Expectations doesn't mean everything

More of a news day today, but some additions to yesterday's news:

- Hoga News found the final result for the opening weekend of that Genghis Khan movie, and it's actually a flop! It may've opened at number 1, but it only brought in 197 million yen (and at some 480 screens, that's only a 410,000 yen per-screen, which rounds down to about $3500). That can't be good for everything else under it.

- Remember I reported that My Sassy Girl director Kwak Jae Yong is making a Japanese movie named "My Girlfriend is a Cyborg?" Apparently before that, Variety Asia reports that he did end up making a Korean movie starring Shin Mina and On Ju Wan named "My Might Princess" (How many of those "My _______" movies are we gonna get from Korea?) and it's coming out in the summer. Who knew when those parodies of movies showed up in My Sassy Girl, the director was actually really pitching movie ideas?

- Hong Kong music review blog 3C Music has a damning report on the possibility that a new song on new Gold Label princess Stephy Tang's album may be copied from famed composer Joe Hisashi. The site has quite a few posts mentioning these possible frauds in Hong Kong music, and as many many people know, hit producer Mark Lui is the biggest perpetrator. Examples include (just play the little play button under the main entry in Chinese to listen to a comparison)

Jill's "Funny Jealousy" vs. Vitamin C's "Graduation"

Jill's sister Janice's "I Love when I Want To" vs. The Coors' Breathless

Alex Fong Lik-Sun's "Large Small Heart" (Obviously an over-literal translation and by no means reflect the actual meaning of the name) vs. Ekin Cheng's "The Era of Love"

Of course, Mark Lui is not the only one - Mark Lui's protege Justin Lo's "Headline News" (sang by a less talented guy in the crapfest Love@First Note) has been known to combine TWO sources (only one is in this post though): The Stylistics' "You Make me Feel Brand New" and Bondy Chiu's "Joy-seeking" (I knew that chorus sounds familar!), and Even Eason Chan's "Bad Habits" seem to resemble Rufus Wainwright's "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk."

It even happened to Joey Yung, and according to this report, this is the response by manager Mani Fok:

"《奇》所屬版權的這間公司已關閉多年，根本不存在問題。”

"Regarding the issue of copyright, the copyright holder of the song has already been defunct for years, so there's no problem."

Someone on a forum that broke the news said there's no music in Hong Kong, just an entertainment industry, I'm inclined to agree.

Then again, it's not like America's music industry isn't similarly derivative:

Usher's Yeah vs. Chris Brown's Run It.

The Frays' Over My Head vs. How to Save a Life (holy shit, it's the same chorus!)

I do have an example for Japan, but I can't find the necessary clips on Youtube, so let's just say that they do it too.

- Another Hong Kong, littleoslo, has a line-up of bad album covers from Mainland Chinese CDs. Don't worry about the captions, some of them are funny anyway.

- Twitch has a long interview with Bong Joon Ho, one of my favorite Korean filmmakers working today in light of the upcoming release of The Host. Again, be sure to go watch The Host, it's great monster fun.

- Daily Dumpling has a small round-up of some of the celebrity blogs out there. It's not comprehensive, but it's a good start.

- Twitch also provides a trailer for the Singaporean film "One Last Dance" starring Francis Ng and Harvey Keitel (who thought of that combination?).

- A very new blog called Hong Kong and Kung Fu DVD News and Review has popped up, and it offers a look at the availability of Hong Kong Kung Fu films' bootleg being sold in large chain stores around the states.

Lastly, I'm sure everyone that cares have heard by now that Utada Hikaru is getting divorced, but I don't do celebrity gossips here, so you can look it up yourself.

Updates might not come the next two days because I'll be at my alma mater again for two days for a mix of personal and professional reasons. So make this one last, ok?