Like many of his brethren of the Hong Kong cinema scene of the 1980s and 90s, director John Woo has not had much luck in trying to replicate his success within the Hollywood studio system. It probably boils down to how Tinseltown works. With numerous people wanting to give their “creative” input, a film’s original vision often becomes diluted to the point where it has become completely lost. This probably explains why many actors who came to Hollywood from Hong Kong, like Jackie Chan and Jet Lee, are instead choosing to split their time between the two filmmaking centers- Do a Hollywood film for the paycheck and then a couple of films in Hong Kong for the greater artistic freedom. Woo, however, seems to have forsaken Hollywood completely following the release of the 2003 dud The Paycheck.

Back in Hong Kong, Woo recently has been wowing audiences with the epic, two-part Red Cliff. And while that film is just starting its limited release here in the States, Woo is already hard at work on his next picture, Jianyu Jianghu, which poetically translates as Rain of Swords In The Pugilistic World. Joining Woo as co-director is Su Chao-Bin whose best known films, Silk and Better Than Sex, are only familiar to the art house crowd here in the States.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Michelle Yeoh stars in the film as a retired assassin roused from retirement when she discovers that the group of assassins she used to belong to is coming to kill her and steal something from her possession. She also discovers that her husband is the son of a former victim who may want to talk to her about her former occupation. Our first look at the film is below. Click on each picture for a larger version.

Via Monkey Peaches.

Jackie Chan has always been fairly meticulous about his films, making sure that they stay within the bounds of what could be considered family entertainment, keeping the action, humor and love story elements of his film to a certain level so that all his fans can enjoy his movies.

So when the director of Jackie Chan’s latest Hong Kong action flick, Shinjuku Incident, states that he will not release the film in China because he refuses to cut its level of violence, there is definitely reason to sit up and take notice.

In a story in USAToday, director Derek Yee stated that he contemplated making some cuts to the movie, but ultimately decided that doing so would hurt the film’s integrity. Yee said, “We tried to cut the violent scenes to meet the requirements of the Chinese market, but producers I invited to watch that version thought it was incomplete.” The report goes on to state that the film contains scenes “that show characters getting a hand chopped off and pierced with knives.”

Yee also stated that Chan, who is also an investor in the $25 million film, concurred with his decision.

For those who don’t follow the Asian film scene, China’s film censors are notoriously strict. As the country has no rating system, every film must be tame enough for audiences of all ages. Gratuitous violence, any nudity or even virtually any mention of sex is right out. Of course, they also happen to snip out any hint of cultural or political overtones that may be embarrassing or critical of the Chinese government. (Chinese censors “protected” audiences from seeing Memoirs Of A Geisha and being offended by the sight of the Chinese Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li playing Japanese characters.)

Even more attention grabbing is the fact that in the film Chan plays a refuge from China who heads to Japan and becomes hit man for the mob. Keeping his younger fans in mind, Chan has always tried to play good guys, turning down roles that cast him as a villain or a bad example. I suppose that that inclination may be a hint of the arc his character goes through over the course of the film. On the other hand, this would not be the first time in recent years that Chan has tried to step a bit outside of his usual screen image to try a role a little darker. His alcoholic police detective in 2004′s New Police Story was a marked difference from the character he played in the original Police Story series in the 1990s.

Shinjuku Incident hits screens in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia on April 2 and Japan on May 1. As of yet, the film has no US distributor, but with an Asian DVD release set for June, those with an All-Region DVD player won’t have to wait long to see the film. In the meantime, here’s the film’s trailer, complete with fan translated subtitles.

Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 groundbreaking classic Akira is coming to Blu-Ray disc at the end of the month, and news is starting to circulate about the restoration that the film has undergone for the upcoming release. From the sound of things, fans of the film have every reason to look forward to the new transfer. Blu-Ray.com, which has a comprehensive story on the work that was needed to be done on the film, reports-

Even though Akira had major restoration work done for the 2001 DVD release, including a 1080p theatrical quality master, advances in digital restoration and film transfer technologies have increased to the point where a brand new transfer was warranted. As with the audio, a new inter-positive was struck from the original film negative for a new scan into a digital intermediate (DI); the master computer file upon which all of the remastering work was performed.

