Best of February

Since the traffic at this site has gone up considerably (more later today on responses and thanks), I decided to round up some news from February that is most worthy to repost. If you have any news that you think belong here, but didn't, be sure to leave a comment:

By the way, these are all just copy and paste jobs:

-- This is why there needs to be a free flow of information on the internet: A Hong Kong blog has an expose on Hong Kong's so-called hottest MTV director, nicknamed "Jacky" (who has done MTVs for mostly EEG artists). In an interview for Easyfinder, he talks about his MTV for Yumiko Cheng's single "Up and Down," which is outright copied from Goldfrapp's Strict Machine MTV. This is a (translated) excerpt about his "creative process"

"A lot of dance songs are just pure Music Video (earlier in the article, he mentions three types of music videos - pure music videos, ones with story, and ones for advertisements), because inserting a story would just be hackneyed. I use a lot of graphics and abstract color tones to package it. The record company already decided that Yumiko would wear Chinese-style red and green clothes to dance. I felt that the clothes is like a kaleidoscope, so I found a lot of vintage toys to create that kaleidoscope effect."

Yeah, I'm sure he's that much of a genius.

the blog entry is here (The pictures on the left are from the Goldfrapp video while the ones on the right are of Yumiko Cheng's)

You can watch Goldfrapp's Strict Machine here, and Yumiko Cheng's Up and Down here


- YTSL, a writer for the site Hong Kong Cinema: View From the Brooklyn Bridge, has posted a top 10 list for 2006 Hong Kong films on her blog here. She amazingly includes McDull the Alumni, which I've always contend is Hong Kong's answer to the Monty Python films and comes even with a hell of a monologue by Jim Chim.

-- I don't watch much Thai films, honestly, so you can't blame me for not catching SARS Wars, although it does sound real wacky in that good way. Now the director Teewewat Wantha is back with a new work, and it sounds wackier than ever. Honestly, with a title like The Sperm, how can it not be wacky? Twitch has posted a teaser up, and it may be the funniest teaser I've seen in a while. Don't worry, I don't speak Thai either, and I thought it was funny, so there.

- Lovehkfilm's 2006 Awards.

- - On that note, the new years installment of TVB variety show Beautiful Cooking is up on Youtube (I'm not condoning piracy here, I'm just taking advantage of the free flow of information). Essentially, it's a show where three females celebrities go on the show and test their cooking skills (or often, the lack thereof) for the male judges. Of course, it features the same old canned laughter and lame musical segments that only TVB can think of. Most amusing is Alex Fong Lik-Sun lip-syncing to the theme song to It's a Wonderful Life, except he even lip-synced to Tony Leung Ka-Fai's line.

Through further research on Youtube, I have found a clip of long-running Japanese variety show called "Ai no Apron" (or the Apron of Love), and it's basically where the cooking skills of female idols are tested for a male judge...wait a minute, that sounds like exactly what Beautiful Cooking is! This Wikipedia entry in Japanese shows that it at least goes back as far as 2005 (Beautiful cooking debuted in fall 2006)And here are those poor posters of Asian Fanatics Forum believing that TVB has come up with something original. Unless TVB's got the rights to it, they better start preparing for a lawsuit.

This is why there should be free flow of information on the internet.

Note: looking up "Ai no Apron" or "愛のエプロン"( Japanese name) will not get you any result on youtube because of the copyright claims by Japan's copyright people. Sorry.

- - Back to more positive things, Twitch has a great interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (whose new film Sakebi is coming out soon in Japan). But the interview isn't about his new film, but rather about Japan's response to Clint Eastwood's critically acclaimed Letters From Iwo Jima (which has finally made its way to the imdb top 250!.....then dropped back out). It's very informative, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

- The Japanese Academy Awards results are out, and I was kind of right - Memories of Matsuko's Tetsuya Nakashima did not get the best director's award. Instead, it went to Hula Girl's Lee Sang-Il. Apparently, since Hula Girls was not produced by the big three (Toho, Shochiku, and Toei), this is pointing to further diversity in the industry....even though Hula Girls' fate was written in the wind when it was picked for Academy Award consideration last year.

