July 2007

In which Calum experiences problems with transporting audio equipment and others are far less fortunate with cameras...

Ever have one of those months where everything seems to be going perfectly to plan only for an incompetent airline to completely shoot your intentions straight down the toilet with a vengeance? No? Well this month was one of those months for me - the goal of the column you are currently reading was to bring Impact readers a sit down chat with ace Hong Kong supporting actor Carl Ng (from such flicks as Heavenly Mission, New Police Story and Naked Weapon) currently doing the Hollywood thing in the Asia Argento/ Michael Madsen vehicle Boarding Gate. Alas, thanks to British Airways, this writer’s luggage arrived from the Cannes Film Festival with a few items missing - one of them being a Dictaphone, which is ever so slightly essential for playing the Ng tape on. As a result, the interview is going to have to wait but - on the plus side - it does open the door to look at a couple of recent Eastern horror releases. So, turning a negative into a positive, let’s look at three of the more popular Oriental spook-shows to hit the West in the past few weeks...

First up is Shutter - a...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Beau has spent over two decades in the comics business and this month traces the evolution of the industry.

I’ve been on the business and creative side of comic books for 20 years - this summer marks my two decades in comics as a matter of fact. It was 20 years ago that I was hired by Dean Mullaney to be the sales and marketing manager for Eclipse Comics. At that time they were the number three publisher just behind Marvel and DC.

Even before I came on board at Eclipse I studied the trends of comics both in the business and creative ends. I’ve always found it of interest and it’s also enhanced my work. When you stop and think about the 1950s was a strange and wonderful time for comic books. It was a great time for diversity, sales and distribution. You could still buy comics at almost every news-stand, grocery store and drug store. You had your choice of funny animals, super heroes, war, western, crime, sci-fi, mystery, horror, romance, historical and many other genres.

Even though there were some of the most talented artists working comics, there were no ‘stars’. Comics were still a disposable, cheap source of entertainment. The only reason to collect them was so you could read them over and over. Most...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Greg Nicotero creates the kind of effects that make you squirm. But are there now limits to what can, or should be shown? Impact goes behind the scalpel and prosthetics.

If you’ve ever seen a cinematic effect that makes you think ‘How did they do that?’ or a sequence where you wince because the action and injuries look so real, then there’s a good chance you’ve seen the work of Greg Nicotero. His skill with prosthetics and visual effects have graced the likes of action films such as Kill Bill, Minority Report, Serenity, The Hills Have Eyes, Sin City, Grindhouse, Hostel and its upcoming sequel, to name but a few. Impact asks the make-up maestro about the changing nature and challenges of the job...

Greg, right now the industry must be a busy place for you...
There’s a lot of running back and forth. I’m working on six different projects right now. I’m trying to juggle the second Narnia film... and there’s a certain irony to having Prince Caspian on one end and Alexandre Aja’s Mirrors on the other end - which is a gut-wrenching horror movie, the exact opposite end from family fantasy, fawns and centaurs...

What are the main challenges of the job?
For me, I guess because of my upbringing and the fact that I watched all those zombie movies as a kid and loved the...

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Hong Kong Homegrown heads to San Francisco where ‘the stunt people’ have released Contour, their first feature film.

Occasionally the West has shown it can hold its own in terms of cinematic martial arts. Films such as Drive, US Seals 2 and the recently released Undisputed 2 have shown that (a few) western filmmakers have learnt from their Eastern counterparts and created exhilarating kung fu flicks. Wearing its eastern influence proudly on its sleeve, Contour is another film which can be ranked alongside the aforementioned as one of the most exciting martial arts movies to come out of the West. Written, shot, edited, choreographed and starring the San Francisco collective known as ‘The Stunt People’, the film is a breath of fresh air and a glorious nod to the action filled glory days of ‘80s Hong Kong cinema.

Action and comedy collide in the tale of Law (Eric Jacobus), a down on his luck loan shark working for Tuoc (Stephen Reedy). When Tuoc’s latest job goes sour, Law reluctantly goes back to his regular job as a San Francisco tour guide. He picks up the hyperactive Prince Alfonso de la Rosario (Ed Kahana Jr), his silent bodyguard (Andy Leung) and an attractive reporter for a travel company, Renee (Tyler Wang). Alfonso has been sent to the USA...

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As Bruce Willis heads back to the franchise that launched his big-screen career, John Bierly retraces the path from original movie to this hi-tec sequel.

