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Chow Yun-fat takes the lead in this scene from John Woo’s patchy but occasionally brilliant follow up to his own A Better Tomorrow.

Playing the twin brother of the character of the role he played in the original, we first meet him as the owner of a restaurant on New York. When a guy from a protection racket tries to threaten him and his business, Chow Yun-fat flies into a full on Robert De Niro impression – in English – expounding how rice is like his mother and father! The scene even ends with the line “You talking to me?”

With the upcoming release of I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Okay on 4 April, director Park Chan-wook talks to the Guardian’s Ryan Gibley about how he can’t stand watching violence…

Read the article on the Guardian Online »

Director Daniel Lee is back, this time with Donnie Yen and Vicky Zhao in tow – thank god this is an improvement on Three Kingdoms then… (more…)

The 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival will commemorate the life and enduring influence of Bruce Lee with a special tribute at the festival’s Winds of Asia Middle-East section, entitled The 70th Anniversary: Bruce LEE to the Future.

Screenings will include the film that finally catapulted him into the mass populace, Enter The Dragon, sadly released just after his death, and a rare chance to see the Japanese version of Game Of Death, distributed in 1978. There will also be exciting new films that pay homage to Lee nearly 30 years after his death, including Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng’s Gallants and Luu Huynh Luu’s The Legend Is Alive.

The 23rd TIFF will be held from October 23-31, 2010 at Roppongi Hills and other venues in Tokyo.

Find out more from their official website »

A spell binding and often perplexing vision – it’s Wong Kai-wai’s much anticipated sequel to In the Mood for Love… (more…)

Get ready for the next phenomenon as Nakoi Urasawa’s hit manga finally hits our screens as a live-action trilogy… (more…)

The first of Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s three-part adaption of Nakoi Urasawa’s 20 million copy selling 2oth Century Boys is released today – check it out! (Sorry, no English Subs!)

You can read our review of 2oth Century Boys here »

Next Monday quite possibly the best martial arts/kung fu film ever finally makes its way on to DVD in UK! (more…)

The 53rd London Film festival runs from 14 to 29 October, with plenty of Asian premieres on offer…

One definite highlight of the festival must be Lu Chuan’s film remarkable film on the ‘rape of Nanking’, City of Life and Death. Almost exactly three years ago the director talked enthusiastically about the project to easternKicks whilst promoting his fantastic Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, and it’s great to see this project has come to fruition.

Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother debuts at the festival too, about a herbalist and acupuncturist turns ‘detective’ to prove her son’s innocence when he’s charged with murder. With such great films as The Host and Memories Of Murder under his belt, one can only look forward to what he has in store for us this time.

Other films to arouse our curiosity are Hirokazu Kore-eda’s live-action adaptation of Yoshie Gouda’s avant-garde manga The Pneumatic Figure of a Girl, Air Doll – starring Korean star Bae Doo-Na, it tells of an inflatable sex-doll suddenly finds herself with a soul; and Kamui from Korean-Japanese director Yoichi Sai – again another live-action adaption from a manga – which BFI critic Tony Ryans declares is ‘probably the best ninja movie ever made’.

Also watch out for include Pan Jianlin’s Feast of Villians, Joko Anwar’s Forbidden Door and Ho Yuhang’s multinational production At the End of Daybreak. We’ll probably do another round-up soon, once we’ve had a chance to digest the programme fully – but is it just me or is there a lack of real Asian, if you’ll pardon the phrase, ‘crowd pleasers’ this year?

» Find out more on the official LFF website