Bride Flight / Bruidsvlucht (The Netherlands, 2008)

'Bride Flight' (Bruidsvlucht) is a fantatsic Dutch film which focusses on romance and tragedy. While I sometimes still have to get used to Dutch acting, this film is rather suprisingly good. Especially the technically aspect of film is outstanding, with beautiful scenes (not only of the landscape but also of during the dialogues). The acting of Karina Smulders is just perfect (and ofcourse the minor role of Rutger Hauer is nice to watch).

This kind of film will slowly get to your heart and will leave its trace there.

The story? Check the film!

Thirteen women of Jinling, The

Zhang Yimou's new project 'The thirteen women of Jinling' will start soon. While his latest work 'a Simple Noodle Story (aka: Three Guns: An Amazing Tale) is about to be released, Zhang Yimou said his film about thirteen girls who scrifies there lifes in Nanking will be his highest budget production which will exceed over 100 million USD. A true epic is about to be made!

Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise showed there interest in this production and one of them maybe will get the role of a foreign pastor.

"The film focuses on human nature," commented Zhang Weiping, "we put the story in the background of World War II to display the Chinese struggle and distaste for war and to show our national spirit."

All we can do is wait for the release of another masterpiece from Zhang Yimou.

Zhang Ziyi on Mary Claire

Zhang Ziyi on te latest (Chinese) edition of Marie Claire!

Meinte's Daily Film Fact #8 - owls

Hitchkock always used the sounds of an tawny owl in his exciting nightly scenes. But this tawnly owl lives in Europe and Asia and not at all in North America. David Lynch copied Hitchock and also use this thrilling sound. Well a great sound it is, but based on reality? no...

MEinte's Daily Film Fact #7 - Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

In the really strange but addicting movie 'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance' teh snow at the end of the film is not real. Two trucks of salt were used, scattered it all over the street and finally adjusted the scene using computer graphics.

46th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan

During the Golden Horse Awards 2009 in Taiwan a film about Nanjing (again) won some prizes! Though it is a bit strange: Wasn't Florian Gallenberger (John Rabe) told that he couldn't make a movie about the massacre because there could only be one film about this subject? First we had 'City of Life and Death' and now 'The Message'. Believe me, there are more to follow!

Fan Bingbing wins the award for leading actress in 'The Message'.

Meinte's Daily Film Fact # 6: Old Boy

The anthem of Oh Dae Su's and Lee Woo-Jin's school is that of Choi Min Sik's (acctor) school!

It is also funny dat Mr. han only speaks one sentence throughout the entire film. The line on the painting of Dae Su's cell reads "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." These are the first lines ofElla Wheel Wilcox's famous poem, "Solitude".

Finally: Steven Spielberg will NOT make a remake of this film, a good decision because it just can't be better....but Spielberg wanted to make it, he just couldn't get the rights of the manga's company....

Shinobi (Japan, 2005)

I didn't expect anything from this movie but it suprised me in a good way. Well, it is no masterpiece and the story has been told before but the execution is rather good. though the film is about figthing, it is i na stylish way. When no swords are drawn, the director pleases us with rather beautiful scenery. Just look at the poster...magnificent!

Fan Bingbing

Some new fashion photo's of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing came out this morning.

Design your Universe - Epica

The latest album of Epica 'Design your Universe' gives you what you want.

Almost 80 minutes of metal, close to perfection. Most of the songs are filled with grunts and guitars but also the heavenly 'Tides of Time' is brillint. It was already known that Simone Simons has a very strong and beautiful voice but on this album she is just amazing, her voice reaches all the corners of your soul. The epic 'Kindom of Heaven' last for 14 minutes and is forceful one, you have to listen tot it again and again before it will really grip you but it always keeps interesting.

Don't let this album slip away, it will give you what you are looking for!

Meinte's Daily Film Fact #6 - Orphan

Esther has been adopted from an orphanage which goes by the name: Saint Mariana's Home for Girls. In Catholic faith, Saint Mariana of Quito is the saint for those that have been rejected by religious orders.

Meinte's Daily Film Fact #5 - Memoirs of a Geisha

One of ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ most beautiful moments is of course the dance performed by Zhang Ziyi. But as you might know, this dance isn’t really described in the novel by Arthur Golden. The word ‘dance’ is mentioned but did the director create this scene using his own fantasy? The funny thing is that I just recently was reading Junichiro Tanizaki’s ‘The Makioka Sisters’ (Stille Sneeuwval). And what a coincidence it was, one of the characters in this novel, Taeko Makioka’ was dancing ‘snow’ completely with parasol (or sun umbrella)! It can be just a coincidence and maybe the director did some research about this ‘snow’ dance which is really an very old and popular dance, the resemblance between the film scene and the passage in the novel is intriguing.

H1N1 Fashion

In Beijing they do everything to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus. Luckily enough they found a way to combine this with fashion! The cute factor is extreme high!

Meinte's Daily Film Fact # 4 - Farewell My Concubine

Chen Kaige's 'Farewell My Concubine' (1993) was the first Chinese movie the win a palm d'or at the film festival of Cannes.
A rather funny fact is that Jackie Chan was offered the role of Duan Xiaolou (played by Fengyi Zhang) due to his own childhood experience of training in the Peking Opera. He turned the offer down because he was afraid the film would harm his image because it deals with themes of sexuality.

Tokyo Gore Police (Japan, 2006)

If you're looking for gore like 'Machine Girl', Tokyo Gore Police might be the perfect movie for you. Almost two hours of killing mutants (engineers), blood that cover the camera until it almost drowns and limbs that fly around your head all the time. Don't expect a great storyline, but in its genre it is a rather good film.

But there is also some beauty in this film, not only the intruiging beauty of actress Eihi Shiina. At one moment she holds up an umbrella to protect her face from the blood. So, gore can be beautiful as well.