Remember back in 2011, during episodes 26 and 30, when we promised to round off our three-part Taiwanese New Wave Cinema series with a Tsai Ming-Liang episode?  Well, only a year after those two episodes were released and we finally remembered too!  In this episode, guest host Marc Saint-Cyr rejoins us as we look at Tsai's 2003 love letter to cinema, Goodbye Dragon Inn.  Also included is talk of the 2013 versions of the Nippon Connection and Shinsedai Cinema Festival (that's right, it's festival season again!) and more!

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

It's kind of odd that I'm guest blogging on my own blog, but here goes.  For the third day of Adam Hartzell's one week series on Hong Sangsoo's The Day He Arrives here on VCinema (check out vcinemashow.com for more entries in this series), I dragged myself outside of my cave to an unusually sunny San Francisco to check out the film with Adam.  We tried to enhance the experience with Korean food and beer on the lower Fillmore, but found out that doing so only leads to stunts like impromptu podcasting sessions.

That's right, instead of text musings on the film, we bring to you listeners a bonus episode of spontaneous conversation about The Day He Arrives including first time impressions, pointed (not pointy) observations, all to the accompaniment of San Francisco's finest avant-garde kazoo players.

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

Yo ho, yo ho!  A pirate's life for me!  The VCinema is back from sailing the seven seas of Asian film to bring you a tale of a wee man from the Fragrant Harbor who kicked, punched, and threw himself off clock towers from precarious heights into the hearts of the world.  That's right, this episode we talk about Jackie Chan and the film that essentially put him on the map, 1983's Project A.

And we couldn't have a better person to captain our cinematic ship than special guest Ric Meyers!  Ric is an author, actor, commentator, former columnist at Inside Kung Fu and Asian Cult Cinema magazines and was one of the first proponents of martial arts cinema in the West.  Ric stopped by to talk about his latest projects, Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book and Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie as well as For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films.  Ric also regales our Project A review with plenty of interesting stories, tidbits, and reminisces.

Also included in this episode is talk about Koji Wakamatsu's latest film Petrel Hotel Blue, Wen Jiang's Let the Bullets Fly, and more!

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

Anyong haseyo!  Welcome to this special 2012 Korean Cinema Blogathon episode of the VCinema Show, our flagship podcast.  In this episode, we review the 2002 comedy caper Saving My Hubby starring South Korea's "It" girl Bae Doo-na.  Also included in this episode is news and discussion about the Korean Film Archive's new YouTube channel, as well as Into the White Night (2010), Air Doll (2009), Monsters Club (2011)

For the Korean Blogathon list of links to articles and other podcasts: http://bit.ly/kcb2012

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

In this episode, the VCinema gang return to the Southeast of Asia to review one of the more recent actionfests out of Thai production house Sahamongkol Film International, Dynamite Warrior.  Also included is Thai cowboys (and ladyboys), contest winners, Stan getting possessed by the spirit of Kim Jong-il, a gaggle of event announcements, and much more!

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

Welcome to the second anniversary episode of the podcast that talks about movies that exist!  We celebrate this auspicious occasion  by bringing our own family back together.  Esteemed former co-host Rufus joins us for a healthy discussion of the late Yoshimitsu Morita's debut feature The Family Game, one of the few '80s Japanese films that garnered international attention.  We also talk about our second anniversary (which you can also read about here: http://bit.ly/vc2contest), catch up with our goings on, and have flashbacks to the first two years of VCinema zaniness

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

Welcome to our second annual podcast episode covering the Zipangu Festival in London.  This year's festival ran from November 18th - 24th, 2011 in London and, much like last year's, featured films both contemporary and classic and from a wide spectrum of genres.  In this episode, we interview the following filmmakers and people involved with the festival:

• Jasper Sharp: Jasper is the Director and Chief Curator of the festival and author of the book Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema (FAB Press, 2008)

• Neil Cantwell, Tim Grabham, Ta2mi: Neil and Tim produced KanZeOn, a 2011 documentary about the role of sound and music in Buddhism and their dissemination into everyday Japanese life.  Ta2mi is a hip-hop DJ, beatboxer, and Buddhist priest who appears in the film.  Ta2mi also gives a banging impromptu beatbox performance of the traditional Japanese folk song "Sakura".

• Shinpei Takeda: Tijuana-based Takeda is an artist and filmmaker whose deeply affecting 2009 documentary Hiroshima Nagasaki Download starts as a project to interview World War II A-Bomb survivors becomes a personal journey of memory and experience.

• Takashi Makino: Makino is a talented multi-disciplined artist and experimental filmmaker who has apprenticed under the famed stop animators the Quay Brothers.  His Enter the Cosmos and Season Inter View programs and entry in the Nippon Re-Read: Radical Fragments and Abstractions from Japan I & II program offer visuals and audio accompaniment (by artists such as Jim O'Rourke and Takashi Ishida) that provide a view beyond the human imagination.

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net

Happy Holidays from The VCinema Show gang!  This is our last episode before 2012 so we want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, Noel, New Year, Hanukkah, Discovery Day, Kwanzaa, Haiti Discover Day, Boxing Day, St. Stephens Day, Solidarity Day, and everything in between until our next episode!

In this episode, we review the Korean blockbuster Moss (2010), a live-action adaptation of a web manga of the same name.  We also gather for the VCinema Book Club to talk about Ryu Murakami's Audition (1997), a book recently translated into English and adapted into a film in 1999 by Takashi Miike.

Are we feelin' it?  Yes, indeed, we are necrophilin' it!  Join our final episode celebrating the month of horror as we check out one of the few films that dares do the deed with the dead, the obscure 1981 Shaw Brothers film Corpse Mania directed by Kuei Chih-hung (The Boxer's Omen, The Killer Snakes).  Also, in this episode, we ask the question "What are your favorite Asian horror films?" to the listeners, Stan tells us about his meeting of two special people, as well as the U.S. premiere of Takashi Miike's Harakiri remake.

Email: vcinema@variedcelluloid.net