Over at Beyond Hollywood, Todd Rigney reports that CJ Entertainment America, the US branch of Korea’s biggest movie studio, is planning to release a couple of its films in North America. No Mercy and Hindsight will both hit DVD in North America on July 31st, 2012. A Blu-ray release for both titles is expected to follow shortly thereafter. Traditionally, Asian movie studios have licensed out their films to American distributors. … Continue reading →

June is upon us. There’s not much happening this month in regards to Asian cinema but at least the one film being released is a good one. Meanwhile, Universal continues to shuffle out their back catalog via Blu-ray+DVD+digital combo packs. Here are your Blu-ray and DVD releases for the week of 6/5/12: ASIAN CINEMA 13 Assassins (The Thirteen Assassins) (DVD) – the great folks from AnimEigo offer this 1963 samurai … Continue reading →

Cityonfire.com has received the following press release from Palisades Tartan on June 1st: Nominated for 12 Japanese Academy Awards, Yoji Yamada’s slow-burning, character driven samurai drama, The Hidden Blade, is being released for the first time on Blu-Ray in a special edition Blu-Ray/DVD Combo package. Based on a series of best-selling stories by Japan’s premier historical fiction writer, Shuhei Fujisawa, Yamada’s period study picks up right where his 2002 masterpiece, The … Continue reading →

Online now is the teaser trailer for a steamy new Korean period piece titled The Emperor’s Concubine. The film arrives from director Kim Dae-seung (Blood Rain) and tells the story of what happens when King Sungwon’s concubine becomes embroiled in a love affair with another man. This all takes place during the Chosun Era, which would be helpful except that Wikipedia tells me that this period of Korean history lasted over 500 … Continue reading →

After Drive’s Nicolas Winding Refn wraps up his his Thai boxing flick, Only God Forgives, the director’s next project may be The Killing Game for DreamWorks, which is based on a graphic novel called Button Man by Judge Dredd creator John Wagner and Arthur Ranson. According to Empire, “It’s Red meets The Hunger Games!” The plot of The Killing Game involves millionaires who pay former cops and mercenaries to hunt one another to … Continue reading →

Last year, Chinese film distributor China Lion made great strides in releasing more Chinese-language films in North America by partnering with AMC theaters. Chinese Films reports that the company has acquired 5 films at the Cannes Film Festival with the express purpose of screening them in American theaters. Granted, the hardest part of putting out foreign films in the West is securing enough screens to reach an audience – I’m … Continue reading →

At this point in his career, it’s fair to say that writer/director/actor Shinya Tsukamoto can rightfully be called a genius. The man behind such modern classics as  Tokyo Fist and A Snake of June has made an indelible mark on the genre known as “extreme Asian cinema.” Back in 1989, his 67 minute film Tetsuo: The Iron Man proved to be a landmark cyber-punk film that would go on to … Continue reading →

Over at Beyond Hollywood, you can scope out the first batch of spooky images from the new Japanese horror film, Kotsutsubo. The plot follows a high school girl trying to save her friend from a cursed urn, and is adapted from a popular short story by author Yamada Yuusuke. The cast includes Matsubara Natsumi, Yokoyama Rurka, Miyazaki Rina, Itogi Kenta, Kanayama Kazuhiko, and Shinozaki Ai. Kotsutsubo opens in Japanase theaters on … Continue reading →

Street Fight is a 70-minute martial arts film by the Aberdeen based, Noble Brothers Productions. The film follows the story of a young drug addict that wants to turn his life around. However, his plan involves entering a brutal fighting competition that puts him and all the people close to him in great danger. The film contains 12 gruelling fight scenes. Each fight is choreographed by the films editor, producer, … Continue reading →

Cityonfire.com has received the following press release on May 30th: Meyers Media Group and McDonald Entertainment have announced today that they will co-finance the thriller City of Night. The film, to be directed by award-winner Carl Franklin (One False Move), was written by David Chisholm (Kidnapped in Paradise) and will be produced by Brendan McDonald of McDonald Entertainment and Jesse B’Franklin, and executive produced by Lawrence Meyers (Unfaithful) and Randy Dannenberg … Continue reading →

THE MOVIE: Beyond the Black Rainbow is one of the most interesting trailers I’ve ever seen – it’s like a strange fever dream of 2001: A Space Odyssey, THX-1138, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s films. Set in the strange and oppressive emotional landscape of the year 1983, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a Reagan-era fever dream inspired by hazy childhood memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons. Beyond the Black Rainbow … Continue reading →