Tartan Film no more?

Twitch Film have revealed that the problems that beset the US operation of Tartan Films have also afflicted the original UK arm, with the office being closed for business on Thursday. This is sad news for fans like myself of Asian cinema as Tartan were instrumental in making western audiences aware of some of the gems from that part of the world - Audition, Battle Royale, Infernal Affairs, the list goes on. Interestingly their website has no mention of all this, and still has a couple of job adverts popping up.

The Good, The Bad and The Weird trailer

Not more musical variations on a film theme tune but the new movie from acclaimed South Korean director Kim Ji-Woon, known for The Quiet Family, A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life. This time around he’s giving us a western, with Jung Woo-Sung, Lee Byung-Hun and Song Kang-Ho in the three title roles respectively.

(Original link via Kung Fu Cult Cinema)

Tokyo Gore Police trailer

The 4 minute 49 second trailer for the blood drenched movie madness that is Tokyo Gore Police, courtesy of Twitch Film. Have fun.

Stop Uwe Boll

Sign here if you want Uwe Boll to stop making movies. Just remember though, if he does give in to the wishes of the 204,000+ who have signed in so far (at time of this posting) then you have to find somebody else to ridicule. Not that that should be a problem, Hollywood’s full of potential candidates.

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion - the movie

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros have secured the rights for a movie adaptation of Dan Simmons’ first two Hyperion Cantos novels. Considering the depth of the narrative and complex structure of these two modern classics of SF literature it’s going to be a major challenge to do them justice in the running time of one movie. Trevor Sands reckons he can do it, good luck to him. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen it, but it’ll need to be at least 4 hours long.

(Link via SF Signal)

The Forbidden Kingdom

Despite both Jet Li and Jackie Chan having long and prolific movie careers The Forbidden Kingdom marks the first time they have both appeared together in a film. It certainly looks impressive, let’s hope it’s not just a case of pretty visuals. And those visuals are carried through to a very well designed website where you can view the trailer in much better resolution than the You Tube version.

Diary of the Dead

George Romero’s got a new zombie movie on the way. Here’s a trailer, introduced by George.

(Link via Twitch) 

Jet Li interviewed

An informative interview with Jet, conducted by Anjali Rao of CNN for Talk Asia. It’s divided into three parts, the first part is here and the others start automatically after a short ad break. A transcript of the interview is also available.

(Links via Twitch)

Movies Watched 2007

I managed to watch a lot of movies this year, 91 on the list below, and succeeded in avoiding the vast amount of mediocrity coming out of Hollywood.  The vast majority of those listed are available on DVD in the UK, my usual means of watching movies.

As with the book list, if anybody wants recommendations I’m happy to oblige.

(Title, Director, Country of Origin, Year of Original Release - as per IMDB for the majority)

