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Times And MSN Pick HERO And
DAGGERS As This Year's Best
(Various) |
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December 30, 2004 |
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(Beijing
New Pictures Films / Elite Group (2003) Enterprises Inc.) |
TIME 2004 best and worst,
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine (Thanks to liling chen.)
Best & worst movies of 2004,
Dave McCoy, MSN (Thanks to liling chen.)
The best films of 2004, Roger
Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Best and worst films of 2004,
San Jose Mercury News
Rewinding the best and worst films of 2004,
Jack Garner, Lansing State Journal
Patriots and partisans: Gibson and Moore
grabbed the spotlight in 2004, Milan Paurich,
Cleveland Free Times
Zeros and heroes: all cinema wasn't merely
mass marketing in 2004, Charles Cassady, Jr.,
Cleveland Free Times
Best and worst films of 2004,
Bruce Newman, Tallahassee Democrat
The best films of 2004, Louis
B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
Reasons to disbelieve, Susan
Gerhard, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Not another 10 movies, Richard
von Busack, Metro Santa Cruz
Top 10 films of 2004, Matt
Zoller Seitz, New York Press
The most memorable movies of '04,
Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun
Sequels, documentaries make their mark
this year in cinema, Christopher Borrelli, Toledo
Blade
A rather animated year at the movies,
Bob Strauss, U-Redlands Daily Facts
AP reviewers' favorite movies
of 2004, Associated Press (Thanks
to "Bangkok Bobby".)
Good movies score in 2004, Bob
Tremblay, MetroWest Daily News
The directors, the actors, the issues, the
cameras, discuss, The New York Times
Denerstein: bios, politics color big screen,
Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News
The best movies of 2004,
Joseph Cunneen, National Catholic Reporter
Barely legal,
Melora Koepke, Hour.ca
Top ten best & worst movies of 2004,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Thanks to liling chen.)
.........
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HERO News 327- HERO's
Ranking Soared To No. 30 At The North American Box-Office
(Box Office Mojo) |
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November 15, 2004 |
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Click here for the numbers.
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HERO News 317- HERO
Remains As North American Box-Office Champion
(Reuters) |
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September 5, 2004 |
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According to Reuters, Chinese
film Hero tops the North American box-office for the second week by
earning US$ 9 million during the weekend, sending four new releases
into quick fade. It is "traditionally one of the slowest of the
year," said Reuters, and "the next few weekends promise to be
similarly quiet as well."
Related Story:
Chinese 'Hero' Still Tops at U.S. Holiday Box
Office, (Reuters via Yahoo! News
Australia & NZ)
Follow-Up Report:
The number now is estimated US$11.5
million during the four-day Labor Day weekend. The accumulated
number is US$35 million. (Click
here for detail.) Warriors Of Heaven And Earth
earned US$17,850 with four screens in New York and Los Angeles.
Related Story:
Belabored B.O.,
by Gabriel Snyder, (Variety via Yahoo! News)
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Harvey's Scaling - An
Open Letter
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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September 2, 2004 |
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Harvey Weinstein just
wrote an article to show us his side of the story, the story of how
Hero was treated during the past two years. I was an interesting
read, honestly to say, but still, there are so many questions remain
unanswered.
Harvey did not mention why he asked director
Zhang Yimou to cut his film, a practice contributes the most to the
notoriousness of his studio. Was getting rid of twenty minutes or so
really made the film significantly better, or it was just because a
short film usually a higher number of showings?
It would be somewhat understandable that why Hero
was not released at the end of 2002, if that were not delivered the
film until December, as what Harvey claimed, was the fact. It seams
that his studio was fully committed to get the film a full Oscar
push, in 2003 not 2002, and the film’s producers were responsible
for ruining the plan. Was there some communications problem across
the Pacific? After Hero was nominated for best foreign language film
of 2002 Oscar, why he gave it absolute no support, which greatly
contributed the film’s defeat in the category. The only explanation
I can come out is that they decided not to release it around or
right after the Oscar and showing any support at that point would
dilute the public interest which would harm the box-office later on.
Harvey said Jackie Chan’s The Medallion took date
pre-selected for Hero and subsequently they had to push it back.
That might explained what happened to that pushback. But, what about
the other four?
In the letter, Harvey claimed imported DVDs on
the Internet did not affect on the box-office because “few audience
members had seen the film on DVD.” It was true but there he missed
several points here. Those DVDs are not just available online, they
are also available in every video store in every Chinese community
of the continent; many individuals, much more than “a few hundred”,
had owned the DVD and many of them had shown it to their friends and
relatives prior to the release. It functioned like an advanced
screening, which greatly ensured positive word-of-mouth for the
film. But still, Harvey sent out his storm-layers to hunt down every
seller online, claiming they were fighting the piracy.
