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Read the incredibly sad news this weekend that composer Michael Galasso died at the age of 60, suffering from Hepatitis C. He's probably best known for the music he did for Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love and Chungking Express. With ITMFL, in particular, Galasso was partially responsible for what is in my opinion one of the single greatest pieces of film and music together, especially within the context of the film: To the best of my knowledge, Galasso only released two albums on CD during his career. Only one of which, High Lines , I've ever been able to track down a physical copy of without paying an arm and a leg. The other, Scenes , I have mp3's of, but no CD. I don't know if any of his other work has ever made it on to CD, but he'd done a fair amount of it. Neither his official website, nor the official blog have been updated to mention his death, but if you're looking for more information on the man, those are good places to start. Tags: movie news, music news, weaksauce
Current Music: Nadja - Absorbed In You | Powered by Last.fm
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This year's San Diego Comic Con starts on Wednesday. I'm not going. For the first time in... what, 5 years? I don't remember. I feel like actually typing that somehow makes it more official. As if it was still up in the air until now, even though it hasn't been. I guess the main reason is money. My impending unemployment, the fact that I no longer get paid for vacation or sick time and that The Lady and I just spent over a week on vacation a month or so ago makes a trip to Comic Con less financially feasible than I would have preferred. I had basically resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to go and was more or less dealing with the loss pretty well. My doctor gave me anti-depressants and I made sure to keep a steady stream of PJ Harvey music going in my car and movies that involved women killing people in my DVD player. Because that's how you fight depression. Then, about a week ago, I exchanged some emails with my friend at Palisades-Tartan, after they announced that they're back and going to be releasing some titles soon. She told me that they were also going to be at Comic Con. A booth. She asked me if I wanted to work it with them. I worked Tartan's booth at Comic Con in 2007. It was, without a doubt, the best Comic Con experience I've had to date.  That's me. Workin' it. I had a lot of fun, I met a lot of people and I really felt like it was my foot in the door for a job there. Networking with writers, publishers and other "industry" people was exciting for me. Anyway, so when my friend there asked me about this year, I said "OH HELLS YEAH!" To hell with the financial implications, I want this. She said she'd have to make sure it could happen and she'd get back to me. I can't afford to miss work. So I'm not going. Fate, she is a cruel mistress sometimes. Bad enough that Tartan is going to be there without me. Worse is that I probably could have been ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) captain_ioga's date for the Oni party and probably got to meet all kinds of cool people and probably could have bought Greg Rucka a beer or some shit. Possibly even more worserest is that my favorite director in the universe Chan-wook Park is going to be there and there's going to be a preview screening of his new film Thirst. But this morning, I read that motherfucking Shinya Tsukamoto is going to be there, previewing his new movie, The Tetsuo Project. Another one of my favorite directors. And to make matters worse, I have a mancrush on him.  This is rough, you guys. At last year's Comic Con, man... there was barely anybody I was excited to see. Michelle Yeoh was there, but I didn't get to see her and she didn't do any signings or anything. I pretty much spent the whole Con stalking following around Grant Morrison, which was easy because he did about 754 panels. Why the fuck do Tsukamoto and Park have to go this year and make me want to act like a whiney bitch on the internet over it? Is it some kind of conspiracy by my detractors to discredit me? To reveal me as a weak, materialistic, immature, emo nancy boy? Well, I'm still not going, so it didn't work. Not completely. Tags: comic con, weaksauce
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Read some sad news yesterday that Japanese director Yasuharu Hasebe passed away at the age of 77 from pneumonia. Rater than take the time to actually try and add some original content to this blog for a change, I'm going to refer you elsewhere to read about the man.  Cinebeats has a fantastic obituary up that would shame anything I might care to write, anyway. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of Hasebe's work available in the US, but my favorite film of his, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter, is. Stars Meiko Kaji (of course) as the leader of a girl gang that gets in fights, listens to music and gets in fights. Amazon - HK Flix - Netflix - BlockbusterI think I've only seen about four of the man's movies, but I enjoyed all of them to some degree and I really wish someone would bring Black Tight Killers back into print so I could buy it.  You can also check out his Wikipedia page for more information. ( Obligatory pictures of Meiko Kaji in Stray Cat Rock )Tags: meiko kaji, movie news, weaksauce