Sante Sangre - Alejandro Jodorowsky (Mexico/Italy, 1989)
I Spit On Your Grave - Meir Zarchi (USA, 197
Lake of Dracula - Michio Yamamoto (Japan, 1971)
GI Samurai - Mitsumaito Saito (Japan, 1979)
Hostel - Eli Roth (USA, 2005)
The Duellists - Ridley Scott (UK, 1977)
Killing Zoe - Roger Avary (USA/France, 1993)
Mabarosi - Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan, 1995)
Branded to Kill - Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 1967)
District 13 - Pierre Morel (France, 2004)
Lower City - Sergio Machado (Brazil, 2005)
The Bad Sleep Well - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1960)
Heroic Duo - Benny Chan (Hong Kong, 2003
Inner Senses - Lo Chi Leung (Hong Kong, 2002)
Godzilla - Ishiro Honda (Japan, 1954)
Intacto - Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Spain, 2001)
Circus of Horrors - Sidney Hayers (UK, 1960)
Drunken Angel - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 194
Café Lumiere - Hsaio-hsien Hou (Japan/Taiwan, 2003)
Red Beard - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1965)
Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1952)
Japan Organised Crime Boss - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1969)
V for Vendetta - James McTeigue (USA/UK/Germany, 2005)
Fearless - Ronny Yu (Hong Kong/USA, 2006)
I Live In Fear - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1967)
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Tommy Lee Jones (USA/France, 2006)
Slither - James Gunn (USA/Canada, 2006)
Ghost of Mae Nak - Mark Duffield (Thailand, 2005)
Tristan and Isolde - Kevin Reynolds (Germany/Czech/UK/USA, 2006)
Mirrormask - Dave McKean (UK/USA, 2005)
Warrior King - Prachya Pinkaew (Thailand, 2005)
The Crimson Rivers - Mathieu Kassovitz (France, 2000)
Angel-A - Luc Besson (France, 2006)
Lord of War - Andrew Niccol (USA, 2005)
Cello - Lee Woo-Cheol (South Korea, 2005)
Sure Death Revenge - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1987)
Graveyard of Honour - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1975)
Cops vs Thugs - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1975)
Triple Cross - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1992)
Gate of Flesh - Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 1964)
Family - Takashi Miike (Japan, 2001)
The Host - Bong Joon-Ho (South Korea, 2006)
Virus - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1980)
Woman of the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara (Japan, 1964)
36 - Olivier Marchal (France, 2004)
Welcome to Dongmakgol - Park Kwang-Hyun (South Korea, 2007)
Babel - Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (France/USA/Mexico, 2007)
Hot Fuzz - Edgar Wright (UK, 2007)
A Man Apart - F Gary Grey (USA, 2003)
Red Road - Andrea Arnold (UK/Denmark, 2006)
Satan - Kim Chapiron (France, 2006)
Apocalypto - Mel Gibson (USA, 2006)
Howl’s Moving Castle - Hayao Miyazaki (Japan, 2004)
Children of Men - Alfonso Cuaron (UK/USA, 2006)
Man On Fire - Tony Scott (USA/UK/Mexico, 2004)
Pan’s Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro (Mexico/Spain/USA, 2006)
Saw III - Darren Lynn Bousman (USA, 2006)
The Prestige - Christopher Nolan (USA/UK, 2006)
Tokyo Drifter - Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 1966)
Twin Warriors - Yuen Woo-Ping (Hong Kong, 1993)
Hanzo the Razor : Sword of Justice - Kenji Misumi (Japan, 1972)
Akira - Katsuhiro Otomi (Japan, 198
Death Duel - Yuen Chor (Hong Kong, 1977)
Deadful Melody - Min Kun Ng (Hong Kong, 1993)
A Better Tomorrow - John Woo (Hong Kong, 1986)
Princess Raccoon - Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 2005)
Hanzo the Razor: The Snare - Yasuzo Masumura (Japan, 1973)
Wishing Stairs - Yun Jae-Yeon (South Korea, 2003)
Dragon Tiger Gate - Yip Wai-Sun (Hong Kong, 2006)
Hanzo the Razor: Who’s Got the Gold - Yoshio Inoue (Japan, 1974)
The Heroic Ones - Chang Cheh (Hong Kong, 1970)
Human Lanterns - Sun Chung (Hong Kong, 1982)
Curse of the Golden Flower - Zhang Yimou (Hong Kong, 2007)
Happy Times - Zhang Yimou (China, 2000)
Street Mobster - Kinji Fukasaku (Japan, 1972)
The Damned - Joseph Losey (UK, 1961)
The Road Home - Zhang Yimou (China, 1999)
Haze - Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan, 2005)
Full Metal Yakuza - Takashi Miike (Japan, 1997)
The Bow - Kim Ki-Duk (South Korea, 2005)
Election 2 - Johnny To (Hong Kong, 2006)
The City of Violence - Ryoo Seung-Wan (South Korea, 2006)
Antibodies - Christian Alvert (Germany, 2005)
The Silent Duel - Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1949)
Unborn But Forgotten - Lim Chang-Jae (South Korea, 2002)
Fighting Elegy - Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 1966)
300 - Zack Snyder (USA, 2006)
PTU - Johnny To (Hong Kong, 2003)
The King - James Marsh (USA, 2006)
Typhoon - Kwak Kyung-Taek (South Korea, 2005)
Laura - Otto Preminger (USA, 1944)

Hellboy 2 trailer

Guillermo del Toro can always be relied upon to make a good looking film, although sometimes the visuals overshadow the actual content. Here’s a trailer for his Hellboy sequel, The Golden Army.

Guillermo has also produced the impressive looking debut feature film from director Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage. 

(Links via Twitch)