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Posted on 07.01.09 by David @ 12:03 am
 Nick Chin made his start working in documentary films before directing the award winning short film Tai Tai. Following the success of that film, Chin directed his first feature length film, Magazine Gap Road, an icy noir about a former high class prostitute Samantha (Jessey Meng), who fled her former lover and client, the terrifying Hans (Zhen Shiming) and made a new life for herself in the upper crust of Hong Kong. This life is threatened when an old friend, Kate (Qu Ying), resurfaces, dragging Samantha back into Hans’s orbit. This unusually star-studded first feature also stars Hong Kong legends Richard Ng, who appeared in just about every comedy made in Hong Kong in the 1980s, and Elvis Tsui, who did the same in just about every Category III film, as well as Ng’s son, Carl. While the subject matter may be grimy, the treatment is anything but – Chin presents some of the most gorgeous views of Hong Kong I’ve seen in years and dresses his cast in high style. Cinema Strikes Back’s David Austin recently had an opportunity to talk with Chin, who was in New York for the presentation of Magazine Gap Road at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival, about his work as an independent filmmaker in Hong Kong and the making of Magazine Gap Road.
 On His Early Career and Television Projects CSB: I understand that you are not from Hong Kong. Where did you grow up? NC: I grew up in London. My parents are Shanghainese. I lived in New York for about eight years and I’ve been in and out of Hong Kong. I have been in Hong Kong for the past three years because of this film. Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Hong Kong and Contributors: David and Movie News: Interviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.24.09 by Administrator @ 9:06 am
Crush and Blush CRUSH AND BLUSH PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 24 AT 9:15 PM AND ON JUNE 25 AT 5:00 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 Koreans filmmakers have proven themselves to be masters of the losers-in-love comedy in films like The Foul King and Please Teach Me English. In Crush and Blush, director Lee Kyeong-Mi and actress Kong Hyo-Jin add to the tradition with a sharply edited, wickedly funny story about a social outcast who never got over her crush on her teacher and is willing to go to absurd efforts to secure his attentions. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.22.09 by David @ 10:51 am
Rough Cut ROUGH CUT PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 23 AT 9:30 PM AND ON JUNE 24 AT 6:30 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 I am tempted to dismiss Rough Cut as just another Korean gangster film, filled with “cooler-than-thou” characters who engage in brutal fisticuffs every ten minutes or so, like so many of its predecessors. In many ways it is just that. However, Rough Cut has a little more on its mind, mingling the worlds of filmmaking and organized crime, and playing with notions of artifice and reality in interesting ways. Rough Cut blurs the distinction between truth and fiction from the get-go, setting its story during the filming of (what else?) a gangster film. The lead actor, Su Tae (Kang Ji-Hwan), is obsessed with “keeping it real.” His tough-guy posturing and desire to fight for real eventually lead to injured co-stars and problems on the set of the film-within-a-film - a gangster opus in which he and a rival compete over the same girl (played in the film by “actress” Kang Mi-Na, in turn played by real actress Hong Su-Hyeon). Fiction becomes a form of truth when Su Tae persuades gangster and former wannabe actor Gang-Pae (So Ji-Seob) to join the film on the condition that they do everything “for real.” Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.21.09 by David @ 2:14 pm
Tactical Unit: Comrades In Arms TACTICAL UNIT: COMRADES IN ARMS PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 22 AT 5:20 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 PTU, with its understated cool and Rube Goldberg-esque plotting was one of Johnny To’s masterpieces and one of my favorite films of the 2000s. When I spoke to To in 2007 (see here), he was gearing up to produce a series of television features through his Milkyway production company under the “Tactical Unit” banner, using the same actors and characters. So far five of these films have been shot, some on video and some on film, some achieving theatrical release and some not. I have not had a chance to see the others yet (though I intend to), but Comrades in Arms, while no masterpiece, is great fun in the classic Milkyway tradition and a worthy successor to PTU. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and People: Simon Yam and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.19.09 by David @ 10:08 am
K-20: Legend of the Mask K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 20 AT 8:15 PM AND ON JUNE 30 AT 1:45 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 K-20 is silly fun; an old-fashioned matinee crowd-pleaser in the vein of The Rocketeer or the Indiana Jones films. Set in an alternate universe where World War II never happened and Japan has retained its Victorian-era stratification of society, the film pits a dashing hero against a cartoon villain – master thief Kaijin 20: The Fiend with 20 Faces - before a steampunk backdrop. It’s definitely kids’ stuff, the sort of film that might star Brendan Fraser if made in the US, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of the showmanship, starting with K-20’s first appearance – ripping off a rubber face at a press conference to reveal a serial villain’s mask and fedora, along with a catchy maniacal cackle. Today’s more serious superhero opuses, with their angst and extreme violence, rarely find time for the lighthearted fun that powers most of K-20. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Takeshi Kaneshiro and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.18.09 by David @ 9:35 am
