Father Geek here wishing you all a happy and safe New Year's celebration.

Here's Darius25, pigmon, and AccSpy with this holiday week's regular Thursday column which contains no Bowl games, and... absolutely NO info on LOTR: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. I have nothing to add, but... see you all right here next week in 2002!

Asia-AICN

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you’re enjoying your holidays (and watching plenty of cool flicks!).

We have a packed column for you this week, filled with lots of goodies, including news on “Om Jai Jagdish”, “Shanghai Knights”, “Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (My Friend’s Wedding)”, “Little Madam on Shift”, “Love Galaxy”, “Pork Chop’s Union”, "Mizu No Onna", “Rock’n Roll Misin”, and “Kill Bill”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.

INDIA

- Actress Diya Mirza has been replaced by newcomer Tara Sharma for Anupam Kher’s directorial debut, “Om Jai Jagdish”. No reason was reported for Diya’s departure, which seems strange as Kher was the one of the first people to give her a break (he signed her before she made “Deewanapan (Madness)” and “Rehna Hai Terre Dil Me (Living in Your Heart)”. The shooting for the film was well underway before Diya’s departure so quite a big chunk would have to be reshot with Tara. The film, which stars Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, and Abhishek Bachchan in the titular roles, is still on track for a summer 2002 release.

- The shooting of Yashraj Films’ next film, “Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (My Friend’s Wedding)”, is now underway. It stars Uday Chopra, Jimmy Shergill, and Bipasha Basu in the leading roles while being directed by Sanjay Gadhvi. The film will be released late 2002.

- Shyam Benegal has signed R. Madhavan to portray the leading role for his next film. The director was in heavy talks with Govinda, then Aamir Khan for the role but eventually settled on the South superstar who has only one Bollywood film to his name so far (“Rehna Hai Terre Dil Me – Living in Your Heart). Benegal is also negotiating with Aishwarya Rai for his leading lady in the film.

- Last week’s new release was the middle-class comedy “Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Ruppaiya (a popular saying loosely translated as Earn 50 cents, Spend a Dollar)”. Directed by K. Raghuvendra Rao, the film features a pretty large cast which includes Govinda, Juhi Chawla, Chandrachur Singh, Tabu, Vinay Anand, Isha Koppikar, Johny Lever, and Ketaki Deve. The director is famous for making old-fashioned family-themed films, and this one’s no exception. The story focuses on three pals (Johny Lever, Chandrachur Singh, and Vinay Anand) who believe in living life carelessly. They’re pure middle class, but have no worries or concerns. Of course, their reckless spending and arrogant behaviour causes a major problem with their wives (Ketaki Deve, Tabu, and Isha Koppikar, respectively) who have to deal with financial problems every single day. Things change when a non-conservative couple, Bhishma and Jhumri (Govinda and Juhi Chawla), move into the neighbourhood. This couple believes in the modern way of living and constantly challenges the traditional roles of the sexes – the wife works while the husband takes care of the household. This notion inspires the wives to find jobs aswell while our three heroes end up doing the dishes and looking after the kids. What follows is an all-out battle between the guys and their wives as each struggles to maintain power in their respective household.

As you can tell, there’s a lot of things happening in the plot and the film is filled with many humorous situations. Of these, the biggest laughs are delivered by the Govinda-Juhi pair (who have the smallest roles in the film despite the high billing) and the Johny Lever-Ketaki Deve pair (who have the biggest roles despite the lower billing). Govinda acts, well like his screen self, but he isn’t annoying here as he comes in really small doses – usually to come between the fighting spouses or beat them up (you’ll have to see it for yourself!!). Juhi’s excellent UP accent is put to good use here as is Ketaki Deve’s well-known Gujarati accent. In fact, I really really liked the rapport between the Johny-Ketaki pair – they had all the chemistry of battle-weary enemies who’ve suffered through hell (again you’ll see for your self), and I laughed whenever they’re on the screen. The other two couples were decent, but Tabu’s comic potential (of which I can’t really recall) is not really put to the best use. The Vinay Anand-Isha Koppikar pair were just included for filler purposes and could easily have been written out. The direction is decent enough for a comedy – nothing really artistic here but the comic situations were actually hilarious, and more importantly, realistically depicted the lives of the middle class society in urban India. The songs were really good aswell, with plenty of foot-tapping numbers coming in at appropriate moments. All in all, this film is a pretty good time-waster, if you’ve seen “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sorrow)”.

CHINA / HK

Here’s the weekly report from “AccSpy”:

- At a recent conference for "In the mood for Love" special version DVD release, Wong Kar-wai confirmed that there will also be DVD re-releases of his earlier films and will be released later next year. "In the Mood for Love" will also score a theatrical re-release in America early next year. Wong will come to US with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung to promote the film once again.

- Director Joe Ma and star Mariam Yeung enjoyed the success of one of the surprise hits in 2001 ("Dummy Mummy, without a Baby") and are now teaming up again in another comedy titled "Little Madam on Shift (lit. title)". Mariam will play a policewoman just graduated from police academy, who goes undercover in the Triad world, but soon falls in love with the triad boss' son, played by Daniel Wu.