Current Music: Mono & World's End Girlfriend - Untitled #3 | Powered by Last.fm
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There was a time, not too long ago, when Zhang Ziyi was one of my favorite people on the face of the earth. From 2002 to 2004, Ziyi did 6 movies and they were all good. She was in her early 20's, she was cute, she was starring in good movies and in some of them she got to beat the shit out of people. It's a recipe for success.  BEFOREThen she was discovered by Hollywood. I say discovered, but maybe that's not the right word. She'd been in Rush Hour 2 in 2001 at the request of Jackie Chan, but after that she didn't another Hollywood film until 2005's Memoirs Of A Geisha. And thus, began her descent into the depths of despair caused by bad decisions.  AFTERMemoirs Of A Geisha was a big problem. I'm not going to say it was a bad movie because I don't think it really was. It sure as shit wasn't a great movie, though, and when you have Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li, Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, Kenneth Tsang, Cary Tagawa and Kaori Momoi all in the same movie it really ought to be a great movie. Since then, Ziyi hasn't done much and what she has done hasn't been very good. And so now we come upon stills and plot synopsis for her latest film, The Horsemen, co-starring Dennis Quaid. The plot, copied and pasted from Hello Ziyi: "The Horsemen" tells the story of hardened detective Aidan Breslin, (Dennis Quaid) who, having grown increasingly distant from his two young sons since the death of his wife, now finds himself thrust into an investigation of perverse serial killings rooted in the Biblical prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. As Breslin grapples with each new revelation in the case, he slowly discovers a shocking connection between himself and the four suspects. Four killers. Four unrelated victims. Four painful secrets.
A dark psychological thriller starring Dennis Quaid and Ziyi Zhang. Patrick Fugit, Clifton Collins, Jr., Neil McDonough, and Peter Stormare co-star in a film by Spun director Jonas Åckerlund and Doom screenwriter Dave Callaham. Set in Detroit but filmed in Winnipeg, the $20 million production spent eight weeks in filming, from January to March, 2007.
According to Ziyi "her character is a very complicated teegage girl, who forms a small gang with four boys to avenge those who have been victimized by injustice."Now. I'm going to refer you to Kaiju Shakedown to read a very good dissertation on the reasons why this seems like a really, really bad idea. Apparently, there was an Italian trailer for the movie on the web, but it's now been taken down. I didn't get to see it, so it's hard for me to comment, but Grady Hendrix is a man whose opinion I trust and if he says it looks horrible and Ziyi is playing a role that enforces the stereotypical view of Asian women as exotic and crazy, then I believe him. And I weep for Ziyi's wasted potential. Again. Tags: movie news, weaksauce
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I just read on Kaiju Shakedown that The Warlords is not only going straight to DVD in the US, but that the DVD (due out August 12th) will be dubbed and have about half an hour cut from it. Wow. The Warlords is yet another super extravagant Chinese period martial arts film (*yawn*), but it stars Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. It's directed by Peter Chan and has choreography by Ching Siu-Tung. You'd have thought that would warrant a little more exposure, no? The film has also been getting pretty positive reviews.  If what Kaiju Shakedown says is true (and we have no reason to doubt; plus he has links), then it isn't the distributor's fault, it's the film's producer, Andre Morgan. Go read the article. The guy sounds like a world class douche. Those of us with multi-region playing capability can still view the film as it was intended. The rest of you are S.O.L. EDIT: It seems as though Kaiju Shakedown was mistaken and that Amazon listing is for a different movie with the name The Warlords. The Chinese one still has no US distribution, apparently. Tags: dvd news, weaksauce
