An evening with the Bondi Tsunami crew
Rachel Lucas, Anthony Lucas-Smith and Taki Abe from Bondi Tsunami
I’ve been having a pretty fun weekend, and I actually managed an all-nighter on Friday night. And I thought I was getting too old for all that crap! He he. No way, I had a ball. I finally got to see Bondi Tsunami, the Australian Japanese surfing road film I mentioned here. There was a party screening and follow-up Q & A with the director, Rachel Lucas, the producer, Anthony Lucas-Smith, and main character, Taki Abe at Super-Deluxe in Roppongi.
Woo-hoo, the Kong is in the house!
We finally get a glimpse of what Peter jackson and his formidable team have been working on for the past year – go take a look at the trailer for King Kong. You can also visit the official website and Kong is king.net is well worth a visit for lots of behind the scenes gossip.
To be honest, I suspect this is gonna be the most expensive B-grade movie ever made. Looks delightfully schlocky, complete with bad zombie-ific island natives and lots of Jurassic Park-esque snarling T-Rex’s in battle…. Let us not forget Mr Jacksons true filmic roots and please don’t expect another LOTR timeless classic. See it with tongue firmly in cheek coz that’s the way it’s *lovingly* being made. It will be a timeless classic in its own way.
the house of flying daggers
traipsing around shinjuku with some old friends today, we decided in all our festive inclinations to take in a movie. all of us had limited time frames and the only movie that was going to start within the next 30 minutes was troy. so in we went and how disappointing it was. (yeah, ok, ok, i already *knew* that before i went in, i guess i was just hoping to be proved wrong)
the only highlight was the trailers, and two films in particular caught my eye. interesting that they are both asian films. considering the complete tripe the west has been producing lately (although the latest harry potter offering was quite a delight thanks to the talents of alfonso cuarÔø?n) i think that hollywood better start keeping a close eye on the wonders of asian cinema because it is completely rockin’ the free world these days .
ok, film number one is from the magical team who brought us hero last year directed by director zhang yimou. the chinese call it shi mian mai fu, the japanese call it lovers and the english speaking world will know it as the house of flying daggers. starring the gorgeous zi-yi zhang (you may know her from such magical moments as hero and crouching tiger, hidden dragon) and equally gorgeous japanese/tiawanese cutey takeshi kanshiro, it is a sumptuous looking visual feast (can zhang yimou do no wrong?) which i cannot wait to see. it’s opening here in japan on august 28, complete with english subtitles at some selected theatres (i saw hero with english subtitles at roppongi hills virgin cinemas last year).
film number 2 my buddy justin will probably pee his pants over and may have already seen it seeing he is the god of all things film and especially martial arts action doozy’s. it’s called mach (this link is to a japanese site – if you poke around a bit you will find some trailers). i couldn’t find much about it on the net – at least not in english, but damn, the central character was one frikken phenomenal gymnast and martial arts master. he pulled off some jaw-dropping no-wire tricks in the trailer. another must see. opens july 24.
rejoice
rejoice! hollywood actually looks outside it’s tainted borders and recognises true talent. hearty congratulations to keisha castle hughes and whale rider for keisha’s nomination in the best actress category at this years academy awards. an incredible film and a great performance. if anyone out there hasn’t had the chance to see this lush low budget new zealand film, please make an effort and get thee to a cinema/video shop asap to rectify your bereft situation.
