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Posted on 11.28.11 by David @ 10:47 am
One of the truly great directors and one of the great dirty old men of cinema, Ken Russell, has died at 84, leaving behind a legacy of brilliant oddities like The Devils, Lair of the White Worm and Liztomania. An equal opportunity perv, Russell was happy to intersperse his hysterical naked nuns with a naked Oliver Reed wrestling a naked Alan Bates in one of the first English-language commercial films to feature full frontal nudity. Check out CSB’s coverage here of a Halloween appearance by Russell from a few years back to get a full taste of Russell’s sensibilities. Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: UK and Movie News: Obituaries and People: Ken Russell Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.04.11 by David @ 9:20 am
A rare action shot of John Woo’s early martial arts film from our archives. Filed under: Movie Image and People: John Woo and People: Jackie Chan and Genre: Martial Arts Comments: None |
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Posted on 10.27.11 by David @ 6:17 pm
Filed under: General and Movie News and Venues: BAM Cinematek Comments: None |
Starting on Halloween, October 31st, BAMCinematek is launching a sixteen-month celebration of Brooklyn films titled Brooklyn Close-Up. Beginning, appropriately enough with a special screening of Walter Hill’s fantastic 1979 actioner The Warriors with David Patrick Kelly (Warriors! Come Out and Play-ee-ay!) in attendance, the series will span nine decades and countless neighborhoods, and feature free beer from Brooklyn’s own Brooklyn Brewery.|
Posted on 10.17.11 by Administrator @ 9:52 am
Cinema Strikes Back has finally opened a Facebook page, so please check it out. We are just getting started but will have additional links, photos, and information for our readers up soon. Thanks for supporting the site. Filed under: General and Movie News and Site News Comments: None |
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Posted on 10.12.11 by David @ 11:15 pm
Filed under: Movie News and Venues: The Japan Society Comments: None |
The 3rd Annual Friars Club Comedy Film Festival (co-founded and organized by CSB’s own Charlie Prince) started today and runs from October 12 to October 16, with screenings from all over the world. Highlights include the Danish action-comedy All for One with the always-entertaining Rutger Hauer, Adventures in Plymptoons, and a screening of Almost Perfect with special guests Edison Chen and Kelly Hu, among others.|
Posted on 10.11.11 by David @ 9:49 am
Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: South Korea and Contributors: David and Venues: Korean Cultural Service Comments: None |
The Korean Cultural Service of New York is continuing their free Korean Movie Night series with a series on “Hidden Gems of Korean Cinema, Part II,” featuring three movies that received critical acclaim but for one reason or another never made it out of Korea. The series started with a September screening of Bleak Night (2011), Yoon Sung-Hyun’s debut feature about a father trying to piece together the reasons for his son’s suicide. Not at all the detective story that the plot summary suggests, the majority of the film takes place in flashback and focuses on the complicated relationship between the suicide and his two closest friends as a series of misunderstandings and social conflicts drove a wedge between them. Bleak Night more closely resembles Shunji Iwai’s All About Lily Chou-Chou with its focus on turbulent teenage emotions and bullying, but more grounded and less prone to cinematic flights of fancy. 