The article does into detail (Warning: Some mid-to-high level tech talk involved) about how the film was restored. It also talks about how the restoration producers tackled one of the on-going dilemmas of transferring film to Blu-Rau- How to accurately represent the cinematic experience of a film in a medium that can substantially change the look of that film-

Even though modern audiences have grown used to computer painted animation it is very easy to go overboard during the cleaning process in an attempt to come closer to that look and feel, as has been the case with some Hollywood films where processing and noise reduction has been used to excess. Subsequently, AKIRA was given a thorough color correction and [restoration producer] Mr. Takei believes the restoration team has gotten very close to the luster of the original animation cels, restoring the picture to a condition that allows AKIRA to be experienced as its creators had intended.

The Blu-Ray release of Akira hits shelves on February 24. You can pre-order it at Amazon.com.

What makes something funny is often dependent upon the culture that originates the humor. Obviously, word play is difficult to translate successfully, while funny business rooted in one society may seem weird and incomprehensible to another. But there are some comedy tropes that are universal. Slapstick and humor that grows out of the human condition seem to face no translation boundaries, which could explain the international success and continued endurance of silent comedians like Chaplin or Lloyd.

While it probably helps to be conversant in the tropes of Japanese daikaiju (giant monster) films, there is enough pathos and humanity in Big Man Japan for those who aren’t fans of Godzilla and his friends to be able to relate to.

When we meet Masaru Daisatou (Hitoshi Matsumoto, who also directed and co-wrote the film) at the opening of the film, he is sitting on the subway, talking to an unseen interviewer. He is explaining why he carries a collapsible umbrella with him, even on sunny days. “I like that they get big only when you need them to,” he explains. He has a similar rational about one of his favorite meals, dehydrated seaweed. Documentary style, we follow Masaru back to his home, where a sign hands outside stating “Department of Monster Prevention.” We slowly learn that Masaru is actually Big Man Japan, a hero who grows to giant size to fight invading monsters.

Recently, we’ve reported on two film remakes – Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols and David Mamet working on an English language version of Akira Jurosawa’s High And Low and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski penning an update of the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet – that actually sound like promising projects.

Thankfully, Hollywood has decided to renew my assertation that nearly all films that try to remake a classic or foreign language film are fool’s errands with the announcement that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are currently in discussions to direct and star, respectively, in a remake of Korean filmmaker Chan Wook-Park’s phenomenal 2003 film Oldboy. According to a story in Variety, the pair are in early talks to take on the project.

Oldboy is the middle film of Wook-Park’s thematic “Vengeance Trilogy,” which examines the effects that revenge can have on a person. The film tells the story of a man abducted off the street and held prisoner in a small cell for 15 years, never given any explanation for his incarceration. Then, as suddenly and inexplicably as it began, he is set free. Stumbling back into a now unfamiliar world, he sets out to find how did this to him and why. Smith would play the incarcerated man in this new version.

I have to really wonder of Spielberg and Smith have actually bothered the film before they decided to undertake this. Without giving anything away about the twist and turns the film’s plot takes, it is definitely much darker material than either of them have ever attempted before. And one of the finale’s revelations goes to such a dark, scuzzy place that I don’t see a Hollywood movie attempting to follow. While Smith’s Hancock did have a dark streak to it, the shooting script they used had been considerably softened from its original form by Smith’s go-to script re-writer Akiva Goldsman. While Spielberg has not yet hired a writer for the project, I wouldn’t be surprised if Goldsman winds up in the mix. Which would certainly not bode well.

Last March, one of the other films in Wook-Park’s trilogy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, has been optioned for an English language redo by Charlize Theron.

Almost no sooner than the news began to spread about the difficulties on the Thai action film Ong Bak 2 and the disappearance of its director and star Tony Jaa, than the martial arts master resurfaced on Thai television to reassure everyone he was fine and still committed to finishing the movie.

During an appearance on Monday’s edition of the show Nine Entertain, Jaa stated that he was shocked when he heard reports that he had abandoned the production of the sequel to the film that launched his career. He claimed that the confusion over his absence was all a misunderstanding.

Via Kaiju Shakedown.

Tony Jaa, the Thai martial arts master and actor who stunned audiences with his 2003 debut film Ong Bak, has been missing since June, placing the future of his nearly completed directorial debut, Ong Bak 2, in jeopardy.

The producers of the film, Sahamongkol Films, state that they have not had any contact with Jaa in almost three months and that the film, which he has already spent three years working on, is about 70% to 80% complete. Panna Rittikrai, Jaa’s longtime martial arts instructor and mentor who has also served as the action choreographer for the film, has been unable to locate him either.

