April 29 - May 6
TWILIGHT SAMURAI is still playing, SHAOLIN SOCCER may or may not still be running, and SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING continues its run. See below for details. Also, OASIS is opening next week at the Angelika and the Lincoln Plaza cinema. Otherwise, Asian film is taking a nap, before it erupts in a week or two with a slew of screenings.

BUT, BUT, BUT...there is one big release this week: MAIN HOON NA, the directorial debut of famous Bollywood choreographer, Farah Khan, takes a bow at the Loew's State theater. It stars the ever-delicious Shah Rukh Khan and if you like Bollywood, you shouldn't miss it. It's the first big Bollywood film of the year.


COMING SOON:
OASIS (2002, Korea)
There are no ads for it this week, but word has it that Lee Chang-Dong's exquisitely painful story of a guy who gets out of prison and falls in love with a girl who has cerebral palsy, will be opening at the Lincoln Plaza Theaters and at the Angelika. There's nothing bad to say about this movie, and apparently Italians thought so, too, since it won "Best Director" at the Venice Film Fest in 2002.




A Takeshi Kitano retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image starts May 15.

A Wong Kar-wai retrospective at BAM starts May 14.

PEDICAB DRIVER, starring Sammo Hung, on May 30 at 4PM at the Anthology Film Archives.

ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE and A TALE OF TWO SISTERS will appear at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival kicks off June 18.

http://subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff04.htm

At the end of this newsletter you can find out details on how to purchase an ad in this year's program!


NOW PLAYING

In General Release (or is it?):
SHAOLIN SOCCER (2002, Hong Kong, 87 minutes)
at the Landmark Sunshine. Some ads say it's still playing, other ads say
it's closed. Does anyone know the truth?

TWILIGHT SAMURAI (2003, Japan, 130 minutes)
Japan's contender for this year's "Best Foreign Film" Oscar is an amazing revamp of the samurai film, on a par with Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN. Stars Henry Sanada who also stars in this Sunday's screening of ROYAL WARRIORS. Can you beat that?

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING (2003, Korea, 103 minutes)
at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (Broadway btwn 62nd and 63rd Streets) and the Angelika Film Center on Houston St.
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

American Museum of the Moving Image
CINEMA INDIA! SHOWCASE 2004 FILM SERIES
This touring Indian film series starts off at the Asia Society, and then moves to the AMMI for the following screenings (full description of program is in the listing for the ASIA SOCIETY).

THE SPEAKING HAND: ZAKIR HUSSAIN AND THE ART OF THE INDIAN DRUM (2003, India, 104 minutes)
Friday, April 30 @ 7:30PM
American Museum of the Moving Image
A documentary about legendary tabla player Zakir Hussain.

DILWALE DULHANIYA, LE JAYENGE (1995, India, 189 minutes)
Friday, May 14 @ 7:30PM
American Museum of the Moving Image
One of India's biggest hits, this musical may seem a little corny to Westerners, but it's as beloved by many Indians as The Sound of Music. Westernized kids and their traditional parents butt heads in this movie that's run almost non-stop since it was first released. It made Shahrukh Khan and Kajol the two biggest stars in Bollywood.




Broadway Theater (Broadway and 53rd)
The hit British musical, BOMBAY DREAMS, is currently in previews, gearing up for its April 29th opening. By Andrew Lloyd Weber, and with music by Indian composer genius, A.R. Rahman, it's the long-awaited South Indian invasion of the Great White Way.
Ticket info:
212-239-6200

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:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/calendar/godzilla/

Japan Society
BLUE
Friday, May 7 @ 6:30PM
Another film in the Society's "From Manga to Eiga" series, BLUE is, in the words of the program notes "...a delicate teenager drama of angst and pleasure." Whoa. That sounds like the kind of thing that can get you arrested if the Feds find it downloaded on your hard drive. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the movie is actually a gorgeous coming of age story based on Kiriko Nananan's manga.
more info:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=281893481&id_performance=1014379021




Landmark Sunshine Cinema
SHAOLIN SOCCER (2002, Hong Kong, 87 minutes)
check theater listings for showtimes
Stephen Chiau's comic masterpiece is released by Miramax after dozens of delays. 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.
more info:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/shaolinsoccer/




