easternKicks.com – how do you get yours?

A young director with high aspirations, we talk to Lu Chuan exclusively about his second film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, set in the Tibetan Plateau… (more…)

We were just talking about that subway scene from the original Anime, weren’t we? And here is the new version – the opening clip from Chris Nahon’s live-action remake starring Gianna Jun. As you can’t have missed, Blood: The Last Vampire opens in UK cinemas tomorrow… Check it out, pretty close, but with a new twist. Enjoy!

(I promise – next week I won’t mention Blood. Not once…honest!)

But don’t forget the DVD and t-shirt Competition!

Kim Jee-woon’s fun-packed The Good, The Bad, The Weird – starring Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Hun, Jung Woo-Sung and Uhm Ji-won – will be released in UK cinema’s on 6 February 2009.

You can read our review here »

Regular Japanese readers of easternKicks may spot a familiar name in the September issue of glossy interview magazine Cut (hitting shelves right now) – yep, that’s us! Our interview with Lee Byung-hun was reprinted with permisson and translated into Japanese. (And we’re hoping to bring you some more very interesting interviews very soon… So stay tuned!)

We talk exclusively to Chris Nahon, director of Kiss Of The Dragon and the new live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire, released Friday… (more…)

We chat to Gianna Jun, who plays the lead Saya in the new version of Blood: The Last Vampire, released this Friday… (more…)

We talk to Yuri Lowenthal, star of Jinno in Afro Samurai and Afro Samurai: Resurrection, about life as an Anime voice actor… (more…)

Mark Duffield, director of Ghost Of Mae Nak, talks to easternKicks about how he came to be a British director on a Thai produced horror film, and what inspired him to make it… (more…)

Sergio Leone meets The Wacky Races in Kim Jee-woon’s Asian Western – it’s a real blast!… (more…)

Something of a reduced service here at easternKicks, while I move house and wait an eternity to get my broadband sorted out, but time to highlight the success of Breathless, the debut film by Korean actor turned director Yang Ik-June, at this years Tokyo Filmex, walking off with both the Grand Prize and Audience Award.

Already the recipient of numerous international film awards, the film is an accomplished first work, brutal and uncompromising in its portrayal of the caise and effect of domestic violence, it’s also poetic, funny, and surprisingly uplifting. On paper, a strange mix, but on screen easily one of the best Asian films of the year. The film opens in selected cinemas around the UK on 29 January 2010, distributed by Terracotta Distribution, and is a must-see.

We’ll be bringing you an exclusive interview with Yang Ik-June, who also stars, wrote and edited Breathless, and happens to be a lot more affable in real life than you might expect from his role, as well as a review of the film itself.

Chen Kaige’s The Promise finally crawls its way on to UK DVD and Blu-Ray, courtesy of Momentum Pictures. Originally released way back in December 2005 and reviewed by us shortly afterwards, it failed to spark any interest from UK distributors despite being given a limited release in the US, France, Germany, Greece, Russia – in fact just about everywhere else! Unsurprisingly Chen’s attempt to follow rival Zhang Yimou into wu xia territory met with mixed reactions. Indeed the core story itself holds a neat fable with beautifully baroque costume design (pre-empting Yimou’s Curse Of The Golden Flower), but relies perhaps a little too heavily on CGI to make it all happen.

Sadly, this is a ‘bonus feature lite’ DVD release, and worse still, it’s the edited US release, running some 20 minutes shorter. Mind you, guess better to have it than not at all (?)

Also out today, Afro Samurai: Resurrection on DVD from Manga Entertainment.

Korea’s first ever disaster movie, and one of the most expensive productions in the country’s history, Tidal Wave: Haeundae, is released courtesy of Optimum. Blending the drama of interwoven relationships with the high octane thrills of the traditional genre, the film’s centerpiece: the tsunami itself, was created by acclaimed Hollywood CGI specialists Polygon, the team behind the Star Wars prequels, The Day After Tomorrow and The Perfect Storm.

Palisades Tartan continue their phoenix-like rebirth by reissuing and repackaging titles from the Tartan back catalogue with a double bill from Park Chan-wook, JSA and I’m A Cyborg, as well as a set of Three… Extremes 1 & 2. Yes, they’re still calling Three by the name of Three… Extremes 2 – even though it was the first film… oh, whatever! (And hang on… haven’t they missed a trick not including the feature length version of Dumplings…?)

With the later also including a hugely entertaining segment by Park Chan-wook as well, there’s no doubt that we’re all looking towards the UK cinematic release of Thirst this Friday, on which we’ll be featuring more exciting news and interviews in the next few days…

We catch up with Chan-wook at the UK premiere of his latest film Thirst, and meet the man in person… (more…)

Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird is released in selected cinemas around the UK today, and we’re giving away a poster exclusively signed by the director! (more…)

Icon Films, the distribution company for Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird, have announced the UK release dates as 6 February 2009. An old-fashioned adventure yarn the way Indiana Jones movies used to be, this Sergio Leone homage is fantastic big screen entertainment! You can read our review here »

Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Jee-woon and lead Lee Byung-hun, coming soon…!

In the first of a series of interviews, we chat exclusively to Donnie Yen about Ip Man, the sequel, the weight of inevitable comparisons to Bruce Lee, and much much more… (more…)

In the second of a series of exclusive interviews, we chat to director Wilson Yip about working with Donnie Yen, making a sequel for the first time and being in front of the camera… (more…)

In the last of our series of exclusive interviews, we chat to Sammo Hung about collaborating with Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen on Ip Man and the upcoming sequel, ask his personal favourite films in his long career, and ask about… Martial Law! (more…)

Jun Ichikawa speaks exclusively to easternKicks about directing Tony Takitani, and just how he managed to get permission from the story’s author, Haruki Murakami, to make the film in the first place… (more…)

To celebrate the release of Blood: The Last Vampire on DVD and Blu-ray, we have three copies to give away… (more…)