Asian Cinema

A new trailer has been released for Hiroyuki Nakao’s upcoming science fiction/historical drama film Time Scoop Hunter. Time Scoop Hunter is a TV drama which has aired on NHK since 2009. The program uses the theme of time travel to...
A new trailer has been released for Hiroyuki Nakao’s upcoming science fiction/historical drama film Time Scoop Hunter. Time Scoop Hunter is a TV drama which has aired on NHK since 2009. The program uses the theme of time travel to present fictionalized documentaries on lesser-know historical figures. In this film version, “space-time journalist” Yuichi Sawajima (Jun Kaname) is sent back through time to unravel the mystery of Azuchi Castle, which was built by famous shogun Oda Nobunaga and...
about 2 hours ago
Jukkalan Petchtai Wongkamlao - 2011 Magnolia Home Entertainment Region 1 DVD One of the more fun films I saw in Thailand was Bodyguard 2, written, directed and starring Petchtai Wongkamlao, better known as Mum Jokmok by his Thai fans. ...
Jukkalan Petchtai Wongkamlao - 2011 Magnolia Home Entertainment Region 1 DVD One of the more fun films I saw in Thailand was Bodyguard 2, written, directed and starring Petchtai Wongkamlao, better known as Mum Jokmok by his Thai fans. I'm not sure how well Mum's new film is going to play for most North American viewers, but I had a good time here. Hollywood could probably learn something here, with some imaginative action scenes, truly tasteless and simultaneously hilarious jokes, and kickboxing midgets, all in one modestly budgeted movie! And who needs special effects when you have a crew of gifted stuntmen and women riding bicycles, leaping about, and taking and receiving body blows. And then there's Jeeja. Don't bother telling me about the Hollywood actress of the day who took a few months to train for an action role. Jeeja Yanin trained for years before her debut in Chocolate. Mum crafted the film especially for her, so Jeeja has the opportunity to have a leading role. The original Thai title is the name of Jeeja's character. If you've seen Jeeja previously, you know what she's capable of as a martial artist. Here she does stunts with a bicycle including using it as a weapon against a gang of bad guys. There is some kind of story here, with Jeeja as a bicycle courier, doing deliveries for two rival gangs. She lives with her "uncle", played by Mum, and has a crush on the handsome musician next door. All of this is besides the point, which is to allow a series of goofy situations with even goofier characters. There's one gangster who sings his own theme song upon entering a room, the sartorially challenged owner of the bicycle courier service, and a would-be suitor who, as one joker would put it, has a face for radio; Almost nothing is sacred here with the exception of Mum's character, a video store owner, pointing out that everything in his store is legal. And if you think the boast of the guy who proclaims that he'll be selling DVDs of movies released in theaters earlier in the day is some kind of exaggeration, I can tell you about seeing DVDs of Hollywood movies even before they hit U.S. theaters. Some of the humor here is aimed at cliches about life in Thailand. That suitor gets the worst of Mum's verbal barbs, being called "Dog phlegm", among other niceties. There are even a couple inquiries as to whether he's the placenta and the actual baby is somewhere else. Yes, Mum's sense of humor is unfiltered, and some of us like it that way. One of the funnier sight gags involves a hood pulling a knife out of his leg, flinging it away, only to have it ricochet against a warehouse pillar and plunge into his arm. Yeah, it's rude and crude, but also truly entertaining.
