Glamorous photography is no substitute for compelling dramatic content. Far too many scenes in Blood Brothers look and feel as though director Alexi Tan followed a self-imposed dictum to "light first, act later." His film labors mightily to get its narrative ball rolling, to no avail.

More's the pity, because Blood Brothers was inspired by very rich source material. John Woo's Bullet in the Head, released in 1990, is arguably Woo's most personal and potent work, gut-wrenching to the point where it feels that he simply opened a vein and let his blood seep into every frame (as I've written before). That film was set in war-torn Vietnam in the late 1960s and had a very gritty feel; by the end, it felt as though you'd suffered as much pain and heartache as the three main characters, close friends whose bond of brotherhood was tested under fire.

Woo's film was originally intended as a prequel to his action classics A Better Tomorrow and A Better Tomorrow II. After Woo had a falling out with producer Tsui Hark, the story was free to develop into something more original, without having to tie the characters into the other films. From the looks of things, it appears that Woo and producing partner Terence Chang similarly encouraged Tan to follow his own artistic muse. Tan's script, completed in collaboration with Jiang Dan and Tony Chan, keeps only the most basic outline of Woo's film: three close friends seek their fortune in the world.

Even as Will Smith battles for his life in I Am Legend, the film is set to fight it out with Hong Kong action epic The Warlords for box office supremacy in Asia this weekend. Who will win? Will and his dog will have to come from behind because The Warlords is already ahead. Variety reports that the film "rampaged across Asia in its six territory day-and-date" premiere on Thursday.

Compared to the US, the numbers may be small, but everything is relative: $1.77 million on opening day in Mainland China, plus $1.22 million in receipts from sneak previews on Wednesday. Preview and opening day audiences in Hong Kong added $215,000 to the take, while the picture also did well in wide release in Singapore ($119,000) and Malaysia ($54,300). The Warlords also launched in Thailand on Thursday, in Indonesia on Friday, and will expand to Taiwan on December 28. Meanwhile, I Am Legend premieres in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan this weekend, according to Variety, and is expected to do well "given the foreign appeal of Will Smith and the offshore appetite for action."

The Warlords stars Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a film that director Peter Chan says was inspired by his watching Chang Cheh's Blood Brothers as a young boy in 1973. He told Yvonne Teh of BC Magazine that when he revisited it as an adult, he felt that the movie was "too simple for today," so he "started digging into history and into the background of the period of the Taiping Revolution where 70 million people were killed in a matter of 14 years." Early reviews have been positive with some reservations (The Visitor at Twitch) and no reservations (Stefan at Twitch). Sounds like Jet Li's record paycheck has been earned. Too bad we don't have any word on a North American distribution deal.

I don't have a subscription to ScreenDaily.com, so I can only read the headlines, but those headlines sure are handy. Here are three that caught my eye, all deals taking place in and around the American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California.

• Carlos Reygadas' challenging drama Silent Light sharply divided critics when it debuted at Cannes earlier this year, though everyone seemed to agree that certain scenes were indelibly beautiful. Tartan Films has picked up distribution rights in the US; they previously released the director's Battle in Heaven. Expect a limited theatrical engagement. It plays at AFI Fest in Hollywood next week (November 7 and 9).
  

• Blood Brothers (pictured), on the other hand, has united critics: no one seems to like it. Alexei Tan's reimagining of John Woo's A Bullet in the Head has been criticized for being too glossy and lacking substance -- none of which discourages me from wanting to see it. First Look Studios has acquired US distribution rights. First Look has handled genre titles before, often sending them straight to DVD, so a theatrical release is not assured, especially in view of its lukewarm reception so far.
  

• Sukiyaki Western Django, Takashi Miike's English-language Spaghetti Western, apparently confused everybody. Some were disappointed that it not as outrageous as from the versatile and prolific director. First Look has picked up US rights for this one as well, but it's a new, edited version that is 25 minutes shorter than what was previously screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. Given Miike's name recognition, this has a shot at a limited theatrical release before heading to DVD.
  

AFM runs through November 7. AFI Fest, which opened last night with a gala screening of Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, runs through November 11.

