BBC 4 Asian Invasion

[Johnny]

Not sure if anyone has seen this yet, but BBC 4 are going to be showing a season of Asian films.

[ QUOTE ]

Tuesday 10th January:

10:00 pm Jonathan Ross' Asian Invasion
1/3. Japan: Jonathan visits Japan to explore rumours that Japanese cinema has gone off the boil, and meets animator Mamoru Oshii. Violent scenes. Part of BBC FOUR's Asian Invasion Season.

11:00 pm Kikujiro
Comedy-drama directed by, and starring, Takeshi Kitano. A small-time crook helps a shy boy in search of his mother. In Japanese with English subtitles. [1999] Part of BBC FOUR's Asian Invasion Season.

[/ QUOTE ]

Listings for the next few days aren't on the site yet.
Oshii thing sounds interesting...wonder if they'll show any anime?

[quenelf]

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johnny said:
Jonathan visits Japan to explore rumours that Japanese cinema has gone off the boil, and meets animator Mamoru Oshii. Violent scenes.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! I want to know who started the fight! (Maybe Oshii set his dog on poor old Woss...)

--quen

[citicslmatts]

Ha! Awesome.

I remember hearing something about a bit of upcoming anime on BBC 4 - perhaps this might be it...

[Fudce]

hmm. Watching Jonathon Ross getting beat up is quite a draw, but even without it I'll be watching it!

[The Fixer]

I watched an advert for this on either BBC1 or 2 (I forget which exactly) but I wasn't as bothered about it, because from what I could tell at the time, it just appeared to be an east-asian martial arts dedicated cult season type thing.

It mainly seemed to be the Chinese kung-fu classics as well (highlighting the famous Bruce Lee, Jet Lee etc.) - I didn't think for a second there would be any anime involved, even with JR being a fan.

It's definitely the same thing though, I remember it being presented by JR and being called "Asian Invasion" too.

I guess the advert was for the first part of the series.

[Johnny]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
[ QUOTE ]
johnny said:
Jonathan visits Japan to explore rumours that Japanese cinema has gone off the boil, and meets animator Mamoru Oshii. Violent scenes.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! I want to know who started the fight! (Maybe Oshii set his dog on poor old Woss...)

--quen

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought "violent scenes" was referring to the fact that they will be showing certain scenes of films and not because Oshii is a psycho /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif
I could be wrong though...

[aniki21]

Kikujiro!?

Dammit, I don't have BBC4. Been looking for that movie for ages, too. /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

[Johnny]

Just had another look on the BBC 4 website, and the description for part 1 of 3 of JR's Japan visits is:

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Jonathan Ross visits Japan to explore rumours that Japanese cinema, once a world leader, has gone off the boil.

He 'breaks rice' with hot young director Ryuhei Kitamura, checks out a harrowing new drama starring Takeshi Kitano, and scans the latest from the prolific Takashi Miike. Jonathan catches up Hayao Miyazaki, the animator behind Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, and meets visionary animator Mamoru Oshii to discuss his recent sequel to the landmark Ghost in the Shell.

And then there's the film about the squid who becomes a champion wrestler...

This programme contains prolonged violent scenes.


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Kitamura, Beat Takeshi, Miike, Miyazaki and Oshii? Unmissable! /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[citicslmatts]

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johnny said:

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This programme contains prolonged violent scenes.


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Kitamura, Beat Takeshi, Miike, Miyazaki and Oshii? Unmissable! /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

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Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes! If all of the above is covered, it does appear to be essential viewing...

[Johnny]

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The Fixer said:
I watched an advert for this on either BBC1 or 2 (I forget which exactly) but I wasn't as bothered about it, because from what I could tell at the time, it just appeared to be an east-asian martial arts dedicated cult season type thing.

It mainly seemed to be the Chinese kung-fu classics as well (highlighting the famous Bruce Lee, Jet Lee etc.) - I didn't think for a second there would be any anime involved, even with JR being a fan.

It's definitely the same thing though, I remember it being presented by JR and being called "Asian Invasion" too.

I guess the advert was for the first part of the series.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think it is all going to be kung fu. There's that one clip of the guy holding a knife or something in the rain which IIRC is from the Korean film Nowhere to Hide.
There were also clips of what looked like horror films too.

