Father Geek here, (finally) With the Asia-AICN report for this week. Once again I hope that I am now all caught up on these international columns after three weeks of travel by air to 4 widely different locations in a five week time frame, its been a busy summer for me, and Harry too. (From mid july till now he's been in 6 diverse locales requiring air travel) But for the next couple of months we'll be working out of our Austin Headquarters again for the most part with several festivals and special events happening locally to keep us tied down here, thank the gods of film geekdom for that. Don't get me wrong, Harry and I both enjoy the hell out of traveling, especially to places we've never been to meet with new people, but when it comes machinegun-style we begin to miss our own beds, bars, cafes, and coffee shops... and updating the site from the road is sometimes hit and miss... and we hate those misses as much as you do.

Now I am happy to turn you over to Darius25 and his fine Asia-AICN crew of reporters who never seem to miss a beat with this week's regular (more or less) column on the Asian film community...

Asia-AICN #19

Hey all. Hope you had a good week. This week, we have information on many movies including Kabhi Kabhie (sometimes), Without Tobacco, A Fighter's Blue and Yakapin Mo Ang Umaga (Embrace The Morning). Now here's the latest from Asia.

INDIA

- There was no real development in the abduction of Dr. Rajakumar during last week. The emissary, R. Gopal, has made contact with the abductor, Veerappan, during the past weekend. At press time, details of the meeting were not revealed. Also, the Tamil Nadu government is ready to release the five terrorists that Veerappan wanted freed, but they fear for their lives outside the prison. They sense a danger to their lives after Dr. Rajakumar's freedom. They believe that the police forces of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka would "swoop down" on Veerappan's hideout with a vengeance once the filmstar is freed. That is all that happened last week, but stay tuned right here for more information as it is released.

- Director Partho Gosh has announced that his next film will star Manoj Bajpai and Mahima Choudhary. Also, composer Rajesh Roshan has been hired to create the score for the film. The film does not yet have a title.

- Actor Ashish Vidhyarthi has been signed as the lead for the film Zindagi Khubsurat Hai (Life is Beautiful), to be directed by Manjeet Puri. The film also stars Tabu and Gurdas Mann.

- Venus Productions have announced that one of their upcoming releases will star Fardeen Khan. The film, which has yet to be titled, will be directed by A. Muthu.

- Model Rishita Thakkar has been signed to be the secondary lead in Ashoka the Great. The film, directed by Santosh Sivan ("The Terrorist"), stars Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arwind Swamy.

- Speaking of Shahrukh, the website for his next release, Mohabbatein (Love Affairs), has opened up. The film focuses on three parallel romances and the two men that affect each of the three different love stories. Mohabbatein, directed by Aditya Chopra, stars Amitabh Bachchan, Uday Chopra, and Aishwarya Rai. You can visit the website by Clicking here.

- South Indian star Jairam has joined the cast of director K.S. Ravikumar's Thenali. The film stars Kamal Hassan.

- Also, Kamal Hassan has been signed as the lead for director Suresh Krishna's Aala Vandhaan.

- Last week's new release was Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa (Your Magic has Worked), the directorial debut of editor A. Muthu. The film stars newcomer Kirti Reddy, Abhishek Bachchan, and Sanjay Suri. The film focuses mainly on Puja (Reddy), an ad exec. who develops a crush on her hotshot boss (Suri). In order to make him jealous, she makes her friend Kabir (Bachchan) pretend to be her fiancee. The plan works - but Kabir falls for Puja, causing all sorts of complications. Acting wise, Kirty is pretty good for her debut film. She brings the right combination of spark and beauty in her role, while being able to handle the somewhat dramatic scenes with ease. Abhishek, on the other hand, is still a little off. While his performance is better here than in his debut film, Refugee (see Asia-AICN #12), he still cannot handle the dramatic scenes too well. But he does perform adequately in the comedic scenes so there's still hope for him yet. Sanjay Suri does well for the little role that he has. The songs in this movie are pretty good, if somewhat slow and sappy. The direction is also very good for a first-timer, with the pacing and the editing fine (no surprise there!) and the overall story being pretty good. All in all, Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya is yet another decent (yet predictable) romantic comedy that will not disappoint. Here's a picture from the film with Abhishek Bachchan and Kirty Reddy:

