropolis Daily about the ban of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Second, Asia’s least-favorite demented fan family returns to Hong Kong under the guise of taking the father’s body back home, only to go as far as showing up at Andy Lau’s neighborhood and knocking on doors.

That’s it for news today. The rest of the entry goes to this feature:

One of the things I love about going to the movies in Japan is the great promo material they have in the lobby. This is the best way to get moviegoers to be aware of films coming up - since moviegoers show up early to the theaters anyway, they put flyers for new movies at the lobby that include an introduction of the film so people can read them before the movie starts. For memorabilia freaks like me, this means I get free movie posters. So this feature would be some of the posters that I got from Japan.

Part 1: 2004-2005 - study abroad period.

Batman Begins

I still don’t know to this day why I only have one of these.

This poster for Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers is actually classier than the film itself. The big Chinese letter in the background is the third letter to Zhang Yimou’s name in Chinese characters.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle

The teaser poster for Spielberg’s War of the Worlds

Initial D teaser poster.

The Suspect Muroi Shinji, the second Bayside Shakedown theatrical spin-off film. Black apparently means guilty in Japanese culture.

This is my favorite poster, which I only have one of. I like the other side (bottom) better.

Naturally, I have a ton of this one.

This is the second promo poster for Kung-Fu Hustle

This is the teaser poster.

My only regret from that year is that I only have one or two of most posters when I could’ve grabbed 5 (just in case), despite the request on the rack for people to get only one. Lucky for me that request is never enforced. For my most recent trip, I went with that lesson in mind. But that’s for part 2, coming when I run out of news again.

I hate to rely on sources for news, but that’s what happens when you have limited resources. This means when mov3.com doesn’t update their Sunday numbers on Monday HK time, I’m stuck Monday afternoon with no numbers to report.

- But good thing Box Office Mojo came through with their Japan numbers, which isn’t particularly hard, since they only have the top 6. Rest assured, you’re not missing much. The rankings stayed roughly the same, as all the films enjoyed only very small drops. Happy Feet actually gained more audience to beat The Holiday in the attendance rankings, but, as it is the case with kids films, it brought in less money than The Holiday because kids tickets are quite a bit cheaper than adult tickets. Such is life.

- Meanwhile, The Host enjoyed a healthy 4th week at the American box office, as Magnolia expanded the film again by another 22 screens for a small 4.8% increase in grosses. Of course, that means per-screen average has gone down to a not-very-good $2,437 (down $400 from last week), but at least it’s hanging in there.

- During Filmart last week (with the deal finalized a week later, as in yesterday), Sponge, a small Korean distributor that specializes in importing small foreign films, acquired the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse in its biggest deal ever. No word, however, on whether Sponge will split the two films up (as it was announced to be done for the international market) or release both films together.

- At the risk further damaging my credibility, I’ll admit that I’ve never seen a Kim Ki-duk film. I’ve read about quite a few, and I’ve been turned off enough by fish hooks and plastic surgeries to stay away from them. Nevertheless, I have followed his career, including his public denouncement of Korean media and Korean cinema. I guess he must’ve taken it back, because he has yet another new film coming that he shot in just under two weeks. Wow.

- China isn’t the only place in Asia with strict censorship. India has banned Fashion channel FTV for two months for indecency. This isn’t the first time, as AXN, Asian’s answer to Spike TV, was also banned for two months. Man, wait ’til they watch American TV, there’s plenty to ban there.

- When you have a soon-to-be-defunct TV tower and a huge Hollywood blockbuster to promote, what do you do? Nagoya has found the answer.

- I’m looking more and more to Yau Nai-Hoi’s Eye in the Sky. Why? Because of that review from LoveHKFilm that I just linked to and this review.

- But you can quench your thirst with teasers today - one for Eye in the Sky, and the other for Feng Xiaogang’s latest The Assembly.

- While I’m reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore (I’m about halfway through, thanks to my newfound discovery of the ability to read at the gym), I just found another book with a killer concept: A real-life Yakuza princess. Unlike Nakama Yukie, I don’t think she’d make much of a high school teacher.

Another short entry today, but can’t help it if the news world is quiet as usual.

