Weinsteins Moving Forward With SEVEN SAMURAI Redo

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.

Review: NANA

Opening up this weekend in a limited release is the 2005 Japanese film Nana. Based on a popular Japanese comic, the film became a sensation, spinning off pop albums, a sequel and a cartoon series.

But is this story of an unlikely friendship between two young woman any good?

You can read our review here.

SECRET SUNSHINE Nabs 3 Top Asian Film Awards

The stunning South Korean drama Secret Sunshine picked up three of the top awards at the 2nd annual Asian Film Awards show on Monday.

Earning critical raves since it premiered last May at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won Best Asian film, Best Director for Lee Chang-dong and Best Actress for Jeon Do-yeon.
Picking up awards for Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actress for Joan Chen, The Sun Also Rises proved to be the only other film to win multiple awards. Tony Leung won Best Actor for his role in Ang Lee’s controversial Lust, Caution, while Sun Honglei won Best Supporting Actor for Mongol.

Although Mongol has a release scheduled in the United States for June, The Sun Also Rises and Secret Sunshine have yet to find US distributors. You can read our review of Secret Sunshine from its New York Film Festival screening here.

The remainder of the awards were picked up by mainland China films with the exception of India’s Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, who won Best Composers for their work on Om Shanti Om.

Best Film- Secret Sunshine
Best Director- Lee Chang-dong, Secret Sunshine
Best Actor- Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Lust, Caution
Best Actress- Jeon Do-yeon, Secret Sunshine
Best Supporting Actor- Sun Honglei, Mongol
Best Supporting Actress- Joan Chen, The Sun Also Rises
Best Screenwriter- Au Kin-yee and Wai Ka-fai, Mad Detective
Best Cinematographer- Liao Pen-jung, Help Me Eros
Best Production Designer- Cao Jiu-ping and Zhang Jian-qun, The Sun Also Rises
Best Composer- Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, Om Shanti Om
Best Editor- David Richardson, Eye In The Sky

Via Variety Asia.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY Theron?

Charlize Theron is planning on producing and starring in an American remake of Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, the third film in Korean director Chan-wook Park's trilogy of films that examine the nature of revenge.

The news was casually dropped midway through a Boston Globe interview with the actress, who was promoting her current film, the indie drama Sleepwalking. No other information, such as if there is anyone working on a script, was forthcoming.

Park’s "Vengeance Trilogy" has certainly found itself fans here in the States for its brutal and bitter look at the effect that seeking revenge could have on someone. An Americanized remake of the strongest of the triptych, Oldboy, was announced back in August 2004, though with no new news since then, it appears as if the project has stalled out.

Aeon Flux notwithstanding, Theron has a good track record of picking smart projects for herself. Hopefully being in the producer's chair will help keep this new version of Sympathy For Lady Vengeance from being watered down in much the same way many other Asian films remade by Hollywood studios have been.

Via CinemaBlend.

Two Clips From Stephen Chow's CJ7

Stephen Chow might be a big star across the rest of the world, but it appears as if Sony Classics are still unsure of his appeal Stateside, with the slight rollout they seem to be giving his latest film CJ7. The film is only opening on 12 screens in New York City and Los Angeles tomorrow and unless you are in easy commuting distance of either metropolis, you’ll find yourself waiting for the film to slowly go wider. Then again, this is a similar strategy to the one ised two years ago for Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, which netted the studio $17 million, so maybe they know what they're doing.

In any case, to tide you over on that wait, JoBlo managed to score two clips from the film, which we share with you below. Enjoy!

Stephen Chow's CJ7 Trailer

It's been two-and-a-half years since Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle graced American cinema screens and fans of the Hong Kong comic/actor/director have been anxiously awaiting his next film.

Chow has done a good job on keeping a lid on specifics of the production, but it is known, after some initially confused reports, that the film will be called CJ7 and will feature Chow as a poor, widowed laborer who has an encounter with aliens. A teaser trailer for the film has now shown up online, and it doesn’t reveal much more than what we already know.

Maybe my expectations are set a bit high after the great one-two punch of Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle, but the trailer leaves a bit under whelmed. Is Chow keeping the film’s jokes a close to his vest? Perhaps Chow is going to for a tone that’s different from his two previous comic masterpieces?

