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Asian Cinema
	Topic by: Eoliano Posted: January 11, 2003 - 8:58 AM PST Last Reply: April 12, 2003 - 9:57 AM PDT

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author	topic: Asian Cinema
Eoliano	post #1  on January 11, 2003 - 8:58 AM PST   A forum for discussing Asian Cinema.
dpowers	post #2  on January 12, 2003 - 11:28 AM PST   okay let's go for it. china has swallowed hong kong without chewing, but hong kong cinema was already on its way "down" before the transfer from british control. this probably means that, inside the arts establishment in china, it's an automatic vindication of PRC filmmakers as the "better" film community in mainland china. now we're starting to see very "hong kong"-like films from the PRC - crouching tiger, hero, while brain drain has seriously hit hong kong itself. with these changes, predicting that: 1) the PRC film people won't really be able to make the porn, the unsentimental action, that made hong kong so powerful in the region; and 2) taiwanese and japanese filmmakers will remain stuck in their relatively polemical anti-hollywood stances; does this mean that the south korean film industry can just run out and become the big film power in east asia, or will the south asians (india, thailand, indonesia, vietnam) pick up and get in to fill the HK hole? or have i read the situation totally wrong?
NeilCresswell	post #3  on January 12, 2003 - 3:50 PM PST   My thought for a day: Is it a good thing or a bad thing that more and more asian stars (actors and directors) are mixing it more and more with Hollywood productions? I get the impression this is a slight trend.
dpowers	post #4  on January 12, 2003 - 5:54 PM PST   > Is it a good thing or a bad thing that more and more asian stars ... are mixing it ... with Hollywood productions? < i don't know. this is in the same area as, congratulations to denzel washington and halle berry for winning oscars last year. too bad black people still can't make a living acting in hollywood, but you two really deserve credit for your talent! if the local industry is hurting, only a handful of people from asia can become stars in hollywood. everybody else has to find other work.
Signalstation	post #5  on January 12, 2003 - 8:09 PM PST   I was thinking about posting something about Asian cinema because I've been thinking about it for the last few weeks, but my thoughts weren't together enough to justify a post. But since this is opened, I gotta say that my enthusiasm for HK films, which was burning bright for years (and I came to it late, had lots of movies stacked up to watch and catch up with the industry), has dimmed recently. The things that used to excite me about HK film, its willingness to take risks, to be completely crazy, seems to have worn off. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I've started looking more to Japan and Korea for the craziness I used to see from Hong Kong. Example One: Takashi Miike. Example two: The yakuza vs. zombie flick Versus. Example three: The Ring, all Japanese & Korean versions. See also: My Wife is Gangster, Attack the Gas Station, Samurai Fiction. Is it just me?
Signalstation	post #6  on January 12, 2003 - 8:11 PM PST   And furthermore, why the hell is Chow Yun Fat playing second-fiddle to a Dude, Where's My Car jerk? Bulletproof Monk... *sigh*. The world's gone mad! In a perfect world, Jet Li would have played Mr. Anderson in The Matrix and Keanu would be going door-to-door in Hollywood, begging studios to resurrect the Bill and Ted franchise.
dpowers	post #7  on January 12, 2003 - 10:08 PM PST   Signalstation wrote: > ... my enthusiasm for HK films, which was burning bright for years ... has dimmed recently. < maybe you developed an allergy. it happens to everybody. when you see jackie chan on television now, do you sneeze? > The things that used to excite me about HK film, its willingness to take risks, to be completely crazy, seems to have worn off. < #1, hong kong under china is a different city. #2, lots of fun people left because of the transfer. #3, money is not flowing as freely as it was when zu came out. #4, financial performance is king. (see #1.) > I've started looking more to Japan and Korea for the craziness I used to see from Hong Kong. < or thailand or india or indonesia or the philippines. believe me you are not alone in this. apparently most filmies who loved HK got addicted and are out there looking now for better and better highs, to the point that i bet some people who got in on john woo are now shivering in trash bins, grabbing japanese snuff porn from kazaa with their cell phones. well, if i had to guess, it looks like you've got a bad combination of changes in hong kong and having to increase the dosage over time to get high. go hide in a shipping container until you feel like eating your own hand and you should be fine. > Attack the Gas Station < this looks really funny. is it bloody? > In a perfect world, Jet Li would have played Mr. Anderson in The Matrix and Keanu would be going door-to-door in Hollywood, begging studios to resurrect the Bill and Ted franchise. < but in that world you might have died of dysentery when you were four. pick your poison.
Signalstation	post #8  on January 13, 2003 - 10:28 AM PST   > Signalstation wrote: > > ... my enthusiasm for HK films, which was burning bright for years ... has dimmed recently. < > > maybe you developed an allergy. it happens to everybody. when you see jackie chan on television now, do you sneeze? > Almost. I don't have my TV hooked up to cable or an antennae, so about the only TV station I get is the Spanish-language one. And I watched about half of a Jackie Chan/Danny Aiello nightmare called The Protector dubbed in Spanish. I didn't sneeze, but I was almost sick. It's got to be Jackie's worst movie. Watching him fight in slow-motion so the beefy American actor villian can throw some weak ass punches was horrible. > > Attack the Gas Station < > > this looks really funny. is it bloody? Nah. It's a pretty charming comedy about four punks who've been, you know, let down by Korean society or something. So they amuse themselves by terrorizing the same gas station two weeks in a row. While there the second time, they take the employees hostage and work the pumps themselves to get more money. Then they go through a series of crises with horrible customers, rival gangs, a Chinese food delivery guy with an attitude and nosy cops who don't wanna pay for gas. No blood, just fist-fighting and vandalism.
dpowers	post #9  on January 13, 2003 - 12:07 PM PST   > I watched about half of a Jackie Chan/Danny Aiello nightmare called The Protector < i didn't even know that was made. sounds AWFUL. a candidate for what's up tiger lily redubbing? > > > > Attack the Gas Station < > It's a pretty charming comedy ... No blood, just fist-fighting and vandalism. < okay i'll check it out. i got a little put off by failan when i saw it. a long quiet thoughtful melodrama that ended, not quiet. the korean realism for both sap and violence is arresting and i'm still trying to be able to stomach it sometimes.
