East Asian Movie and Drama Blog

Red Cliff - Some Random Thoughts

2008-07-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

As expected, John Woo's Red Cliff (赤壁) , the most expensive movie in Chinese film history, has broken opening day records in mainland China and topped the box-offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea over the last weekend. The US$80 million historical epic has already earned US$26 million on its opening weekend across these five Asian territories* and looks set to become the

New Anime By Anime Master Hayao Miyazaki is called...

2008-07-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

Ponyo On A Cliff (崖の上のポニョ or Gake no Ue no Ponyo) and it is a story about a five-year old boy and a goldfish princess (hmmm... not sure why the goldfish princess has a human face but she sure is super cute!). This long-awaited follow-up to 2004's Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki will be released in Japan on July 19, 2008. And after seeing the trailer recently (which unforunately has been

Live-Action Manga & Anime Coming To A Theatre Near You

2008-06-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

A number of high profile live-action movie adaptations of popular Japanese manga and anime are currently in the works, including adaptations of highly popular manga/anime like Dragonball. It is usually pretty exciting to see what the live-action versions of these manga will be like, especialy if you are a fan. But the thing is, if you are a fan, you may not like the live-action version all that

Winter Sonata And Full House Are Back... As Anime

2008-05-30T07:13:00.001-07:00

Following the success of the animated version of Dae Jang Geum - Jang Geum's Dream, animated versions of another two highly popular Korean dramas - Winter Sonata and Full House are currently in production and will be released in 2009. The animated version of Winter Sonata will consist of 26 episodes and will have the original stars of the drama series Bae Yong-Joon and Choi Ji-Woo reprising

John Woo's Next Project After Red Cliff - 1949

2008-05-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

John Woo's mega production Red Cliff is set to be released in July this year in Asia and a spate of new trailers for the movie have just been released (one of them below). High profile appearences by John Woo and the the cast of the movie including Tony Leung (Zhao Yun), Lin Chiling (Xiao Qiao), Chang Chen (Sun Quan), Hu Jun (Zhao Yun), Vicky Zhao (Sun Shang Xiang) and Zhang Feng Yi (Cao Cao) at

Forbidden Kingdom Breaks Box-Office Records Across Asia

2008-04-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

After becoming the Number 1 movie in the U.S. over the last weekend, the Jackie Chan & Jet Lee actioner The Forbidden Kingdom has continued to reign over the box-office across Asia, topping box-offices in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and South-East Asia, even setting the highest opening day box-office record for China this year. This result is truly incredible and shows the immense

Gokusen V.S. Change

2008-04-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

This battle between the new dramas in Japan this season is starting to look very interesting indeed! Gokusen 3 starring Nakama Yukie has exceeded all expectations scoring a sky high rating of 26.4% on its very first episode last Saturday! This result has undoubtedly put pressure on ratings king Takuya Kimura's new drama Change which will debut on May 12, whether Gokusen 3 will continue to triumph

Jet Li Wins Best Actor At The Hong Kong Film Awards

2008-04-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Warlords won eight awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards today, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Jet Li) and Best Director (Peter Chan). Co-star Andy Lau lost out to Jet Li in the Best Actor category but won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Protege. Best Actress was scooped up by Siqin Gaowa for her role in The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt. And Ang Lee's Lust, Caution added

Much Anticipated Upcoming Chinese Dramas

2008-03-31T03:26:00.000-07:00

After writing about the much-anticipated Japanese/Korean upcoming dramas in my previous post, here are the Chinese language dramas that I think will be pretty hot this year: Royal Tramp 2008 (pic) This Chinese drama, based on Louis Cha's martial arts novel Duke of Mount Deer has been in the news recently because over 700(!) cuts/changes to the original version has to be made in order for it to

Character Posters For John Woo's Red Cliff

2008-03-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Character posters for the 8 major characters in John Woo's mega production Red Cliff were presented at the recent Hong Kong Filmart. Just click on the names of the characters below to check them out. Zhao Zilong - played by Chinese actor Hu Jun. Hmmm, I like Hu Jun but his Zhao Zilong really looks a bit too burly and tough.... isn't Zhao supposed to be a rather debonair and dashing general? For

Most Anticipated Upcoming Korean and Japanese Dramas

2008-02-25T23:51:00.000-08:00

What are the East Asian drama serials to look out for in the upcoming months ahead? I was asking myself that question and decided to look for some clues from the net and here is what I found: Korean drama series: East Of Eden Anticipation Score: 3.5/5 This is Korean heartthrob Song Seung Hun's comeback drama after his military service stint and his first drama after 2003's Summer Scent. It

Interesting Article on Asian cinema

2008-02-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

Came across this article today on Asian films: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185459,asian-cinema-faces-up-to-critical-year--berlin-film.html According to the article, East Asian films are in danger of becoming formulaic and possibly even petering out due to censorship issues and a general tightening in film financing brought on by the uncertain global economic climate. Some snippets

