Hard Boiled is the last Hong Kong film directed by John Woo, and is considered (without hyperbole) one of the most influential action films ever made. It is, without question one of the best action movies I have ever seen.
The plot (without giving away too much) is as follows: ultra cool cop Tequila (played by Chow Yun Fat and one of the best characters in movie history) in his pursuit of the Triads (the Hong Kong Mafia) crosses paths with Triad member Alan (Tony Leung, who also starred in Infernal Affairs) and almost kills him, but stops after finding out Alan is a member of the police, working undercover as a Triad member. The main crux of the story concerns Tequila trying to find the Triad's enormous weapon stash and trying to bring them down, and when it is found, the climatic scene of Tequila and Alan versus what feels like a million triad members in a hospital in a literally 40 minute action scene with millions of shots fired, a scene where he saves babies, and moments where you will swear you've seen things from other movies, and you have, because this scene inspired so many future movies and the iconic scenes in them, the moments between cop and his loved one before he leaves, the heroic sacrifice, the running from explosions, just on and on and on.
The only bad thing about this movie is it was so good that Hollywood immediately snatched up Chow Yun Fat and John Woo and ended what really was a golden age in Hong Kong cinema.
(The film is referenced in 2002's Infernal Affairs (which is the Hong Kong film which is remade in the US as The Departed) and clearly influenced that film. I will need to do an Infernal Affairs post fairly soon.)
There are some films that everyone should see and unless you are completely action movie averse Hard Boiled is one of them. Highest Recommendation possible.
Death Note: How to Use It 1. The human whose name is written in the note shall die. 2. The note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. 3. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. 4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
Death note is a property which started off in a manga in Sunday Jump (a manga anthology in Japan) which ran twelve volumes (collected books) that quickly become one of the most popular manga in Japan, moving on to spawn three popular movies as well as an anime. All of the products are available in the US from Viz, and it has since started casting and script writing in a movie to be made by Warner movies. It is primarily a thriller, a murder mystery which has a backdrop of the supernatural, but is completely driven by the interplay between it's main characters.
The story concerns the finding of a "death note" by a high school student in Japan, a near genius named Light Yagami. The death note is the tool through which Shinengami (death gods) schedule the deaths of humans as their job. Light uses it once almost by accident, and then decides to use it again to "save humanity" from criminals. The sudden surge of deaths does not go unnoticed by anyone, and as news reports focus on the mysterious deaths of criminals, the police begin to investigate. Light winds up involved in the police investigation himself, with the interplay between Light trying to stop his pursuers while he is participating among them being the main draw of the story. The police are led by a super detective who goes by the name of L, and the near brilliant moves by both him and Light to try to outwit the other are the crux of the story, and just immensely compelling. Other characters join both on Light's side and against him. There are just tons of interesting turns and twists. Character's motivations are never that simple, and the lengths Light goes to not to be caught, and that L goes to catch him are just amazing. It's easily one of the best manga I have ever read.
(Note: The manga almost feels like two stories. Books 1 to 7 are just brilliant. Books 8 to 12 continue on the story after a major event in volume 8 brings the first part of the story to a close. It almost feels like Godfather 3 (book 8 to 12) as opposed to Godfather 1 and 2 (the first 7 volumes). The remainder of the story is just not necessary, to the point that the movies wrap up the story at the end of the first 7 volume point, and just ignore everything going forward. I kind of mentally have done the same.)
Death Note inspired 3 movies in Japan, the first two being part 1 and 2 of the main story, and a spin off with L solving another case. The movies are just ok. They aren't the best acted films (there are a lot of idol types in the film) and some of the more iconic moments from the manga are not handled properly. (One character, whose introduction in the manga is just fantastic and so interesting is done in a way that takes all the fun out of it.) Cutting the manga at the end to try to wrap it up neatly doesn't work that well either. Still, for those of you who don't read manga the movies are a fun diversion and I can recommend them.
DEATH NOTE FIRST MOVIE TRAILER
Death Note has also fueled a bunch of negative incidents with people using the imagery and names in the book. There have been death notes references found near murder victims in Europe, and schools in the US and China have confiscated "Death Notes" from students which they thought were precursor's to some action. The most interesting is the Edison Chen photo scandal (which I am NOT touching here) where the person submitting the photos signed his submissions KIRA, which is the name Light uses as his fictional alter ego which kills criminals. Clearly none of this is good but I think it shows the iconic nature of the images in the work.
