“Aftershock,” the long-awaited film by one of China’s more successful directors, Feng Xiaogang, grossed over RMB 100 million within three days of its release on July 22. That means it has beaten the record previously held by "The Founding of a Republic," which took three and a half days to earn RMB 100 million and went on to earn more than RMB 420 million in box office revenue in China. "Aftershock" also set a new box office record when it earned RMB 36.2 million on its first day, the most ever made by a locally made movie on opening day. “Aftershock,” with a budget of more than US$20 million, quite high by Chinese standards, is also the first Chinese-directed movie to be screened in IMAX theaters. Already the most successful film ever made in China, "Aftershock" has been chosen to compete for the nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards next February.
Based on the novel Aftershock by Zhang Ling, the film follows a family who fell victims in the Tangshan Earthquake. The father, Fang Daqiang (Zhang Guoqiang), was crushed dead while trying to rescue his children, Fang Deng and Fang Da, who were trapped in the house. Unable to save both kids, the mother, Li Yuanni (Xu Fan), is forced to sacrifice Fang Deng for her feeble younger brother Fang Da, a decision that proved agonizing for the entire family. It turns out that Fang Deng survived the quake and was adopted by a couple in the aftermath. Thirty-two years later (2008), the grown-up Fang Deng (Zhang Jingchu) would finally cross paths with Fang Da (Li Chen) in Wenchuan, Sichuan...
In a significantly distant pole with Hollywood production disaster flick like “2012”, “Aftershock” isn’t a special effects flaunt and even the earthquake sequence doesn't last for a long time (cause it doesn’t try to be China’s answer to that Emmerich’s film), but the arousing journey of the survivors set apart by a catastrophic event goes on for much longer. It might be fun to watch fictional disasters on the big screen, but watching the fictionalized effects of a real life disaster is just heartbreaking, a story that is as universal as the natural disaster itself. In this film, Feng follows a family that survives China’s most disastrous earthquake, the massive 7.8 temblor that flattened the entire city of Tangshan in the early hours of July 28, 1976. Adapted from Zhang Ling’s 2006 novel of the same title, “Aftershock” shows the raw human emotions of choices made in the heat of an emergency whose effects resonate throughout a lifetime.
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South Korean war film "71-Into the Fire" has been a great hit among critics and fans in South Korea upon it’s initial release. Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War this year, the film had garnered much hype among the media even ahead of going into production due to its 4 A-list actors and the huge investment put to produce this high quality production (11 Billion Won). The movie is based on a true story where Kwon Sang-Woo (权相宇), Choi Seung-Hyun (a.k.a T.O.P, power rapper of Korea’s group BIG BANG) and others play 71 student soldiers who are outnumbered but fight valiantly to defend a strategic point against the advancing North Korean army led by Cha Seung-Won. Kim Seung Woo plays a middle ranking South Korean officer. "71-Into the Fire" is highly reviewed and referred to the “Saving Private Ryan” and “Letters of Iwo Jima” of the year. The movie attracted 114,131 people on its opening day, and has accumulated over 3.3 million admissions to date, making it the fastest movie this year to breach the one million mark. The film will be one of the title representing Korea to contend for Best Foreign Film in the Oscars next year.
In June 1950, a war between North and South Korea broke out, and it quickly engulfed the entire peninsula. A South Korean soldier (Kim Seung Woo) is ordered to take his troops to assist a group of young soldiers defend an area near the Nakdong River. The ragtag group of inexperienced soldiers, which includes criminal bad boy Gap Su (Kwon Sang Woo), is led by Jang Beom (T.O.P), the only one in the group with battle experience. After providing minimal training to the youth squadron, the expert soldiers go off to the Nakdong River to fight the North Koreans. However, the enemy battalion, led by General Park (Cha Seung Won), decided to take an alternate path in the direction of Jang Beom's squad.
Two-disc DVD Edition comes with audio commentary with screenwriter, director, and T.O.P., behind the scenes footage, interviews, press conference, and trailers. It also comes with four postcards.
