About the Website

AsianMovieWeb made it its business to give westerners an understanding of Asia's multi-layered and impressive movies. Enjoyable and informative reviews are supposed to help the reader decide, which movies are worth seeing.
Interested film fans already know that there are numerous good films in Asia, which feature that certain something you can't expect from popcorn Hollywood productions. Too bad, that only absolute blockbusters make it into our cinemas, or in most cases only appear on DVD. The more important it is to push open a door, which hopefully discloses new dimensions of movie enjoyment. Especially in Germany, the market for Asian movies improved enormously during the last few years, but it didn't change the fact, that it still looks bad concerning the topic. In America it might be a little bit better, but generally we have the same problem. If this site manages to improve the interest in asian cinema, the author achieved his aim.

So, have fun reading and rummaging!

Contact

E-mail: webmaster@asianmovieweb.com

FAQ

Why put online another site, that deals with Asian movies?

Competition is good for the business. Of course, it's my concern to make everything bigger, better and nicer, as well. It's still a long way until then, but determination will lead to the aspired result eventually!

Since when does the site exist?

The idea for the site came up in 2005, and it has been worked on since. We are online since April 2006.

Why are the reviews that long/short?

It's hard to please everybody. How long the reviews will be, depends on the movie and on the author's mood, when he writes them. Therefore some recensions can become quite long. For those, who are not into reading, I suggest to scan only the introduction and the last paragraph. Most times, this will give you a summed-up insight.
With some movies, on the other side, it's hard to write much. Especially the uninventive movies get some rather short reviews. And of course, my first review-attempts lack a bit of length as well?

The site's layout is rather simple. What about upgrading?

I'm keeping this option open. But on the other hand, this simplicity was just what I intended! Far too often, you are confused by lots of links, banners and blinking pictures, etc. That makes navigation quite a challenge. And that's what I wanted to avoid. If you visit the site, you should immediately see, how to find what, and where to find it.
Furthermore I want to note, that all in all, the layout is clearly arranged and reader-friendly. And that (by now) is the only thing that counts.

Why did you bring in a rating system?

I thought very long about whether a rating system should be implemented, or not. Some movies just don't deserve being pigeonholed. Eventually, it turned out to be quite useful to bring in a rating system that helps you to find out information about the movie's quality.
The fact that the Yin and Yang symbols represent the rating icon, is not at all based on some kind of personal preferance of kitsch, but actually is supposed to emphasize that the rating is just relative. Every movie has its positive and its negative sites (Yin and Yang, that is) and to find out about them, you have to read the review.

How does the rating system work? I just don't get it!

Concerning the question: why of all numbers, 8? First thing, 8 is the chinese lucky number, second, there just is no other site coming to my mind that reviews according to this system. That's it!
Now about the rating itself.

Horrible. Getting this grade is almost impossible, as the movie would have to offer nothing at all. Not even sound or a picture?

Very bad. Movies with this grade should definitely be avoided!

Bad. An absolute waste of time. After all, there may be at least one positive aspect about the movie

(Below) Average. Could be interesting for fans of the genre. Some movies with this grade can amuse moderately, but that's just it.

OK - Good. The most common grade. The movie is quite entertaining and actually has some good aspects about it, but the negative aspects sometimes prevail. The reviews for those movies should be looked at more closely, so that you can decide whether the movie's something for you or not. Every movie including this or a higher grading is basically recommendable.

Good - Very Good. Nice movie, with only slight weaknesses. Definitely recommendable!

Great. Actually the highest grade to achieve. Terrific movie, with (if any) only very little weaknesses. Oftentimes these movies are also Must-sees.

Masterpiece! This is an A++ award. Very hard to get, but those movies which did, have all something very special and unique about it.

The rating is absolutely capricious!

Actually, that's what I wanted to avoid. I do my best to make the rating as informative and as objective as possible. But in fact, there is no such thing as objective reviewing. Subjectivity is always playing a role. If tastes weren't different, the world would be very boring, indeed.
Since I am the only author of this site, it should become clear, after reading a few reviews, which genres I prefer and which I don't. If it happens that I write unusually good things about a comedy-romance, the comedy-romance fan can be sure that for him this movie will be a masterpiece, even if I only gave it a "good" etc? well, it shouldn't be that bad, but? you get the idea?

