…or East, depending on how you look at it. Fresh from the success of Brokeback Mountain (and Walker Regis Dialogue), Ang Lee heads back to Asia for his next feature film, Lust, Caution. Based on a short story of the same name written by Chinese author Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution is an espionage love story of sorts set in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation.

A press release a month ago revealed that the two male leads would be played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (most notably from Wong Kar Wai‘s films and Zhang Yimou’s Hero) and Wang Lee-Hom (Taiwanese pop star who starred, if you can call it that, in Corey Yuen’s misguided Tekken film, The Avenging Fist). The big surprise is that these two very well known stars will be joined by two virtually unknown actresses. After months of speculation on the part of the Chinese language press, Ang has finally settled on Tang Wei from China and Chu Tsz-Ying from Taiwan to play the two female leads. Both will be making their big screen debut.

James Schamus and Bill Kong will return as producers, and Wang Hui-Ling, who penned Eat Drink Man Woman and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will return as screenwriter. Shooting on Lust, Caution is scheduled to begin next month in China and Malaysia.

John Mitchell was unlike anyone else.

I’m sorry if I sound trite in my grief over his death, but there it is.

I must start by saying that Mitchell always told it like it was. I remember him meeting Elliott Gould with a loud, cringe-inducing yet apropos: “You’re much BIGGER than I expected!”

He was a multifaceted, complex man. I only knew one small part of him: a great film lover in our community. He was an instigator and a provocative force behind the late, great repertory theater the Oak Street Cinema. Few knew of his behind-the-scenes impact on Twin Cities culture (which was significant indeed) although many experienced him holding court under the lights of the marquee and at other film venues such as the Walker, discussing cinema, poetry, psychology, life. The Oak Street was infused with his spirit: brash yet graceful; smart yet inclusive; and above all, humane. He had an acerbic, dead-on wit, but always followed it with his singular laugh – a boisterously loud bellow that embraced you in its sheer joy.

Mitchell, you will be missed.

We are very pleased to welcome our first guest blogger to Film/Video. Kathie is no stranger to the Walker. She is a long-time member and spent much of 2005-2006 with us as an intern. She was invaluable to the department and will likely return to us this fall to continue her work in creating our program notes and helping us keep the Film/Video train on the track.

Kathie has a wide-ranging taste in cinema and is one of the Twin Cities most steadfast moviegoers. (She is also my go-to person for all things related to Asian Cinema!) I’m sure she will lend an interesting voice to the blog. I anxiously await her presence here.

In the meantime, I asked Kathie to answer a few questions, Walker 8-Ball style, to give some insight into her filmic mind.

1. Name three films that should be required viewing, but typically fly under the radar.

Only because they are so sadly underviewed:

-Eureka (2000) Aoyama Shinji

-4 Faces of Eve (1996) Jan Lamb, Eric Kot, Gan Kwok-Leung

-The Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors aka Oh! Soojung! (2000) Hong Sang-soo

2. Who are your favorite filmmakers?

Chantal Akerman

Woody Allen

Pedro Almodovar

Robert Altman

Alejandro Amenabar

PT Anderson

Ang Lee

Theo Angelopoulos

Michelangelo Antonioni

Aoyama Shinji

Dario Argento

Fernando Arrabal

Oliver Assayas

Let me know if you want the rest of the alphabet.

3. If you could have made one film, which one would it be?

Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983)

4. What are the last three films that got you to a movie theater?

-The Descent

-A Scanner Darkly

More importantly, the last three films I saw that I wish were in a movie theater:

-Isabella (2006) Pang Ho-Cheung

-Eli Eli Lema Sabachthani? (2005) Aoyama Shinji

-Election 2 (2006) Johnny To

5. Favorite scene from a Wong Kar Wai film?

Two, off the top of my head, that always stick with me:

• Ashes of Time: Horse bandits are riding across the desert toward our iconic swordsman, Huang Yoa Shi. They stop; the leader pulls down his mask and scratches his mouth in an exaggerated yawn. Haung Yao Shi returns the gesture in a mute existential roar, and lets his sword fly!

• Happy Together: Black and white. Po-Wing and Fai’s trip to Iguazu Falls is falling apart. Fai, with his head in his hand, is the picture of despair. The film cuts to an aerial shot of Iguazu Falls in mesmerizing blue; the water seems to be falling to the strings in the Caetano Veloso song – unattainable beauty.

6. First movie memory?

Star Wars. I was 7. What more needs to be said.

7. Fondest memory from the Walker cinema?

There are a couple:

• In the early nineties seeing Christine Vachon speak – it was a real inspiration to me in so many ways.

• 2001 when the Walker hosted the “ New Asian Currents” of the Mpls/St Paul International Film Festival: Little Cheung, Platform, The Isle, Mysterious Object at Noon, and Die Bad – all hugely important films to me.

8. Most prized DVD?

Japanese Gamera Box Set 1965-1980

in addition to all of the films that Sound Unseen brings every year, they always manage to throw some pretty incredible events as well. This year is no exception.

The Sound Unseen Dance Party should prove to an unparalelled spectacle. Aaron, our trusty projectionist, and Brett, our stalwart in Visitor Services, are both involved in the production of Hardland/Heartland Lazerbeak/BlackGamut. I can’t tell you too much about what you will witness, but this will be the only chance you have to see it, and it will be like nothing you have seen before. It will take place at the Soap Factory on Saturday. The performance will begin at 10 sharp. Don’t be late.

The Gamut, a wayfaring group of mutated minstrels, are traveling the

lush hyper toxified plains surrounding what we used to know as the Twin Cities.

They stumble upon an altar, filled with reliquaries that contain the power and essence of the old warrior Lazerbeak. Lazerbeak was a virtuous hero who performed many valiant deeds.

The Gamut, using the reliquaries found at the altar, invoke the

magnitude of the old warrior’s power. They do this to save the world or at least to become some bastion of light. But the immense power corrupts them and transforms them into the The Black Gamut.

The Black Gamut becomes one of the greatest scourges to wander the Hardland/Heartland, a long black cut marring the face of the plains.

Coffin Joe (José Mojica Marins)