Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Sometimes, it works.
I love the movie SHAOLIN SOCCER. So does Harry. I included it on my end of the year BEST OF list last year, and Harry's spent hours ranting at me about his drooling idiot joy when watching the film. I don't blame him a bit. Stephen Chow knows what he's doing. It's a heck of a confident piece of entertainment.
And when we heard that Miramax was changing the name for American release... well... Harry flipped out a little bit.
Wait... I just read that article again. Harry flipped out a lot. It's one of those moments where he just sort of went all wobbly, like he had a brain cloud. He wet himself so bad that he ended up wetting all over Miramax.
And whattaya know? Sometimes, it works.
I got a great quick e-mail today from Hiromi Kawanishi, the Vice President of Publicity from Mirimax in New York. In part, she said:
"I thought you guys would like to know that we are keeping the title of Stephen Chow's film SHAOLIN SOCCER, and we will not use KUNG FU SOCCER.
After reading the AICN rant about the possible title change, we thought it was the smart thing to do. Can you please inform your readers of this?"
This is the same person who's going to be handling other upcoming releases like THE TOUCH, HERO, and ZU WARRIORS. In other words, this is someone we should start a dialogue with. Here she is, firing a first shot that couldn't be any more of a white flag. It may seem like a simple thing, the difference between SHAOLIN and KUNG FU in a movie title, but the point is... Chow's film had a great title. There's no reason to change it. And the fact that Miramax responded to Harry (and our Talk Backers, a valuable part of the equation) all being outraged by the proposed change is proof that you are not without a voice in these things.
They listened. And this time, we get something done right. And that seems like a really nice step, doesn't it?
I look forward to talking to Hiromi Kawanishi soon and finding out what's up with all the great titles on her plate right now. As soon as I do, I'll let you know what's up.
"Moriarty" out.