The release of Shaolin Soccer in North America
was a disaster. His explanation was that they mis-selected the wrong
target market with the wrong tactic – dubbed for broader American
family audiences was not as good as subtitled for the niche Asian
film fan core. Then Shaolin Soccer was released in a few selected
cities. It never went wider and never stayed in theaters for long.
In fact, Harvey’s common practice of manipulating Hong Kong films
actually scared the fans away from the theaters.
Once again, Harvey tried very hard to persuade us
that he was a loyal fan of Asian cinema and would push the best of
Asian to the wider American audiences wherever he got a chance.
Infernal Affairs is coming this fall and King Hu’s Touch Of Zen is
currently on the front list of Harvey’s restoration.
It seams Harvey has always shown us how deeply he
is possessed by Asian cinema and how hard he works to introduce it
to the world. However, Harvey always thinks he has the rights to
decide what people can see, how people can and when people can see.
He claimed it was for good for the films his presented but serving
the interest of his business had always come first. Films are
routinely manipulated rights of the original creators are often
ignored.
However, Harvey
finally decided to give Hero a full push is very implausible.
Whether it was one-time affair and a small step toward the right
direction, it is another question waiting to be answered.
Related Story:
Scaling the Chinese wall
(Varity via Yahoo! News)
By
Harvey Weinstein
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HERO News 315 - HERO Tops North American Box Office, Breaking Several
Records For Foreign Films
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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August 30, 2004 |
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Chinese movie Hero
dominated the weekend box officer with estimated US$17.8 million
revenue, according to studio estimates. Over the weekend, Hero
was distributed in 2,031 theaters across North America, easily
became the widest Asian release of all time, a recorded previously
held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with 2,027 theaters.
In addition, Hero knocked out Bring It On (US$17.4 million)
as the biggest end of August opening ever and landed on the second
place of best foreign language début behind The Passion Of The
Christ, a US production featuring a practically extinct "foreign
language" called Latin. It collected an estimated US$6.7 million on
Friday (another record for Asian productions), US$6.6 million on
Saturday and US$4.5 million on Sunday according to MiramAxe's
estimation. The record for all-time top growing foreign language
film in North America is held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
with US$128.07 million.
Two years ago, MiramAxe
paid a reportedly US$21 million for distributing Hero in North and
South America, some European countries, Australia, New Zealand and
Africa. Later when the film was released in east and southeast Asia,
MiramAxe broke the promise of releasing it in North America by the
end of December of that year, reportedly the
Weinstein brothers was concerned that a few of their own
productions, like Chicago and Gangs Of New York, might
be overshadowed during the Oscar race. Even after Hero
received an Oscar nomination for The Best Foreign Language Film,
MiramAxe still refused to carry out any promotion. During the
following one and a half years, afraid of not getting their 21 mills
back, MiramAxe pushed the released day for at least five times.
After MiramAxe's parent company Disney, who has fast-growing
business interest in China, stepped in and Quentin Tarantino
attached his name to the film, which somewhat eased the
Weinstein brothers' concern, MiramAxe finally picked a day August
27.
For
more talks:
Jet Li's 'Hero' Tops Box Office, by
David Germain, Associated Press
'Hero' Star Sits Atop U.S. Box Office,
by Chris Gardner, Reuters
'Hero' Soars to Late August Record, by Brandon
Gray, Box Office Mojo
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HERO News 314 - Opens In
North America Today
(MonkeyPeaches
Exclusive) |
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August 27, 2004 |
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Get the showtimes and tickets:
USA
Canada
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Top-Ten List Revisited: |
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February 2002, a Variety article broke the news that MiramAxe
picked up the rights to Hero for the English speaking countries. To
unleash my anger, I quickly wrote a Top-Ten list. Now, two and a half
years later, when MiramAxe is finally releasing the film in the US and
Canada, let's us take another look at the list to see how accurate my
"prediction" was:
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10. Promote it as
"from the people made Crouching Tiger" |
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In the trailer, MiramAxe wrote the film was "FROM THE PRODUCER OF
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON."
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9. Push the release
date back until DVDs from Asia are everywhere |
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MiramAxe promised to release it in November 2002, and during the
following two years, it pushed the date back at least five times. Now,
DVDs from Asia are indeed everywhere, despite MiramAxe's effort of
wiping them out.
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8. Dub it with some
Cantonese accent sound-like |
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One of many practices by MiramAxe and it has been tried on Shaolin
Soccer.
