Today’s a big day. All the news I have on hand are all going out. So here we go:

- Anyone in an office box office pool is gonna lost big time. People have been predicting trashfest Grindhouse to own the weekend. Estimates such as 20, 25 million were thrown around, TV advertising were pumped up, and guess what? It only made an estimated 5 million on opening day with an estimated weekend take of 11.9 million. But I personally 11.9 is a little low, I predict just a tad under 15 if the 5 mil opening day holds up.

- The Police apparently were big enough in Japan that the opening weekend of its documentary attracted 911 people the first weekend at a 180-people theater in Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills multiplex. Of course, that’s partly because the director showed up on opening day. This also apparently comes after Roppongi Hill’s successful performance for limited release such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and the director’s cut of the Korean film April Snow. Seems like it’s becoming quite a trendy place for hip limited releases these days.

- While Spiderman 3 got through those strict Chinese censors, not even Chow Yun Fat can get Pirates into China. According to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, seems like China has rejected the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film because it’s too “gross.” I assume they’re talking about the all that special effects with squids, not the movie’s quality. Excerpt is as follows:

從知情人士處獲悉《魔盜王終極之戰》已送審，但電影局在審片時，對片中角色造型並不滿 意。有指去年第2集《加勒比海盜﹕決戰魔盜王》中充斥骷髏、章魚的嚇人造型，已被電影局審片負責人一句「太惡心」，就把該片否定，未能上映；而現今《魔盜 王終極之戰》亦有很大機會失去進軍內地的機會。

Sources report that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has been screened, but when the Film Bureau was screening the film, they weren’t pleased with the characters’ looks. Apparently, the second installment “Dead Man’s Chest” was filled with skeletons and scary octopus makeup, and it was criticized by a Film Bureau official as “too gross,” so it was banned. Now “At World’s End” may very well also lose its opportunity to enter the Mainland.

The report also says that 300 was also banned because of the violence. What the hell does it take to please those people?

Original Chinese report is here.

- Japanese television strikes again, and this time it’s in TBS’s hands. A variety show sent its crew out to Akihabara to interview passerbys, hoping to catch a couple of otakus to answer some questions about current events. Now it’s been exposed that one of those guys were actually contacted in advance to have him just happen to be there so he can get interviewed. Honestly, how quickly can Japanese television’s reputation fall before it’s in the shitter?

- Jason Gray goes to the suburbs of Tokyo to catch another obscure Japanese film (this time an adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo story). The more interesting part is the video of his walk from the train station to the movie theater. Man, I miss Tokyo.

- Being a casual watcher of TV Japan here in the US, which is the subscription-only channel of Japanese programming, mainly from public broadcaster NHK, I realize that NHK news really loves to track the progress of Japanese baseball players who’s made it in the States. They did it for Nomo, they still do it for Ichiro, they now do it for Boston Red Sox’s latest recruit Daisuke Matsuzaka. And now Japan’s finance minister’s had enough, criticizing NHK’s coverage of the pitcher after a recent cabinet meeting. The man has a point, but does he have something personal against Matsuzaka, or he just waited a really long time to let out his opinion?

- Japan Time’s review this weekend includes a review for Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s “Taitei no Ken.” It apparently contains alien and sword action. Whoa.

- Yesterday I posted a link to Asian Cinema - While on the Road’s review of hairy thriller Exte, and today it’s the link to four (!!) Korean film reviews.

Today’s song of the day comes all the way from the 1990 album “You’re the Only One,” when her name was still Shirley Wong. That album contained three cover tracks, and this is the biggest hit. Originally “Superwoman” by Karyn White from 1989, it’s Faye Wong’s “Thanks to Him.”

Why? Next to the fact that Faye Wong hasn’t even released an album in about 4 years now, it’s even more rare to hear her going into R&B territory. The lyrics are also a vast improvement in terms of style since it no longer tries to cram in a bunch of words into the melody, even though it becomes just another Cantopop break-up song in the end. Although listening to the original does ruin Faye’s rendition when you realize Faye just simply does everything Karyn does in the original. Still, it’s rare to hear the queen of the falsetto in Asian pop to do American Idol-style scream-sing, which makes this song rewarding enough already.