Trailer For Red Cliff

2008-02-01T07:07:00.000-08:00

The Chinese version of the trailer for John Woo's movie of the year Red Cliff is finally here. Check it out: http://tw.movie.yahoo.com/videoplayer.html/id=2556&type=movie&play=3052&tab=r My thoughts: Frankly, I was ho-humming away while watching this 2 minute plus trailer because the battle scenes, although truly spectacular by anyone's standard, is just too similar to the battle scenes from so

Most Satisfying Japanese Dramas Of 2007

2008-01-28T05:52:00.000-08:00

Based on Oricon's Annual Most Satisfying Japanese Drama Ranking, the drama serials that provided the most satisfaction in 2007 were Hana Yori Dango 2, followed by Kaette Kita Jikou Keisatsu and Galileo. However, these do not necessarily match the actual drama ratings; the highest rated dorama series in 2007 was perennial favorite Kimura Takuya's Karei Naru Ichizoku but it was ranked only at

Takeshi Kanshiro's Latest Japanese Movie - Sweet Rain

2008-01-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

After appearing in a string of Chinese movies (including the mega-budget hits like The Warlords and Red Cliff), Takeshi Kaneshiro has finally made another Japanese film: Sweet Rain (死神の精度) that is set for release in Japan on March 22 this year. Based on the 2005 novel Accuracy Of Death by Isaka Kotaro, Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a God of Death (and what a very handsome God of Death I must say...)

Trailers of Upcoming Kungfu Films

2008-01-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

It's 2008 and great to be back :-) Here are the latest trailers of 2 highly anticipated kungfu related films to be released in 2008 that I found on YouTube. First up is the the Jackie Chan, Jet Lee kungfu blockbuster film - The Forbidden Kingdom which is set to be released in April 2008. Well... all I can think of after watching this trailer is how did people in ancient China thousands of

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2008-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

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East Asian Film And TV News & Trends In 2007

2007-12-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

It's almost the end of the year and time once again for reflections on what happened in this past year ;-P Wow time flies, it seems that it was only yesterday that I was celebrating the 2007 New Year. I think that this has been a pretty decent year for East Asian films and TV dramas on a whole. Here is a general recap of the news and trends that have caught my attention this year. 1. Chinese

Lust, Caution Takes Home 7 Golden Horses

2007-12-10T05:57:00.001-08:00

As expected, Lust, Caution is the big winner at this year's Golden Horse Awards held on December 8 in Taipei, Taiwan. The Ang Lee thriller won 7 awards including Best Film, Best Actor (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), Best Director (Ang Lee) and Best Newcomer (Tang Wei) among others. Best Actress was also won by a Lust, Caution alumni - former Golden Horse Award winner Joan Chen for her portrayal in The

Top 10 Highest Rated Korean Drama Serials In 2007

2007-12-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

The 10 highest-rated drama series in South Korea for 2007 are out. Based on this news report, the top ten drama serials based on average television ratings for 2007 are: Drama SerialAverage RatingsLead Actor/Actress 1. Jumong 47.3%Song Il Gook / Han Hye Jin 2. Soonjung/Pure In Heart 39.7% Goo Hye Sun / Lee Min Woo 3. Money's Warfare/War of Money 31%Park Shin Yang / Park Jin Hee 4. Like Land And

New! Trailer for Stephen Chow's Upcoming Film CJ7

2007-11-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

Hot off the press! The trailer for Stephen Chow's much anticipated new film CJ7 (长江七号) has just been released on this Yahoo website 30 minutes ago: http://tw.movie.yahoo.com/videoplayer.html?id=2457&type=movie Seems to be a cool comedy + sci-fi pic... Very Stephen Chowish in style ;-) Btw the actress who plays his son in the trailer (yes you read right - actress) is a 10-year old little girl

Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis? Sports In Drama Serials

2007-11-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

Basketball anyone? Get ready for a sharp spike in interest in basketball in early 2008 when a movie and two drama serials on basketball starring the hottest stars in Taiwan are released late this year to early next year. The movie Kungfu Dunk (灌篮) stars multi-talented Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou as a basketball player who uses kung fu to play basketball (a basketball version of Shaolin Soccer?)

Golden Horse Awards Updates

2007-11-13T01:02:00.000-08:00

Following my last post in October on the upcoming Golden Horse awards to be held on December 8, there have been even more changes in the lineup of nominated films. Besides Tuya's Wedding (nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress), the other mainland Chinese film Blind Mountain (nominated for Best Director) has also withdrawn from the competition. However, this does not mean that

12 Nominations For Lust, Caution At The 2007 Golden Horse Awards

2007-10-30T02:57:00.000-07:00

To me, Lust, Caution is the must watch Chinese movie of 2007. The extensive media coverage and the lively debates generated by the movie have been unprecedented, no Chinese film has generated this kind of buzz in a long long time, Lust, Caution is truly the Chinese-language movie event of the year. And I think the Golden Horse Awards panel thinks so too as the film has been nominated for a

Three Versions Of The Great White Tower

2007-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Lately with all the news about the numerous nominations (8 in total!) for the popular Taiwanese TV drama The Hospital at the upcoming Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan - the television equivalent of the Golden Horse Awards, you may be wandering if this is actually a Taiwanese adaptation of the 2003 hit Japanese drama serial The Great White Tower (Shiroi Kyotou) as the two have the same Chinese or