MIIKE'S 'RYU GA GOTOKU' AVAILABLE ON ENGLISH DVD

Takashi Miike had a good year in 2007, with three major releases - Sukiyaki Western Django, Crows 0 and Like A Dragon -Like A Dragon is due out next week on Korean DVD with English subtitles. Based on the Playstation 2 game of the same name, this is a colorful, Miike-style adaptation with lots of violence, lots of fighting and some fantastic set design. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sqnpSPcM5Kc

SLIT- MOUTHED WOMAN SEQUEL ALL READY TO ROLL OUT!

'A Slit-Mouthed Woman' or 'Carved' as it was known in the USA was a middling, weak , Japanese horror film from 2007. However it must have made enough to please someone somewhere because a sequel is already completed in Japan and gearing up for a release in March.
The story this time around will apparently deal with the origins of the slit-mouthed ghost woman. Rin Asuka will be taking the lead as Mayumi, the high school girl whose face is left disfigured after some unnecessarily close contact with acid.
All the signs point out to an even morre middling,weak sequel so let's just wait and see!

'CHOCOLATE' TRAILER - WATCH AND WEEP

Thai action flick 'Chocolate' released in Thailand on Valentine's Day (14th February for those souls who don't know) looks amazing. I can't say anymore because trying to explain how I feel watching the high-kicking, table-sliding antics of heroine Jeejah. I am stunned. I wanna see this so very much right now. (In the meantime do enjoy the trailer)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4lTbFcHWJEo


Ps. Tony Jaa - Jeejah get married - have children - can you IMAGINE?

PERIOD FILMS GALORE! RED CLIFF!AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS!

First: Trailer for John Woo new, expensive, problematic and intriguing epic Red Cliff is up: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rbx9oPfFNFs

And next a trailer for Donnie Yen's upcoming period epic, An Empress and The Warriors: http://youtube.com/watch?v=I_H2mCqMuo4

And finally a sneak peek at Thai action extravaganza that is sweeping Thailand at this very moment: Chocolate - Tony Jaa has serious competition: (Well it is made by the same people after all - what did I expect?) Trailer:http://youtube.com/watch?v=j4gGDVFfB4s&feature=related

Until tomorrow!

REJOICE,REJOICE,REJOICE ALL AROUND - CHANK WOOK PARK HAS A NEW LADY FOR HIS FILM!

Finally - after a long to and fro, Chan Wook Park has apparently chosen the leading lady for his new film 'EVIL LIVE'. And the star is to be....drum-roll here, clash of cymbals, james stewart running through:

KIM Ok-Bin.

Chan Wook Park had a lot of trouble because of the amount of nudity required for the role: apparently it is almost as explicit as the recent Ang Lee sexathon 'Lust,Caution'. (i'm being unfair here, Lust Caution was not that explicit; only very inventive in its' explicitness!)

Now go on and shoot the damn film!

Mourn For The Passing Of Kon Ichikawa

One of the greatest humanitarian directors ever to grace the lands, Kon Ichikawa sadly passed away yesterday. For those who have never seen his work, he can easily be classed alongside Ozu or Kurosawa. Following is a brief biography of the (sadly-gone) great man!

Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of the widescreen, and in the strong, angular patterns seen in many of his compositions. He has directed Pu-san (1953), a popular film based on Junichi Yokoyama's "Mr. Pu" comic strip. At various points in his career Ichikawa has shown that he is capable of appealing to a popular audience without compromising his artistry. A great visual stylist and perfectionist, Ichikawa excels at screen adaptations of literary masterpieces, including Soseki Natsume's Kokoro (1955), Yukio Mishima's Enjo (1958), Junichirô Tanizaki's Kagi (1959) and Wagahai wa neko de aru (1975) and Toson Shimazaki's Hakai (1962). He has also remade film classics, such as Yutaka Abe's Ashi ni sawatta onna (1926) (Ichikawa's version: 1952) and Teinosuke Kinugasa's Yukinojo henge (1935) (Ichikawa's version: 1963), transposing them to contemporary settings.

The West was first introduced to Ichikawa when his Biruma no tategoto (1956) won the San Giorgio Prize at the 1956 Venice Film Festival. His epic documentary Tôkyô orimpikku (1965) (released the following year) and Taiheiyo hitori-botchi (1963) explore, with dignity and imagination, the limits of human endurance. He has also worked in the thriller genre, with Ana (1957), Inugamike no ichizoku (1976) and Gokumon-to (1977). Ichikawa tends to present strongly etched, complex characters: the stuttering acolyte who desires to preserve the "purity" of the Golden Pavilion (ENJO); the elderly husband who resorts to injections and voyeurism in order to remain sexually active (KAGI); the member of a pariah class who tries to deny his identity and to "pass" in regular society (HAKAI). More recently, Eiga joyu (1987) is a tribute to the fiercely independent Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, who starred in many of Kenji Mizoguchi's films and was herself a director in later life. On the lighter side, Ichikawa's characters also include a 19th-century cat; a good-hearted, hapless teacher; and a baby who narrates how the world looks from his vantage point. He is especially adept at mixing comedy and tragedy within the same story. Until 1965, Ichikawa's close collaborator was his wife, screenwriter Natto Wada, with whom he produced most of his finest films.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Daniel Yates

BANGKOK DANGEROUS: PANG BROTHERS GALORE - NEW BLOG PROMISES!

Well, hello, Firecracker readers, I know it's been so bloody long since there has been an update but it is finally back: I'd like to send my millions of apolgies and start the month of February with a promise: Firecracker will be updated from now on every day even if it is one piece of news! Please come back and start re-reading and I'll make sure that promise is kept!
Today's news is that tholse stalwarts of style over content Pang Brothers are re-making their own Bangkok Dangerous for American Audiences with Nic Cage in the lead. A poster has just leaked out as well as a Spanish-dubbed trailer (don't bloody well ask me! : Cage looks ridicilous with a long, awful haircut and I get the feeling that in no way will this be the film that changes the atittude towards the relentless duo of Pang.

Stare at the poster until you go blind here: http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2008/02/remakes-posters-for-bangkok-dangerous.html

or watch the spanish beauty trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBM06yb_JvI

Come back tomorrow for more Asian madness - a review of Korean horror-beauty 'Epitaph' as well as a look at the upcoming releases