- This week's recommendation is the classic Kabhi Kabhie (Sometimes), directed by Yash Chopra. The film features an all-star cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Rakhee, Wahida Rahman and Neetu Singh. Kabhi Kabhie features a multigenerational love story revolving around Pooja (Rakhee) and Amit (Amitabh Bachchan). The two fall in love but part when Pooja gets engaged to someone else. Time passes on, introducing a new romance involving Pooja's son (Rishi Kapoor) and Amit's step-daughter (Neetu Singh). The acting is great across the board. Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor stand out in particular. As the poet who lost his love, Amitabh is simply fantastic. This movie was made when he was at the top of his peak, and it shows. The scene in which Shashi (who plays Pooja's husband) confronts Amitabh about his and Pooja's love has to be seen to be believed. Shashi, hopelessly drunk yet at the same time being seriously sober, tells Amitabh that he knows about his wife's past. Amitabh, with a blank expression, tells straight up that he does not care about anything anymore. His life was his past and it really ended the day he sacrificed his love. Shashi Kapoor is also very good in the movie. His role of a caring husband and father is very well-performed but sadly he isn't given much screen time. The rest of the cast are very good as well, performing well in their respecting roles. The songs in this movie are equally good, with the titular song being a classic from the '70s. The movie holds up well, even after a quarter-century since its original release. If you want to buy this movie on video or DVD, please go to this site.

CHINA/HK

The following was reported by "The Accidental Spy":

- Yes! Yuen Biao is IN "The Legend of Tekken"(translation title)! (How about you, Jackie Chan?) The highly anticipated live-action adaptation finally started shooting last week. According to my sources, Yuen Biao (instead of Sammo Hung) and Cecilia Yip play Jin Kazama's parents. No new information about Sammo's role yet. Here's a very great set of pictures revealing the cast (special thanks to Max Power):

Stephen Fung (Hwoarang) and Kristy Yueng:

Gigi Leung and Leehom Wang (Jin Kazama):

Chin Kar-Lok and Leehom Wang:

- According to the fall preview issue of Entertainment Weekly, Ang Lee's"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will be released on December 8. The martial arts epic WON'T be re-dubbed in English, and Sony Picture Classics is planning a big promotional push aimed at the MTV generation. Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love", starring Cannes' winner Tong Leung Chiu-Wai and Maggie Cheung, will open sometime in November. Also two Taiwanese films, "The Personals" and "Yi Yi" (which won Cannes' Best Director prize this year), will open in limited release in October.

- Leslie Cheung has just finished his concert and is now moving on to his next project titled "Without Tobacco"(translation title), a film with an anti-smoking theme which is also co-directed by Cheung (along with Jacob Cheung, the director of "Cageman" and "The Kid"). Leslie's directorial debut also stars Anita Mui ("Rumble in the Bronx", "Drunken Master II"), Karen Morris ("King of Comedy", "God of Cookery") and Gigi Leung ("The Legend of Tekken", "Feel 100%"). Lots of stars, as well as friends of Cheung, will also make cameo appearances in the movie.

- Sam Lee ("Gen-X Cops", "Bio-Zombie") has joined the cast of "Downtown Torpedoes 2". Sam will play a funny Z-list thief in the movie. Leon Lai, Hsu Chi, Jordan Chan and Michelle Saram also star is this actioner, which is now shooting in Malaysia.

- It's Andy Lau vs Louis Koo! Here's a still from Andy Lau' "A Fighter's Blue" in which Andy plays a light-weighted Thailand-style boxer. Hey, not bad huh ?:

- And here's a still from Louis Koo's "Beastic Pupils"(translation title) in which Louis plays a underground boxer with Daniel Wu playing his brother. Poor Louis! See the guy who beats the shit out of him!:

- Staying at the no.1 spot for the second weekend in a row is Sammi Cheng's "Summer Holiday", which continues to rule the HK box office with a very small decline. The Hollywood comedy "Scary Movie" debuted at no.2, Ekin Cheng's hospital comedy "Help!!!" slipped to no.3, with "The Road To El Dorado" and the Japanese flick "Space Traveler" landing at the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

- The highest grossing movie of the year, Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng's "Needing You", is now available on VCD (and how long have we been waiting for - JUST ONE MONTH!). Another romance which I highly recommend is "Twelve Nights", produced by Peter Ho-sun Chan (the director of "Comrades, Almost a Love Story" and Dreamworks' "The Love Letter"). The film stars Cecilia Cheung, Eason Chan and Candy Lo (a young HK up-and-coming singer/songwriter/producer who would soon be seen in a leading role in director Tsui Hark's "Time and Tide. "Twelve Nights" features her debut performance.) The film showcases twelve most important nights of an one year relationship between a young couple, in order to reveal the attitude and behaviour towards love of today's generation. ***TWELVE NIGHTS IS BY FAR THE BEST HK MOVIE IN YEAR 2000 IMO***. The movie is well-scripted and beautifully shot (the whole movie is shot at night), with special appearances by Nicolas Tse and Stephen Fung (especially Tse in a VERY special cameo as important as the two leads.) With the release of "Needing You..." and "Twelve Nights", this year is definitely the year of romance in HK cinema.

