11 January 2008

If you've already become weary of the Hollywood remake machine then I'm afraid the news is that is shows no sign of winding down in the upcoming months, with completely unnecessary new versions of favourites such as The Birds (ooo, can you imagine the CG fun they'll have with that?) and Friday the 13th in the pipeline, both produced by Michael bloody Bay. And while there has been a slowing in the past year of re-jigs from that favourite offshore source, the Asian horror market, it looks as if they are back in business there, too, with new versions of Ji-woon Kim's A Tale of Two Sisters and Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom's Shutter already in production.

To remind us how much better the originals always seem to be, Tartan are to re-release on UK DVD a selection of those Asian horror films that Hollywood has been feeding from, giving those coming to Asian horror by the reverse route a chance to see where it all began.

In February we get The Eye (Gin gwai), the Pang Brothers' super-creepy and occasionally alarming tale of a woman who emerges from an eye operation with the ability to see the spirits of the recently deceased. In charge of the Hollywood remake are French directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud, the pair responsible for the taught if not too complex Them (Ils), and stars Jessica Alba and Parker Posey. Oh I can't wait. Tartan's re-release DVD comes out on 11th February 2008 at the RRP of just £7.99.

In March Tartan will gather three favourites together in one box set. Hideo Nakata's Ringu was the one that really kicked off the craze for pilfering from the East and remains one of the best of all Asian horror movies, and for our money wipes the floor with Gore Verbinski's popular US remake. Also from Hideo Nakata was Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara), a more complex and suggestive film than the surface detail suggested, and one with a considerable emotional kick. Walter Salles' remake was darker but more obvious and actually not that scary. With the 2004 Premonition (Yogen), director Norio Tsuruta (who really let the side down with Ring 0) gave us a Twilight Zone-style mystery in which a man picks up a newspaper that fortells the future, including the death of his own daughter in a car crash, and faces the possibility that the future is not set and thus can be changed. German director Mennan Yapo handled the remake of this one, but was lumbered with Sandra Bullock in the lead. Tartan's UK DVD box set, entitled Asia Extreme Originals, will be released on 24th March 2008 at the RRP of £19.99.

Finally we have the 2003 The Tale of Two Sisters (Janghwa, Hongryeon), one of a series of creepy and stylish Korean horror movies made within a few years of each other, this one the tale of two sisters released from a mental institution and whose relationships with their stepmother lead to increasingly disturbed behaviour that threatens to destroy them. The remake's in the hands of British filmmaking brothers Charles and Thomas Guard, whose work I don't yet know enough to comment on.