- In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, a film has been commissioned in which 33 prominent directors will contribute a short vignette intended to reveal “their current state of mind as inspired by the motion-picture theatre”. The impressive list of directors includes many of the giants of Asian cinema, including Fifth Generation directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, Taiwanese auteurs Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-Wai and Japan’s Takeshi Kitano! For the full list, check out the press release here.
- Ruby Yang’s The Blood of Yingzhou District won the Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award over the weekend. Learn more about the film and read producer Thomas Lennon’s acceptance speech at the Academy’s official site.
- Mark Schilling presents a triumvirate of pieces about Mika Ninagawa’s first feature, Sakuran, including an interview with Ninagawa, an interview with star Anna Tsuchiya, and an uncommon 5-star review of what is sure to be one of the most talked-about Japanese films of the year.
- Variety has an interesting pair of reports on the Chinese government’s recent film-related actions: an environmentally conscious program designed to reduce environmental damage incurred during filming, as well as an initiative to build more movie theaters in rural areas.
- Last but certainly not least, Ryuganji reports that the great Japanese exploitation classic Female Prisoner Scorpion #701 is to be remade by Hong Kong director Joe Ma (who despite the gritty Big Bullet is a director primarily known for traditional Cantonese screwball comedies), with Mizuno Miki tasked with the difficult job of filling Meiko Kaji’s jailhouse jumpsuit! I’m uncertain that even Hong Kong’s “Category III” rating will be extreme enough to match the profound levels of excess present in Shunya Ito’s original trilogy, but I’ll be first in line to find out!