easternkicks.com » Distributors / companies

Jun Ichikawa tribute at 21st TIFF

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival is to include a tribute screening to Japanese director Jun Ichikawa, who died last month, of his latest film Buy A Suit. His work included the adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Tony Takitani, and easternKicks was fortunate enough to talk to him about the film. It’s sad news to hear about his passing, especially as the years had not lessened his pushing of creative methods, both in telling a story and technology. In person he was reserved but quite charming. You can read our interview here, and read more about the tribute at TIFF on their site.

Everybody was kung fu fighting ’08

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:00:33 +0000

There’s something in the air all right… but Beijing Olympics or not, haven’t we seen it all before?

No prizes for guessing what that is in the air. It’s the whiff of Beijing smog, carried by the frenzy of excitement over the 2008 Olympics, and before you can say ‘what human rights record?’ or ‘where’s Tibet?’ reached choking point as all things Chinese clog up every part of our culture. It’s a (mainly) welcome wave of interest, well matched by some perfectly timed touring exhibitions, such as the First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum and China Design Now at the V&A, all helping to wet our appetites for the coming athletic throng. All 15 days of it.

Of course marketers and distributors, hardly known for their inspiring imagination or thorough knowledge of Chinese culture, first turn to martial arts and all things kung fu…

Not that I’m complaining by any means, but isn’t it all rather familiar? Remember when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the must see at the motion pictures, getting a wide release despite the often unmitigated handicap of being in a foreign language? The underlying interest in Asian movies we’ve always had over the years, Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo/Fistful Of Dollars, etc etc, suddenly turned into overdrive. And thanks to the action director’s (Yuen woo-ping) work on another recent iconic film, The Matrix, suddenly everyone was kung fu fighting. And if Woo-ping could make most bodacious Keanu look good, then who wouldn’t want to give it a go? Charlie’s Angels, X Men, seems everyone had spent an inordinate amount of time stuck in a Shaolin Temple, waiting to get into that 36th chamber. Now it’s just part of our screen language.

What resulted in the most constant flood of Asian talent in to Hollywood, both actors – like Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li and Jackie Chan – and some directors – such as Hideo Nakata, Takeshi Shimizu (albeit both on remakes of their own films) and Ronny Yu, joining John Woo, Tsui Hark and others behind the camera – also resulted in some of the worst vehicles to date: Replacement Killers? Bulletproof Monk? Shanghai Knights? The Tuxedo? Just about any Jet Li movie made in the West except Kiss Of The Dragon. (Oh, and The One, I’ll let you have that but for all the wrong reasons.)

But there was a positive side effect. Suddenly an awful lot of Asian films were being released in their own right. Small independent distributors thrived on the scene, taking advantage of the budding DVD market. Ong-Bak re-invigorated martial arts with death-defying real stunts that literally made you hold your breath in the cinema. Infernal Affairs was even given a minor release before Scorsese had revealed his interest in remaking it as The Departed. (No one seems to have quite gotten round to the much mooted remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.) An Japanese animation even won an Oscar, all be it perhaps one of the best ever made – Spirited Away. (Though it did benefit from a Disney release!)

Then 18 months ago it all went wrong…

It wasn’t so much in Hollywood, still happy to look eastwards for inspiration. There just didn’t seem to be enough room for Asian releases anymore, and retailers were quickly losing a grip on their market. Whether that was really the effect of peer-to-peer downloading, or just a fickle loss of interest that led to a lack of promotion for what Asian release there were, is hard to tell. But there just weren’t as many films being released, not just at the cinema, but also on DVD. Truth is, if the internet is to blame for anything, it’s that we can all get much better editions of Asian films directly from the East, and long before they come out here.

Before too long companies were going out of business. First Hong Kong Legends, which had built up a strong reputation throughout the world for good quality releases. couldn’t keep up with distributors in Hong Kong that were starting to release remastered versions of the same classic movies at a quicker rate. In their last few months of trading, industry contacts said they could hardly give their releases away, being lucky to move 80 units throughout the UK.

More recently Tartan Films, based in the UK and US, has followed suit. One of the longest surviving independent distributors, Asian films were certainly just a small part of their output, and had been greatly reduced over the same period. Considering the intelligent, bizarre and outstanding films they’ve helped bring to the UK, including notable US independent and horror releases, this is a real shame for all of us.

Things did not look good. According to those in the industry, all things Asian were pretty much dead… until now…

Once again, if anything Hollywood is leading the charge. The past few months have seen some several films cash in on Olympic-mania – the surprising part being if anything they’ve done it quite well. The Forbidden Kingdom united Jet Li and Jackie Chan for the first time, but with Yuen Woo-ping on board – who worked with both actors in the past – and a largely Chinese crew, combined with scriptwriter John Fusco’s obvious love of Hong Kong movies, the result was a warm-hearted kids film with some kick-ass fight scenes. Then there was Kung Fu Panda. Again drawing on those same Yuen Woo-ping/Jackie Chan movies, Dreamworks latest turned all those animal themed martial art moves in to, well, animals.

