Father Geek here, I saw DARK WATER at the Sitges Festival in Spain a few days ago and take my word for it... It is one Kick Ass creepy thriller!!! Ol' Father Geek saw alot of great Asian film while in Spain at that GREAT genre Festival. A few of the others were... Gin Gwai (The Eye); Rokugatsu No Hebi (Snake Of June); Miyazaki's wonderful Spirited Away; Kitano's phantastic love story Dolls; Miike's Agitator; the stunningly beautiful Devdas; Hwasan Go (Volcano High); Miike's disturbing Koroshiya I (Ichi the Killer); Bangkok Haunted; No Blood No Tears; and my old film school classmate Tsui Hark's incredible Shu Shan Zheng Zhuan (Zu Warriors)

Annnnnnnd YES, you read that right... Father Geek and Tsui Hark went to film school together back in the early 1970's... at... are you ready for this?... at The University of Texas here in Austin. Other Alumni? Well, Tobe Hooper, Coen Brothers, Richard Linkletter, Robert Rodriguez, Matthew McConaughey, Farrah Fawcett (I took speech classes with her), Renée Zellweger, Jayne Mansfield, even Mrs. Bing Crosby (Kathryn Grant).... Princess Parisa in Harryhausen's THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Pretty Cool, huh?

Now here's Darius with our regular weekly report...

Asia-AICN

Hey all, we’re back with a whole lot of info including news on “Police Force”, “Khakee”, “Talaash (The Search)”, and “Hathyaar (Weapon)”. We also have a reviews of “Versus” and “Dark Water”. Enjoy. INDIA

- Actor Amitabh Bachchan has opted out to star in director Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Police Force”. There was no reason given for the superstar’s departure from the project and the producers are now looking for a suitable actor for the role. The film will still go ahead with production early next year as planned. Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, and Jackie Shroff are still attached to the project.

- Meanwhile, even though Akshay won’t star opposite Bachchan in “Police Force”, the duo are attached to star in yet another new film – this time directed by Rajkumar Santoshi (“The Legend of Bhagat Singh”). The project is set to be another war movie (the 3rd for AB and the 2nd for Akshay) and is tentatively titled “Khakee”, as in the colour of the uniforms that soldiers wear. The filmmakers are still on the look out for two more male leads for the film

- And add another AB-Akshay film to the list of new releases – the actors have just been signed to star in director Vipul Shah (“Aankhen – Eyes)’s next film, an action thriller to be produced by Vashu Bhagnani.

- Bhagnani has announced another film – this time a teenybopper romance starring Tusshar Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor and to be directed by Talat Jani. Jani has also directed Bhagnani’s latest production (which stars both of the Kapoors), titled “Jeena Sirf Merre Liye (Living for Myself)”. The film is due out in 2 weeks.

- Here are some stills from a press meet for Aneez Basmee’s “Deewangi (Madness)”. The thriller is due out on October 25th and stars Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna, and Urmila Matondkar.

Here’s a pic of the 3 leads – Ajay, Urmila, and Akshaye. Note Ajay and Urmila’s new look which will be shortly seen in their next project – Ramgopal Verma’s “Bhoot (Spirit)”: Check Them Out Here

Another pic of Akshaye and Urmila: They're Right Here

- Some new pics were also released from director Suneel Darshan’s next release, “Talaash (The Search)”. The action film stars Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, and Pooja Batra and will release on December 6. Here’s the pics:

A great looking pic of Kareena: YUMMY...YUMMY

Another good pic of Kareena: She's Here

Action-hero Akshay looks pretty bloodied-up here: The GORE Is Here

Another pic of Akshay and Kareena (in a wet t-shirt no less – too bad it’s not white!): SEE Her Right Here By Clicking

HATHYAAR (Weapon)

Last week’s first major release was this highly-anticipated sequel to his breakthrough film, “Vaastav (Reality)”, which brings back all of the principles of the first film along with new castmembers Shilpa Shetty, Sharad Kapoor, and Gulshan Grover. And like you all expected – the hero is again played by Sanjay Dutt – even though he died at the end of the first film. How’s this possible you ask – it’s the old son of the character ploy that you’’ve seen in countless other movies.

Essentially this is the same movie as “Vaastav”, this time replacing most of the gritty gangster melodrama with higher counts of gore and extreme violence. Sanjay stars as Rohit, the middleclass son who has grown up within the shadow of his notorious father. Society shuns him and the criminals harass him. Living in the same, hopeless streets of Mumbai eventually converts him into a more ruthless version of his father and Rohit eventually goes on a rampage – mowing down anyone who gets in his path. Unlike his father who always remained on a somewhat lower-scale criminal, Rohit becomes really ambitious and eventually enters politics – corrupting his way to the top. And if you’re familiar with any gangster movie, you’ll know that there’s lots of betrayals and double crosses that eventually become Rohit’s downfall. Along the way, countless people are beaten, killed, and tortured until Rohit finally gets his comeuppance.