TWILIGHT SAMURAI (2003, Japan, 130 minutes)
check theater listings for showtimes
Japan's revamp of the samurai genre became a big hit back home, and it exudes a corroded, corrupt, genre atmosphere. It does for samurais what Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN did for cowboys. Don't miss it.
read a review at:
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/twilsamu.shtml

Loew's State Theater
Main Hoon Na (2004, India)
Showtimes @ 12PM, 2PM, 4PM, 6PM, 8PM & 10PM
The first big Bollywood film of the year hits the screens, and how! It's veteran choreographer, Farah Khan's, directorial debut starring Shah Rukh Khan, Sushmita Sen and Amrita Rao. A terrorist plot somehow requires SRK to go to college and romance a gal, and the fate of Indian/Pakistani relations hangs in the balance. A big ol' masala, it's a throwback to the wonder years of Bollywood when every movie tried to appeal to every filmgoer.
read a review:
http://www.indiafm.com/reviews/04/mainhoonna/index.shtml




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

Tribeca Film Festival
Nine Asian films and the new Olsen Twins movie? I am so there. Below is the screening schedule for Tribeca's five Asian titles that I've heard of (okay, I haven't heard of GREEN HAT, but I've long thought that cinema had shied away from the tough subject of green headgear for far too long - cowardice, I call it - so this is a welcome relief) are listed below. All shows are $10. Which is a bit high when you consider that their budget this year was $15 million. But I guess the poor innocents of Tribeca have suffered from too much neglect, and they need you, the filmgoer, to give them $10 so that they don't lose their lofts and bistros which are, thanks to terrorists, in dangerous risk of being taken away.

A Tale of Two Sisters
South Korea
2003, 115 min
Sat, May 1, 10:15pm UA Theater 6
Thu, May 6, 10:00pm UA Theater 6
Sat, May 8, Midnight UA Theater 10

Zatoichi
Japan
2003, 110 min
Sat, May 1, 8:00pm UA Theater 11
Fri, May 7, 6:00pm Pace University
Sun, May 9, 1:00pm UA Theater 6

The Green Hat
China
2003, 120 min
Wed, May 5, 6:00pm UA Theater 4
Thu, May 6, 9:00pm Tribeca Cinema Theater 1
Sun, May 9, 3:00pm UA Theater 11

Last Life in the Universe
Thailand
2003, 112 min
Sat, May 1, 9:30pm UA Theater 10
Thu, May 6, 9:45pm UA Theater 1
Sat, May 8, 8:30pm UA Theater 11

For more details, and other Asian films (there's five others in their line-up)
go to:
http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/


*Special Programs*

25th Annual APA Heritage Festival at Union Square
Sunday, May 2 from Noon to 6PM
Every single Asian-American cultural, educational, advocacy and social association sets up tables at Union Square. Free to the public. Food, books, performances, giveaways. It's a "don't miss it" kind of event.
more info:
http://www.ramongil.com/capa/festival.html

Iona Rozeal Brown
Through June 13th @ Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Brown's disturbing artwork parodies the Japanese craze for African-American culture known as ganguro. How does she parody it? She does paintings that look like 17th Century Japanese woodblocks prints...but in blackface. It's kind of interesting and kind of creepy.


Place YOUR AD in the NY Asian Film Festival Program

The NY Asian Film Festival is currently selling ads for its glossy full-color, 8.5" x 5.5" program. Be the first on your block to purchase one!

What could be better than advertising in this year's program and thus helping your own company and also supporting Subway Cinema and Asian films at the same time. There will be approximately 45 screenings and we hope lots of people attending the films.

And what does it cost you might ask? The best bargain in town!

Full Page (8.5" x 5.5") - $700
2-Page Spread - $1,300
Inside Front Cover - $800
Inside Back Cover - $800
Back Cover - $900
Half-Page (4.25" x 5.5") - $400
Quarter-Page (4.25" x 2.75") - $200

If you are interested in purchasing an ad, please send an e-mail to:
brian@subwaycinema.com