A US film is in the works and should be out in 2010. This is a film product with just great potential. Like an Infernal Affairs (which led to The Departed), this is material which can lead to a simply incredible film. Hopefully it is treated like what it is, a brilliant thriller as opposed to a horror movie, or a supernatural film.
May 15th (so they said) will see the US release of the single Nobody, a great song (already released in Korean) by one of my recent favorite acts, the Wonder Girls. They are already very popular, becoming almost instantly popular since the release of their first single Tell Me in 2007 from their first cd. They are similar to Danity Kane, as they came about from a MTV show (in Korea) called MTV Wonder Girls, where they showed the recruitment of each girl in an episode, and finally the group together. The process was all very organic, with the four girls rehearsing and making the album together as the fifth girl Yubin is not on the album as she joined too late.
I think the Wonder Girls really hit stride in 2008 with the release of Nobody, from the Wonder Girls Trilogy, a Motown inspired 4 song EP with songs and production actually assisted from old Motown producers. It's really good, and the video for Nobody is just great fun. (BTW, the man in the video they displace to sing the song is their producer JYP who is a very famous singer /songwriter / producer in Korea.)
NOBODY MV
There is a real charm and energy about the girls which is infectious and it's really easy to see why they are popular. They also have wonderful production, can actually really sing, and a lot of effort is put into every release to make sure it's worthwhile (For anyone who follows Asian pop, this is far from a given. Cookie Cutter releases are often not the exception, but the rule.)
The Wonder Girls are currently set to release a single in the US as part of an english album (a lot of this is speculating, it's all been announced but not announced) and as part of their swing through the US to support the third season of their TV show, which is about them living in NY and trying to become US pop stars. They wound up with a small blurb in People magazine (in an article about the Asian invasion of pop stars, Utada, Se7en, BoA and the Wonder Girls) and blog postings of their videos and twitters about them from an unlikely fan, Perez Hilton (the gossip maven). Note: you can watch their third season here WITH subtitles. I just discovered this, and need to go through it and figure out exactly where they are in NY and accidentally run into them. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=34BAE96F446BB399&search_query=wonder+girls
Can they break into the US market? It's doubtful. I'm not entirely sure they really even care about the US market, I think it's all just something for their TV show which is just so well done and well planned out that it's having some impact. They are a fantastic marketing machine, when they decided to come to NY they have people filming them making a scene at JFK, their myspace page up immediately, ringtones out for free and everyone of their songs available on ITunes and Nobody popped up on the front page. That's so far beyond what Utada Hikaru, the japanese star had for her US debut and her second US release that its just laughable. They are a really fun pop act and I always thought Korean pop stars had a better chance at the US market style wise (more R&B than pop), and their looks (tall and pretty is not a bad thing). I hope for the best, and will be downloading their song on ITunes the first moment it is there and I recommend that you do too.
(Note: One of the things i loved that they did was they went on youtube and found english versions of their songs their fans made (when they heard the Wonder Girls were coming out in english) they put a blurb that says "The Wonder Girls and JYP sponsor this" or something of that nature on the video as they own the material copyright. If you are a fan, that's just wonderful. Normally a blurb says "we don't like or allow this"!)
TELL ME - Their first single. The simple little dance was very popular in Korea.
Wonder Girls Land in JFK in April of this year. (With the amount of times I am picking up people there, at that same terminal and how long I have to wait, why doesn't this happen when I am there?)
Sekai no Chuushin De Ai o Sakebu (Crying out Love in the Center of the World) was a drama based on a japanese novel. It was a huge hit back in 2004. (There was later a film adaption, I have neither seen the film adaption nor read the book, both of which are available in the US, the film with subtitles and the book in english. The drama is not available.)
Theme Song from the Drama
The drama alternates between current day with Sakutaro (Saku) a grown man, still trying to come to grips with the death of his high school love Aki from leukemia 17 years prior. He is currently involved with a woman who has a little boy and is planning to marry her, but he finds some tapes she had made him in a box, and returns to the home town to try to reconcile some things for himself. The bulk of the drama is him and Aki in the past (1980's Japan in a small town), falling in love, dealing with the heartbreak and joys of life day to day, and finally dealing with her illness and eventually, her passing.
