Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment
by Yein Jee
Trailers for Hollywood movie The Wolverine, the latest of the X-Men franchise. Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Logan aka Wolverine, who travels to Japan and battle ninjas and samurai while having his healing ability suppressed by enemies.
Other co-stars include Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Brian Tee and Famke Janssen.
by Yein Jee
Mach Go! Go! Go! is a 1960’s Japanese anime which is aired in US as well under the title Speed Racer. A live action film adaptation of Speed Racer, directed by the Wachowski brothers of Matrix fame, is set to premiere in May 2008.
Three videos below… the original Japanese anime intro (with English subs), opening of the US anime, and lastly the official trailer of the 2008 movie…
I’m thankful that Warner Bros have arranged an interview with Rain, a Korean pop star who’s making his Hollywood debut in the live action movie, but I’m not feeling good about the movie adaptation to be honest. It looks way too cartoonish, which I’m not sure if it’s a good thing. It might appeal to teenage or younger generation, but it’s probably a bit too much for me.
by Yein Jee
Trailer for American action comedy film Rush Hour 3. Directed by Brett Ratner as usual, with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker reprising their roles as cop buddies. The duo has to travel to Paris this time to uncover secrets about a notorious triad and also to capture an assassin.
The multinational cast includes Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Yvan Attal, Noémie Lenoir and Youki Kudoh. In cinemas in Malaysia and the United States in August 2007.
The film series fall into the “stupid fun” category, which is good for a few laughs but offers zero enlightenment. The first movie in 1998 is actually decent, but the 2001 sequel is pretty average despite starring Zhang Ziyi as a villain. Hope this new instalment will at least be somewhere in between.
Can’t recall from its predecessors but I’m not fond of the amount of sexual jokes in the film. I get that it’s a common thing in Hollywood action comedies but it’s disgusting when they rely too much on that. There are many warning signs in the trailer but I didn’t notice that back then.
There are still some fun moments but it’s a poor movie overall. The two main leads have lost their sparks in tandem and most stuff seems to be getting old. The actions are poor too, one of the worst I’ve seen from a Jackie Chan’s movie. It’s probably wise to end the franchise right here.
On lesser notes, the trailer focuses on Paris (not untrue) but about 30 minutes of the show is set in Los Angeles instead. Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu actually has decent screen time despite not appearing much in the teaser video; she’s also not credited as a main cast which is kinda odd.