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Archive for June, 2007

The Golden Rock - June 25th, 2007 Edition

- In Hong Kong on Sunday, The Fantastic Four sequel ruled the box office for the second week in a row, making HK$1.07 million on 47 screens, bringing its 11-day total to HK$15.47 million, and already surpassing the gross of the first film. Patrick Leung/Chan Hing-Ka’s Simply Actors remained strong over the weekend, making HK$880,000 on 34 screens on Sunday for a 6-day total of HK$4.78 million. Milkyway Production’s Eye in the Sky rebounds with HK$530,000 on 29 screens for a current total of HK$1.96 million. Will it go away quickly like Mr. Cinema and Kidnap, or will it have a bit of legs?

Speaking of which, Mr. Cinema managed another HK$190,000 on 21 screens (many of whom are already limiting it to 2-3 shows a day) for a 11-day total of HK$2.59 million, while Kidnap, which is mostly on one-show-a-day basis already, made another HK$100,000 on 18 screens for the 11-day total of only HK$2.01 million, despite positive response from audiences. Another adult-oriented film, David Fincher’s Zodiac, made HK$250,000 on 11 screens for a 4-day total of HK$820,000. For a 158-minute serial killer film with no stars, I don’t expect this to pass the HK$2-million mark. The weekend’s third opener, the Hollywood comedy Wild Hogs, made only HK$90,000 on just 7 screen for a HK$270,000 4-day total.

- In South Korea, Ocean’s 13 wins in Seoul for a second week in a row, despite seeing 4 other movies on the top 10 with higher screen counts. However, the horror film Black House won the nationwide attendance count. Go over to Korea Pop Wars and check out the rest of the top 10.

- In Japanese audience rankings, Pirates of the Caribbean and Maiko Haaaan retain their top two spots this past weekend. Meanwhile, the period comedy The Haunted Samurai, starring Satoshi Tsumabuki, enters at number 3 (more on that later). Unsurprisingly, everything else falls by a spot.

Eiga Consultant looks at the end of Satoshi Tsumabuki’s box office streak with The Haunted Samurai. At 3rd place, it made only 120 million yen, which is 27% of Dororo (with Kou Shibasaki, 3.4 billion yen total), 31% of Tears for You (with Masami Nagasawa, 3.1 billion yen total), and 65% of Snowy Love Fallin’ in Spring (with Yuko Takeuchi, 1.27 billion yen total). Is this another proof that Japanese films these day can’t be completely reliant on only one star?

- A bulk of this season’s Japanese dramas wrapped up this past week (Here for all Spring 2007 drama information). Only Liar Game managed to end on a high note, scoring a season-high 13.6 rating for its 3-hour finale (about 8.83 million viewers), and ending with a 11.4 season average (about 7.5 million viewers). For a drama on an experimental time slot (11 pm Saturday night), Fuji is smiling happy. On the other hand, Sexy Voice and Robo ends weakly with only a 6.4 (4.15 million viewers) season-low rating, ending with a season average of 7.6 (4.93 million viewers). Another drama that ended with season-low rating is Fufudo, with saw a near-season high last week, only to end with a season low 12.4 rating (8.05 million) and a season average of 13.6 (8.83 million).

Of course, no drama comes close to Kadoku no Kake, which saw a freefall in viewership since week 7, starting from a 11.2 rating (7.27 million) for its premiere all the way down to a 4.5 (2.92 million)for its last episode, and a sad sad 7.0 rating (4.54 million)for its season average. Sequel Kui-Tan 2 ends its season with a solid 14.0 rating (9.09 million) for its finale, but ends weaker than the 17.4 average of the first series with only a 13.7 average (8.89 million). Still, it’s good enough to be the season’s third-highest rated drama. Lastly, the Yuji Oda disappointment Joudan Janai! ends on a somewhat positive note, with the final episode’s rating rising to a tepid 12.7 (8.24 million) for a season average of 13.4 (8.7 million). Will Yuji Oda recover from this? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Operation Love (Proposal Daisakusen) drops a little bit for its second-to-last episode with a 17.2 rating (11.16 million), though it’s expected to rise for its last episode Monday night Japan time. Also wrapping up this coming week is Bambino, which has seen a consistent increase in ratings since week 7. But this season’s clear winner is Proposal Daisakusen.