Nothing Lasts Forever was adapted for the screen by Steven E. de Souza (The Running Man, Judge Dredd) and Jeb Stuart (The Fugitive, John Rambo). Joe Leland's name changed to John McClane and, though Richard Gere was reportedly considered for the part, it ended up going to an unlikely up-and-coming movie star called Bruce Willis. Minor league scuffling as a private eye on the television series Moonlighting didn’t exactly qualify Willis as an action hero, but his appeal when the newly named Die Hard in 1988 debuted could not be denied. So even though Die Hard isn’t exactly a sequel to Sinatra’s film, it’s about the same character, albeit with a different name.
Anyway, Die Hard still holds up as a classic piece of action cinema nearly 20 years later. The daughter from the novel was changed to McClane’s estranged wife, Holly, played by lovely Bonnie Bedelia. So right from the start we’ve got McClane frazzled by family troubles at Christmas time before the terrorists even arrive. Playing the perfect villain was Alan Rickman, whose character was changed to Hans Gruber (from the novel’s Anton). Suspense in the film comes from all kinds of directions. You’ve got McClane playing the...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Mike Leeder provides the first review for Dynamite Warrior, brought to the screen by the team behind the success of Born to Fight.

While Tony Jaa is currently at work both in front and behind the camera, making his directorial debut as the star, action choreographer and director of the official Ong Bak 2, the team behind Thailand’s Die Hard in a Village classic action fest Born To Fight make a return to action with Kon fai bing/Dynamite Warrior. The film stars rising star Dan Chupong from BTF and Ong Bak as the lead, and marks the return to the screen as an on camera performer of the greatest choreographer in Thai action cinema, Panna Ritikrai. The team reunites for a film that manages to cram bone crunching martial arts action, high octane explosive stunt work, magic, cattle rustling and virgin blood into one wild ride. Impact’s Eastern Editor Mike Leeder delivers the first review for Impact...

Dan Chupong stars as Siang, also known as ‘the Dynamite Warrior,’ a Robin Hood styled mysterious masked avenger who fights unscrupulous cattle barons, rustlers and generally unsavoury characters with the powerful combination of bone crunching Thai martial arts and explosive rocketry. While Siang is revered by those he protects and fights for, stealing from the rich to feed the poor, he has a darker agenda....

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Following last month’s very positive review of the new anime, Impact takes a look at not one but TWO versions of the troubled live-action franchise sequel, The Source.

In the case of Highlander: The Source, it’s hard NOT to examine the state of play as a mythology in constant motion. A franchise already famous for having multiple versions of each of its cinematic chapters and a very vocal fanbase, the latest in the line of sequels seems to be upholding that tradition with The Source receiving a legal release on DVD in Russia many months ahead of its red-edited western release (currently pencilled in for around September). Sadly, the Moscow cut that came in from the cold, hasn’t had a very warm reception with critics or fans alike. It’s not hard to see why... the initial cut, which even some of those directly connected with it are distancing themselves from, IS something of a mess.

The good news first... The main cast, Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes, reprising their roles as Highlander Duncan MacLeod, the enigmatic Methos and Watcher Joe Dawson respectively, are all included with Methos and Joe in much greater roles than their casual inclusion in the last film, Endgame. You can always tell when an actor is happy to slip into a familiar skin and there are plenty of moments that show...

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Phil Hobden catches up with his old University mate and fellow movie-maker, Ed Evers-Swindell to discuss his home-grown zombie sci-fi actioner Infestation.

When you think of stand-out British genre directors, who jumps into your head? Danny Boyle? Naturally. One of the UK’s finest exports with 28 Days Later and more recently Sunshine. Or maybe Neil Marshall, the deft hand behind The Descent and Dog Soldiers. How about Ed Evers-Swindell, the director of Brit horror actioner Infestation? Who? From award winning student projects to ground-breaking short films, he’s been a film maker for more than fifteen years. Most recently his first feature film Infestation has been wowing critics across Europe and grabbing fans across the world.

Infestation was a real labour of love. I’m sure you’ve heard the story before... a film shot for a very limited budget over a period of years, a cast of unknowns working in less than ideal conditions being paid a wage that wouldn’t even get you Tom Cruise’s stand-in for a hour. But Infestation has something different from your average low-budget British independent film. It has scale, and lots of it. Big budget, Hollywood-style scale. This isn’t a movie about two angst ridden guys in a room discussing lost love, no, Infestation is something very different.

Thirty years in the future, mankind has been forced underground...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

The hills are alive with the sound of music. Andrez Bergen took on Impact’s grand master aural challenge to seek, locate, and nominate the rousing stars of Japanese movie soundtrack history.

Film soundtracks are more than just an aural shadow to a visual light source; it’s often the music - rather than the cast, director or script - that renders a movie memorable. Japanese movies are no exception. Even Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), while masterful on all counts, boasts an appropriately moody backing score by Fumio Hayasaka to lift the telling of the tale. Similarly, Chu Ishikawa’s pounding industrial music is the lasting legacy of Shinya Tsukamoto’s crazy cyberpunk experiment Tetsuo (1988), and four years ago Keiichi Suzuki almost perfectly underscored Takeshi Kitano’s take on Zatoichi. With these notions veritably ringing in our ears, Andrez Bergen took on Impact’s grand master aural challenge to seek, locate, and nominate some other rousing stars of Japanese movie soundtrack history.