Here’s the original.

As mentioned yesterday, there aren’t many news coming out, even Variety Asia seems to be taking a break. But there are still news elsewhere, and I’ll just even them out for the weekend. I might even go into my own collection a do a bit of a feature.

Watched The Prestige on DVD, better known as Christopher Nolan’s break between the Batman movies. It’s a hell of a mind-bender about two magician’s relentless pursuit to top each other. You might expect them to eventually band together and become friends, but no such luck. They get dirty all the way to the end, and they really know how to duke it out. While there’s not much real thrills to be had (much of the thrills are in the complicated puzzle the Nolan brothers and novelist Christopher Priest put together), the movie moves at a constant pace, moving forward and backward in time enough that audience participation is guaranteed. The movie is well-shot, well-acted, well-written, and even most of the final twists work (even though the sci-fi twist was a bit of a stretch). It makes me wish Nolan would do another small personal film like this before spending 2 years of huge blockbusters.

- This weekend is kind of considered a holiday weekend here in the United States, although Easter is not an official holiday. But in Hong Kong, it’s a 5-day weekend, and that means a huge weekend at the movies too. At least 7 movies open this weekend - Mr. Bean’s Holiday (which dominated world box office last weekend), Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Minimoys, Happily N’ever After, Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, The Reaping (which also opens in the US this weekend), and the sole Hong Kong entry is Eric Kot’s idol comedy Super Fans.

As far as ticket sales go, my unscientific research method is showing that Mr Bean is selling like hotcakes, and Sunshine seems to be doing moderate business (probably because it’s being put on smaller screens). Super Fans seems to be doing ok as well, although I doubt it’ll make a huge dent. We’ll know the results on Tuesday.

- China has this silly rule where they would block foreign films from opening in order to allow domestic films to thrive at the box office. This happened to The Da Vinci Code last year, although some say it was pulled because the government didn’t want to piss off the Catholics, which I wouldn’t be surprised at. This year, Spiderman 3 is lucky enough to squeeze in on May 1st before the July blackout period, and they’re gonna open it on a record 500 screens. That still won’t stop the millions of pirated disc soon to flood the streets of China, though.

- Are you ready for more Self-Defense Force Zombie? I am.

- Brian’s Asian Cinama - While on the Road has two entries of reviews. For chronological order’s sake, here’s his review of the Japanese hair scare thriller Exte.

- One reason for this film scholar to go to France this May? To see Martin Scorsese give a masters class in filmmaking at the Cannes Film Festival.

- Speaking of which, Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily (which means it should be taken with a grain of salt) reports that they have asked Jet Tone directly about the status of Wong Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, and apparently the representative has responded it has been officially invited to open the festival, which would be an enormous honor for a Chinese director to go through. But apparently people are liking it so much that they think it should be going into competition, and that now it’s undergoing post-production. More as this develops, but it seems like no English media has picked this story up yet, so no idea how credible the report is yet.

- New York Times has a guide to Hong Kong, although it’s certainly a little to bourgeois for my taste. But hey, if it rocks your boat, go for it.

That’s it for today, hopefully more tomorrow.

Today’s song of the day is a classic. I’m sure many people have heard the organ hook at some point in their lives, and it’s an addictive hook. First appeared on the 1967 album (note to self: track may be even better while on drugs), it’s the title track to Procol Harum’s album “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Name doesn’t sound familiar? Just listen to it.

Why? I honestly don’t know why I should explain why classic songs are songs of the day. You mean, aside from the nostalgic organ hook and great blend of blues and soul into its melody, I have to further explain why A Whiter Shade of Pale is awesome? If your answer is yes, then you should stop your daily diet of Avril Lavigne and Nickelback shit mix.

Here’s one way to cover it.

And here’s a way not to cover it.

There might be less news in the next few days because the Ching Yeung Festival got mixed in with the Easter holiday in Hong Kong, so they’re pretty much on public holidays all the way until the 10th. What does that mean? No Thursday and Sunday numbers from mov3.com, and maybe less news from Variety Asia, so look for fairly short entries from tomorrow til next week.

