Vampire flicks:

[Lucas]

This isnt a vampire movie, but its a great, if not one of the best, werewolf movies ever made. Its a UK film. Havnt seen it in a few years, but I just rememberd it. If your into monster movie flicks and such, its a must see. Theres this one scene where a soldier gets dis-embowled during a werewolf attack, totally awesome.

[Jimbo]

I assume the werewolf movie you're talking about is Dog Soldiers. It IS a great movie, and one of the best werewolf movies of all time.

I recently bought The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler 2-film DVD. These are the TV movies from the early '70s that gave birth to the Kolchak: The Night Stalker series. I saw them back then, and seeing them again, they still hold up today. I actually liked the concept of The Night Strangler a little better, but like the pacing of Night Stalker better. Night Stalker is about a modern-day Romanian vampire in Las Vegas. Night Strangler is about a serial killer in Seattle who appears every 21 years, kills 6 women and disappers for another 21 years. I think Night Strangler was the basic inspiration for the two early (and I believe non-consecutive) X-Files episodes about the character Eugene Tooms, a killer who appeared every 30(?) years, took several people's livers, then went back into hibernation.

I'm planning on seeing the new Blood: The Last Vampire movie in the coming week. At least it should be worth a watch, with Corey Yuen directing a female star. He tries much harder and generally is way more creative when directing women in his films.

[Lucas]

I assume the werewolf movie you're talking about is Dog Soldiers. It IS a great movie, and one of the best werewolf movies of all time.

wow thanks, i cant believe i forgot to put the freaking title in the post. LOL

Dog Soldiers is the title i forgot to add.

[GeneChing]

B:tLV ain't impressin' no critics...

Review: 'Last Vampire' a bloody mess
Peter Hartlaub, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
Friday, July 10, 2009

SNOOZING VIEWER Action horror. Starring Gianna Jun, Allison Miller, Koyuki and Larry Lamb. Directed by Chris Nahon. (R. 91 minutes. At the AMC Van Ness in San Francisco and Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.)

"Blood: The Last Vampire" begins with great promise.

First of all, it's a film called "Blood: The Last Vampire." Assuming you're not one of those wine-sipping Sundance Cinema discriminating movie buffs, how bad can it be? Director Chris Nahon fulfills the titular promise almost immediately, treating audiences to a dude getting cut in half lengthwise with a samurai sword and stuffed in the back of a subway car all before the opening credits.

If only the projectionist could be persuaded to play the first 10 minutes over and over for two hours, this might be a satisfying movie. Unfortunately, the middle and the end feature a weak lead character, choppy fight choreography, humorless dialogue and computer-generated effects that look as if they came from the "Ghostbusters II" era.

"Blood: The Last Vampire" is a remake of an animated 2000 movie by the same name. They both feature a young-looking vampire named Saya (Gianna Jun), who hunts demons at an Air Force Base in Tokyo during the Vietnam War, getting sent undercover at a high school. Before you can sing the theme to "21 Jump Street," violence breaks out, and Saya must protect Allison, a general's daughter.

If that sounds kind of hot, don't get your hopes up. Allison Miller plays her character as if she's a guest on "Charmed." The dialogue sounds as if it is being spoken in Middle-earth, not the 1970s. ("Now that Onigen is here, blood will be shed!") When the demon Onigen does arrive, and blood is indeed shed, the editing is too fast, while the artsy cinematography with slow-motion falling leaves seems derivative and second-rate.

The best part of the film involves the CIA cleaning up Saya's messes while keeping the military out of the way. You can always count on the spooks from Langley for a few minutes of entertainment.

-- Advisory: This film contains blood, and a vampire.

[Raipizo]

sorreh shaolin i had too XD.

[Shaolinlueb]

its ok, i forgive you.

[Shaolinlueb]

did anyone mention daybreakers?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/daybreakers/

vampires control the future and farm the remaining humans left for blood.

[Jimbo]

I went to see Blood: The Last Vampire today. The movie lacks the suspense of the anime. I was expecting it to at least be a better action movie than it is, since Corey Yuen is involved. Unfortunately, Corey is only the action choreographer; the director is Chris Nahon. I'm guessing that if Corey had been the director it might have been better. Or better yet, if it had a good Japanese director.

