A solid, good looking action film with great fight sequences by choreographer Corey Yuen, but plot inconsistencies and a baffling conclusion don’t make the best for Chris Nahon’s live-action adaption… (more…)
This year at Cannes sees the real heavy hitters come out to play, as the world’s greatest auteur directors gather to compete for the coverted Palme d’Or. As well as the latest films from Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke, and Terry Gilliam, there’s a strong Asian presence. Highlights include Park Chan-wook’s new vampire flick Thirst; Lou Ye’s Tiananmen Square-themed Summer Palace, which has incensed authorities to the point of them slapping a five-year ban on him; Tsai Ming-Liang’s film within a film Face; Johnnie To’s Vengeance; and Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. Other films screening include Kore-eda Hirokaz’s Air Doll; the latest from The Host and Memories Of Murder director Bong Joon-Ho, Mother; and Petiton by Zhao Liang.
See the Guardian’s gallery guide to directors vying for the Palme d’Or »
Korean director Park Chan-wook’s vampire flick Thirst, which won the Jury prize at Cannes Film Festival, will be released in UK cinemas on 16 October by Metrodome in association with Palisades Tartan – the new name for the Tartan label which went out of business July last year .
To coincide with the film’s release, Palisades Tartan has launched a competition offering entrants the chance to win a trip for two to London to attend the UK premiere of Thirst and to have lunch with Park Chan-Wook.
Following its hugely successful theatrical release in October, which saw it being hailed as Film of the Week in both Time Out and The Guardian and being awarded Four Star reviews in The Daily Express, Time Out, The Sun, Empire, Total Film and Loaded, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 25th January 2009.
The joint winner of the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, THIRST sees the director of such acclaimed and varied films as the military thriller “JSA: Joint Security Area”, the comedy romance “I’m A Cyborg” and the standout movie of his “vengeance” trilogy “Oldboy” further emphasising his versatility as a storyteller and a filmmaker by turning his hand to Western horror traditions and taking on the ever-popular vampire genre.
Very loosely based on Emile Zola’s novel “Therese Raquin”, the story concerns a priest who, accidentally cursed with vampirism, is thrown into a whirlpool of moral decline that leads to him into a nightmare world of lust, adultery and murder.
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine research project designed to eradicate a deadly virus. When the virus is found to be affecting the priest and threatening his life, a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. However, the blood he receives is unknowingly infected, the result of the transfusion being that Sang-hyun survives the viral attack but now exists as a vampire dependent upon the life blood of others.
Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for this vital fluid, Sang-hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her tormented life. It’s not long before the former priest is plunged headlong into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the deadliest of the Seven Sins.
Starring Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyun (The Host; The Good, The Bad, The Weird; Lady Vengeance; Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Ok-vin as Tae-ju (Dasepo Naughty Girls; The Accidental Gangster), THIRST is a visceral, thought-provoking and darkly comic exploration of human existence in extreme circumstances from one of the most original and provocative directors working in modern cinema.
DVD Features
Audio commentary by director Park Chan-wook; Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and half-rate DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.
Blu-ray Features
Audio commentary by director Park Chan-wook; Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.
Hailed as “a new cult classic in the making” by Ain’t It Cool News, the latest movie from award winning Korean director Lee Je-yong (Untold Scandal), DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS is an eye-popping musical comedy about teenage sex, non-conformity and dysfunctional relationships set against the backdrop of the appropriately named “No Use High School”.
Based on the wildly popular, taboo-breaking Internet comic strip, “Multi-Cell Girl”, and starring Kim Ok-bin (Thirst) and Lee Won-jong (Kick The Moon), the film’s episodic storyline centres on the bizarre and comical sexual ambiguities and aberrations of a group of teenage students, all of whom are looking for their own kind of love.
Welcome to No Use High School, an educational institution where the student president and vice-present flaunt their taste for S&M, extracurricular studies and supplementary classes are done on homosexuality and transgenderism, and teachers and students alike leave school early due to outbreaks of sexually-transmitted diseases.
Amidst this environment are several students struggling to adapt to their unconventional situation. Among them is Poor Girl, who endeavours to make ends meet by selling her body but only attracts clients (including a butch transvestite gangster with a thing for school uniforms) who aren’t interested in actually having sex. Similarly troubled is the cyclopean One-Eye, the school’s only virgin. Further complications for this pair arise when Poor Girl falls for pretty boy Anthony, who secretly carries a torch for One-Eye’s sister, Two-Eyes, not knowing that the breathtakingly beautiful object of his desire is actually a boy awaiting a sex-change operation. But, as the usual sexual confusion reigns, a new problem begins to emerge. Students who have never shown an interest in anything but sex have suddenly given up dating and become emerged in studying!
