April 1 - April 8
It's a big week. Well kind of big. It's bigger than last week - and that's a good place to start. Three Asian movies get real live releases:

SHAOLIN SOCCER (2002, Hong Kong, 87 minutes)
at the Landmark Sunshine




SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING (2003, Korea, 103 minutes)
Friday, March 26 @ 7PM
Korea's bad boy director, Kim Ki-Duk (THE ISLE) returns with an atypically quiet film, shimmering with Buddhist calm. Highly acclaimed, the flick shows the passing of the four seasons at a floating Buddhist monastery. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the film at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (Broadway, between 62 and 63 Streets) and the Angelika Film Center.
Read reviews at:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?spring+summer+fall+winter+and+spring
Visit the movie's website at:
www.springsummermovie.com


RED PERSIMMONS (2001, Japan, 90 minutes)
at Film Forum


And now, on to the listings!

Asia Society
AUTUMN'S FINAL COUNTRY (India, 2003, 66 minutes)
Wednesday, April 14 @ 6:30PM
A digital video documentary put together as a testimonial for the South Asia Court of Women in 2003, this is a feel-bad movie about four Jammu and Kashmiri women and the big baskets full of grief they're saddled with. Each has been displaced by war, and that's just the beginning of their woe. Filmmaker Sonia Jabbar will be present and will lead a discussion afterwards.
In English and Hindi, with English subtitles.
$5 students; $7 members; $10 nonmembers
For tickets, call Box Office: (212) 517-ASIA

RAIN (2001, New Zealand, 92 minutes)
Friday, April 2 @ 7PM
A beautiful and provocative coming-of-age film, Rain captures the disquieting mood of the summer when thirteen-year-old Janey's family vacation on the Mahurangi Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island takes an unexpected turn. Does he get attacked by aliens? Discover a giant robot that is designed to fight evil? Gets eaten by bears? It was an official selection at Cannes 2001, so I kind of doubt it.
$5 students; $7 members; $10 nonmembers

Columbia University
GODZILLA CONQUERS THE GLOBE: Japanese Movie Monsters in International Film Art
C.V. Starr East Asian Library
A big exhibition of GODZILLA film materials from around the globe. For exhibit times and how to get to the library and find the exhibit (it seems to be in two different areas) please go to the website listed below. Check out the website anyways, because if you can ignore the goofy picture of Godzilla (who looks more like the Loch Ness Monster here) you can also see a map and a case by case listing of every single object in the exhibit. What I want to know is: who's the nut at Columbia who put this on? And how do I give him a medal?
more info:
www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/calendar/godzilla/

Film Forum
RED PERSIMMONS (2001, Japan, 90 minutes)
Runs March 31 - April 6
A documentary about the harvesting of - you guessed it - red persimmons. Filming was started by director Ogawa Shinsuke, and completed after his death by his student Peng Xioa-lian.
Japan Society members will be admitted for member prices ($5), Monday-Friday, when they present their membership card at the Film Forum box office. Guests must pay full price, however.
more info:
http://www.filmforum.com/films/redpersimmons.html

Japan Society
MY HOUSE (2002, Japan, 115 minutes)
Friday, April 2 @ 6:30PM
Another in the Japan Society's "From Manga to Eiga" series. This one's about a family who has to move into a small apartment. The two brothers soon discover their sister is working in a sex shop. Audiences will be amused at how the brothers deal with this everyday situation in this bittersweet film.
more info:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=678641181&id_performance=936007641

Hotel Hibiscus (2002, Japan, 92 minutes)
Friday, April 9 @ 6:30PM
Okinawa is the little-known tropical underside of Japan. Musically, it's the Mississippi Delta of the country, with its own yelping, earthy brand of rock. It's got its own dialect, and at times seems like its own country. This light comedy (part of the Japan Society's "From Manga to Eiga" series) focuses on a hotel in Okinawa run by a full-to-overflowing family where most of the kids have different fathers. It looks like a sunny-side-up, sentimental comedy.
More info:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=869496041&id_performance=1020737061

The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave From Japan & the Transformation of Our National Pastime
Wednesday, April 7 @ 6:30PM
Robert Whiting, author of The Meaning of Ichiro, talks about the Japanese players entering American Major League Baseball. What does it all mean? I dunno, but baseball is hugely popular in Japan and the players don't seem to go on strike nearly as much as they do here.
more info:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=709084361&id_performance=1824379641

