Good Morning, World

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How odd that someone edited together a bunch of shots of Takeshi Kaneshiro lying in bed. I mean it works for our purposes here, obviously, so bless 'em, but still. Takeshi turns 38 today.

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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... working up a sweat with Takeshi Kaneshiro.

Happy 40, Takeshi!

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Chungking Express (1994)

He Zhiwu: We're all unlucky in love sometimes. 

When I am, I go jogging. The body loses water 

when you jog, so you have none left for tears. 

A happy 43 to Takeshi Kaneshiro today!

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We Want To See Them Work It

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In honor of the release of Steven Soderbergh's male stripper bildungsroman Magic Mike which is out on Blu/DVD tomorrow, we held a lil' contest last week, wherein we randomly chose a winner from the likes of you-all who answered a question I put forth, namely for you-all to name five names that you would cast in the sequel. And I got way more emails for this contest than I have for any other, proving once and for all that I have an audience that likes to look at men in states of undress. (Shocker.) Anyway thanks to everybody for the replies, but we have a winner - congratulations Ty! - whose choices were an eclectically delicious bunch.

"This was a challenging hypothetical. If you'd have asked tomorrow it would probably be different. Thinking about it now I've come up with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Hunnam, Dominic Cooper, Skylar Astin, and Paul Schneider. Siiiigh, if only."

If only, indeed. Indeed there was so much "if only" going on as I read through your emails I knew I had to do something with them. So how's about a poll? I counted up all of your picks. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's junk-thrusting performance on SNL was obviously fresh in everybody's minds, because he walked away with the top spot handily. Next up came the Chris contingent of The Avengers to round out the top three.

From there on it was a bloodbath. (Sexiest bloodbath ever.) But I leave it to you. Below is y'all's top fifteen vote-getters, from top to bottom (and everything in between). Pick five, and then we'll have a perfectly democratic cast of thong-bearers. I will of course then send the final tally straight to Channing Tatum, who will make it happen exactly as we decree.* (If he's not pissed off that his co-star Matthew Bomer kicked his oh so shapely butt, that is.)

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poll by twiigs.com

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* I can make no such promise.

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Yura To Warhol & Everything Criterion Between

I was just literally thinking, "Hey I get paid today," when an email arrived in my inbox (not a euphimism) that reminded me the smackdab middle of the month also indicates something even better -- it's Criterion Announcement Day! And it turns out that the drop for the forthcoming April is a hefty one -- seven titles strong! The big one being Sean Baker's extremely popular 2024 film Anora, which will assuredly get a bank of Oscar nominations come Oscar nomination morning (whenever that happens, since they keep moving it due to the wildfires). I have my issues with Anora (which I've mostly gotten into on social media) but I think it's a fun, fine piece of entertainment for the most part, and the three leads (Madison, Eydelshteyn, and especially our boy Yura Borisov) are all pretty excellent. Anora hits 4K on April 239th and the disc is loaded with special features, check them all at that link. Also being released from Criterion that same day -- Baker's 2008 film Prince of Broadway, which I've never seen. Any fans of that one? It's actually streaming on Criterion Channel right now so maybe I'll watch it this weekend.

The other big titles from the April releases that I haven't seen are Claude Berri's 1986 double-feature Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, which adapts Marcel Pagnol's book into two grand and grandly expensive movies starring an incredible French cast including Gérard Depardieu, Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, and Emmanuelle Béart. Nor have I somehow ever seen Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 film Ugetsu, a wartime-set ghost story that stars  Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō (this one's also on Criterion Channel right now which I know because I've had it on my list for years and never yet gotten to it -- sighhhh). 

Then there are the usual 4K upgrades, which include Won Kar-Wei's masterful Chungking Express -- I have the WKW box-set already so I don't know if I'll get this but it is a masterpiece so we'll see. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro in 4K is awful hard to resist! Also getting the 4K upgrade is Billy Wilder's comic classic Some Like It Hot. Which, like,  what can I say about Some Like It Hot? It doesn't get better. It's, like, hot.

But wait -- there is one more! And this is my number one pick for the month. We're talking Julian Schnabel's 1996 film Basquiat, starring a maybe-never-better Jeffrey Wright as the famed painter making his way through the NYC art scene in the 1980s. I haven't seen this in literal decades but I remember really loving it, and it's been a difficult movie to get one's hands on for a good long while, making this upgrade extremely overdue. I mean -- David Bowie playing Andy Warhol! Come on now!

Takeshi Kaneshiro Nine Times

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Which Is Hotter?

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Tony Leung or Takeshi Kaneshiro in Chungking Express?

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poll by twiigs.com

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Happy 57, Wong Kar-wai!

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