infernal affairs Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What do celebrities really know about movies? Samuel L. Jackson, for one, demonstrates a good knowledge of recent Asian cinema with his selection of "favorite 10 New Classic Asian Films" from the past 25 years for Entertainment Weekly. The best part? He picks the type of popcorn action flicks that got me interested in Asian films in the first place.

A couple of his selections are easy to understand: John Woo's Hard Boiled and Ringo Lam's City on Fire are definite guns 'n' gangsters classics of late 80s / early 90s Hong Kong cinema. (Quentin Tarantino blatantly stole borrowed from the latter for Reservoir Dogs.) Jackson also includes the great Infernal Affairs trilogy, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, a high water mark from 2002 / 2003 and later remade into the Academy Award-winning The Departed.

His Korean picks are Park Chan-Wook's diabolical, masterful Oldboy and the visually splendid, yet somewhat shallow Duelist, from 2005. Cut from the same cloth, he also endorsed Japanese swordplay dazzler Azumi by director Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train), and demonstrated his fondness for strong directors by selecting two films by Takashi Miike, the well-known, chilling horror flick Audition and the much less known Yakuza pic Family, which I confess I haven't seen.

In the United States, movie stars often suffer from media scandals, but I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone recently who has voluntarily given up the business as a direct result. In the light of ongoing stories like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, it's startling to hear 27-year-old Hong Kong movie star Edison Chen declare that he will be retiring from show business due to a scandal.

The scandal began about three weeks ago, when private photographs that belonged to Chen surfaced on the Internet. The photos, stolen off his computer when he took it in for repairs, showed Chen and several different paramours, including actresses Cecilia Cheung (The Promise) and Gillian Chung (Twins Mission), in various stages of undress; some were sexually explicit. "I admit that most of the photographs being circulated on the Internet were taken by me," Chen said at a press conference, according to Variety. "But these photographs were very private, not to be shown to people." In front of hundreds of journalists and camera crews assembled for the press conference, Chen "apologized profusely to the 'ladies' in the pics, his parents and to the people of Hong Kong."

The Storm Riders was a riotously silly martial arts fantasy that divided audiences when it was released in 1998 -- either you got with the groove and rocked out to the comic book style writ large or you fled in terror from its extravagant empty exercise in style over substance. Initially I recoiled from its excesses, but a second viewing (only partially influenced by a moderate intake of a certain alcoholic beverage) was much more enjoyable. To get a better idea of the craziness, check out Kozo's review at LoveHKFilm.com.

Directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs), The Storm Riders was a huge hit and a much-needed shot in the arm for the beleaguered post-Handover Hong Kong film industry. Given the industry's proclivity for churning out sequels in rapid succession, it's rather surprising that a direct sequel was not immediately forthcoming, but soon the wait will be over. Screen Daily is reporting that Universe Entertainment has hired Danny and Oxide Pang (The Eye, The Messengers) to helm a sequel.

The original film was based on a comic book series and featured an all-star lineup headlined by Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng. Three months ago, Grady Hendrix of Kaiju Shakedown reported that one of the Pang Brothers was interested in buying the rights to the comic book; his version would be unrelated to Andrew Lau's film but with Chen and Kwok returning as the heroes, Wind and Cloud (cool character names, by the way). Lau reportedly had his own plans for a direct sequel which have not yet come to fruition.

The comic book series has enjoyed a near 20-year run, so there are plenty of stories to go around. An animated feature based on the series and entitled Storm Rider Clash of the Evils is due out next year. We'll have to wait for details to see what live-action story the Pang Brothers will be telling.

The American Film Market (AFM) got underway in Santa Monica, California yesterday with a small flurry of activity. As our own Eric D. Snider explained last month, AFM "is designed to be a place for film makers and film buyers to come together. Movies are sold, and deals are made for production of new films, too." I've attended AFM a couple of times in the past and I'd describe it as a madhouse of controlled chaos, with hotel suites converted into trade show booths and reams of printed material (posters, flyers and postcards) vying for attention.

Even though it's called the American Film Market and many domestic deals are made, the emphasis is really on international territories. For example, here are three deals making news on ScreenDaily.com, the online arm of UK trade publication Screen International: (1) The Weinstein Co. "closes major AFM pre-sales on Richard Kelly's The Box," with deals covering the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea; (2) Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) "to produce trilogy based on Chinese classic" Water Margin, "with directing duties split between Lau and Johnnie To [Election]"; (3) "Korean distributor Showbox has acquired Andrei Konchalovsky's Nutcracker: The True Story."