- Meanwhile, Tokyograph already has a set of introductions for the busy summer drama season. Nothing has caught my eye yet, though. Will it be a repeat of Spring 2007?

- The major industry papers in Hollywood have their reviews of Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0 is my preferred title), and it’s mostly positive. Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt praises it for using real movie magic and stunkwork over cgi. Meanwhile, Variety’s Todd McCarthy calls it a virtual action cartoon…in a good way.

- Filmbrain takes a look at Yoichi Sai’s Blood And Bones, which I liked for Takeshi Kitano’s hard-ass performance as the utterly unlikable main character. However, I do agree with the notion that the film got a little episodic, just stringing episodes of Kim Shunpei’s reign of terror.

- The blog for Benny Chan’s Invisible Target has launched, but it’s in Chinese. Apparently (I haven’t looked at the videos other than the trailer yet) it has a lot of making-of video, one of which includes Jackie Chan’s visit to the set.

- The Shanghai International Film Festival has wrapped up, with German film According to Plan taking the top prize (meaning it’s headed straight for release in China without the import quota blocking its way) and best actress (shared amongst 4 of them). The Go Master won the best director prize for Tian Zhuangzhuang and best cinematography for Wang Yu. The complete list, as well as a wrap-up of the end of the festival, from Variety Asia.

Also at the Shanghai Film Festival, 7 potential filmmakers were given the chance to pitch their projects to major investors and filmmakers, which apparently intimidated some of them (I can’t even pitch my scripts to my own family, let along a sea of major industry people).

- According to a producer on Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino might add additional installments to the series, and the ideas just don’t seem interesting enough to warrant another film, let alone two of them. Because, let’s face it:

SPOILERS

You can’t really continue a franchise named Kill Bill when Bill is dead.

END SPOILERS

- TV Asahi is remaking the Kurosawa film “Tengoku to Jigoku” (which, as the resident Bayside Shakedown expert, I have to point out was also referenced in Bayside Shakedown the Movie) as a mini-series for the fall. Yasuo Tsuruhashi, who last made a hit out of the film Love Never to end, is directing.

- After one lawsuit goes away for Rain, another one comes, as a promoter in Hawaii is taking him to court after he can’t seem to accept the excuse that Rain had to cancel his concert there because he was getting sued. Since when the hell do people use “flimsy” in lawsuits anyway?

- I like the new American TV drama Heroes quite a bit. The season finale had its problems (mostly I’m guessing is of budgetary concerns), but it’s promising quite a bit, including an entire character subplot taking place in feudal Japan. Japanese pop star Eriko Tamura (who was a pop star long ago in Japan…though she still looks very young) is joining the cast (I’m hoping as audience favorite Hiro’s love interest), but David Anders is playing Takezo Kensei….?!!!! Apparently the creators have a good explanation, but it better be a damn good one.

Man, this entry took forever to do. But we’ll be back tomorrow to do it all again.

The Golden Rock Podcast - 6/25/07

You can definitely hear a few audio flubs, and the uploading process took forever, but here it is finally:

The First Golden Rock Podcast - (right-click, save as. 5.38mb, 7:50, 96kbps).

Now I can finally get to today’s entry.

Best of Golden Rock - June 18th to June 24th, 2007

The following is a compilation of the most notable news covered by The Golden Rock from June 18th to June 24th, 2007:

- I’ve never been a fan of Jia Zhangke. In fact, I have a legit copy of Still Life sitting here, waiting to be watched. Recently, director Jia was asked to write an editorial about the word “perplexity,” and he chose to write about Xiao Wu’s banishment due to someone in the film industry denouncing it. Since then, it has stirred a controversy because the media found its suspect. I might not have liked Ziao Wu, but I am certainly sympathetic with the ridiculous treatment of the film.

- r@sardonicsmile warns that if you’re a celebrity in Hong Kong and you have a personal blog, you might want to watch what you even dare to hint at, because the Hong Kong media will jump on you like a shark looking for even the slightest hint of red. One thing: Is the Storm in a teacup reference to the old Commercial Radio Hong Kong talk show, or is it actually a pretty widely-used phrase?

- Doing my part to spread the word, a Hong Kong blogger realizes that one of his posts was recently plagiarized by a writer for Hong Kong pop culture magazine Milk. However, the editor was confronted, only to say that it was entirely coincidental that the feature happens to match the original entry 90% of the time (even the two glaring mistakes in the entry was carried over). I’m even ashamed now to admit that I do read Milk Magazine with some enjoyment, which makes the disappointment even greater.