Blood has some of the worst CGI of any recent movie. The fully shape-shifted creatures look extremely cheap, about the same quality as that talking green mucus man in those sinus infection commercials. The vampire in the anime looked more convincing. The girl, Saya, (Gianna Jun) seems okay in the role. Some reviewers criticized her lack of personality, but in the original anime, the character Saya wasn't supposed to have loads of personality anyway.

The fights should have been the redeeming feature. Luckily, the film has veteran MA actor Yasuaki Kurata, who, at around 65 years old, has the best fight scene. Unfortunately, the fights suffer from *very* choppy editing, often poor angles, and Saya's fights all begin to look the same. And the overdone blood spatter looks like each sword slash is accompanied by dozens of little round, red globes. Of course they're supposedly blood droplets, but the visual effect is bad. The poor editing and repetitive choreo is a letdown, as Corey Yuen usually works exceptionally well with female performers (DOA was an exception). But I think Chris Nahon's directing nullified Corey's choreo, which is just as, if not more, choppy here than in Transporter 3.

Blood isn't the worst movie out there, but it is far less than it could have been.

[doug maverick]

I went to see Blood: The Last Vampire today. The movie lacks the suspense of the anime. I was expecting it to at least be a better action movie than it is, since Corey Yuen is involved. Unfortunately, Corey is only the action choreographer; the director is Chris Nahon. I'm guessing that if Corey had been the director it might have been better. Or better yet, if it had a good Japanese director.

Blood has some of the worst CGI of any recent movie. The fully shape-shifted creatures look extremely cheap, about the same quality as that talking green mucus man in those sinus infection commercials. The vampire in the anime looked more convincing. The girl, Saya, (Gianna Jun) seems okay in the role. Some reviewers criticized her lack of personality, but in the original anime, the character Saya wasn't supposed to have loads of personality anyway.

The fights should have been the redeeming feature. Luckily, the film has veteran MA actor Yasuaki Kurata, who, at around 65 years old, has the best fight scene. Unfortunately, the fights suffer from *very* choppy editing, often poor angles, and Saya's fights all begin to look the same. And the overdone blood spatter looks like each sword slash is accompanied by dozens of little round, red globes. Of course they're supposedly blood droplets, but the visual effect is bad. The poor editing and repetitive choreo is a letdown, as Corey Yuen usually works exceptionally well with female performers (DOA was an exception). But I think Chris Nahon's directing nullified Corey's choreo, which is just as, if not more, choppy here than in Transporter 3.

Blood isn't the worst movie out there, but it is far less than it could have been.

gonna have to disagree with alot of what you said. first and formost i highly doubt yuen would have done a better job then nohan. nohan is a good director i love what he did with kiss of the dragon still one of jets better western films. also im under the distinct impression that yuen had say over the way the fights were edited as the fights looks similar to how Trans. 3 were edited. as for nohan you gotta understand he was handed this project after ronnie yu dropped out for health reasons or for whatever reason. so he was thrown into the deep end without much prep time if any. had this film been given the right amount of time it needed im sure the script would have been better. cause thats what really screwed it up the script. and is anybody but me not shocked that a crappy movie was made out of a mediocre anime? i mean aside from the train scene in the anime the rest of it was ehh.

[Jimbo]

Hmm, I was unaware it was Nahon who directed Kiss of the Dragon (it's been a long time). That probably is Jet Li's best film in the west. Jet's Euro-filmed movies are superior in every way to the ones filmed in the U.S. So yeah, in that case he's a really good director. If a director has to drop out of a film, then IMO the producers ought to wait a while instead of doing a half-@ssed rush job. Do it right and have a good to moderately successful film, or rush it and have a straight-to-video hack job. But then, I'm not in the biz, so take that with a grain of salt.

I think almost anyone will agree that the opening train scene is the best part of both the live-action and the anime. I thought the anime, though not the greatest, had something, though. It had a good, dark 'atmosphere' that's totally absent in the live-action. Also had some surreal dream-like effects (like the scene in the dance hall) that was a bit unique in an animated film.

