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| ©. 24Framespersecond.net - for Asian, world, and horror movies news and reviews 2006. All Rights Reserved. Content from this site may be used if accreditation is given. Stills/images etc are copyright to their respective creators, and no breach of copyright is deliberately intended. |
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‘Highlander:
Vengeance’ is to be an animated spin-off of the cult
hit film Highlander. The movie is to be helmed by the acclaimed
Japanese director 
Way
back in April we first highlighted the extremely promising
upcoming British independent Zombie horror 'Human Residue'.
We were more than a little Intrigued by the movie and have
been covering the project from near the start. We have just
learnt that the principle photography is complete, which means
we can start to look forward to some real goodies appearing
on the films website. First of these is a swathe of great
new stills from the film, including some of the best shots
yet of the zombies, which you can check out 
A
trailer is up and running for Zhang Yimou's 'Curse of the
Golden Flower'. It's an intriguing first glimpse of the film,
and it looks like it will be one sumptuous piece of cinematography.
[Source] 
An
American poster for the dark Belgian Horror flick ‘The
Room’ by director Giles Daoust has turned up online.
That coupled with an “Exclusive U.S. trailer”
to check out on the films official site, would seem to confirm
that it has got (or soon will have) a distribution deal in
the States. Synopsis: "Alex (Pascal Duquenne) is
a man stuck in a wheelchair since a mysterious fall in the
stairs. Alex is traumatised by his parents: Max (Philippe
Résimont), a frustrated composer turned completely
mad and violent; and Marie (Françoise Mignon), a cold
and hysteric woman. Alex’s only friend is his sister
Melinda, who’s been taking care of him for years. But
Melinda, 9-months pregnant of an unknown man, also maltreated
by her parents, is about to leave the family home to start
a new life, leaving Alex behind. At the peak of the family
crisis, a mysterious door appears in the house, at a place
where there was nothing before. And everyone who enters it
disappears with a terrifying scream. The members of the family
discover they’re trapped in the house – every
exit seems unnaturally blocked – and they start disappearing
into The Room one after the other. Due to these terrifying
events, the family will have to face their most terrible secrets,
which will almost make them kill each other. But what mystery
is hiding inside… The Room ?". Nothing yet
as to an exact release date, but we will keep our eyes peeled.
'
‘4
horror tales’ is a series of films created by four up
and coming members of the Korean film industry, most of them
trying their hand for the first time at directing. All the
movies were filmed on HD (high definition) Video, and considering
each was made on comparatively small budget (equivalent to
just $1 million) the quality of the finished products look
great. We’ve included a poster and synopsis for all
four films below. Also theres the link for the website were
you can check out trailers for each of them. Enjoy.
Min-young
moves onto the fifth floor of a new studio apartment with
her six-year-old daughter, Joo-hee. She's concerned when her
downstairs neighbor, HAN Chang-soo, says that he cannot tolerate
the noise above him, even though the two women live tranquilly.
Furthermore, she is anxious about other residents' strange
behaviors – never mind the mysterious deaths. Min-young
hardens herself mentally after the move into the new house,
largely because of her daughter's unprecedented odd behavior
and continual run-ins with a bizarre woman. Convinced that
Joo-hee has fallen sick and perturbed by the mysterious events
around the studio apartment, Min-young looks to find the truth.
Ji-yeon,
a tollgate ticket girl, is frightened by a mysterious black
car, which pays a bloodstained ticket fee at midnight. Her
fear deepens after her colleague, Jong-sook, tells her that
12 years earlier a prisoner transport vehicle caused a traffic
accident wherein all the prisoners involved died – and
some of the corpses disappeared. Afterwards, a murder occurred
near the tollgate on February 29th every four years. Soon,
odd events become increasingly frequent, usually involving
a doppelganger of Ji-yeon. When Jong-sook is killed on the
fateful February 29th, Ji-yeon – with the help of two
detectives – starts looking into matters herself.
Roommates
Yoo-jin, Eun-soo, Bo-ram, and Da-young are cramming for a
college entrance exam. It's difficult for them to adapt to
the stifling atmosphere of the women's lodging institute –
and to get along with each other due to their differing personalities.
Yoo-jin has the most difficulty with the stuffy institute
life; she begins to have visions of events that took place
at the institute in the past – like the tragic fire
that occurred years ago. Yoo-jin gradually becomes consumed
with fear, and the relationship among the four intimate friends
begins to suffer.