To purchase "Needing You" on VCD, go Right Here.

To purchase "Twelve Nights" on DVD, go HERE.

To purchase "Twelve Nights" on VCD, go This Spot.

JAPAN

The following was reported by "Pigmon":

- The Nikkan Sports newspaper reported that the Coen brothers will be shooting "To The White Sea" (starring Brad Pitt) in Japan next winter.

- George Clooney has signed to appear in seven TV commercials for Toyota for the Japanese market. Shooting will start by the end of September.

- "Sakuya Monster Stories (it will be a different title in English)" and "Juvenile" will be releasing in Hong Kong sometime in the fall.

- Last week's box office in Japan was topped again by "MI-2", followed by "The Perfect Storm", "Taxi 2", "Rules of Engagement", "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Pokemon 3", "Stuart Little", "Sakuya Monster Stories", "Juvenile", and "Shanghai Noon", respectively. There are rumours indicating that Taxi 3 will be shooting in Japan.

KOREA

The following was reported by "Matrix1966":

- The July/August issue of Gear magazine ran the front story article about Korean director Kang Je-Kyu, who directed the 1999 blockbuster 'Shiri'. The title was 'Titanic ambitions' considering the fact that this film smashed the Korean box office record set by James Cameron's epic. This 38-year-old director is relatively unknown in US but that is going to change since several American distributors, including Miramax, have taken notice. Gear reported that when Kang visited New York last year, 'Shiri' was screened at Robert DeNiro's private theater and his company expressed a strong interest in Kang's work. Kang was introduced along with Wong Kar-Wai (Hong Kong), Khyentse Norbu (Bhutan), Takashi Miike (Japan), Hideo Nakata (Japan) and Xiaoshuai Wong (China) as six Asian directors worth checking out by this magazine.

- Fruit Chen, Hideo Nakata and Ki-Hyung Park have one thing in common - the three renowned Asian directors are going digital. Hong Kong director Chen, who garnered The Silver Leopard award at the 53rd Locarno International Film Festival for his 'Little Cheung', and Hideo Nakata of Japan ('Ring') will shoot digital feature films along with Park of Korea ('Whispering Corridors'). DigitalNEGA, the Korean company who is running these multinational digital projects, invested $800,000 for each of those projects. The names of Chen, Nakata and Park's new digital projects are 'Public Toilet W.C.', 'Last Scene', and 'Temptation' respectively, and their shootings will begin soon.

PHILLIPPINES

The following was reported by "AznFob55":

- More on Joyce Jimenez, star of the upcoming "Narinig Mo Na Ba Ang Latest? (Have You Heard The Latest?)" and of "Warat" and "Scorpio Nights": Pantasya ng Bayan (Every man's fantasy) Joyce Jimenez is sizzling the tabloids and the news with her controversial magazine, "Private Joyce", which contains nude pictures of Joyce. Its the talk of the Filipino showbiz for the past week. To see a picture of her and more stuff regarding the matter, go here.

- Boasting a powerhouse cast of Lorna Tolentino, Gina Alajar and Christopher De Leon, "Yakapin Mo Ang Umaga (Embrace The Morning)" is continually building buzz because the topic of the movie is very serious and could be controversial. The movie tackles family, relationships and drugs which are highly-debatable topics in the Filipino society today. The movie is from Regal Films and is directed by Jose Javier Reyes.

- Forget the powerful "The Sixth Sense" and the retarded "Bless The Child", the latest horror blockbuster is "Ika 13-Kapitulo (I can't translate the last word but so far it means, "The 13th....". I think the last word means chapter, but I'm not sure.)". The film stars Albert Martinez, Zsa Zsa Padilla, and Christopher De Leon and is about "playing the devil". The movie is generating serious buzz in the business. I hope its good considering that horror movies haven't been really good for the past few years. "Sumigaw Ka Hanggang Gusto Mo!" was retarded and not well directed. It was a complete rip-off of Scream and the Slasher Movie Movement. The once outstanding horror franchise of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" ruined its last installment because of a weak plot and not-so-stellar stars. The highlights of the franchise are the first and the fifth part. The last good Filipino scary movie I saw was "Takot Ka Ba Sa Dilim?" (Are You Afraid of The Dark?) and that was a long while ago.

- Nora Aunor's next movie is "La Loba Negra" after her critically-acclaimed "Sidhi".

- "Pangarap ng Puso (Heart's Dream)" is getting nothing but positive reviews and is being hailed to be the year's best film yet.

We've now come to the end of this week's column. Remember, if you have information regarding any movie industry in Asia, please contact our Asia-AICN offices atshrivas@home.com . See you all next week.

- Darius25