Tonight, October 11, the KCS will be taking a left turn into the supernatural with End of Animal (2011), an enigmatically apocalyptic film that plays like a bizarro universe version of the 2009 killer angel dud Legion - with half the budget (really more like a hundredth) but twice the brains. |
Posted on 10.06.11 by David @ 10:09 am
I just heard some very sad news - Bill Barounis of Onar Films has passed away after a long battle with cancer. I first got in touch with Bill when he started up Onar Films - his scrappy DVD label devoted to his dream (onar) of releasing all the wonderful and bizarre films from the golden age of Turkish cinema in the 50s, 60s and 70s - and we had a chance to chat about his plans and goals (see interview link below). (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: Turkey and Movie News: Obituaries and DVD Companies: Onar Films Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 10.05.11 by David @ 10:32 am
Country and Year: UK (2006) Review By: David Austin
Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: UK and DVD Companies: Severin Comments: 2 Comments |
What a pleasant surprise this was. I am at best a casual fan of modern British comedy – familiar with basics like The Office, Spaced, and Peep Show, as well as some of the weirder outliers like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh – and had no idea that two of the supporting players from the latter two series were given their own bizarre quasi-sketch comedy show. Aired once, and left unrenewed after an all-too-brief six episode series, Snuff Box is a genuine oddity – an example of two very strange guys operating without any adult supervision. |
Posted on 09.15.11 by David @ 1:04 pm
It’s no secret that I am not enamored of the 3D process - rare exceptions like Avatar and Cave of Forgotten Dreams aside, the process has largely been used as a means of squeezing extra juice out of cinematic turnips like the Clash of the Titans remake or Shyamalan’s Last Airbender . Notwithstanding desperately optimistic talk from the moguls about 2D being dead and the creation of 3D televisions (does anyone even want that?), I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Filed under: General and Movie News Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 09.07.11 by David @ 1:15 pm
Here is a great fan art poster of Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee by artist Pale Horse. Detective Dee is in limited release now in New York and LA, and will be rolling out across the country over the course of September. Wuxia fans will definitely want to catch this one - it’s the best thing Tsui Hark has done in years and I don’t mean that as a slight. You can also read my interview with Tsui Hark about Detective Dee here. More information and release schedule after the jump: Filed under: General and People: Andy Lau and People: Tsui Hark and Movie Image Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.17.11 by David @ 9:42 am
Filed under: General and Movie Image and People: Stanley Kubrick Comments: None |
Posted on 07.25.11 by David @ 11:07 am
 
On The Cabbie And His Unconventional Entrance Into Filmmaking CSB: You were a cabdriver for a number of years? Su Chao-Pin: Yes, but just part-time. During summer and winter vacation when I was in college and high school. Filed under: Movie News and Contributors: David and People: Michelle Yeoh and People: John Woo and Movie News: Taiwan and Movie News: China and Movie News: Interviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 and People: Su Chao-Pin Comments: 1 Comment |
Su Chao-Pin is one of the few filmmakers in Taiwan these days still making fun pictures. After years working completely outside the film industry – prior to his first screenplay, Su worked as a cabdriver, and then in the high-tech industry – Su broke into the industry with a pair of scripts, for The Cabbie, a comedy loosely based on Su’s own experiences working as a cabdriver, and for gangster flick A Chance to Die. Su next directed his own script for Better Than Sex, a teen sex comedy about a well-endowed but awkward boy who discovers the miracle of pornography, and his entanglements with a trio of knife-wielding dimwits and a Japanese production company. Finally on the map, Su provided scripts for increasingly high-profile and international projects, including the Tony Leung Ka-Fai and David Morse-starring supernatural thriller Double Vision and portmanteau film 3 Extremes II. Su later returned to the director’s chair with sci-fi horror film Silk.