- The teaser for P.T. Anderson’s There Will be Blood is up and running. It looks different than anything he’s done, but he’s one of my favorite filmmakers, so I’m looking forward to it big time.

- A sequel to the mega Korean blockbuster The Host is now in pre-production. I know monster flicks are prone to sequels, but there’s almost no way this is going to top the original.

- The website for Feng Xiaogeng’s latest film The Assembly, which seems to be next year’s big Chinese New Year film in China, just uploaded a trailer. It looks technically accomplished, but it still seems pretty derivative to me.

- With the latest chapter of the China-vs-Japan-history saga taking a turn for the worse, it’s good to see some people still acting pretty sane. Toho/UniJapan and China film are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for cinematic cooperation. What does that mean? It means China and Japan are now one step closer to collaboration on film, strengthening the role of Asian films around the world, politics be damned.

- In Taiwan, three Hong Kong/Macau university students decided to show how ineffective news reporting is by creating fake news items and forwarding them to television stations. And those stations actually ended up running the stories without any verification. Someone’s in the big trouble, and it’s not the students.

By the way, I watched part of the documentary the students made about their experiment, and it’s a pretty damning look at the Taiwan television media that includes a lot of interview with media experts and students. Definitely worth a look if you speak Chinese.

- Sales are down this year at the Shanghai Television Festival, especially historical dramas. Good news is that over 40% of the stall holders were from outside Mainland China, which means it’s no longer just a place for the Chinese market. However, only 1.2% of the buyers were from Europe and the U.S..

- Andy Lau pisses off a CCTV program by refusing to appear on their human interest show. But then they piss off the people by complaining about it. This comment is my favorite: “If Andy Lau won’t come, you criticize him. What if Andy Lau criticizes you directly? Are you going to give him a physical beating?”

- The American Film Institute, in their holier-than-thou glory, updated their 100 best films list after they made their first list 10 years ago. Since then, a few films were added (The General! Shawshank Redemption!), which means that a few films dropped out as well. In a further attempt to undo any credibility I have built, I admit now that I have only seen 35 of those 100 films.

- In addition to possible co-production opportunities with Japan, China Film has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Korea’s CJ Entertainment, which will lead to at least two co-productions. How huge is CJ Entertainment? I have CJ brand rice at home. No kidding.

- The Tokyo Project Gathering, a meeting that will hook up future productions with international co-production partners, is upping their goal for submissions (but they’re looking for more novel adaptations and remakes, ugh), so apply if you got a few million bucks to spare and a really good screenplay. I have neither, so I’ll just have to miss out on it.

- Business Week offers a possible way to fix the Chinese piracy situation: It’s the prices, stupid.

- Yoshimoto Kyogo, one of Japan’s premier managing agencies for comedians, has established a project to get 100 (!!!!) of its comedians to direct their own short films. This just goes to show that anyone can make a movie. However, their quality is highly doubtful at this point.

- I really really liked the Panasian omnibus film About Love, which put together somewhat intertwined stories with directors from Taiwan, China, and Japan. The director of the Chinese segment, Zhang Yibai, goes back to the Japanese-Chinese romance formula of his segment with his new film The Longest Night in Shanghai. Filmphilia has more information and link to a trailer.

- Eiga Consultant reports that Norbit just went straight-to-DVD in Japan! Eddie Murphy comedies have always done badly in Japan, with 4 of his last 6 films (the other 2 being The Haunted Mansion and Dreamgirls) making less than 300 million yen (that’s less than US$3 million). Its title in Japanese? Mad Fat Wife (Maddo Fatto Wifu). No kidding.

- Andrew Lau has hooked up with the Weinsteins to produce three films under his new production company. Lau and Weinstein - now that’s a formula for crappy commercial films. Honestly, I can’t ever get excited about neither Lau or Weinstein’s Asian stuff, so just go to the link to read more.

- Hate to say it, South Korea, but your Korean Wave in Japan has pretty much ended, no matter how much you might deny it.

- Then again, looks like Rain (the Korean superstar, not the Beatles Cover Band from Nevada) will just continue invading North America after the lawsuit against his use of the name was dropped by a judge. Dance on, Rain. Dance on.