Another month, another new beginning. If you noticed, the profile has been updated.

- The Hong Kong customs have been desperate in catching those Bittorrent pirates. They’ve been trying to save time and money by implementing a new automated system to catch who’s uploading and who’s downloading. This is the result.

- While Johnnie To’s Election series is a masterpiece unto itself, I don’t know why Tartan bought it and thought people would like the second film better. It asks for more patience, it moves slower, and it requires character background. The first film is a mixture of a tight thriller and involving look at triad politics, and it’s a better blend of commercial and the arts. Anyway, it seems like Tartan has decided to release both films at once, at least in New York, where out of five showings, one will be for Election 1, and the other 4 for Election 2.

- Twitch went to the AFI Dallas Film Festival, and Peter Martin has a slew of reviews from it.

- Professor Bordwell has checked in with two new reports - one is film-oriented, the other is not. Both are equally interesting.

- DJ Ozma is known in Japan as the man who managed to make Kohaku (the annual singing extravaganza on New Year’s Eve for who-knows-how-many-years-running) show entertaining by getting all his female dancers into naked body suits and wearing a dildo on stage (more details, including video, here). Apparently, this year the parks of Tokyo are selling said body suits during Hanami (the yearly period when people gather to look at blooming sakura and get trashed like it’s 1999).

- Grindhouse is coming out next week, and the faux-trailer by Hostel director Eli Roth is already online.

- An official release date for the modern-day pink film The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai has been announced.

I took this shot from a TV just above the streets of Shinjuku on my trip. I thought it was weird how they had a random cell phone ad of Cameron Diaz talking on the phone. I mean, considering how much Cameron got paid for the commercial, I’m not surprised why she took it. I guess people would want to use Softbank phones more if Cameron Diaz uses it?

Anyway, Tokyo Times offers another shot, this time on a billboard and I’m guessing that’s Akihabara.

Next, best of the week, and a special song of the day

Oh, come on, you had to expect me to use a title like that, right?

- OK, Hong Kong Thursday (opening day) numbers are up, and this weekend, those abstract-sounding Hong Kong-produced cgi animated-fest TMNT are going to try and take down the 300 Spartans. Sadly, even ninja turtles can’t fight 300 6-packs, as they tie for first place with HK$230,000 on 31 screens. Of course, TMNT being an animated film, business will pick up quite a bit during the weekend. However, don’t be surprised if Pursuit of Happyness comes back from behind to do great business again this weekend - it’s already the only film in the top 10 with a per-screen average higher than $HK 10,000, and HK audiences just LOVE a tearjerker.

The only other notable opening is Yoji Yamada’s “Love and Honor,” starring Asian megastar Kimura Takuya as a blind samurai. On 5 screens, the Japanese blockbuster only got HK$30,000. Again, look for business to pick up, thanks to the older adult audience that will come out during the weekend.

- Eiga Consultant looks at the box office result of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest “Sakebi,” which first was reported to have opened huge (”Standing audiences only!”), but after a month and an expansion up to 100 screens, it only ended up making about 130 million yen. The first Ju-on (That’s “The Grudge” for you non-Japanese speakers out there) film made about 500 million yen (not exactly a nationwide phenomenon), but the second film ended up making a little more than a double that. So is he saying that Sakebi had buzz that never followed through?

- Recently, the National Broadcaster Association of Japan kicked NTV out due to the natto diet scandal, and now, the president of KTV (Kansai Television) will resign on the day that a program that explains the fraud data will air.

- Japan’s internet content provider Nifty added a bunch of new content on their website, but will charge money and requires membership….which mean it gives no alternative to the Youtube problem. People want easy access to free information - TV shows, music videos, things that are already shown for free if one has a TV. Hell, I’ll even step up and say I’d watch advertisements in between them, but I’m just speaking for myself.

- Hideo Nakata (The director of the original “Ring” film. NOT Ringu, Ring, that’s what it was meant to be called) is back in Japan with “Kaidan,” and a new teaser is out.

- Jeffrey Wells believe that this year’s Cannes opener will be Wong Kar-Wai’s English debut My Blueberry Nights. Yeah, maybe he’ll finish shooting by May 2009, who knows?