KENJI KAWAI
Monikers like Hayasaka, Suzuki and Ishikawa may mean nothing to you, and fair enough. But to Kenji Kawai, they’re gold. “Excellent composers!” he told Impact. “I respect them all.” If Kawai’s moniker is also one you’re unfamiliar with,
readjust your seat belt - and shame on you. His soundtrack scores (along with those of his above mentioned Japanese peers) would sit quite comfortably on the same shelf as those...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

See the DVDs and games you should be keeping a look-out for over the coming month...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Neal Molyneaux dives into the world of cosplay at the Manchester launch of the Naruto DVD.

For those anime fans who’ve been locked in a box for the last few years, Naruto is one of the hugest anime franchises out there - rivalling Dragonball Z in popularity and spanning hundreds of episodes and several volumes of manga already. It’s catching on in the UK in a big way too, with the adventures of the hyperactive, orange-clad ninja and his fellow graduates of the Leaf village Ninja school proving to be an inspiration for cosplayers from all over the country.

Celebrating the launch of the second DVD box-set, Manga and Virgin had organized a full evening of events, exclusive previews, live bands and the highlight of the evening was a cosplay event with games consoles and goodie bags going to the victors. Personally, I have little desire to dress like my favourite anime characters, much less flaunt my creative skills with a sewing machine on a stage in front of my peers but fortunately, the youth of today have no such inhibitions and the Manchester event, to which I lent my dubious skills as a judge, attracted several hundred participants, most of whom came in costume.

The evening began, for me, by being ushered into the green...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Production I.G celebrates its 20th anniversary in style with a new Ghost in the Shell film. Impact examines the franchise.

In the beginning there was Masamune Shirow… and he created the Ghost in the Shell manga (Kokaku Kidotai), and it was good… so good in fact, that he wrote two sequels, Man Machine Interface and Human Error Processor. All were serialized in Young Magazine from 1991 onwards and, when Manga Entertainment and Production I.G were searching for a story to adapt in order to capitalize on the worldwide success of Akira, it was decided that Shirow’s cyberpunk opus would be ideal source material.

So it was that Shirow and Patlabor director Mamoru Oshii found themselves in the enviable position of having a world-class animation studio at their disposal, bankrolled by a hugely successful anime distributor, desperate for another hit, and a brief to create one of the defining and most influential sci-fi movies of the nineties.

Ghost in the Shell hit cinema screens in 1995 and went on to have worldwide, word of mouth success. Looking like nothing ever seen before with its cutting edge use of computer graphics and animation, and with a mesmerizing and intelligent storyline to back it up, the film brought Production I.G, Mamoru Oshii and Masamune Shirow to the attention of the world. I have...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Given the tragic events in America earlier this year, the focus has once again turned to how life may imitate art. Impact contributors and industry insiders give their views about on-screen action and its consequences.

Action. Drama. Entertainment. Three words that go together, or at least should. However a few weeks ago, action dramas were put in the spotlight courtesy of one of those sporadic tragedies that haunt the public and boosts newspaper sales. In this case the killer at the Virginia-Tech campus sent out a video that showed him mimicking Korean films like Old Boy. With the newspapers rapidly running out of first-hand material, many began asking if such violent films were to blame. Is it a fair question... or is it scapegoating an entire medium? For this month’s special State of the Action, Impact’s readers and several industry professionals examine some home truths and consequences.

John Mosby: While tragic incidents are relatively few and far between, is there a fair argument that some films/television encourage it in some ways by pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to show?

Greg Nicotero (make-up artist/FX guru): Well... the idea of violence in cinema is an idea that has been around for years and years - it’s not a new concept. As far back as The Wild Bunch and the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre people have always tried to push the envelope. I guess from my...

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...with a rundown of the this year’s winners and bruisers.

Hollywood’s unsung heroes were honoured last month with the 2007 Taurus World Stunt Awards, held on Sunday, May 20th at Paramount Pictures. Hosted by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the awards show was a riot of action, featuring free running, pyrotechnics, sword fights, motorbike stunts and a jaw dropping catwalk of scantily clad ‘models’ - all of whom were on fire!

The winners on the night are listed below, with special awards going to Gerard Butler (300), Burt Reynolds and Jeannie Epper for their contribution to the world of action movies...

