News From Abroad

By Minnie Chi

The Saito Kinen Orchestra Celebrates Genius Teacher, Hideo Saito

The Saito Kinen Orchestra with conductor Seiji Ozawa. Courtesy of Saito-kinen.com

The annual Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto will be held Aug. 22 - Sept. 14 under the leadership of Vienna State Opera music director, Seiji Ozawa and is not one to miss for classical enthusiasts. The festival was established in 1992 in the Nagano Prefecture city of Matsumoto and was inspired by a 1984 orchestral concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Hideo Saito, a teacher, conductor and co-founder of the Toho Gakuen School of Music, one of the nation's leading music schools. Ozawa initiated the formation of the Saito Kinen Orchestra with fellow conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama and a hundred or so more of Saito's former students to play in honor of his memory. The orchestra toured overseas since 1987 and since then, they have recorded extensively with a classical repertoire of works by Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler.

The festival is not only an annual homage to classical master Saito but a musical gathering of players whose goal is to send a message from Japan to the West, the home of classical music. The festival includes rarely performed operatic works, which the audiences enjoy immensely and also the 1,000 Voices Chorus concert, which began since 2000. The key to the success of the Saito Kinen Festival is the support from hundreds of volunteers.

The Saito Kinen Orchestra, led by Seiji Ozawa, performs Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (ed. Nowak) and more on Sept. 10 (7 p.m.), Sept. 12 (7 p.m.), Sept. 13 (7 p.m.) and Sept. 14 (4 p.m.) at Matsumoto Bunka Kaikan. 9,000 yen-21,000 yen.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago, directed by Olivier Tambosi, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, led by Seiji Ozawa, perform Verdi's ``Falstaff'' on Sept. 1 (6:30 p.m.), Sept. 3 (6:30 p.m.), Sept. 5 (6:30 p.m.) and Sept. 7 (6:30 p.m.) at Matsumoto Bunka Kaikan. 9,000 yen-24,000 yen.
The Saito Kinen Orchestra and the 1,000 Voices Chorus, led by Seiji Ozawa and Jonathan Webb, perform selections from Bizet's ``Carmen'' and more on Sept. 6 (5 p.m.) at Matsumoto-shi Sogo Taiikukan. 3,000 yen.

A variety of chamber music concerts will be held at Harmony Hall, including Bartok's 44 Duos, featuring violinists Robert Mann and Miwako Watanabe, on Aug. 22 (7 p.m.) 6,000 yen; Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and more on Aug. 24 (3 p.m.) 8,000 yen; Vivaldi's Concerto Gross No. 8 and more on Aug. 30 (7 p.m.) and Aug. 31 (3 p.m.) 8,000 yen; and Beethoven's Septet and more on Sept. 9 (7 p.m.). 6,000 yen.

The festival's Toru Takemitsu Memorial Concert VIII at Harmony Hall on Sept. 4 (7 p.m.) will feature works by the late composer. 4,000 yen.
Ticket reservations can be made by telephone on June 21 and 22 through Ticket Pia, CN Play Guide, Lawson Ticket and e+, which will also accept online reservations.
For more info, visit www.saito-kinen.com or call the Saito Kinen Festival Operating Board at 0263-39-0001. For information in English about accommodations, call JTB's Matsumoto office at 0263-35-3311.(IHT/Asahi: June 6,2003)

Bangkok to Host Second International Film Festival

The Golden Kinnaree Award for excellence in international filmmaking to be awarded at 2004 the Bangkok International Film Festival. Courtesy of Bangkokfilm.org

The 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival will be held next year from Jan. 22 - Feb. 2 and plans to screen about 150 movies, 50 more than it featured this year. The event will include special seminars, panel discussions, a competition in nine categories of films including the second annual Golden Kinnaree Award for excellence in international filmmaking, and a special segment on South-east Asian Cinema. The Bangkok Film Festival began as an attempt by the Thai government in cooperation with the Thai Film Federation to promote the local film industry and support the use of Thailand's beaches and islands as shooting locations for foreign films. Juthamaas Siriwan, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the event organizer, believes that the 2004 festival will attract even more attendees since last year's event was such a success.

There have been newly appointed U.S. programmers, including former Palm Springs International Film Festival executive Craig Pater, to help stage the program and introduce an international film market in addition to the Thai festival. Prater stated that it will attract many entries from around the world, "which takes advantage of Bangkok's potential to be a central marketplace in Asia." The festival, though still in its planning stages, aims to have an emphasis on international titles, Thai shorts, documentaries and features from all 10 members' countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

For more info, visit www.bangkokfilm.org

Korea's "The Good Lawyer's Wife" Goes to Venice

Poster of "The Good Lawyer's Wife." Courtesy of Krmdb.com

"A Good Lawyer's Wife" (Paramnan Kajok), directed by Lim Sang-soo and starring Moon So-ri, has taken the box office by storm this past weekend (August 23-24) in Seoul. According to Film 2.0 magazine, the film attracted 74,000 watchers, beating out last week's top movie, Sean Connery's "A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which harvested 64,000 moviegoers into theaters. Sang-soo's film reached the one-million mark on Monday, Aug. 25th, only 12 days after its release. The film, which looks into the infidelities committed by members of a Korean upper middle class dysfunctional family, has been invited to take part in the competition sector of the 60th Venice Film Festival held Aug. 27 - Sept. 6. The movie will compete with 19 others for the coveted Golden Lion Prize.