Sanjay Dutt plays a yet another gangster role, and tries again to create his most successful role to date. In this he somewhat succeeds – but you know we’ve seen this before. The guy has made much of his recent career to this type of roles and you know you really can’t go wrong – however there’s nothing new or original here that would make this half as daring as “Vaastav”. Shilpa Shetty has also a big role here in this film, and finally gets some scope to perform an actual character – which she pulls off pretty well. As Dutt’s tormented wife, she gives almost a give performance as Namrata Shirodhkar did in the original. Namrata is back again, this time playing Sanjay’s mother though. As she’s not anywhere near Dutt’s age, she’s only relegated to a few flashback scenes and is given very little to do. The other actors are fine in their supporting roles and are given very little to do as this is Dutt’s showcase all the way.

Mahesh Manjrekar pumps up all of his antics to the extreme for this sequel but apparently decided to cut back on originality. While the original was nothing special, it atleast had a somewhat different story (at the time) while this new film is a no-brainer action extravaganza. However there is a lot of stylish violence and whole lot of grittiness associated with these type of films. The songs are typical passable fare and sound decent only while the duration of the film. A couple of them are unnecessarily added in, but overall don’t take away from the pacing.

All in all, “Hathyaar” is a typical gangster film with lots of ultraviolence, but nothing really added in. While it is a well-made film, we’ve seen this done better elsewhere (ahem - “Company”). Still, for fans of Dutt or buckets of blood, this is a must-see.

From left, Sanjay Dutt, Sharad Kapoor and Sachin Khedekar on a killing spree: All The Action Is Here

Sanjay discusses crime with Gulshan Grover, while others look on: Go Here to See

Shilpa Shetty is frickin’ HOT: Check Her Out Right Here

DIL VIL PYAAR VYAAR (Love and Heart)

Last week’s other major release was producer Vivek Vaswani’s ambitious musical romance which has decided to pay a tribute to famed music composer R.D. Burman. In a daring move, the filmmakers have decided to use 14 of Burman’s classic blockbusters and base a film around all of these songs. And they have decided to hand the directorial reigns to acclaimed character actor Anant Mahadevan, and have a large cast of newcomers including R. Madhavan, Namrata Shirodhkar, Sanjay Suri, Sonali Kulkarni, Rakesh Bapat, Hrishita Bhatt, and Jimmy Shergill.

The film revolves around the lives of 4 different couples whose lives run parallel to each other and come together at the end to form an epic conclusion – complete with 4 back-to-back songs!! The story focuses on newlyweds (Madhavan and Shirodhkar) dealing with pride and competition amongst themselves; a widower (Suri) coming to terms with the death of his wife and finding another love (Kulkarni); and a handicapped person (Bapat) overcoming his physical restraints to achieve his main ambitions. And of course Shergill plays a spoiled rich guy chasing a middle class girl who wants nothing to do with him. Each pair deal with their respective problems, often bursting into these classical musical numbers at a breathneck pace, and eventually overcome their problems, coming to a happy conclusion (again with more songs).

It may sound like I’m complaining about the songs, but they actually breath some life into what would be a soap-opera type melodrama (which most Bollywood films are). One minute you see some normal romance fluff and then you see Jimmy Shergill bursting out into “Oh Haseena zulfe wali” or Rakesh Bapat singing “Mere saamne wali Khidki mein”. And what movie is complete without “Yaadon Ki Baarat”?? The music is DEFINITELY the best part of the movie.

The acting is ok. All of the actors do their part appropriately. The best out of the bunch is R. Madhavan, Sanjay Suri and Sonali Kulkarni. Each of the three get a lot of scope to do acting and drama which they perform with ease. Jimmy Shergill, Hrishita Bhatt and Namrata Shirodhkar do a decent job with their stereotypical roles but are given very little to do. The other actors are passable but do nothing special.

The directing is excellent. All of the drama and comedy scenes are only filler material for the real showpiece – the 14 musical segments. All segments are choreographed beautifully with a good blend of today’s histrionics and yesteryear’s classic movements (wait till you see the retro homages!). As the film is full of song and dance, the pacing is somewhat strange. I found myself wanting to forward the talking scenes to get to the next song – which is the purpose of the film. This may be the rare occasion when the talking segments drag a film! Nonetheless, with so many songs, the film does go by at a breathtaking pace – and it’s not even that long compared to today’s standards (with a runtime of slightly over 2 and a half hours).

In summary, “Dil Vil Pyar Vyar’ is a very entertaining musical with a breathtaking new approach to filmmaking. “Moulin Rouge” did this to some extent but this film even manages to top the old one with bigger (and better) musical sequences, at an even larger scale. I just hope that copying old songs doesn’t become a trend or this new technique will fade out very fast. Nonetheless, the film is definitely worth watching in theatres.