- I was pleasantly surprised by Han Jae-Rim’s Rules of Dating, which was a surprisingly complex and dark romance that was just not meant for a mainstream audience. But apparently, enough people were impressed by it that Han managed to cast Korean’s most unlikely favorite leading man Song Kang-Ho (who has been in some of Korea’s biggest grossers such as The Host, JSA, Shiri, and Memories of Murder) for his second film “The Show Must Go On.” Twitch has the details (The trailer even feature Yentown Band’s cover of “My Way” from Shunji Iwai’s Swallowtail, whoa!), and it sounds like The Sopranos…maybe with less sass?

- Seoul’s city government is now trying to attract more foreign films and TV dramas to shoot there by offering incentives.

- Like Kung Fu Hustle, Sony Classics have bought the international distribution rights for Stephen Chow’s “A Hope,” which should have a summer release date, but was also reported to be going up against Feng Xiaogang’s latest during Chinese New Year in some Chinese reports. June and Chinese New Year has a long time in between, which is it gonna be?

- One of those months in between is December, and that’s when Peter Chan Ho-Sun’s latest “The Warlords,” starring Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Jet Li will open. Variety reports that the film has just wrapped up a 4-month shoot and will now go into post-production. Yay.

- Lastly, here are this month’s Yesasia reviews:

Udon
Seducing Mr. Perfect
Once in a Summer
No Regret
Shiina Ringo - Heisei Fuzoku

After posting up all those news yesterday, there’s not much left for today. In fact, it’s mostly Japan news.

- I reported about the opening week result of Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo’s latest “Bugmaster” yesterday, along with a Hoga Central report. Now Eiga Consultant helps and puts it all in perspective. On its opening day on Saturday, “Bugmaster” made 95 million yen - that’s 44% of Shinobi (Joe Odagiri’s hit film from 2005 that ended up making 1.4 billion yen), and 61% of director Otomo’s previous film Steamboy, which ended up making 1.16 billion yen. Looks like not even Joe Odagiri, Yu Aoi, nor the creator of Akira could get fans of the original comic to show up for a movie about bugs.

- Jason Gray also has some tidbits from the Japanese film industry, including the fate of that Genghis Khan movie (that effectively proved you can’t just shove anything down Japanese audiences’ throats), and what one Japanese actress thought of the latest Rocky movie.

- After Takeshi Miike’s latest “Ryu Ga Gotoku” just came and went in theatres, he’s already hard at work on another relatively high-profile film. Twitch provides us today with a link to the teaser for “Sukiyaki Western Django.” It looks like crazy western fun, but I’m not a huge fan of Miike, even though he can be as crazy as it gets, so we’ll see what happens when it opens in September.

- Speaking of Japanese films, Lovehkfilm updates with a review of Japanese blockbuster (but Hong Kong flop) Dororo. Also up is a review of the latest Milkyway film, Eye in the Sky, which opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival this year. It also have some reviews from your truly, but I’ll just let it go.

- It was just announced last week, but Hayao Miyasaki’s latest “Ponyo on the Cliff” already has a progress report, thanks to the people of Twitch, Ghibli World. and NHK.

- Remember that I reported that the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan suspended NTV’s membership after the natto scandal? Well, now they just decided to just kick them out of the damn organization altogether. Ouch.

- Oh, and Haruki Murakami’s anthology “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” which includes the original short story of Tony Takitani (great film, by the way), just won a Kiriyama Prize. Yay.

I told you there’s not that much news today. See you tomorrow.

And a lot more news than I expected, so let’s rip through this sucker

- Before they take this thing down, check out Hollywood Elsewhere’s links to the screaming matches between Lily Tomlin and director David O. Russell on the set of I Heart Huckabees. I think Russell’s made some great works, but the guy looks like a downright asshole.

