Father Geek here, well, got Harry loaded on the plane to China this (Thursday) morning at 5:38 am CST after we survived an all night (ended at 3am) feature film frolic at the Alamo with Auntie Meat, Rav, Johnny Wad, Patch, Quint and other Austin AICN regulars. The film line up included a pristine print of the utterly uber phantastic CITY OF LOST SOULS, and a long forgotten early sevenites psychotrophic opus titled SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES with the always wonderful and often nude Ultra Violet and a naked Sharon Tate clone with the line, "Don't touch me... I'm a religious object...", plus other treats. Before we get to the regular weekly report there is this bit about HERO...

Hey Father Geek, long time listener, first time caller. Given the fact that Miramax's treatment of Shaolin Soccer pissed you off just as much as it pisses me off, I thought I'd come to you with this. You can do a lot more than I can if you were so inclined. I was wondering if you were aware of Miramax's treatment of Hero. basically, they are thinking of delaying it a year, and they ARE editing it, for(last I heard) "length of scene and character". I am at a loss to explain WHY Miramax does what it does. I've narrowed it down to sadistic pleasure, because it doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective. Anyway, I'm off track here. I was hoping to get you to put your considerable resources into making life miserable for Miramax. So, any help at all from you would be greatly appreciated. As it stands, it looks like I will be acquiring the DVD from overseas(as usual) but I would have loved to have seen this film on the big screen. In case you haven't seen images from it yet(though I cant imagine why you wouldn't have), there is a good page on it on This Site

Thanks for any help you can give. -Matt Zimmermann

Father Geek back... All I can say geeks is make Miramax's life a pain by E-mailing them your thoughts on this terrible policy of theirs as often as possible...

Any way, Here's Darius and the news from Bollywood...

Asia-AICN

Hey all, hope you’ve had a great week. We have a pretty packed column for you in this edition with news on many great Bollywood flicks including “Kal Ho Na Ho (Who Cares About Tomorrow)”, director Karan Johar’s new film, “Kaante (Thorns)”, “Marigold”, and a review of “Jaani Dushman (Sworn Enemy)”. We also have news on the Asian films premiering at this year’s Toronto Film Fest.

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2002

You guys may know of the major films playing at TIFF this year, but here’s some a list of the noteworthy films of Asian content. I also threw in some films that are not Asian-related, but sound cool nonetheless!

• DOLLS (Takeshi Kitano, Japan, 2002)
• ALIVE (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan, 2002)
• SPIRITED AWAY (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2001)
• VOLCANO HIGH (Kim Tae-Kyun, South Korea, 2002)
• CHIHWASEON (Im Kwon-Taek, South Korea, 2002)
• A PECK ON THE CHEEK (Mani Rathnam, India, 2002)
• BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Gurinder Chaddha, UK/INDIA, 2002)
• PUBLIC TOILET (Fruit Chan, HK, 2002)
• A SNAKE OF JUNE (Shinya Tsukamato, Japan, 2002)
• AIKI (Daisuke Tengan, Japan, 2002)
• BIG SHOT's FUNERAL (Feng Xiaogang, China, 2002)
• THE BEST OF TIMES (Chang Tso-Chi, Taiwan, 2002)
• CHICKEN POETS (Meng Jinghui, China, 2002)
• BLUE (Hiroshi Ando, Japan, 2001)
• TOO YOUNG TO DIE (Park Jin-Pyo, South Korea, 2001)
• DESIRE (Kim Eung-Su, South Korea, 2002)
• OASIS (Lee Chang-Dong, South Korea, 2002)
• TURNING GATE (Hong Sang-Soo, South Korea, 2002)
• THE WAY HOME (Lee Jung-Hyang, South Korea, 2002)
• TOGETHER (Chen Kaige, China, 2002)
• THE EYE (Oxide and Danny Pang, HK, 2002)

and yes finally,

SHAOLIN SOCCER (Stephen Chow, HK, 2001) - don't know if this is the original version or the Miramax Version. It's playing under the special presentation segment, which could probably mean that it's the Miramax cut. If this was under the Contemporary World Cinema or Midnight Madness section, then it would definately be the original (or the director's) cut.

And other noteworthy films include:

• PUNCH DRUNK LOVE
• THE FOUR FEATHERS (from director Shekhar Kapur)
• BUBBA HO-TEP (with Bruce Campbell as an aging Elvis fighting mummies!!)
• PHONE BOOTH
• FEMME FATALE
• FRIDA
• IRREVERSIBLE (a very BRUTAL French film, featuring Monica Belluci)
• HEAVEN
• THE QUIET AMERICAN
• 8 MILE

INDIA

- Well thank god it has finally happened – Hollywood has officially acknowledged Bollywood!! Actor Salman Khan has been officially signed for the lead role in an Indian-American production, to be directed by Willard Carrol (“Playing by the Heart)”. The film, titled “Marigold”, will feature an American actress and is said to be the first Indian film directed by an American director. The romantic comedy will have a budget of US $10 million, and will be shot in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Goa (and Bombay of course). Full details on the project could be obtained right here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=848&e=20&u=/variety/20020816/film_variety/film_marigold_dc_3

- The upcoming Karan Johar production film (which he also wrote) now has a title – “Kal Ho Na Ho (Who Cares About Tomorrow)”. The film, under Johar’s production banner, will be directed by his former assistant Nikhil Advani and will star Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan in the leading roles. Production is set to start this winter.

