The Golden Rock - October 2nd, 2007 Edition.

- Grady Hendrix has picked up on the Jackie Chan blog posts controversy. It kind of started when he wrote in his own blog telling audiences to not have much expectation for his latest Hollywood film The Forbidden Kingdom. Then the press picked up an "old post" where he even admit that he doesn't care much for the Rush Hour films (I don't blame him for that at all). However, Jackie also admitted that he only did them for money, which begs the question: Why is he just settling for lots of money instead of trying to make better movies?

A blog post I found at EastSouthWestNorth pretty much takes the argument back to Chan as well: Why blame Hollywood when he's the one that took all those jobs? And why blame audiences when no one really liked The Tuxedo?

Speaking of Jackie Chan still being in shitty movies, he has reportedly signed up to play Mr. Miyagi in the Will Smith-directed remake of The Karate Kid. Who will play the titular Karate kid? Smith's own son. Say it ain't so, Jackie! (thanks to Steven for the link)

- In Japan, the daily NHK drama Dondo Bare ended with a solid rating of 23.2% rating for its finale (that's actually the highest-rated finale of the season) after scoring the lowest-rated premiere in the history of NHK's morning dramas.

Following it is Chiritotechin, which did not premiere to the worst ratings in NHK morning drama history. Instead, it scored an average of 16.5% rating, which is only the third worst morning drama rating in history.

- Under "the death of Hong Kong cinemas" news today, The Queens Theater had its last show this past Sunday, which means Hong Kong has lost yet another single-screen theater from the old golden days.

Of course, when a theater goes away, there's always a multiplex to replace it. Get ready for The Grand Theater and its 12 screens with 1600 seats (that's a sad 133 seats per theater on average).

- I'm actually a big fan of the film Rendan, actor Naoto Takenaka's directorial effort from a few years ago, which is why I'm somewhat excited that he's making a new film, this time a zombie comedy. However, I'm not as excited as I should be because it's a zombie comedy.

- Variety Asia has a small story on emerging Hong Kong studio Sundream, which would be a lot more likable if it wasn't for that damn logo (not to mention that blue background).