- Hong Kong Sunday numbers are up, and as expected, 300 takes the top slot. However, the grosses weren’t as high as I expected, considering that it grossed a phenomenal HK$1 million on Thursday. Instead, it made HK$1.69 million on 42 screens (a great number by any count) for a 4-day total of HK$6.47 million, including previews. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider is in second with HK$340,000 on 34 screens for a 11-day total of HK$5.76 million, The Haunted School is at HK$120,000 on 14 screens for a 4-day total of HK$480,000, and Dororo just can’t seem to get the audiences in seats by earning just HK$120,000 on 18 screens for a sad sad HK$380,000 4-day cume.

Good news for the limited releases though, as Pan’s Labyrinth draws in HK$120,000 on only 4 screens, while Ann Hui’s The Postmodern Life of My Aunt actually saw increased business with HK$100,000 on 5 screens. I knew Hong Kong audiences can’t just turn away a movie with Chow Yun Fat like that.

- The major Japanese dramas wrapped up this week, including the big three - Haken No Hinkaku (about temp office workers in Japan), Hana Yori Dango 2 (or who I mockingly called the Flower Boys), and Karei Naru Ichizoku (the big-budget rich family epic). Being a disliker of those Flower Boys and its positive word-of-mouth, I was afraid that the final episode would be higher than Karei Naru Ichizoku. But Kimura Takuya and his huge messed-up family rallied for a huge win with a 30.4% rating and a final average of a slightly disappointing 23.9 rating, while the Flower Boys did get a huge boost with a 27.9% rating for a final average of 21.7. The biggest boost, however, went to Haken No Hinkaku, who followed up its 19.9 rating for its 9th episode with a 26.0% rating for its last episode to get a 20.1% average.

The overall ratings this season are higher, since only one drama only got higher than a 20 rating average at the same season last year(while this season saw 3). But while Karei Naru Ichizoku did achieve a higher average than Kimura Takuya’s last drama Engine (I mention Kimura Takuya because he is the main draw for Karei Naru Ichizoku, considering all the posters around Tokyo has just his big face on it), but this is a man whose dramas once earned a 34.2 average (Hero in 2001), so a 23.9 rating for a big anniversary drama maybe not be so impressive.

Even a national newspaper reported on the huge ratings Karei Naru Ichizoku got, so let’s just all admit that it was pretty huge and all cheer like supportive people should.

Source: Drama News.

- The Japanese box office attendance rankings are also out, and Night at the Museum opened big at number 1, while the Doraemon movie held on a number 2. Drama adaptation Unfair the Movie opened at number 3, Happy Feet at number 4, and Deja Vu at number 5. As reliable as I can get numbers will come tomorrow, hopefully.

- Actress Ryoko Shinahara must be having a really happy week - her headlining drama Haken no Hinkaku got huge ratigns for its finale (which means let’s get her back for a sequel and stat!), and now her drama adaptation Unfair the Movie opens huge at 370 million yen, despite the drama only getting a 15.4 rating (which means Haken’s boost must’ve rolled over to Unfair too). Eiga Consultant predicts that this has gotta be pretty good omen for upcoming drama adaptations Saiyuki (a bastardization of the most beloved Chinese fairy tale ever Journey to the West) and Hero, which had a 22.8 and 34.2 average, respectively.

- After the critical failure of the last Studio Ghibli film Tales From Earthsea (which has been rumored to be Studio Ghibli officials’ way of hooking Hayao Miyazaki to come back and save the studio’s reputation by making one more film), Mr. Miyazaki’s latest project has finally been announced. According to Hoga News, it’ll be Gake No Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff), a story of a goldfish princess who wants to be human and a 5-year old boy. A producer said that it’s based on a time when Goro Miyazaki (Hayao’s son, and the one who directed Tales from Earthsea while detailing how horrible a father Hayao was on his blog) was 5 years old. Maybe this is Hayao’s attempt for a father-son reconciliation.

- Speaking of release dates, Stephen Chow’s latest A Hope has secured one too. Ming Pao writes this:

現在消息指電影的後期工作已基本完成，日內將送交國家電影局審查。由於電影故事溫馨講父子情，沒有敏感情節，通過審查應該沒問題，據悉已暫定暑假6月25日起在全國上映。

Current reports indicate that post-production is basically done, and it will be sent to the Bureau for Film, Radio, and Television for inspection. Since the film is touching story about love between father and son, there’s no sensitive material, it should have no problem getting through the inspection. It’s now tentatively set for a June 25th nationwide opening.