- Eason Chan joined Nicholas Tse and Karena Lin in "Love Galaxy (lit. title)". Eason will play the pal and workmate to the deaf toy-store cleaner, played by Nic Tse, who uses music and dancing to redefine himself.

- Director Herman Yau ("Master Q 2001") will direct a comedy for Mandarin Pictures starring Nick Cheung and Candy Lo, with Kenny Bee and Cecilia Yip as Nick's parents. HK filmgoers will remember Bee and Yip as the golden on-screen couple in 80's. On the side note, Kenny Bee will voice-dub for Sulley in the Cantonese version of "Monster Inc.", released during the Chinese New Year.

- Another comedy starting principal photography in HK is "Pork Chop's Union (lit. title)", a Wong Jing production starring Jordan Chan, Michelle Reis, Stephen Fung and Karen Mok.

- An official shooting date for Jackie Chan's "Shanghai Knights" is released – March 15, 2002.

- "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone" debuted in the first place at last weekend's HK box office as things should be, with a colossal $10 million opening in four days. Landed at no.2 was "Dance of a Dream", the latest effort from Andy Lau's Teamwork Pictures and co-starring Sandra Ng and Anita Mui. It opened on Friday and collected a respectable $3.70 million grossing during its first three days. Last week's no.1 film "Spirited Away" and no.2 film "My Life as McDull" fell to the third and fourth place as family audiences' new primary choice were shifted. At no.5 is the supernatural action film "2002", which collected $5.34 millions in 9 days. Terribly ignored by filmgoers was Tom Cruise's "Vanilla Sky". While opening in 26 theatres, the film struggled to make only $0.5 million during its first weekend. Next weekend, one last big HK title of 2001 will be released as Lau Ching Wan and Ekin Cheung face off in "Running out of Time 2".

JAPAN

Here is the latest column from “Pigmon”:

- Here are the results of the 26th Hochi Newspaper Movie Awards:

Best Picture - "Go"

Best Director - Miyazaki Hayao for "Sprited Away"

Best Actor - Yosuke Kubozuka for "Go"

Best Actress - Kyoko Koizumi for "Kaze-Hana"

Best Supporting Actor - Tsutomu Yamazaki for "Go","Tengoku Kara Kita Otoko

Tati" and "Jogakusei No Tomo"

Best Supporting Actress - Kou Shibazaki for "Go","Battle Royal" and "Kakashi"

Best New Artist - Hitomi Manaka for "Kokoniirukoto"

Best Foreign Movie - "Galaxy Quest"--Wow!

Also, here are the results of the14th Nikkan Sportspaper Awards

• Best Picture - "Sprited Away"
• Best Director - Isao Yukisada for "Go"
• Best Actor - Naoto Takenaka for"Sanmonyakusha"
• Best Actress - Keiko Kishi for"Kachan"
• Best New Artist - Kou Shibazaki for "Go" and "Battle Royal"
• Best Foreign Movie - "Billy Elliott"

- Ad director Hidenori Sugimori's feature film debut, "Mizu No Onna" is in production now. Starring Tadanobu Asano and pop star UA, many people in industry suspect that this will get all the major awards next year. It is expected to wrap up sometime in the spring.

- Director Toshiaki Toyota’s next film, "Blue Spring", is based on the famous short manga and is about various high school students coping with life. Ryuhei Matsuda looks stunning in this film. The film is expected to release early next spring in Japan.

- My friend has translated the shooting script for “Kill Bill” into Japanese for actor/martial artist Sonny Chiba, and has said that the plot COMPLETELY ROCKS!! Mr. Tarantino expects to start shooting in Japan sometime next June, with additional shoots in HK, Mexico, Austin Texas, and the USA also taking place next year with Uma Thurman (as THE assassin), Warren Beatty (as Bill), and a supporting cast of Tarantino regulars.

- Actor/director Takeshi Kitano has started preparing the shooting for his next film, to be released around next June (during the World Cup Soccer games). It is expected to be either a Yakuza film or a romance (or perhaps both!!).

- The theme for director Shiya Tsukamoto’s next film, “Rokugatsu No Hebi”, is eroticism (good choice – D25!!). The film, with tonnes of gore and nudity, will be releasing next summer in Japan.

- Director Sabu’s next film, “Drive”, has been completed and has been already sold in various foreign markets. It will be released sometime next year in Japan.

- Director Isao Yukisada’s next film after “Go” is “Rock’n Roll Misin”. The story is supposedly set on young people in the fashion industry in Japan. It is currently in the editing process right now, and is set on a Summer 2002 release in Japan.

- Director Satoshi Isaka’s next film will be the baseball fantasy “Mr. Rookie” and will focus on a mystery man who helps out the Hanshin Tigers during the Japanese championship by becoming their relief pitcher (while donning a mask). The identity of the player is always concealed. Popular player Kazuhige Nagashima (from the Tokyo Giants) will take on the leading role. I am pretty sure that if this film’s a hit, Hollywood will probably produce an inferior remake.

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@rogers.com. Have a very happy New Year and we’ll see you right here next week.

Darius25