[Njr Scrawl]

So...unedited Battle Royale on the Beeb?

For a Mamoru Oshii anime, be cool to see Jin-Roh.

[Johnny]

Here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/asian-invasion.shtml) is the official Asian Invasion page.

Seems it's split into 3 programmes each covering one part of Asian cinema. The Japanese programme (on next Tuesday) covers:

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FEATURED FILMS

Ryuhei Kitamura


Versus (2000, Tartan)

Azumi (2003, Optimum Releasing)

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004, Toho Film Company, Japan)

Takashi Miike

Audition (1999, Tartan)

Happiness of the Katakuris (2001, Tartan)

Gozu (2003, Tartan)

Mamoru Oshii

Ghost in the Shell (1995, Manga Entertainment)

Avalon (2001, Bluelight)

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004, Manga Entertainment)

Hayao Miyazaki

Spirited Away (2001, Optimum Releasing)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Optimum Releasing)

Shunji Iwai

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001, Optimum Releasing)

'Beat' Takeshi Kitano

Violent Cop (1989, MIA)

Boiling Point (1990, MIA)

Sonatine (1993, MIA)

Blood and Bones (2005, Tartan)

Katsuhiro Otomo


Akira (1988, Manga Entertainment)
Steamboy (2004, Sony/Columbia Pictures)

Jonathan's Other Picks

Wild Zero (2000, Gaga Communications, Japan)

Ping Pong (2002, ICA Projects)

Casshern (2004, Momentum Asia)

The Calamari Wrestler (2004, Klockworx Company, Japan)


[/ QUOTE ].

The list of films being shown can be found here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/asian-films.shtml).

Take Care of my Cat! /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[citicslmatts]

Well. That appears to be a whole list of exciting films and things. I haven't seen Steamboy or Happiness Of The Katakuris yet... Very interesting indeed.

I'm sure most people are well versed with the majority of those films, but that looks like a good line up in my book.

[DiGiKerot]

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johnny said:
The list of films being shown can be found here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/asian-films.shtml).


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Ping Pong is utterly brilliant.

[VonVib]

BTW, The Twilight Samurai is on Monday night on BBC4 at 10pm as part of "Samurai night" (documentary on beforehand), great film - and the doc might be worth a look.

[Mrdini]

[ QUOTE ]
ICM said:
Well. That appears to be a whole list of exciting films and things. I haven't seen Steamboy or Happiness Of The Katakuris yet... Very interesting indeed.

I'm sure most people are well versed with the majority of those films, but that looks like a good line up in my book.

[/ QUOTE ]

Er - they're not showing these films in full, it seems. Simply that Wossy'll be talking about them thus "featured".

[Njr Scrawl]

I wonder if the anime excerpts will use the Japanese audio subtitled, or raw even.

Probably depend on what's offered, & who does the back-up procuring for the clips. Might be a mixture.

[Johnny]

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Wrath of the Njr said:
I wonder if the anime excerpts will use the Japanese audio subtitled, or raw even.

Probably depend on what's offered, & who does the back-up procuring for the clips. Might be a mixture.

[/ QUOTE ]

In terms of the anime, I'm not sure. BBC 4 target audience + Jonathan Ross may suggest subtitles but you never know.
As for the live-action, subtitled I'd imagine - remember some of the films being talked about don't even have a English dub.

[citicslmatts]

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Mrdini said:
Er - they're not showing these films in full, it seems. Simply that Wossy'll be talking about them thus "featured".

[/ QUOTE ]

Awww!!! Dammit!!!

[Johnny]

For anyone interested, the BBC 4 page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/) has been updated with some preview clips, one of which is the interview with Ryuhei Kitamura.

[Fort Max]

Just watched the show, it was very interesting and managed to show quite a wide variety in just an hour.
Clips were subtitled for live action and dubbed for all anime except innocence.
Next weeks program looks at Hong Kong.

[Johnny]

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Fort Max said:
Just watched the show, it was very interesting and managed to show quite a wide variety in just an hour.
Clips were subtitled for live action and dubbed for all anime except innocence.
Next weeks program looks at Hong Kong.