[ Via ScreenDaily ]

John Woo was first cool in Hollywood back in the Stone Age (AKA the early 90s), thanks to festival exposure and a limited theatrical run for The Killer in 1990. The Killer is a superb action melodrama starring Chow Yun-Fat as a hitman who accidentally blinds a beautiful singer (Sally Yeh). He tries to make things right by carrying out another hit so he can earn enough money to pay for a cornea transplant for her, all while dealing with unhappy mobsters and a hard-nosed cop (Danny Lee) who becomes sympathetic to his cause.

A remake was planned; Walter Hill was to direct, and Richard Gere and Denzel Washington were mentioned as the leads. The purported script for the remake, set in Hong Kong, is still floating around the Internet, but the project became mired in Development Hell. The rights now evidently reside with Woo and his producing partner Terence Chang, and Chang says that a director has been hired for a remake, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The director is John H. Lee, with two features to his name: 1998's The Cut Runs Deep, a gangster coming of age tale set in New York City, and 2004's A Moment to Remember, a slow-paced romantic drama that drove me nuts -- and not in a good way -- but which is beloved by 895 voters at IMDb (8.5 rating).

Chang says that Lee will "move the action through L.A.'s Koreatown, Chinatown and South Central" and that "the actor has to be Korean in this version." Sounds like a good opportunity for a Korean actor. Director Lee told the trade paper: "I ask myself why they chose me and whether I can top it ... But then I realize it's not about making it better. It's about making my own version." Still sounds good; here's the part that makes me leery: "My strength is dealing with human emotions, austerity and elegance," says Lee. The original was overblown and over-the-top in every wonderful, melodramatic sense, so if Lee plans to make an "austere" and "elegant" action film, how is that going to get my blood pumping? Is he going to downplay or reduce the action scenes? A new script is in process.

This is another sign that Woo and Chang have tired of trying to get their own projects made in Hollywood. (The Battle of Red Cliff, directed by Woo, is due to wrap filming in Asia shortly and is looking for a US distributor.) But why do they feel the need to cannibalize the past? Blood Brothers, a reworking of Woo's earlier Bullet in the Head, met with mixed response in Asia and didn't make much headway with critics who saw it at the Venice and Toronto fests, which is not very encouraging when considering the prospects for a killer remake of The Killer. The announcement was made on the first day of the Asian Film Market, held in conjunction with the Pusan film festival.

Ever since the elegant caper flick Once a Thief in 1991, Terence Chang has worked with director John Woo, either as producer, co-producer, or executive producer. They both moved to the United States after completing the great Hard-Boiled in 1992; Chang has produced non-Woo projects since then (notably several starring Chow Yun-Fat), but his association with Woo has been his one constant. Yet Chang told the International Herald Tribune (IHT) that he ended up in a hospital due to tension with his friend about the upcoming epic Red Cliff.

The conflict arose after Chang read the script. To tell the story properly, he realized that the running time would approach four hours and far exceed the $50 million budget that had been allocated. Woo was not happy when Chang suggested cutting a big battle scene. Eventually they worked things out and agreed that the film should be released in two parts. Chang got to work raising more money. Filming began earlier this year and should be completed this fall, in time for the first installment to open in China before the Beijing Olympics next summer.

Woo and Chang's latest project, Blood Brothers, has met with mixed response in Asia, but for Chang, who's not made a movie in Asia for 15 years, the challenges started with assembling the ensemble cast. "In Hollywood when you make a film, you lock in the actors for however long. Here, they will give you 20 days this month, 10 days another month ... when you have an ensemble film, oh my God!," he told IHT. "Some actors are doing several things at the same time: another movie, a music video. Ahhhhh! They ask you for very specific dates - but what if it rains?" One cast member suddenly quit during filming when the producers of a television show made him a better offer, which understandably shocked Chang. While the veteran producer has spent most of the past three years putting together Red Cliff, he has other irons in the fire, according to IMDb, such as a live-action version of Mulan, serial killer thriller Second Sight and Tom Tykwer's thriller The International.

