DerekYee Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The weekly Asian Cinema Scene returns to share recent news and answer reader mail.

Breasts Spark Concern. An upcoming sports comedy is creating consternation in Japan. The movie's title, Oppai Bare (AKA Boobs Volleyball), reportedly has embarrassed both theater owners and potential moviegoers because of what "oppai" means, so theater marquees and movie tickets will display the title as O.P.V. Evidently everyone is OK with the premise, in which a high school teacher promises to show her breasts to her all-male volleyball team if they win the big game. The film, directed by Eiichiro Hasumi, releases on April 18. Twitch has the trailer; it looks like a pleasant, feel-good flick. [Cinema Today, via Toronto J-Film Pow Wow.]

Recent Releases. Derek Yee's Shinjuku Incident, starring Jackie Chan in a straight dramatic role (no kicking, no punching), opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and has now opened in Thailand, where Brian of Asian Cinema - While on the Road saw it: "It has to be said that Jacky is really not all that great a dramatic actor and I think this hurts the film overall." Still, he found the film to be "quite compelling." (Trailer can be viewed here.)

Takashi Miike's Crows Zero II has opened in Japan, and Mark Schilling of The Japan Times says: "As in the first film, the brawls are nearly nonstop ... the group battle scenes, with hundreds of punks whaling on each other, have a scale and impact reminiscent of the gaudier clashes in Braveheart ... Miike directs with an energy, velocity and cheeky bravado that are pure punk." Check out the trailer, embedded below.

After the jump: Nippon Connection opens this week. Plus, a reader asks, 'How do you find your own local Asian cinema scene?'

In this week's edition of Asian Cinema Scene, we cover the unexpected and the surprising.

Oscar Shocker: One of the few genuine surprises of last night's Oscar telecast was the victory by Japan's Departures (Okuribito) as Best Foreign Language Film. Most observers thought that Israel's Waltz with Bashir or France's The Class would win; the former won the Golden Globe, while the latter picked up the Independent Spirit Award.

Of course, most observers haven't actually seen Departures, which played the Montreal film festival rather than Toronto last fall, and had its US Premiere at the Hawaii Film Festival shortly thereafter. As I reported in January, Regent Releasing acquired distribution rights and announced summer release plans. Regent has already updated the film's official site to reflect the Academy Award victory, but there's no word yet on whether they might push the release up to take advantage of the attention.

Yojiro Takita's film follows a young musician who is forced to take a job preparing corpses for cremation. It's a movie about "finding your bliss, even if the world thinks your bliss is odd, icky and a marriage breaker," as described by Mark Schilling in The Japan Times. Four subtitled clips are available at the official site.

Banned in China: As disheartening as it may be to hear, it's not really surprising that China's censors refused to pass Derek Yee's Shinjuku Incident because it is "too violent," according to the director (as reported by Variety). What is surprising is that the film stars Jackie Chan. The excellent-looking trailer is embedded below.

After the jump: More on Shinjuku Incident.

Protege, a movie described as Hong Kong's answer to Traffic and Donnie Brasco, recently got script approval from the Chinese government, and immediately went into production in HK. The film, which is budgeted at about $4.5 million and is expected to be ready for release early next year, is "a realistic portrayal of the underworld shot in a contemporary way" that centers on a drug dealer (supposedly a real-life figure, though no one has any details about the guy) and his protege. Derek Yee will direct a cast that includes the ageless Andy Lau (who I'm always surprised to see can actually act) as the dealer and Daniel Wu as the protege; also in the movie are Louise Koo and Anita Yuen.

Though the film's producers claim that no changes were made to please government censors, the constant emphasis in the press on their positive message -- "drugs kill and drugs are bad" -- at least makes clear the angle they used to get approval. Whether the finished product will get approval, of course, remains to be seen.