CJ7 is set for release in 2008.

Previously-
Stephen Chow’s Next- CJ7
More Pics From Stephen Chow’s Latest

DVD Review: HULA GIRLS

It's a plot line that may just qualify as its own genre. A small group of people, oft times living in an economically depressed area, turn to an unorthodox way of earning money that at first sparks a culture clash but then leads to heart-warming understanding and acceptance by all. It’s become a fairly predictable trope, but if done well, as in the case of Hula Girlsrecently released on DVD, it can still yield enjoyable results.

The economically depressed town in question is 1965 Iwaki, a northern Japanese mining town that is seeing some 2,000 miners laid off following a closure of one of the mines. A plan is in motion to create a Hawaiian-themed resort that some of the laid-off miners can work at. However, one important thing is needed to make the resort authentically Hawaiian- hula dancers. However the conservative town is strongly against some of their daughters, wives and sisters take the jobs.

The film’s culture clash theme is personified by the teenage Kimiko (Yu Aoi) and her mother (Junko Fuji). Kimiko sees dancing at the Hawaiian center as a chance for a different life than that of a housewife that has already been mapped out for her by virtue of where she was born. Her mother, who relies on the more traditional values to define her life, sees the occupation of hula dancer as shameful and on par with stripping.

One doesn’t need to see a lot of movies to know how this is going to play out. But the fact that it plays out so well is what keeps the viewer engaged in the film. All the characters are exceedingly well drawn, with even the secondary characters all getting moments that flesh out their characters more so than usually seen in English language versions of the same basic story. The movie also resists the temptation to fall into some of the clichés that present themselves at various storytelling junctures. When Kimiko’s best friend moves away when her family heads to a large city to find work, Hollywood has trained to expect her return by the close of the film. Here, however, there are no heartwarming reunions, leaving the dance troop’s eventual triumph at the end of the film just slightly bittersweet.

The folks at Ziv Pictures have done another fine job in assembling this package. As usual with their releases, there are supplementary materials that help explain the film’s context in Japanese culture. For this title, Viz has included a short documentary interviewing the women from the northern mining town on which the film’s story is based. While Kimiko and the other dancers are fictional constructs, their instructor, Madoka Hirayama, played in the film by Yasuko Matsuyuki, is not and she is also on hand to discuss the challenges she faced in overcoming the town’s preconceived notations about the art of hula dancing.

But one doesn’t need to know that Hula Girls has its roots in actual events to enjoy the film. The strength of the film’s story, themes and acting are enough to ensure that.

Toho Returns To Kurosawa's HIDDEN FORTRESS

Cameras start rolling later this week on a remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic film The Hidden Fortress, according to an announcement from in today's Variety from Japan's Toho Studios.

The remake's director, Shinji Higuchi, comes from a background in visual effects and has already the directed the hit films Lorelei (2005)and The Sinking Of Japan (2006). Taking over original star Toshiro Mifune's role of a general guiding a rescued princess through enemy territories is Hiroshi Abe, an actor who has been mostly known for roles in romantic comedies. Masami Nagasawa will be playing the princess, a role played by Misa Uehara in the original.

Of course, I could be snarky and say that Hidden Fortress has been remade once before- it was called Star Wars (1977). It's fairly well known that Lucas patterned his original film off of Kurosawa's story before filtering it through an odd combination of Joseph Campbell and Buck Rogers serials, causing such characters as the two bumbling peasants who accompany the general in Hidden Fortress to transform into Star Wars' robots R2-Ds and C-3P0. Interestingly, the two peasant characters will be merged into one character for this new version, who will be played by Jun Matsumoto, of the Japanese boy band Arashi.

The movie is scheduled for a May 10, 2008 release in Japan.

Trailer Park: THE EYE

Here's a little something for your weekend- the trailer for the upcoming American remake of the horror film The Eye. In it, a woman who has received an eye transplant that restores her sight begins to see otherworldly visions. The original, directed by the Pang Brothers, is an effectively creepy little film. Experience has taught us that an English linaguage remake will probably not be as good.

What are your thoughts?

