January 19th, 2009
The Golden Rock - January 18th, 2009 Edition
- Got some new reviews on Lovehkfilm. From Kozo are reviews for Felix Chong and Alan Mak’s Lady Cop and Papa Crook, Milkyway’s latest Tactical Unit - Comrade in Arms, and Tony Jaa’s Apocalypse Now, also known as Ong Bak 2. Sanjuro not only chimes in with a review for the Singaporean film Love Story, from Rule #1 director Kelvin Tong, he also goes back to his old Fist of Fury review with a new picture and some adjustments.
- Box Office Mojo just posted the China box office numbers from the previous weekend. As reported a few days ago, Red Cliff II dominated with 101 million yuan within the first 5 days of release. Feng Xiaogang’s If You Are the One is still doing quite well, with just under 300 million yuan as of last weekend. Ip Man has also done pretty well with 92 million yuan, though it’s no Painted Skin. Even though Media Asia for Lady Cop and Papa Crook in after numerous cuts to appease the Chinese authorities, it lost 80% of box office gross in its 3rd weekend, and has only made 17.6 million yuan so far.
- On a related subject, EastSouthWestNorth has some translated comments made by the former deputy director of the State Film Administration about what adjustments various Hong Kong films had to make to get into the Mainland. You can probably imagine that I’d have to say about it.
- It’s review time! From Lisa Tsering of Hollywood Reporter Asia is a review of Chandni Chowk Goes to China. Variety’s John Anderson also shares his thoughts on the 154-minute Bollywood extravaganza.
From Japan Time’s Mark Schilling is a review of the Buddhist drama Zen.
From the Daily Yomiuri is Stephen Taylor’s review of the family drama Osaka Hamlet.
-After more than two trips around the world and leading to 8 marriages, the Japanese reality show Ainori is finally coming to an end.
This was one of the first Japanese reality show that I got hooked on since I first studied there in 2004. Even though I don’t buy everything as realistic (the confession moments often appear staged), it was an interesting observation about people coming together in an extraordinary situation, even though trying to get them to fall enough was a little too much. I may not have been following it for the last year or so, but it will be missed.
- The Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival has unveiled their lineup this year, which will include the premiere of Crows Zero II and the latest film from the director of Departures (told you these Japanese directors work fast, regardless of the reception to their work).
- This week’s Televiews column on the Daily Yomiuri looks at the two new dramas on Fuji to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
- It’s trailers time! Twitch offers up the trailer to Derek Yee’s The Shinjuku Incident, although the introduction following up to the trailer has a pretty major spoiler that you’ll wish you didn’t read. And someone should tell Todd that Emperor has decided to forego the Mainland release already.
Nippon Cinema has two full-length trailers. First it’s Kankuro Kudo’s Shonen Merikensack, featuring the oh-so-adorable Aoi Miyazaki, and then it’s the trailer for General Rouge no Gaisen, the sequel to last year’s sleeper hit medical mystery The Glorious Team Bastista.