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- 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.
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.
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.
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.
Today’s Song of the Day is a song I will shamelessly say is one of the few songs I still can’t pull off well at Karaoke after 5 long years. From the no longer-around boy pop collective VRF and their second EP New World, it’s “Delusion.”
- The problem with being a director that makes the highest-grossing film that year is that expectations suddenly grows high on everything you do. This is the case with Isao Yukisada. After Crying Out for Love in the Center of the World made a ton of cash in Japan, Yukisada’s work has been hit-and-miss, with studio films Kita No Zeronen and Haru No Yuki. Then he returns to write and direct Into the Faraway Sky, a children’s fantasy film that he started working on from scratch for 7 years. However, his name is the only thing that the film had going for it, and 27.04 million yen on about 120 screens. That opening is only 15% of The Great Yokai War. Would this mean Yukisada is going back to studio-friendly big movies?
- Speaking of Returner, Takeshi Kaneshiro is apparently director Peter Chan Ho-Sun’s Robert De Niro, as Kaneshiro will be starring in his third Chan film in a row. This time, it’s back to the vein of the romance genre about a pair of lovers who wait 18 years for each other. Note: the link in that post to the Mainland Chinese website no longer works, so I have no idea whether this news is true or not.
- Did anyone notice a pretty big absence from Hong Kong’s Golden Bauhinia Awards? It was Derek Yee’s Protege - the film had only one nomination (for music), but it somehow made the award’s 10 Best Chinese Film list. The list is as follows:
Protege, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, After This Our Exile, Exiled, Crazy Stone, Still Life, Isabella, Election 2, Battle of Wits, and Curse of the Golden Flower. Where’s Exodus, the film that got the most nomiations?
Source: Oriental Daily
- The Japanese action flick Midnight Eagle, co-produced by Universal Pictures, will get its premiere in Los Angeles thanks to its Hollywood connections. This is to build momentum for the upcoming American film market, as well as its screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival. For some reason, the trailers I’ve seen just can’t get me excited about this film at all.
- A modest worldwide action star vs. an arrogant worldwide action star. Who to believe? Jackie Chan (that’s the arrogant one) wrote that his fight with Jet Li on Forbidden Kingdom was fast and natural and will probably be equivalent to Jesus rising up to save the world. However, Jet Li says that don’t get your hopes up and that he and Chan are both getting too old for this shit.
- Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) is making a follow-up to his film “Tachiguishi Retsudan” with the omnibus film “Shin. Onna Tachiguishi Retsudan.” One of the six films will apparently feature a 17-minute long monologue….with the short film just running 23 minutes long.
- China bans yet another TV show, this time about cosmetic surgery and sex changes. However, the authority does mention that the show contain bloody images, so maybe it was riped for a ban, unlike some stupid talent show.
Today’s Song of the Day is a song I will shamelessly say is one of the few songs I still can’t pull off well at Karaoke after 5 long years. From the no longer-around boy pop collective VRF and their second EP New World, it’s “Delusion.”
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