tears of the black tiger Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Our own Matt Bradshaw does a great job of compiling and commenting on the latest and maybe not so greatest for Cinematical's Trailer Park, but what if you want to see trailers for movies that are not coming soon to a theater near you? What if you have a hankering to see Jean Claude Van Damme speaking Japanese, or the latest North Korean action movie, or a jeans commercial by an acclaimed Thai director? Then you've come to the right post, my friends. Dive into a collection of clips that are nothing but silly movie-related fun.

• Rumble Boy came and went in the Philippines earlier this year without causing any kind of international, er, rumble, but I dig the vibe: Fast and the Furious meets Final Destination 2 meets special effects that were state of the art back in 1987. Check out the trailer: "It's showtime!"

• Who knew North Korea was producing action movies? Watch this clip, taken from a Japanese news program; the action looks fairly decent. Then read the accompanying post, in which it's explained that the film is evidently "an anti-Japanese propaganda epic" which appears to demonstrate that "Kim Jong-Il really wants his people to dislike the Japanese." Oh. Maybe the movie's not so cool after all. (Via Japan Probe)

• Jackie Chan may not have understood the "American humor" in his Rush Hour films, but that didn't keep him from cashing his paychecks. Perhaps he understands Japanese humor better? His latest commercial for a vitamin company translates well, even if you don't speak the language. (Featuring the very cute Aya Ueto; via Japan Probe)

• Jean-Claude Van Damme may or may not be heading into the world of biopics, but I can confirm that he is a spokesman for a chewing gum company. Watch and enjoy this compilation of three short clips -- it's the only way you can hear the beloved "Muscles From Brussels" speaking Japanese. What a versatile guy!

• And now for something completely different. Released earlier this year, Yellow Tears featured five members of the pop band Arashi in the adaptation of a manga classic by Shinji Nagashima. Young men in 1960s Japan cross paths and "forge a unique bond while pursuing their individual dreams." The trailer is relaxed and refreshing. (Via Nippon Cinema)

• Acclaimed Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng has made delightful films that burst with color (Tears of the Black Tiger, Citizen Dog), but he is also capable of making snazzy commercials: here's one for jeans and here's another for bicycles. (Via Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown)

I'm just dying to complain a bit about the Golden Globes, so please indulge me for just a moment. Let's take a look at the winner for Best Dramatic Film, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (currently playing on 173 screens). Now, let's compare it with two other films directed by Iñárritu's pals, Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men and Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (194 screens). Being totally honest, hardly anyone would say that Babel is the best film of the three. It's long and vague and reeks of self-importance, and even some of our most overenthusiastic critics shrugged their shoulders at it. But of the three, it's the most awards-like. It has a message about guns, and one character has a medical condition (she's deaf), which almost always results in awards. Plus, it carefully straddles the line between confusing and complex, so that even viewers who didn't quite get the point were reluctant to say so for fear of looking dumb. (Last year's Syriana pulled off the same stunt.)

On the other hand, Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men employ genre elements in their story construction, namely horror and sci-fi, and nothing turns off awards-givers faster. Not that either film was dumb, not by a long shot. But their messages were cleverly woven into the story's fabric, instead of waved around like a flag. Such subtleties are often lost on the folks that hand out awards. This leads one to conclude, though many find the idea ludicrous or depressing, that filmmakers deliberately make films with certain elements in place to win awards. But what's really depressing is not so much that they do this, but that it works.

As fast as the film process travels these days, there are still films that take years to come out. Although Bubba Ho-tep evoked a melange of laughter and praise at festival screenings, we had to wait eons for the film to reach theaters as it slowly made its way from cinema to cinema. Others like Prozac Nation, which was filmed during the height of Jason Biggs and Michelle Williams' teen celebrity, could only make it to DVD four years after its TIFF premiere. And then there is Tears of the Black Tiger.

After premiering in the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2000, Wisit Sasanatieng's directorial debut was the first Thai film to be accepted at Cannes in 2001. Although it went on to tour a number of festivals, garnered praise, and opened in a number of European cities, it was bought by Miramax Films and never released. Now, six years after its premiere, indieWIRE has reported that Magnolia Pictures has acquired the rights.

Black Tiger is the classic bad guy-good girl love story. There's Rumpoey, the wealthy girl whose father wants her to marry a police officer, and Dum, a poor young man who is torn between his love for Rumpoey and his desire to avenge an attack on his father. If you're curious about the film, and the color techniques used to enhance it, check out this Preview Online article that was released in 2001. If you're anxious to see the film, an uncut version will be shown on January 12 at New York's Film Forum with national release dates to follow.