Korean Cultural Service
NOWHERE TO HIDE (1999, Korea, 110 minutes)
Tuesday, April 4 @ 6:30PM
One of the Korean Cultural Services regular DVD screenings of contemporary Korean films, only this one is different. First off, it's NOWHERE TO HIDE - one of the most visually extravagant and smartest action movies ever made. Secondly, the director, Lee Myung-Se, will be present to talk about the film. Director Lee is the Korean equivalent of Martin Scorsese, if Martin Scorsese still made good movies, and you shouldn't miss a chance to hear him speak. He's smart, funny, and cryptic as hell.
more info:
http://www.koreanculture.org/11cine/schedule.htm
read our review at:
http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/archives/nth2000/nth.htm




Landmark Sunshine Cinema
SHAOLIN SOCCER (2002, Hong Kong, 87 minutes)
Opens April 2 -- check theater listings for showtimes
Stephen Chiau's comic masterpiece has finally reached the U.S. of A. The ads paint it as a straight-up chop socky flick, but this is one of the funniest movies ever made and Chiau makes his bid for comic immortality with this deadpan, absurd heroic ballad of a film. This is the Cantonese version with English subtitles (as God intended!), and presuming advance reports can be trusted, even though it has been trimmed for the American release, it is still great!
more info:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/shaolinsoccer/




Museum of Sex (233 Fifth Avenue @ 27th Street)
SEX AMONG THE LOTUS: 2500 YEARS OF CHINESE EROTIC OBSESSION
Opens March 18, 2004
I don't know if I'd call it obsession (that's a little pejorative) but there's a long tradition of Chinese erotica and this exhibition has got it all on smutty display: from dirty Bronze Age tomb tiles, to the last skin mags. Better yet, it's sponsored by Tiger Beer, which is kind of cool. Do you see Anheuser-Busch sponsoring displays of American pornography? Uh, I mean, erotica? It's especially heartening to see this exhibit open on the heels of Hong Kong Penthouse magazine closing up in March 2004.
Tickets are $14.50 (plus tax) and $13.50 (plus tax) for students and seniors.
info: (212) 689-6337
Tix: (866) 667-3984
more info (Internet Explorer only):
http://museumofsex.com/exhibitions/lotus/index.html

New Directors/New Films
March 24 - April 4
This year's festival includes two Korean movies:

UNTOLD SCANDAL (2003, South Korea, 124 minutes)
Alice Tully Hall
Monday, March 29 @ 8:45PM
MOMA @ Gramercy
Wednesday, March 31 @ 6PM
more info:
http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm03.html#scandal




SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER...& SPRING (2003, South Korea, 103 minutes)
Walter Reade Theater
Wednesday, March 31 @ 6PM & 8:45:PM
MOMA @ Gramercy
Thursday, April 1 @ 6PM
more info:
http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm03.html#littlemonk

Tickets on sale at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office (Broadway and 65th Street), call 212-875-5050, or go to www.filmlinc.com for more info.

*Special Notices*

BOMBAY DREAMS sneak preview
April 2, 2004
at Broadway Theater (Broadway and 53rd)
The American Indian Foundation is hosting a sneak preview of london's hit musical BOMBAY DREAMS. By Andrew Lloyd Weber, and with music by Indian composer genius, A.R. Rahman, this musical is coming to Broadway soon, but you can see it here first.
$150 - show and champagne reception
$100, $65 - show only
For more info contact: nishi@intenseonline.com




SATTRIYA: The Classical Dance of Assam
Saturday, April 3 @ 3PM
Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (40 Lincoln Center Plaza)
Assam is a state in northeast India, and its classical dance, Sattriya, has been developing for five hundred years in its monasteries. Virtually unknown outside of Assam, Sattriya is suddenly big news as India's National Arts Academy has recently recognized it as a classical dance style. Arshiya Sethi, Program Director at the Habitat Center in New Delhi and a Fulbright Scholar in residence at Lincoln Center, will give lecture on Sattriya which will include video.
The event is free and open to the public.
more info:
212-870-1630 (for recorded program information)