about 5 hours ago
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Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} ‘I want to be a director’, the title, speaks the spirit of Colin Huang’s earnest attempt at making a straight-talking, street-level humour short film. While the film was not nominated for any awards at the 4thSingapore Short Film Awards, it succeeds in entertaining the child in us that want to see some mindless action on the screen. The film opens with a class in session in the classroom and the teacher gives a final warning to a boy who seems to be daydreaming. His daydream then becomes the film’s story – one about a dream to be a filmmaker and the kind of kick-ass films he wants to make – slasher-gore, zombies, gangsters, explosions etc, The film lifts itself beyond fan-boyism through its cute and clever touches that gives the word ‘skit’ a good name. It is a collection of skits no doubt, but the actors in it are natural comic talents, wide in their dramatic range and yet never trying too hard. Polished, this film is not, but it serves as a bright reminder that sometimes, the key to entertaining others is to entertain oneself first.Review by Jeremy SingWatch the film here:Everyone's favourite: bloopers
about 8 hours ago
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Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Ric Aw’s recent short film ‘Villain’, like his previous short films never fails to stylize the Singapore landscape, offering a quiet ‘art-house’ version of Singapore that does not look too different from the uncluttered style prevalent in many of Michaelangelo Antonioni’s films. It is at once, both distancing yet disarming. ‘Villian’ tells the story of an errant father who loathes the daily grind of a working class life and wants an easier, though unscrupulous, way out of it. And it starts with a bang – literally on his leg, a pre-meditated plan to be injured and be compensated for it. He has a daughter who also gives in to the same ‘stealing’ instincts as him and loots items from a supermarket like a seasoned thief.With the help of a mostly stationary and composed shooting style and objective camera framing of the characters, coupled with long moments of nothing but ambient sound, we are presented with an almost clinical study of the two characters in this film, and through them, a study of poverty and marginalization. What results is an understated yet thoughtful film where we, the audience complete the thoughts. The characters don’t say too much (like in Ric’s previous films) but the message is well-delivered through crisp and succinct storytelling and editing. Interesting to note that all other characters other than the two leads are unflinchingly one-dimensional.Despite the arms-length treatment of marginalization, the films succeeds in presenting dilemmas and conflicts in both of them. The girl struggles with her current daily stealing routines as she yearns to go back to a normal schooling life. Her father professes to be irresponsible but yet his desire to provide for his daughter is discernible. Which makes the ending both perplexing and heartbreaking at the same time – his abandonment of his daughter en-route to escaping. Guess that’s when the surrealism kicks in – the idea that one can actually escape to somewhere in Singapore. Mmmm…..One more comments: this film needs a better and more fluent Mandarin narrator.This film was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Fiction at the 4th Singapore Short Film Awards.Review by Jeremy Sing
about 9 hours ago
about 13 hours ago
‘Tum’ Warawut Poyim aka Tum the Star 9′s music video for his first single ‘‘Ja Ruk Jon Gwa Ja Roo (I will love before you know it)’ featuring Mark Prin and Bella Ranee Campen premiered today and I can’t follow the...
‘Tum’ Warawut Poyim aka Tum the Star 9′s music video for his first single ‘‘Ja Ruk Jon Gwa Ja Roo (I will love before you know it)’ featuring Mark Prin and Bella Ranee Campen premiered today and I can’t follow the concept of the video. I thought she was a ghost. Bella  is an old lover who traveled through worlds (time) to find her love Mark in the present. The MV featured some lovely dovey scenes of Mark Prin getting close with Bella for us to enjoy. It’s a pretty video, featuring some pretty people, at a pretty place–I can settle with that.
about 15 hours ago
Director: Kim Ji-hoon. Review: Mark Appleton. Usually I’m against remakes. I can’t stand the thought of an original movie being butchered to try and cater for today’s audience or, worse still, Hollywood remaking a perfectly good fore...
Director: Kim Ji-hoon. Review: Mark Appleton. Usually I’m against remakes. I can’t stand the thought of an original movie being butchered to try and cater for today’s audience or, worse still, Hollywood remaking a perfectly good foreign film with the justification ‘people don’t want to watch movies with subtitles’.Having said that I’m not against the idea of all remakes (‘The Lawnmower Man ‘would be good with the advances in technology and CGI we’ve had for example) and the idea of the tables being turned and the East remaking a Hollywood film I have to say, was intriguing . This brings me on to The Tower, which sees director Kim Ji-hoon put his spin on the 1974 US disaster movie classic The Towering Inferno. The Towering Inferno starred Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, it was nominated for eight Oscars (winning three) and was the first joint production between two major Hollywood studios (20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.). Pretty big boots to fill. Ji-hoon assembles a lesser known cast for his version but goes large on the effects with some 1,700 shots out of a total of 3,000 having some element of CG. Post-production apparently lasted two years…
about 16 hours ago
Pictures of James Jirayu’s supposed ex-girlfriend or current girlfriend Kwang emerged today and Thai fans don’t seem to care. They are more happy he has an ex-girlfriend and is not gay. One person wrote: ‘it begins, the...
