Quote of the Day: A Tribute to Toshiro Mifune

Check out this review of Mifune: The Last Samurai, a new documentary of the great Japanese actor, and then go check out the film itself. If you don't know who Toshiro Mifune was, you'll certainly want to. Just take a look at this wonderfully mad description:

Mifune was a one-man kamikaze burlesque show, as elegantly savage as his future inheritor Bruce Lee, as dextrous as Errol Flynn, as insanely comic as Curly from the Three Stooges, with a bombs-away ego all his own. 

... He was a hurricane who blew away the landscape that had come before him. He was really the first samurai of action cinema, the one who cast his cross-cultural shadow over everything from the evolution of the martial-arts genre to Eastwood and Bronson.  

He also turned down the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Mifune got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame not too long ago.

Film Culture Commentary: Asian Leading Men

Looky here, Buzzfeed has finally discovered that there are some cuties and hotties in Asian cinema.  Welcome to the party.  At least Takeshi Kaneshiro is in the top 10.  But no Shin Koyamada? No Ian Anthony Dale or Russell Wong?  At least the delightful Ken Watanabe on the list, but he's only #24?  Shame, Buzzfeed!  Dishonor on you!  Dishonor on your cow!

Friday Fun Video: the Ultrabook Laptop Ad

A Ryan Gosling Movie the Cine-Sib and I Can Both Love

The Cine-Sib and I both hate sappy romances (ugh, "The Notebook") and he doesn't share my enthusiasm for indie character studies like "Half Nelson," but here's a movie project (shooting on location in Thailand) we can both agree on enthusiastically.  Hey girl, we're heading into Bangkok's violent criminal underworld, complete with drug trafficking, murder, revenge, betrayal, and Thai boxing.  What's not to love?  Plus Kristin Scott-Thomas the head of a crime family -- the Godmother!  As Kipling did say, "The female of the species is more deadly than the male."  This should be good.  Really good.  It ought to be, since Nicholas Winding Refn is directing, and I loved "Drive," his previous collaboration with Gosling.  I'm hoping for another dark, slick work of stylishly artful mayhem.  The exotic Thai setting should be simply fabulous.  Oh, and the movie title?  "Only God Forgives."  I can't tell you how glorious I think it is.


UPDATE:  Bloody swordfights are involved!  AWESOME!  This project's sounding more and more like a cool Asian action flick, and you know how much the Cine-Sib and I love those.

Movie News: Taiwan, Aborigines, and Japanese Colonialism

Here's something to watch:

A film that depicts Taiwan’s half-century of Japanese colonial rule from the point of view of a fierce tribe of indigenous headhunters is generating a surge of national pride on the island. “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” was surrounded by buzz at this year’s Venice Film Festival. But that was nothing compared with its reception in Taiwan since opening on September 9th. 

Made by an acclaimed Taiwanese director, Wei Te-sheng, with John Woo, a Hollywood force, as producer, the film has already broken records. At a cost of $25m, it is the most expensive Taiwanese film ever made. The opening-day takings of NT$23m ($790,000), for the first of what will be two instalments, were the highest ever for a Taiwanese film. More box-office records are bound to follow.

Film Culture Commentary: Virtue and Violence

Interesting, via gentle reader Pseudo-Polymath (who always has fascinating links).

Movie Madness: "Space Battleship Yamato"

This is too good for the Cinema-Mad Sibling and me not to share: 7 minutes of footage from the new movie.  Awesome space battles!  The movie has already premiered in Japan.  *turns green with envy*

Movie Madness: The Cine-Sib Recommends "The Warriors Way"

What a mad mashup of East, West, ninjas, cowboys, South Korean movie stars, and American starlets!

The Cine-Sib Recommends: Space Battleship Yamato

Check this out.  Right now.  I mean it!  The trailer below is in Japanese, but I don't think you'll have trouble figuring what the plot is.  

Movie Madness: John Woo + IMAX + WWII Action Flick = Awesome?

Oh, I hope so!

Movie Mini-Review: "Red Cliff"

I finally got around to watching this last night on streaming Netflix on my TV. It was, in a word, spectacular.

I might do a real review later, but I have research deadlines right now, so I'll refer you to the Cine-Sib's enthusiastic assessment. I will say, though, that two qualities about it that pleased me greatly were the absence of (a) too many people flying through the air in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" wuxia fashion, and (b) Zhang "Typhoid Mary for Yellow Fever" Ziyi.