In his role as producer, John Woo must be shaking his head at the mixed response to Blood Brothers. Set in 1930's Shanghai, the story follows three friends as they seek their fortune. After watching the two trailers, I expressed cautious optimism. But opinions are now divided as to the film's success. Variety Asia Online says that audiences in Mainland China appeared to love it. The film made $2.9 million in its first 10 days of release. One week later, the film took a hit in Hong Kong on its opening weekend, earning just $77,541, according to another article in Variety Asia Online. What happened?

The Golden Rock, a Hong Kong blogger and reviewer, notes that a huge billboard advertising the film has already come down. After pointing out that Blood Brothers did not even finish in the Top 10 locally, he says: "At least it's doing well in China, where they must love all that moralizing about brotherhood." Kozo, another Hong Kong-based reviewer, summarizes his feelings at LoveHKFilm.com: "Pretty but uninspired direction, a bare bones script, and underdeveloped characters derail this highly-anticipated reworking of John Woo's Bullet in the Head." An uncredited review by the Associated Press, published by the International Herald Tribune, says that director Alexei Tan's "ultimate failure" is that he "doesn't sufficiently justify the bloodbath that the movie degenerates into."

The film also opened in Malaysia, where a reviewer for Cinema Online was more positive, calling it a "very refined, neo-noir action-drama with a particular interest in the finer, cinematic points of dying." But opening weekend returns were as disappointing as in Hong Kong, as the action picture finished at #8 with a gross of $19,107. Blood Brothers will close the Venice Film Festival on September 8 and then play the Toronto fest on September 12, 13 and 15. Presumably more reviews will be forthcoming.

Hard as it is to believe in this lull of summer hallmarked by the usual hot-weather popcorn fare, we're edging ever closer to fall and the major fall film festivals, and Cinematical Indie will be bringing you heaps of coverage this year. Labor Day weekend, as always, means Telluride. Last year was our first year to cover the Telluride Film Festival; the fest is unique in that it doesn't announce its lineup until it actually starts, but that doesn't stop them from selling out passes well in advance of the fest every year, as film lovers converge on the small mountain town and triple its population for the weekend.

If you want to hit Telluride this year and haven't bought your passes yet, be prepared to pony up the big bucks; the Acme and Festival passes are sold out already, so you'll have to score yourself a $3500 patron pass if you want to attend. And good luck finding lodging in town at this point, unless you also want to dig deep and rent a spendy luxury vacation home -- but hey, if you that, drop me a line so I can come hang out -- we can talk movies while soaking in your jacuzzi overlooking the scenic San Juan mountains.

Director John Woo blazed into America on the strength of gloriously over-the-top violent melodramas like The Killer and Hard-Boiled, but the one that left the deepest impression on me was Bullet in the Head. The 1990 film is gut-wrenching and personal to the point where it feels that Woo simply opened a vein and let his blood seep into every frame. Thus I've been apprehensive about a new film inspired by that heartfelt epic. Produced by Woo and his long-time partner Terence Chang, Blood Brothers follows three friends as they seek their fortune in glamorous Shanghai in the 1930s. It has been selected to close the Venice Film Festival in September.

As described by sales agent Fortissimo, "three innocent young men arrive to this seeming paradise in search of a better future. But as time goes by, their paths diverge, even as they all descend into a life of crime. Soon, friends turn against friends, brother against brother. The blood bonds are now but relics from their early days of innocence." The basic idea sounds similar to Bullet in the Head, but whereas that film was set in war-torn Vietnam in the late 1960s and had a much grittier feel, the two trailers for Blood Brothers feature slick action and a high-toned visual style that is very appealing.

Director Alexi Tan grew up in the Philippines, studied in London and spent more than a decade as a fashion photographer in New York. He made commercials and music videos before attracting the attention of Woo and Chang. Tan co-wrote the script for Blood Brothers, which stars Daniel Wu, Liu Ye and Tony Yang as the three friends and Shu Qi as an alluring singer. Chang Chen and Sun Honglei are also featured. My apprehension has officially become cautious optimism. Blood Brothers will open in Asia in mid-August before making its Venice bow.