Blossoms in the Desert

"From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California, good evening."--Jerry Dunphy, broadcaster

Film Festival News: The new year begins tomorrow with the attractively-programmed Palm Springs Film Festival. Palm Springs is a desert resort community about two hours east of Los Angeles; the festival works hard to draw crowds from Los Angeles, but it's a long drive.

The festival is justifiably proud of screening most of the entries submitted in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards, and last year was the first in the US to screen the INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy.

Wish I could make the trip for at least a couple of days, but my car won't make it that far. A few highlights for Asian film fans, including recommendations of films from far Western Asia:

Fri Jan 7

NOBODY KNOWS (Japan). Buzz from Cannes was mixed; due for US release from IFC Films.
THE OVERTURE (Thailand). Coming of age mixes with music and politics in the royal court.
PRINCESS OF MOUNT LEDANG (Malaysia). The most expensive local production in history is, in my opinion, mostly a bore.
STRAY DOGS (Iran). Drama set in Afghanistan; two of my friends both thought it was excellent.
STEAMBOY (Japan). Mixed reactions so far; due for US release from Sony.
TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Israel). Solid and entertaining family/girl's coming-of-age tale.
THE WORLD (China). Highly touted latest from Jia Zhang-ke, director of PLATFORM and UNKNOWN PLEASURES.

Sat Jan 8

ELECTRIC SHADOWS (China). Debut; young woman loves movies.
TROPICAL MALADY (Thailand). Evidently more of the same from the director of BLISSFULLY YOURS. Not my cup of tea.
YESTERDAY ONCE MORE (Hong Kong). Less than stellar notices for this re-teaming of Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng.
repeating: NOBODY KNOWS; PRINCESS OF MOUNT LEDANG; STRAY DOGS

Sun Jan 9

OSEAM (South Korea). Animated; based on a fairy tale.
repeating: THE WORLD

Mon Jan 10

DAY AND NIGHT (China). Coal miners and sexual desire. Sounds like a winning formula, but it plays at 10 in the morning!
TWO GREAT SHEEP (China). Old people and sheep. Why is this playing at 8 in the evening?
repeating: STEAMBOY; TROPICAL MALADY; TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Tue Jan 11

BREAKING NEWS (Hong Kong). Mixed reaction to Johnny To's action drama.
HANA AND ALICE (Japan). Latest from Shunji Iwai (ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU) is challenging but very worthwhile.
repeating: THE OVERTURE; YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Wed Jan 12

20:30:40 (Taiwan). Sylvia Chang's romantic film has earned positive reviews.
BEAUTIFUL BOXER (Thailand). Cross-dressing kickboxer biopic; it's OK but not especially compelling.
SEOUL TRAIN (US/South Korea). Activist documentary; not a knock-out film, but about important issues.
repeating: DAY AND NIGHT

Thu Jan 13

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (UK). Quite enjoyable; with Aishwarya Rai. Due for US release from Miramax.
TURTLES CAN FLY (Iran). Life in a refugee camp from the director of A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES. Due for US release from Sony Classics.
repeating: 20:30:40; BEAUTIFUL BOXER; BREAKING NEWS; SEOUL TRAIN

Fri Jan 14

FORMULA 17 (Taiwan). Breakout gay romantic comedy.

Sat Jan 15

MAREBITO (Japan). "The latest horror creation from the director of THE GRUDGE."
repeating: HANA AND ALICE; TURTLES CAN FLY

Sun Jan 16

repeating: BRIDE AND PREJUDICE; FORMULA 17; MAREBITO

For complete information, visit Palm Springs Film Festival.

Upcoming on DVD

"There’s only so much time in the day and money in the bank."

DVD News: Apparently no new Asian films on Region 1 DVD this week. Which allows me to elucidate my reasoning for the “Upcoming on DVD” list on the home page of the site.

When I began the site in August 2000, part of my rationale was that I couldn’t locate information on the internet about Hong Kong movies coming soon to DVD. Soon thereafter I discovered the precursor to Asian DVD Guide. That site has proven to be a rich resource for recent and upcoming DVD releases in Hong Kong.

Though many Asian film fans in the US and Canada have purchased multi-region DVD players, thereby opening up a much wider marketplace, the majority of world cinema devotees have not taken the plunge. And even for those who have, the number of Asian films released on Region 1 has jumped, especially in the past year. Just take a stroll down the “new releases” section at your local Hollywood Video, as I did recently, and you might be surprised how many films there are to choose from. That opens up many more rental options.

An excellent source of information is KungFuCinema.com. Mark Pollard will keep you up to date on all martial arts films coming to DVD and provides discerning reviews and industry news.

Anime is a world unto itself, with a wealth of releases. Similarly, Bollywood films are constantly being released. I readily admit my ignorance in these areas and point you to our friend Google.

Still, relatively little attention is devoted to live-action Hong Kong and other Asian films coming soon to Region 1 DVD, so I felt I should try and maintain my own list.

Certain companies have consistently released below-average quality DVDs, and I’ve stayed away from listing them.

Tai Seng is probably the biggest supplier of Hong Kong movies released on Region 1. The majority of their releases are apparently simple distribution deals – they import DVDs released in Hong Kong, attach their sticker to the case, and get them into chain stores in the US. That’s not a bad business model, but if you buy more than a few it makes more sense to purchase directly from Hong Kong internet retailers. The prices are generally much lower (between US$5.00-12.00). US-based internet retailers are more expensive, but generally priced lower than chain stores. Tai Seng has produced a limited number of releases in advance of their release to Hong Kong retailers, but these are very much hit-and-miss in their quality. Because of these concerns, I’ve stayed away from listing Tai Seng releases.

And...we'll amend this as need be in the days ahead.

Blue Skies Are But a Memory

"With each day that rain pours down in Los Angeles, the remembrance of bright sunshine recedes. The only bright spot is that the skies will open up soon enough and banish the raindrops."

Site News: After working at AFI FEST for the first two weeks of November, taking some time off, and visiting family, I was ready to go back to work. Since then, though, I've been slowed by poor health and, especially, by a painfully slow dial-up internet connection.

It was especially disconcerting to discover that spammers have added nearly 30,000 comments to my site -- all of it garbage. I don't believe in a burning Hell, but if I did...

The simplest solution, especially with my slow connection, is to delete posts made before April 1, 2004. I will restore those as soon as possible.

The most reliable way to contact me is via my hotmail account. The address is
"peter_a_martin" at hotmail (which I don't spell out because of spammers).

May your day be pleasant and creative.