Sumptuously shot in a riot of gaudy colours, with brilliantly staged music and dance numbers and boasting an irresistible charm, DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS is a musical teen comedy in a class of its own.
DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£14.99) by Third Window Films on 8th June 2009. Special Features include “Making of” featurette and theatrical trailer.
Hailed as a “bizarre, baroque, hilarious epic” (Total Film) and a “crazy, perversely monumental teen comedy romance” (Metro) on its UK theatrical release in October, director Sion Sono’s LOVE EXPOSURE comes to DVD in January 2010 as a two-disc release courtesy of Third Window Films.
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Caligari Film Award at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, the latest film from acclaimed Japanese writer-director Sion Sono (Exte: Hair Extensions), LOVE EXPOSURE is a monumental work of cinema that manages to combine comedy, action, romance and drama into its compelling, satirical and frequently violent commentary on religion, morality, sexual perversion and, of course, love, both requited and unrequited.
Following the untimely death of his mother during his early childhood, Tokyo teenager Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) is raised by his father, Tetsu (Atsuro Watabe), who has dealt with his grief by becoming a Catholic priest. Despite his new calling, Tetsu is seduced into a love affair with an emotionally unstable parishioner, an act that causes him to transfer his guilt onto Yu, whom he forces to attend confession as often as possible. Eager to satisfy his father’s demands, but quickly running out of false transgressions to own up to, Yu begins to find new and genuine sins to confess, the most effective of which proves to be taking covert up-skirt panty photographs of young women on the city’s streets.
Eventually, Yu’s misdemeanours attract the attention of teenage girl Aya Koike (Sakura Ando) – a con artist, coke dealer, the regional leader of a bizarre religious cult and a victim of paternal abuse – who decides she can use the wayward “king of perverts” for her own means. Shortly after their auspicious meeting, a cross-dressing incident resulting from a lost bet also brings Yu into contact with Kurt Cobain-loving, but otherwise totally man-hating, schoolgirl Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), with whom he falls instantly in love. The fates of this trio become hopelessly connected and sealed when Yu’s father decides to give up the cloth to marry his lover and Yu discovers that Yoko is about to become his stepsister!
Running at just under four hours (although moving at such a brisk pace it’s barely noticeable) and already being hailed as Sion Sono’s career masterpiece in many quarters, LOVE EXPOSURE stars Hikari Mitsushima (Shaolin Girl; Death Note: The Last Name; Death Note), Takahiro Nishijima (star of Japanese TV’s Ghost Friends), Sakura Ando (Crime Or Punishment) and Astsuro Watabe (Echo Of Silence) and was the recipient of the 2009 awards for the Best Asian Film, the Jury Prize for Best Female Performance (Hikari Mitsushima), the Jury Special Prize for Feature Film and the Most Innovative Film at Montreal’s Fant-Asia Film Festival.
Out in cinemas across the UK today, not one but two major releases for Asian film fans. Ong Bak: The Beginning, courtesy of Revolver Entertainment, and Thirst, courtesy of Metrodome/Palisades Tartan.
Here’s just a taster of that epic finale scene Ong Bak: The Beginning to keep you going…
Though he might not have walked away with the celebrated Palme d’Or, Park Chan-wook’s latest film Thrist, an erotic thriller about a priest who is turned into a vampire after a botched medical experiment, did get the Cannes Jury Prize, shared with UK’s Andrea Arnold for her second feature Fish Tank.
Read more about the Cannes winners on the Guardian website »
The annual festival is back for another feast of new features, events and animations, running for the third year at the Barbican, in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre and the Korean Content and Culture Agency (KOCCA).
This year the spotlight will be taken by an exclusive screening of director-of-the-moment Yang Ik-june’s Breathless, followed by a Q&A with the director himself. There’s plenty from Korea’s master directors, including Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, Kim Ki-duk’s Dream and Yoo Ha’s A Frozen Flower. There’s also a celebration of one of Korea’s most-loved directors, the late Yoo Hyun Mak, best known for Aimless Bullet, and a focus on Korea’s burgeoning independent scene. Other events and screenings include sleeper hit Scandal Makers and a Korean Animation Day.
The season also includes the afore mentioned Bong Joon-Ho retrospective showing at the BFI Southbank.
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?)
