When I was in Japan, I saw right-wing political groups with a van and a microphone standing in the middle of crowded areas making crazy right-wing nationalist statements. People tend to ignore it, or even mock it. Rightfully so, I’d say.

In that vein, a shocking report this morning came out. Apparently in response to the new documentary “Nanking,” based on the controversial Iris Chang book “The Rape of Nanking” and premiered recently at Sundance, Japanese filmmaker Satoru Mizushima has announced that he will make his own documentary to present his own version of “what really happened” in Nanking. The film, titled “The Truth about Nanking,” will be released in December for the anniversary of the massacre, where it’s been generally acknowledged that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in an invasion by the Japanese Imperial Army. The film has the support of several conservative house members and Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, who also wrote his own nationalist film to be released in May - “Ore wa Kimi no Tame ni Shi ni Iku” (”For You, I Go To My Death”).

Sources:
Japan Times
Variety Asia
Daily Mainichi
Ryuganji

Note that around that time, there will also be a film adaptation of “The Rape of Nanking,” co-produced by China released.

And we complain about right-wingers in America.

Back from a very long vacation to find a few shocking things happened in the Asian film world:

- The death of Grady Hendrix’s Kaiju Shakedown. This is probably one of favorite sites on the net, and major news outlet for this blog. Grady, I hope you’re on the way to bigger and better things as I type. Rest assured, though, the news reported on this website should not decrease by much, thanks for strong sites such as Twitch and the newly discovered Variety Asia. The link section will be duly corrected.

- The choices for This year’s Hong Kong Critics Society Awards seems rather strange, with a Mainland sweep of the acting awards, and some strange omissions of excellent films such as Isabella and My Name is Fame (for Confession of Pain and Wo Hu instead?)

- Marie Antoinette getting second place in the first weekend’s box office in Japan with the highest per-screen average for a wide release (The Departed may be the box office winner, but it’s in a limited 61-screen release). It’s also doing very well in limited release in Hong Kong, where I watched a 2:50 pm show on a tuesday afternoon in an almost-full house. As of Tuesday the 23rd, it’s earned HK$440,000 after 4 days of release on 4 screens.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow, some reviews of the 8 movies I saw on this trip, and some more number crunching.

First of all, happy new year to everyone out there. I’m currently in Japan, and since I’m staying with my girlfriend’s family, and it’s new years in Japan, I don’t have much chance to write entries. Which is also why I won’t be elborating on much of the news today:

-Hong Kong holiday box office is dying down a little bit, and after the lead by Curse of the Golden Flowers, Confession of Pain is making a bit of a comeback. As of Tuesday’s numbers, Confession of Pain is leading with HK$560,000 on 41 screens versus CURSE’s HK$450,000 on 44 screens. The total, however, is still led by CURSE’s 17.25 million vs. CONFESSION 16.26 million. The overall winner of the holiday box office race is so far Casino Royale, still going strong on Tuesday with HK$530,000 on 34 screens and a HK$18.16 million total.

Of course, all of could, but not likely, change with the release of The Holiday, Deja Vu, and Nana 2. The two American films may impact the Casino Royale business, and since the first NANA only did moderate numbers when it opened in Hong Kong, it should simply place a small wedge between the current leaders.

-Went to a half-full English-subtitled showing of Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima. While it needed some editing towards the end, and a bit more historical context (maybe the American print would have this?), I thought it was a very powerful exploration into the futility of both war and the glorification of it. It asks question of what is honor at the time of war, and it is fairly diplomatic by not asking which side is more evil. Overall a good film with very strong acting, very strong directing, but albeit a slightly detaching film as well. I’m glad it’s doing well in Japan, but a little disappointed the numbers aren’t better in America. This deserves to be seen in a big screen and loud speakers. I will also try and catch Flags of Our Fathers in Hong Kong.

In conclusion, it’s not better than Babel, but it’s still one of the best films of the year.

Several things:

- I struggled for a bit, and since I won’t have time to write any real reviews for a while, I might as well link to my freelance reviews here. So here are this months’ reviews:

Lump of Sugar (South Korea)

Eason Chan - What’s Going On…? (Hong Kong music)

Ivana Wong - Picturesque (Hong Kong music)

Note: I actually ended my Ivana Wong review with the word “boring,” but the truth is “underwhelming” is a better word to describe a boring album that I liked, since “boring” would imply that I didn’t like it.

- The opening numbers for the last Japanese cinema hope at the box office Ooku is in, and it’s definitely not a TBS-sized disaster. In fact, it made 240 million yen, a 111% of Nakama Yukie’s “Shinobi.” While it’s by no means a great feat, it’s a pretty good number considering it’s an adaptation of a drama about internal bickering among Japanese royalty women.

- I’ll be on vacation starting tomorrow, off in Japan and Hong Kong until January 11th. Hopefully, it’ll mean good food, good shopping, and of course, lots of good movies. I will continue to try and report on the latest news (which is looking more possible while I’m in Japan more than while I’m in Hong Kong.).

Until the weekend Hong Kong numbers come in, Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Many people through Martin Scorsese’s The Departed would’ve featured Brad Pitt because the rights were bought by Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B. According to today’s Oriental Daily in Hong Kong, Plan B may be interested to repeat its success by buying the remake rights to Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Confession of Pain.

The question is why? Confession of Pain is part of the murder mystery genre that Hollywood has done over the years. Then again, I haven’t seen it yet, so maybe that’s why I haven’t seen one reason why anyone should buy remake rights for a story Hollywood has probably done before.