- Let’s face it, my knowledge of Japanese animation and comics are quite minimal. I’ve heard of the name Tetsujin 28 here and there, including the live-action adaptation that opened when I was studying in Japan. But apparently a new Tetsujin 28 film opened this past weekend, but since it’s a relatively small production, the distributor decided to play it at one theater in Tokyo (followed by a tour around Japan, perhaps of the same print) for only a week with 5 showings a day, then decreasing to one morning and one late show a day after that. What they didn’t expect was that the film managed to attract 1291 people the first 2 days for the 133-people auditorium. At 5 shows a day, that means each show attracted 129.1 people, that’s full capacity right there. Apparently, a lot of the audience, primarily late 20-30s male who were fans of the anime, bought advanced tickets, which convinced the theatre to add matinee shows for one week. So now that it’s a hit, what now?

- As reported last week, the president of KTV, the broadcaster behind the drawn-out natto scandal, has resigned, but that only means that he’s now a director without voting rights on the board. What does that mean? It means he still gets paid, under lower salary, and with less power.

- I also mentioned a few days ago the Andy Lau fan madness saga. Anyone that wants a fairly comprehensive wrap-up and a look at the next step for the mentally unstable Yang family shouldn’t hesitate to look at the always informative EastSouthWestNorth blog. Yikes.

- After watching Love@First Note, the Gold Label-produced stinker with the equally overrated Justin Lo (that’s right, I went there), I placed Dennis Law so high up my director’s blacklist that I still can’t get myself to watch Fatal Contact yet. Then again, he did produce the Election movies, which may just mean good things for his latest producing gig - Herman Yau’s Gong Tau. But somehow I can’t help but think Twitch’s expectations for it may be a tad too high.

- New on the list of “not very good producers” is RTHK, who refused to allow Yan Yan Mak’s film “August Story” to screen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival because Mak put together the 62-minute “long version” from a 22-minute short film that RTHK commissioned her to do. At first, RTHK refused the existence of the film because Mak never received official permission to make it, then they said she can show only the 22-minute version along with 2 other films in the series of short films, and now the film festival people just flat out decided to pull it because RTHK won’t budge. With RTHK in hot waters lately, I’m not so sure if they should be making any more enemies these days.

- Am I the only that thinks the Pang Brothers should take a step back and chill? I’m already behind on 4 Pang films - Recycle, The Messengers, Diary, and Forest of Death, all of them are thrillers with maybe some horror mixed in. Do something else, guys - comedy (I know you did one of those), romance, dramas, something else other than horror, and do them slowly. Looks like I’ll be behind on a 5th one, if the film in this sales flyer is coming out anytime soon.

- I mentioned two or three days ago about Rules of Dating director Han Jae-Rim’s latest The Show Must Go On. Well, now Variety has an English review of it all the way from Hong Kong International Film Fest.

- Jackie Chan is looking for a successor that isn’t named Jaycee, and he’s looking hard. You can try too.

That’s it for today. Remember, no Hong Kong numbers for the weekend, but I can predict how the Easter box office will go tomorrow.

Today’s song comes as familiar to anyone that knows me. I’ve been in love with this song since I first saw the trailer for Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung’s Isabella. It’s from Portugal, thus in Portuguese, and it’s a song in the style of Fado, which is its national music genre. From the Hong Kong film Isabella’s soundtrack and from the album Fado Em Mim, it’s Mariza’s “O Gente da Minha Terra.”

Why? I literally listened to this song back-to-back to get inspiration for short film ideas because it happened to put me into that perfect melancholic mood. The vocals, the guitar, everything but the music video is damn near perfect. How can you NOT like this brilliant song? Chinese pop simply can’t make anything this.

Here’s a live performance of the song

And here it is, as used in the Isabella trailer, when I first fell in love with it.

- Let’s start with those Oricon rankings today. On the singles side, Kobukuro scored their first number 1 single with Tsubomi, the theme song for Tokyo Tower the drama (it’s a good song worth checking out, just don’t tell anyone I sent you), which jumped up from last week’s second place debut. Meanwhile, new singles from Shibasaki Kou and Bonnie Pink debuted only at 8th and 9th place, respectively. Next week, it looks like Glay’s latest single will come up and dethrone the pop duo, but let’s worry about that next week.