The drama does a wonderful job of really drawing you into the story of Saku and Aki as if it was open ended, when we know that it's going to end poorly. The drama is a bit too long (12 one hour episodes) which leads to some uninteresting side stories, but for the most part it's very engaging, at times feel good, and finally just absolutely heartbreaking, in a good way, if that makes any sense. It really makes you think about life and death and the people you care about. The relationship between the characters in high school is painfully real and something I am sure most of us can relate to, and because of that, watching Aki become more and more ill from her disease is just incredibly moving.
When we saw this, my wife was watching to see if i cried. Crying was not the issue, this drama just crushed me when it ended even though I knew what was coming the entire time. I literally went outside to sit and think about things once it was over and try to regain my composure. I'm not even kidding.
Anything that has that sort of impact to me is worth seeing. But it's not just a sad story, it's a very engaging drama with leads with great chemistry and one of the dramas which I feel really helps you to understand the Japanese drama format and why it's so wonderful at times at telling stories.
Very highly reccomended if you can find a subtitled copy. Check D-Addicts.com to see if there are any postings. Its from the SARS drama group (a group that subtitles dramas) so they may have it somewhere too.
Sakura - Arguably Kobukuro's biggest single and still one of the 10 favorite Karaoke songs in Japan years after it's release.
Kobukuro is a band made up of two members, KentarÅ KOBUchi and Shunsuke KUROda (thus the name). Kentaro is the taller man (he's 6'4'') and Shunsuke is the one playing the guitar. They were primarily an indy band from 98-2001 (prior to 98 and being signed they were street performers, and they were found and signed after being seen performing in Shibuya). In 2001 they have their first hit single, YELL. But they really hit big in 2005 with a string of hit singles, the most notable being Sakura which was one of the most popular songs of the year, and a Karaoke staple. Since then they have had a string of huge hits, and are now one of the most popular pop acts in Japan. They are primarily a rock band (acoustic at times) although they are heavily into ballads, and most of their popular songs are ballads. They are one of my favorite groups, and since 2005 they really have the magic touch, releasing great song after great song. Below are a few of my favorite songs from them.
AKAI ITO w/ Yui Aragaki (I also like Yui but not for her singing. She's a pretty good young actress and really likeable and her parts so far, singing wise, not so much.
TSUBOMI - Another of their hit singles - one which is also very popular in karaoke.
Ponyo is the latest film by Miyazaki (of Totoro and Spirited Away fame) and the first one that is really primarily aimed at a younger audience since Totoro in my opinion. Ponyo is a variation on The Little Mermaid, played out instead with 5 year olds (Ponyo, the fish/mermaid become girl and Sasuke, a little boy). The story is engaging but is not really the draw, with the draw being just an absolutely beautifully drawn world and very charming characters and situations. It's something that has really grown on me with repeated viewings, and that I think people with children will especially appreciate. It's a small child's dream world, the children are the important characters, there are fish swimming on roads, etc. It's really good although the lack of a detailed involving plot puts it a touch below films like Spirited Away in my opinion.
Ponyo is being released by Disney on August 14th with a fully english dub starring Miley Cyrus's sister and Matt Damon among other. (Note: I don't want to hear ANY complaints about an english dub, there is no way disney could release a film aimed at little kids with subtitles, and they will include the japanese language track on the DVD (they always do) and their DVD releases of the Miyazaki films are head and shoulders above their japanese counterparts.)
G.E.M. is a relatively new face in the HK scene, with her first (and only) EP released in 2008. She is only 17. What differentiates her (IMO) from a lot of the new talent is HK is she can really sing well. It's a good start, there was a point I felt like they were taking looks first, second, third and then got around to if the person had any talent. (I really think they looked at girls, thought "Wow, they can take a nice cover picture" and then signed them to make cd's.)
WHERE DID U GO - My favorite song of hers.