Su, who has professed his admiration for countryman Ang Lee’s masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is now poised to catapult into international recognition with his own modern wu xia, Reign of Assassins, produced/co-directed by John Woo and starring Michelle Yeoh (see review |
Posted on 07.18.11 by David @ 9:08 am
NYAFF 2011 may be over, but coverage continues. Look for my interview with Su Chao-Pin later this week, but today we have reviews of two big-budget, Chinese-language action films and two very unconventional Korean romances. Meanwhile, get over to the Japan Society – there is still a lot to see at the Japan Cuts festival. Reign of Assassins
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and People: Michelle Yeoh and People: Andy Lau and People: Nicholas Tse and People: Jackie Chan and Movie Reviews: Taiwan and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 Comments: None |
Reign of Assassins is one of the best wu xia films of the past few years, marrying old school pleasures with comic book aesthetics and inventive action instead of relying on the grim seriousness mandated by the Hero model. Characterization is often a weak point in the genre but director Su makes it a strength, casting a combination of reliable warhorses and talented new faces who imbue even minor parts with dignity and depth. Particularly fine is Michelle Yeoh, in one of her best leading roles (even though she shares her character with Kelly Lin in the beginning of the film) as a deadly assassin turned small town romantic. Yeoh gets to mix domestic comedy into her usual repertoire of steely determination and fatal strikes, and carries the film with her charm and charisma. Shawn Yue, Barbie Hsu, and Wang Xueqi also shine in supporting roles as her assassins’ guild colleagues, with Hsu breaking out as Turquoise, a venomous ball of minx-like cunning and seduction.|
Posted on 07.15.11 by David @ 1:13 pm
NYAFF 2011 is officially over (though I will be posting additional reviews and interviews over the next week or two), but Japan Cuts 2011 rolls on until July 22, with lots of good stuff still to come, including thrillers (A Night in Nude: Salvation, Into the White Night and A Liar and a Broken Girl), quirky comedies (Toilet, The Seaside Motel, Vengeance Can Wait), and sexy, sexy dramas (Love and Treachery, The Knot). The full schedule can be found here. We’ve already covered Ringing in their Ears, Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano, Ninja Kids!!!, and Milocrorze in earlier reports (see here), but today we will tackle one of my favorite films in the series, A Night in Nude: Salvation, along with stolid samurai drama Sword of Desperation and centerpiece presentation Three☆Points. A Night in Nude: Salvation
Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 Comments: None |
A Night in Nude: Salvation finds Takashi Ishii solidly in noir territory. Within the first few minutes, Ishii deploys all the hallmarks of the genre – rainy streets, deep shadows, neon lights, femmes fatales, hard-boiled voiceovers, and a world-weary private dick who just can’t stop digging into a seemingly endless well of human misery and degradation. Perhaps calling the film a modern noir is not evocative enough – ANINS is pitch black both in lighting and sentiment, with the predominant human feelings on display being avarice, despair and humiliation. Fortunately, Ishii backs up his usual stylistic flair with solid character work and plotting, creating a powerful emotional grounding for his atmospherics.|
Posted on 07.12.11 by David @ 11:24 am
Last weekend, CSB’s David Austin had the opportunity to sit down with Tsui, in town for the New York Asian Film Festival, to talk about his latest film, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. The film - starring Andy Lau as the late seventh century detective investigating mysterious deaths by spontaneous combustion at the behest of Empress Wu (Carina Lau) - is a crowd-pleasing return to form and the voluble Tsui had a lot to say about future projects, the rigors of shooting the film, working with Sammo Hung, and why Empress Wu has gotten a raw deal. CSB: Detective Dee is a historic figure who has been the subject of many legends. Was the screenplay based on a specific story or did you develop it from scratch?
Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: Hong Kong and Contributors: David and People: Andy Lau and People: Tsui Hark and People: Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Movie News: Interviews and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 Comments: 1 Comment |
Tsui Hark should hardly needs an introduction in these parts. If you’ve seen any Hong Kong films in the last 25 years, chances are they were influenced in one way or another by Tsui. In the 80s and the early 90s, he redefined Hong Kong cinema, ushering in the New Wave, introducing modern special effects with Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, and producing massively influential films like John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, while helping to make stars out of Jet Li, Brigitte Lin and other luminaries. Even a partial filmography as director includes many of the greatest Hong Kong films ever to grace the screen, like Zu, Swordsman, Green Snake, The Blade, Peking Opera Blues, and the Once Upon a Time in China series, while, in close collaboration with director Ching Siu-Tung, he created A Chinese Ghost Story and New Dragon Gate Inn. 
Tsui Hark: There have been many Detective Dee novels and television series before. Ten years ago, I started writing my own Detective Dee story. Actually, I had my own Dee story and [writer/producer/director] Chen Guofu had his own Dee story. What we were trying to do was establish something different from what had been seen before, to create a world for Dee. Every detective has his own world. Like The X-Files. The X-Files would have Twilight Zone-style material or weird science fiction discoveries. You open up a dimension or a world for the character, and you take the audience into that world. We wanted to create a world for Detective Dee, because the world defines the detective. If a detective does not have a unique world, he will be like any other detective that we have seen. So we wanted to create something like that for Dee. | previous posts » |
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