Hoga Central analyzes the awards and has the winners list here.

-- Going over the China, it seems that the filmmakers behind the controversial Lost in Beijing has decided to screen the uncensored version for the public audience in Berlin, regardless of what the Chinese censors say. Ballsy move, indeed.

Source: Variety Asia

-- Johnnie To has also apparently signed a deal to make his English debut - a remake of the French film Le Cercle Rouge. Good news is the To is now asking legendary French star Alain Delon to be in the film (who is apparently quite interested), bad news is that it'll be produced by the producer of Rush Hour Arthur Sarkissian. Judging from the plot of the French original, this seems like the perfect way for To to break into the West. Just don't forget about Hong Kong!

Source: Variety Asia.

- David Mamet has written a book about his experiences in Hollywood and advice for those who would like to enter that elite world. My favorite quote from the review on Yahoo News refers to film school: "One can study marching, the entry-level skill of the military, until one shines at it as has none other. This will not, however, make it more likely that one will be tapped to be the Secretary of the Army." Mamet films are a bit of hit-and-miss for me, but you can't deny that he's a pretty damn good writer.

The review of the book is here.

- Variety Asia reports that Jia Jiangke's film Still Life, which was shot and projected in Hong Kong in digital, was taken out of the Hong Kong Film Award best Asian film race because the award has a rule that stipulates films must be shot in 35mm. According to vice-chairman director Gordon Chan, the rule is to "protect movies" and that they are aware that more and more films are being shot in digital but they are "not ready to include them." In other words, they're trying to protect high-budget blockbusters produced by the committee members' (quite a few of them producers and filmmakers themselves) bosses so they can get their next films funded. I'm not a fan of Jia Zhangke at all, and I don't mean to be on a personal attack mode, but the man who made this movie shouldn't talk about protecting movies anyway.

- - Johnnie To seems like a far more productive version of Wong Kar-Wai; while he does put out up to two movies a year, he can't seem to decide what to do. News reported that shooting for a PTU TV series have been underway with different directors, but now comes the announcement that Johnnie To himself is going be making 5 films under the PTU series, with one being a theatrical release and the others being straight-to-video releases. He's also in post-production for two films - Sparrow, which he's been shooting on-and-off for a while, and his third of "The Iron Triangle," co-directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. He's probably shooting three more films we don't know about that has no script, but who cares? He's Johnnie To. As long as he keeps churning out more Exiled than Yesterday Once More, I ain't complaining.

Wow, that was a lot. Anyway, starting next week, this will become a weekly thing, so to add to the daily entries, I'll be doing an additional weekly round-up entry on Sunday as well. More the reason to check back everyday.

Anyway, a real entry will come later today. Promise.

One more for the road

I've already written three posts today, so might as well go out with one more thing that I must share:

Personal favorite Shiina Ringo was on the classy music show "Bokura no Ongaku" (Our Music), where entertainers (usually one musician and a celebrity or two musicians) in an interview plus a few performances, this past weekend. It's her third appearance (an awesome clip of her first appearance is here), and she delivers a spectacular performance of my favorite song on her new album: Gamble. A description of the show (including her interview with baseball star Ichiro) is here. But first, go look at the video, it has a 65-people orchestra, for crying out loud, what else do you want?

For those who don't feel like listening to Japanese, here's another performance from the show of her singing in half-comprehensible English.

Both these songs appear in the film Sakuran.

Expect this blog to get back to normal posting tomorrow. But it will be late, since I'm gonna be watching The Lives of Others tomorrow, so expect a review or two.