The pictures are too small!

The pictures are just supposed to give a little, short impression of the movie and not to retell the plot like a picture story. Furthermore, bigger pictures cause more traffic, which would result in more web space-costs. But as I still have the pictures in a bigger version, they could be available in a higher resolution some day, if there is interest in it.

What about all the spelling mistakes?

Author's artistic license.
Even a student of German language and literature isn't immune to all the spelling-traps. Furthermore it gets even more complicated by the constant changing of the German's language system. With all the reforms, it is hard to retain an overview. So I recalled, what is the most important: the readability. In favour of which, some rules occasionally get changed. The main thing is, to preserve the visitor's reading comfort.
The same goes for the english language. Sadly, English isn't my mother tongue, so there will be a lot more mistakes, as I'm still learning and not much into the active use of the language. But I promise to do my best and increase my writing skills...

Why do you test Soundtracks?

Many movie fans do not know, in which extent a good soundtrack can improve the movie's atmosphere and its overall picture. Some composers actually created such good soundtracks that you can hear them even in your free time!
In addition, to be honest, every site needs something special that makes it stand out from the rest. As I'm very interested in soundtracks and as particularly asian composers created some masterpieces, it is also an interest of mine to introduce the reader to some soundtracks.

Why is the site also available in English?

As the biggest part of the population speaks/understands English, it just makes sense wanting to reach a wider audience with this site. Furthermore, this bilingualism distinguishes asianmovieweb from quite a lot of other sites.

Who stands behind the site?

Well, you have to be pretty bored right now, if you want to know about that? but the question shall be answered.
My hobbies are Tai Ji Quan and Kung Fu. This fascination for chinese martial arts, made me very soon a martial arts movie-fan. One leads to the other, and after my school leaving examination, I decided to study German language and literature, psychoanalysis, and (what a surprise) Sinology at the University of Frankfurt.
Still resident in Offenbach, where I also made my Abitur (German university entrance qualification) and fulfilled my civilian service, I regularly pursue my hobby, Pen and Paper role-playing game. Exceptional worlds and fantasy always fascinated me.
Being a movie fan, at all times, I soon found out that there are numerous other asian movies, besides martial arts movies, which are worth seeing. That's how I became a fan of asian movies.
But next to the so-called pearls, there are also some movies that should be avoided. So why not proclaim one's opinion on the internet? Like this, I could make a contribution and help asian movies to become more popular. And I could improve my writing skills, as well.
Fortunately I know some HTML (just the basics) and that's how, at the end of 2005, the idea came up to create a website about this topic. And here we are!

I also want to write reviews for this site.

Thanks for the interest, but unfortunately I'm not planning to bring in additional authors for the website at the moment. It's all about control. As the one and only author, I always know what's going on. Furthermore, after a while the readers know what they have to expect from my reviews.

In which language are the reviews written in the original?

In German, which kind of makes sense as it is my mother tongue.

Who's responsible for the translation?

Me, myself and I.
Well, that's not fully true. Lately, my sister is helping me out a bit. Her course of studies, "literary translation", should be helpful. Even though she always emphasizes that she learns how to translate english texts into german, not the other way around? but nobody's perfect! And I still have to read over her translations to correct her spelling mistakes... By the way, it is also a little bit of a nuisance to translate her "correct british English" into an american version, that can be understood by everyone! ;)
Anyway, that's better than to translate oneself. Doing so always brings me down as I realize over and over again how bad my English is in fact. On the other hand, when I surf the net I come across a lot of texts that "claim" to be in English, but are only good for a nice laughter. Seeing this every now and then gives me just enough courage to go on with my work.

I want to help you out with the translations!

You really do?
Dann nehme ich an, dass du Deutsch verstehst?! Ich bin für jede Hilfe dankbar! Selbstverständlich wird der Übersetzer auf Wunsch auch namentlich genannt. Bei Interesse mailt mir doch einfach an "webmaster[at]asianmovieweb.com". (Ersetzt "[at]" durch "@")

Does anybody actually ask the questions that FAQs deal with?

No. At least not in this case. They're just answered beforehand. Although, some of these questions actually came up, in some way or another.

Do those questions finally come to an end?

Yes... now...really!