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I agree. It was very good. As was Kikujiro which followed it.

[Tora-chan]

It was a good show, but it wasn't exactly adventurous with the films or people picked. I'll be watching them all though!

(the exception that was the Calamari Wrestler film worried me deeply... /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif)

[cpuuk]

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Tora-chan said:
It was a good show, but it wasn't exactly adventurous with the films or people picked. I'll be watching them all though!

(the exception that was the Calamari Wrestler film worried me deeply... /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif)

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Are you kidding, as with the Godzilla movie the Kalamari Wrestler went straight to the top of my "must get" list /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[Njr Scrawl]

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Fort Max said:
Just watched the show, it was very interesting and managed to show quite a wide variety in just an hour.
Clips were subtitled for live action and dubbed for all anime except innocence.
Next weeks program looks at Hong Kong.

[/ QUOTE ]

Missed it, & I'm glad now.

Tonight (18th) saw the HK episode & "Full Time Killer" movie afterwards. Good movie, I caught the Crying Freeman aspect before CF was mentioned. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Kudos to JR for covering Michelle Yeoh. Category III films didn't get mentioned though.

City Hunter/Angel Heart ought to be made as a semi-serious movie. With Andy Lau as Ryo. It would work IMO. /images/graemlins/knowital.gif

[BurtKenobi]

Subtitles for Innocence were completely incoherent. I assumed it was a bad Hong Kong versioN!

J

[Consignia]

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Jonathan Laidlow said:
Subtitles for Innocence were completely incoherent. I assumed it was a bad Hong Kong versioN!

J

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According to Ross, they were deliberatly poorly translated to reproduce the confusion of the original version. I can't say I didn't laugh at his statement.

[Tora-chan]

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Consignia said:
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Jonathan Laidlow said:
Subtitles for Innocence were completely incoherent. I assumed it was a bad Hong Kong versioN!

J

[/ QUOTE ]

According to Ross, they were deliberatly poorly translated to reproduce the confusion of the original version. I can't say I didn't laugh at his statement.

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It seemed as though they drew attention to it to boast about what a great job they thought they'd done with the subtitles. By making subs which are absolutely hardcore faithful to the film, are the subs which the fans have been demanding of them actually going to be watchable? Have Manga gone beyond the call of duty, or overstepped the mark?

Reckon these subs will just wind me up, glad they put in the extra effort for a dub. (It's an easy out, I know...)

[BurtKenobi]

Crikey - were those the manga subs? What a disappointment...

J

[Damo]

[ QUOTE ]
Jonathan Laidlow said:
Crikey - were those the manga subs? What a disappointment...

J

[/ QUOTE ]
Lets not jump the gun here, no one said anything about them being *the* Manga subs. /images/graemlins/icon_rolleyes.gif

[BurtKenobi]

Sorry - misread Tora-san's email which seemed to be saying they were, but he misunderstood the original post...

[Tora-chan]

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Jonathan Laidlow said:
Sorry - misread Tora-san's email which seemed to be saying they were, but he misunderstood the original post...

[/ QUOTE ]
Did I? Umm... I wasn't so much talking about how I interpreted the original post as I actually saw the show on TV too. Thought I'd quote it to emphasise my own opinion.

They really did give the impression that it was Manga's subs they were showing. I'm not just saying it to whine about it, just to draw attention to it.

It doesn't fuss me personally (I'll be buying the UK DVD regardless) but I thought I'd comment as some of the guys here seem to be interested about it.

Hope I'm not making any confusion. If it ends up that I'm just rumour-mongering forgive me! /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[Damo]

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Tora-chan said:
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Jonathan Laidlow said:
Sorry - misread Tora-san's email which seemed to be saying they were, but he misunderstood the original post...

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Did I? Umm... I wasn't so much talking about how I interpreted the original post as I actually saw the show on TV too. Thought I'd quote it to emphasise my own opinion.

They really did give the impression that it was Manga's subs they were showing. I'm not just saying it to whine about it, just to draw attention to it.

It doesn't fuss me personally (I'll be buying the UK DVD regardless) but I thought I'd comment as some of the guys here seem to be interested about it.