Don't expect a lot of information from me about her because there really isn't much to say. She is clearly on the fast track, a winner of a singing competition in HK, a trained pianist, and a voice that outshines almost all of her contemporaries. In a HK market that (IMO) lacks a lot of new and interesting faces, G.E.M. strikes me as someone with a good future, and I am really looking forward to new material to her in the future. (You'd think she will have a new cd this year.) Once her new material comes out I'm sure there will be more information about her. I am confident she will be popular, and she's the most interesting new talent to me since Janice came out a few years ago. There are very few chinese artists I would buy their cd's because most of them are just a few good songs, and 8 or 9 filler. Janice, Leon Lai (not as much as before) Vivian Chow (if there is an interesting re-issues), A-Mei (is she retired?), possibly Justin Lo and now G.E.M.
My Sassy Girl is one of my (and many others) favorite movies ever made. It is the second largest money making movie in Korea ever and easily the movie with the largest following outside of Korea.
If you don't watch Korean or Japanese movies (or dramas), one of the things they do very well is they can be serious and funny at the same time. US romantic comedies are comedies with romance inside. Asian romantic comedies can be either, but are more serious, which makes the whole thing seem more important and the impact of the scenes more-so.
The story is about a male college student who just can't seem to catch a break (and deservedly so) and the drunk girl he meets on the train. This starts a romance between the two that is anything but typical, the girl is demanding to say the least (he takes a lot of punishment, both physical and mental) and there are issues that come to the forefront later on in the story.
This movie has a few truly iconic scenes, including (below) a scene which literally led a generation of Korean girls to take up the piano and put Pachabell Canon on a nation's playlist. It's not the only one, how they meet, the subway scene, the scene in the restaurant where he talks to her date, and the ending scene all are truly moving, or funny, and sometimes both.
Another great thing about the movie is it plays a lot on Korean movie conventions (intentionally by the director) by not giving you the typical Korean unhappy ending, making fun / giving homage to Korean sci-fi movies (there is actually a time travel element in the film making fun of IL Mare (the Lake House in the states.) and overdoing things at times. But when it needs to be serious, it is. The timing and pacing is just impeccable. It's a work of love by the director and it clearly shows.
Scene by scene, it's superbly entertaining and by the time it wraps up you are completely in love with both main characters, have been hugely entertained and left feeling just really good. What else is there?
Note: There is an absolutely horrific US remake which didn't even attempt to remake the film and instead became some horrid straight to TV mess. I guess I give them credit for not even trying.
Beni is the latest relaunch of Beni Arashino, who is trying to reboot her career (and is getting popular) by the same route that Thelma Aoyama did, from being the featured singer on a song (by Dozhi T), and then releasing her own single singing the song, but with the original "rapper" (like Soulja was for Thelma) as the feature on her own single.
I don't know much about her aside that I like her latest two singles, and she seems to be marked for a push which is a great thing for her career. Here is her latest single, Kiss Kiss Kiss, which I think is also a great song.
You can see the video there, her record company disables the embedding for any video of her except live performances. (I'm not sure why, the single doesn't even have a DVD sold with it so what is the point. Force people to watch it on youtube?)
Thelma Aoyama is a relatively new artist on the J-Pop scene. (It's pronounced Teruma Aoyama, and sometime's spelled that way. In my opinion, she was the best new artist in 2008 (even though her debut single, the song above came out very late 2007 in it's original form. The song above is the answer song, Soulja song featured her and was addressing the girl, and she is answering him in her song, which features him. Very cool.) I LOVE this song to death. She has had 5 singles since then, and one real album, and two remix, collection etc. type cd's. The first cd was prior to the last 4 singles, so I think she really needs to have a second official cd very soon. Part of the reason I think she got famous is her heritage, for better or worse being only partially japanese is a draw and gives you credibility in music there. She is 1/4 Trinidadian. Her style is very R&B influenced although some more J-Pop undertones seem to be creeping in. She reminds me a lot of K-Pop, which features a lot more of the R&B/Pop fusion than Japanese music does (or i might even say DID as more and more artists are moving that way).
Next time I think I'll start to take a look at the mini Korean Invasion into the US with the Wonder Girls (to be followed by looking at BoA and Se7en). Or Not. I have a lot to post!
Stuff I like from Asian Entertainment that I think you may like. Expect cool things, but don't expect downloads! Contact me at nikowwf@yahoo.com if you have questions.