Before the film, they played the trailer for Thirst, which I saw for the first time. I don't know how good it will be, but I will be seeing it when it comes out.

[GeneChing]

I thought it might stand alone or be part of the True Legend thread, but then decided it should go here because of Blood.

There's such a glut of fangbanger flicks right now. I think it's a odd barometer of our culture today.

The rise and fall -- and rise? -- of Hong Kong cinema
By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, July 22, 2009

The system I use to organize my movie collection is simple. On one handy tier of my media wall, I have what I call the Short Shelf; it's where I keep about two dozen films -- not necessarily the best or even favorite films in my collection, but those that, for whatever reason, I want to watch again and again, in whole or in part.

When the Shelf was inaugurated shortly after I graduated from college -- it was an Ikea shelf back then, and the films were on VHS, but the principle remained the same -- the collection of films were almost entirely from Hong Kong, reflecting that region's creative flush in the late '80s and early '90s. Some still remain, weathered and beaten copies of standbys like "A Better Tomorrow" and "The Mission," "Shaolin Soccer" and "Comrades: Almost a Love Story," "Project A" and "Police Story 3: Supercop."

By the end of the 1990s, however, the number of new Hong Kong films vying for Shelf status started to dwindle. And 10 years later, though a few Hong Kong movies each year are always worth watching, none since "Infernal Affairs" have made the cut.

The reason why is hardly a secret. You can blame 1997's Reunification with the Mainland, rampant piracy, pandemic bird flu and the passing or departure of many of the region's biggest stars and boldest creators, but the real culprit behind the catastrophic decline of Asia's most potent film market was simply an overabundance of crappy movies. The falloff in quality led to a collapse in demand, and then a wholesale commercial bloodletting; the industry has not recovered since.

"Look at Hong Kong in the late '90s -- you had a city of nine million people cranking out 150 movies a year," says Grady Hendrix, whose crew of volunteer film buffs organizes the nation's premier annual showcase for Asian cinema, the New York Asian Film Festival. "You had too many movies being made too fast, too poorly. The bubble was bound to burst at some point, and it did, and it was ugly."

How ugly? In 2007, the territory produced just 50 films, a third of the output at its height and the lowest recorded since World War II. And those 50 films earned just 23 percent of the Hong Kong box office, down from an already-low 31 percent the year before.

That's led some to predict the imminent demise of Hong Kong cinema, even as the industry this year celebrates its 100th year of existence, marked by the production of Liang Shaobo's antic 1909 short film, "Stealing a Roast Duck." But even if its prognosis isn't terminal -- as those of us who grew up loving it hope -- what, if anything, can be done to shock it out of coma?

In answering that question, Hong Kong's remaining true believers fall into two camps. Recently I had the opportunity to speak to the most prominent voices in each of those factions: Edko Films' Bill Kong, the producer behind a string of epic blockbusters, from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to his current Samuel Goldwyn release, "Blood: The Last Vampire"; and Milkyway Image's en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wai_Ka-Fai"Wai-Ka Fai, whose impressive success as a screenwriter, producer and director includes commercial and critical hits like "Needing You," "Mad Detective" and his latest, the metafictional melodrama "Written By," which had its world premiere last month at NYAFF.

Fusion!

Kong has always been a believer in judicious cross-pollination. His father, Kong Cho Yee, founded Edko Films in 1959 as Hong Kong's largest movie-theater operator; 40 years later, recognizing the deteriorating quality of the region's films as a threat to Edko's core exhibition business, the younger Kong moved the company into film production to ensure a steady pipeline of movies worth watching.

He wasn't the only one to make that move. In the late '90s, hundreds of opportunists, from restaurant owners to small-time gangsters, leapt into the Hong Kong film fray. While many of these self-styled "movie producers" were looking for neighborhood notoriety and a fast buck, Kong's goal was more ambitious: He wanted to make movies that would appeal to audiences beyond Hong Kong, enticing viewers throughout Greater China, across Asia and, eventually, around the world.