And once again, we’re seeing distributors (or at least, those that are left) a lot more open to releasing Asian movies. In the coming months Chocolate, from Ong-Bak director Prachya Pinkaew, finally reaches our shores, and we’ve seen Mad Detective given a small scale release, soon to be followed by Triangle. Let’s hope the interest sticks – at least for a while…

Of course it’s not all good. The latest installment of The Mummy franchise has taken a neat idea to spin put another yarn and missed the mark. The Pang brothers follow their disappointingly received Hollywood debut The Messengers with a Nicholas Cage vehicle Bangkok Dangerous – a remake (of sorts) of their own first collective effort. Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have made a musical about that irrepressible Monkey. And right now every advert under the sun is using Crouching Tiger style moves to sell their wares, from McDonalds to Frosties, and you know you’re in trouble when even Tony the Tiger is pulling some Shaolin monk moves. (Pretty soon we’ll all be sick of Chinese-themed anything!)

Ho hum, let’s see how much interest there is in a month’s time…?

Another one bites the dust: Tartan UK closes

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:00:38 +0000

Bit slow bringing you this news, but the Tartan label – whose responsible Asia Extreme label was responsible for exposing many of us to Asian classics such as Ring, Audition and Happiness of the Katakuris – has closed as of the end of last month…

As with Hong Kong Legends, which also recently closed, it’s a sign of how the industry is not recognising the changing habits of their audience. It’s far more than simply the effect of downloading films, or even the effect of a global market which makes worldwide DVD releases, often better packaged than UK ones, available at the same or even cheaper prices.

It’s a sign of how an independent retailer, investing in hard to find, specialty releases, can no longer compete with the big retailers and their bargain bin prices on recent releases. But you have to wonder about the longterm effect of what’s happening to ‘specialty’ retailers – at a point when the consumer should be benefiting from more choice than ever, the chances of them being exposed to anything that’s not – let’s be frank – from Hollywood, are becoming less and less.

Will we even know what a ‘foreign language’ film is in 10 years time…?

This is a real shame considering Tartan’s long standing as an independent retailer, some 20 years or more, and all the films that company has debuted both here and in the US. To the contacts that easternKicks had there – we wish you all the best for the future!

Death Of A Legend

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:22:38 +0000

Since 1999 Hong Kong Legends had released remastered versions of classics (relatively) old and new that had gained them an international reputation. But that wasn’t enough to keep them in business – why?

On 5 November 2007 affiliates for the DVD label Hong Kong Legends where told to remove all links to their site. The company would be no more. But why had this happened, and what does it say for the future of Asian film releases in the UK?

The DVD label Hong Kong Legends debuted in 1999, fresh faced, it entered the new and burgeoning DVD marketplace, releasing Kung Fu classics, iconic Bloodshed films and new films too. All remastered and restored to a level that many of them hadn’t even been in to begin with. Few of these films had even been available on Video in the UK, and back before the internet truly opened up international retail, getting hold of them was nearly impossible. Even if you could, most DVD transfers coming out of Hong Kong seemed straight off the Video or Laserdisc releases of films. (Often the original Laserdisc version was a better quality!)

In comparison, a HKL release had seal of class that swiftly got them an international reputation. Discs often bulged with heaps of extras, even if they could be of varying quality. And then there were those audio commentaries by Bey Logan. A HKL release became the definitive version of a film, the must have.

So what went wrong?

Wasn’t there a wealth of films waiting for the HKL treatment? John Woo still had a good (though swiftly tarnishing) reputation for action movies. Jackie Chan was only beginning to ruin his career with Hollywood films like Rush Hour. The same could be said of Jet Li. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was yet to captivate audiences.

Early releases reflected a predictable snapshot of the favourite stars of the time. The release of Jackie Chan’s double act with Simon Yuen in Drunken Master and Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow gave us a reason to see why he’d become so popular in the first place. But gaining the rights to release Media Asia’s back catalogue gave HKL incredible scope for the future, and of course that jewel in any one’s kung fu fantasy, Bruce Lee.

HKL backed up their release of Lee’s first three kung fu films, The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, and Way Of The Dragon, with a seemingly impressive host of extras – for back in those days at least. And taking advantage of the relaxing attitude of British Film Censors, the films could finally be shown with their nunchuk scenes intact. But that was nothing compared to what they found for Game Of Death, Lee’s posthumous film, completed by the director of Enter The Dragon, Robert Clouse, long after Lee had passed away. They found 40 minutes of original footage, reduced to 12 minutes in the final film, re-edited it to how Lee had imagined it. (That didn’t, of course, stop the film itself from being a shameless cash in on Bruce Lee’s name.)

HKL even expanded to a sister label, Premier Asia – able to mop up those titles that weren’t strictly speaking, from Hong Kong. Now Japanese, Thai and Korean titles could also be included.

So far, so good, but following HKL seemed unable to capitalise on the success of Crouching Tiger to bring that audience to the films that inspired it. Their release schedule was slow, and the effort put into creating those extras waned over the years. And then there were still those commentaries by Bey Logan.

