March 9th, 2007
More news than you can shake a stick at
But I don’t have much time nor energy to post them all. So I have to be picky and post the ones that are really worth posting.
-In the usual stuff I report, Japanese box office numbers are out, and because they’re now using the exchange rate of $1=116 yen, films are actually making more money in terms of dollars than last week. So talking about percentage changes seem to be useless, except that Sakuran’s expansion isn’t quite impressive, but not bad nevertheless.
- Daily Dumpling reports that Wong Kar Wai and Stanley Kwan (one of the very few openly gay Hong Kong filmmaker) are teaming together to produce a lesbian film. Looks like Brokeback Mountain really did break a barrier that no one in America saw - that Asian filmmakers can make gay-themed films too.
In source-less news (From Oriental Daily), in accepting his award for best screenplay at the Hong Kong Critics Association Awards, Wong Jing said that he’s working on a follow-up to Wo Hu about the drug trade. How convenient for him to come up with it after the success of Protege……Can anyone in Hong Kong confirm this news for me?
- The hearing-impaired community in Japan is protesting a move by Babel’s Japan distributor to not include Japanese subtitles for the Japan section of the film. A film with a hearing-impaired protagonist, and there are no subtitles for it? That’s brilliant.
- Tony Leung has decided to drop out of John Woo’s super-duper epic “Battle of Red Cliffs” because of the exhaustive 6-month shoot schedule (hey, if John Woo can do it, you can too!) and Takeshi Kaneshiro will take his place.
- JASRAC shows that they’re the dicks they are again by getting involved in the personal feud between famous singer Shinichi Mori and songwriter Kouhan Kawauchi, who wrote his hit “O-Fukurosan.” Basically, the story is that Mori has been singing a slightly modified version of it since 1978 (the song came out in 1971) without Kawauchi’s permission. When Mori sang it again at the big yearend Kohaku singing contest last new year’s eve, Kawauchi requested a meeting, which Mori abruptly canceled. So Kawauchi throws a tantrum and refuses to allow Mori sing any of the songs he wrote for him, even threatening a lawsuit if he ever does so.
And now, the JASRAC has apparently posted a message on its site warning people to not sing this song in public, or to face legal action. It’s obvious Kawauchi showing Mori how big his….ego is and him swinging his…power around.
- It’s about bloody time - several broadcasting firms in Japan has set up an ethics code to prevent anymore producers faking data on their health shows.
- Dave’s Trailer Page has a nice 7-minute clip of Spiderman 3. It looks interesting, despite it being more of the same stuff.
I’m far too sleepy to keep typing on this computer, so I shall leave the rest for tomorrow, including new Japan Times reviews and Hong Kong opening day box office numbers.