But AFM wouldn't be AFM if it didn't offer, shall we say, more mainstream movies alongside the foreign and arthouse flicks. What can one make of indie comedy Heavy Petting, whose plot is described in the online AFM catalogue thusly: "When Charlie meets Daphne he never expects he'll have to battle past her dog to woo her. When Charlie begins to fall in love with the dog, he scrambles to keep the relationship going." Wait a minute: he falls in love with the dog?! The film stars Malin Akerman (The Heartbreak Kid). Is Heavy Petting a hidden gem? Or headed straight to video? (Watch the trailer at the official site and decide for yourself.) Look for more coverage from Cinematical on the wild, wacky and completely essential AFM in the next few days.

Programming a film series or festival inevitably requires a degree of compromise, depending as it does on the oft-indecipherable whims of distributors, producers and sales agents. In recognition of the challenges and frustrations involved, I prefer to give programmers the benefit of the doubt. Yet I can't help but wonder what the Film Society of Lincoln Center had in mind with "10 Years and Running: Recent Hong Kong Cinema," a retrospective series that begins tonight in New York City.

Ostensibly, the program is intended "to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" with a "series of cinematic highlights." That sounds good, but the program lacks any balance. If the aim was to provide the very best of Hong Kong cinema since 1997, then why include Initial D and Confession of Pain, two moderately enjoyable yet ultimately inconsequential films by the directing team of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (their much better collaboration Infernal Affairs is also screening). If the goal was to provide historical perspective on the decade, why ignore completely the wave of proto-Hollywood thrillers (Downtown Torpedoes, 2000 A.D.) that flooded theaters in the late 1990's, or the plethora of romantic comedies that followed in the wake of Needing You in 2000, or recent attempts -- by directors other than Johnny To -- to reawaken the action film (Flash Point, Invisible Target)? If the goal was to highlight popular hits, where are the films of Stephen Chow (The King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle)?

Instead, the showcase is limited to the tried and true: Lau and Mak (three films), Wong Kar Wai (two films) and Johnny To (three and 1/3, counting his contribution to Triangle) fill eight of the 13 slots. That's not to denigrate the quality of the selections nor to discourage anyone from attending, but it looks like a lost opportunity to showcase less-heralded gems of recent Hong Kong cinema. All that being said, if I lived in New York I'd park myself in the theater for the entire series, which runs through October 25; I've seen most of them, but not on the big screen.

Mention the Weinsteins to any fan of Asian cinema during the past dozen years and you'd be likely to hear a lot of profanity. While running Miramax, Harvey Weinstein constantly professed his great love for films from the region, but had the bad habit of buying films and then burying them. (Two examples: the Japanese Pulse and the Thai Tears of the Black Tiger, both of which languished for years before being liberated by Magnolia Pictures.) Or he would have them dubbed and edited for the Western market (Shaolin Soccer) and then delay the release. The financial success of Zhang Yimou's Hero (in a shortened version and delayed, though it was in its original language) may have changed things. Since then, the Brothers W have launched the Dragon Dynasty DVD line, which has given respectful and relatively lavish treatment to Asian action films. Now Variety reports that the Weinsteins plan to make three English-language Hong Kong films of their own.

In collaboration with Andrew Lau (pictured; co-director of the brilliant Infernal Affairs, the basis for Martin Scorsese's remake The Departed) and Tony Krantz (producer of TV show 24), The Weinstein Co. "will seek to redefine the traditional chopsocky movie." How? The films will be "driven more by plot and character than typical action fare" and will eschew wire work (a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in favor of "more full-contact fighting" featuring "a new generation of action stars." Good luck with that, fellas. The Hong Kong film industry has been trying to develop new action stars for years without much success. Whatever the genre, Andrew Lau's previous Hong Kong films have striven to be populist entertainment, and he is truly an insider there, so it should be interesting to see what comes of all this. At minimum, the films will get released on DVD, and there's a possibility of theatrical release.