However, conflicting reports have Jaa requesting time off to recover from the stress of the production, which has been plagued with difficulties. There are also conflicting news stories concerning the films finances. Some sources state that Jaa has been spending his own money to ensure the film’s completion, to the point where he is nearly broke. Other sources state that Sahamongkol Films has been shoveling nearly three times the film’s original budget into the production.

In the meantime, Sahamongkol Films has brought in Prachya Pinkaew, Jaa’s director on the original Ong Bak and for Tom-Yum-Goong (The Protector), to complete the film in time for its scheduled December 5 release. Ironically, Jaa and Pinkaew had a falling out in the early stages of pre-production of Ong Bak 2 over how much creative control Jaa would have. Pinkaew left the film to shoot the martial arts action flick Chocolate.

A promotion reel for the film screened at Cannes earlier this year. Although the Weinstein Company picked up North American distribution rights in March, 2006, they returned them in May 2007. Currently the film has no United States distribution.

Via Variety Asia and Kaiju Shakedown.

No matter what Japanese director Takashi Miike turns his attentions to, it invariably is at least interesting. Famed for such genre films as Audition and Ichi The Killer, Miike has tried his hand at more striaghtforward horror films (the original One Missed Call), musicals (Happiness Of The Katakuris) and even a children’s fanatsy film (The Great Yoki War). Now he has turned his eye towards westerns and the result looks to be as eclectic as any of his other films.

Sukiyaki Western Django looks to combine spaghetti westerns with period Japanese sword play and will feature none other than Quentin Tarantino in its cast. The studio synopsizes the story as follows-

Two clans, Genji, the white clan led by Yoshitsune, and Heike, the red clan led by Kiyomori, battle for a legendary treasure hidden in a poor mountain town. One day a lone gunman, burdened with deep emotional scars but blessed with incredible shooting skills, drifts into town. Expectations reach a boiling point as everyone wonders which gang the gunman will finally decide to join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire, and love collide as the situation erupts into a final, explosive showdown.

Some new photos from the film have also been sent out and we offer them for your enjoyment. (Click to enlarge.)

Sukiyaki Western Django opens next month.

Following the closure of its US distribution arm last month, UK genre film distributor Tartan Films closed its doors late last week. Variety is reporting that the London offices were locked when employees arrived for work on Thursday morning.

Both the US and UK branches of the company were known for releasing edgy genre films, primarily form Asia. The are responsible for bring the works of directors like Takashi Miike (Audition) and Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) to Western audiences.

The closure comes on the heels of a streak of financial bad luck that has plagued the company for over a year. Negotiations to be purchased by the Capco Group, who also own ThinkFilm, fell apart last year. A restructuring, which included a merging of its separate PR and marketing departments into one unit based in its London head office, and a cash infusion from a private investor were not enough to stem the tide.

What will happen to Tartan UK’s library of films has not yet been determined, but it will probably be sold off to pay any outstanding debt the company may have,

Palisades Media Corp. has acquired the rights to Tartan US’s library of films and is reportedly working at keeping them in print and available.

The proposed remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic The Seven Samurai is moving forward. Although there are still no stars or director attached to the project, the studio hopes to have it in front of the cameras this coming fall with a targeted 2009 release date.

The money for this, as well as the John Cusack/Gong Li vehicle Shanghai, will be coming from the Weinstein Company’s Asian Film Fund, which they established last August. The fund, which sports $285 million in its coffers, helped finance The Forbidden Kingdom, which opens on Friday.

Hopefully, these two films will be better than Forbidden Kingdom. (See our review of Forbidden Kingdom here.)

But truth be told, I don’t have high hopes for a remake of Seven Samurai. It’s not that I don’t think a remake of the film, or any film can be successful. Seven Samurai has already been remade twice before with differing results. The key to those two remakes was in taking the spirit of the story and transplanting it into another genre. The classic Magnificent Seven (1960) is Seven Samurai done as a western, while the slightly less classic Battle Beyond The Stars (1980) places the tale in outer space.

I’ve always held that remakes are fine, if they bring something new in terms of ideas or approach to the material. If you’re going to remake Seven Samurai, why not set the story in today’s modern business world, with the Seven being consultants trying to keep a non-profit corporation from being devoured by a huge for-profit conglomerate? The possibilities are endless.
But Kurosawa’s original film is near perfect. There is absolutely no reason to try and improve on it.

Via Variety.