Woo-jin,
Jung-ah and three other trekkers happily depart for a mountain
climbing trip. On the way into a forest – a forest which
is off-limits – Se-Eun and Joon-hoo are wounded and
the group is faced with a serious obstacle: they are disconnected
from any area where a cell phone is available and effectively
cut off from the world. Jung-ah is particularly uneasy; she
is unwillingly able to see the future, a residual influence
of her shaman parents. The stranded, frightened party soon
has an opportunity to discover the forest's startling secrets...
It
appears that Gillian Anderson’s new British film the
revenge thriller ‘Straightheads’ has dropped back
its release date from this year to next. A shame as we were
looking forward to seeing how Ms Anderson would handle the
part. We’ve seen her do period drama recently in the
excellent adaptation of Charles Dickens '
A
big thanks to the guys at 
The official site for the new Horror ‘Bug’ directed
by the mastermind of the 'The Exorcist' William Friedkin is
live, with a spiffy new trailer to boot. 'Bug' is psychological
thriller starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick
Jr, and written by Tracy Letts. The film based on Letts' play
is about modern paranoia in the wake of the Gulf War, and
contains elements of black comedy, romance, and horror. Its
looking good. 
The
Japanese and Korean Horror film industry really need to start
watching their backs. Thailand just keeps upping the ante
with the quality and sophistication of the Horror movies they
are producing. We have picked up on another upcoming film
‘The Victim’. This seems to go even further to
show that Thailand might soon well be the place to
go for Horror in Asia. The posters alone made we want to (more
of which you can check out 
Malaysia are creating their very own (and first) superhero
'Cicak-Man'. Perhaps they didn't like being outdone by their
neighbors Thailand who have their own big budget superhero
flick '
Chai-Lai
Angels, Thailand’s ridiculously over the top version
of Charlie's Angels is about to open in Singapore, but there
it seems to have been renamed with the rather dull title of
‘The Dangerous flowers’. The 5 glamorous girls
work as undercover secret agents, they have various disguises,
they fight criminal organizations, they look good while delivering
those high kicks, and even report to a "Bosley",
the list just goes on. Filled with plenty of camp, jokes,
implausible situations and crazy antics, you'd half expect
the Angels to be slick, efficient, and deadly. Not so. Our
leading ladies turn out on more than one occasion to be bumbling
and completely ineffective. The storyline (little that it
has) revolves around the girls defeating the evil plans of
an arch villain and his gender–bending head henchman.
While this is definitely a film not to be taken too seriously,
it still looks great fun. The movie opens in singapore on
August 24th. '
The
London International Animation Festival (LIAF) is a much anticipated
annual event on the festivals calendar. It swings into action
today and climaxes with the ‘best of the festival’
programme on 27 August. LIAF will be bigger and better than
ever before - more than 200 short films from 25 countries
will be screened over six days at the 
New
Asian horror seems to be coming through thick and fast at
the moment, and while quantity doesn't guarantee quality,
this latest offering from Thailand ‘Cadaver’ seems
to be quite promising. Synopsis: Mai is a medical student
who confronts a terrifying experience with an experimental
cadaver during her anatomy lesson. Soon after she begins to
be haunted by a woman ghost that keeps following her everywhere.
Mai frightened by the fearsome ghost, turns to her teacher
Prakit as the only hope for help. But, when she discovers
the truth behind this unknown cadaver, it leads her to find
the horrible story of a girl called Dawan, who links to the
cadaver. From the 
A
full length trailer for the good looking Dutch Horror 'SL8N8'
is now available on the official site. We originally covered
news about the film in an article back on June 4th.
You can read a more detailed summary of the storyline in the
archive 
Ananda
Everingham star of the excellent Thai Horror '
The
Malaysian Horror movie 'Nephesh Seed' – is to be the
first full-length Chinese language feature film to be made
in that country. The word nephesh in the Old Testament means
“soul” and can be alternatively translated to
mean “heart” or “breath”. Hence, filmmakers
Michael Chuah, Oliver Lee and Aron Koh, who jointly set up
production company Dream Image, decided to call their new
film project ‘Nephesh Seed’. The story deals with
the life of a single mother, who undergoes a medical procedure
known as in-vitro fertilisation in Singapore, to have a child
of her own. Five years later, she moves into a new apartment
and she notices that her child begins to behave oddly. Her
fears begin to mount when she finds her child frequently talking
to himself in the presence of a shadowy figure. The Cantonese
movie marks a turning point in Malaysia’s Chinese film
industry, as it is the inaugural full-length horror made in
the country and could be the first of many to come.'
