By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “I don’t think that was Jackie Chan,” I told my movie date, as the lights went up at the end of “Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow.” And I owe her an apology, because it actually was Jackie Chan, who was of course good enough at playing himself that I […]
Fists & Fury — Martial arts festival comes to the Cinerama
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly The Seattle Cinerama Theater, owned and operated by Paul Allen, presents its first-ever martial arts film festival, “Fists & Fury,” from February 27 to March 5th, featuring, amongst other attractions, several films from Seattle legend Bruce Lee. Greg Wood, the Cinerama’s Director of Operations, took some questions over email. […]
Respect!: Celebrating Seven Samurai’s 60th anniversary
By Ninette Cheng Northwest Asian Weekly On December 4, Seattle will be hosting a film screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai for its 60th anniversary.
Japan’s World War II film idol Rikoran dies at 94
By Mari Yamaguchi Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese film idol Yoshiko Yamaguchi, who was known as Rikoran and symbolized Japan’s wartime dreams of Asian conquest, has died at age 94. Known as Shirley Yamaguchi in the United States and one of the biggest Japanese film stars during and after World War II, Yamaguchi died […]
Suzuki’s “K Missing Kings” elevates anime; “Love Child” documents tragedy
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “K Missing Kings,” an anime directed by Shingo Suzuki and coming to the Grand Illusion Cinema August 1st, begins in
“Rashomon”
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly If you need me to tell you that there is no answer, as director Akira Kurosawa once said of his masterpiece, “Rashomon,” then I am telling you: There is no answer. Such a question would not come up these days of course; “Rashomon,” first released in 1950 and newly […]
Finishing ‘Eleven Samurai’
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Director Eiichi Kudo’s “Eleven Samurai” (1966) completes his gritty, visually rich samurai trilogy. It features elements derived from the two earlier films, “13 Assassins” (1963) and “The Great Killing” (1964), but introduces additional elements, making the film worthy of its brethren.
Following the ‘13 Assassins’
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly When director Eiichi Kudo went into pre-production for his 1963 samurai film “13 Assassins,” he had no way of knowing that he would help pioneer a new age in samurai cinema. Kudo worked with screenwriter Kaneo Ikegami, who’d written another film, “Seventeen Ninja,” released earlier that same year, and […]
Telling a “Tokyo Story”
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly When the British Film Institute’s prestigious monthly magazine Sight & Sound published the new results of its once-a-decade poll for the title of greatest movie ever, the big news was that Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” had dethroned Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” in the poll of film critics — the first […]