Hope I'm not making any confusion. If it ends up that I'm just rumour-mongering forgive me! /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm I don't believe they did, they made no mention of the UK release at all, I was under the impression that the subs were by the japanese, I saw manga's subs on the cinmea release and had no problems understanding the film, going nowhere near as far as to say debliberatly confusing to keep with the mood of the film or whatever it was jonny said.

Suffice to say the plot of Innocnece is non-existent til right near the end of the film anyway, all style over substance. /images/graemlins/icon_rolleyes.gif

[Tora-chan]

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Damo said:Hmm I don't believe they did, they made no mention of the UK release at all, I was under the impression that the subs were by the japanese, I saw manga's subs on the cinmea release and had no problems understanding the film, going nowhere near as far as to say debliberatly confusing to keep with the mood of the film or whatever it was jonny said.

[/ QUOTE ]
OK, that's cool. Guess I got the wrong end of the stick then!/images/graemlins/sweat200.gif
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Damo said:Suffice to say the plot of Innocnece is non-existent til right near the end of the film anyway, all style over substance. /images/graemlins/icon_rolleyes.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Great, I can't wait... and I thought the first film was over-indulgent in the philosophy department./images/graemlins/depresse.gif

[BurtKenobi]

Actually. my wife is normally highly anime resistant, Totoro and Spirited Away excepted, but she reckoned GitS and GitS 2 might be worth a go after watching the Ross thing with me....

J

[Njr Scrawl]

As its a BBC programme, you would not expect to have a commercial company marketing the show as a product mentioned.

[cpuuk]

[ QUOTE ]
Consignia said:
[ QUOTE ]
Jonathan Laidlow said:
Subtitles for Innocence were completely incoherent. I assumed it was a bad Hong Kong versioN!

J

[/ QUOTE ]

According to Ross, they were deliberatly poorly translated to reproduce the confusion of the original version.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, and we believe that. Just like Dreamwork's statement that the Closed Caption subtilte fiasco was "deliberate". It's about time someone stood up and said, "yup, we goofed, sorry" and bowed an apology.

PS I actually went to all the trouble of sending my Innocence back for the corrected subtitled version..... I waited 5 months.... I got the replacement DVD this saturday- another Closed Caption subtitled DVD /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

[cpuuk]

Hmm, did anyone else think that it was strange that Jet Li ONLY got a name check from JR. I mean, when it comes to great on camera fighting he's top draw, not too mention his "Once Upon a Time in China" trilogy are very good films. He must have made at least 20x HK films, so it’s odd he was so overlooked.

Steven Chow is very good; anyone not having seen "Shaolin Football", "Kung Fu Hustle" and "God of Cookery" should get down the rental shop ASAP.

[Mrdini]

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CPU said:
Hmm, did anyone else think that it was strange that Jet Li ONLY got a name check from JR. I mean, when it comes to great on camera fighting he's top draw, not too mention his "Once Upon a Time in China" trilogy are very good films. He must have made at least 20x HK films, so it’s odd he was so overlooked.


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I thought Ross made it somewhat clear that he was looking at the state of the HK film industry after 1997. Jet Li is making mainly Hollywood films nowadays, so...

The featured people seems to back this up - Stephen Chow, WKW and Derek Yee.
[ QUOTE ]

Steven Chow is very good; anyone not having seen "Shaolin Football", "Kung Fu Hustle" and "God of Cookery" should get down the rental shop ASAP.

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God of Cookery's out in the UK? (I had to import it). For what it's worth, if you like Chow, I'd recommend Chinese Odyssey 1 & 2, but would suggest a familarity with Journey to the West first.

To be honest, apart from the interviews, I thought the HK program was a bit weak compared to the Jp. one - too much fluff taking up space. Curious to see what the Kr. program'll be like - I've seen a fair few Kr. films and some are damned excellent.

[Johnny]

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Mrdini said:
To be honest, apart from the interviews, I thought the HK program was a bit weak compared to the Jp. one - too much fluff taking up space. Curious to see what the Kr. program'll be like - I've seen a fair few Kr. films and some are damned excellent.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't bother watching much of it myself but am really looking forward to the Korean programme and Take Care of My Cat which is a film I love /images/graemlins/happy.gif