Wipe another one of the list, the 'Subtitle This' list which I am kind of responsible for maintaining, of films that we would like to see issued on DVD with English Subtitles. Whilst American happily paints itself into the corner of extreme, genre movies, elitist or oddly-commercial portrayals and manipulations (fine, some of those films we do want, but not only those films year in, year out), when a film appears on its home territory with English Subtitles it tends to make all that look a little odd. Good film is a good film, as always.
Here's one I've wanted to see for a while, an although we stand a good chance of being familiar with the idea of Asia as a continent turning out good films, when the artists truly cross borders (Korean Director, Japanese film) it can get a little confusing - so this is that then, a Japanese film by a Korean Director, the Director behind 'Scrap Heaven' and the Director behind '69' to name but a couple. This has been, if I remember correctly, both a critical and a commercial hit.
'Hula Girls' Review here at Twitch by Opus.
Hula Girls teaser trailer #2 (downloadable 9.2 MB MOV file).
Hula Girls teaser trailer #2 (downloadable 6.6 MB WMV file).
Hula Girls teaser trailer #1 (downloadable 5.6 MB MPEG-4 file).
Hula Girls teaser trailer #1 (downloadable 5 MB WMV file).
Hula Girls official website
Twitch: Article on Hula Girls, etc..
No YesAsia listing for 'Hula Girls' yet (watch out for that though) but...
Pre-Order Lee Sang-il's 'Scrap Heaven' on R1 USA DVD at Amazon.com [Direct Link].
You can also wipe off Noriko's Dinner Table as CDJapan are now listing it for preorder with English subs
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=GNBD-1413
This news just made my wife's day. She loved this movie at Toronto, as did I.
Thanks for pointing this one out, Logboy. Agree 100% about the niche marketing in the US which omits many wonderful commercial and art-house works we'd like to see released here with English subtitles. And Opus's review is well worth reading.
This is Japan's submission for the 2007 foreign language Oscar. Depending on how that goes, the situation could change fast. (Even if Almodovar's got the actual statuette virtually sewn up.)
Lee Sang-il actually didn't cross any borders to make this film, only his parents did before he was born. He IS ethnically Korean, but I'm pretty sure he spent his entire life in Japan (like the main character of Go)...that's why all his movies are Japanese.
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