Sanjay Suri and Sonali Kulkarni: Click Here

Madhavan and Namrata Shirodhkar: Just Click

JAPAN

Here are two reviews of “Versus” and “Dark Water” from Usumcasane:

First, a thousand thanks to the talk-backer who, in the comments on my last review (Nakata's Chaos) mentioned that the SFFS was putting on Dark Wave at the Roxie and showing Versus and Dark Water. I would've missed it otherwise, and what a loss to the sum total of human happiness that tragedy would've been.

VERSUS

[mild spoilers that won't interfere with your enjoyment of the movie in the slightest ahead]

You've heard the premise: Yakuza against zombies. That's exactly what you get. Try to imagine yakuza versus zombies done the coolest way you can possibly imagine. Now square that, and you've got Versus. For the first forty-five minutes, I thought Versus was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in my whole life. The film wasted absolutely no time on yakuza saying, "What's happening? What -are- those things? Zombies? That can't be." No, these guys are way too tough for that. "I'm going to kill him." "He'll just come back as one of those monsters." "Then I can kill him twice!" That's about the level of the yakuza's shock and dismay at discovering that they're facing an army of undead. Because they're busy fighting amongst themselves, of coursewith knives and guns and lots and lots of martial arts. All filmed in spectacular fashion, of course. The filmmakers spent absolutely all their effort on the things that count making the characters look cool, lots of fake blood, that kind of thing. They didn't spend a dime on, say, making sets (the entire movie takes place in the woods).

I said that for the first forty-five minutes I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. What happened after that? Well, after that, the Pacte Des Loups Syndrome kicked in (you know... if one kung fu fight versus gypsies is good, then sixteen must be better). The scenes started to get repetitious. Very repetitious... how could they not? The only thing in the movie is fighting. There's a girl in the movie... her role consists largely of getting knocked out cold by the protagonist so she doesn't get in the way as he fights various slightly-worse guys (they're all bad guys, after all). So, fighting is great, but it does, eventually, start to lose its luster (I know, who would've thought?). It lost its luster a lot for my girlfriend (she likes fights as much as the next person, it's just that the next person is going to get a little fidgety as you pass the hour mark and the movie is exactly the same as it was in the first ten minutes). Me, though, I'm the target audience for that sort of thing (ditto Brotherhood of the Wolf, which I think I liked better than almost everyone else in the theater). So even though I loved it less when it started to feel a lot repetitious, I still loved it, and odds are good if you're reading AICN you'll love it, too.

DARK WATER

Some foolish person in the Talk Back to my Chaos was silly enough to dispute my claim that the Japanese own the horror genre these days, and that American horror movies aren't fit to upholster the walls in the same theater where films by likes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hideo Nakata are playing. If any doubt the indubitable, empirical, undeniable and irrefutable truth of my claim, let her watch Dark Water and put all of her questions to rest in a shallow grave.

Mimiko. Say the word. If you see someone shiver and look anxiously to the shadows, she's seen Dark Water. Here are some things we learn in Dark Water:

Rain is generally a Bad Sign.

Water in general is BAD.

Kindergarten is a BAD PLACE.

Leaking ceilings are VERY VERY BAD.

There was one moment during the screening when a sold-out theater full of people almost entirely over the drinking age (there was free Guiness as the screening) shrieked like a bunch of preschoolers in a bus plunging off the side of a ravine.

Okay, what is it that makes Japanese horror movies so goddamn scary? It's the mood, first of all. Bad Places. The characters are in Bad Places. But they aren't abandoned warehouses. No, the Bad Places are all around, homes or businesses, schools, elevatorseveryday places that are Bad Bad Bad even when the sun is shining. Nakata and Kurosawa's movies are so steeped in dread and wrongness that as the audience you come to fear every shift of the camera that might reveal the shadowy figure of a little girl in a yellow rain slicker standing at the end of the hall, staring back at you. Nowhere is safe. In Dark Water, the Bad Place is the home, where the leaking water that drips incessantly from the ceiling is a potent metaphor for the encroaching evil.

It's not just the mood that makes these movies so chilling. It's the everyday familiarity of the evil. The evil is not some stupid psycho in a hockey mask, or a haunted house that wants to kill Owen Wilson (not to cast any aspersions on the original Hill House movie, by the way, which is emphatically not akin to the modern American horror movies that are not fit to lick Nakata's cast-off slippers (and no disrespect intended to Mr. Wilson, either)). In Dark Water, the evil is the strain placed on a mother-daughter relationship under the stress of a divorce and a custody battle and the mother's need to make a living for the both of them throughout. Sound pedestrian? It is, that's why it's so terrifying. This is not an evil that can be dynamited or exorcised or wished away with the coming of the dawn. It's an evil with roots so deep in the culture and the psychologies of the main characters that there are no easy answers and no escape routes.

So, if you like horror movies with a brain (and less T&A and less mindless gore), Dark Water is for you. And it's dirt cheap from DDDHouse.com and the like. (Not like Versus which is damn expensive in its R2 release.) -Usumcasane

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. See you all next week.

Darius25