What is New! September 1998
[16 .09.1998] Hard
Target on Finnish TV
[16 .09.1998] Mission
Impossible News
[08 .09.1998] Akira
Kurosawa in Memorial.
Hard Target at Finnish TV
Hard Target is going to be showed on Finnish Television
(MTV3, first commercial national channel) Thursday 17th of September. We will
see if it will be uncut. Cinema release in Finland was uncut and rated K-18,
for 18 years and older. But because video distribution of K-18 films is banned
in Finland so far, Hard Target was cut 5 minutes 51 seconds for K-16 rating.
But it is very possible that they could show uncut version on TV. It has
happened before that TV shows films which are cut or banned on video. Anyway
Mission Impossible 2 News
Not very much news about the next John Woo film Mission Impossible 2. But I
think they should start shooting quite soon if they get the script ready for
it. Here is something I found from Internet. Check out those Web Sites
mentioned, especially Unoffifial
Mission Impossible 2 Page. There you should find latest news.
"First the budget is rumored to be around 120 million, and is
supposed to have lots and lots of action quoted from Dougray Scott while he
was on the golf course with Cruise.
Woo must be a big draw for people to sign on to this flick considering
the script situation. Also, Paul Newman is supposed to be in it for a minor
role. Cruise said he would only do the film if Paul would have some sort of
part. The Chow Yun-Fat and Dean Cain rumors for what I know are false. Chow
was supposed to have a large role in it but he only signs on to films if he
can read the script first.
Getting back to the script, no one has read it. And I mean no one. Only
Brannon Braga and Ron Moore who are writing till the wee hours on this film.
John Woo had something to do with the major plot line in the film. A lot of
the film is supposed to take place in. I don't know if Oliver Wood is going
to work on this film with Woo but Woo said he prefers to work with all the
same people from film to film so who knows? Burum is supposed to be working
on the Hughes project with De Palma, Nic and Koepp right now. This pic is
also supposed to be less gadget oriented and more character oriented."
Multiple sources are quoting the rumour that Halle Berry may get a role
in the upcoming sequel to Mission: Impossible. Seems that when Cruise met
Berry, he was very impressed by her and both seemed keen to do a project
together. The script for this sequel still hasn't been handed into Paramount
yet, no word on when the release will be
Mission: Impossible 2: Dean Cain is apparently in talks with John Woo for a
part in the upcoming sequel to Mission: Impossible. Cain's career has been
at a crawl since "Lois & Clark" was axed in 1996, doing
various movie projects since then. The MI sequel looks likely to be out
either Late 1999 or Summer 2000. Thanks to 'Brandon
MORE INFO:
Mission
Impossible 2 Page by BenDavid Grabinski.
Bullet in the Web by Jeff "Koganuts"
Koga
Dark Horizons for Wednesday,
September 9
Also was posted to alt.asian-movies by mchang@cisdesign.com
Akira Kurosawa in Memorial
World famous Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa died in
his home in Tokyo, Japan, last Sunday (09/06) at age of 88. He is believed to
have died of natural causes.Kurosawa's movies put Japanese cinema on the
international map and inspired U.S. film makers such as Steven Spielberg and
George Lucas. The only director to have won two Oscars for best foreign film,
Kurosawa in 1990 received a lifetime achievement award from the American
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but modestly said he had not yet
earned it. He was one of the first and the best known Asian film directors in
the West and by watching his films non-Asian World did learn enjoy Asian films.
Also John Woo did admire Kurosawa and his work very much.
Kurosawa gained his World Wide Succee in 1951 when
Rashmonon was the first Japanese film to win the main prize -Golden Lion- at
Venice film festival. Monday on this years' Venice Film Festivals they
arranged special screening of Rashmonon to respect Kuroosawa's memory. Italian
press did write a lot about Kurosawa, much more than about Venice Film
Vestivals currently showing on. Other famous Kurasawa films are Seven Samurai
(Shichinin no samurai, 1954), Yojimbo (1961), Ran (1985), and Derzu Uzala
(1976). During his film career Kurosawa made 30 feature films.