This will be the second trip to the Venice 60 for Korean actress Moon, who won the festival's Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress last year for her role of a woman with cerebral palsy in "Oasis" whose director, Lee Chang-dong, also took home the best director prize. The director of the Venice Film Festival, Mortiz de Hadeln, chose the Korean domestic feature for its lighthearted approach of the "absurd and harsh reality of a family's destruction." The invitation serves as hopeful news since Korea failed to break into this year's Cannes and Berlin film festivals. The festival will open with the world premiere of Woody Allen's "Anything Else," starring Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs and Allen himself. As a homage to Katherine Hepburn, who died in late June, the festival will screen a restored version of "Summertime" (1955) which stars the late actress as a lonely American woman in Venice.

Lea Returns Home to Sings 'Songs From Home'

Filipino-American singer/actress Lea Salonga. Courtesy of Malaya.com

International Filipino singer and actress Lea Salonga holds a concert scheduled for Sept. 12-13, 8 p.m. at the PICC Plenary Hall titled "Bayo Presents Lea Salonga: Songs From Home" which will run consistent with Bayo's "Filipino and Proud" campaign. The two-night event presented by Bayo, Salonga's own clothing company, is deemed a homecoming performance for Lea who has been away from the country for quite sometime, last seen performing in Manila during the repeat of "The Broadway Concert" in the summer of 2001. The director of the show, Bobby Garcia, said that the musicians involved have selected "some of the most outstanding songs ever written in our country." He also noted that 'Songs From Home' will consist entirely of OPM (Original Philipino Music) songs by "the finest singer this country has," that is, of course, Lea Salonga. Guests include Filipino-American singer and actor Paolo Montalban and singer/songwriter Ogie Alcasid. Musical director, Gerard Salonga, will conduct the 50-piece Manila Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ho Chi Minh's Hong Kong Days are Documented on a Huge Budget

A big budget feature-film on Vietnamese Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary activities in Hong Kong is hitting theatres across the country on Sept. 1, the day before Vietnam's national day. The 90-minute documentary is set in the 1930s during which Ho Chi Minh was jailed in Hong Kong after the British were coerced by French authorities in Vietnam to arrest him for his pro-independence activities as the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The title, "Nguyen Ai Quoc in Hong Kong," refers to one of the series of pseudonyms adopted by Ho Chi Minh and means 'Nguyen The Patriot.' The cost of the film was approximately 15 billion dong (US $975,000), an astounding figure for a Vietnamese film, and was produced by the state-run Film Studio Company and China's Zhoujiang studio, which contributed a third of the budget. It was shot on location in Vietnam, China and Hong Kong over a period of two months and stars Vietnamese movie star Tran Luc as Ho Chi Minh.

The producer of the film, Ha Pham Phu, who is also Director of the Vietnamese Writer's Association Film Company, set a heavy focus on the trial of Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh) by British colonialists, one of the most important trials among the international communist movement between 1930 and 1940. Phu emphasizes that this is a "historical documentary" based on extensive research and moderate artistic support.

Asian Film Purists Defend Shaolin Soccer

Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer." Courtesy of Joblo.com

It seems that the Cantonese sports comedy "Shaolin Soccer" has had trouble finding its way to theaters overseas. Though Miramax Films prides itself in acquiring and distributing foreign films, many Asian film buffs don't think the New York-based studio has much to take pride in because of their disregard for "Shaolin Soccer." Miramax acquired Stephen Chow's film after it became Hong Kong's highest-grossing picture of all time in 2001, originally slating its release in the U.S. for April of this year, then moved it to Aug. 15 and now has pushed the picture even further to an as-yet-to-be-determined fall release (tentatively scheduled for Sept. 5). The problem according to Chris Hyde, a digital-imaging administrator at Harvard's Peabody Museum who is an Asian cinema writer, is that Miramax buys the rights to foreign films but tosses it when they can't find a way to market it properly. Many on the other side find this a tad bit insulting.

In preparation for its American debut, the picture was cut by 20 minutes and dubbed into English with Chow's own recorded English dialogue with the hope that this Americanized version would draw in masses of youngsters, repeating a similar success Miramax experienced with the dubbed Jackie Chan movies "Operation Candor" (1997) and "Supercop" (1996). However, Asian film purists are not crazy about these alterations because it takes away too much from the original. On the flipside, Americanization can mean exposure to a wider audience. But Miramax seems to be undecided on who they want to target "Shaolin Soccer" to. After test screenings of the dubbed version in Calgary, Canada and Columbus, Ohio, sources from Miramax concluded that the results were "not as strong as we had hoped." The company decided in July that a subtitled print and restoration of the cut scenes will be released in three major markets: New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik has said that they have been working closely with Chow to try to fine-tune the film for a young American audience who have rarely warmed to subtitles. He added that the release of the movie was delayed because of Chow's unavailability for the publicity campaign, in which they hope to have him highly involved with. Also, some of the challenge in getting "Shaolin Soccer" into America comes from the fact that the U.S. is not a soccer country.