- This is in no way confirmed, but Amazon seems to be listing a DVD called Kill Bill - The Whole Bloody Affair on their site for release on November 6th, If this holds up, this might be the singular uncut version of Kill Bill that Quentin Tarantino said he was putting together for DVD a long time ago. I still won’t be selling my Japanese DVD of Kill Bill 1 though, especially if Tarantino doesn’t restore the fight scene with color.

- The Chinese state-run broadcasting authority stopped two television stations from playing any commercials after they continued to run banned ads for some shady weight loss products despite being warned. I can’t argue whether it’s right for them to do it or not because I hate both the broadcasting authority and medical informercials, but the authorities certainly did their jobs by warning against bribing censors. Those censors could at least do what they were bribed to do, for crying out loud.

- A trailer has surfaced for Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou’s directorial debut Secrets. I don’t think Jay Chou is very qualified to be a director judging from the music videos he directed before, and the trailer isn’t exactly promising much more than flashy music video stuff. That overdramatic score doesn’t help, either.

- Jason Gray met up with Ryuganji’s Don Brown and pretty much shot the breeze for his first podcast. For those really into the current Japanese film industry like I am, it’s a fairly entertaining and educational hour to spend at the computer (or on your iPod, which I don’t own one of).

- During Cannes, the new Hong Kong film production company Big Media announced that they would make 100 movies. Turns out the Mei Ah website has a bunch of promotional posters for some of those projects, though at least half of them don’t even have directors attached. Biggest surprise? Wong Ching-Po taking on Young Men Suddenly in Black. Apparently Eric Tsang really likes to tell stories about men who screw around.

The Golden Rock Song of the Day - 6/24/2007

Rarely do I pick a song of the day because of the MTV I put here, but today’s is one of those choices. Originally from the album Dreaming, it’s Leslie Cheung’s “Side.”

So why did I pick this particular (incomplete) MTV? After the 2-minute mark, you actually can clearly see a very young Jordan Chan Siu-Chun dancing right behind Leslie. So now we know where Little Spring started his career.

The Golden Rock - June 24th, 2007 Edition

- Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto went wide to 147 screens last weekend in Japan after a week of exclusive run in a Tokyo theater, and managed to make only 41.13 million yen. According to Eiga Consultant, the opening is only 24% of The Passion of the Christ (which actually made only 1.4 billion, which is pretty kind of weak compared to how much it made elsewhere). That makes people wondering whether people had just mistaken this hardcore action film for another art film, especially since it follows the limited release pattern.

- A trailer has surfaced for Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou’s directorial debut Secrets. I don’t think Jay Chou is very qualified to be a director judging from the music videos he directed before, and the trailer isn’t exactly promising much more than flashy music video stuff. That overdramatic score doesn’t help, either.

Ming Pao’s columnist, which some people say is screenwriter/director Chan Hin-Ka, writes about the commercial potential of Secrets. Specifically, he wonders whether Hong Kong audiences would go for Jay Chou. Excerpts as follows:

香港電影觀眾分得清楚,唱歌與拍電影是兩回事,紅歌手拍戲,不一定捧場,要視乎電影拍得是否好看。

The Hong Kong moviegoing audience separates singing and filmmaking very clearly; When a pop star makes a movie, they only go depending on the quality of the movie.

無論是自導自演的《不能說的.秘密》和《灌籃》,估計在中、台的票房成績一定比香港好。

Regardless whether its self-directorial/starring Secrets or Kung Fu Dunk, the box office gross in China and Taiwan will definitely be better than in Hong Kong.

周杰倫在中、台的「粉絲」多不勝數,他們捧偶像也比香港「粉絲」瘋狂,只要周董做的,一定會捧場。

Jay Chou has an enormous amount of fans in China and Taiwan, and their fandom is often crazier than Hong Kong fans. As long as “Chou Dong” (Chou’s nickname amongst his fans) is in it, they will definitely show up.

難怪行內說,中、台市場,比香港易做。

No wonder industry people say the Chinese and Taiwanese market are easier to do than Hong Kong.

Original Chinese column here.

Of course, I don’t quite get his argument, since a bulk of the people who made Curse of the Golden Flower a HK$20 million hit probably showed up because Jay Chou was in it (and sang the theme song, which I don’t remember off the top of my head anymore), and they’re probably just as willing to see Jay Chou is a youth romance. The very very basic reason why his two films this year will do better in Taiwan and China is that those two places have more screens and more audience.

