Father Geek here, proud to bring you this week's great Asia-AICN column for some fine holiday reading. Lots of new stuff from India, Hong Kong, Japan, The Phillippines, and the world of Anime. Good info from our reporters Darius25, AccSpy, Pigmon, AznFob55, and Scott Green. I wish all of them, and all of you the absolutely best this holiday season. May DVDs, Laser Discs, Videos, and CDs rain down upon your respective households; each according to your fondest desires.

Asia-AICN #36

Hey all. Hope you guys are enjoying the holidays, I sure am. I guess most of us are busy with the many activities of the festive season, but don't forget to watch many movies!! I must inform you that our Hong Kong reporter "AccSpy" will be taking a vacation for the next two weeks and as a result, he may not be able to report any news. But don't worry, I'll be around and most likely our other reporters will be as well. Now here's the latest from Asia.

INDIA

- The release of Abbas-Mustan's Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (Hush Hush) has been indefinitely postponed as the producers of the films are being suspected of connected with the Bombay underworld. Police has arrested one producer, Nazeem Rizvi, and have stopped the film from finishing the post-production activities. Most of the negatives of the film have also been seized. Another producer, Bharat Shah, actor Salman Khan, and directors Abbas and Mustan have also been interrogated by the police. The film was to have been released tomorrow (December 22). Of course the distributors and exhibitors (who had booked the film quite a while ago) are panicking left and right.

- Actresses Manisha Koirala and Tabu have been added to the cast of director Suresh Krishna's Abhay. The film stars Kamal Haasan (who also wrote the screenplay) and Raveena Tandon.

- Director Ramgopal Verma will direct a gangster film after the success of his similarly themed Satya (which was released 2 years ago). This new film will star Nana Patekar and Urmila Matondkar (she's been in basically all of his films).

- After playing father-daughter in Mohabbatein (Love Affairs), Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai will star together again in director David Dhawan's upcoming film. This time though they will be playing siblings in the film (with a 35-year age difference!! ). The film will be loosely based on "Analyze This" and Bachchan will play Billy Crystal's role. Sanjay Dutt will play DeNiro's role (perfect casting!!) and Salman Khan also fits in the plot somewhere. The film has not yet been titled.

- Actor Jackie Shroff will produce another film with Mahesh Manjrekar as the director (they previously worked as a producer-director team in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai - The Land in which Ganga Lives). Like their previous film, Jackie Shroff will not act in the film and will serve as a producer only. The cast and title of the film still have to be determined.

- The website for Raj Kanwar's Farz (Duty) is now up at http://www.farzthemovie.com. The pure action film stars Sunny Deol as a cop (just like his upcoming film Champion) who wages an all-out war with a gangster (Jackie Shroff).

- There was no new release last week so I'll just move straight into this week's recommendation. This week, I recommend a film called Rangeela (Colourful), directed by Ramgopal Verma. This was Verma's first hit and was his first time working with Urmila Matondkar. She stars as Mili, a free-spirited girl who works as an extra in Bollywood. All she wants to do is become a movie star. Eventually she gets noticed by a famous actor, Kamal (Jackie Shroff), and becomes a big actress. This doesn't go well for her best friend, Munna (Aamir Khan), a ticket scalper who's hopelessly in love with Mili. The love triangle further develops and many comedic situations ensue until (predictably) Mili and Munna finally get together in the end. The film is actually a satire of Bollywood thinly disguised as a love story. You get the punkish ticket scalper, the air head actress, the big movie star, an idiotic director and a bossy (yet confused) producer all involved in the production of a film called Rangeela (which mirrors the events of the film). But all of this is to be taken lightly, and in the end, the film turns out to be just as fun and free-spirited as Mili. The acting by the three leads is very good, especially from Urmila and Jackie Shroff. Aamir is really funny as the scalper but you wouldn't expect any less work coming from him. The songs by A.R. Rahman are very good and do not take away from the plot. The direction by Verma is excellent as his other films like Jungle and Satya. If you think that Verma can only make serious, gritty films, you'll be surprised how much fun this light-hearted comedy really is.

CHINA / HK

The following was reported by "AccSpy":

- Jet Li has finally declined the offer to participate in the two "Matrix" sequels, according to Yahoo. The star would have had to take a massive pay cut in order to appear in the two sequels and has instead chosen to act in other films. Now the producers are considering Michelle Yeoh for the role that Jet Li was offered. Hope that Yeoh gets it!!