The story is something about a poor kid picking up a communicator that allows him to communicate with an alien, and the alien feel so sorry for the kid and his father (played by Stephen Chow) that it helps them out by punishing those that bully them. Sounds like good ol’ family fun indeed.

Original Chinese report is here.

- Youtube has a 5-minute trailer to the lesbian love story “Spider Lilies,” starring Taiwanese pop star Rainie Yang and Hong Kong pop star Isabella Leong. Rainie does even a nice little strip tease in the beginning. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and will be shown at the Hong Kong International Film Festival as well.

- The Hong Kong Entertainment Expo is underway, and Variety Asia’s got you covered with a guide to fine dining and a guide to Hong Kong fashion shopping.

- At Hong Kong’s Asian Film Awards tonight, expect Andy Lau to get the “box office star” award. Excerpt from Ming Pao as follows:

據2005年12月舉行的「香港UA娛藝院線周年慶典頒獎禮」，劉德華的電影在香港的累積票房達17億港元，06年至今《墨攻》與《門徒》的累積票房數字為4100多萬港元。這些只是香港的票房數字，要統計劉德華的電影在亞洲區的票房數字肯定更驚人。

According to the “Hong Kong United Artist Cinemas Anniversary Awards” in December of 2005, Andy Lau’s film has grossed a total of HK$170 million. In the last one-year period, “A Battle of Wits” and “Protege” has grossed a total of over HK$41 million, and that’s just Hong Kong box office gross. Calculating the box office gross for Andy Lau’s films in Asia would come up with even more amazing numbers.

And why do people still just take Andy Lau as the next Hong Kong Chief Executive as a joke? He might just be the democratically-voted leader both China and Hong Kong can agree with.

Chinese report is here.

- Twitch’s logboy post a huge list of reviews for films he watched recently. None of them are complete, but they are another man’s opinions on some interesting Asian films that’s worth checking out.

- It’s all been reported out, but Mark Schilling wrote a comprehensive round-up of the recent Japanese health show scandal, which made the media turn against its own by leading a charge to uncover as much false data as possible.

- Twitch also has a review of the Ultimate Edition DVD of Versus. It was crazy and sometimes inspired fun, but was it really that great? Adrenaline-pumping does not a great movie made. Perhaps after the reported major tweaking, it’s now a better film. I’ll have to check this out.

- Those who were sad about Hong Kong girl group At 17’s split (I’m one of them) should rejoice, since Ming Pao has confirmed that the split is only for a half year. Ming Pao reports the following:

完成音樂會後，下半年這對好姊妹要暫時分開工作。Ellen與林一峰演出音樂劇《一期一會》，二汶則推出漫畫集，待年底再合作推出專輯。

After the concert, the sisters will have to work apart the second half of the year. Ellen will star in a musical with Chet lam, and Eman (Chet Lam’s sister) will release a comic collection. They’ll reunite to release an album at the end of the year.

Yay!

The original Chinese report is here.

I know I promised the box office estimates for North America yesterday, but The Host isn’t on the estimates (which cannot be spelling good things for the critically-acclaimed film), so I have no reason to care.

- Don’t assume that the made-for-TV genre only exists in America, NTV has its own series of made-for-TV films (they call it dramas, but I call it made-for-TV movie, let’s call the whole thing off) every Tuesday night. Being the sometimes-creatively-drained industry that is TV, Japan loves doing one story in as many formats as possible. Look at Tokyo Tower - which was first a hit novel, then a made-for-TV film, then a currently-running drama, and coming in April, a feature film starring Joe Odagiri. That’s three incarnations of the same damn story within a half-year period.

This past week, the NTV movie-of-the-week is “The Eraser in My Head,” which is the Japanese title of the hit Korean film A Moment to Remember (it was a surprise hit in Japan, and was credited as an integral part of the Korean wave in Japan). Before I assumed it was just a rip-off of the Korean film (the credits on the website does not credit the Korean film), I found out that the film itself was based on a 2001 Japanese drama named Pure Soul, which is what NTV credited as the source material. Even though it was based said drama, you can’t deny that this incarnation was inspired by the success of the Korean film….can you?