Kong's first major feature offered ample evidence of his boundary-blurring ambitions. It was a film by a Taiwanese director working in America that promised to combine the narrative texture of the art-house with the flamboyant action of the drive-in. Most industry-watchers panned the project; as a result, Kong had trouble finding investors and had to pay out of his own pocket to complete the $17 million film.

When "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) went on to make more than $213 million worldwide, Kong was vindicated. His followups, "Hero"(2002) and "House of Flying Daggers" (2004), did similarly soaring business, and his reputation as one of the few producers in Asia able to consistently achieve global box office success was sealed.

The surprisingly humble Kong is quick to explain his achievements as the result of an adherence to formula. "It's very challenging to do films that can reach a global audience," he says. "So far, the only common language we've been able to find that crosses over from East to West is action. So I make action movies. It's the only tool we can use to speak to both sides of the world."

That said, Kong's action movies look and feel like no other works in the genre. Their lushly stylized visuals, international casts and cosmopolitan sensibilities are expressly intended to appeal to both local and foreign audiences: Edko films are typically helmed by a non-Hong Kong director with a global reputation, like Taiwanese American Ang Lee and Mainlander Zhang Yimou; they feature top-tier talent and shooting locations drawn from across East Asia; and they're made with generous amounts of international money.

And that brings up something of a conundrum. Given their pancultural roots, can Kong's movies really be called "Hong Kong movies"? The authorities don't think so -- the most recent Edko production, Ang Lee's hypnotic potboiler "Lust, Caution," was formally classified as a "foreign" film despite being shot largely in Hong Kong, with film authorities noting its status as a co-production with companies based in the U.S., China and Taiwan.

But to Kong, of course, that's exactly where Hong Kong's opportunity lies -- outside of Hong Kong. "Yes, there are places where Hollywood dominates, but there are others -- India, China, Japan and Korea -- where Asian films have a tremendous and growing opportunity," he says. "The future of Asian cinema lies in Asia, [not Hollywood]. And Hong Kong can lead the way into that future."

"Blood," Kong's latest, takes his notion of pan-Asian global cinema to a new level. A live-action adaptation of a sleekly ultraviolent feature from Japanese animation auteur Mamoru Oshii, it showcases the brilliant action choreography of Hong Kong mainstay Corey Yuen Kwai, and stars Korean superstar Ji-Hyun Jun -- now going by the mononym "Gianna" -- as Saya, a half-human, half-vampire samurai tasked with hunting down her bloodsucker relatives. Co-produced with Pathe France (and directed by French action stylist Chris Nahon), it's also Kong's first film to feature almost exclusively English-language dialogue.

"We thought we had a chance to really break through to the American market," says Kong. "This is a very commercial movie -- the setting, the visuals, it's all perfect for appealing to the West. But even though audiences all over the world are accustomed to reading subtitles, Americans are not. Ten years ago, when we made 'Crouching Tiger,' we were successful theatrically, but once the film hit video, our research found that 95 percent of renters chose to watch the English-dubbed version. So we wanted to remove that obstacle."

But crossover creations face their own challenges. Critics have been mixed about Gianna's English-language performance, while box office has so far been moderate both in the U.S. and Asia. "It wasn't easy, bringing it all together, working with people from all over the globe," Kong admits. "I learned a lot, you could say, doing this film."

[GeneChing]

...continued from last post.

Focus!

While Bill Kong has placed his Hong Kong bet on epic, pan-cultural cross-pollination, Wai Ka-Fai may be the leading cheerleader for Hong Kong to reaffirm its independence and idiosyncrasy.

Wai has a credible platform from which to speak: He's partners with Hong Kong's most consistently interesting filmmaker, Johnnie To, in the region's most successful indie production company, Milkyway Image. And as a screenwriter, producer and director in his own right, he's personally been behind many of Hong Kong's recent film successes.

It's not surprising, then, that he's chosen to take up the revival of Hong Kong cinema as something of a personal crusade.