Movie Review: the Cine-Sib Reviews "Red Cliff"

The Cinema-Mad Sibling LOVED this flick. Here's his review:

Red Cliff is a return to form for Hong Kong director John Woo, exemplifying the art of war vividly in this historical epic centering on the decisive Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD Han-Dynasty China where outnumbered allied rebels with Spartan odds outsmart the near-unstoppable imperial army. The most expensive Asian film ever, it shows onscreen with grand-scale elaborate land/sea battles, unmatched in ANY film. Period.

Dude, that was awesome
Hollywood can't do this stuff
Dude, that was awesome

Well, that sounds like unqualified praise, all right!

He also suggests this trailer:

Awesome: Godzilla Haiku

Even more Godzilla haiku here!

Quirky Asian Friday Fun Video: the Ramen Master

From the 1987 Japanese movie "Tampopo" -- a visual ode to ramen!

The Cinema-Mad Sibling Recommends: John Woo's "Red Cliff"

The US release date of "Red Cliff," director John Woo's epic of ancient China, has finally been announced: November 20, 2009. Here is the trailer. It looks good!

Haiku Movie Review: the Cine-Sib on "Blood: the Last Vampire"

The Cinema-Mad Sibling has just seen the Japanese vampire flick, "Blood: the Last Vampire." Here is the haiku review:

CGI, acting
Way bad, Hong Kong action cool
Better than Twilight

The Cinema-Mad Sibling Recommends: "Storm Warriors"

The Cine-Sib suggests the following trailer for "Storm Warriors." It looks good, and the cast is full of Hong Kong actors. A bit more info on the film here. Enjoy!

On Freedom: Bruce Lee Versus Jackie Chan

Here is a follow-up to "Chan-Gate." From Foreigner in Formosa come two Asian action movie stars and two views for you to compare and contrast:

"The Moment is freedom. — I couldn't live by a rigid schedule. I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them."

- Bruce Lee

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic. I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

- Jackie Chan

I'm with Bruce. Be water, my friend!

UPDATE: Another nice Lee quote here: "I have come to discover through earnest personal experience and dedicated learning that ultimately the greatest help is self-help; that there is no other help but self-help—doing one’s best, dedicating one’s self wholeheartedly to a given task, which happens to have no end but is an ongoing process."

Idiotic Comment of the Day: Jackie Chan Unsure If China Should Be a Free Society

Hey, obviously you don't have to be American to be an actor who sticks his foot in his mouth. Observe Asian film star Jackie Chan's foot-tastic moment, brought to you courtesy of blogfriend Dignified Rant:

BOAO, China – Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he's not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he's starting to think "we Chinese need to be controlled."

Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China's southern island province of Hainan.

The 55-year-old Hong Kong actor was participating in a panel at the annual Boao Forum when he was asked to discuss censorship and restrictions on filmmakers in China. He expanded his comments to include society.

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."

Ai-ya is all I can think of saying right now! Then again, Jackie's been known to say goofy stuff before, like sneering at the Taiwanese presidential election (between Lien Chan and Chen Shui-bian). Just can't quit lobbing cheap shots at Taiwan, can you?

Thanks for nothing, Jackie, especially in terms of the many Chinese dissidents (and political prisoners) whom you've effectively stabbed in the back. Don't even get me started on Chan's little sneer at Hong Kong and Taiwan, where democracy activists are working hard. Geez Louise, the sheer arrogant, selfish NERVE of this guy, who -- wealthy, famous, free to jet-set and enjoy a kind of luxury that millions of people can't even dream of -- is basically saying "a good life of freedom and privilege for me, but not for you." He's even FROM Hong Kong.

Stick to making movies, Jackie. That's what you're good at. Pfffffft.

Meanwhile, don't you want to know if Hong Kong really is, as Chan says, "too free"? Not from what I've heard. And if you care to have a look, Hong Kong's press freedom has deteriorated since the 1997 handover. You can also look up the news reports of numerous pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong since 1997. (Here's one I linked at random.) Too free? Not by a long shot, pal.

Quirky Asia Files: Cartoon Bunnies Go To War

It's like Watership Down meets "Apocalypse Now"!

This video clip is sweeping across the Internet, and I can't help but join in. The completely insane yet insanely awesome combination of cute animated animals with R-rated bloody violence demands attention. Bunnies with sniper rifles! The mind BOGGLES.

Where is this from, you ask? Do you really have to ask? Japan, of course!

Language warning; violence warning. Here's the trailer to the upcoming manga series. It is so wrong and yet so right:



This is even better than the Smurf snuff film done by UNICEF in 2005.