This coming week’s movie-of-the-week is miniseries “Ai No Ryukeichi,” based on a hit novel and was made into the movie “Love Never to End,” which was a moderate success in January. I’ll assume that this TV version won’t be as explicit as the film, which earned an R-15 rating due to its sexual content.

- Speaking of Joe Odagiri, Hoga News has a story on the latest surge of his exposure rate in Japanese media.

- Japan Time’s notable reviews for the week are the Japanese fantasy fable “Argentine Baba” (Argentine Hag) and documentary Crossing the Bridge by Fatih Akin, whose devastatingly Head On was one of my favorite films last year.

- Twitch has the link to a second trailer for a possible Japanese comedy hit this summer “Maiko Hannnnn!” written by Kankuro Kudo, who wrote Go and Ping Pong. It looks just strange enough that it might be one of those sleeper hits.

- I reported a while ago about the opening of the Wald 9 Cinemas in Shinjuku. The Daily Yomiuri has reported on its effect on Shinjuku, which has one of the highest concentration of cinemas in Japan. I saw The Incredibles at this incredible 800-seat theater (I believe it was the Piccadilly, but I can’t recall the name. It was a multiplex of sorts, since it did have 3 screens) there. And now the opening of the Wald 9 has driven it to be closed down (maybe it’s the theatre the report cites as being rebuilt), which is a shame, because huge screens like that has ceased to exist in San Francisco (I saw Star Wars episode 1 at the Coronet, where the original Star Wars film premiered 20-odd years before that), and now it’s slowly dwindling away in Tokyo as well. Too bad, it was worth every one of those 1500 yen I paid for, and now those money are going towards small auditoriums with small screens.

- Anyone tired of those Samurai period dramas from Japan lately? Then start rejoicing, because a non-samurai period film is coming soon. Originally a novel, the film “Akane Zora” is about a tofu maker’s business and his family.

- The Daily Yomiuri also shows off how awesomely unbelievably great Japanese mangas are by pointing out all the adaptations of them in other Asian countries. MANGA BANZAI!!!!!

The Daily Yomiuri links are courtesy of Ryuganji.

- Danwei, an English blog on the Chinese media that is far better organized and written than this site, has a translation of an article about how one phone call stopped the Chinese film rating system. The idea of the film rating system is good, but when you have conservative middle-aged men behind the system with an agenda, it’s bound to be corrupted. Kinda like the MPAA.

Link courtesy of EastSouthWestNorth

Related news, a Chinese blog has detailed the cuts done to Babel for Chinese viewing, and it pains me to list all these out (WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS):

- The Moroccan kid masterbating
- The chicken killing shot in Mexico
- Rinko Kikuchi’s character taking off her panties
- Rinko Kicuchi’s character opening up her skirt
- Rinko Kikuchi’s character grabbing the dentist’s hand and bringing it to her crotch (fully dressed)
- Rinko Kikuchi’s charater’s nude scene, where she attempts to seduce the policeman.
- Rinko Kikuchi’s character nude at the balcony (which probably killed the entire final shot).

(SPOILER OVER)

- Ming Pao has an editorial about how Hong Kong is attempting to save itself from total destruction. Excerpts are as follows:

劉德華不只在香港投資小成本製作栽培新導演，還在其他亞洲地區投資。

Andy Lau not only invests in new directors in Hong Kong through low-budget productions, he also invested in other regions in Asia.

曾志偉在他出品和監製的電影中，大膽起用新人，導演王精甫和編劇杜緻朗都由他一手提拔。

Eric Tsang bravely used fresh talents in his productions. Director Wong Ching-Po and screenwriter To Jing Lang were his discoveries.

這幾年狀態甚勇的杜琪㗖，他的執行導演羅永昌、編劇游乃海先後成為正式導演。

Johnnie To, who’s been quite strong these few years, has seen his Associate director Law Wing-Cheong and screenwriter Yau Nai-Hoi become directors.

