Word: asianized
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...their recent trip to Malaysia, Lucky and Flo did what many visitors to Malaysia do. The Southeast Asian nation is one of the global centers for pirated DVDs, and tourists often load up on illegal copies of Hollywood blockbusters that are available for a tenth of what they cost in the West. Lucky and Flo, too, nosed their way to back-street shops that hawk bootleg films. But unlike the average Western tourist, this American duo was there to bust, not buy. The pair of black Labradors, who arrived in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur in March...
...Malaysia is hardly unique in Asia for the ubiquity of pirated DVDs. The U.S.-based MPA estimated that in 2005 its six member studios lost $1.2 billion to Asian movie pirates. In Shanghai, where I used to live, a popular shop called Movie World started up in March offering thousands of bootleg DVDs to a mainly foreign clientele. But competition is fierce in China. The next week another store opened for business across the street. Its English name? Even Better Than Movie World...
...There are creative strings attached to working with the Weinsteins, however. The brothers intend, as they always have, to bring what they describe as "Western sensibility" and "Western storytelling techniques" to their productions - but in so doing, critics say, they sometimes homogenize what should be distinctively Asian work. Miramax bought the 2001 Stephen Chow movie Shaolin Soccer - then the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong's history - only to recut, dub and delay the new version's release for almost two years. When it finally emerged, many fans of the original thought it ham-fisted. In the Jackie Chan...
...Industry eyes were therefore watching closely last month when Harvey announced that the brothers' new venture, the Weinstein Company (TWC), would oversee a $285 million fund for the production and distribution of roughly 30 "Asian films" in total - that is, movies made in Asia, by Asian filmmakers, or about Asian subjects. The move is expected to help the Weinsteins make important savings at a time when North American box-office takings are flattening out and production costs are on the rise. (The Weinsteins' five-month-old Grindhouse cost $53 million to make, according to the brothers, but has earned just...
...their defense, the Weinsteins can point to considerable success with Asian productions. In fact, if you name an Asian hit in the West, the brothers are probably responsible in some way. Chungking Express, Farewell My Concubine, and half of the eight highest-grossing American showings of Asian pics, including Zhang Yimou's Hero, were released under their auspices. Harvey Weinstein also claims a genuine penchant for Asian films, picked up, he says, through his friendship with kung fu-movie fan Quentin Tarantino...