AKA: Tau ming chong Review By: David Austin WARLORDS PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 19 AT 6:30 PM AND ON JUNE 23 AT 7:15 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE  Warlords is an interesting example of how the same tale can be filmed very differently. The true story that forms the basis for the film – the rise of an ambitious Chinese general during the Taiping Rebellion of the late 1800s and his eventual assassination – was previously told by legendary martial arts director Chang Cheh in Blood Brothers, one of his absolute best movies. Peter Chan’s 2007 remake follows the same outlines, but makes significant changes while taking advantage of a far larger budget and a far grander scale. However, though the artistry of the recent film is far superior, and though Warlords has aspirations to be a manly tearjerker of the highest quality, Blood Brothers remains the more emotionally resonant and successful film. While filming Blood Brothers, Chang was at the top of his game and recorded some of the best performances of his career – Warlords, on the other hand, hits all the expected notes and hits them well, but never quite catches fire. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and People: Andy Lau and People: Jet Li and People: Takeshi Kaneshiro and People: Peter Chan and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.15.09 by David @ 1:06 pm
AKA: Gli amanti d’oltretomba; The Faceless Monster; Night of the Doomed Review By: David Austin  Nightmare Castle epitomizes the Italian gothic of the 1960s and, as such enjoys the advantages and suffers the disadvantages of its kind. Specifically, Nightmare Castle has gorgeous cinematography and rich, eerie atmosphere. The plot, on the other hand , is a mostly forgettable mish-mash of horror tropes and meandering plot points. Nevertheless, director Mario Caiano, cinematographer Enzo Barboni and set decorator Bruno Cesari (who later worked on Once Upon a Time in America and won an Oscar for The Last Emperor) do first class work. Beautiful period costumes and furnishings are all shot for maximum effect (with an emphasis on stylish, ground-level tracking shots). Viewers familiar with Italian cinema will look past the flaws and appreciate the lovely sights on display. In contrast to the finery on display, Nightmare Castle, like other Italian gothics of the early sixties, pushes the envelope in terms of graphic violence, adding grotesquerie to the otherwise dignified surroundings. Caiano does not shy away from the grue, setting his scenes of torture and depravity in the stately halls of a classical manor or in a pleasure garden. These two elements of Nightmare Castle’s appeal combine in an impressive finale that brings the somewhat drawn-out proceedings to a suitably pyrotechnic close. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: Severin and People: Barbara Steel and People: Ennio Morricone Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.04.09 by David @ 11:24 pm
Brigitte Lin as “Murong Yin/Murong Yang” in Wong Kar-wai’s’s revised version of his 1994 film, Ashes of Time. Filed under: People: Wong Kar-wai and People: Brigitte Lin and Movie Image and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Film Festival 2008 Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.19.09 by David @ 12:33 am
Jack Black and Mos Def in Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. Filed under: Movie Image and People: Michel Gondry Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.07.09 by David @ 9:29 pm
The Wrestler
Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: USA and People: Mickey Rourke and People: Patrice Leconte and Movie Reviews: France and People: Darren Aronofsky and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and DVD Companies: Severin Comments: 1 Comment |
I have long said that the only good wrestling films come from outside the US. Between dramedies like The Foul King and freak-outs like Champions of Justice and The Calamari Wrestler, Japan, Korea and Mexico have put the US film industry to shame (the recent Nacho Libre did nothing to change my mind). With The Wrestler, though, there is finally some competition.|
Posted on 05.04.09 by David @ 9:13 am
“Mortally wounded in combat, a Japanese warlord, TATSUYA NAKADAI, orders his clan to keep his death a secret and replace him on the battlefield with his look-alike, a condemned thief, in AKIRA KUROSAWA’S RAN.” Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha. Filed under: Movie Image and People: Akira Kurosawa Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.20.09 by David @ 2:21 pm
From the wonderfully trippy Inframan, the Shaw Brother’s only venture into Ultraman-style henshin action. Filed under: Studios: Shaw Brothers and Movie Image Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.14.09 by David @ 9:02 am
Awesome shot of the Toho Frankenstein lifting a tank. Even by the standards of kaiju films, Frankenstein Conquers the World is a weird one. Toho did Frankenstein, Dracula, and King Kong, I kind of wish they had done the Mummy just to see what would have happened. Filed under: Studios: Toho Company Ltd. and Movie Image and People: Kumi Mizuno Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.07.09 by David @ 8:49 am
Danny Glover, Jack Black and Mos Def in Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. Filed under: Movie Image and People: Michel Gondry Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.04.09 by David @ 11:27 am
Tony Leung Ka Fai as “Huang Yaoshi” in Wong Kar-wai’s’s revised version of his 1994 film, Ashes of Time. Filed under: People: Wong Kar-wai and Movie Image and People: Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Film Festival 2008 Comments: None |
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* 
Tarkan best.Wolfs are symbol at Turks.Turks best national other.
