WOW!!! The 75th Asia-AICN Column! Man, seems like just yesterday that ol' Father Geek here got together with Darius25 and mapped out the plan for a regular Asian Film News column for AICN. AND that's just the regular column that's #75 not counting special Asia-AICN reports, Festival reports, etc... that pop up from time to time. Want a real over view of the coverage? Go to that "More AICN" box on the left of the front page and click. A menu will appear that lists all the regular international columns, and more. Click on Asia-AICN and presto an index of most of AICN's Asian coverage will appear. Click on the stories that interest you, and you're in for a ton of good reading. Meanwhile, Click Here For Your Chance To By FATHER GEEK Baseball Hats and Baggy Boxer Shorts!!! You'll Age Happily!!! Well enough of this Father Geek site promo, here's Darius with this week's column...

Asia-AICN #75

Hey all, welcome to our 75th column!! We’ve got a decently packed edition for you this week including news on director Subhash Ghai’s latest film, an English-language remake of “Astitva (Reality)”, director Andrew Lau’s “Bullets of Love”, the Nicholas Tse-Stephen Fung starrer “2002”, the Japanese film “Go”, and the feature film version of “Turn V Gundam”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.

INDIA

It seems that Akshay Kumar is slowly moving up the ranks of Bollywood. The former B-movie action hero has been in several high-profile films such as “Ek Rishta – The Bond of Love” or Abbas-Mustan’s “Ajnabee (Stranger)”; and now comes word that the actor has been approached by A-list director Subhash Ghai to star in his next film opposite Aishwarya Rai (!). This is only a rumour as of yet but it is fairly believable. We’ll hear the final word on this topic when Ghai officially announces his next film in October.

Manoj Bajpai is the latest to join the high-profile cast of J. P. Dutta’s “Tiger Hill”. The film already has Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty and Saif Ali Khan signed to appear while Dutta is still negotiating with Shahrukh Khan for the lead. It is scheduled to begin production sometime this year.

Director Mahesh Manjrekar has signed actress Madhuri Dixit to star in the English-language of his critical hit, “Astitva (Reality)”. The original starred Tabu as a middle-aged housewife who rebels against the Indian society when her extra-marital affair is revealed in public. Madhuri’s a pretty good choice for the subject matter but I can’t see why Manjrekar didn’t repeat Tabu for the role as she gave a damn-fine performance (and won some major awards aswell).

Indian audiences were treated to two new releases last weekend, with the main attraction being directors Abbas-Mustan’s latest thriller, “Ajnabee (Stranger)”. The Indianized version of “Consenting Adults” stars Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu in the leading roles. I shouldn’t give away any plot points at all, but here’s the basic set-up: Bobby Deol stars as an Polo instructor (!) who moves to Switzerland with his wife (Kareena). They become good friends with the couple next door (Akshay and Bipasha) and things are well until the two couples take a vacation together. Akshay unexpectedly suggests to Bobby that they swap wives for a night and a cunning game begins. I won’t reveal the rest but I would suggest to let the plot flow out – it actually ends up better than you think (except for the predictable ending of course). The film’s nothing spectacular but it works as a decent, grade-A thriller. The cinematography’s great, the music’s awesome (watch out for that final song!), and the script is very tightly written, keeping one guessing till the end. The acting is fine for a thriller. Bobby Deol makes a decent leading man while Akshay Kumar kicks MAJOR ass in his somewhat limited role. Not gonna say any more, but he should definitely do more of these films than the family dramas of recent times!! Bipasha Basu looks great and makes an interesting debut (it’s definitely not an award-winning performance but it ain’t too bad either) while Kareena is likeable in the smallest role of the four leads. “Ajnabee” is one of Abbas-Mustan’s better films (and certainly better than their last film – “Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (Secretly and Quietly)” and a must see for fans of suspense thrillers.

