Jet Li' s martial arts film "Fearless", directed by Ronnie Yu, is opening on Sep. 22 in the U.S. A Japanese actor Shido Nakamura, originally a Kabuki actor and recently has become notorious for the drunk driving incident, appears as one of Li's opponents.
There was an interesting commentary on the point about the similarities between Gwoemul, the monster in Korean film "The Host", and Waste No. 13 in Japanese anime "WXIII Patlabor", on a Japanese-language Korean journal Chosunilbo.
The reporter says that while the backgrounds of the monsters are rather common ideas, the visual similarities are so powerful, and the issue may linger to people's mind for a long time.
The designer of Gwoemul says he combined all the creepy-looking creatures in the water, but the process to create a totally new life form was such a difficult task, and he was pushed to the verge of losing his mind at times. Director Bong Joon-ho selected the design of the monster among 2000 models created over 2 years and 6 months period.
The hard-and-cold fact is that no matter how hard you try, there is almost no escape from looking like one of thousands of Japanese monsters already created. Stemming from several centuries-old yokai (monster) literature/art tradition, Japan has produced numerous monster movies and TV dramas since 1950's. Korean camp, on the other hand, does not have such tradition and skills, and the challenge of "The Host" was enormous.
The reporter points out that the only monster character in recent films that escaped this Japanese monster curse was "Alien", and the Korean film industry should be aware that they have a long way to go from the international point of view, without being complacent with the success of "The Host" domestically.
The production studio of "The Host" is dismissing the issue as an anti-Korean slur and has not made any official comment, but they seem to be concerned about the less-than-expected box office activities in Japan, according to this article. Despite the relatively low revenue, in "Eigaseikatsu" user rating, "The Host" gets more tha 75 points and the viewers' reviews are generally good.
Another twist to add here is that although "Patlabor" series is one of the best Japanese animations, in terms of both quality and popularity, "WXIII" is considered less-than-standard piece among fans, not being directed by Mamoru Oshii, judging from the various net discussions. So the sentiment among people who claim that Gwoemul is a copy cat, or rather a copy monster, is not so enthusiastic.
All in all, it looks like the common sense and mature behavior of press and fans, such as this Korean reporter, will settle the problem down and fortunately, it does not look to get out of control.
Source: Chosunilbo, Eigaseikatsu
"The Host" opened in Japan, and "Sinking of Japan" opened in Korea, both last weekend. And the winner of the weekend box battle was "Sinking" in both locations.
In Japan, "The Host" was ranked No. 7, one notch lower than "Sinking" at its 8th week of showing and is considered a bit disappointing result. In Korea, "Sinking" got 470,000 attendance through Thur-Sun, and won the top position, ousting "The Host" after 5 weeks at #1. It is reported to be the first time for a Japanese live action movie to open at the top of box office ranking. The studio Toho is expecting that it will be the biggest ever live action hoga record in Korea. (9/7 addition: Kaiju Shakedown reports the result is second to "Howl's Moving Castle", so I suppose the original article meant "the biggest live-acition Japanese film. I corrected this discription accordingly.)
As I reported earlier, "Sinking" star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is famous for his strong ties with Korea, and I suppose that certainly helped. As for "The Host" in Japan, it looks like the Net rumor about its star monster was not enough to draw attention of the mass audience.
Ryuganji has the link to Variety article about "Sinking" in Korea.
As an additional info, youth film staged in the high-tech town "Akihabara at DEEP" did not make it to the top 10.
The Korean blockbuster moster/action movie "The Host" was released in Japan yesterday, and the Japanese blogosphere started to flare up on the topic of "striking similarities" between its star monster Gwoemul and "Waste No. 13" from "WXIII Patlabor" (2002), the third feature length Japanese animation movie of the popular "Patlabor" series.
The topic started in a Korean blog. See the visual comparison here, and the character/story similarities are;
Waste No. 13
Gwoemul
These people fume that director Bong Joon-ho copied this famous anime character without explicitly saying it, but some people respond they are not that similar, and that these claimers are driven by anti-Korean sentiment. So far, there is no press coverage or official comments on this point.
I remember seeing a "moster in sewage" created by Russian nuclear waste (or something) in X-Files as well, and it seems to me that this type of monster story is pretty easy to come up with - just a common idea, nothing more.
Source: Itai News, enjoy Korea
Patlabor series: "WXIII", "Patlabor", "Patlabor 2" - all Region 1
Zhang Yimou's "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", starring Japanese cast Ken Takakura and Shinobu Terajima, is opening in limited theaters in the U.S. today.
As was reported in Kaiju Shakedown, there has been lots of press coverage about "The Promise" environmental damage issues. In response to some frangmented articles that may give wrong impressions to international readers, "Chinabe Cinema", a Japanese language blog about Chinese movies, has put up a detailed account about what exactly happened, based on the reports on local newspapers. It is a little bit long, but I will try to translate everything here, for the sake of the fairness to the people involved in this movie. Before you join Chinese press's "The Promise" bashing band wagon, please take a moment to go through his chronicle.
