Here's our 6th regular weekly Wednesday morning Asia-AICN column. This one is full of great information that has Father Geek pacing the floor here at our Austin World Geek Headquarters in anticipation of some of these films like PURPLE STORM and THE TOUCH.
By the way Austin is not as far removed from the Asian film industry as one might suspect. Years ago when Father Geek was a struggling film school student at the University of Texas there was a struggling young Asian film student in my film production and writing classes who had a unique style and a real flare for flash editing. Who was this skinny kid with the broken English... well, he grew up to become none other than Tsui Hark who brought us THE CHINESE GHOST STORY saga, the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA epics, PEKING OPERA BLUES, BLACK MASK, A BETTER TOMMORROW, IRON MONKEY, and THE KILLER among others. Yes, that's right Tsui Hark learned to write and make movies deep in the heart of Texas. He had never touched a motion picture camera before he took 8mm and 16mm production classes at UT. You know who else sat in on those classes with Harry's mother and me all those years ago, none other than Tobe Hooper. (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, LIFEFORCE, and POLTERGEIST) We had some GREAT student films come out of those courses.
Here's this week's column. I hope we get some Japanese reporters soon.
Then we could cover the major movie industries in Asia. Of course, news
from other Asia countries would be good as well.
Asia-AICN #6
Hey all. Well, we have survived for 6 weeks now and hope to stay here
for a long time. The only concern I have is that our reporters and I
only cover 2 countries right now - China and India. Since this is an
ASIAN column, I urge you to send me, Darius 25 any news
regarding movies from ANY Asian country such as Japan, Iran, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, etc. Anyway, here's this week's latest movie news
from Asia.
INDIA
- Actor Hrithik Roshan's eagerly anticipated next film, Mission Kashmir,
is being postponed to be released around October to November. This will
be because of the holiday Diwali (It's a festival of lights, and is
celebrated to recognize the day of Lord Rama's return from his exile,
according to Hinduism). Also the film has been released to counter
another big film opening around the holiday - Mohabbatein (Love
Affairs). Mohabbatein is director Aditya Chopra's second film, after the
MEGA hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Lovers Will Take Their Brides
Away). Mohabbatein stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
- Principal photography for the film Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya (Your Magic
has Worked) is now complete and post production is now in progress to
meet the film's release date of August 18. The film stars Abhishek
Bachchan and Kirti Reddy.
- Actor Sunny Deol has walked out of director Raj Kumar Santoshi's film
Lajja (Ashamed). The film is about 30 percent complete and producers are
rushing to replace Deol as soon as possible in order to get the
production back on track. The films also stars Anil Kapoor, Jackie
Shroff and Manisha Koirala.
- Two weeks ago in Asia-AICN #4, I discussed that there were two films
being made with practically the same name. One was director Inder
Kumar's Rishta (Relationship) with actor Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai,
the other film was Suneel Darshan's Rishta - A Tale of Love with Amitabh
Bachchan and Akshay Kumar. Well, the title registration committee of
Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association has now rejected the title
of Suneel Darshan's film. It decided that the titles of the two films
are very similar, and since Inder Kumar reserved the title first, he has
the right to use the movie. Because both movies are coming out around
the same time, it is not fair to use similar titles. Suneel Darshan now
has to change the title of his film to something else.
- Director Kuku Kohli has just announced his upcoming film - Biwi, I
Love You (Biwi means wife in Hindi). The film will star Sanjay Dutt and
Karishma Kapoor.
- Finally, I would like to congratulate actor Shah Rukh Khan and his
wife Gauri on the birth of their second child, Suhana. Suhana Khan was
born in the wee hours of morning on Tuesday, May 23, 2000.
- After a long time, a really good movie (and a damn entertaining one at
that) was released last Friday (May 19). The movie's title is Kya Kehna
(What did you say ?). The movie marks the return of director Kundan Shah
after 7 years and it has been in the making for 4 years. The film is a
small dramedy about a girl, Priya (Preity Zinta) who discovers she's
pregnant before marriage (a BIG no-no in India) and the father refuses
to marry her. The film follows her trial and tribulations as the
community of her small town first humiliate her and then gradually come
to accept her for what she is. Despite the subject matter, the film is
NOT like an after-school TV special. It is presented with light comedy,
and the tone is never too serious. Despite the fact that there are two
male leads in this movie, Saif Ali Khan and Chandrachur Singh, this is
100 percent Preity Zinta's movie. This is rare in Bollywood cause there
are not a lot of female-oriented movies out there and when there are,
they are usually serious movies about widows and/or sexual assault. All
of the cast members are very good and the story never bores and actually
gets the audience involved in the drama. The movie doesn't exactly end
in the usual fashion, but the filmmakers didn't have the guts to make
the ending that I was hoping for either. All in all it's a really
enjoyable movie, and definitely better than what's out there in
Bollywood right now.
- This week's recommendation is Kundan Shah's last film Kabhi Haan,
Kabhi Naa (Sometimes Yes, Sometimes No) and it stars Shah Rukh Khan,
Deepak Tijori, Suchitra Krishnamurthy (spelling is wrong for this
actress, she's director Shekhar Kapur's wife), and Naseerudin Shah. At
first glance, the story is nothing special. It's about two guys in love
with the same girl. However, the main lead is nothing like your typical,
noble hero. Sunil (played by Shah Rukh Khan) will go to any length to
get Maria (played by Suchitra) despite the fact that she loves Chris
(Deepak Tijori). The movie is very funny and filled with wonderful
characters. One example is the hilarious priest played by Naseerudin
Shah in an unrecognizable get-up. The main leads are great in their
roles, even though this is mainly Shah Rukh's movie. The supporting cast
is also excellent and again, despite having a sort of serious storyline,
the movie never gets too serious. One special thing to note in this
movie, this is the first Indian movie (I think) to have gangsters and
yet no violence whatsoever. No guns, no punches, not even bitchslaps ?
