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Johnnie To's new film Drug War gets a teaser, shown at Twitch.

Some nice shots, as usual, but it looks as if To might be relying on Louis Koo to carry the story here. I can't remember a film in the past where that strategy has worked completely. On the other hand, Koo looks surprisingly rugged here.

The Coen Brothers-scripted Gambit

Well that was excruciating. Have they ever written, but not directed a film that was anything other than bad?

Jeff wrote:Gus Van Sant's Promised Land.

The first thing I thought was: didn't Van Sant make a film last year? (Consults imdb.) Yes, he did. I know it was reputed to be a bit of a stinker, but it seems like the Earth opened up and swallowed it whole. However, a BluRay came out at the beginning of the year. Has anybody seen this and would they like to comment?

Dom made a few comments about it in its thread. He hated both versions to say the least.

It is currently in my to watch pile, but doesn't Restless Blu-ray have a silent version of the film alongside the theatrical one?

Yes.

Colinr, perhaps you should consider moving it to your "never watch" pile? Restless is really really terrible. Insufferably twee and obvious in every possible way. And almost none of it is Van Sant's fault (except for the fact that he took the job after reading the execrable script). This was more or less a job for hire for him. I knew nothing about the film going in and was intrigued to see the Blu-ray too, especially after I heard about the silent version. But it's possibly even less interesting than the completed and released final cut of the regular sound film. Because when you have an experimental alt. version of dialogue-heavy poo what you get is still poo, just without the dialogue. I'd rather be forced to watch Finding Forrester a couple more times than be subjected to this again.

warren oates wrote:This was more or less a job for hire for him.

I thought I'd heard that the script was written by a student of his?

If I can rewatch The Puffy Chair, as I did this weekend, I'm sure I can give a couple of other insufferable twenty something lovers a chance!

Restless is little more than an episode of ABC Afterschool Special, albeit gorgeously photographed by Harris Savides - the pacific northwest has rarely looked better on film. So, if you like ABC Afterschool Specials and beautiful cinematography...

feihong wrote:Johnnie To's new film Drug War gets a teaser, shown at Twitch.

Some nice shots, as usual, but it looks as if To might be relying on Louis Koo to carry the story here. I can't remember a film in the past where that strategy has worked completely. On the other hand, Koo looks surprisingly rugged here.

It's worth noting that it is also his first Mainland production, a move which to me may very well mean the end of Hong Kong cinema as anything other than a small, niche, regional cinema, as To was perhaps the last major hold-out of the trend toward co-productions (who's left? Derek Yee?)

It's a co-production between Hong Kong companies (including Milkyway) and mainland outfits, which To has done before -- Don't Go Breaking My Heart and Romancing in Thin Air both had substantial mainland involvement (which definitely showed), and going back further there was Running on Karma, which was co-produced by China Film Group's Youth Film division. But Drug War is his first co-produced crime film.

I wonder what the upshot of that might be. Was Election 2 less subject to censorship because it was produced in Hong Kong? Did To not have to submit a script to SARFT or whatever? It's hard to imagine To viewing the anti-smuggling cops as anything more noble than the kind of thoroughly ambiguous and hermetic entity he identifies the Hong Kong police as in PTU, or the mainland anti-triad cops in the Election movies. But maybe it will be more of a challenge to front that view in a mainland co-production?

The upshot is money (surprise). Locally-produced Hong Kong films are outside the mainland import quota, but other than that they're still treated as imports, which means they can only be distributed by China Film Group (the state-owned film importer) and there are limits on the revenues that go back to the Hong Kong producers. Setting it up as an official co-production means it'll be treated as a mainland film, which allows the producers to work out more advantageous marketing and distribution arrangements, or even release it themselves through a mainland subsidiary. It also lets you raise more than half of your budget from mainland sources.

As for censorship, anything released in the mainland has to go through SARFT. If it's a locally-produced HK film, it'll be handled as an import: the completed film is submitted and SARFT approves it, rejects it, or "suggests" cuts. Co-productions require script approval, though in practice a treatment is enough, which is how To and Wong Kar-wai can still shoot without complete scripts. (Not that being a co-production is any guarantee you'll clear SARFT, as Shinjuku Incident proved.) Co-productions are also subject to a "one country, one version" rule where both Hong Kong and the mainland are supposed to get the same cut, though again this isn't rigidly enforced -- but an extreme case like Running on Karma (which was cut by about ten minutes for the mainland) probably wouldn't fly today. As for To's films without mainland involvement, Election, Mad Detective, Sparrow, and Life Without Principle were released there in cut versions, and there are also cut DVD editions of Election 2 and Vengeance.

The difference is that this is 1) Shot in the Mainland and in Mandarin 2) financially here seems to be chiefly (exclusively?) from the PRC 3) It's the first film of his that seems designed as a Mainland film instead of a Hong Kong import.

I don't know the particulars of the financing, but Romancing in Thin Air was shot and set in Yunnan with mostly Mandarin dialogue, and Don't Go Breaking My Heart was mostly Mandarin as well, despite being set in Hong Kong (albeit a Hong Kong that feels more like a mainlander's fantasy of the place than anything else). And To himself made no bones about what he was doing with those films: he openly said he went back to romances because he wanted to make "commercial" films for the mainland audience, and he's been trotting out the old line that it's time to give up on the idea of "Hong Kong films" and just start speaking of "Chinese films." To isn't permanently relocating or anything -- he's making Blind Detective in Hong Kong -- but he hasn't been the guy holding his finger in the dike for a couple of years now.

zedz wrote:

Jeff wrote:Gus Van Sant's Promised Land.

The first thing I thought was: didn't Van Sant make a film last year? (Consults imdb.) Yes, he did. I know it was reputed to be a bit of a stinker, but it seems like the Earth opened up and swallowed it whole. However, a BluRay came out at the beginning of the year. Has anybody seen this and would they like to comment?

Hey, ever since I posted this, pop-up Amazon ads for the Restless BluRay have been following me around the internet.

I'M SORRY I ASKED, OKAY!?

(But seriously, thanks to those who replied!)

Every star on the planet in Movie 43

I see that Griffin Dunne is listed among the 12 directors, which is raising perhaps unrealistic hopes that this could reach the lofty heights of a film like Amazon Women On The Moon.

If only right? Sadly I suspect this will be closer to the Farleys' most recent fare.

From the writers of Brickleberry, said with enthusiasm by nobody.

Considerably more interesting or disturbing, K-11.

Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem