Top 10 Highest-Rated Korean Dramas In 2008Family dramas rule this year in Korean TV drama land. The majority of the Top 10 highest rated Korean drama serials in 2008 were family-themed dramas (mostly stories that depict relationship issues between husbands and wives, or mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law). Unlike last year when period dramas ruled, this year only two period dramas Lee San, Wind Of The Palace and Iljimae made it into the
 Taiwanese Movies Make A ComebackAfter suffering years of stagnating domestic box-office figures, Taiwanese movies made a spectacular comeback in 2008 with Cape No. 7 (海角七號), a small budget indie flick that has become the all-time second highest grossing movie in Taiwan ever (second only to the Titanic). Up till today, Cape has earned US$14 million in Taiwan and topped the box office charts in Hong Kong on its opening weekend.
 Trailer for Red Cliff Part 2The first part of John Woo's mega-budget blockbuster film Red Cliff (赤壁) has done phenominally well so far, topping box-offices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan despite less than stellar reviews from the Chinese critics.
The second part of the two-parter is set for a Chinese New Year release in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong on January 15, 2009, the film will premiere in South
 Latest News On Chinese MoviesThe Chinese movie industry has been abuzz with news on various big-budget films these last couple of days.
1. Jay Chou's new movie as a white haired gongfu expert.
Who would have thought that pop star Jay Chou (star of Iniial 'D' and Secret) will act as a white-haired highly skilled gungfu expert that teaches Once Upon A Time In China star Vincent Zhao, a highly trained martial arts exponent in
 Early Review and Trailer Of New Dragon Ball MovieThe upcoming live-action Dragonball movie starring Chow Yun Fatt, Justin Chatwin, James Marsters and Emma Rossum may not be too bad after all ;-)
According to this site, a reviewer who claims to have watched an early version of the movie wrote that the best parts included the action ("awesome"), James Marsters as Picollo, Justin Chatwin as Goku and Emma Rossum as Bulma. The worst parts were the
 My Thoughts On Japanese Movie 20th Century Boys Part 1Finally got to watch the the first part of the highly anticipated live-action movie adaptation of Naoki Urasawa 's hit manga 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年) over the weekend. Costing US$60 million and starring Toshiaki Karasawa, Tokiwa Takako, Etsushi Toyokawa and other top names in the Japanese entertainment industry, it's no wonder that I had sky-high expectations of this movie. And the film does
 Korean Hana Yori Dango Cast ConfirmedThe main cast of the Korean version of the hit manga Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) has been announced. Playing the female lead character of Makino Tsukushi is the very sweet Goo Hye Sun (of Pure 19 and King And I fame). And the super rich boys of her school a.k.a. F4 consists of Lee Min Ho (as hot-headed F4 leader Domyouji), Kim Hyun Joong from boy band SS501 as the quiet Rui, Kim Bum as
 Chinese Classics Come To Life On The Small ScreenThe television version of the classic epic Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (三国) (on which the hit movie Red Cliff is based on) has just begun shooting yesterday. Starring well-known Chinese television personalities like Ruby Lin, Lu Yi, Nie Yuan, Peter Ho, Chen Hao, Huang Wei De and Chen Jian Bin in the principal roles, shooting for this 60-episode television adaptation will last for one year and
 More Korean Drama News...On air Korean drama East Of Eden has been steadily climbing up the ratings chart hitting a high of 26.3% last Tuesday and 25.8% this Monday. With 40 more episodes to go, East Of Eden may yet hit a new high in its ratings.
Other dramas that have been performing well and moving rapidly up the charts include Jumong star Song Il Gook's 36-episode period drama The Kingdom Of The Winds (pic), a
 Confucius Coming To The Big ScreenA new US$22 million film on the most influential philosoper of all time in Chinese history -Confucius (孔子) will begin filming in November this year. The director tasked to make Confuciu's cinematic debut is female director Hu Mei, who is known more as a TV drama director rather than as a film director. She has directed some of the most acclaimed Chinese historical television drama serials ever
 New Korean Drama - East Of EdenOne of 2008's most highly anticipated Korean drama series East Of Eden will premiere this Monday in South Korea. This big-budget 50-episode drama has a star-studded cast comprising of some of the top names in the K-drama industry including Song Seung Hun (in his comeback drama after 2003's Summer Scent), Lee Da Hae (of My Girl fame), Yun Jong Hun, Park Hae Jin, Han Ji Hye (of Sweet 18 fame), Lee
 Japanese Films Rule The Asian Movie Roost At Venice Film FestAt the recently announced lineup of films in competition for the prestigious Golden Lion at the 65th Venice Film Festival which will take place from August 27th to September 6th, Japanese films are the most represented among all the Asian movies competing this year. Three Japanese movies have made it into the list of 21 films including two of the most anticipated animated features: Hayao
 Red Cliff - Some Random ThoughtsAs expected, John Woo's Red Cliff (赤壁) , the most expensive movie in Chinese film history, has broken opening day records in mainland China and topped the box-offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea over the last weekend. The US$80 million historical epic has already earned US$26 million on its opening weekend across these five Asian territories* and looks set to become the
 New Anime By Anime Master Hayao Miyazaki is called...Ponyo On A Cliff (崖の上のポニョ or Gake no Ue no Ponyo) and it is a story about a five-year old boy and a goldfish princess (hmmm... not sure why the goldfish princess has a human face but she sure is super cute!). This long-awaited follow-up to 2004's Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki will be released in Japan on July 19, 2008. And after seeing the trailer recently, I think that I have already
 Live-Action Manga & Anime Coming To A Theatre Near YouA number of high profile live-action movie adaptations of popular Japanese manga and anime are currently in the works, including adaptations of highly popular manga/anime like Dragonball. It is usually pretty exciting to see what the live-action versions of these manga will be like, especialy if you are a fan. But the thing is, if you are a fan, you may not like the live-action version all that
 Winter Sonata And Full House Are Back... As AnimeFollowing the success of the animated version of Dae Jang Geum - Jang Geum's Dream, animated versions of another two highly popular Korean dramas - Winter Sonata and Full House are currently in production and will be released in 2009.