The
website for the upcoming spanish Horror 'La
Hora Fria' has just come online. The
majority of the things of interest (for non Spanish speakers)
are to be found in the downloads section. There is only one
trailer so far and its the one we covered on August 14th,
but from the way the menu is arranged it looks like there
will be a lot more due. Soon
hopefully!
Those
of you who have a weakness for (me included) period epics
and who haven't had enough of Pirates and all things Swashbuckling,
you might like to take a look at Viggo Mortensens (The Lord
of the Rings) next project 'Alatriste'. Leaving behind middle
Earth to reappear in 17th century Spain, Mortensen is donning
his swords once again. Synopsis: 17th century imperial
Spain under the reign of Philip IV, a weak and easily manipulated
monarch dominated by a corrupt court. Intrigue and betrayal,
duels and battles, love and hatred are the stage for the adventures
of "Captain Alatriste". In his Majesty's service,
a proud soldier in Flanders and in times of peace, a hired
sword in Madrid and Seville. He wasn't the most virtuous of
men, nor the most devout, but he was a man of valour. His
name was Diego Alatriste. The film is based on Arturo
Pérez Reverte's best selling 
Synopsis
and introduction from the official sites Intro:Su·suk
(noun) The forbidden practice of inserting and embedding
foreign objects such as gold, silver, and diamonds under a
person's skin in order to increase the person's allure. The
wearer will have to respect a few taboos for this magical
spell to work, failing which the consequences will be dire.
Synopsis: "Beauty has a price. Soraya is a young
trainee nurse who is starting to feel disaffected by her life.
A chance introduction to the world of glamour piques her earlier
ambition to be a star. She does not succeed at first, but
she is told that the forbidden practice of susuk can help.
She has to make a choice whether to stay the way she is, or
cross the line... Meanwhile, Suzana is a prominent diva with
an air of mystery. She has long been a practitioner of the
black arts due to her use of the extreme susuk keramat. Every
time she violates a taboo, a human life is required. We follow
the eventful lives of these two women until we get to the
true secret of this dreaded charm". No trailer as
yet, but the premise sounds great. There are however some
production diary videos to been seen on the website. '
We've
turned up a trailer for Clint Eastwood's epic WWII retelling
of the life stories of the six men who raised the flag at
The Battle of Iwo Jima. Its just appeared on the Warner Bro's
Japan website, and it looks stunningly good! Synopsis
: February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally
within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the
most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle
for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would
become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines
and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.
The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol
of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made
instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of
the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing
that they had been immortalized. The film was inspired
by James Bradley’s quest to learn more about the famous
photo of six soldiers raising an American flag at Iwo Jima.
His father, Navy corpsman John Bradley, was one of the six
men. The trailer also has excerpts from Clint's other film
'Letters from Iwo Jima' , which is about the battle this time
told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought in it.
'Flags of our Fathers' 
We
were the first to cover news of this upcoming Spanish Horror
'La Hora Fria' aka 'The Cold Hour' back on July 7th.
Now a teaser trailer for the film has turned up on Youtube.
An added bonus is the one we have found has excellent English
subtitles. It's light on any action, but it gives you a good
idea of the dark mood of the film. One we can definitely add
to the looking forward too list. 
Find
out what's caught our eye from this months new dvd releases
The
first teaser poster has been revealed for actor Ji Jin-hee’s
new film. Ji is to shed his previous gentle image that he
acquired doing such romantic films as 'Bewitching Attraction'
and Love Letter, to be transformed into a "tough guy”
in his first action movie, ‘Su.’ Playing double
roles in the film Ji Jin-he has agreed to portray the twin
brothers Tae-jin and Tae-su in this action/drama from Tree
Club productions. In the film, Tae-su (the 'su' of the title)
witnesses the murder of his brother, and gradually becomes
determined then obsessed to exact his own grisly revenge on
the perpetrators of the crime. Directed by Sai Yoichi (Blood
And Bones, Quill) under the Korean name Choi Yang-il, the
movie will also feature Kang Seong-yeon (King And The Clown),
Mun Seong-geun (Virgin Stripped Bare...), Lee Gi-yeong (Soul
Guardians, Marathon), Jo Kyeong-hwan (Born To Kill) and Oh
Man-seok (Liar). 