Then again, I’m not a screenwriter who just co-directed the first Hong Kong hit of the summer, so what do I know?

- I forgot to mention that Lovehkfilm updated at the end of last week with a review of Samson Chiu’s Mr. Cinema. A review of the Japanese blockbuster Star Reformer by this blogger was put on the website as well.

- EastSouthWestNorth actually notes Kozo’s review of Mr. Cinema because it points out the film’s dubious stance on Chinese historical events, particular the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. I was looking forward to it quite a bit, but now I’m second-guessing my anticipation.

- Jason Gray met up with Ryuganji’s Don Brown and pretty much shot the breeze for his first podcast. For those really into the current Japanese film industry like I am, it’s a fairly entertaining and educational hour to spend at the computer (or on your iPod, which I don’t own one of).

- Dennis Law, who’s currently around my filmmakers shit list for Love@First Note, has announced that he’s going to make yet another martial arts film after Fatal Contact. The triad film Duo Shuai stars Sammo Hung, Wu Jing, and Danny Lee, and will start filming in July. No Gold Label pop stars?! I might just show up for this one.

- The Toronto Film Festival will official announce its lineup this week, but Hollywood Reporter reports that a couple of films that made their debut at Cannes such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon will show up here as well. The most surprisingly pick is actually the sequel to Elizabeth, which will see original director Shekar Kapoor and star Cate Blanchett reunite.

- Shinji Aoyama’s latest film Sad Vacation has a new trailer up on its website, except it’s still kind of hard to know what to expect from it.

- Actor Takayuki Takuma, who actually also writes dramas such as the Hana Yori Dango series under a different name (for reeeeaaal?), is making his directorial debut. Not only is he writing and directing it, he was also picked to star in it. People who read this blog regularly know I don’t have much love for Hana Yori Dango, but its syrupy gimmicky subject matter is slightly intriguing me.

- Twitch has a review of a new Francis Ng flick Our Last Dance, which co-stars Harvey Keitel. They don’t make the film sound very promising, but I might just search this out to see Francis Ng’s performance.

- During Cannes, the new Hong Kong film production company Big Media announced that they would make 100 movies. Turns out the Mei Ah website has a bunch of promotional posters for some of those projects, though at least half of them don’t even have directors attached. Biggest surprise? Wong Ching-Po taking on Young Men Suddenly in Black. Apparently Eric Tsang really likes to tell stories about men who screw around.

- The Film Center at The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo is putting on a retrospective in remembrance of important film figures that passed away in the years 2004 to 2006. The page is apparently still under construction, but at least we know it will run from July 27th to September 26th.

- Lastly, there’s a new documentary called Tokyo Cowboys, which again puts an ethnographic eye (Look, it’s kimono! The Harajuku girls! They look stranger than we do!) on privileged Caucasian men who live the Roppongi nightlife, end up scoring Japanese girls, and stick around to complain about racism.

Not that I don’t sympathize with their plights (OK, only just a little bit), but why do these documentaries only focus on Caucasian men, who actually has it the easiest among the foreign minority in Japan? Of course, the Japanese media also perpetrate the stereotypes of foreign=white. But what about Asian-Americans such as myself, who ended up being seen as someone who was supposed to know better because of the color of my skin, but also had to carry this foreign identity once people realized that we actually didn’t know any more than those Americans do? Better yet, how about a Caucasian man who ended up NOT living the nightlife and NOT ended up with a Japanese girl?

Then again, maybe guys like that just aren’t very interesting.

The Golden Rock Song of the Day - 6/23/2007

Today’s song of the day comes from what I got in my mailbox today. You can find it on countless Jacky Cheung compilations, but it was originally from his 1992 album True Feelings, which is probably one of the best Cantopop albums ever. It’s one of Jacky Cheung’s most well-known songs - “Breakups Always Happen on Rainy Days.”

The Golden Rock - June 23rd, 2007 Edition

- Hate to say it, South Korea, but your Korean Wave in Japan has pretty much ended, no matter how much you might deny it.

- Then again, looks like Rain (the Korean superstar, not the Beatles Cover Band from Nevada) will just continue invading North America after the lawsuit against his use of the name was dropped by a judge. Dance on, Rain. Dance on.

- This year’s buzz words in the movie industry seem to be threequels and international co-production. A bunch of producers, government film officials, fund managers, and lawyers put together a panel at the Shanghai Film Festival to pretty much preach about the importance of international co-productions. Just no more big martial arts epics, please.

