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Yesterday, July 28, was the closing night of the 30th New York Asian American International Film Festival. Among other things, they chose to bookend this year's run with the Sundance 2007 Grand Jury Prize Nominee, Never Forever.

Vera Farmiga (The Departed) expertly becomes Sophie, the well-to-do wife of a successful Korean American lawyer (David McInnis, The Cut Runs Deep). But even with the big house, the important company of upscale living and everything else, Andrew cannot give her a child, for he is impotent. After Andrew slips into suicidal depression and her in-laws give her stern looks during prayer sessions, Sophie takes on desperate measures to save her marriage. She secretly pays Jiha (Jung-woo Ha, The Fox Family, Kim Ki-duk's Breath and Time), an undocumented Korean worker, to impregnate her. When business dealings and secrets unravel, Sophie must choose how to carry on.

The second feature-length film from writer and director Gina Kim shows us a strong turn in her storytelling, now that it takes on a much more straightforward narrative approach than her first film from 2003, Invisible Light, which although dealt in a similar theme of woman and body in relation to longing/intimacy, was more experimental in style. 

Turning the table on interracial relationships, women's identity and self-empowerment, Never Forever gives us believable and strong performances that ring painfully true in our lives today, transcending the race divide that it kicks off from. An opportunity of circumstance culminates into the moment of self-discovery as Sophie defines her life beyond those around her -- and it stirs the viewer with a chill and a nod.   (More)

Studio Flying, makers of the love-it-or-hate-it potty humor feature animation AAchi & SSipak, have put up still images from their latest project, Mad Monkey.
Twitch surmises its a direct-to-DVD and according to the company website's news section, it is indeed listed as an "HD project for DVD." The images seem to keep the raw, un-clean outline look of A&S, which would probably fit the context well of what will likely be lots of action and fighting. The stills also seem to suggest a more serious tone, plotwise. Here's to hoping it's anywhere between the swift stylization of Samurai Jack and the recently-reimagined Samurai 7 in tone.

Here's their short synopsis from their website, translated by yours truly.

The Six Warriors’ Saga

X-Men, Batman, Hell Boy.. What if the likes of these superheroes existed in ancient Eastern history? In a time that we never learned about nor have any record of, in a strange, unknown past...
Rather than be taken as history, an age that feels more like a legend or fairy tale. Six warriors ventured to the end of the world and knocked on the "Gate of Hell." Because of their fearless daring, people call them ____ [translator's note: the original Korean text leaves out words, what I assume should be "Mad Monkey"].
A tale about a band of six men, Six Warriors, that lived on while posessing both the anguish of humans and the power of supernaturals.

X맨, 배트맨, 헬보이… 동양고대사에 이런 슈퍼히어로가 존재했다면 어떨까?!  우리가 배운 적 없고 어디에도 기록되어 있지 않은 미지의 과거 어느때…
역사로서 인식되기보다 전설이나 설화로 느껴지는 고대 대륙의 시대. 세상의 끝까지 나아가 ‘지옥의 문’을 두드린 여섯명의 무사.  그들의 흉폭함으로 인해 사람들을 그들을라 부른다.
인간의 고뇌와 초인의 파워를 동시에 지닌채 살아갔던 여섯명의 무사, 육부대, 의 이야기.

• Studio Flying website
  
• Catsuka, via Twitch

Summer of '07 is turning out to be quite the party for Harry Potter fans -- the 5th movie, Order of the Phoenix, opened today just a few minutes before as I write this across theaters nationwide, and now it's only a week more until the 7th and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is unleashed and children of all ages stay up past bed-time for yet another night. By that I mean just like the movie, booksellers are having wild midnight events for the book's release and the big apple has a handful of 'em.

US publisher of the series, Scholastic, is turning their headquarters in New York City (Mercer St. between Prince and Spring) into Harry Potter Place where fans will be able to see a 20 ft. Whomping Willow and the Knightbus along with magicians, street-performers, joining in the unveiling of the first author J.K Rowling-signed U.S. edition of the book and the countdown to July 21, 12:01 AM.
Barnes and Noble has Jim Dale, narrator of the audiobooks in Union Square, and children's bookstore Books of Wonders has real live owls(!) mixed in with the usual magicians and jugglers.
The New York Magazine pointed out one certain bookshop in Greenpoint for their "adult-only" book release party, and apparently there's much more of that flavor elsewhere too.

Looking back, you realize that the first book was released in 1997, and that for some kids who've been following the series loyally, they are now adults -- some of them are over 18, 21 and the like.

So, it all begs the question, are you one of them? And if so, which one will you be at? I intend to check out at least two of these parties that crazy Friday night. We'll see. Me, I only started reading the books five years ago, when I was in college. Still pretty weird to think it's been that long since, and now it's almost RLY over. sad.

via Gothamist

After nearly 2 months of previews and cover articles in print magazines around the world, and interview/sneak-peek features at gaming websites, NCsoft and ArenaNet have finally announced release details for the first (and probably only) expansion pack for Guild Wars as we know it: Eye of the North hits store shelves on August 31, at $39.99. That's the price for North America, while it'll be €34.99 for those in Europe. It will also be available through the PlayNC online store system as a download that day.

While the expansion covers the already-known continent of Tyria that was first introduced in the original Guild Wars game (the "Prophecies" campaign, as fans know it), Eye of the North will focus its eye on the northern part of that continent (durr. i couldn't help myself, my first pun-in-a-post) -- an area that will introduce 150 new skills, and of course more dungeons, items and weapons. And don't forget the 4 new races in the storyline, some of which should be playable in GW2.

If you haven't been keeping track, the game is the only way for (More)

An internet comic sensation that vaulted the career of manhwa-ka (that's "comic writer/artist" in Korean) Kang Doha in the mainstream pop-culture of Korea a couple of years ago, The Great Catsby (위대한 캣츠비, weedayhan Catsby) is finally coming to TV as a drama. The first episode will be broadcast July 4th on the Korean cable channel TVN.

The comic that touched upon the coming-of-age trials and tribulations of twenty-somethings in a rundown part of Seoul was unique for a few reasons:

1. all the main characters are drawn as anthropomorphic animals, usually cats or dogs
2. their stories were brutally honest and real, able to reach out to and transcend an age-gap of readers who ranged from teens in high-school to even 30-40 year olds.
3. the drawing style is simple yet realistic, with many of the comic panels taking on the visual qualities of cinema and at times paying attention to fine details. (as the first in a trilogy of titles by Kang, that visual language gets perfected as he moves onto his next projects, read on.)

In any case, it's been a favorite read of mine. Then again I don't read too many comics, but trust me, this one's a keeper. If you don't believe me, its popularity is vetted by the 5 million views it got when it was serialized on Korean portal sites, over 200,000 books sold, and winning the 2005 Grand Comic Award in Korea. The title was turned into a musical last March, and after the drama's run will be made into a movie as well. For now, it is available free to view and translated to English at NetComics.com, who also publishes the manhwa - in full color, natch - and many other titles in book-form as well.

Any way, after all this success, the comic is now a drama. The cast was only announced in May and includes singer(DJ)-turned-actor MC Mong as Catsby, Park Ye-Jin as Persu, and Kang Kyung-Joon as Houndu (left-to-right in the above 'human' picture).



Manhwa-ka Kang Doha said of the drama,

"Although there isn't a chance for the writer to squeeze in the drama-making system, I'm happy just to be able to see the process of restructuring and making it anew with on-screen magic while retaining the framework of the source material."

read on for more info on the plot, drama director and comic creator's reaction to the first episode.

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