I can't remember a time I went to the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) press launch and looked over the list of films and saw so many I was interested in seeing. The claim to fame for over the years is to call it the largest and most-highly attended festival in the United States. This is a fact I've often taken issue with as I don't equate quantity with quality. Granted, there has been a large number of quality features to play the fest over the years, including Golden Space Needle (Best Film) winners such as Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), My Life as a Dog (1987), Trainspotting (1996), Run Lola Run (1999), Whale Rider (2003) and even recent Best Director winner, Michel Hazanavicius's Oss 117: Nest of Spies in 2006. That said, looking over this year's crop of films I see a lot of films I will be doing my absolute best to see.
- 4/27/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
If director Wong Ching-Po and star Juno Mak manage to execute their upcoming action flick Let's Go! with as much style and flare as they have the film's poster, well, then we're in for treat. Heck, even if they only get halfway there we're in for a treat.Inspired by 1980's anime series Space Emperor God Sigma the movie is not an adaptation of the earlier series but rather the story of a group of people who obsessed enough with it that they choose to band together to fight villainy. Chaos ensues.Juno Mak sheds an arm for the piece, which makes the presence of The One Armed Swordsman star Jimmy Wang a nice touch. While I can't tell from the trailer whether this is going...
- 9/19/2011
- Screen Anarchy
The trailer for martial arts epic Wu Xia (also referred to as Swordsmen) has shown up online, and with English subtitles to boot. The preview gives off the kind of action and scope that you would hope to see in this kind of film, while also hinting at an emotional core. Plus, it has people getting punched through walls. You can’t have a good martial arts movie without that.
Starring Donnie Yen & Takeshi Kaneshiro — and featuring Jimmy Wang in a cameo — it’s directed by The Warlords helmer Peter Chan. I like the sense of adventure that’s coming across here, from the impressive fight choreography to the locations being utilized. In addition to interviewing Chan and Yen, Raffi was lucky enough to see it at Cannes, where he called it “a non-stop adrenaline ride,” even saying that one sequence was “pure magic and hands down one of the...
Starring Donnie Yen & Takeshi Kaneshiro — and featuring Jimmy Wang in a cameo — it’s directed by The Warlords helmer Peter Chan. I like the sense of adventure that’s coming across here, from the impressive fight choreography to the locations being utilized. In addition to interviewing Chan and Yen, Raffi was lucky enough to see it at Cannes, where he called it “a non-stop adrenaline ride,” even saying that one sequence was “pure magic and hands down one of the...
- 6/27/2011
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
We Distribution has release a few making-of videos for Peter Chan's Wu Xia with two focusing on the role of either Tang Wei and Takeshi Kaneshiro and in-depth view on the stuntwork overseen by Donnie Yen. Theres even a video of Jimmy Wang pulling off a magic trick on Wei inbetween shooting on the set.Liu Jin-xi (Donnie Yen) is a papermaker who lives a seemingly normal life with his wife (Tang Wei) and two children in a remote village. But his peaceful life is soon to be disrupted when a determined detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro) digs up his past and his for master (Jimmy Wang Yu) tries to hunt him down.You'll find the making-of videos (No English subtitles) embedded below. It arrives in Hong Kong/China theaters...
- 6/10/2011
- Screen Anarchy
In Peter Chan‘s action packed epic Wu Xia (or Swordsmen), the successful Chinese director takes the classic wu xia genre of films made popular by the Shaw Brothers studio and adds twists and turns making it a mystery martial arts film. Starring one of the biggest stars in the Chinese film industry Donnie Yen (Ip Man, Fist of Legend) the film does an excellent job of balancing both the kinetic flying kicks and fists that make the style popular, with a layered plot that is reminiscent of David Cronenberg‘s A History of Violence. While the film is careful to pace itself with large action set pieces, once the punches start flying it’s a non-stop adrenaline ride that will leave you wanting to mimic Yen’s signature style of fight choreography.
The film opens in a tranquil village where life is simple and peaceful. Liu Jin-xi (Yen) is...
The film opens in a tranquil village where life is simple and peaceful. Liu Jin-xi (Yen) is...