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7. Replace the
original score with some kung-fu music sound-like |
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It was also tried on Shaolin Soccer.
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6. Replace the
kung-fu music sound-like with some rap |
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It was also also tried on Shaolin Soccer.
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5. Cut scenes to
make it an hour and half long |
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MiramAxe forced director Zhang Yimou to cut the film into 1 hour and 38
minute long.
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4. Cut fighting
scenes to get a PG-13 |
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It got a PG-13 rating and some fighting scene was cut. Not sure they
were related or not.
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3. Cut dramatic
scenes to "reduce boringness" |
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The cut also includes dramatic scenes.
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2. Change the title
to "Kung-fu Heroes from China" |
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For a while, MiramAxe was using the title "Jet Li's Hero".
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1. Go straight to video |
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Believe me, several months ago Hero was really on the edge of
going straight to video. Then Quentin Tarantino started lobbying the
Weinstein brothers and Disney, MiramAxe's parent company, stepped in as
well. Disney is trying to push more of its movies into Chinese market
and a new Disneyland is under construction in Hong Kong. |
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HERO News 313 - MiramAxe's
"The Making Of" Featurette
(AOL) |
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August 25, 2004 |
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It features Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen,
Tan Dun (the composer), Louis Anderman (an Asian film historian),
and of cause, Quentin Tarantino.
Inside the Action: The Making of
Hero (QuickTime / 11:31)
(Thanks to "Paul".)
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HERO News 312 - HERO
Premièred In L.A., Finally
(Reuters) |
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August 18, 2004 |
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Zhang Ziyi and Jet Li. |
Zhang Ziyi. |
Donnie Yen and wife. |
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(Reuters
/ Fred Prouser) |
It is a very small première compared to what it has been
treated in Asia. Director Zhang Yimou and other cast members like Leung
Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung and Chen Daoming did not show up.
More photos from the premiere
Click here for more on Hero.
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HERO News 311 - HERO'S North
American Première On August 17
(Zhang Ziyi CSC) |
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August 15, 2004 |
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004
7:30 PM
Arclight Theater
6360 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, California
Lobby: (323) 464-1478
Jet Li and Donnie Yen will attend the
première, which will be presented by Quentin Tarantino.
(Thanks to Zhang Ziyi CSC).
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HERO News 310 - MiramAxe's
Littlie Trick
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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August 7, 2004 |
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In the original photo, Jet Li was holding a
straight blade sword, which was still inside the shell.
In MiramAxe's first design, the shell was
removed and the blade bent for absolutely no reason.
In MiramAxe's newest design, Jet Li's right
hand was rotated about 90 degrees counter-clockwise and his new weapon
was a curved blade sword invented about two millenniums after the time
period featured in the film. Furthermore, Jet Li's hair was cut,
arm was chopped and jacket was dyed brown. khaki Where did Jet Li's sword go? Just take a look at what
Leung Chiu-Wai was holding (far-left).
MiramAxe' press release for
Hero.
(Thanks to "Paul".)
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HERO News 308 - HERO
Extended DVDs - Product Details |
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July 28, 2004 |
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HERO News 307 - Behind The
Effects 2
(Animal
Logic) |
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July 18, 2004 |
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The site of Australian effect house
Animal Logic has a special section showcasing a few effects it did
for Zhang Yimou's Hero. Animal Logic was also involved in the
making of Zhang Yimou's second martial-art film Shi Mian Mai Fu /
House Of Flying Daggers.
Click here for the showcase.
(Spoiler Alert!)
Related story:
HERO News 222 - Behind The Effects
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)
January 13, 2003
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HERO News 306 - HERO
Extended DVDs Released Today In China
(MonkeyPeaches Exclusive) |
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July 16, 2004 |
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(Face) |
Left: Premium Edition (DVD-9), wooden box set, Hero
extended version (118 minutes) with Simplified Chinese and English
subtitles, bonus materials (62 minutes), plus a picture book.
Mid: Basic Edition (DVD-9), Hero extended version
(118 minutes) with Simplified Chinese and English subtitles, bonus
materials (32 minutes), plus a picture book.
Right: Basic Edition (DVD-5), Hero extended version
(118 minutes) with Simplified Chinese and English subtitles.
Note: products will be available for the market in
approximately one week.
(Thanks to all of you who sent me
reminders.)
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HERO News 305 - HERO Poster, MiramAxe Version
(Otakon) |
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June 12, 2004 |
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I yawn.
(Miramax Film)
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HERO News 304 - MiramAxe Has Made Some Very Cheesy Design For HERO
(Apple.com) |
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June 5, 2004 |
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Click here
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