揚威國際的劉偉強，以高清電影培育新人，讓他們有更多機會作大膽的嘗試。

Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, who is triumphing overseas, is using HD films to teach newcomers, allowing them to take bigger risks.

外間一般認為電影人只識得向政府叫救命，什麼也不做，並非事實。

Outsiders believe that Filmmakers only know how to ask the government for help while doing nothing, and that’s just not true.

傳媒的娛樂新聞，甚少真正提及電影工業的現，只一味報道藝人私生活，外界根本不知電影工業在發生什麼轉變。

There are very few news about the film industry in entertainment news, which only knows how to report on celebrities’ private lives. Outsiders know nothing at all about the changes going on in the film industry.

中小成本製作是嘗試新戲種和訓練新人的最佳工具。不識者以為電影是天才的產品，其實這一行有成就的人才絕大部分是從失敗中成長的。

Small-to-medium budget productions are the best tool to try new themes and train newcomers. Those who don’t know films think that movies are products of genius, when the truth is that those who have succeeded grew up from past failures.

要贏得投資者的信心，就要靠一班上了位的電影精英，以他們的經驗和成績作新人的保證。這幾年觀眾對港片的確存在偏見，很多一段時間沒入戲院看戲的認為港片全是爛片，要改變他們的態度，不是靠政府的三億就可辦得到。

To win the faith of financiers, the products of those success stories should use their reputations to vouch for newcomers. In these few years, there is a notion from those who haven’t been to the movies in years that all Hong Kong films are bad films. To change their attitudes, we can’t just rely on 300 million dollars from the government to do the job.

How about changing the notion among Hong Kong youths that movie should be downloaded?

The original Chinese article is here.

Coming up: Best of the week, and song of the day.

I love the Independent Film Channel. I don’t know why I receive it, but I happen to have it, and it’s a great source for uncut independent films. They’ve been running a series called the Grindhouse every Friday night, showing pretty much trash movies by art standards. This is where I saw Sonny Chiba in Karate Bearfighter and Karate Bullfighter (in that order, even though the story’s in reverse order) last month, and it’s also where I saw Killing Machine (real title: Shorinji Kenpo, or the Shaolin Fist) last night. I’m now convinced that Sonny Chiba was probably Japan’s best hero, even better than Ultraman and Kamen Rider combined.

The movie opens during the Sino-Japanese war, where a bunch of Chinese solders with a commander that doesn’t really speak Chinese (he’s just pretending) were about to attack a bunch of troops. But a man wearing one of those Chinese sombrero pops out, and it’s Sonny Chiba as an undercover Japanese secret agent. He’s like James Bond, except he first uses Shaolin kung-fu to wipe out half the troops, THEN he uses the machine gun. Man, I would want an opening like that in any movie (not the killing Chinese people part, but the Shaolin kung-fu part).

He then retreats to his base, where he’s told by his superiors that Japan has surrendered and that it’s no use fighting. So he takes said machine gun and wipes out his superiors. “Japan may have lost, but I haven’t!” he says. What a bad ass. Being the bad ass Sonny Chiba is, he would fight for justice everywhere - on the train, where he stops a fight by twisting a dude’s arm and says, “There are 80,000,000 Japanese and 800,000 Koreans. You can’t swim back to Korea, so if you want to live here, be friends.” At the black market, where he fights black marketeers because he told the kids it’s OK to steal from them, and he gets into a fight with the cops and American soldiers (over what, I don’t know, I lost my attention for about 3 minutes, and Chiba the man just didn’t wait to get some ass-kicking done).

Of course, you also get to learn about behaviors when around Sonny Chiba. First, you don’t wanna be interrupting his udon eating, or he’ll look at you as he slurps up that last string. Second, you don’t want to rape the neighborhood udon shop’s owner’s daughter, because he’ll come beat you down with Shaolin kungfu, then castrate you (I am seriously not kidding about this). And you don’t wanna go over to his dojo and start something, because even though he says not to start fight with other schools, he will kick your ass anyway.

All in all, Killing Machine isn’t actually all that entertaining when compared with the Karate series (I mean, the word “good” wouldn’t be used to describe any of these movies), but it does have some entertaining fun here and there. It’s even surprising even-handed for a testosterone-pumped movie about Japan (Chiba may kill Chinese soldiers, but he respects Chinese martial arts and I would presume its people).