- It didn’t happen at the festival, but Singaporean media agencies signed a co-production agreement with Japanese media producers, officially marking yet another Panasian co-production deals. zzzzzzzz………..

- Me: “Hey, Japan Times!”
Japan Times: “Hey, Golden Rock!”
Me: “What reviews do you have for us this weekend?”
Japan Times: “We have a review of the Cannes Grand Prix winner The Mourning Forest, which is playing only in one theater in Tokyo right now.”
Me: “Thanks, Japan Times!”

- Twitch has more on Love My Life, which seems to be the Japanese version of the lesbian film Spider Lilies. No, I don’t think it’s a remake, I just like to group all my lesbian films together.

- Earlier this week I wrote about the May-December romance Last Love flopping at Japanese box office. Daily Yomiuri tells you what’s so special about the film and its aging star.

- The website for the John Woo-produced gangster film Blood Brothers has a second trailer up, and Twitch is oh so bloody excited about it! It does look nice, but I could hardly get myself all that excited about anything other than Sun Honglei’s role as the villain.

- This is in no way confirmed, but Amazon seems to be listing a DVD called Kill Bill - The Whole Bloody Affair on their site for release on November 6th, If this holds up, this might be the singular uncut version of Kill Bill that Quentin Tarantino said he was putting together for DVD a long time ago. I still won’t be selling my Japanese DVD of Kill Bill 1 though, especially if Tarantino doesn’t restore the fight scene with color.

- American distributor ADV has picked up the well-received Japanese animated film 5cms per second. Now you downloaders have no excuse to download it anymore; they’re even going to give it a theatrical run, for crying out loud.

- The Chinese state-run broadcasting authority stopped two television stations from playing any commercials after they continued to run banned ads for some shady weight loss products despite being warned. I can’t argue whether it’s right for them to do it or not because I hate both the broadcasting authority and medical informercials, but the authorities certainly did their jobs by warning against bribing censors. Those censors could at least do what they were bribed to do, for crying out loud.

That’s it today, or I’ll run out of news by tomorrow.

The Golden Rock Song of the Day - 6/22/2007

Today’s song of the day comes a bit out of a missed opportunity. I recently found out that Brett Anderson, the lead singer of one of my favorite band Suede, is going to Hong Kong on the 14th to perform a concert. I would have been in Hong Kong for about 10 days already, but certain factors mean I’m going to have to miss out, which is regrettable because the ad states that he’ll be singing old Suede songs. Anyway, today’s song is from Suede’s 1996 album Coming Up. It’s Trash.

The Golden Rock - June 22nd, 2007 Edition


Just checked out Steven Soderbergh’s latest attempt to emulate the good old days, better known as Ocean’s Thirteen. This second sequel to the original (itself a remake) takes the series back to its American stylistic roots after he veered into French New Wave territory with the last film. I always have fun watching Soderbergh’s mainstream (note mainstream) works because he would so blatantly recall a classic cinematic style as homage that it’s always a film student’s joy watching them (French New Wave? Check. 40s Warner Bros. black and white? Check. 60s Rat Pack romp? Check). This time, it’s the breezy 50s color comedies mixed with the best of 70s commercial filmmaking.

I honestly don’t remember enjoying Ocean’s Eleven much (I remember kind of liking it while watching it, but never really seeing a reason to go back to it ever), and I might’ve been the only person who had a load of fun with Ocean’s Twelve (exactly because of the tongue-in-cheek European film style, though the breakdancing thing was a bit much). With that said, I had a blast again with Ocean’s Thirteen, though this time they really up the disbelief ante. I can buy that the plan ends up going completely different than the plan they had spend the first two acts discussing, I can buy they can manage all that gadgetry, but I had a bit of trouble buying the earthquake bit. But who cares about logic when Soderbergh is upping the visual flair again with his “I so miss the 70s” camerawork and the oozing star chemistry throughout? It’s Al Pacino! It’s Brad Pitt! It’s George Clooney! It’s Matt Damon…..seducing Ellen Barkin! I don’t think I have to mention anymore. Unlike Pirates of the Caribbean (the only other huge third-movie I’ve seen this year), this series knows what breezy Hollywood entertainment ought to be, and it ends up delivering more by being less serious.