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I guess now that it's up on the official website, it's ok for me to talk about it. PiQ, the magazine that gave me the opportunity to write for them and be published nationally is closing up shop after only 4 issues. The 4th and final issue should be hitting newsstands soon (if it hasn't already). It's got 2 pieces by me, giving me a total of 6 published writings. At the moment, I don't really feel like going into any more detail. I'm disappointed, to say the least, and I'm finding this recent trend of places like Tartan Films, Picturehouse, Warner Independent Pictures, etc closing down to be incredibly disconcerting. But shit happens. Tags: piq, weaksauce
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Two brand spankin' new instances of studio interference that piss me off. 1) Matthew Kassovitz has a new film coming out soon that I've mentioned here a few times called Babylon A.D.. The film is of interest to me, mostly, because Michelle Yeoh is in it, alongside Vin Diesel, Gérard Depardieu and others. It is also of interest to me because of Matthew Kassovitz because his film La Haine is fucking genius and I haven't given up on him even if he did that Halle Berry movie Gothika.  According to Twitch, Fox is cutting OVER 70 MINUTES OF THE FILM for it's release everywhere except, it seems, certain parts of Europe. The movie has been dwindled down from two hours and forty minutes to ninety minutes. In addition to this, the 90 minute version has been submitted to the BBFC (the UK's version of the MPAA) and they have rated it 12A, the equivalent to PG. Unfuckingbelievable. 2) Bloody Disgusting is reporting that French directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have been taken out of the director's chair for the upcoming Hellraiser remake by Dimension Pictures (a division of The Weinstein Company). You might be thinking "who gives a shit about this remake?", but allow me to remind you that Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are the people responsible for the recently released French horror film Inside(aka À l'intérieur), which, tragically, I still have not seen. Given the number of positive reviews I've read of it and that many of those reviews were from people I generally trust in this area, the idea of the two of them remaking ANYTHING is really not that bad. As of now, the details of their departure seem to be unknown, but... this is bad news, kids. Tags: movie news, remakes, weaksauce
Current Music: Nurse With Wound "Intravenous"
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The first Dirty Harry movie is one of my all time favoritest movies of all time. I have the boxset and even though I am of the opinion that each movie was a little worse than the one before it, simply looking at it and caressing the side of it occasionally brings immense joy to my overly materialistic inner being. I mean, shit, it's a box of 5 movies that are full of Clint Eastwood saying funny lines and beating the crap out of people with funky music playing in the background. Shit, yeah. I was, in fact, smiling at it just the other day. Then, today, while TRYING to catch up on my friends list, I come across an announcement of a brand new, $75 Dirty Harry box set coming out in June.  Damn you! Go over to DVD Active if you want to look at the release details. Suffice to say, it looks beautiful and infinitely superior to previously released box, and they all have commentaries, my one true DVD special features weakness. So now I am, AGAIN, faced with the dilemma. Do I buy the new shiny version and appease my base materialistic longings? Or do I stick with what I've got, save the money and just deal with the unending depression and the inevitable inferiority complex? Life is full of tough choices, but no one told me it would be like this. Tags: awesometown, dvd news, weaksauce
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Three things, all related to this issue. • If there was any doubt left that the story I posted yesterday about Lust, Caution actress Tang Wei being blacklisted by SARFT (China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television), now there is none. Variety is reporting that a commercial Wei was in promoting Pond's skin cream has been ordered off the air. • I don't know if it's necessarily in the wake of the Lust, Caution thing, but SARFT has actually announced it's "list of censorship criteria". Copied from a different Variety article: Movies are not allowed to produce films that depict hardcore sexual activity, rape, prostitution or nudity. "Vulgar dialogue or music and sound effects that had a sexual connotation" are also out. Any content involving "murder, violence, horror, evil spirits and devils and excessively terrifying scenes, conversations, background music and sound effects" is also banned.
The list also bans films that "distort the civilization and history of China or other nations…or…tarnish the image of revolutionary leaders, heroes, important historic characters, members of the armed forces, police and judicial bodies."
