Month: September 2003

Yesterday I picked up the new issue of CASA BRUTUS, which features “The Grand Tour with Ando.” The nice thing about this issue is that they have an English insert (they do bilingual issues every once in a while). This is the second tour feature with Tadao Ando, and you can read the first one online at the CASA BRUTUS site.

I’ve been catching up on Asian movies of late, watching a whole bunch since getting back from Canada. First off, I finally got around to seeing Takashi Miike’s VISITOR Q. Yes, this movie is not for everyone and tends to go to extremes (which is a staple of Miike’s oeuvre). I liked the weirdness of it, especially the presence of said Visitor Q, but felt like we weren’t given enough on the characters, especially the daughter. On the HK side of things, I got to see INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which was the big hit earlier this year (top grosser of the year). Starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung, it harkens back to the great HK actioners of the early nineties. Sure, you’re not really getting anything innovative, but it’s a very slick and good-looking product, and I can say I quite enjoyed it. They already have two sequels in production, one of them following the lives of the main characters when they were young. I also watched an HK comedy called MY LEFT EYE SEES GHOSTS, which was fun. It stars Sammi Cheung and the always excellent Lau Ching Wan (RUNNING OUT OF TIME), and is directed by Johnny To (FULLTIME KILLER). Nothing amazing, but entertaining none the less. Now I’ve started watching Katsuhito Ishii’s SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL, starring my favorite Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano. Waiting to be watched are the Japanese films GO, CURE and TOKYO.SORA, and the Korean films OASIS and MY SASSY GIRL.

For those looking to get some of these films, a good place to start is DDD House. I’ve ordered tons of DVDs from them and have never had any problems.