Media Asia admits Infernal Affairs not original creation

Just in from Hong Kong's Oriental Daily regarding the "Infernal Affairs is Japanese" saga. When reporters asked Media Asia (the film's distributor, also a producer on The Departed) officials for response, they responded by admitting that Infernal Affairs was based on a Japanese comic. The Chinese report is here (I don't have a link because they change online content daily, but you can go to the site and read the exact report yourself in the next 22 hours):

奧 斯 卡 頒 獎 禮 大 會 誤 把 《 無 間 道 》 指 為 日 本 電 影 ， 惹 來 內 地 不 少 網 友 不 滿 ， 亦 有 指 開 拍 《 無 間 道 》 之 寰 亞 電 影 亦 特 別 發 信 向 奧 斯 卡 大 會 問 罪 ， 對 此 ， 寰 亞 高 層 朱 任 之 表 示 ： 「 其 實 只 係 講 人 無 知 講 錯 說 話 ， 但 憑 良 心 講 番 句 ， 因 為 《 無 》 片 係 參 照 日 本 漫 畫 改 編 ， 所 以 佢 會 有 呢 個 錯 覺 ， 我 亦 已 發 電 郵 畀 奧 斯 卡 ， 叫 佢 要 好 好 正 視 呢 個 問 題 。 （ 有 無 特 別 要 求 ？ ） 佢 都 仲 未 回 覆 ， 但 佢 今 年 確 實 錯 漏 百 出 ， 好 似 唔 係 墨 西 哥 人 ， 又 話 人 係 墨 西 哥 人 ， 但 呢 都 唔 係 好 大 件 事 ， 最 多 個 主 持 出 年 無 得 做 。 」

"The Mainland Chinese online community is angry with the Academy Awards calling 'Infernal Affairs' a Japanese films, and has caused Media Asia to directly ask the Academy about their mistakes. High-ranking Media Asia official states: 'It's just the misguided people there saying the wrong things. But to look at it fairly, 'Infernal' is based on a Japanese comic, so they would make that kind of mistake. We have already sent a e-mail to the Academy to correct the problem.' (Was there any special request?) 'They haven't replied, but the truth is that here are a lot of mistakes made this year. It seems like someone who isn't Mexican got referred to as Mexican. But it's no big deal, at the most it just means the host won't return next year.'"

There ya go, folks. Who stole whose ideas now?

"'The Departed''s Hong Kong Creation"

The following is a rough translation of an editorial that appeared in Hong Kong's Ming Pao on February 28th. It's written by Anthony Fung, an Assistant professor in the Communication and Broadcasting department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and I think it's mostly bullshit (more on the why later). Remember, I didn't write this article.

Here it is:

"The Departed" became the big winner at the Oscars. Some are happy and some are sad. Those that are happy believe that a remake of a Hong Kong film can succeed internationally is credit to Hong Kong film's creativity. Those that are sad believe that no matter how fresh the script and the concept of "Infernal Affairs" is, it can only succeed in Hong Kong, and never succeed in the huge American market. On the other hand, it succeeds when the same script reaches Hollywood, angering the Hong Kong filmmakers who have worked so hard. The latter complains that the Hong Kong market is far too small. Even a flawless Hong Kong script and Hong Kong crew cannot achieve much.

I understand their sentiments. I feel that their opinions are the result of not having adapted the consequences of change. A question worth asking is: In this globalized market, should we continue making these "Hong Kong products?" Do these local productions of "Hong Kong films" made for Hong Kong people still exist?

Those who are still in love with the era of "Hong Kong films" should first ask themselves whether any pure local films still exists. The truth is these days, whether Hollywood films are made up of American films are not even a sure thing. First, talented actors in Hollywood now originate from everywhere. Many of them are from outside America, such as England's Hugh Grant, even Jean Reno isn't American. Chow Yun-Fat, Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li have all made it to Hollywood. Hong Kong's John Woo directed "Mission: Impossible" II and III. Is this type of internationalized or melting pot of Hollywood films America?

From the region of production, we also get an answer. Now Hollywood films are rarely made in Hollywood, because production cost in England are far cheaper than production costs in America. Now many Hollywood films are no longer made at home. The most well-known example is the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which was made in New Zealand. Even if it's an American film, many production crew are from overseas. Since Hollywood films are not even pure American films, why should a small city such as Hong Kong pursue these pure "Hong Kong films?"

The truth is, in a globalized world, film financing is no longer from their countries of origin. Film money are now from everywhere, and it no longer matters where they come from. Many recent Hong Kong successes are foreign-financed, but no one seem to suspect that these "Hong Kong films" have any foreign influence. "Kung Fu Hustle" is a good example, who says that Stephen Chiau's films are not the pride of Hong Kong?

