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This week sees the start of the Barbican’s annual festival focusing on the best of Korean cinema by presenting a brand new batch of box office hits, independent features and animated films from the country. Highlights this year include an exclusive Opening Night Gala Screening of the Director’s Cut of Park Chan-wook’s vampire thriller Thirst (some 10 minutes longer than the theatrical release currently screening), which will be introduced by the director himself, plus a screening of Yang Ik-june’s impressive debut feature, Breathless, followed by a Q&A session with Yang. The London Korean Film Festival 2009 will be held at the Barbican from 5th to 12th November.

» For full details, visit the Barbican website.

For Korean film fans, particularly of Park Chan-wook’s back catalogue, then this week sees the release of several notable films from Palisades Tartan on Blu-ray for the first time, including Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance, alongside Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale Of Two Sisters, recently remade as The Uninvited. (Not to be confused with the Korean film of the same name, also recently re-released by Palisades… Oh, don’t get me started!)

There’s also the DVD and Blu-ray release of the live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire – and don’t forget you can still win a copy of the DVD here! The original animation is also released by Manga on Blu-ray today.

And if you still can’t get enough of Samurai sword slinging gore, then there’s Samurai Princess, from the creators of Tokyo Gore Police. Set in an alternative version of feudal Japan, a pair of human-android hybrids is on the rampage raping, torturing and dismembering young women in the name of “art”. Directed by Kengo Kaji (co-writer of Tokyo Gore Police), featuring special effects produced by director and FX wizard Yoshihiro Mishimura (Tokyo Gore Police, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl) and starring adult video star Aino Kishi.

(…phew! I think that’s it for this week’s releases?)

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

The annual London MCM Expo takes place at the Excel London this weekend, 24th to 25th October, celebrating sci-fi, manga, anime and comics. Major labels MVM, Manga and 4Digital Asia will be there with exclusive previews and promotions…

» For full details of the Expo click here

Congratulations to the three winners of the Chanbara Beauty DVD competition we ran last month – hope you enjoy the film! To those who didn’t win anything, stay tuned, as we’ll be launching a new competition this Friday…

Babes, bikinis, blades, guns and zombies – what more could you want? And you can win a copy on DVD…! (more…)

Slightly old news now, but it seems the upcoming remake of Oldboy, directed by Steven Speilberg and starring Will Smith (don’t even get me started on the suitability of Smith in the lead!) has hit a bit of a sticking point…

The Hollywood Reporter says Futabasha, publisher of the original manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya on which Park Chan-wook’s film was based, has filed a case against Show East in Seoul, alleging the Korean company never had the right to negotiate a remake. The issue is further complicated by the fact that Show East has closed down and its CEO has disappeared. (Which itself sounds like it could be out of a Korean thriller?)

Despite this the production is moving ahead. An original US adaption of Oldboy was muted as far back as 2006, eventually with Justin Lin attached as director.

Chris Nahon’s live-action remake of anime Blood: The Last Vampire comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 12 October 2009, released by Manga. Detalis TBC.

Well done to everyone who entered our Blood: The Last Vampire competition. Five lucky entrants will be winning a t-shirt and DVD of the original Anime, with five other entrants geting just the t-shirt. You’ll be receiving your prizes in the post soon…

For those that missed out, don’t fear, we’ll have another competition soon – so stay tuned!

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!

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

To celebrate the upcoming release of the live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire we have five DVDs of the original Anime and t-shirts to giveaway AND five t-shirts! (more…)

Long regarded as one of the best examples of Anime, Blood: The Last Vampire is set to ignite screens alight with a whole new live-action version. Directed by Chris Nahon, responsible for the only decent Jet Li US vehicle Kiss Of The Dragon and featuring fight choreography by Li favourite Corey Yuen (So Close, Fong Sai Yuk), the film has a seriously good pedigree making it one of the most anticipated live-action adaptations of any anime ever produced.

Blood: The Last Vampire is released in UK cinemas on 26 June 2009 by Pathe.

Enter our cometition and win a DVD and t-shirt!

As if you didn’t have enough to do this weekend, the London MCM Expo 2009 gets under way at ExCel tomorrow. The MCM stands for Movie Comic Media, and nowhere do those two fields meet more closely than in Anime – so unsurprisingly two of the UK’s biggest labels are participating and will be there in force:

Manga UK will offering several special offers on there stand, incuding a free “Misa” figurine when you purchase any Death Note anime DVD (limited offer, while stocks last) as well as a special price promtion for Afro Samurai Director’s Cut Double Pack includes (Afro Samurai Director’s Cut and the brand new Afro Samurai Resurrection Director’s Cut). There’ll be all there latest new releases and a ‘sneak peak’ at the new live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire.

MVM Entertainment will be offering a raft of Amine title at (quote unquote) knockdown prices. They’ll be launching several  titles including: first volume of Disgaea; Samurai Deeper Kyo; and Gunparade March. They’ll also be officially announcing the acquistions of three new titles, Aquarion, X and Guardian Of The Spirit (aka Moribito), as well as some hottly anticipated Amine boxsets, Gravitation, Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon 2nd Barrage.

For more information on the London MCM Expo 2009 itself, see their official website »

Well done to three lucky entrants to our 2oth Century Boys competition are going to receive a fab prize in the post: the full limited edition 2-disc DVD, a poster AND t-shirt!

And if you’re jealous now – well, you gotta be in it to win it, as they used to say on those Lotto commercials. Stay tuned for some very exciting competitions coming soon…

Out on DVD today – the first in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s fabulous three-part adaption of Naoki Urasawa’s popular manga 20th Century Boys. You can read our review of the film here »

And don’t forget, there’s still a chance to win this DVD as part of our special prize giveaway – click here to enter!