tartan films Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Was it the elephants that sent a Thai action star over the edge? Tony Jaa, the memorably acrobatic actor and martial arts expert from Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior and The Protector, disappeared while filming his directorial debut, Ong-Bak 2. Reportedly he became so stressed out that he sought solace in the jungle for two months -- with the film only 70% completed.

He emerged on Monday with tears in his eyes and vowed to return to work. Veteran director Prachya Pinkaew, who previously had a falling out with the star, agreed to come on board and help get the movie finished in time for its planned December 4 release. Jaa was expected to appear with his parents and production company execs at another news conference yesterday, but instead sent his lawyer with a list of seven demands (pictured). Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal has been doing a bang-up job covering the story; as Wise Kwai comments, "This case is becoming increasingly weird."

Speaking of increasingly weird scenes, check out the trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective 2 at Nippon Cinema, (which I found via Don Brown's ryuganji). I finally caught up with the first Nightmare Detective on Region 1 DVD last week; although the basic premise -- serial killer inhabitating a nightmare can make people wake up dead -- might sound like a simple riff on A Nightmare on Elm Street, Tsukamoto is such an amazing, visually inventive director that he stretches things far beyond the ordinary, in a way that's strikingly different than, say, the apocalyptic ambitions of Satoshi Kon's Paprika. Watch the trailer for the upcoming second installment, and rent the original to see Tsukamato's excellent, illuminating one-hour "making of" doc.

As the year starts winding down, it's time to begin looking into what will come out in the New Year. Tartan Films, the company that brought us everything from Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs to a whole lot of Rocco Siffredi in Anatomy of Hell, is bringing some of this year's quirky and notable festival offerings to the big screen in 2007. Here are five months of funky cinema slated for 2007, some of which have great Cinematical reviews for you to peruse:

February: The Page Turner follows a girl whose botched piano examination leads her to turn away from her passion for the keys, only to be faced with it later when she comes face-to-face with the person whose rudeness shattered her resolve.

March:

Red Road

was the Cannes Jury Prize winner that showed the human weakness behind Big Brother -- a woman's dispassionate viewing of the streets of Glasgow dissolves when she spots a familiar face.

April: Triad Election is filmmaker Johnny To's answer to The Godfather, and the second part to his election epic.

May: Princess is the animated film about a orphan whose mother was a porn star, and the ex-priest uncle who comes to take care of her.

June: 12:08 East of Bucharest is the comedically melancholy story of a man in Bucharest trying to put together a live TV show on the revolution.

Honorable Mention: Taxidermia is worthy of mentioning, although a release date is yet to be determined. It's a tale about an overweight speed eater, a large cat embalmer and a man who shoots fire from his penis -- so what's not to love?