I think now it's time to change our way of thinking. Hong Kong is only a special region of China, that is a truth solid as steel. If we give up our stubbornly-kept mentality of "Hong Kong products" and look far ahead, don't local films already have a huge market in China? If we hear Beijing people saying they must make "Beijing films" or Shanghai people making "Shanghai films," won't we think it's laughable? Some estimate there are only 100,000 frequent filmgoers in Hong Kong. Even during holidays when families go to the movies, Hong Kong films only make tens of millions (in Hong Kong dollars). If we put down our baggage and go into the Chinese market, won't we be able to share the 300 million renmibi that "Curse of the Golden Flower" made?

To develop Hong Kong films, why not look towards the north? It's better than reminiscing about old times. Perhaps some recent successes have started to mature. Recent successful Chinese films such as "Hero" and "A Battle of Wits" are made with Hong Kong financing and actors. Even the Andy Lau-financed "Crazy Stone" is made to penetrate the Chinese market.

Regarding The Departed, some people may hold a grudge due to the fact that Hollywood used Hong Kong "creativity" to reach international success. But doesn't Hong Kong often borrow from others' creativity as well? Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung often sang covers of Japanese pop songs in the 80s, and aren't those songs now Hong Kong pop classics? Even today, aren't many television programs such as "Who Want to be a Millionaire" made from Western creativity? Now that Hollywood has decided to buy remakes rights from Hong Kong scripts to make its own legends, it's merely a strategy Hong Kong has always used, so what's so special about that?

Lastly, I think that now Hong Kong still has creativity, they should seize the day and focus on internationalizing certain aspects of filmmaking. If Hong Kong continues to hold this "Hong Kong product" mentality, then Korean, Japanese, and Chinese filmmakers will quickly dominate the global film industry, adding to the impact on the Hong Kong film industry.

These last few years, the Hong Kong Film Festival seem to spotlight these "only in Hong Kong" triad films. Surely, these "Hong Kong products" have a local market. Certainly, if box office gross is a standard for success, then these local "Hong Kong films" can only satisfy a small local market. If they continue to create these "Hong Kong films," I believe that in 30 or 50 years, these "only in Hong Kong" films can only be seen in the Hong Kong Film Festival.

And now, my response:

I agree with the last part, that those who are bitter about Hollywood "stealing" Infernal Affairs are hypocrites. Hong Kong, and the rest of Asia, for that matter, have been stealing Western creativity for decades (and the other way around). In fact, creativity in entertainment has been thrown out of the window for years.

However, I don't think Professor Fung truly understands the film market. Homegrown American stars still by far have the biggest appeal within American markets and abroad as well. Of course, to nit-pick, John Woo only made "Mission: Impossible II," and both his films after that became box office failures, so while John Woo did make it to Hollywood, he got kicked out just as quickly.

Plus, is Professor Fung suggesting that artistic integrity should play no part in the making of Hong Kong films? Hong Kong films have their own type of flavor because many directors such as Johnnie To have no desire to kowtow to Chinese censorship. Commercial filmmaking is important in Hong Kong, yes, but it doesn't mean artists should have to castrate their artistic voices in order to appease unreasonable censorship (look at the recent Lost in Beijing example to see what I mean, or look at the ridiculous alternate ending for Infernal Affairs, or even the history of Zhang Yimou's films before he became a commercial success).

These types of editorials are often dangerous because Professor Fung is obviously a very smart man. But without the proper research, the effects of his misguided words can be damaging. Hong Kong films is what I grew up with, and its audacity to cross the lines and its type of local flavor are what made them successes. If they start appeasing the mainland market now, it would just take away what made them successful in the first place - uniqueness.

It's a world I don't particularly understand

- How about we get to those news that not many people care? It's box office numbers!

