NEWS:

• Ip Man 2 release date set for April 29.
• Enter the CEO (Filmbiz.Asia)
• Producer for The Hurt Locker barred from Oscar night (The Standard)
• 34th HKIFF picks;
  • Kevin: Apart Together (China 2010)
  • Paul: Yatterman (Japan 2009)

Intermission: Il mondo di Suzie Wong From Cinema Festival (iTunes Link)

EAST SCREEN:

• Little Big Soldier (HK/China 2010)
• Here Comes Fortune (HK/China 2010)

WEST SCREEN:

• Up in the Air (2009)

Intermission: Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra (iTunes Link)

iTunes Page

Running Time (01:00:38)

NOTES:

Episode #68 of Podcast on Fire has some really good in depth discussion of the character of Su Chi-er and his appearances in other media.  Worth checking out if you are a fan of the character or want some more insight into True Legend.

The Filmbiz Asia site is up and running.  You can find it over at http://www.filmbiz.asia/

NEWS:

• Hong Kong Film shines in Berlin (The Standard)
• Film fund in Hong Kong (The Standard)
• Jimmy Hung’s production under scrutiny (The Standard)

Intermission: Beams by Agatsuma (iTunes Link)

EAST SCREEN:

• HOT SUMMER DAYS (HK 2010)

WEST SCREEN:

• VALENTINE”S DAY (US 2010)
• PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (US 2010)

iTunes Page

Running Time (45:03)

NEWS:

• US Navy allowed shore leave in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year (Bloomberg)
   
• LoveHKFilm best films of the 90s (LoveHKFilm.com)   

CHINESE NEW YEAR FILMS:

•  All’s Well Ends Well too 2010 (HK 2010) 
• 72 Tenants of Prosperity (HK 2010)
• 14 Blades (HK 2010)
• True Legend (HK/China 2010)   

iTunes Page  

Running Time (01:03:43)

East Screen:

Confucius (HK/China – 2010)

Chinese New Year recommendations:

All’s Well, Ends Well (HK – 1992)

Fat Choi Spirit (HK – 2002)

iTunes Page

Running Time (00:33:47)

I am not holding my breath however because we seem to live in an age where the concept of ‘check’ and ‘repair’ are no longer services.  The economies of scale involved in our plastic commercial culture has forced out the repair shops of old, and more and more I encounter things that have a life span that does not stretch far beyond a limited warranty.  We live in a cycle of replacement.  TVs, appliances, what have you, if it does not break it becomes ‘out of date’ almost as rapidly.  We are often asked at checkout to buy an ‘extended warranty’ which is often expensive, and then should you need to use it the service is (in my experience) is quite poor.

Though I hate the downtime, it does give me a chance to catch up on some work before the start of the new semester in two weeks.  All Kozo from LHKF is back in town and will be starting up his film award nominations, which means I have some 2009 films to catch up on as well.  As mentioned previously, my goal is to have ES/WS back up by CNY.  Also, I am currently in the preproduction mode for a second podcast to be hosted on the site as well which I hope to start up sometime in March.  More details on that to follow later.  So for now, until my mixer mix-up gets resolved, good viewing folks.

To be honest the thing never really worked correctly since I started using it back in 2009, despite all my attempts at updating the drivers, the bios and the interface software.  I even moved the thing over from a PC to a Mac.  Sometimes it played nice and sometimes it wouldn’t.  In this respect it was allot like my mom’s cat.

In recording previous episodes, there have been several nights in which Kevin was waiting patiently on SKYPE while I worked through restarts and configurations that I had read about on forums.  Nothing has consistently worked.  And like being in any bad relationship, it was easy to keep thinking it was something wrong with me, something that I was doing wrong.

Finally on Thrusday evening of last week, as Kevin rested up in his Japanese hotel room from his fugu binge that day, we were going over the notes, I hit the record button and nothing.  An hour later and still nothing, no repsonse from the mixer.

At some point you can only bang your head against the table so many times before you have to call it a day, so I did.  I have returned the mixer to the store I purchased it at (a small audio shop on Apliu Street the Shum Shui Po disctrict) and they in turn are going to send it in to be checked by the local ditributor.  I am not sure how long all this will take, but it is my goal to have ES/WS up and running again by Chinese New Year even if it means I have shell out some more ca$h for another mixer.  In the meantime, I hope you will bear with us as we undergo this bumpy start to the new year.

Back after a whirlwind holiday in the US, it’s time to catch up on a bunch of the films that Kevin and I have been viewing over the holiday.  With this being the last episode of 2009, we have an extra long show to look at the biggest holiday films in both Hong Kong and Hollywood.

EAST SCREEN:

Storm Warriors (HK 2009)

Bodyguards and Assassins (HK/China 2009)

A Simple Noodle Story (China 2009)

WEST SCREEN:

Twilight: New Moon (US 2009)

Avatar (US 2009)

Sherlock Holmes (UK/US 2009)

iTunes Page

Running Time (01:24:41)

The Road – tense, dour and a bit depressing

The Princess and the Frog – Great music and good re-take on a classic story.

Twilight: New Moon – Bella was a drag on the story, definitely belong to camp Jacob…go wolves!

Avatar – Incredible visuals, lackluster narrative.

As mentioned a few weeks ago, there was a special Storm Riders II (Storm Warriors) podcast set to be released for episode 17.  Unfortunately, the remote recording did not work as well as I had hoped and as such the audio quality is not very good.  I am debating whether to release it on its own or incorporate it into the next recording.  Once I am back and have a chance to clear my head of jet-lag, I will have a new recording schedule up.  In the meantime, happy viewing all.

NEWS:

A Better Tomorrow remake (Screen Daily)

EAST SCREEN:

Jump (HK/China 2009)

Mulan (China 2009)

• Battle of Mythic productions (Time)

WEST SCREEN:

9 (US 2009)

FLYING BUDDHA (賣飛佛):

SPECIAL: Storm Riders

iTunes Page

Running Time (01:10:18)