Miramax has released many films from Asia including China's "Farewell My Concubine" (1993), Hong Kong's "Iron Monkey" (2001) and 1999's "Princess Mononoke," Hayao Miyazaki's Japanese animated epic, which was dubbed by American and British actors (including Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Gillian Anderson, in 1999), but may find a difficult time not only releasing but marketing "Shaolin Soccer" the way Asian film buffs demand.

Bayside Shakedown 2 Breaks the Record

Poster of "Bayside Shakedown 2." Courtesy of Getvcds.com

"Odoru Daisosasen The Movie 2" ("Bayside Shakedown 2") becomes the fastest to reach over 500 million people in the box office of Japan and has broken the 20-year-old box-office record for non-animated films. The police drama directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, amassed revenues of 11.1 billion yen in just 30 days after its July 19 nationwide release, surpassing the previous box office record of 11 billion for 1983's action film "Nankyoku Monogatari" ("Antarctica").

"Bayside Shakedown 2" is the third most successful Japanese movie to date in terms of box-office revenues, following the 30.4 billion yen brought in by the Oscar-winning 2001 animated film "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" ("Spirited Away") and the 19.3 billion yen earned by 1997's animation film, "Mononokehime" ("Princess Mononoke"). Japan's box office hit will be screening in most Asian countries later this year including South Korea and Hong Kong.

Singaporean Stars Take the Plunge to Raise Funds

Mediacorp of Singapore is gathering its celebrities once again for the President's Star Charity next month. This will be the 10th year artists, deejays, sports stars and media celebrities will come together to help more than 40 beneficiaries selected by President SR Nathan, including the Asian Women's Welfare Association, Hospice Care Association and Spastic Children Association School.

Last year, Fann Wong and Huang Biren duked it out with their respective teams to raise a whooping $2.3 million, double the amount raised in 2001. This year, Tay Ping Hui and Sharon Au will lead the Blue and Red teams respectively to compete in a myriad of games, stunts and entertaining challenges to win as much donation dollars as possible. Other Mediacorp celebrities that will take part in this charity event are Choo Mimi, Terence Cao, Daniel Ong, Alan Tern, Jeff Wang and Aaron Aziz. Over the next three weeks, artists and media figures will undertake rigorous training to prepare for the "fight."

PSC host Gurmit Singh will be the mediator before the final showdown on Sunday, Sept. 14. Producers of the show are hoping the artists' determination and spirit will charm homeviewers into donating to support either team through telepoll lines.

The President's Star Charity will be shown live on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 on Sunday, September 14 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, with an encore telecast on Saturday, 20 September 2003 at 5.30pm.

Bollywood Goes Under the Knife

Bollywood's top stars are being forced to have plastic surgery done on their bodies and faces to keep their glamorous, to-die-for looks. Star surgeon Dr. Narendra Pandya says that she has seen almost a 30% jump in the last year. Most actors and models who once traveled to other countries to perform surgery now use Indian doctors, despite the high cost of 'tuck' and 'lift,' which ranges from Rs 30,000 for reconstructive surgery to over Rs 1 lakh for breast implants.

Hong Kong's So Close to Having Their Own Angels

(Left to right): Actresses Zhao Wei, Karen Mok and Shu Qi of "So Close." Courtesy of Subwaycinema.com

Drew, Cameron and Lucy aren't the only ones having a blast as females that fight. Director Corey Yuen ("The Enforcer," "The Legend," "No Retreat," "No Surrender," "The Defender," "The Legend 2") and martial arts choreographer ("Lethal Weapon 4," "Kiss of the Dragon," "Romeo Must Die," "Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain") has set an action film that centers around a female band of assassins. The sister-assassin duo of Lynn (Shu Qi of "The Transporter") and Sue (Zhao Wei) are on a mission to carry out the orders of Chow Nun, an ambitious businessman driven to kill his brother Chow Liu to take over his wealthy computer company. Investigators in Chow Liu's company, Kong Yat Hong (Karen Mok) who is the third hard-hittin' female, and her partner Mark are assigned to the case. Though "So Close" has been influenced by "Charlie's Angels"' concept of three heroine crime fighters, this movie differs in that these three women are not all on the same side and eventually come face-to-face in combat with each other. Nevertheless, the film is fast, furious, full of technological mastery and riveting special effects that create acrobatic superhuman fight scenes.

Interestingly, Shu Qi was originally offered Zhang Ziyi's role in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" but turned it down to film "So Close." Last summer, singer Coco Lee was in talks to costar but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Actress/singer Cecilia Chung apparently dropped out as well.

Already a success in Hong Kong, "So Close" will be released in New York on Sept. 12 this fall and will expand to other cities at later dates. Although this movie was produced by Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Columbia Pictures will not be handling its U.S. release and Strand Releasing will instead. However, the eventual video release will most likely be done through Sony/Columbia.

For more info, visit: www.So-Close.com