Director Sion Sono follows up Exte: Hair Extensions with an equally unpredictable (nearly) four-hour epic love story… of sorts… (more…)
Wong Kar-wai’s recent tweak of his 1994 Swordplay epic, Ashes Of Time, is on limited release at the Renoir cinema London. The original version is typically Kar-wai, beautifully shot by cinematographer Chris Doyle but with a somewhat confusingly narrative. Though I’ve yet to hear the significant differences, his Redux version runs some seven minutes shorter so is unlikely to improve that.
Twitch film reports that Park Chan-wook’s next film, Thirst, will co-produced by a major Hollywood studio. An increasingly common trend, it seems one of the most successful ways studios have of entering the Asian market.
Meanwhile Wu-Jing reports that Jackie Chan will be involved in a TV update of The Shaolin Temple, and Zhau Wen Zhuo will be returning to his role as Beggar Su, with Yuen Woo-ping directing.
According to Launching Films Ong Bak 2, to be retitled Ong Bak: The Beginning (though that makes as much sense as calling it Ong Bak in the first place!) is going to be released in the UK on 16 October by Revolver Entertainment. Bizarrely, that’s the same day Park Chan-wook’s vampire flick Thirst is released by Metrodome, which won the Jury prize at Cannes and stars the brilliant Song Kang-ho (who also appeared in Chan-wook’s JSA, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance). Hmmm, someone thought that through, didn’t they?
Studio Ghibli’s latest, however, Ponyo On The Cliff, directed by the Oscar-winning Hayao Miyazaki, however, still doesn’t have a UK release date, even though Walt Disney are releasing it in the US on 14 August…
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…
Surely, no need to highlight that Park Chan-wook critically acclaimed Thirst gets released by Palisades Tartan on Blu-ray and DVD? Highly enjoyable, funny and intelligent, it’s everything you’d want from a post-modern vampire film but were too afraid you’d end up with Twilight, instead.
Also out today – and sharing a common theme in Catholism – is the four-hour epic Love Exposure, from writer-director Sion Sono (Exte: Hair Extensions). Highly inventive and less of an endurance test than you might expect at that length, to my mind the end result is flawed – not helped by the lack of chemistry between leads Takahiro Nishijima and the delightful Hikari Mitsushima.
We catch up with Chan-wook at the UK premiere of his latest film Thirst, and meet the man in person… (more…)
Just a quick round-up of some future releases to look forward to:
Of course, the chief one will be Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, coming to DVD and Blu-ray on 25 January 2010, an undoubtedly one of the biggest releases for the newly reborn Palisades Tartan label.
January also sees the release of The Twins Effect and Sniper director Dante Lam’s The Beast Stalker as a two-disc collectors edition. Starring Nicholas Tse (Dragon Tiger Gate; New Police Story; The Medallion) and Jingchu Zhang (Rush Hour 3; Seven Swords), this kinetic crime-thriller gets released on 4 January 2010 by Cine Asia.
There’s also the Ong-Bak styled Thai martial arts film, Fireball, from producer Adirek Watleela (Bang Rajan, Bangkok Dangerous) and director Thanakorn Pongsuwan (Opapatika, The Story Of X-Circle). Fireball is released on DVD and Blu-ray by E1 Entertainment.
Just to remind you that the Tetsuya Nakashima scripted sex comedy Lalo Pipo is on limited release around the UK. Those based in the UK and fully digital (shouldn’t we all be) may be interested to know that Film4 is showing Nakashima’s epic Memories Of Matsuko and (the arguably more impressive) Kamikaze Girls, as well as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, so set your PVRs.
One of the worlds finest directors returns with a superb deconstructionist take on the Vampire myth… (more…)
It seemed rather odd that the one place Park Chan-wook’s revisionist vampire flick hadn’t been released was in his home Korea, but maybe that makes sense now with the announcement of the limited edition 3-disc DVD, which includes not only the original version but the extended director’s cut (which premiered at the London Korean Festival late last year).
This version adds some 10 minutes of new scenes to the film. The DVD itself also includes audio commentary, plus a Bonus Disc containing making of, previews, featurettes on art direction and music, the Director’s Choice animated short film “Dust Kid” directed by Jung Yu Mi, and other special features – though how much of that will have English subtitles is questionable.
The DVD is expected to be released 17 March, and currently available from YesAsia.com. No word of a Blu-Ray release yet, though.
Palisades Tartan, the reborn imprint of the Tartan Films label, are offering a chance for two to attend their UK premiere of Park Chan-wook’s Thirst and meet the director in person… (more…)
