THE FUTURE AND THE PAST IN REVIEW

With Kaiju Shakedown closing up today, I am totally disappointed that I'll never know how some things will turn out.

- Will THE HOST make money in America? Magnolia's betting the farm on this one and it could go either way. The opening weekend number that'll be reported on March 12 is going to make or break a lot of upcoming movies and could either spark a feeding frenzy or put a chill on Asian genre film acquisitions for a long time to come.

- Will 2007 be the year Johnnie To goes mainstream with TRIAD ELECTION (aka ELECTION 2) coming up from Tartan and EXILED coming up from Magnolia? Or will these just be more Johnnie To movies that the American public really doesn't care about?

- Wither Tartan? A sharp-eyed reader reports that Tartan is teasing some big surprise that'll pop up on their Asian Extreme website soon. But they've got some real underperformers in their catalogue, a lot of staff have left, and there seem to be some cash flow problems. I wouldn't count them out, however, they can still turn this around.

- Wither Dragon Dynasty? I never thought I'd see the day when the Weinsteins are actually putting out a respectable line of Asian DVDs but here we are in 2007 and they've got four titles under their belt and more on the way. The line is new and it's got both weaknesses and strengths so it could go either way - to the Dark Side or the Light - and only their performance for the rest of this year will tell the tale.

- Thailand? Korea? Both countries had a moment in the sun when they thought they were invincible but have fallen into shadow. Thailand thought it was going to mint money with Tony Jaa and it did mint money, only not as much as they anticipated. Industry infighting and a laughable film festival threw mud on what was left of their self-esteem. Korea made tons of cash in 2005 but in 2006 it discovered that success was a double-edged sword. The film quota system has been cut again, exports have dropped, and local producers complain that management companies hold too much power and certain movies have a monopoly on screens, keeping smaller movies from competing. So what does 2007 hold for them?

- Will Japan keep on keeping on in '07? Japan had a record year in '06 and now it just remains to be seen if this is an anomaly, or if the sudden, massive popularity of Japanese movies is the real dizzle fo shizzle or was it just some kind of crazy bump in the road.

- Will DYNAMITE WARRIOR really be released by Magnolia in Summer '07?

- Is THE SPERM actually going to be good?

- What about THE BODYGUARD 2?

- Is PROTEGE going to be just another TRAFFIC knock-off?

- Will Shilpa Shetty win "Celebrity Big Brother"?

- Will another celebrity get drunk at Jackie's concert in Vegas and crawl up onstage and sing with him?

- Where's Jones?

- Is MAIKO HAAAN as annoying as it looks or is it secretly a work of genius?

- Will Bollywood start making movies I like again?

- Will CI MA be more like COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY or more like PERHAPS LOVE?

- Will either of these two posts ever die? Or will Malaysian film fans and Indian film fans keep posting comments and keep this blog alive forever, like the Flying Dutchman?

- Will we ever find out who ate that Japanese lady's toes?

And lest we forget...

- Eric Tsang is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon

- Andy Lau is on your toilet

- Scary, bicycle-riding, phallus devil man.