- A continuation from yesterday's Japanese weekend box office. The numbers are out (thanks to Box Office Mojo's diligent updating of these data). However, there seems to be some kind of discrepancy again between BOM's numbers and the rankings - BOM shows Sakuran debuting at 6th with roughly US$370,000, although the exchange rate as of yesterday is currently 119 yen=$1, and Marie Antoinette at 7th. Meanwhile, Ryuganji, who gets their rankings from Eiga Daisuki!, has Marie Antoinette at 6th and Sakuran and 7th (with no number). So which is it?

Perhaps one reason for this is that the rankings counts admissions while BOM counts money, so does that mean Marie Antoinette is attracting an older audience, who pays lower ticket prices? Both films seem to be aiming towards the 20-40 female audience though, so there has to be some reason.

All the other numbers, however, remain consistent, with Dreamgirls losing only 6% of its audience, and Dororo losing 21%, which would explain why Dreamgirls managed to take the top spot. One thing to note, is the relative weak per-screen average in the top 10. Wide releases just aren't opening fast enough, although this may change this weekend with beginning of Spring break in Japan within the next two weeks, plus the Genghis Khan movie and Ghost Rider opening (I would not trust imdb's listing, since Babel is listed as opening this weekend, although it's actually opening in April)

- Speaking of the Genghis Khan movie (official title: Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea, Then Back to the Middle for Some Tea and Bowing, and All the Way Back to the Beginning of the Earth and Sea), Twitch has an English-subtitled trailer, and even the original trailers, just in case you guys forgot.

- Also, the producer of this mega-blockbuster has broken studio taboos by putting the trailer for his next blockbuster, the remake of Tsubaki Sanjuro by Toho, before the Genghis Khan movie, produced by rival studio Shochiku when it plays at the Shochiku chain theaters (I would assume this does not affect multiplexes not owned by either studio). Yeah, Japanese studio system is complicated. Maybe Variety Asia can fill in the blanks here.

- Hong Kong Tuesday box office numbers came out last night, and the rankings are exactly the same - Night At the Museum on top, Protege, then Music and Lyrics. However, Twins Mission managed to overtake It's a Wonderful Life for the 4th spot. Both films are doing pretty bad at the box office though, with HK$140,000 for the Twins and HK$120,000 for Gold Label on the same screen counts (26 and 33, respectively).

Numbers from mov3.com are here.

- Toho-Towa is one of Japan's biggest distributors, and now they will replace UIP, a huge distributor of foreign films in Japan, as the distributor for Universal Pictures. I wonder if this is the result of Universal seeing Warner Bros.' success in Japan with the Death Note movies and now wants to make a move into Japan, Hollywood's second biggest market in the world.

- Thanks to Dark Horizon, we have a new trailer for Danny Boyle's sci-fi thriller Sunshine. But like the trailer before it, this one also seem to have a lot of indirect spoilers, such as:


SPOILER ALERT:

Who wants to guess that all the Asian cast members will die, leaving the white people around at least to the end?


SPOILER OVER

Anyway, go see the trailer at your own risk here.


- According to some news sites in China, the State administration of Radio, Film, and Television has limited the run of "competition shows" (such as those American idol clones such as Super Girl) to two and a half months. However, these news have only appeared on news sites, but not as any official release from the SARFT. There's no explanation why, and apparently the pro side (and I'm just assuming those people are playing the devil's advocate) says this about the advantage of limiting these shows:

"This is good. Competition shows harm the healthy psychological development of youth. Now young people don't think of working hard to achieve success, but want to become rich and famous overnight. This phenomenon is really scary."

Shortening these shows don't change anything, it just encourage producers to make more of them to fill those empty slots. Here's a wild idea, though: to better develop the youth's psychology, why not, say, stop brainwashing them at school with revised history. Or how about pay higher wages at criminally low-paying jobs to give reward for people to work. Or how about improving human rights? They sound like crazy ideas, but they're so crazy it might just work!

- Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government has announced a new set of financial aid for the ailing Hong Kong film industry. It will pour $38 million (not sure if this is Hong Kong or American dollars though) to help finance productions and find new talents. This is a good time to be applying to film school in Hong Kong. Why, that's exactly what I'm doing right now!

In the next post, I will translate an article from Hong Kong's Ming Pao in the light of The Departed's Oscar win.