As for the monthly singles chart (for the month of March), the pesky Flower boys continue their invasion of the consuming public with its two theme songs taking over the charts. As expected, Utada Hikaru’s Flavor of Life is number one with nearly 500,000 copies sold, while Arashi’s Love So Sweet is at second place.

On the albums side, Ai Otsuka’s compilation album “Ai Am Best” (ha ha, I get it) knocked Mr. Children of its high horse by selling 350,000 copies, while Mr. Children gets knocked down to second place. Compilation albums don’t have a history of staying strong, so expect it Ai’s to slide down the rankings fairly quickly. Meanwhile, M-Flo’s latest album “Cosmicolor” debuts with an OK 76,000 copies for its first week. Next week, expect young rockster YUI’s album to hit number one.

For the month of March, Mr. Children was obviously the winner, selling 693,000 copies of its latest album. The rest of the top 10 were no slouches, either - Ayumi’s double CD compilation managed to sell a combined 1.3 million copies (roughly 620,000 each), Exile’s latest sold 389,000 copies, and even Shiina Ringo’s latest sold 155,000 copies, about 2000 more than Mika Nakashima’s latest.

- What else do we have from Oricon on this fine day? Those drama satisfaction ratings! The Flower boys are number one with 81.8 points, the long-running 5th series Aibou is in 2nd place with 80.2 points, the family epic/ratings winner Karei Naru Ichizoku is at a close 3rd with 79.5 points, sleeper hit Haken no Hinkaku is in 4th with 77.5 points, and the rest of the ranking is here.

- Korea Pop War returns with the Korean box office from this past weekend, where the 300 ruled again.

- I meant it when I said we have a lot of pictures to look at today. For one, we have three posters/promo materials from Twitch. First, we have the poster for Feng Xiaogang’s The Assembly, which looks…..kinda cheap. Then we have the sales flyer for the Benny Chan-helmed Nicholas Tse-starrer Invisible Target, which looks extremely cool. Lastly, we have Joe Ma (Is this “Love Undercover” Joe Ma Wai-ho?) and his Japaense/Hong Kong co-production of Sasori.

- Speaking of pictures, we also have a picture of Taiwanese pop star Rainie Yang apologizing again for remarks she made about the Sino-Japanese war on a Taiwan TV show, which angered those pesky Chinese netizens. Of course, then she takes it too far and starts reading the history book that was given to her at the press conference. Er…..

- Hong Kong is not only passing out awards at its International Film Festival, where the Malaysian film “Love Conquers All” got the big prize, but also the RTHK award for the best films in light of the 10th anniversary of the handover. Infernal Affairs got best film and best screenplay, while Johnnie To won best director for The Mission (!!!!!). More details over at Variety Asia.

- Hoga News has a report on two new films, one of which is Yuko Takeuchi’s first film after her divorce with kabuki bad boy Shido Nakamura.

- The NHK special I mentioned on Miyazaki showed here in the US on TV Japan last week. It was an episode of the “The Professonials” series where NHK cameras follow a professional something for a while, and this episode happened to be on Mr. Miyazaki. The last 15 minutes I watched featured him watching son Goro’s Tales from Earthsea (which he opposed to Goro directing), complimenting that it was “well-directed in a straightforward manner,” walking out of the screening for a smoke, go to the country to brainstorm his latest (while smoking some more, of course), then as of the beginning of March, drawing Ponyo on the Cliff (his latest film).

Why am I mentioning this? Because Goro’s much-hated (though it made about $80 million in Japan alone) Tales From Earthsea is coming to DVD in Japan in July. What about the US, you say? It’s stuck because the Sci-Fi Channel (the schlockmasters that bring us cheap sci-fi flicks and Stargate episodes) holds the right to the story until 2009, so it won’t be until after 2009 that Studio Ghibli’s Tales From Earthsea can be seen.

- I like Media Asia because they released Isabella and Exiled, two of my favorite films from 2006 that both sadly flopped. But then they also released 2 Become 1 and Confession of Pain, which makes them not one of my favorite film studios in HK. Sadly, because of their wish to be makes of huge blockbuster, they are now losing money and now being bought out by another firm that’s owned by the same guy. Now they’ll become a private company, and maybe make better movies?