Here’s a pic of Bobby and Kareena: Click Here Now

And one of Akshay and Bipasha: Click Now

And here’s a pic of the four leads: Just Click

The other new release of the week, “Kyo Ki… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta (Because… I don’t Lie)”, is the latest collaboration between director David Dhawan and actor Govinda. Sushmita Sen plays the leading lady this time while Rambha, Sharad Kapoor, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Satish Kausik and Anupam Kher provide the supporting relief. David’s latest comedy (does he make anything else?) is pretty much a rip-off of Jim Carrey’s “Liar, Liar” with Govinda starring as the hapless lawyer unable to lie for one day. Chaos ensues with many hilarious situations until the comedian finally comes to his senses and realizes that deception is bad (awww!!). Originality aside, the film is a fairly typical Dhawan comedy with laughs coming in every single scene. Based on the source material, you know that no intelligence is required and the film’s just senseless entertainment. Govinda excels in his latest role (no different from his last Dhawan film, “Jodi No. 1 (Duo No. 1)” and his accents and mannerisms (as usual) are worth the price of admission alone. Sushmita Sen provides decent support (and brief bits of comedy) as the lawyer’s wife while the supporting cast is average. The script’s brief running time (for Bollywood) allows for a very brisk pace while the songs are catchy and equally funny. All in all, “Kyo Ki… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta” is an extremely entertaining (but not original) comedy that fans of Govinda and David Dhawan will definitely like.

Here’s a pic of Govinda and Sushmita Sen: Just Go Here

CHINA / HK

Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:

Ever wonder how Johnnie To would transform Ekin Cheng into a bad guy? Look no further, here's the first official still from "Running out of Time 2", which will be released this Christmas. Accspy comments : Cool! Maybe choosing Ekin to play the villain is not a bad decision after all..

Here’s the pic: Just Click Now

Jackie Chan and the crew of "The Tuxedo" went to the Toronto Red Cross to donate blood for the victims of the incident two weeks ago. Reports say that two English actors were refused because of the mad cow disease in England (was that for real?? – D25) and an actress was refused because of her thinness! (Accspy: I bet it was Jennifer Love Hewitt.)

Here's a pic of Jackie donating blood: Go Here

Jackie has some leisure time: Just Click Here

Director Andrew Lau's latest, "Bullets of Love", will finally arrive in theatres next month. The film stars Leon Lai as a cop who quits his job and moves to a remote island after his wife is murdered. One day, a Japanese reporter (Asaka Seto) comes to visit the widower and bring some new evidence along leading the cop finally to investigate the case. Here's some stills from the film.

Now-a-fisherman Leon and Asaka on his ship: Click

Leon and Asaka at a traditional wedding banquet on the island: Just Click

After a year of pre-production, Michelle Yeoh has finally started the shooting of her latest film, "The Touch", in Tibet last week. The film has already been bought by Miramax and is set to release in US next summer. A shooting ceremony on the set was held to commemorate the occasion.

From left to right, director Peter pau, producer Chung Joy-si, Michelle Yeoh and Ben Chaplin: Click Now

Director Wilson Yip have wrapped up the action horror flick "2002" last week. In the film Nicholas Tse and Stephen Fung play two Gen-X ghostbusters in HK fighting any kind of ghosts. The film is set to release in Christmas, up against "Running out of Time 2" and the formerly-known-as Tekken movie, also starring Stephen Fung. The last day of shooting was actually a reverse scene in which Nic and Stephen met for the first time because of a parking ticket. The scene was shot on the last day because Stephen needed to shorten his hair exceptionally for this single scene while he's in a police uniform.

Here’s a pic of Nic and Stephen: Click Here

And another one of Nic: Click

“Moulin Rouge" stayed on top of last week's HK box office for the second straight with a $4.4 million HKD grossing so far. Francis Ng's new film "Horror Hotline" was not far behind with $4.2 million at the second place. "Scary Movie 2" also remained unchanged at the third place. "Bridget Jones's Diary" was at no.4, and two films, Korean film "La Belle" and "You Can Count on Me" debuted at no.5 and no.8, respectively.

JAPAN

Here’s the latest report from “Pigmon”:

The critics and audiences are raving about “GO", directed by Isao Yukisada. The film follows the tale of a Korean student, Sugihara, who is a senior at a Japanese high school. The story deals with the discrimination of some Koreans in Japan, and how Sugihara has to hide his heritage from everyone at school, including his girfriend. Young actor Kubozuka Youske is dynamite as Sugihara and this film will confirm his status as one of the most sought-after stars in Japan. The film will get an international release next year, while it will open in Japan this November.

Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of "Versus", has announced that he got an offer to direct "Freddy vs. Jason" for New Line Cinema during the first official screening of his film. Judging from the film, Kitamura may be the perfect choice!

Masahiko Omori's new film will be "Nagori Yuki" based on a popular song from the ‘70s. The film, which stars veteran actor Tomokazu Miura, is already in the shooting stage.

The TV series "Turn V Gundam" will be re-edited for a feature film which is set to open in theatres next February. Shochiku will distribute the film, which will be divided into two separate films (screening at different times). The first part will be showing on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday while the second part will be showing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. What a nice idea!

Finally,"Sprited Away" has passed Princess Mononoke's all-time box-office record in Japan last week. While still No. 1 at the box office, "Sprited Away" expects to break all the time box office record, held by "Titanic", in 2 months.

Here is last week's Tokyo's Box Office

• 01. Spirited Away (Toho)　　　　　　　　　$5,855,000
• 02. Final Fantasy (GAGA/HUMAX) 　　　 2,043,712
• 03. Pearl Harbor (BV)　　　　　　　　 　　　 843,674
• 04. Jurassic Park III (UIP)　 　　　 　　　 606,783
• 05. Taiga No Itteki (Toho)　　　　　　 　 　 598,383
• 06. Planet of the Apes　　　　　　　　 　　 588,560
• 07. Water Boys (Toho)　 　 　　　　　 　 572,700
• 08. Driven (Heraldo)　　　　　　　　　　　 　 535,950
• 09. A.I. (WB)　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 403,920
• 10. Blow (GAGA/HUMAX)　　　　　　　　 281,319

And here’s the lineup of this year’s Annual Tokyo Film Festival:

Competition

Malunde 2001 119min　Director Stefanie Sycholt

One Fine Spring Day 2001 113min　Director Hur Jin-ho

Goal Club 2001 96min　Director Laiwsirikun Kittikorn

Weekend Plot 2001 91min　Director Zhang Ming

Anam 2001 90min　Director Buket Alakus

KEWAISHI 2001 113min　Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka

Human Nature 2000 96min　Director Michel Gondry

Under the Moonlight 2001 96min　Director Reza Mir-Karimi

Slogans 2001 94min　Director Gjergj Xhuvani

Mr In-Between 2001 97min　Director Paul Sarossy

The Lament of A Lamb 2001 109min　Director Junji Hanadou

The Rebel 2000 97min　Director Simon Aeby

O 200 195min　Director Tim Blake Nelson

The Chimp 2001　Director Aktan Abdykalykov

Jury for the Competition

Jury President: Norman Jewison

Jury Members: Catherine Dussart, Joey Wang, Daniel Schmid, Yasuki Hamano

Special Screenings

Opening Screening is Shrek 2001 91min　Directors Andrew Adamson / Vicky Jenson

Bangkok Dangerous 2000 105min　Directors Oxide Pang / Danny Pang

Peony Pavilion 2000 120min　Director Yonfan

Twixt Calm & Passion 2001 125min　Director Isamu Nakae

The Man Who Cried 2000 97min　Sally Potter

Hedwig and the Angry Inch 2000 92min　Director John Cameron Mitchell

Apocalypse Now Redux 1973 203min　Director Francis Ford Coppola

The Happiness of the Katakuris 2001 113min　Director Takashi Miike

Genji - A Thousand Year Love 2001　Director Tonko Horikawa

VIDOCQ 2001 100min　Director PITOF

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah : Giant Monsters All-Out Attack 2001 105min　Director Shusuke Kaneko

Lucky Break 2001 108min　Director Peter Cattaneo

Dust 2001 127min　Director Milcho Manchevski

No Man's Land 2001 98min　Director Danis Tanovic´

The Others 2001 104min　Director Alejandro Amenabar

Vengeance Is Such A Great Business 2001 98min　Director Kihachi Okamoto

Closing Screening is Atlantis : The Lost Empire ; 2001 95min　Directors Gary Trousdale / Kirk Wise

We have now reached the end of this week's column. Remember, if you have information regarding any film industry in Asia, please contact our Asia-AICN offices at atshrivas@home.com. See you all next week.

Darius25