"Johnnie and I, we see the survival of Hong Kong film as our responsibility," he says. "If we don't, who will? We have stories to tell, that are uniquely Hong Kong stories, and we feel have the duty of telling them in a uniquely Hong Kong way."

Wai recognizes that the "old definition" of Hong Kong cinema has changed.

"The Mainland market has grown a lot -- that is clearly changing the character of Hong Kong cinema," he says. "But it's more than that: The whole culture of movies has changed."

He adds that the way people watch films today is completely different. "You may not go to a theater, you may watch movies only on DVD, or even online," Wai says. "And when you watch films that way, you can stop stories, rewind, watch scenes over and over again; all of our storytelling standards no longer apply."

But if these shifts have led others, like Kong, to adapt to new frames of reference, they've only reinforced Wai's belief in the need to hold fast to what makes Hong Kong film unique. "If you try to adapt to the future, how do you know you're going to be right?" he says. "As a filmmaker, I think of myself as a nurse, trying to deliver a baby. My job is to protect the movie, not to let it be shaped by outside influence. I can't say what the future will hold; I can only think about the integrity of the story I'm trying to tell."

Where Wai and To have chosen to compromise is in the nature and accessibility of those stories; while in the past, the duo made films that were so personal and eccentric that viewers (and investors) were taken aback, they now make an effort to alternate their artistic statements with mass-friendly confections they refer to as "audience movies."

Occasionally, their artsy movies strike gold as well: Last year's peculiar police psychodrama "Mad Detective" was a critical darling and commercial success, and Wai's latest, "Written By," seems similarly fated.

"Written By" tells the story of a woman who, mourning her father's death, writes a novel in which he has survived and she has died. Upon realizing what she's done, the character of her father chooses to write his own novel, in which he has died and she has survived -- and so on, in a set of recursive loops that blur the lines between fiction and reality.

It's a strange film, but its strangeness is distinctively Hong Kong in character.

"I believe that staying true to your story opens doors," says Wai. " And I believe life is also a story we're writing. If we as Hong Kong filmmakers stick to the story, I don't think we're anywhere close to the final chapter."

The Future?

Will Kong's vision for Hong Kong cinema prevail, or Wai's? Though they differ in their opinions on the future of their industry, they're united in the goal of ensuring that that future exists. And so, ironically, the two have recently found themselves walking the others' chosen roads. Wai and To's latest film, "Vengeance," which premiered this year at Cannes, is an international coproduction with largely English-language dialogue, and starring French icon Johnny Hallyday.

Meanwhile, Kong describes his next film, "True Legend," as a quintessentially Hong Kong kung fu epic, directed by legendary fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping.

"This will be the greatest martial arts movie ever," he says, in an uncharacteristically boastful moment. "'True Legend' will blow Bruce Lee away. I sincerely believe that!"

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0M0qXD45W

[GeneChing]

...but this one looks kind of good to me.
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Trailer

[Jimbo]

Sorry if I get further from vampire flicks...
Shaw Brothers is getting back into the movie-making business again for the first time since 1985. There are several movies planned, but from what I had read, so far none were martial arts-related, yet. Also, there was info that Shaw Bros had built what was described as a new movie-making facility that is supposedly the largest in Asia. At the time I read that (last year?) they had no movies to make. Apparently that's now changed. Obviously, any new films (even any possible MA-related films) wouldn't have that "Shaw Brothers feel" of the films they made from the '60s to the '80s. But it's great news indeed if they can succeed.

MA-wise, IMO the Thai movies are the most exciting ones coming out of Asia at this time. Even the better horror films out of HK directed by the Pang Brothers, seem to be at least half-Thai productions.

It's hard to say if HK will ever regain the top spot in Asian cinema; I strongly doubt it. The whole demographic has changed, along with the pool of talent that once dominated HK movies (cinematographers, actors/performers, directors, etc.) as well as audience's tastes. Bollywood is the #1 Asian cinema now, and Japanese and Korean cinema has surpassed HK in many genres. Japanese cinema in particular has recovered in the '90s, after its sharp decline in the late '70s and '80s.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Yes, jimbo. You did take this thread elsewhere.

I forgive you.


mickey