- Chow Yun-Fat's manager and John Woo's long-term partner, Terence Chang, confirmed that Chow is invited to attend this year's Golden Globe Award as a presenter (who knows if he's also a potential nominee?). Chang also announced that after a whole year break, Chow is confirmed to do the remake of the "Charlie Chan" series for 20th Century Fox, "Bulletproof Monk" for MGM and two more films for Warner Brothers starting next year. Later on, Chow will team up with John Woo again for a drama about the early Chinese immigrants in USA which, coincidentally, has a similar story to Jackie Chan's upcoming project, "The Highbinders".

- "In the Mood for Love" was honored the Best Editing and Best Cinematography awards in this year's Pacific Asian Film Festival. To buy "In the Mood for Love" on DVD, click here: To Order

- Don Cheadle ("Boogie Nights", "Traffic") is about to join the cast of "Rush Hour 2". "I've studied martial arts and I get to fight Jackie in the movie, so I think I'll be taking some classes over the holidays" says Cheadle. Meanwhile, Jackie Chan has expressed his unpleasant feeling about Zhang Ziyi being cast in a villainous role for "Rush Hour 2". He claimed that as a star-in-making, she's definitely deserves more than a villain's role.

- Here's a pic from "Shaolin Soccer", Stephen Chow's highly-anticipated comedy which is set to release next summer: Just Click

- Also, here is a nice pic of Zhang Ziyi, who was named one of the breakthrough stars in 2000 by "Entertainment Weekly": Go Here

- Finally, Chow Yun-Fat is invited to release the First Day Cover in USA and HK next year, here's a rough drawing of the product: Click Here

- "Gen-Y Cops" exploded at last week's HK box office, collecting an estimated $5 million HKD during the Thursday-to-Sunday period. The "90% English dialogue" action flick is a sure-bet to surpass the original's $15 million HKD total gross. Another actioner "For Bad Boys Only" came second with estimated $3 millions HKD during the Friday-to-Sunday period. "The Sixth Day" fell to no.3, while Zhang Ziyi's debut film "The Road Home" was finally released in HK and landed at no.4. "Charlie's Angels" rounded up the top 5. Now, imagine what a total chaos would be when Stanley Tong's "China Strike Force", Andy Lau's 100th film "A Fighter's Blue", the romantic fantasy "Lavender", hollywood blockbusters "The Grinch" and "Unbreakable" and art-house favourite "Dancer in the Dark" all open this week.

JAPAN

The following was reported by "Pigmon":

- The first Japanese movie ever made in India, "Natu - The Legend of the Dancing Ninja", will be opening next week in Japan. Kazuki Omori, the director of "Godzilla vs. Biolante" directed 90% of the film shot in India. Japanese comedian Kiyotaka Nambara is the star and his love interest is new Indian actress Neha Dupia who was chosen over a thousand participants.

- Takashi Miike's new film will be "Koroshiya 1 (The killer 1)", starring Tadanobu Asano ("Gojo" and "Shark Skin Man and Pink Hip Woman").This is Miike's 7th movies in 2 years (he still has "Hazard City" and "Dead Or Alive 2" in theaters)! Its based on a popular comic book character about a killer (Asano) who likes pain. Asano's make up is very disgusting and repulsive. There are many horrible scars on his face. The film is a co-production from Japan, Germany, Hong Kong and Korea. It is scheduled to open next summer in these countries.

- "Eureka", directed by Shinji Aoyama, is another disappointing film from a good director. The award-winning film from Cannes is a road movie about a brother, a sister, a cousin and a former bus driver. They were involved in a bus accident years ago and as a result developed psychological problems. They decide to go on a trip but somebody starts killing people along the way. The biggest problem of this picture is its length of 3 hours and 37 minutes!! Due to the excessive lenth of the picture, many people were sleeping during the advanced screening (including me). Also, many people are upset about the ticket price of this film. Japanese tickets are already expensive ($18) but to charge the filmgoers $25 because of the length is downright outrageous!!. We are willing to pay that price for a film like "Episode 2" but not for this dull movie.

- "Battle Royal" opened very strong last week. The politicians were bitching about the huge opening of the film due to its controversial subject matter. Every show during last weekend was sold out. The film easily beat the huge opening of Disney's "Dinosaur". Other films on the top ten were as follows: 2. "Vertical Limit" 3. "13 Days" 4. "Dinosaur" 5. "6th Day" 6. "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" 7. "The Grinch" 8. "What Lies Beneath" 9. "Frequency" and 10. "The Exocist: The Version You've Never Seen".

PHILLIPPINES

The following was reported by "AznFob55":

- Comic-legend Dolphy got his Holiday gift early this year. Many critics have been saying that he is one of the strongest contenders to nab this year's Best Actor Award at The Metro Film Fest 2000 for his role in "Markova: Comfort Gay". Another contender who is getting equal buzz is Eddie Garcie, the lead actor in this year's GMA films offering, "Death Row".

- Ruffa Gutierrez has been resurfacing from time to time and has still expressed a comeback in Philippine Cinema after her much-anticipated stab in the international arena. Here is picture of Miss Ruffa Gutierrez, Miss World 2nd Princess: Click Here

- Philippine's own Wonder Woman, "Darna", is still in the works. Charlene Gonzalez, Miss Philippines-Universe 1994, was supposed to be the one to play Darna. Yet, impending marriage plans caused her to back-out of the role. VIVA, the owner of the rights, is pursuing Judy Anne Santos (their second choice) to jump on the lead. In a recent interview, Judy Anne states that she is interested in the role. She also stated that it is her DREAM to play "Dyesabel", another mythical Filipina heroine who is a mermaid. Coincidentally, Charlene Gonzales already played "Dyesabel" in a movie she made a while back (which was successful, by the way). Many fans however, is expressing that they would most likely see Miriam Quiambao, Miss Universe First-Runner Up, take up the job or even top fashion model, Bianca Araneta. Here's a picture of Bianca: Go Here

Also, here's a picture of Miriam Quiambao and Charlene Gonzalez: Just Click Here

ANIME

From Scott Green...

New Manga By Kenshin Creator

After the completion of the Ruruoni Kenshin manga (comic(, which spawn a 95 episode television series, four episode OAV series and movie (called Samurai X in the US), its creator Nobuhiro Watsuki took a year break. According to domestic manga translator and producerFanboy Inc. his new series has just started appearing in the Manga periodical "Jump". Unlike Kenshin, the story of a wandering swordsman, the new series "Gun Blaze West" is a Western Gunslinger story about a nine year old boy set in "1785 in Illinois". According to another report, like the early part of Kenshin it is mostly comedy. With the degree of success that Kenshin achieved in its transition from manga to anime, it is very like that unless the new manga series is received very poorly an anime series will be made based on it.

Upcoming Series In Japan

Ryo Mizuno, creator of the Dungeons and Dragons-esque Record of Lodoss War is currently working on a new anime series. The series, which has been described as "a space opera with lots of cute girls" is under the working title Project GA.

Director/mecha designer Shoji Kawamori (Macross Plus, Vision of Escaflowne, Blue Sub No. 6) has two new anime series in the works. Bandai Visual will be releasing a new sci-fi comedy called "Earth Family Defense". The series deal with a typical Japanese family. In the midst of dealing with the collapse of the family home structure and possible divorce the father of a family, a work-a-day computer programming, receives a fax stating "Defend The Earth", and a mysterious objects crashes nearby. WoWoW will broadcast the series starting January 9th from 18:30 to 19:00.

Shoji Kawamori's second series is Earth Girl Ajuna. According to a href=" http://www.fanboyinc.com/">Fanboy Inc. EGA is the story about a young girl who sees the future in a dream and then goes about trying to change the world in the present to avoid the future she foresaw. The music in the series will be always spectacular Yoko Kanno (Macross Plus, Vision of Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop).

Anime in Italy

Escaflowne, which was recently put on hiatus by Fox do to is low ratings, will airing on MTV Italia starting December 26th MTV Italia dubbed in Italian. The Italian station recently aired the "Robothon", a 7 hour marathon with many Anime including Getter Robot, Evangelion, from Brain and Neoranga. Cowboy Bebop, a recent fan favorite, which according to Bandai no American network will touch, was recently shown on MTV Italia uncut, in its entirety. Reasons American networks have shied away from Cowboy Bebop, which feature very high quality animation, music by the much admired Yohko Yanno, and diverse stories that are for the most part episodic, may include it glamorization of smoking, incidents of drug use, moments of high violence, or situations that are sometime of a risqué, or very odd sexual nature.

Horror Anime in US

Urban Visions will be releasing Petshop of Horrors on DVD February 27th. The disc will include all four episodes, audio commentary by English director and cast, "Never-before-seen deleted material", and Urban Visions Trailers. The anime, by Hisashi Abe (Vampire Hunter D), Rintaro (Final Fantasy) and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Bio Hunter, Wicked City, features four stories of horror "be careful what you wish for" stories.