Trailer Park: Kitamura's MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN

I've been a fan of Ryuhei Kitamura's films ever since I saw Versus at the Philadelphia Film Festival in 2002. His kinetic use of the camera excited me like no other director had since I had first seen Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 14 years earlier. He followed that up with the even better Azumi, which features camerawork even more dizzying. Although Sky High and Godzilla: Final Wars didn't quite live up to the heights of the two previous films, they still are entertaining.

Now, Kitamura is readying the release of his first English language film, Midnight Meat Train. Adapted from a short story by Clive Barker, it stars Bradley Cooper as a photographer who discovers a serial killer (Vinnie Jones) who uses the subway system as his own personal abattoir.

The trailer for the film, which is scheduled for release next year, doesn't strike me as really showcasing Kitamura's strengths, but trailers are often cut differently from the final film. We'll see next year.

ONE MISSED CALL Poster And Trailer

While I am not the greatest fan of Japanese auteur Takashi Miike's work, I have seen enough of it to consider his horror film One Missed Call to be one of his lesser films. Coming out at the tail end of the J-horror boom of a few years back, its premise – mysterious messages appearing on people's cell phones forecasting their imminent death – strains the "find something scary in the ordinary" convention of the genre. While Miike does manage to wring (pun unintended) some scares out of the material, it generally feels as if he's slumming it here.

Of course, it was inevitable that One Missed Call would be picked up for an American remake during the recent spate of English language J-horror remakes. But as exemplified by the failures of the Americanized versions of Dark Water and Pulse, it looks as if the movie-going public has grown tired of the trend much in the same way Japanese audiences did.

So will this American version of One Missed Call be any good, and more importantly to the studio, will it bring in an audience. Normally I would say that the presence of Ed Burns in the cast would be an indicator that at least there was some potential for a decent story, but having such recent klunkers on his resume such as A Sound Of Thunder (2005) and The Holiday (2006) has me questioning his judgment on scripts lately.

I will admit that I do like the recently released poster for the film. A great, creepy image that, while not explicit gruesome, is freaky enough to make me surprised that it passed muster with the folks at the Motion Picture Association of America that approves such things.

The trailer, however, is fairly standard- it sets up the movie's premise and tries to impart a few representative scares. However, there's nothing too exciting in the clip that makes me want to rush right out to the theater opening day.

One Missed Call opens on January 4, 2008.

More Pics From Stephen Chow's Latest

Some more pictures have surfaced from Stephen Chow's latest film. The problem is, the site that originally posted them, CriEnglish, wants to call the movie Yangtze River 7. During the last round of pictures from the film we posted, the film was being reported as having the title CJ7. Previously, the film had a working title of A Hope.

What we do know, is that the film is about man who falls in love with his son's teacher, who is an alien from outer space. Or is it that the son is the alien?

What we do know is that the film is being released in Hong Kong in January. For now.

Previously- Stephen Chow's Next - CJ7

Foreign Film Oscar Hopefuls

Today is the deadline for countries to submit their nominations to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Feature Film Oscar.

According to the Academy's rules, "a foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Every country shall be invited to submit its best film to the Academy. Only one picture will be accepted from each country." Of these nominations, five will be selected for by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award committee. These nominees will be announced on January 22, 2008.

Although the deadline for submission is today, some countries, most notably China and Thailand, have held off on making their announcements until the last minute. Here’s a list of those countries’ submissions that have been announced so far-

• Bangladesh – Swopnodonay (On The Wings Of Dreams)
• Belgium – Ben X
• Brazil - The Year My Parents Went On Vacation
• Czech Republic – I Served The King Of England
• Estonia – The Class
• Finland – A Man’s Job
• France - Persepolis
• Germany – The Edge Of Heaven
• Hong Kong - Exiled
• Hungary - Taxidermia
• India - Eklavya: The Royal Guard
• Ireland - Kings
• Israel - The Band’s Visit
• Italy - The Unknown
• Japan – I Just Didn’t Do It
• Korea – Secret Sunshine
• Macedonia – Shadows
• Mexico - Luz Silenciosa (Silent Light)
• Netherlands - Duska
• Norway – Gone With The Woman
• Philippines - Donsol
• Singapore - 881
• Spain - The Orphanage
• Sweden - You, The Living

DVD Review: PING PONG

If you think that cinematic table tennis is only good for a few laughs like in the recently released Balls Of Fury, than you need to see Ping Pong. And luckily for you, this wildly inventive Japanese film hit DVD this week.