The magic was fading. Remastered versions of many of those films were now becoming available in HK and the US, and worse still HK was catching up on releasing new, improved versions of series like A Chinese Ghost Story and Once Upon A Time In China. Stranger still the label held off on releasing some of it’s most best known (or at least notorious) back catalogue, ignoring Sex And Zen for years, and overlooking John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow II and Last Hurrah For Chivalry for some of his lesser titles.

What exactly was going on?

Late in 2006 pr agencies began to seek opinions from Asian fan sites and magazines on HKL’s behalf. A large retailer was arguing that their audiences didn’t care about the quality of the films. Of course they did, often ALL they cared about. That was what made it different.

Soon HKL changed tactic. Releasing what it called the ‘Ultra-bit collection’ it concentrated on the quality of the movie rather than a wealth of extras. The schedule was changed to a title a month. Finally here was Sex And Zen and Last Hurrah For Chivalry. And bizarrely a host of early Jackie Chan movies. But it was too late, in more senses than one. The writing was on the wall.

The effort and research was sadly missing from these new titles, it wasn’t just about extras, it was about making the definitive release of a title. Jackie Chan’s mid-80s US collaboration The Protector, for instance, missed an obvious opportunity to include Jackie’s version of the film alongside the American original. And then, considering there wasn’t much in the way of extras, the cost still pushed the better part of £20.

Things have changed a lot since the turn of the decade, when most releases would cost the better part of £20 if not more. Now a new release can easily be obtained for little over a tenner, and if you want to wait a couple of months, well under. But then there was a very good reason for the price. By the end of HKL’s run, they were lucky to shift between 80 and 100 copies of a title.

Think about it. That’s less than one copy for every OTHER HMV store in the UK. Surely there are more fans of Asian films than that? Audiences may have waned since Crouching Tiger, but they are still there. Just where are they? It’s a catch 22 – in comparison with the rest of the DVD market the price precludes purchase, but, of course, can’t be lowered to stand any chance of making a profit.

HKL are not the only label to have come a cropper since interests have seemingly waned. Momentum Pictures, for instance, secured domestic releases of the Shaw Brothers films restored by Celestial Pictures and released in Hong Kong by IVL. Oddly, these removed all the extras to offer the titles at about £12.99, still about four or five pounds more than you could get the original HK DVD delivered, overloaded with extras.

Whether it’s lack of interest, the global market, or simply cost, it doesn’t bode well for future Asian film releases in the UK. About 18 months ago, I complained about the wealth of great films by well-known Asian directors that remain unavailable in the UK. Directors like Zhang Yimou, who directed Hero, Raise The Red Lantern, and House Of Flying Daggers, or even Ang Lee himself. Not to mention easternKicks faves like Citizen Dog and King Of Masks. It’s hard to believe that no audience exists for these movies, they just have to know about them first.

In the States, a new label has been born out of the sort of titles that HKL would have released in the past, Dragon Dynasty. Can they make a go of it? And can anyone fill the gap in the UK? Let’s hope so… Let’s keep fighting till they do.

The cutting blade

Andrew Heskins — Tue, 16 May 2006 08:52:38 +0000

The Contender Group are doing a great job of distributing Asian movies in UK cinemas, but are they going to far to get them a Western audience?…

The Contender Group, who run the Premier Asia and Hong Kong Legends labels in the UK, are beginning to get into the worrying habit of ‘fiddling’ with films they release theatrically. Often this has been little more than giving Asian films a new musical soundtrack, like Ong-Bak and Initial D: Driftracer. In the case of the latter droping Jay Chou’s power ballads for a new drum n’ bass/dance driven soundtrack by Fuel definitely added to the films appeal – especially for it’s audience of boy racers, who seem to enjoy damaging their eardrums with thunderous sound systems at the best of times.

For the theatrical release of Seven Swords, however, this meant cutting approximately 15 minutes of running time from a movie that already had underdeveloped characters and subplots. The deleted scenes, included on the DVD – though divorced from the film itself – may not appear drastically important to the plot, partly as their significance may be lost on a western audience, but losing them seems more a portent of what’s to come.

It’s not so long ago that Asian film fans united against Disney and affiliated companies like Miramax in their treatment of movies from the east. Dubbed, cut, seemingly deliberately delayed release (anything to do with Kill Bill?)- Shaolin Soccer was left on the shelf for three years when Miramax brought the distribution rights, while Legend of Zu neve even appeared – yet also made it impossible to get the original versions outside of Hong Kong or China, treatment which caused fans to even set up an online petition against them.

Point is, how far should you go to entice an audience to see a film? Some believe that as long as it helps brings the crowd in, that’s enough – at least if the original version is included in some form, perhaps on the DVD? But should we change films at all? Shouldn’t they reflect the different culture they come from, without hesitation?

When Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki agreed to allow Disney to release his movies in the State, he made one stipulation – you can dub them into English, but they couldn’t change one scene. Forcing them to translate every minute of the movie, each beautifully weird second.

Do Contender risk making the same mistake? It’s rather like they’ve opened Pandora’s box, and now they can’t help themselves. A tweak here, an edit there, a new soundtrack booming in the background – but where does it stop?

Forget art. Forget allowing a movie to find an audience on it’s own merits. Just cynically alter it to suit the market? Come on, let’s leave that to the Americans…

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