NEWS
• Remember BMW films? Now Toyota Japan presents IST CFILMS. It is a series of short films starring Japan’s most demanded actors (Asano Tadanobu of Kitano’s Zatoichi). The eries contains 7 films (5 films, with prologue and epilogue) and can be viewed at www.ist-ist.com until July 30th.

• Breaking News is a new film by director Johnnie (PTU, Turn Left Turn Right). The film is about hostage situation and media manipulation. After losing credibility of the police force by TV live broadcast of bank robbery showdown, inspectors decide to turn the stakeout into breaking news show to beat the media at its own game. Warner Bros. has acquired remake rights and expectedly hits big screens next year.

• Jiang Hu starring Andy Lau (INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy) and Edison Chen (TWINS EFFECT) is the new triad film from Hong Kong.  Word is that it has been severely chopped off to make through the rating system in HK, What has been cut out?  Notably a scene that Edison Chen screwing a puppy! 

• According to Fangoria, Walter Salles’ remake of Nakata Hideo’s DARK WATER will be released theatrically on October 15th. That is just two weeks prior to Sam Raimi’s Ghost House release of THE GRUDGE (a remake of JU-ON). DARK WATER stars Jennifer Connelly, Shelley DuVall, John C. Reilly, Ariel Gade and Tim Roth. Read my review of the original DARK WATER here.

• MiramAxe has removed INFERNAL AFFAIRS from a September release. Who could have guessed that a respectable studio like MiramAxe would do something like that.

• New York-based Magnolia Pictures has acquired Thai actioner ONG BAK and plans to release it in the US this November. The film follows a statue in a temple in Thailand that is believed to be imbued with mystical powers. When it is stolen, Jaa heads to Bangkok’s underground fight clubs to win it back.

• According to Fred Topel from about.com, apparently Jackie Chan said he is not going to sell his NEW POLICE STORY to any US distributor, because, he fears that it would not be treated properly. Of course he is talking about MiramAxe here. But Jackie, I bet Sony Picture Classics will treat it right. We, people in the US, would love to see it!

REVIEW
Sorry guys, I didn’t have time to view films this week. I will have some next week.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Everyone Wants To Be Like George

Last week, I purchased the Anniversary Edition of FIELD OF DREAMS on DVD. This film is certainly one of my favorite films of all time and I was truly glad to have it with a new anamorphic transfer and finally DTS sound.  I was there with Chris when I bought it and he asked me how many different versions and different formats of FIELD OF DREAMS I have in my collection.  I have every single version ever put out as home entertainment of this film. Now I started to think about why every studio is pulling a George (Lucas) on us. If the new format or platform introduced improves the home viewing experience, I am, without argument, up for it. But if they do multiple release of recent films every 6 months with a few minor changes, I am against it (even though I might buy it).

Multi version releases of the same films are nothing new to us. We have all seen studios releasing a particular movie repeatedly. Most commonly, STAR WARS. We all surely have multiple copies of the Trilogy on VHS and/or laserdisc. I myself have two different sets of VHS and three different sets of laserdiscs. Sometimes just the packaging was changed, yet more often than not, some supplements were added (like a new ten minute interview with cast and crew) or the film was simply “digitally remastered”.

If your memory serves you correctly, studios have been doing this for decades starting with the laserdisc. Releasing a basic movie-only disc first, then a few years later releasing a Deluxe Special Collectors Edition. True geeks (or I should say suckers) obviously purchased both (I did).  It was to be expected that this method would be transferred over to the DVD. Sure it did.

DVD was introduced almost seven years ago. Now for those movies that were released in the early days of DVD, which were suffered from sufficient technical aspect, it is time to revisit them and do the justice that film deserves. I can dig it. So can you. Every studio is doing it. This won’t go away. We, film geeks, should be true believers that this is a good thing. Because we want the best possible way to watch the great films we all adore, right?

Now this is why I have major problems with studios releasing multiple versions. The Limited, let me repeat it again, Limited Edition. I know you all know exactly what I am talking about. I am sure titles like, ARMY OF DARKNESS, HALLOWEEN, T2 and MANHUNTER pop right into your brain. What is the meaning of Limited Edition? It’s a marketing word for suckers so they will jet to Best Buy the day it comes out and purchase it thinking they have one of only 3000 copies available. I can boldly say this because like I stated earlier, I am one of those suckers. Anchor Bay has been the worst in this trend. Their arrogance has annoyed us for years now with their re-releasing of the same movies (most of titles I mentioned above are from them). I just saw a new re-release of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN on a store shelf the other day. The previous “limited edition” was there on the same shelf just a few days ago. That previous disc has been labeled as a “limited edition” ever since it came out in 1999. I guess it is a true “limited edition” now because it is replaced by new “limited edition”.  What the hell is that about, DreamWorks?  I know Disney will be doing that with their animated movies but since I don’t buy them, it’s not worth mentioning here.

Here is another major problem. This is killing us all. Studios are now cashing in with sequel theatrical releases. FAST AND FURIOUS TRICKED OUT EDITION, BOURNE IDENTITY EXPLOSIVE EDITION, CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: PITCH BLACK and so on. This trend on releasing recent blockbusters on DVD and reissue the same films 6 months later is the most ridiculous marketing that studios have ever pulled on us. Lately it’s not even that far apart. For example: UNDERWORLD. They announced a 2 disc set release of the film on DVD within a week of the first special edition DVD release. And I can assure you that when the sequel hits theaters, they will release another version. The same goes with the SPIDEY DVDs. What about MiramAxe’s plans for the KILL BILL DVD. I am sure you have all read that, so I will not state their corrupted plan that they publicly announced.

How do we decide whether or not to buy the current release for whatever the movie on DVD, or wait for the next version that you know eventually comes out? It is obvious that the next version will be better in many ways. You know the answer in your heart. That’s right. You just don’t want to admit it. I will say it here on behalf of all of us. Buy every single version because you just can’t help it. We all know we will buy when they label it SPECIAL EDITION, LIMITED EDITION, COLLECTOR’S EDITION, ULTIMATE EDITION…etc. Just like the STAR WARS copies that all of us have in our collections; we’re bound to have multi copies of certain movies on DVD. And that is a ***censored*** cool thing.

Maybe George didn’t start this annoying thing. STAR WARS is perhaps the victim of this trend. People ***censored*** about George on this reissuing subject but when he re-releases it; he always gave us something much more with it.

• Shogo