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Already having given us "Fire of Conscience" earlier this year, it seems that there is nothing stopping hot property of the moment Dante Lam, who had helmed hard hitting same genre movies such as "Sniper" and "Beast Stalker". Starring Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung and Kwai Lun-mei, "The Stool Pigeon" is again another gripping action thriller from the director. Despite having much of the same cast of his previous hit film "Beast Stalker", Dante Lam said "The Stool Pigeon" is not a sequel. Dante stated that he "felt the pressure when I was working on the new movie because "The Beast Stalker" did so well and received a lot of positive feedback. I did not want the new film to live in its shadow because it is an entirely different movie, except with the same cast."
Synopsis:
Senior Inspector Don Lee (Cheung) relies heavily on the information provided by stool pigeons in his job. Barbarian is a painstakingly meticulous armed robber. Don needs an informant to infiltrate his gang so he recruits street-racer Guy (Tse). Guy provides information on Barbarian’s next job, but Don is unable to effectively act on them until the final moment. Since Barbarian has not left any evidence, Don is pressured to convince Guy to become a witness for the prosecution.
Don promises to provide Guy with a new identity in another country, but the departure is beset by accidents and Guy only barely makes it to safety. Haunted by his ruined relationships with his ex-wife and former stool pigeons, Don no longer wants to be part of a world that is one betrayal after another.
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THE HOUSEMAID is a sumptuous and erotic thriller set within the household of a beautiful and extremely wealthy family. The film is a remake of Kim Ki-young’s 1960 classic of the same name which was recently restored by Martin Scorsese. Invited to the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, the 2010 retelling of The Housemaid magnifies the lust, manipulation, and domestic power struggle of the original into a full-blown erotic psycho-thriller. While Kim Ki Young's Housemaid saw the unraveling of a middle-class family in the hands of a femme fatale maid, Im reverses and subverts the story by sending an innocent housemaid into the lion's lair and witnessing her abuse and transformation amid the cold and cavernous beauty of the palatial mansion.
Synopsis:
Award-winning actress Jeon Do Yeon stars as poor divorcee Eun Yi, who gladly signs on to work as a nanny and housemaid for a wealthy, upper-crust family. In her naive eyes, the rich and handsome Hoon (Lee Jung Jae, Typhoon), his pregnant wife Hae Ra (Seo Woo, Paju), and adorable daughter Hae Ra (Ahn Seo Hyun) make the picture-perfect family. But that myth is soon shattered when the domineering Hoon finds his way to her bed. Their torrid affair upsets the balance of the household, unleashing a cruel power struggle as Hae Ra, her mother (Park Ji Young), and the head housekeeper (Yoon Yeo Jung) all answer with their own calculated measures.
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Tetsuo is the eponymous character from Shinya Tsukamoto's 1989 cyberpunk cult classic "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and its 1992 sequel "Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer." For his first English-language film, the cult director returns to the character that established him on the international cinema scene. "Tetsuo: The Bullet Man" is the third entry in a series of films that established the Japanese cyberpunk genre. The project originally began as Quentin Tarantino asked Tsukamoto to do an English language version of Tetsuo for North America but Tsukamoto wasn’t so sure that Americans would really get it. Tsukamoto’s film explores Japanese anxieties relating to technology and the loss of humanity that is said to come with living in a technopolis like Tokyo.
Calm office worker Anthony, son of an American father and a Japanese mother, lives in Tokyo with his wife Yuriko and their little son Tom. Since Anthony's mother died of cancer, his scientist father has been overly fearful for their health and rigidly subjects Anthony and Tom to monthly physicals. Walking home, Tom is killed in a hit and run before Anthony's eyes. Losing their boy pushes Yuriko over the edge and triggers violent emotions in Anthony, whose body begins to transform. Little by little, his cells turn into iron. When the driver who killed Tom reappears and Anthony learns the truth about his father's past experiments on human guinea pigs and about his mother's death, Anthony mutates into a mass of metal - a human weapon fuelled by an uncontrollable rage.
The Japan DVD edition comes with a "multi-version" of the film, showing the viewers various production materials such as storyboards and production photos as the film plays. It also comes with a new version of the theme song, trailers, and more.
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