- The 57th Berlin International Film Festival has come to a close, with the coveted Golden Bear going to Chinese director Wang Quanan‘s Tuya’s Marriage, while I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay, previously mentioned in this column, won the Alfred Bauer Prize for most innovative film! Check out Variety’s festival wrap-up here, their brief review of Tuya’s Marriage here, and the official winner’s list here.
- Jackie Chan‘s 1980 directorial debut, The Young Master, gets the Fortune Star remaster it deserves and hits DVD uncut for the first time this week! In the decade since Jackie made his crossover to Hollywood with a heavily edited version of Rumble in the Bronx, the aging martial arts master has come to be known more for his signature version of slapstick than the death-defying stunts that made him a household name throughout Asia. Pick up a copy at YesAsia and witness Jackie at his most agile!
- Koreanfilm.org kingpin Darcy Paquet has posted his list of the best Korean films of 2006, topped by Hong Sang-Soo‘s Woman on the Beach. As a devotee of Hong myself, I found Woman to be a minor work at best, though certainly worth screening. Differences of opinion aside, Paquet is the English-language authority on Korean cinema, and his picks are always interesting.
- In my mind, there are only a few truly great directors of animated cinema in the running for Best of All Time – and Hideaki Anno is certainly one of them. Finally, his debut OVA, Gunbuster, sees a Region 1 DVD release! A true classic that belongs in the library of any fan of animation, you can whet your appetite with Chris Beveridge’s extremely thorough review.
- Sion Sono, best known in the West for his cult hit Suicide Circle, returns this week with a new horror outing entitled Exte, a Japanese romanized contraction of, believe it or not, “hair extensions”. As you might have already deduced, this is a film about evil hair. Starring Kill Bill‘s Chiaki Kuriyama, you can read Mark Schilling’s generally positive review here.