The animated version of Winter Sonata will consist of 26 episodes and will have the original stars of the drama series Bae Yong-Joon and Choi Ji-Woo reprising
 John Woo's Next Project After Red Cliff - 1949John Woo's mega production Red Cliff is set to be released in July this year in Asia and a spate of new trailers for the movie have just been released (one of them below). High profile appearences by John Woo and the the cast of the movie including Tony Leung (Zhao Yun), Lin Chiling (Xiao Qiao), Chang Chen (Sun Quan), Hu Jun (Zhao Yun), Vicky Zhao (Sun Shang Xiang) and Zhang Feng Yi (Cao Cao) at
 Forbidden Kingdom Breaks Box-Office Records Across Asia After becoming the Number 1 movie in the U.S. over the last weekend, the Jackie Chan & Jet Lee actioner The Forbidden Kingdom has continued to reign over the box-office across Asia, topping box-offices in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and South-East Asia, even setting the highest opening day box-office record for China this year.This result is truly incredible and shows the immense
 Gokusen V.S. ChangeThis battle between the new dramas in Japan this season is starting to look very interesting indeed! Gokusen 3 starring Nakama Yukie has exceeded all expectations scoring a sky high rating of 26.4% on its very first episode last Saturday! This result has undoubtedly put pressure on ratings king Takuya Kimura's new drama Change which will debut on May 12, whether Gokusen 3 will continue to triumph
 Jet Li Wins Best Actor At The Hong Kong Film AwardsThe Warlords won eight awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards today, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Jet Li) and Best Director (Peter Chan). Co-star Andy Lau lost out to Jet Li in the Best Actor category but won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Protege. Best Actress was scooped up by Siqin Gaowa for her role in The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt. And Ang Lee's Lust, Caution added
 Much Anticipated Upcoming Chinese DramasAfter writing about the much-anticipated Japanese/Korean upcoming dramas in my previous post, here are the Chinese language dramas that I think will be pretty hot this year:Royal Tramp 2008 (pic)This Chinese drama, based on Louis Cha's martial arts novel Duke of Mount Deer has been in the news recently because over 700(!) cuts/changes to the original version has to be made in order for it to be
 Character Posters For John Woo's Red CliffCharacter posters for the 8 major characters in John Woo's mega production Red Cliff were presented at the recent Hong Kong Filmart. Just click on the names of the characters below to check them out.
Zhao Zilong - played by Chinese actor Hu Jun. Hmmm, I like Hu Jun but his Zhao Zilong really looks a bit too burly and tough.... isn't Zhao supposed to be a rather debonair and dashing general? For
 Most Anticipated Upcoming Korean and Japanese DramasWhat are the East Asian drama serials to look out for in the upcoming months ahead? I was asking myself that question and decided to look for some clues from the net and here is what I found:Korean drama series:East Of EdenAnticipation Score: 3.5/5This is Korean heartthrob Song Seung Hun's comeback drama after his military service stint and his first drama after 2003's Summer Scent. It will be
 Interesting Article on Asian cinemaCame across this article today on Asian films:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185459,asian-cinema-faces-up-to-critical-year--berlin-film.html
According to the article, East Asian films are in danger of becoming formulaic and possibly even petering out due to censorship issues and a general tightening in film financing brought on by the uncertain global economic climate. Some snippets
 Trailer For Red CliffThe Chinese version of the trailer for John Woo's movie of the year Red Cliff is finally here. Check it out:
http://tw.movie.yahoo.com/videoplayer.html/id=2556&type=movie&play=3052&tab=r
My thoughts: Frankly, I was ho-humming away while watching this 2 minute plus trailer because the battle scenes, although truly spectacular by anyone's standard, is just too similar to the battle scenes from so
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