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E D I T O R I A L
Kiss/Off
Wednesday, July 18 — Jet Li's latest film, Kiss of the Dragon, opened in the United States on July 6 to wide dismay as well as some fervent support by dedicated fans. Having read about the extreme violence depicted, I decided to pass. As much as I would love to see Li on the big screen, there are some prices I choose not to pay.
So far the film has grossed about $24 million. The second weekend, the gross fell 56% from the first weekend. Anything more than a 50% drop is not good; it usually means that word-of-mouth (what first weekend viewers tell their friends) was not overwhelmingly positive. Li's previous American release, Romeo Must Die, fell 48% in its second weekend of release in the spring of 2000 and totaled $38.8 million at that point, on its way to a total gross of $56 million. On the other hand, Kiss of the Dragon cost approximately $25 million to make, so it seems assured of a nice profit, although far from blockbuster status. (All box office figures quoted herein are from Box Office Mojo.) Li has another American film coming out later this year (The One) that he has said is a bit more "family-friendly" than his last effort.
Speaking of transplanted Hong Kong action stars, Jackie Chan will be on North American screens several times in the next year or so. First up is Rush Hour 2 in August; The Accidental Spy will follow in late December; The Tuxedo in late March 2002; Highbinders after that (perhaps in the summer); then another sequel, Shanghai Knights; then perhaps yet another sequel, Rush Hour 3.
Yesterday morning I had a broadband connection installed in my apartment. This was a long-awaited event, since I've been struggling with a slow (no better than 31,000 K) connection forever. Only thing, the connection now ranges broadly between blindingly fast and exceedingly slow.
Well, during one of those times when I was waiting for the blistering speed to return, I decided to venture out into the Texas heat (not yet 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but moving in that direction) in pursuit of the Region 1 release of City on Fire. I wanted to see for myself if the Cantonese track was left off, check the video quality, etc. In order to so, I visited four different chain video rental stores. All four had the dubbed and full-frame videocassette, but none had the DVD. One manager suggested "demand" might be the reason his store did not have it in stock. Eventually I found a copy at Best Buy (large electronics warehouse). The cover bore no indication whatsoever about its language. I didn't feel like spending $22 to find out, so I'm assuming (safely, I'm afraid) that, once again, Dimension/Buena Vista has left off the original-language audio track.
Here's an interesting side point: on the back cover is a quote, "Explosive Crime Thriller!" attributed to "The Hong Kong Movie Review." I did a quick search and found the source — check out this fan site. Pretty cool, even if the original review did not include an exclamation point!
Just to back up, though, for one moment of wishful thinking: what if that chain video store manager was correct, and the chain's purchasing agent decided that there was too little demand for a 1987 movie with Chow Yun Fat — on DVD? Would that mean that videocassette renters were less descriminating and would grab at anything new, while DVD renters looked down their noses at the dubbed version? Could there be any correlation between lessened demand and a message to the studio that we're not going to take this anymore?
Probably not.
By the way, the Region 1 release of Once Upon a Time in China III was in stock at three of the stores I visited — and already rented out at one.
Site news: Most of my spare time during the past six weeks has been spent on the redesign of the site. The update is an ongoing process. Users of older browsers (Netscape 4.6 is one example) will have difficulty viewing the home page; I apologize and hope to fix the problem as time permits. Very few of the 90 or so review pages have been updated; that will take a couple of more weeks. Your patience while I continue "under construction" is very much appreciated.
I hope you find the site easier to navigate. Please let me know if you find any broken links or if you have problems viewing any pages - and let me know which browser you're using!
As a reminder, please bookmark the new URL: www.abtdvd.com
Allow me to thank the following contributors: Moro Turkey for the "woman warrior" and "smiling gunman" illustrations, and for the inspiration to do something different with the logo (be sure to visit her site); Spot for the new logo (which I love); Jeff and Shawn for design analysis and assistance (that means telling me what didn't look too good); and Kevin for kicking my butt until I got it halfway done.
And I continue to thank all the HK film site webmasters who provide wonderful content for their own sites (and thanks to those who link to my site).
New reviews will probably be delayed until next Wednesday, but then I hope to get back to posting more regularly (instead of just re-arranging what I've already written). I am eagerly waiting for my first overseas shipment to arrive, and the anticipation of catching up with titles I've been reading about for months is killing me.
Now I want to watch a movie . . .
As always, please feel free to e-mail me your comments, whether positive or negative.
peter
Editor / Reviewer / Webmaster
Current Editorial | Current Index
Selling to America or Selling Out? (7/4/01)
Jet Li's 30 Babies (6/27/01)
Alive and Kicking (6/21/01)
Remakes and Rip-Offs (6/6/01)
Real Life Vs. Cinemas (5/30/01)
Dreaming in Cantonese (5/16/01)
The Echo of Small Children (5/3/01)
Hong Kong Film Awards: Who Won? (4/26/01)
A Tale of Three Directors (4/19/01)
Supermodels of the HK Film World (4/12/01)
What are you prepared to do? (4/6/01)
Academy Awards Special (3/26/01)
The Price of Success (3/19/01)
Is Jackie Chan Still the Man? part 1 (3/12/01)
Great Expectations (3/7/01)
In the Mood for Change (2/26/01)
Bronchitis on the Brain (2/12/01)
Hong Kong Sequel Blues (2/5/01)
Better or Best? (1/29/01)
To Dub or Not to Dub (1/22/01)
Scenes From a Fractured Skull (1/15/01)
Year-End Round-Up (1/7/01)
Briefly noted (12/31/00)
Wuxia Fantasies and the Black-and-White Western (12/24/00)
Raiders of the lost heart (12/17/00)
The movie week in review (12/10/00)
Redesigning A Better Tomorrow (12/3/00)
The fantasy begins again (11/26/00)
A return and a shortened work week, hurrah! (11/20/00)
That blasted job! (11/12/00)
Hollywood, Jet, Jackie, Fred, and Gene (11/6/00)
Did you want blood with that? (10/30/00)
Do you like cold pizza? (10/24/00)
Preparing for the Legend (10/16/00)
The pauper must pay (10/10/00)
A visit to Five Star Laser (10/05/00)
A brief vacation (9/25/00)
The editor's plea (8/20/00)
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