Set in a world of highly competitive high school table tennis, the film focuses on a pair of friends- Peco and Smile. Both are talented players, but not playing up to their full potential. Peco hustles other table tennis players for cash at a rundown ping pong dojo while Smile – so nicknamed as he never cracks his sullen expression – plays on the local high school team. When they both get beaten at a local competition, they question whether they want to go on playing the game, but are encouraged by separate coaches to put their all into their game in preparation for the next tournament.

Adapted from the manga by Taiya Matsumoto, Ping Pong balances complex character relationships between Smile, Peco, their coaches and the three main competitors the pair face. Unlike most sports movies, there’s no clear villain. The three major competitors Peco and Smile play against are drawn sympathetically, which helps build the tension during their matches. There is also a strong theme of having a responsibility to use one’s talents to the fullest and I have to wonder of Matsumoto intended this to be allegorical to the Japanese cultural drive to succeed.

Nominated for eight Japanese Academy Awards, Ping Pong is one of those films that, once you see it, you want to round up a bunch of your friends and share it with them. Half the joy of the film is discovering the stunning and kinetic visual work of director Sori Fumihiko, and the other half is in watching others discovering it for themselves. Sori, who worked as an effects supervisor on James Cameron’s Titanic, manages to find new and visually interesting ways to shoot each successive match. Combine with J-pop soundtrack and you have a film that captures the energy of its characters’ teen years.

VIZ Pictures has put together a great 2-disc package for the film. The first disc sports a sharp transfer on par with the Japanese Region 3 release. But where this release surpasses the Japanese disc is with its special features, which are spread across a second disc. The highlight of the special features is the nearly hour-long “Making Of” featurette which contains interviews with director Sori and the principal members of the cast as well as lifts the curtain on how some of the film’s ping pong matches were shot. There’s also a 16 minute mildly amusing parody of the film called Ting Pong, as well as another short feature on ping pong basics. The special features disc is rounded out with a collection of Japanese theatrical trailers and television commercials.

Stephen Chow's Next- CJ7

Having wowed audiences with the visual anarchy of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, Stephen Chow's next film, title CJ7, certainly sounds as if it might be a more sedate affair. In it Chow plays a simple laborer who falls in love with his son's teacher (Kitty Zhang Yuqi), not knowing that she is an alien. And, since its a Stephen Chow movie, we don't mean alien as in resident of a foreign country. The below pictures from the film, found over at Asian Popcorn, certainly don't hint at any crazy comedy either. Still, considering the fact that Chow's son is being played by Xu Jiao, a 9-year-old girl, there is definitely a chance that things will take on Chow's unique comic sensibilities.

Miike's SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO Gets Global Distribution Deal

Celluloid Dreams has snapped up the non-Asian distribution rights to iconic Japanese director Takashi Miike's highly anticipated Sukiyaki Western Django Variety reports.

Miike's tribute to the spaghetti westerns he used to watch with his father as a child, the story centers on a small mountain village where two rival clans are facing off over a hidden treasure when a mysterious gunman arrives.

Shot in English with a Japanese cast, the film is a crazy mixture of western and samurai film influences with characters dressing in samurai armor and ten-gallon hats and wield samurai swords and six shooters. Quentin Tarantino, a friend of Miike, makes a cameo.

The film is scheduled to screen at the Venice and Toronto film festivals before opening in Japan on September 15.

No US release date has been set.

GRAVEYARD OF THE FIREFLIES To Get Live Action Redo

Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novel Graveyard of the Fireflies, which was adapted by director Isao Takahata and Studio Ghibli into the classic anime feature, is set to be made as a live-action film by Tokyo-based Pal Entertainment. Taro Hyugaji, who previously directed Portrait Of The Wind (2005), is set to direct.

The film’s story follows a young brother and sister who are trying to survive on their own following the firebombing of Kobe City. Studio Ghibli’s adaptation is considered by many anime fans to be exceptionally well done and heartbreaking.

Originally set to be directed by Kazuo Kuroki, pre-production on the live-action adaptation was suspended when Kuroki died of stroke last April.