Making mountains out of molehills? Avatar-branded rocks stir controversy in China
Some context, in case you haven’t been paying attention…
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So – predictably, things haven’t gone quite as planned. In addition to the usual kvetching about the importation of Western popular culture, there is also a competing interest in Huangshan who claims that Cameron namechecked their [...]
Hughes Brothers to tackle live-action ‘Akira’
Aint-It-Cool-News reports that directing duo the Hughes Brothers have signed on to bring Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira to the silver screen. I can’t say I’m a fan – From Hell was an abomination, but only because they jettisoned all the cool mystical stuff that made the original comic so amazing. In all fairness, I can’t see [...]
DVD Review – Resident Evil: Degeneration
A decade or so ago, finding anime and other Asian media used to be hard. Fans had to settle for whatever mediocre dubs made it onto television, mail order from small suppliers like AnimEigo, lurk Usenet for fansub contacts or scrounge for low-quality videotape dubs at fan conventions. Today, though, one can pick up DVDs [...]
Yellow Menace Theater: Fantasy Mission Force
Back when my Jackie Chan fandom was in full swing, I rented Fantasy Mission Force expecting yet another tour-de-force stuntfest from Mr. Chan. Those of you who have seen FMF are snickering already, but bear in mind this was the late 80’s when the only way to find out if something sucked was to actually [...]
‘Oldboy’ remake beaten to death with claw hammer
The Will Smith / Spielberg (no need for a first name there, I presume) remake of Oldboy is dead. I presume Dreamworks couldn’t wrap their head around the concept of Will Smith fucking his daughter. Neither could I, for that matter.
Yellow Menace Theater – Halloween Edition ‘The House Where Evil Dwells’
‘Cup of Tears’ – Samurai action for the ‘300′ crowd
Gratuitous use of CGI + samurai = awesome, in my book. Not sure if the story holds together, but who farking cares. This looks amazing.
The Cup of Tears film trailer. Dir. Gary Shore from Gary Shore on Vimeo.
Dr. No is dead.
I’ve been running a James Bond 007 RPG campaign for some friends lately, so I’ve had Bond on the brain for the last few weeks. That said, I thought it fitting to note the passing of actor Joseph Wiseman, who portrayed the nefarious German-Chinese mad scientist Dr. No in the first (decent) Bond flick, Dr. [...]
New to Netflix Instant Watch: Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Triad Election, Samaritan Girl
I was just bemoaning the fact that Netflix hadn’t updated their stable of Instant Watch films in a few days when a flood of stuff hit today, including a whole ton of awesome Asian flicks:
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Triad Election
Phone
Samaritan Girl
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
Cinderella
Yellow Menace Theater: Yojiro Takita’s ‘When the Last Sword is Drawn’
Hong Kong actor Shing Fui-On dead at 54
Hong Kong actor Shing Fui-On, known largely for his portrayal of rough-looking baddies in numerous crime thrillers, has died.
I remember reading some time ago that he was considered so unattractive that a woman once passed out at a screening of a film in which he appeared. Frankly I think that’s apocryphal – Shing wasn’t that [...]
New to Netflix – Craptacularity Edition
Fans of shitty martial arts flicks will want to check out three new offerings on Netflix’s Instant Watch service – the first two, Kickboxer 3 and 4, are probably not worth mentioning – but Yossi Wein’s Ninja-sploitation flick Lethal Ninja looks like an amazing piece of craptacular cheese. Ninjas on rollerskates? Hot damn!
Trailers and/or video [...]
Read ‘The Short Timers’ – the original source for Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’ – online
While I was in a flu / sleep-deprivation based haze last night, I fired up Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam polemic Full Metal Jacket on Netflix. It was a bit of a whim – I hadn’t seen the flick since college and I was in the mood for some senseless violence. It was just as good as [...]
New to Netflix Instant Watch: Chan-wook Park’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance’ and ‘Lady Vengeance’
Fans of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy who haven’t had a chance check out the preceeding and following installments of the so-called Vengeance Trilogy will be happy to know that they are now available via Netflix’s Instant Watch feature. Although Oldboy has gotten the most attention, all three installments are well worth your time.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Lady [...]
James McTeigue has huge man-crush on K-pop sensation Rain
Listening to James McTeigue talk about his ‘Ninja Assassin‘ leading man Rain makes me wonder if McTeigue isn’t harboring some sort of latent lustful desire for the guy. Then again, look at him. Those are some manly, manly pecs.
“Rain is an incredible athlete,” McTeigue said. “An incredible personality too. You just have to spend a [...]
