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Yotsuba meets Batman, plus more Random Crap

Damn You, Kozo briefly returns from the dead. In celebration, Yotsuba says “Hi.”

Yotusba waves
“You’re still reading this blog? Poor saps.”

It’s a new month, but I doubt I’ll be able to spend much time on Damn You, Kozo. That’s because the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is occurring in just one week’s time, and before then I still have to write a review for PAINTED SKIN and maybe BUTTERFLY LOVERS. We’ll see how it goes. If I can I’ll squeeze in one or two entries between screenings.

Hong Kong movies will actually be pretty sparse for October. After the one-two punch of PAINTED SKIN and BUTTERFLY LOVERS, the only large theatrical releases will be Jacob Cheung’s new drama TICKET, which bows at the HKAFF before getting a 10-23 theatrical release, and Wong Jing’s THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME, which is probably self explanatory. Here’s a photo to give you a general idea:

The Vampire Who Admires Me
Yeah, this looks like quality

In case you don’t know, the above photo is meant to spoof the poster for LA LINGERIE, and actually features two actresses (J.J. Jia and Maggie Li) who were also in that film. Here’s the comparison:

La Lingerie
I’m already guessing that this movie is better.

The other people in THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME are TVB star Roger Kwok, Wong Jing “It” Girl Natalie Meng Yao, model Ankie Beilke, eternal B-list actress Winnie Leung, and model Tanya, who may be known better as Chang Chen’s girlfriend. The guy playing the vampire is former Anita Mui protege and mired-in-mediocrity B-list actor Samuel Pang. This is the part where I start talking about how some of these people would have greater careers if not for Hong Kong Entertainment’s dire straits. I’m sure at least one or two could have achieved better things. You can figure out who yourself.

Maggie Li
Clearly this girl has great talents…uh, talent.

THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME opens September 16th, which means it’ll compete with the HKAFF for my valuable cinema time. I’m considering letting it slide to DVD, but if that happens it may fall into the same trap as THE SPARKLE IN THE DARK, FATE, and CHAOS, a.k.a. three Hong Kong films that got DVD berths that I have yet to watch. They just sit on my end table, right next to DVDs of A DIRTY CARNIVAL, MY SISTER MY LOVE, and GOD MAN DOG. Yeah, like I’ll ever get around to watching those DVDs.

Anyway, the main point of this post is simply to talk about Batman again. I said in an earlier post that Batman would get a LoveHKFilm EmbargoTM since he’s not Asian Film related. The exceptions would be if I bought any Batman-related toys or if the subject was Edison Chen-related. Sorry to disappoint, but there will be no Edison Chen dish this time. Even that subject has gotten somewhat old around here. We won’t talk about Gillian Chung, either.

Gillian Chung
“SHHH! They’ve almost forgotten about the photos!”

Nope, we’re breaking our LoveHKFilm EmbargoTM because I did happen to get a new Batman toy. In this case, it’s from Bandai’s Movie Realization line, and features a very, very cool Batman figure along with a replica of his signature new vehicle, the Bat-Pod. Here it is, sitting on my desk at work.

Batman and Batpod
So far, this toy has not hurt my productivity

This figure is not a straight-on likeness of Christian Bale and his Bat-Pod, but has been reimagined by manga artist Masakazu Katsura to be slightly edgier and obviously a tad anime-influenced. It’s also smaller than the best Batman and Bat-Pod combo around, which was made by Hong Kong company Hot Toys. That’s right, some of the toys discussed in this blog are developed and made right here in Hong Kong, thereby providing rationale for why I can continue to  be so off topic.

Here’s a picture of the Hot Toys Batman and Bat-Pod, neither of which I own. Yet.

Hot Toys Batpod

The above toy is 1/6 scale, meaning the figure is about 12 inches tall and the Bat-Pod is scaled to match. I don’t have the exact measurements, but that is one BIG toy. They have it on display here in Mongkok and it’s massive. Not as massive as the 1/6 scale Batmobile (a.k.a. the Tumbler from BATMAN BEGINS), but it’s still far too large for my dinky Hong Kong apartment. Plus, if I kept that at work I’m sure I would be fired.

Another glimpse of the Bandai version I bought:

Batpod
Not as amazing as the Hot Toys Bat-Pod,
but still pretty damn great.

The thing that’s awesome about this toy is that it’s smaller and fits on my work desk, and still has an inordinate measure of detail and coolness. It’s also is the perfect size to interact with my Revoltech Yotsuba action figure:

4_yotsuba_gun.jpg
In this photo, Yotsuba is Robin

Here’s a picture of them speeding on the highway:

4_yotsuba_angry.jpg
“Hang on, Yotsuba! We have to go save the sister
of that other cowboy from Brokeback Mountain!”

After their highway trip, the two decided to catch insects together:

Catching insects
He lived to become the babysitter

And here’s the full complement of Yotsuba schwag from Kaiyodo, minus all the pesky variants that I don’t have money for:

All Yotsuba
Really, there’s also work-related stuff on my desk, too.

I feel a bit guilty talking about toys on this blog because really, this is supposed to be an Asian Cinema site and not some repository for all my personal crap. I have not yet devolved to talking about my daily lunch activities or *gasp* politics just yet, though who knows, maybe I’ll start if I get more and more disenchanted with the main LoveHKFilm.com site. As the site nears the end of its seventh(!) year online, I have to admit that it’s getting a bit worse for the wear. Writing reviews has become more difficult recently and traffic is down 20% (no!). However, thanks to the bloggers, there is a little more life left in the site. Also, we have yet to meet Ekin Cheng, which is the one thing that must happen before the site closes down.