I thought The Departed was fiction, but apparently it is actually "revisionist history." At least, that is the opinion of a man who won't go to see the Oscar-winning film. There are a number of people who are like him, too, who are avoiding the picture because of its "glorified" depiction of real-life Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger. These people are the families of Bulger's victims and they each have their accusations. One man says the filmmakers are cashing in on the story while another claims the film displays "hero worship" for Bulger. One even claims the film protects the still-at-large criminal. Never mind the fact that The Departed is a remake of a Hong Kong film or the complete absence of any claim that the film is based on a true story, Bulger's or anyone else's, and these people have a point. But really, they have no reason to be angry at Warner Bros. because they feel exploited by the film.

It is certainly evident that Jack Nicholson's character, Frank Costello, is loosely based on Bulger, but according to Martin Scorsese, the basis is only enough to make the film's gangster seem true. It doesn't help his case, however, to include a documentary about Bulger on the special edition DVD in the first place. Following two historically based films that were criticized enough for their revisions, Scorsese could have distanced himself as much as possible from making any link to true stories, but he didn't because he shouldn't have to. He makes movies, not textbooks. If Warner Bros. makes him apologize for any of this, we should all complain even louder. Maybe the studio would even apologize to us for being so apologetic.

With only one day off to enjoy their huge Oscar win, it seems some of the folks involved with The Departed are ready to re-team and get back to work. Not on a Departed sequel, mind you, but on another Hong Kong remake created by the same folks (Alan Mak, Andrew Lau and Felix Chong) behind Infernal Affairs. (I assume the idea is to just follow these guys around for next few years since everything they touch seems to turn to Oscar gold.)

Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Confessions of Pain, and tapped Departed scribe (and Oscar winner) William Monahan to pen the script. Leonardo DiCaprio will produce via his Appian Way and potentially star in the pic. Story follows a police detective and a private detective (both good friends) who team up to investigate the murder of the cop's father-in-law. From there, I take it, things unravel and people die. The original film was only released last year. I shall assume the debate will begin all over again; which film was better: the original or the remake? For those that have seen both Infernal Affairs and Confessions of Pain, which film did you enjoy more? And, is it possible for the latter to be more successful that its Oscar-winning older sibling?

If there's one thing we've learned to never expect from Martin Scorsese, it's a sequel ... or a prequel. Yet, with the success of The Departed (and the fact that the movie it's based on, Infernal Affairs, was a trilogy), the director is looking into filming a second installment, and possibly a third. Well, according to Mark Wahlberg, that is.

Wahlberg recently chatted up MTV and informed them that Scorsese is in talks with Robert De Niro (who, originally, was tapped to play the Martin Sheen character in Departed, but had to drop out due to his commitments on The Good Shepherd) and "a few other people" with regards to shooting a sequel. But, since most of the original's stars won't be returning (for obvious spoiler-ish reasons), it would include a brand new cast, save for Wahlberg. He says, " ... So we may do a sequel with a new cast, and a prequel and bring back the rest of the guys." Wait -- hold up -- did he say prequel and sequel? Say it ain't so Marty?

Scorsese, who hasn't been too thrilled with the Hollywood system as of late, recently went and signed a four-year, first-look deal with Paramount. And, now, words like 'prequel' and 'sequel' are, for the first time in his career, beginning to sound appealing. So much for taking a stand against the big-budgeted films Hollywood keeps shoveling down out throats, huh? What do you think about this? Would a sequel (or a prequel) from Scorsese cause you to lose all faith in one of film's greatest directors? Or, would you welcome any and all of his ideas with open arms?

We're in the home stretch of 2006, and the movies have already begun getting longer and more important. Critics will be on the lookout for movies chock full of social and political messages to justify their choices as the year's "best," but let's not forget the artistry of crafting a movie that very simply feels right and moves well. One of the greatest films of all time -- some say the greatest -- is F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927), a movie based on nothing more than the most wretchedly old-fashioned love triangle. (Sexy, evil city girl seduces farmer away from his simple, loving country wife.) But Murnau took this story and turned it into cinema poetry. Every shot in some way physically represents the inner turmoil of the characters.

Few filmmakers today can accomplish this; Brian De Palma did it in The Black Dahlia and Martin Scorsese does it in The Departed. A cursory glance at the two films reveals that The Departed is far more accomplished and skilled, but that's deceptive. The difference is that De Palma makes his story serve him, while Scorsese serves his story.