Akira Kurosawa received three US Academy Awards. Two of
them were for the Best Foreigne-Language Film. First of them was Rashonon
(1951) - the first ever awarded to a Japanese film. The second Academy Award
was for Derzu Uzala (1976). The third Academy Award was Honorary Oscar in 1990
for his long career in film industry. Many of his films are based on novels by
Shakespeare or other Western authors.
Kurosawa was born in March 23. 1910 in Omori, Tokyo. He was
a child of a gym teacher and former soldier and their family was of samurai
stock. He was the youngest of the eight child in family. At school he hovever
did refuce to do any military practices. By his ow words he was not a very
nice child but 'akward nad spoiled'. His schoolteacher encouraged him to
pursue his interest in art, as well as introduced him to kendo - Japanese
swordsplay. He really admired Western and Russian authjors. Especially he was
into Tolstoi and Dostojevski.
Kurosawa's film caree began in 1936 when he joined PCL
Studios (later part of Toho, a giant on cinema producion). He worked as an
assistant director, his first film was Senman Choja. After several years of
work in many films he made his directorial debut in 1943 with Sugata Sanshiro.
Few years later he met Toshiro Mifune, an actor he worked with nearly two
decades and made 16 films. Many of their films are being considered as some of
the very best films ever made. This list includes but is not limited to Seven
Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro (1961). But then their co-working ended when
Mifune found Kurosawa's perfectionism and temperament to be too much for him
as well as for Toho. Kurosawa was fired from the company after a long period
working with them. Toshiro Mifune died in December 1997 at age of 77.
Kurosawa went to Hollywood in 1968 and co-helming the epic
World War II film Tora! Tora! Tora! for Fox. It was the only film he made in
New Continental, he was fired from Fox and soon after that he returned to
Japan. Now he made his firs color film, Dodes'ka den (1970). Commercially it
was a total failure; such a shame because it is a real masterpiece. But a year
after the 'disaster' Kurosawa attempted suicide. While he did lose his favor
in Japan, he still did receive big audiences in Western World. After this his
all movies were made using foreign money, including his most celebrated recent
work, his King Lear interpretation Ran (1985) was co-produced by Toho and
Serge Silberman Productions. Dersu Uzala was made with Soviet money. Francis
Ford Coppola and and Steven Spielberg worked as producers of Kagemusha (1980)
and (Akira Kurosawa's) Dreams (1990). Kagemusha, a thrilling saga about a
thief who becames the great leader of a clan in 16th Century Japan, shared the
Best Film Prize with All That Jazz at the Cannes Film Festivals. It all proves
once again that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country.
His 30th and last film, ``Madadayo,'' released in 1993, was
a story about the relationship between a retired university teacher and his
former students and also marked the 50thanniversary of his career as film
director. His 1991 film ``Rhapsody in August'' with Richard Gere as
asecond-generation American-Japanese who visits his Japanese relatives in
Hiroshima and apologises for the U.S. atomicbombing on the city in August 1945
stirred controversy abroad for failing to address Japan's war guilt. Kurosawa
was married to a former movie actress and has a son, Hiroshi, who is a movie
producer.
Films are something that carry across to many different
countries and are seen by many different kinds of people. In this sense,
they have a tremendous power of communication. This has enabled me
personally to speakk to people all over the world and to understand them
better and form new friendships. People everywhere, seeing a film, share the
emotions of the character in taht film - the joys, the sorrows, the dramas.
Those film personages have no strangeness for their audience. Somebody like
John Wayne is a personality the Japanese feel very close to. To the Japanese,
he is a household word, not a stranger.
Akira Kurosawa
Article
at InfoBeat
Information Sources: STT - AFP - DPA - Reuters - Nosferatu
Oy /Peter von Bagh
More
info of Akira Kurosawa video releases (at Reel com)
Also many PAL titles available.
