Two posters from the upcoming Tony Jaa move have just been released by Twitch. It’s Jaa’s first directorial effort and a promo trailer recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. According to a recent posting by Todd Brown at Twitch, he hits a home run.
Production values are fantastic, both in terms of set design and cinematography, and Jaa has obviously been paying attention when it comes to where the camera needs to be to shoot action. Heck, I’ll go as far as to say that the footage from this looks better by far than the latest efforts from original Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew.
Although it shares the same name as Jaa’s first film, Ong Bak 2 has a different plot this time around. Ong Bak revolved around Jaa rescuing a stolen statue from his village. Ong Bak 2, judging from the posters, revolves around liberating elephants from the orcs who ride them. “The real fight is back!!!” screams the poster. The real question though, is why Tony Jaa has dressed up as Encino Man for this movie.
Quick update on Se7en’s appearances this weekend. He plays a couple of clubs, he signs a couple of autographs at Verizon stores. Thanks to reader StarCrystal for informing me, his Verizon store appearances are for charity. As part of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Se7en appears on behalf of Verizon’s Hopeline program. More details from this press release:
HopeLine, currently in its 13th year, collects old, no-longer-used wireless phones and accessories from any wireless service provider. Phones that can be salvaged are sold for reuse, and those without value are discarded in an eco-friendly way. Proceeds from the HopeLine program are used to provide wireless phones and cash grants to local shelters and nonprofit organizations that advocate domestic violence prevention and awareness, such as The Center for Pacific-Asian Families.
Domestic violence? Sexual assault? Oh well, no joke there. If you still carry around those brick phones from the 1990’s, stop by, say hello to Se7en and donate it to charity.
The powers that be have tried their best to push Rain into the public consciousness. They tried to position him in Speed Racer, the first box office flop of the summer. They have him filming the lead role in Ninja Assassin with the Wachowski brothers. And now, they even tried to lend his vocal talents to the Kung Fu Panda movie theme song. According to POPSEOUL!, his version was axed.
I listened to it and it can be best described as, wha? Were they even trying to make a halfway decent song? Someone thought bringing back the 80’s in song would perfectly capture a giant karate kicking panda. Also, let’s agree to stop using the “Kung Fu Fighting” song for every martial arts-related movie out there. It doesn’t add anything to the story. The title, Kung Fu Panda, covers it all. If I can’t get the story from that, maybe cartoons are beyond my comprehension.
Zhang has been in Cannes this past week doing…well, not sure what she’s doing there. Perhaps promoting her new film, The Horsemen, co-starring Dennis Quaid. She took some time, along with some Chinese filmmakers, to honor the recent quake victims. Zhang personally donated $140,000, or the equivalent of a high-end Mercedes. Kudos to her.
She also spent time enjoy the sights with her boyfriend, Vivi Nevo. I did some research on Vivi. He’s some Israeli venture capitalist, owns a large number of Time-Warner’s stock and is old. Somewhere in his 40s.
They say love is blind and in Zhang’s case, he better stay blind. This guy resembles a young Ian McKellen, which is not saying much. He looks…worn. The guy probably has underwear stains older than her. Of course, he may have switched to diapers by this point.
What’s the proof you say? They held hands at the recent Korean music festival at L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl. Eeks! Hands?!? I hope Xiah Junsu asked Tae’s father for permission. Such brazenness has sullied her honor. What other man will want to hold that hand ever again? We all know what hand petting leads to.
If you were eagerly awaiting release information for the My Sassy Girl remake, your prayers have been answered. Sort of. You can watch Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford imitate Jun Ji-hyun and Cha Tae-Hyun on August 26th, 2008. The bad news. It releases straight to video. Look for it at your local truck stop by September.
The avalanche of remade Asian films is frustrating. However, this remake might have spurred some people to check out the original. They would’ve fallen in love with it, watched more Asian movies and slowly become interested in K-pop, J-pop and Cantopop. Then, they’d excitedly tell their friends, who’d tell more and more. Eventually, everbody would share in each other’s cultures and we’d have world peace. Oh well. Guess we’ll just have to satisfy ourselves by looking at Elisha Cuthbert’s titties.
Quick update on Se7en’s appearances this weekend. He plays a couple of clubs, he signs a couple of autographs at Verizon stores. Thanks to reader StarCrystal for informing me, his Verizon store appearances are for charity. As part of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Se7en appears on behalf of Verizon’s Hopeline program. More details from this 
Zhang has been in Cannes this past week doing…well, not sure what she’s doing there. Perhaps promoting her new film, The Horsemen, co-starring Dennis Quaid. She took some time, along with some Chinese filmmakers, to honor the recent quake victims. Zhang personally donated $140,000, or the equivalent of a high-end Mercedes. Kudos to her.
If you were eagerly awaiting release information for the My Sassy Girl remake, your prayers have 