- It’s time for those Thursday Hong Kong opening day numbers. Today, we have three movies breaking into the market - Milkyway Production’s Eye in the Sky, directed by screenwriter Yau Nai-Hoi, David Fincher’s Zodiac, and the surprise American hit comedy Wild Hogs. Eye in the Sky didn’t do very well during 5 nights of previews this past weekend, and only made HK$230,000 on 28 screens on its official first day. Up to now, Eye in the Sky has made HK$570,000. As an adult-oriented and male-oriented thriller, business might pick up during the weekend, but I don’t see this making more than HK$2 million. Meanwhile, Zodiac picks up only HK$110,000 on 11 screens, even with its inflated ticket price (140 minutes and more=inflated ticket price), and Wild Hogs breaks down on arrival with only HK$40,000 on 7 screens.

Meanwhile, Fantasy Four is looking to lead the weekend again with HK$590,000 on 50 screens on Thursday, bringing its 8-day total to HK$12.37 million (theaterowners happy, HK film producers not so happy). The summer’s first HK film hit Simply Actors, starring Jim Chim and Charlene Choi, expands by two screens and makes HK$450,000 on 31 screens for a 3-day total of HK$2.2 million. It won’t hit the $1 million mark on daily box office this weekend, but I expect it to hit the $5 million mark after Sunday. Theaterowners are already giving up on Mr. Cinema and Kidnap, as they are still on 20-something screens, but only playing one to three shows a day. On Thursday, they made HK$150,000 and HK$50,000 for totals of HK$2.06 million and HK$1.73 million, respectively. Oh, and Norbit made another HK$30,000 on 9 screens for a 15-day total of HK$2.34 million.

(US$1=HK$7.8)

- Why did I mention Norbit? Because Eiga Consultant reports that it just went straight-to-DVD in Japan! Eddie Murphy comedies have always done badly in Japan, with 4 of his last 6 films (the other 2 being The Haunted Mansion and Dreamgirls) making less than 300 million yen (that’s less than US$3 million). Its title in Japanese? Mad Fat Wife (Maddo Fatto Wifu). No kidding.

- Technically, the Daily Yomiuri just scored the first official major review of Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0 in Japan, a title I like a lot more) since it’s the first place in the world to show it. Reviewer Julian Satterthwaite says that it’s highly entertaining, but also grows increasingly ridiculous as it rolls along. It actually officially opens next Saturday, but has a full day of previews today in a ton of theaters.

If you can’t wait until next week to go watch it (and there are less of you out there than I think, as it’s not tracking very spectacularly in the United States, probably due to its PG-13 rating. Explanation: the first three films have been rated-R, suggesting the 4th film has been watered down in violence and foul language), Twitch has a link to 8 minutes of it.

- Variety, on the other hand, has one of the first reviews of Michael Bay’s Transformers. Big bad robots, lots of explosions, and unnecessary human subplots. Sounds like a blockbuster sci-fi movie to me.

- The entertainment industry doesn’t just like to bully people in America for piracy, they like to bully the rest of the world too. A court in China has ruled for a U.S. industry group in a lawsuit, ordering a Chinese firm to pay 4 major U.S. studios for copyright violation. Looks like it’ll be a long time before Hollywood knows what “if you can’t beat them, join them” means, especially that they know this ruling doesn’t really do much to stop things.

- David Strathairn, a great character actor who’s done some great work (especially in George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck), has just been casted in the Hollywood remake of the Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters. I’m slightly looking more forward to it now. It starts shooting next month.

- Looks like Erika Sawajiri is heading to a recording career after all, as I just found her first music video under the name “Erika” on Youtube today. With that weak vocal and generic melody, it’s not really Song of the Day material (then again, you can argue against a ton of choice I’ve made…).

- The silly box office battle between Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is coming to an end, as a definite winner is pretty much set.

- Andrew Lau has hooked up with the Weinsteins to produce three films under his new production company. Lau and Weinstein - now that’s a formula for crappy commercial films. Honestly, I can’t ever get excited about neither Lau or Weinstein’s Asian stuff, so just go to the link to read more.

The Golden Rock Song of the Day - 6/21/2007

I’m going to admit it, I actually did like one of EEG’s Yumiko Cheng’s albums. Hell, I even gave it a really positive review. And that’s where today’s Song of the Day comes from. From her 2005 album Yumiko’s Space, it’s Thoughts (yeah, I translated the title wrong in the review).

 
 
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