We
have just stumbled across what looks like a very interesting
independent Sci-fi movie from Korea. As is always the case
with gathering information on new films in another language,
it can be hard to find. But we have done some digging and
here is what we know so far. ‘Brainwave’ was directed
by Shin Tae-ra, and first came to light at the 2005 Jeonju
International Film Festival where it was entered in the “Full
length Digital films section”. From what we can gather
the film so impressed the 
First
they sink, now they're the only ones to survive! From director
Minoru Kawasaki, creator of the bizarre but fun comedy '
We
are starting to get some info through about an upcoming project
of director Darren (The fountain) Aronofsky. He's planning
a remake of one of the most well known works in Japanese cinema
'Lone Wolf and Cub'. Known in Japan as '
The
Korean site for the Japanese disaster flick ''The Sinking
of Japan' is now up and running. As is often the case it's
a damn sight easier to navigate than the Japanese version.
There's also a ton a of great new posters to be seen 
A
video blog by the director David Slade (Hard Candy) has turned
up online. In it he talks about his upcoming Vampire film
for Sam Raimi’s Production Company Ghost House Pictures,
entitled ' 30 Days of Night’. For more info about the
films story check out our previous article back in 
How
cool will this be! Premiering this autumn is ‘Afro Samurai’,
an animated series based on the graphic novel by Takashi Okazaki.
Voicing the title character and co-producing the five-part
miniseries is Samuel L. Jackson. Story: With his unusually
long blade, a cold-blooded attitude, and an occasional drag
of a hand-rolled cigarette Afro is a lone warrior who roams
the land knowing no love and shedding no tears. Upon his head
is a cloth band with a mark that ranks him as the #2 fighter
in the world. But in truth, he lives only to wreak revenge
on the man who killed his father in a duel. That man ironically
happens to be the world's top fighter, who wears another cloth
headband marked by the symbol of the #1! Intriguingly,
Jackson is also tipped to be starring in a live action version
of the Manga, rumored for release in 2007. Check out the teaser
trailer for the animated version on the official site 
Some
extra updates have appeared online for this great looking
horror from Korea, including some new 
A
new poster and trailer has turned up for 
'kaijushakedown'
have picked up on what looks to be quite an interesting new
horror flick from Taiwan. The best synopsis we can find for
it so far is this — " A team of scientists
led by professor Hashimoto has managed to capture the energy
of a ghost child, thanks to their newly invented device called
Menger Sponge. The child, isolated in an empty flat, moves
his lips to words no one understands. Hashimoto enlists special
agent Ye Qi-Dong, who is able to read on lips, in order to
figure out how this child can shed light on life...and especially
life after death..." They have also found a great
looking trailer for the film. The one downside to it is the
incredibly cheesy narration over the top, which is very much
best ignored.
The
first full trailer for 'The Grudge 2' has arrived. I have
to admit to wondering just how much life was left in this
Franchise. The first 'remake' was an excellent retelling with
enough variation on the original to make it interesting in
its own right. But as with a lot of sequels there is always
that nagging feeling of worry that they will run out of steam.
Not so here. Damn this looks good!
Director
Goro Miyazaki’s animated adventure ‘Gedo senki’
aka ‘Tales from Earthsea’ has gone straight in
at number one in Japanese cinemas nationwide. Based on the
hugely popular Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin it tells
the story of Ged who is on a journey, searching for the source
causing evil disturbances to the world. Ged — once an
impetuous and arrogant goatherd boy — is now a mature
man, called by others as "Lord Archmage", the greatest
of wizards. Initially, "Earthsea" author Ursula
K. Le Guin wanted 
A
teaser trailer for the 3rd season of ‘Battlestar Galactica’
has appeared up on Youtube. We have also turned up a clip
of some of the Galactica cast being interviewed at Comic con,
but be warned, if you are going to watch it they apparently
drop a few big spoilers about the upcoming series. 'Galactica'
season 3 starts airing in October.