Best Work with a Vehicle
Presented by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly
Talladega Nights - Steve Kelso, Doc D. Charbonneau, Paul M. Lane

Best Fight
Presented by Michael Buffer
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Tony Angelotti, Phil Culotta, Thomas Dupont, Lisa Hoyle, Jeremy Fry,
Kirk Maxwell, Tom Morga, Buddy ‘Love’ Sosthand, Mark A. Wagner, Jeff Wolfe

Best Overall Stunt By A Stunt Woman
Presented by Kelly Hu
Superman Returns - Debbie Evans

Best Fire
Presented by Josh Duane and Ali Larder
Letters From Iwo Jima - Simon Rhea
Best High Work
Presented by Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd (The Fantastic Four)
Casino Royale - Ben Cooke,...

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Transformers! Vampires in disguise... as priests actually... Impact ventures forth into the gothic world of Trinity - Blood.

Blood - Trinity is a new entry into the post apocalyptic vampire genre that came to fame, most memorably, in the guise of Vampire Hunter D and has continued to be exploited as a plot device since. The set-up for Trinity has it that the world underwent a terrible war followed by a nuclear winter that blacked out the sun. The ensuing years saw the rise of the vampire race known as Methuselah, who have taken over the former Eastern bloc. The surviving humans (known as Terrans by the vampires) have rebuilt Europe under archaic names such as Albion and the prime power in this new world order is the Vatican in Rome. The two races enjoy an uneasy state of peace with terrorist factions on either side running incursions into the other’s borders. The Papacy is held by an uncertain young boy and the main power behind the throne are brother and sister cardinals (I guess they got over letting women into the priesthood) - the brother a gung-ho warmonger and she favouring the more subtle approach. Of the Methuselahn government, little is mentioned but vampires and humans are known to co-exist peaceably.

Technology is a mixed bag...

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Not dead, just biding his time and punches... Jean Claude van damme returns to the screen for a dead reckoning.

Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a down and dirty self abusive New Orleans Police Detective who seems to be crossing the line between upholding the law and breaking the law most of the time. He’s got himself a nasty drug habit, his marriage is breaking up, his fellow cops don’t like him let alone trust him and his former partner Callaghan (Stephen Rea) went rogue a while ago, and everybody thinks he crossed the line with him.

As his public and private lives unfurl very messily for all involved, things take a turn for the worse when Callaghan re-appears and Stowe takes a bullet to the head. While Callaghan thinks he’s dead, Stowe is badly injured but survives and wakes up to discover just how little the world misses him, and that maybe if the bullet had gone a little bit deeper into his cranium, the world might be a better place.

As Stowe struggles to come to terms with the man he was, and the man he’d like to be and tries to rebuild his professional and personal lives for the better, the news that he’s not dead doesn’t raise Callaghan’s spirits and he makes plans to finish...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]

Slightly older as the years passed, but no less dangerous... we take a look at the famous HK Triad action franchise.

Far removed from the black suited almost corporate world of gangsters made famous by John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow series were the down and dirty streetwise gangsters known as the Young & Dangerous, or Goo Waat Jaai in Cantonese. The long running comic book series was adapted to the big screen by a young director named Andrew Lau, now best known for his work on the Infernal Affairs trilogy. The Y&D series helped make his name and that of his main actors, two young actor/singers named Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan. Impact’s own ‘Young & Dangerous’ writer Stewart Sutherland takes a look at the series.

The Young and Dangerous series was originally based on popular Manga comics entitled Teddy Boy written by Kau Man. The comics are about a group of young students joining the Hung Hing triad society and their perilous and exhilarating stories of lust, betrayal and gang warfare from Hong Kong’s criminal world.

The series made the leap from the comic book page to the big screen in January 1996, with Andrew Lau at the helm. The leading role of Chan Ho-Nam was played by the long haired fresh faced actor Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin (Stormriders). Playing across...

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She takes the punches in productions as diverse as xena, Warrior Princess and Kill Bill. Zoe Bell tells Impact why the hits just keep on coming...

It would be easy to describe hanging atop a speeding Dodge Challenger while being chased down a rural Texas back road by Kurt Russell with murder on his mind in Quentin Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse as ‘just another day at the office’ for action actress extraordinaire Zoë Bell. That’s the sort of thing Hollywood tatlers love to write, but, in this case, it just ain’t true. Truth is, what may be the most memorable car chase to hit the silver screen since Bullitt was actually a few weeks at the office (so to speak) for the wünderfraülien stunt pro and newly-minted thespian, and according to Zoë, it was anything but just another day. Speaking just after wrapping the high octane, highly dangerous and highly anticipated death-defying car chase where she clocked the majority of her screen time OUTSIDE the vehicle, she gushes “Dude! I just spent a couple of weeks hanging on the bonnet of a speeding car! It was SO f***ing cool!” [Note for American readers: ‘bonnet’ = ‘hood.’]

While her co-stars may have opted for stunt doubles, or at least to sensibly stay inside the cars during all the attempted vehicular homicide, the...

[To read this article in full you must buy the July 2007 edition of Impact]