Edit: Just realizing that the page will be gone to make way for tomorrow’s newspaper, I’ll post the original Chinese text that mentions the news here:

畢 彼 特 前 年 買 下 《 無 間 道 》 版 權 拍 成 電 影 《 無 間 道 風 雲 》 ， 此 片 最 近 更 威 盡 美 國 的 「 星 獎 」 ， 據 知 ， 畢 彼 特 食 髓 知 味 ， 對 劉 偉 強 新 作 《 傷 城 》 亦 感 興 趣 ， 記 者 就 傳 聞 向 電 影 公 司 求 證 ， 發 言 人 承 認 確 有 荷 里 活 片 商 斟 洽 《 傷 城 》 版 權 ， 但 就 未 肯 透 露 詳 情 ！

And a rough, non-professional translaton by me here:
http://p202.ezboard.com/flovehkfilmfrm19.showMessage?topicID=105.topic

I usually talk about wide releases, so I figure it’s time we recognize some films in limited release around the world.

Olivier Marchal’s 36 Quai des Orfevres, which I saw in Hong Kong in March 2005 (and was quick to be compared to Infernal Affairs), is currently in fairly successful limited run in Tokyo. Playing in one theater, it found an audience of 1200 over its two-day opening weekend, earning 1,700,000 yen. If that doesn’t sound very impressive by pure numbers, look at the theater - one-screen, 150-seat theater, showing the film 4 times a day. 1200 people, divided by 8 shows (over two days), and that an average of 150 people per showing. Personally, I think the film had a very good script supported by strong performances, but bogged down by a lack of fluid pacing and distracting music cues. Still, it’s great to see any film score such a strong opening weekend.

(source: Eiga Consultant)

Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima and Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower also faced off in limited release this past weekend in America. Since CURSE was on 60 screens and LETTERS was only on 5, the only way to declare a winner is to look at per-screen average. While the estimates show a LETTERS win with a US$15, 300 per-screen average (and CURSE getting only 8,150), both films can be considered disappointments. LETTERS is nowhere near some of the biggest limited opening weekends for foreign films - Motorcycle Diaries had a 53, 273 per-screen, and even House of Flying Daggers had a 26498 per-screen in 15 theaters. Maybe as the awards continue to roll in for LETTERS, its performance will get better. I would’ve seen it on Wednesday, but I didn’t even know it had come out in San Francisco because I haven’t seen one ad for it.

(source: Box Office Mojo)

It’s been a real exciting week in the trailer world - First we got the first real live-action Transformers trailer (which looks like another Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor without any of the seriousness or romance….well, one can only hope), then we got Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 13 teaser (hey, I actually dug Ocean’s Twelve, believe it or not), we also have Tarantino/Rodriguez’s Grindhouse teaser, which is looking like the best guilty pleasure of 2007 (and by that I mean it’s not gonna be any good by any artistic measure, just good ol’s trashy fun.). Finally, we have the teaser for Black Snake Moan, from Craig Brewer, the director of Hustle and Flow, starring Samuel L. “enough of these muthaf*cking snakes on this muthaf*cking plane” Jackson and Christina “Addams Family” Ricci. Looks like a lot of fun.

I also just found the trailer for the new film by Peter Berg (actor, director of “Friday Night Lights“), The Kingdom. Looks like Munich for the “war on terrorism” age.

Poor Park Chan-Wook. Here’s a man who makes movies that have been both artistically and commercially successful (although I have no idea why a movie like Oldboy would be commercially successful anywhere.), but when he tries to get out of the box and do a romantic comedy like I’m a Cyborg, But It’s OK, they pull the plug on him after two weeks. Not only that, it’s getting pulled for a crappier martial arts adventure. Talk about getting no respect.

(source: Twitch)

Despite the presence of Hong Kong’s most overworking director (and by that I mean overediting, overwriting) Andrew Lau, I was looking forward to Confessions of Pain - two actors facing off in solving a complicated murder mystery. It’s a typical Hollywood buddy movie, except both characters are the straight-faced leading men, so everything is played more serious than ever. Nevertheless, with the Infernal Affairs team, I’m looking for at least something well-written and probably horribly directed. But at least it’d be well-written.

The reviews are out, and it’s not looking well. While I’m personally waiting for Lovehkfilm’s Kozo to weight in on it, the first “official” review is from Malaysia’s Cinema Online. The reviewer finds the movie servicable, but it “never quite finds its pulse.” However, I’d take film reviews of films with possibly controversial aspects from Malaysia with a grain of salt, because from what I understand, the censors would take out possibly objectionable content (something as innocent as a makeout scene). Correct me if I’m wrong.

On the other hand, the not-so-wise user comment section of mov3.com are also quite mixed. Some are disappointed because they went in expecting another Infernal Affairs, some like it because of the script, and some hate the script, saying it feels like something from a TVB drama. Having grown up watching TVB dramas, I would say that is a pretty bad thing to call a film.

Hopefully, if the box office numbers hold up, I should be watching it in about 3 weeks or so, and then I can hate on it like everyone else.

- As I hinted in my last entry, I will be on vacation starting next week. I’ll be in Japan from 12/26 through the new year to 1/11, and then Hong Kong from 1/11-1/24 (life of a new college graduate - travel). I tried to find a concert to go to in Japan, to no avail. It seems like the concerts I want to go to are all desperately out of reach. Luckily, I scored some tickets, thanks to the good folks at HK’s URBTIX, to the Denise Ho (AKA HOCC) concert on 1/20. Then, of course, I found just now that AT17 is holding a concert on from 1/3-1/5 in Hong Kong. Disappointment is me.

Oh, well, I’ll just buy this to make up for it.