- Jason Gray has a tidbit on a part of Japanese cinema that I know nothing about (the films of Tanaka Noboru) and the recently-revived Yubari Film Festival.

- I couldn’t resist a movie with a name like this: Self-Defense Force Zombies.

- Meanwhile, the Korean Film Council seems determined to continue cultivating new talents. Way to go, South Korea! Oh, they want them overseas? Maybe not so good…

- Professor Bordwell is back with another entry from Hong Kong, where he praises Wo Hu as better than Protege and Dog Bite Dog…..whhaaaaa? It’s OK, he’s still awesome.

- China is seeing its first series about homosexuals, good for them! But it might not make it past the censors, although it will broadcast online. I honestly don’t know who would expect them to get past the mainland censors when even Hong Kong people couldn’t accept public broadcaster RTHK’s 30-minute documentary on homosexuals. Good try, though.

- There are two reviews out there for Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, which opens this week in some countries including Hong Kong. One calls it terrific and extraordinary, the other calls it an atmospheric thriller that’s gripping for two-thirds of the voyage.

- Variety also has reviews of the Death Note saga (which I generally agree since he’s watching it at a non-fan perspective like I did) and Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust, which played at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Today’s song of the day can be found in either the album Songs from Wong Kar Wai’s Movie or The Private Press. The MTV was directed by Wong Kar Wai, which gave me extra incentive to put it on here. Musically, it’s pretty awesome too. Sampled from Colonial Bagshot’s “Six Day War” and Dennis Olivieri’s I Cry In the Morning,” it’s DJ Shadow’s “Six Days.”

Why? Because it’s a haunting little tune with a killer hook. Those bongo drums and the little jungle synth sounds all come together for cool non-hip-hop effort from the Bay Area’s own. Plus, the MTV is directed by Wong Kar Wai.

Here’s the remix that appeared in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which just blends the vocal with another DJ Shadow beat. Honestly, I think it sucks.

- Hong Kong’s mov3.com finally posted the Sunday numbers, and as predicted, those TMNT made a comeback after its dismal opening on Thursday to make HK$630,000 on 32 screens for a 4-day total of HK$1.84 million. Those 300 Spartans hold on to second place with HK$420,000 on 32 screens, but tied with the Smith family and their Pursuit of Happyness, which also made HK$420,000, but on only 16 screens. 300 has made an impressive HK$13.4 million after 18 days, and Pursuit has made HK$3.65 after 11 days.

As the only Hong Kong film left in the top 10, Danny Pang’s Forest of Death barely hangs on to a 4th place with HK$230,000 on 24 screens for a HK$2.85 million 11-day total. In limited release, Pan’s Labyrinth continues to play strongly with HK$60,000 on 4 screens on Sunday for HK$1.16 million after 18 days, while those screaming Rain fans realize I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK might just not be their cup of tea as it only earned HK$80,000 on 9 screens for HK$890,000 after 11 days.

- Speaking of box office, Eiga Consultant has declared Sakuran a relative success with 600 million yen after 28 days of release on 126 screens. Meanwhile, Hoga News has some results for other Spring break films as well.

- NHK dramas are not huge phenomenons in Japan, but really something that people watch out of habit. That’s why the daily 15-minute morning drama has scored fairly strong ratings over the years since people simply tune in everyday. But now even that staple is running into hard times as its latest drama (not clear if this is the daily morning one) scores record low ratings for its debut. Nothing is sacred these days, I tell you.

- I went to Tokyo Disneysea during my trip to Japan this past Christmas, and I was frozen. But I guess it’s comparatively warmer, otherwise it wouldn’t have attracted all these people.

- I wrote about Ping Pong director Fumihiko Sori’s new film, the animated Vexville, a while ago. Now Twitch has found some brand-new footage. Too bad I don’t care for animation much.

- Turning our attention over to South Korea, it seems like after the screen quota for Korean films was removed, the evil giant U.S. conglomerate has decided to also rape its TV industry as well by taking away the cap Korea has on foreign ownership in a broadcaster, among other things. Free trade, my ass.