Central Park Media has recently launched their new NightWalker Web Site. The first of three volume release, "NightWalker: Midnight Detective" will be released this January. NightWalker is a vampire story about Shido, a private detective who investigates strange murders due to the Night Breed. One of the highlights of the series is its voice cast. Otani Ikue (the cat girl Merle from Escaflowne and Pikachu from Pokemon ) plays s demon imp Guni, Sakamoto Maaya (Hitomi from Escaflowne, who also sings the opening song to that series) plays the innocent, enthusiastic assistant Yamaki Riho, Shinohara Emi (B-ko from Project A-Ko) plays the snide Yayoi. A previews of the series can be seen at http://www.night-walker.net

New TV series coming to America

Anime News Network reports that according to the 18th issue of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Wall Street Journal of Japan, Asatsu-DK sold the broadcasting and merchandizing rights for TV Anime series Cho Hatsumei Boy Kanipan ("Super Boy Inventor Kanipan") to Saban Group. Kanipan was produced by DK's affiliated firm, Nippon Addsystems, and aired on Japanese TV last year. Fox's CATV channel will be airing Kanipan next September in the U.S.

Eva Movie Release Indications

In a recent update their site Manga Entertainment added the following to comment about the release of the Evangelion movies "NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (movie) - Comming Summer, 2001!"

When the 26 episode mecha psychological drama Neon Genesis Evangelion reached its final two episodes, many viewers were not satisfied with its ending. Rather than give a clear-cut conclusion to the series storyline of a boy piloting a mech for a secret society to battle strange invading creatures known as angels, it turned the series around and gave the user a different take on what the series was about. In response the series' director and creator Hideaki Anno made the Evangelion movies. ADV Films release the Evangelion television series on video in the US. They completed the release of the dubbed and subtitled VHS versions, and will soon be releasing the third DVD volume. (As a side note they recently announced that rather than four episodes per disc, the DVD version will be three episodes per disc starting on the third volume). The studio that produced the movies, Gainax put a prohibitive price tag on the movies, so ADV opted not to purchase them (they later stated that they could acquire eleven television series for the price being request).

Instead the movies where picked up by Manga Entertainment. Though Manga has said the rights for a considerable amount of time they are only now approaching a release date because of the time it took them to re-assamble ADV's dub cast (only Fyutski and Yui are not returning), and because of reasons they have chosen not to disclose. Manga has gone back and forth over whether they will try for a theatrical release.

The two significant Evangelion movies are "Death and Rebirth", and "End of Evangelion". There are other movies, but they amount to re-cut versions of these two. The first half of "Death and Rebirth" is a summary of the first twenty four episodes of the television series with new footage for transitions. The second half of the movie the beginning of its new conclusion. Nerv, the organization that employed the mech Evas to battle invading angels in the series is assaulted by the Civil Defense Force. The first part of "End of Evangelion" is the second part of "Death and Rebirth." The second part of end of Evangelion is the conclusion to the series. It dumbfounds many viewers, but it certainly gives more finality than the end of the television series.

EW Lists Mononoke as Best of 2000

Entertainment Weekly has come out with its "Best of 2000" issue. The DVD version of Princess Mononoke placed number six in Best Video list. "Hayao Miyazaki's most ambitious work is to anime what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is to the martial arts genre, a barouge, self-conscious masterpiece. The insanely complicated plot triangulates somewhere between Joseph Cambell, The Lord of the Rings, and Japanese myth, and the images carry a majestic shock, as if you're peering over a mountain into a new world.". Digimon received a joke mention as the "Worst Pokemon/Net Crossbreeding Attempt".

Anime Christmas Specials

Two of the anime Christmas specials being aired this year are Digi-Charat, and Love Hina.

The Digi-Charat Christmas special aired December 16th. Digi-Charat is a hyper, super-deformed (characters with large heads, and small bodies) comedy based on the mascot the Japanese Gamers stores.

Love Hina is a romantic comedy about a high school student, who as a young child made a promise to a girl to attend a prestigious university with her. Year past, the girl moved away, and already the boy has failed the schools entrance exams several times. Between taking entrance exams he takes a job as the resident manager of an all girl's dormitory run by an aunt. With the amount of buzz Love Hina has been receiving in the US it is almost a certainty that at least one of the domestic anime distributors is looking into the series.

Also airing this holiday season, on December 29th, is "G-Savior" the live action/CGI Gundam movie. The movie is predominantly a sci-fi political drama with the mobile suits taking a back seat. It takes place in Gundam's Universal Century where most of humanity has left earth to live in orbiting space colonies called Slides. Though the movie is officially part of the Gundam franchise, and the mecha are Gundam-esque, the word "Gundam" is never used in the feature.

Darius back again, That's about it for this week. Remember, if you have information regarding any film industry in Asia, please contact our Asia-AICN offices . See you all next week. Have a very merry Christmas!!

- Darius25