If you're looking for a lighthearted comedy, Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Naa will
not fail to disappoint.
Now here's a look at movies from China and HK.
CHINA / HK
The following is from "Crashpoet":
- Chow Yun Fat & John Woo have brought so many great films.(HELL YEAH -
d25.) Finally, they might work together again. Apparently there is news
out of HK that this two will work together beginning next year, not on
the rumoured King's Ransom, but on something entirely different. Can't
wait!
- Tsui Hark (producer of A Better Tomorrow, director of A Chinese Ghost
Story, Once Upon A Time In China with Jet Li, etc.) is thinking of doing
A Better Tomorrow with an all-female cast, exploring the female psyche.
If this project ever gets going, Michelle Yeoh would be in the "Mark
Gor" role (played by Chow Yun Fat in ABT).
The following is from "The Accidental Spy":
- First of all, congratulations to Tony Leung Chiu-Wai for winning the
Best Actor and also director Wong Kar-Wai for winning the Technical
Grand Prize in this year's Cannes' film festival, both for "In the Name
of Love". The film is about a love affair between a newspaper's chief
editor(Tony Leung) and a secretary in an export firm(Maggie Cheung) in
1960's HK. The film is scheduled to release in HK in August and later
this year in North America. Here is a picture from Cannes:
- Beside Wong Kar-Wai's "2046", now the well-recognized Tony Leung
Chiu-Wai's latest project is Star East's "Healing Hands", a hospital
drama which Leung also co-produces. The cast includes Kenny Bee and
Kelly Chen (Tokyo Raiders, Hot War). This is the second time that Leung
plays a doctor since 1995's "Mack the Knife".
- At Cannes, director Wong Kar-Wai talked about rumours concerning
"2046" and clarified that the film footage shot in Thailand would still
be used and he would continue the filming in South Korea this August.
- At Cannes, Miramax has bought four HK action movies from Media Asia
for theatrical release in US, including "Purple Storm", the movie which
won five technical awards in HK film awards last month; the now-shooting
"Gen-Y Cops", as well as other two projects which are just in
pre-production right now. (This is excellent news, now only if people
would flock to see them then more HK films would come out in North
America - d25)
- More information about "Gen-Y Cops": the previously mentioned seven
foot robot, "RS-1", is built by Threshold, a L.A.-based company which is
owned by Larry Kasanoff and Alison Savage, the designers of the
"Terminator 2" robot and producers of the "Mortal Kombat" TV series. The
budget of the robot is $2 million USD. In addition, Media Asia would be
signing a co-production deal for North America on "Gen-Y Cops". Due to
this situation, Media Asia announced that an "upcoming US actor" would
be cast for the movie. Identity unknown yet. (Please NO Keanu Reeves
and/or his lookalike Freddie Prinze Jr. - d25).
- Michelle Yeoh's next project is "The Touch", a tale of a team of
daredevil circus performers who moonlight as thieves in order to avenge
their father's betrayal. The movie will be shot in both English and
Chinese, and a western actor will be attached to the project this
summer. The film is produced by Lee Chi Ngai (the director of "Sleepless
Town" and "Lost and Found") and directed by Thomas Chung.
- The very talented Lau Ching Wan ("Running out of Time", "The Longest
Nite") is now shooting an English language movie called "Lunch with
Charles" in Canada. Unlike his recent action movies, Lau would play a
musician and talk in English dialogue for the very first time. The movie
is directed by Michael Parker and also starring Theresa Lee (Downtown
Torpedoes, Purple Storm), Canadian singer Bif Naked and Nicholas Lea
from "The X-files" TV series.
- Just wanted to point you over to jackiechan.com... there's a pretty cool "Shanghai Noon -- Director's POV" piece that came up today... the one that came up today is "pre-production," and they're going to be putting up a new one every day until the movie comes out on Friday (four total).
And here's some rumors about the fate of THE PURPLE STORM from Barb...
Here's some info on Purple Storm. Buzz has it Miramax will dump the film to Dimension and it will get cut to ribbons as well as get a dub job. If I thought for a minute The Mouse would respect this film as much as Columbia did Gen-x Cops (Young and Dangerous Meeets The Mod Squad) I'd eagerly await the US dvd. But not all is lost in HK there is a good VCD release of Purple Storm, but Megastar in Taiwan released an uncut DVD version!!!!
Have you checked out the recent crop of HK films like The Mission, Running Out Of Time, Expect The Unexpected ? These are some major cool films. And I hardly hear anything from film geeks about HK comedies like Aces Go Places or Stephen Chaiu films. Funny stuff.
take care, Barb
Well, that's it for this week. Hope you all enjoy the news, and come on,
surely some of you know about Asian movies (esp. Japanese movies).
Somebody MUST have seen Takeshi Kitano's latest movie, right ? Write me about it at our Asia-AICN offices .
Anyway,
see you all next week.
- Darius25
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