- March has been known to be an off-peak month in South Korea (unlike Hong Kong, where people actually get Easter holiday), and that means it’s time for a foreign invasion!

- This weekend, Japan finally sees the opening of two Hollywood blockbusters Night at the Museum and Academy Award winner Happy Feet. Last weekend, they had a preview duel with advanced showings, and on an unknown number of screens, Night at the Museum wins it with 169 million yen, while Happy Feet brought in 72 million yen. This should be a pretty clear indicator who’s gonna win.

Source: Eiga Consultant.

- The Filmbrain blog has its own review of a film I reviewed last month, the subtle Ad Lib Night.

- There’s a rather amusing trailer for a new film starring John Malkovich named Color Me Kubrick, a kind of true story about a man who looks and acts absolutely like Stanley Kubrick, but somehow pretended to be him anyway.

- After watching The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, I wished Justin Lin was given better scripts to do, because I think he means well, but he just keeps getting stuck with crappy scripts. So after two ventures into Hollywood, he’s doing his own thing (in just 8 months after Tokyo Drift, no less) with his latest Finishing the Game, a spoof on the search for a replacement of Bruce Lee after he died while making Game of Death, and it just premiered at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival. Did anyone catch it?

- Two pieces of news to translate from my new Chinese news source Ming Pao:

1) Hong Kong International Film Festival run into a snag regarding missing tickets for its opening night film I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK, among other shows. excerpt of Chinese report as follows:

網上訂票安排方面，協會收到約30名市民投訴，表示收不到協會發出的訂票確認電郵，經調查後發現，協會如常發出電郵

Regarding online ticketing, the association received about 30 complaints saying that they did not receive their confirmation e-mail for their reservations. After an investigation, the association will sent out these e-mails accordingly.

Apparently, there’s also a case of someone continuously complaining that he/she never got the confirmation email for said opening night, but turns out the confirmation numbers were faked, and this person might get charged for fraud.

Also, the official website has put up an official apology about the failures of the new online ticketing system. This is what happens when you rely on the internet. Then again, this blog is on the internet, so maybe I shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds me.

2) Using the Wong Jing crapfest The Lady Iron Chef, Ming Pao also claims that a bad box office gross doesn’t always spell the end of a movie.
Excerpt as follows:

目前有不少電影是不需過分依靠票房賺錢的。所以電影雖然仍陷低潮，但仍有不少像《美女食神》的製作出現。

這類電影，有一條賺錢方法，主要是把錄像、電視、賣埠的版權收入加起來，以這成本來製作，拍好後只要在戲院上上畫就可以。

為什麼一定要在戲院上畫？因為不上畫的戲，會被視為次一等的電影，錄像、電視等版權價錢，也會少一截。

電影上畫時做過宣傳，會多些人知道有這部戲，價錢與未上過畫的當然有分別。

單看票房，可能奇怪某些電視投資者為何還會開拍某類電影，但有噱頭或熟口熟面的題材，只要有好幾個有人認識的明星來做，還是可以賣得一定的價錢。票房不高的電影，未必無錢賺。

Currently there are quite a few films that doesn’t desperately need box office gross to make money. That’s why even though the industry is in a recession, there’s still many productions similar to The Lady Iron Chef coming out.

The way these types of movies make money is through adding up video, television, and overseas distribution deals. These type of productions only need to be on the screens for a little while.

Why do they need to be on the big screen? Because a film that does not go to theatres is regarded as an inferior film, and all those potential money from selling broadcast or distribution rights will suffer a loss.

A film that played on the big screen and was promoted would attract attention would surely fetch a higher price than films that didn’t.

Looking at the box office, maybe it would be strange for these television networks to still be financing movies. But as long as there’s buzz or a familiar topic, just find a couple of known actors, the film can still sell abroad. A film with a low box office gross can still make money.

It’s not a lot of news today, I’m saving the rest for tomorrow. Some Japan Times reviews, the best of the week, of course a song of the day, and maybe some American box office estimates.