- Speaking of Karan Johar, the director is now putting the finishing touches on the script for his next directorial effort. He’s just begun casting, but early reports suggest that Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya have already bagged the main leads. There is still room for a bunch of actors to join in, as this is another multi-starrer project. Johar is planning to release the film sometime in 2004.

- Bad news for fans of the upcoming mega-actioner, “Kaante (Thorns)”. It looks like the film has been delayed yet again, this time to October 11, 2002. This puts the film right against another Sanjay Dutt starrer, the “Vaastav (Reality)” sequel titled “Hathiyaar (Weapon)”.

- Some new stills have appeared online from producer Boney Kapoor’s next film, “Shakti (The Inner Strength). Directed by Krishna Vamsi, the drama stars Karisma Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Sanjay Kapoor, and Shahrukh Khan. Here’s the pics.

Here’s the poster of the film (note that although SRK is in a brief role, he has a bigger picture than the main lead – Karisma Kapoor): It's Right Here

Ok, here’s a much larger pic of Karisma Kapoor, looking extremely glamorous: Toooooo Yummy

And here’s a pic of her and Shahrukh, looking not so glamorous: Go Here

A pic of Nana Patekar in the film as the main villain, surrounded by his henchmen: Click

And another pic of SRK: Just Click

JAANI DUSHMAN (Sworn Enemy)

The latest Bollywood release is a big-budget horror multi-starrer from producer-director Rajkumar Kohli. The producer is no rookie to big-budget films, as he’s been making some major blockbusters (with HUGE casts) since the 70’s. However, times have changed and Kohli has been in a slump for quite a while. His last few films have been disasters at the box office, mainly due to his casting of actor Armaan Kohli (his talent-less son) in the lead roles. Kohli does the same here again, but this time has a plethora of major heroes backing him up, some of whom include Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Aaftab Shivdasani, and singer Sonu Nigam.

This new film is an amalgamation of Kohli’s biggest hits, “Naagin (The Snake Queen)” and “Jaani Dushman (Sworn Enemy)”. A few elements are borrowed from the two films, but the film is essentially a gender-reversed remake of “Naagin”. The story begins in ancient times, where a couple of gifted snakes are granted special divine powers, enabling them to take on any shape or form. The lovers (in their human guises of Armaan Kohli and Manisha Koirala) are separated due to a priest’s curse, but are promised to be reunited in the 21st Century. The film then switches to present day, where the female snake is now a normal girl named Divya (Manisha Koirala), studying in college with the likes of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Sonu Nigam, and Aaftab Shivdasani. She’s in love with a normal human now, Karan (Sunny Deol) who has to leave to London for a sudden business trip. Things get complicated when the girl is raped and killed by two villainous schoolmates (none of the above heroes) and dies in the arm of our super snake-man, Kapil (Armaan), who’s still around after 100 years. Before dying though, Divya blames ALL of her friends for her death and Kapil (remember he has super powers!) goes on a killing spree. This happens within the 45-minute mark, and is followed by an FX extravaganza as one by one most of the heroes are killed in elaborately-staged fashions. Of course, being the action heroes that they are, some of them (Akshay, Sunny, Sunil), survive most of the attempts and eventually manage to destroy the superhuman villain.

The story is pretty corny and belongs in a film from the ‘70s, only this time the FX is updated to today’s Bollywood standards. You won’t get the high-quality shape shifting and morphing effects of Hollywood’s blockbusters (ie. T2, The Mummy) but you’ll get something kind of close to it. The FX is clearly the main attraction of this flick, and comes off better than expected for an Indian film (it’s still VERY laughable though). Of course no Akshay Kumar film is complete without some impressive action stunts and this film doesn’t disappoint. With Akshay, Sunny and Sunil in one film, you’ll get more than enough action!

However the main drawback of the film is that there are too many actors in one measly film! As a result, almost every one of them has been relegated to a cameo-appearance. Most of the lesser-known actors (ie. Rajat Bedi, Aditya Pancholi, Sharad Kapoor, Arshad Warsi) only appear for their long-death sequences, while some of the bigger heroes have a little bit more footage. And Sunny fans you’ll be disappointed – the actor only has about 30 mins of footage (it doesn’t necessarily means that he dies though). Thankfully, Akshay Kumar has the second biggest role and doesn’t disappoint with his action sequences. He doesn’t have many dramatic sequences here, so need to worry about his acting skills. Sonu Nigam makes a competent debut as an actor but doesn’t have much to do. Aaftab, Sunil, and Manisha Koirala are wasted in their small roles here. And yes, Armaan Kohli is pretty awful in the film, but he does kill some people in cool ways so it’s not a TOTAL loss!

All in all, “Jaani Dushman” is exactly what it promises – a cheesy, big-budget extravanganza featuring a bunch of stars getting their asses whooped by a partially-CG creature. This type of film is rare in mainstream Bollywood, so go ahead and enjoy! Just don’t expect to gain something meaningful out of the experience.

Armaan Kohli takes on Sunny Deol in this pic: The Action's Right Here

And takes on Akshay Kumar in this one: Click To See

Manisha Koirala looks pretty evil here: Tooooo Hot !

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