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It’s been a year and HIFF is starting now. Check out their site HIFF.ORG. As many of you in Hawaii already know, that if you miss it here, you’ll have missed it completely. I’ll also be judging this film festival’s Features Competition section, so yes, I’ll be out there to see some films and take it in the events. I shall remain impartial and do what I can. You’d think that judging is easy and fun, but when you think about it, these films have the investment of some people’s lives. Doing this right, matters to me. Also judging is Tamlyn Tomita, 25 years after Karate Kid II. Yes, I am the man who is still fighting for her honor.
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In Korea, you have to serve two years of in the Army. He’s been in the public eye for a decade and at 29 is now enrolling in the military service. Yes, you have to do this in Korea. Athletes who win a gold medal can be exempt, perhaps because of the status they give to a nation, but a singer, dancer, or actor? No, they have to learn how to fight. At 29, this is a crucial time in his career. He hasn’t been in any successful Hollywood movie, but that little momentum from Ninja Assassin to Speed Racer will be long erased. In two years, what will change? By then will another Korean export fill his shoes? Probably not, but can he live with himself and away from the public ridicule if he doesn’t serve, yes. The photo and video below is from our buddy Rain’s appearance at Giant Robot NY. Yes those are Uglydolls in the background and Sun-min Kim’s Spiderboom! [youtube]qhTWTN2K850[/youtube]
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All of you Tom Cruise fans or Herge fans know that although your movie ticket purchasing in the past helped the studios and actors out, your money is now in second place. Mission Impossible and Tin Tin are to premier outside of America. Why is that? Is it an economic shift? A test to see if it affect piracy? Is it the typical move of trying to take a billion people’s money before they open? It’s going to happen in India and it’s a shifting market move. Tin Tin is a month early, Mission Impossible is five days early. Video report is below.
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Oops. Since Isabelle Huppert is teaming up with Asian directors, and it doesn’t matter who… Filipino, Korean, name it, it’s all about Asia because it’s hot! It’s fair to say, who cares who she is at the same time. Nice Red Dress though and as what a great pose! C’mon CBS News and C’mon Huppert!
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The most stirring segment of 1911 Revolution is not when Jackie Chan’s eight-fingered general Huang Xing uses martial arts to beat down a bunch of colonized Manchu stooges. It’s when Sun Yat-sen played by Winston Chao, the Ang Lee-associated actor who has been cast as the character a couple of times before, delivers brunch-stopping speeches to European banker pigs that want to cut up the Middle Kingdom according to their own economic interests. Actually, they’re both pretty cool moments. The friendship and mostly parallel paths of the revolutionary army’s commander-in-chief and the Founding Father of Republican China is involving. And when their paths finally intersect, it’s a pretty cool moment. The problem is that there are far too many interchangeable battle scenes that chop up and clog up the two hours of epicness. No matter how large-scale and sweepingly shot they are, the montages become numbing without proper build-up or variations. There are other flaws, too, including much-too-lengthy historical explanations (which are impossible to read even on a bigger TV) and more annotated explanations than pop-up videos on MTV. Yet Jackie Chan’s 100th movie is not a total waste of two hours. While 1911 Revolution isn’t the most effective co-directing job of his career, Jackie Chan acts his ass off. After the first 10 or 20 minutes, you’ll no longer expect him to break character and start climbing walls and busting heads. The movie deserves your eyes for that alone. The ensemble is solid as a whole. Chao should be cast as president if they ever make a Chinese West Wing and Sun Chun is effectively off-the-rails as the unpredictable general who plays both sides. Joan Chen is powerfully understated as the Empress Dowager, although Li Bingbing’s role seems truncated. Yes, the cast delivers some admittedly schlocky moments but isn’t that what happens in fictionalized history? This is new Chinese cinema meant to stir up the increasingly comfortable Chinese, not a Hong Kong actioner for the fanboys (although the English dialog recalls the latter). You may not laugh, cry, or even learn much from this bloated piece of agitpop, but you will actually be moved by the actors at times and perhaps even be inspired by them. See for yourself on a big screen somewhere across America starting on Friday, October 7.
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