Eoliano	post #10  on January 13, 2003 - 12:20 PM PST   Has anyone heard anything or possibly seen Zhang Yimou's Hero (Ying xiong)? Can't help but be fascinated, given that it stars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Jet Li. I am debating seeing that or Marco Bellocchio's My Mother's Smile (Ora di religione) at the PSIFF. Unfortunately, I missed the screening of the Bellocchio yesterday and the two films are playing at the same time. Since I haven't quite figured out how to be in two theaters simultaneously, it's a toss up. Given that Yimou's film is he likeliest of the two to find a distributor, I'm inclined towards the Bellocchio.
dwhudson	post #11  on January 13, 2003 - 2:08 PM PST   > Given that Yimou's film is he likeliest of the two to find a distributor, I'm inclined towards the Bellocchio. Eoliano, it's hard to have to give up one or the other, but your logic here makes a lot of sense to me. I can't imagine Hero not getting some sort of distribution in the States, whereas, unfortunately, it'd seem that Bellocchio is less of a shoe-in. Lucky me, I'll be seeing Hero when it plays at the Berlinale in a few weeks, and I'll trade you a full report for yours on Bellocchio. [g]
Signalstation	post #12  on January 13, 2003 - 3:26 PM PST   GreenCine doesn't seem to have a Thailand sub-category under the Foreign Films genre. I know they have Bangkok Dangerous, a shallow, flashy action film set in Thailand, but I wonder what else might be out there.
Eoliano	post #13  on January 14, 2003 - 9:01 AM PST   >> Lucky me, I'll be seeing Hero when it plays at the Berlinale in a few weeks... If I get to the Palm Springs International Festival today at all, I'll be lucky. I've got a problem with the outdoor plumbing, but the Bellocchio film is in the early evening, so I might make it. Most recent news re: Hero/Ying Xiong - It was originally scheduled to be released in November 2002, and now Miramax is aiming for a November 2003 release date! They're going to sit on it for an enitere year. Go figure. At least I'll get to see it, but maybe not until 2004!
socialretard	post #14  on January 14, 2003 - 11:40 AM PST   I've only been watching HK films for a couple years, so even if what's coming out since the PRC took control isn't so great...there are still a lot of great films from the past to see. One note of caution on some of the Korean films available for rent (such as Happy End, Foul King & Attack the Gas Station): these are HK versions of the films and the language track is dubbed into Cantonese and doesn't have the original Korean. I'm not 100% about the copies GreenCine has because I haven't rented them here. Before I defected from Netflix, I rented a couple and was disappointed to find the movies didn't have the original language track. My solution to this was to buy a region-free player, which is great but will probably put me in the poorhouse with all the DVDs I'll buy.
NeilCresswell	post #15  on January 14, 2003 - 3:22 PM PST   Slashdot article re Miyazaki Region 1 DVDs claiming that Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY, CASTLE IN THE SKY (aka LAPUTA), and KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE will be released on 2 disc region 1 DVD sets from Disney in April of this year. Am reposting links here in case you guys are interested. http://slashdot.org/articles/03/01/14/1417238.shtml?tid=168 http://www.fanboy.info/yabbse/index.php?board=13;action=display;threadid=5660
NeilCresswell	post #16  on January 14, 2003 - 3:26 PM PST   hehe... and also as a hint to the purchasing department at GC. :p
SRhodes	post #17  on January 14, 2003 - 5:36 PM PST   Asian is cinema is such a huge topic, but I guess this is the best place to put this. Harry Knowles has posted about the death of Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku who directed over sixty films during a career that lasted over 40 years. He includes a plea for his work to be released properly on DVD. I saw a screening of his Battle Royale at PFA last year which was introduced by my roommate Patrick Macias who has a section on Fukasaku including an interview in his book Tokyoscope: The Japenese Cult Film Companion. He wites: "Who is Kinji Fukasaku? A Japenese Sam Peckinpah - a masterful purveyor of chaotic screen violence and macho aesthetic. Or: a politically radical film craftsman whose keen-eyed observations engage the moral complexities of postwar history. Outside of Japan, Fukasaku's name is connected, if at all, to four wildly anomolous films which saw the light of day in the international marketplace [The Green Slime, Black Lizard, Message from Space and the Japenese portions of Tora! Tora! Tora!]... Imagine if Peckinpah were known interenationally for Convoy and that Julian Lennon video." Midnight Special has an overview of his career including a filmography and interview.
SRhodes	post #18  on January 14, 2003 - 5:53 PM PST   Sorry I see this has been mentioned in the obits topic. I'll repost it there.
dpowers	post #19  on January 14, 2003 - 6:28 PM PST   > I saw a screening of his Battle Royale at PFA last year which was introduced by my roommate Patrick Macias... < i was there too. he did a good intro and the crowd was great!
HNordberg	post #20  on January 14, 2003 - 6:56 PM PST   Asian cinema is a pretty broad topic... ...but I want to recommend Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro, Scenes by the Sea and Hana-bi (Fireworks). Scenes by the sea is a documentary, but a great one. Hana-bi is my favorite of his movies and has a bit of violence in it. More than Attack the Gas Station, but much less than Kitano's Brother. Hana-bi is about a man (and a woman) dealing with his wife's illness (how's that for simplification of a complex movie?).

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