Pictures of James Jirayu’s supposed ex-girlfriend or current girlfriend Kwang emerged today and Thai fans don’t seem to care. They are more happy he has an ex-girlfriend and is not gay. One person wrote: ‘it begins, the chiseling down of a rising star, if this news doesn’t create a buzz, the next news is that he is gay. He didn’t even do anything, why mess with him?’ Others wrote James Jirayu is a good looking kid, they are not surprised he has an ex-girlfriend or girlfriend. She is cute too they wrote. It would be strange if he didn’t have a past. Apparently this is from 2012, she is an actress who worked with him on a filming project ‘Where is love’. If not, people have said they have broken up a long time ago. This is old news and it doesn’t even matter. This news is acting like a confirmation that James Jirayu is not gay. Thai fangirls are happy about this. ‘This is normal, if he has or doesn’t have, I still love Dr.Puttipat (Jame’s character in the lakorn),’ wrote a devoted Thai netizen for James Jirayu. This is good. Thai fans are not crazy. They at least want him to have a private life or a past. Applauds. Apparently this young woman fits his type a girl who is older and is petite. Hey, I qualify– not really. I am definitely way older and extremely petite (5ft). Both attempting to be cute. It just seems like James can do no wrong.  The nerdy lookSource: Kapook and sanook
about 16 hours ago
Artwork not final – mock-up. Photo courtesy of Section23 Films. Source: Section23 Films press release Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff Home video distributor Section23 Films has announced that one of their upcoming anime titles wil...
Artwork not final – mock-up. Photo courtesy of Section23 Films. Source: Section23 Films press release Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff Home video distributor Section23 Films has announced that one of their upcoming anime titles will be postponed for a few months. The QUEEN'S BLADE REBELLION DVD and Blu-ray, originally scheduled for July, has been delayed to a September 24 street date. Continued...
about 19 hours ago
VIZ Media’s Haikasoru Imprint Releases Exciting Novel by Famed Horror/Sci-fi Author Hideyuki Kikuchi Source: VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases Official Site: haikasoru.com Special Thanks to Jane Lui and Erik Jansen The new Va...
VIZ Media’s Haikasoru Imprint Releases Exciting Novel by Famed Horror/Sci-fi Author Hideyuki Kikuchi Source: VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases Official Site: haikasoru.com Special Thanks to Jane Lui and Erik Jansen The new Vampire Hunter D novel Noble V: Greylancer is now available in stores. Image courtesy of VIZ Media. Cover art © 2013 Vincent Chong VIZ Media’s Haikasoru literary imprint delivers a bloodthirsty new chapter of the legendary Vampire Hunter D saga with the North American release of Noble V: Greylancer, now available in stores. The new fantasy novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, carries an MSRP of $14.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN. The release also includes a bonus novelette titled, An Irreplaceable Existence. An eBook edition is also available for the Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBooks Store, and the Barnes & Noble’s Nook Books Store. Haikasoru publishes some of the most compelling contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy stories for English-speaking audiences, and is the first imprint based in the U.S. dedicated to Japanese science fiction and fantasy in translation. Internationally acclaimed writer, Hideyuki Kikuchi, author and creator of the famed novel series, Vampire Hunter D, delves into the past with his latest addition, Noble V: Greylancer. It is the year 7000 by Noble reckoning, and the vampire rulers of the world have grown complacent. When the Outer Space Beings (OSBs) invade, the Noble warrior Greylancer must pit his skills and magic against the technology of the OSBs, quash an anti-Noble rebellion, and, when he is critically injured, turn to mere humans for help. The Three Thousand Year War of Vampire Hunter D begins here! Continued...
about 24 hours ago