Other banned subjects include the reconstruction of crimes or pics that reveal police investigatory techniques. Also pics that advocate nihilism, environmental damage, animal abuse and the capture or killing of rare animals are on the censor's list.Jesus... • Lastly, at a recent concert performance in Shanghai, awesome singer and musician Björk apparently dedicated the song "Declare Independence" to Tibet and this seems to have pissed some government people right the fuck off. So much so that they are now looking into controlling artists who perform there even more strictly, this taken from yet another Variety article: "Any attempt to separate Tibet from China will definitely be opposed by the Chinese people and all righteous men across the world," the ministry said on its website. "We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future." Tags: current events, movie news, weaksauce
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Because I am completely devoid of free time and creativity, I am going to, ONCE AGAIN, just copy and paste this from this entry on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) ohnotheydidnt. I promise that I want to bring you guys original content that brings wonder and enjoyment to your life, but I currently do not have the time. Soon, my friends, soon. Anyway. ------  Simon Pegg has released an official statement regarding the American remake of Edgar Wright’s UK show 'Spaced', which is being produced by McG. Wright and Pegg are clearly unhappy that they have not been included in on the development of this project, since they were clearly responsible for much of what became the Channel 4 series. Simon's statement: "Thoughts on the subject of an American Spaced. Feel free to skip to the end. Now that the pilot has been officially announced, I thought it might be a good idea to clarify my position on the subject. The whole affair seems to have inspired some spirited debate and some heartening displays of loyalty and love. All this for a show which is almost 10 years old, is all rather wonderful and a vindication of all the blood, sweat and tears (both of joy and pain) we shed in the show’s creation. It was always our aim to create a comedy which spoke to its audience on such a personal level, it almost felt one on one. It would seem the fan reaction to the news that Fox has appropriated the format, confirms at least, that we succeeded. As far as remaking TV shows for different territories is concerned, I don’t have a problem. The Office remake being a perfect example. Yes, the original British version is a wonderful and compact piece of comedy writing and performance, but I think it’s bit much to expect a large scale American television audience to fully relate to the minutiae of day-to-day business life in an obscure British suburb. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you are the type of person who takes pleasure in the variety of entertainment you enjoy, relishing the differences between our various cultural touchstones but there is a massive audience out there, which perhaps isn’t as culturally savvy (euphemistic phrase for ‘geeky’) as we are and need their signifiers to be a little more familiar. So, Slough is replaced by Scranton, and the office archetypes become a little more archetypal to an American audience. The spirit of the show remains intact. The performances are uniformly great and the show scores big ratings and wins EMMYs, whether we as comedy purists prefer the original or not. The success of the remake is born out by it’s undoubted success and appeal. My main problem with the notion of a Spaced remake is the sheer lack of respect that Granada/ Wonderland/Warner Bros have displayed in respectively selling out and appropriating our ideas without even letting us know. A decision I can only presume was made as a way of avoiding having to give us any money, whilst at the same time using mine and Edgar’s name in their press release, in order to trade on the success of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, even professing, as Peter Johnson did, to being a big fan of the show and it’s creators. A device made all the more heinous by the fact that the press release neglected to mention the show’s co-creator and female voice, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson). The fact is, when we signed our contracts ten years ago, we had neither the experience or the kudos to demand any clauses securing any control over future reversioning. We signed away our rights to any input in the show’s international future, because we just wanted to get the show made and these dark days of legal piracy seemed a far away concern. As a result, we have no rights. The show does not belong to us and, those that do own it have no obligation to include us in any future plans. You would perhaps hope though, out of basic professional respect and courtesy, we might have been consulted. It is this flagrant snub and effective vote of no confidence in the very people that created the show, that has caused such affront at our end. If they don’t care about the integrity of the original, why call it Spaced? Why attempt to find some validation by including mine and Edgar’s names in the press release as if we were involved? Why not just lift the premise? Two strangers, pretend to be a couple in order to secure residence of a flat/apartment. It’s hardly Ibsen. Jess and I specifically jumped off from a very mainstream sitcom premise in order to unravel it so completely. Take it, have it, call it Perfect Strangers and hope Balkie doesn’t sue. Just don’t call it Spaced. It’s a shame, since the pilot is now a certainty, whether we like it or not, a simple phone call and a few reassurances might have helped to at least curtail the tide of indignation from fans and creators alike. I have, as of yet, heard nothing." Simon Pegg --------------- I REALLY like this guy. Tags: douchebags, weaksauce
Current Music: Explosions In The Sky "Day Four"
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This is the cover for Mediablasters' upcoming DVD release of Girl Boss Revenge:  Are you fucking shitting me?! This a 1973 Japanese "pink" film, about girl gangs getting into fights and beating the shit out of each other, wreaking havoc, kicking men in the balls and having sex. It stars two lovely and very famous actresses (amongst "pink" film fans), Reiko Ike ( Sex & Fury, Female Yakuza Tale) and Miki Sugimoto (pictured in icon). AND THIS IS THE BEST COVER THEY COULD COME UP WITH!?!?! Insanity. I have a nice bootleg copy of this film and I watched it a couple months ago. If this movie sounds like your kind of movie, it IS your kind of movie. It's up for pre-order on Amazon and is released on February 19th. Tags: dvd news, the war against shitty dvd covers, weaksauce
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