 4_ekin.jpg
“I can’t believe LoveHKFilm.com has been around
for seven years! When will my nightmare end?”

Sorry Ekin, I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.

If something interesting comes up in the next couple of weeks, I’ll post about it then on Damn You, Kozo. I still have one or two more post ideas kicking around, plus there may be a couple new blogs on the site too. If that happens, you’ll be the 37th person to know.

In the meantime, I’ll see you at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. I’ll be the sleeping person in Row J.

Batman and Yotsuba will see you to the door.

Bye Bye
“Bye!”

14 Responses to “Yotsuba meets Batman, plus more Random Crap”

  1. shaun Says:

    “It’s also smaller than the best Batman and Bat-pod combo around, which was made by Hong Kong company Hot Toys. That’s right, some of the toys discussed in this blog are developed and made right here in Hong Kong, thereby providing rationale for why I can continue to be so off topic.”

    That’s why Hong Kong rocks!

    Managed to score the Bandai SIC Movie Realization Batman & Bat-Pod too, and got some pix here.

  2. Clara Says:

    I wonder how many Yotsuba’s figures do you have. It has so many emotional changes. Anyway the batman figure is so cool, where did you buy it? I want one also. Have fun in the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, hope you find something good in this year.

  3. Matt Says:

    If you type ‘Kozo’ into Firefox’s Awesome Bar, you get this:

    http://www.kozothehippo.com/

    I think there’s something you’ve not been telling us….

  4. MW Says:

    I think I’m gonna pick up a Bandai Movie Realization eventually. I’m guessing it’s about $550 HKD right now so a bit pricey, so hopefully it’ll go down when some of the buzz dies down. I like how it is small so it doesnt take too space, but the packaging looks huge (and too nice to throw away)!

  5. glenn Says:

    Speaking of Gillian: go to IMDB and check out the cast for the Oliver Stone flick W; yes, she’s playing a stripper!

    Way to break into Hollywood Ah Gil!

  6. Webmaster Kozo Says:

    Hi Shaun, I’ve been by your blog before while looking at toys I’ll never own. Thanks for the pics! Your patience and ability to take toy photos is something I will never have.

    Hi Clara, there are only 2 Yotsuba action figures with a bunch of interchangeable heads. The Batman figure is readily available in HK right now.

    Matt, Kozo the Hippo has been around a while, though I’m not sure he’s older than this website. I’ve had people send me the link a few times before.

    Hi MW, I think you can get the Bandai Movie Realization for probably $500-700, depending on where you go. It does seem pricey, but the quality of the product is very high. Especially the Bat-Pod portion.

    Hi Glenn, I don’t think Gillian is in the movie for a long time. Once the film is released we can time her appearance to decide if she or Edison got a rawer deal with their big 2008 Hollywood film.

  7. Darren Says:

    Hey Kozo

    A Dirty Carnival was one the best films I saw the year it was released (2006 maybe?), Korean films are so much mroe watchable than HK ones now

    I think site traffic down 20% is understandable because HK movie output has declined right?

    Also where did you get the yotsuba figures? I have the cardboard one and yotsuba but not the other two which Id really like…

    thanks.

  8. shaun Says:

    Thanks for checking out my site, Kozo, I’ve subscribed to your feed. Wow, HK$500 is a very good deal for the Batman & Bat-Pod.

  9. Webmaster Kozo Says:

    Hi Shaun, I think you can get the toy for HK$500 if you “know somebody.” I couldn’t get mine that cheap, though.

    I should add some toy links to this blog, just because. Nobody realizes how close LoveHKFilm.com came to being a toy website, and not a HK film site. I think my wallet dictated the final choice.

    Darren, all told there are 4 basic Yotsuba figures (Yotsuba, Danboard, Ena, Fuuka), with a few variants. There’s only one Ena, but her dress can be removed(!) to show a swimsuit. The Fuuka is available in school uniform, bikini, and 7-11 employee variants. Danboard can also be had in an Amazon.com and a 7-11 variant, both exclusive to each store’s website. Only Yotsuba and Danboard are poseable.

    The only essential variant is the Summer Edition Yotsuba, which has the hat, extra faces, and other accessories. I got all of mine through YesAsia.com, naturally, because that’s where I work.

    And though I check the traffic, I don’t really sweat it. If it goes up, it goes up. If it goes down, it goes down. Life is like that, as are the economy and HK Cinema. One can only hope everything is going up.

  10. MW Says:

    Went to CTMA to check if they had the Bandai Batman+pod, but they only had the beast that is the 12″ inch Batman and Joker. Those were about $1200+ HKD each.

  11. Gabriel Says:

    We want more pictures of your desk. Do one of those David Hockney-type collages made up of a bunch of photographs.

  12. achillesgirl Says:

    I’d like to see more about your toys and your desk, too. They are so much more interesting than movies lately.

  13. Webmaster Kozo Says:

    MW, I went by CTMA just this weekend to pre-order the Hot Toys 12″ toy of Two-Face/Harvey Dent. It’ll be HK$980, which isn’t cheap either. But if you see these things, you’d probably understand why.

    Gabriel and achillesgirl, I’ve long wanted to take more photos of my toys and publish them, especially the ones that are HK Cinema related. Sadly, most of them - including my beloved Ekin Cheng Man Called Hero figure - are in the United States. If I can find him in the basement this Christmas, maybe I’ll bring him back to HK.

    I’m not so sure my desk is that interesting though. It’ll just prove that my workspace is messy.

    And Hong Kong movies are picking up soon. There’s like one a week nowadays.

  14. Gabriel Says:

    I’m more interested in the desk than the toys. But if you put the toys on the desk, okay. As long as we get to see your workstation through the aforementions Hockey-type photo collage thingy.

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