Nov.03: "The Promise" production team decided to construct a large set in a lakeside location (I can't find the English spelling of the lake - something like "Pigutienchi") in Shangri-la Prefecture, Di Qing State, in Yun-nan Provice, accepting a strong sales push by Yunnan Provice government. Di Qing State accepted the project with a huge excitement, and organized a film commission within the government. The state government promised to provide help in many areas including procurement of the materials and the access road construction.
May 04: The set construction began. (The film production staff picked the construction company.)
June 8, 04: The film production staff arrived in Shangli-la. They started filming in other places other than the lake side. (There were 3 more locations within Shangri-la other than the lakeside.)
June 10, 04: The production staff examined the half-made set in the lakeside, and found cracks in the pillar.
June 12, 04: The production staff decided to stop the construction and not to film in the lakeside, due to the safety concerns.
June 14, 04: The staff/cast team moved to another location (Inner Mongolia), without making the final decision whether to come back to Shangri-la's lakeside location. It is reported that the production staff asked the local government to leave the set as is, as the evidence for the indemnity negotiation with the construction company. They eventually built another smaller set in Inner Mongolia, which made into the final film.
Aug. 05: The production staff informed Di Qing State government of their final decision not to use the set in Shangri-la lakeside, and they asked the government to tear down the set. As a compensation, they gave the government the rights to sell the construction material, and Di Qing State accepted the terms.
Aug-Oct. 05: Di Qing State gave Shanri-la Prefecture an order to tear down the set and sell the material. However, the severe winter weather prevented them to access the location, and they decided to wait till spring.
Dec. 05: "The Promise" opened in theaters in China.
Feb. 06: Local press picked up the issue.
Apr. 06: The snow melted and the major press finally had an access to the lakeside location, and started to write about it.
May 06: The production staff stated their official position, disclosing the documents they sent to the local government. They stated that the remains of the set is left there because of the weather and other factors, not because they abandoned it. The China federal government started the inquiry and passed a legislation to regulate the movie shooting in the scenic sights. The negotiations continue among the film crew, the local governments, and the construction company.
Mr. Chinabe points out the following 3 points to clarify the debate:
1. The lakeside location in the issue was not used for the filming at all, which means very few staff members and no cast were actually there.
2. Actually who littered the place is not clear.
3. It is a fact that the lakeside in Shanri-la was damaged, not so much by littering, but by leaving the construction material for more than 2 years there, and by building an access road for the construction.
He also stresses that the root of the problem is in the economic difficulties of the inner provinces such as Yunnan. They have no industry to speak of, so they are eager to attract movie production, in order to get free international tourism promotions.
Now that the Yunnan province could not get what they wanted, it is easy to see those disillusioned people start pointing fingers to everyone. In those situations, who would you go after? THE DEEP POCKET. (In case you missed this fact, "The Promise" was a huge hit in China.)
By reading this, it is not totally clear to me who IS actually responsible for taking away those materials and repair the damage - the local government (Province? State? Prefecture?), the construction company (the origin of the problem), or the film production team (so why were they undecided what to do with the set for a year, till way after the filming was over?).
Source: Chinabe Cinema
A Chinese love-fantasy-martial arts film "The Promise" by Chen Kaige, starring Hiroyuki Sanada, will open on May 5 in the U.S. and Canada. Please see Hiroyuki Sanada Enthusiast for video trailers, showing cities and other details.
Kaiju Shakedown reports that Chinese film "The Promise", starring Hiroyuki Sanada, is opening in the U.S. on May 5 this year. No more details so far.
"Fearless" (Japanese title "SPIRIT") was screened at Japan Premiere held in Tokyo on Feb. 27. Jet Li and Shido Nakamura appeared on stage. Li said that Nakamura continued acting even when Li's weapon hit him in the head at the filming of the final match scene. Japanese K-1 wrestler Musashi (far left on the photo), who has been Li's fan since his debut, visited the event and was super delighted when Li gave him a kung-fu uniform.
Masato Harada, a film director who also appeared in "The Last Samurai" as an actor, plays a supporting role in "Fealess" as well, and joined the stars on the Japan Premiere stage.
"Fearless" will be released in Japan on March 18. Japanese video trailer is available here (click "SPIRIT")
Source: MSN Mainichi (scroll down and click thumbnails to see more photos)
Chinese blockbuster "The Promise" starring Hiroyuki Sanada and Korea's Jang Dong-kun was marketed at EFM held alongside with Berlin Film Festival, and Warner Independent takes up it distribution rights in the U.S., according to IndieWIRE. KFC Cinema reports that it is understood that they will show 102 min. shorter version in the U.S., and the release is scheduled in May. The film's rights was originally acquired by The Weinstein Co. last May, but they returned it right before the scheduled release in December.
Source: IndieWIRE, KFC Cinema
In Japan, "The Promise" opens today at 273 screens. Hochi reports that its first day is well attended, although there was no "first day stage appearance" by the major actors and staff that is customary for hogas.
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