- Meanwhile, Twitch has a review of the Korean blockbuster from 2006 - Tezza: The High Roller, which I’ve heard great things about, but keep managing to miss.

- One piece of news and one piece of editorial from Ming Pao:

News: Quentin Tarantino, the graverobber of Asian films, so to speak, is apparently planning to remake the martial arts classic The One-Armed Swordsman. The Chinese text as follows:

著名導演昆頓塔倫天奴上月底宣布，下一部電影將會是中國功夫片，會起用很多中國演員，雖 然會用英語對白，但肯定會配上中文字幕。他表示很久以前看過很多邵氏經典電影，對這些影片推崇備至，尤其是《獨臂刀》等作品，喜歡那種獨特的節奏感和故事 的張力。不過若他翻拍的話，會加入一些自己和現代結合緊密的元素。

Renowned director Quentin Tarantino announced last month that his next film will be a Chinese martial arts film with many Chinese actors. Even though the dialogue will be in English, he’ll definitely put on Chinese subtitles. He said that he’s seen many classic Shaw Bros. films and admire them, especially the “One-Armed Swordsman” series and its unique pacing and plot tensions. But if he is remaking it, he will infuse his own modern elements.

The original Chinese text is here.

Can’t this guy come up with his own martial arts movie without doing “homages?”

Ming Pao also has an editorial about the status of screenwriters - one of the most overlooked jobs in Hong Kong cinema. Excerpt are as follows:

這幾年有過不少港片市場調查，觀眾多指票房不好因劇本不濟。本地編劇待遇欠佳，不被尊重是劇本不濟的主因之一。要提高劇本水準，不是不停訓練人才就行。

There have been many market research regarding Hong Kong films in recent years, and audiences points that box office gross are low because the scripts are no good. Local scriptwriters not being treated well is one of the reasons are scripts are bad. To improve the quality of scripts, cultivating new talents is not the only solution.

編劇在電影行業中是弱勢社群，雖說是主創崗位，但酬勞往往比攝影、美術、製片還低，不兼任其他工作，可能沒法生活。

Screenwriters are weaklings in the film industry, despite their important creative role. But their wages are often lower than the cinematographer, production designers, and even production crew. If they don’t take on other careers concurrently, they wouldn’t be able to survive.

單提高劇本費是沒用的，政府應做的，是完善劇本的版權保障機制，令編劇將來可得到合理的報酬。

Just raising screenwriters’ fees isn’t enough. The government should improve the protection of script copyrights, allowing screenwriters to get fair reward.

對編劇來說，最重要不是劇本費有幾多，是劇本創作出來如何受到基本保障，無人偷他們的橋段，兼且可保留電影以外的版權，又有健康的分紅制度，就算零劇本費，也會吸引很多人參與。

To a screenwriter, the screenwriters’ fees isn’t the most important thing, but rather how the script can get basic protection after its creation. Ensuring that ideas aren’t stolen can protect copyrights and allow for a healthy bonus system. Even if the fee is zero, it would attract many more people to participate (in screenwriting).

在不公平的制度下，怎可能叫人用心創作？

How can people create under an unfair system?

好劇本不必然是用錢買的，優良創作環境，才最重要。

A good script isn’t bought simply with money. A good creative environment is really the most important thing.

Original Chinese text is here.

Today’s song of the day is a longtime favorite. I used to do it at Karaoke to a bunch of confused and/or bored faces who didn’t (and probably still don’t) know who Jun Kung is. Jun Kung is one of Hong Kong music’s most talented musician, with the reputation of being one hell of a drummer. This was one of the singles from his debut EP, while the version I have on CD features another talented singer Maggie Ko (who has since changed back to her real name Maggie Fu) edited into the second verse. Both these CDs are out of print, and good luck actually finding a Jun Kung solo CD in Hong Kong these days. Anyway, the song is “Love Space”

Why? Because the guitar intro is soulful, the vocals are smooth, the melody is groovy. It was far ahead of its time when it came out in 1999 (at least before Chet Lam brought back acoustic music to HK pop.

If the video doesn’t work (it didn’t work very well on ie, at least), try the live version on for size