- 5/18/2011
- by Raffi Asdourian
- The Film Stage
Scream 4
Opens: April 15th 2011
Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Mary McDonnell, Emma Roberts Director: Wes Craven
Summary: Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with family and friends, but it also brings about the return of Ghostface which puts the whole town in danger.
Analysis: Back in late 1996 when I first began covering film news, "Scream" was released and became more than just a sleeper hit. After years of genre movies being relegated to direct-to-video status, this comedic slasher spawned the biggest surge in the horror film genre since "Halloween" almost two decades before. Its post-modern stylings and witty self-aware dialogue went on to be a big influence on films and television in general.
Yet the "Scream" series itself never could quite capture that glory again. By the time the...
Opens: April 15th 2011
Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Mary McDonnell, Emma Roberts Director: Wes Craven
Summary: Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with family and friends, but it also brings about the return of Ghostface which puts the whole town in danger.
Analysis: Back in late 1996 when I first began covering film news, "Scream" was released and became more than just a sleeper hit. After years of genre movies being relegated to direct-to-video status, this comedic slasher spawned the biggest surge in the horror film genre since "Halloween" almost two decades before. Its post-modern stylings and witty self-aware dialogue went on to be a big influence on films and television in general.
Yet the "Scream" series itself never could quite capture that glory again. By the time the...
- 3/8/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
The turbulent career of Jimmy Wang is about to open a new chapter.
Once one of the biggest stars in all of Asia - and certainly the biggest action star in Hong Kong prior to the arrival of Bruce Lee - Jimmy Wang starred in a number of hit films for the Shaw Brothers, notably The One Armed Swordsman, before breaking his contract with the Shaws in 1970 and being black listed from working in Hong Kong.
Wang had dreams of international stardom but gained a reputation for being difficult on films such as The Man From Hong Kong and ended up working dominantly in Taiwan, where he was charged with murder in 1981 - the charges dropped due to lack of evidence - after which his career petered out. Wang would appear in only six films in the 1980s before experiencing a brief resurgence with another six between 1990 and 1993. But for the last seventeen years,...
Once one of the biggest stars in all of Asia - and certainly the biggest action star in Hong Kong prior to the arrival of Bruce Lee - Jimmy Wang starred in a number of hit films for the Shaw Brothers, notably The One Armed Swordsman, before breaking his contract with the Shaws in 1970 and being black listed from working in Hong Kong.
Wang had dreams of international stardom but gained a reputation for being difficult on films such as The Man From Hong Kong and ended up working dominantly in Taiwan, where he was charged with murder in 1981 - the charges dropped due to lack of evidence - after which his career petered out. Wang would appear in only six films in the 1980s before experiencing a brief resurgence with another six between 1990 and 1993. But for the last seventeen years,...
- 11/4/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Could Palme d'Or veteran Mike Leigh triumph again with his delicate drama of ordinary lives? Elsewhere Robin Hood is grumpy, Oliver Stone shows signs of irony in his sequel to Wall Street, and a gruesome teen cybertale is enough to make you hit escape…
Even at this early stage, it wouldn't be too ambitious to trumpet Mike Leigh's Another Year as a leading contender for the 47th Palme d'Or. However, a fanfare seems slightly inappropriate for such a delicate film, a picture of everyday lives so achingly true and lovely and sad that one almost feels like an intruder for watching it, especially in an atmosphere as frenetic and flashbulbed as Cannes. Dedicated to his late producer Simon Channing Williams, who died as Leigh's cast began its usual pre-script improvisations last year, Another Year has an elegiac quality rare in this director's work, dealing with death, ageing, love and...
Even at this early stage, it wouldn't be too ambitious to trumpet Mike Leigh's Another Year as a leading contender for the 47th Palme d'Or. However, a fanfare seems slightly inappropriate for such a delicate film, a picture of everyday lives so achingly true and lovely and sad that one almost feels like an intruder for watching it, especially in an atmosphere as frenetic and flashbulbed as Cannes. Dedicated to his late producer Simon Channing Williams, who died as Leigh's cast began its usual pre-script improvisations last year, Another Year has an elegiac quality rare in this director's work, dealing with death, ageing, love and...
- 5/15/2010
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
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