May 27 - June 3
The city is sleeping...sssshhh...don't wake it. Lots of movies are coming up, but this week there's only two shows really going: Cinema Village is showing the original GODZILLA, SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN and TWILIGHT SAMURAI. Meanwhile, the Anthology and Subway Cinema will be screening PEDICAB DRIVER (whoo hoo!) on Sunday, May 30.


COMING SOON:
Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival kicks off June 18. And finally, finally, finally advanced tickets are on sale! Go to:
www.subwaycinema.com
Or call SmartTix at:
212-868-4444
These shows sell out, so don't be caught without a ticket. You can go paperless, and just bring your ID to the box office on the day of the screening, or you can get tickets mailed to you for a small fee. And remember:
Advance sale tickets are $8+$1.50 handling fee.
Tickets at the Anthology Box office are $9

We've just added the International Premiere of UMIZARU to the schedule. It's a new Japanese film (opening June 12 in Japan) about a gang of Coast Guard trainees who join the grueling Rescue Divers Training Program. Shot mostly underwater, with the actors doing their own diving stunts, directed by the assistant director of BAYSIDE SHAKEDOWN and SPACE TRAVELLERS, and featuring the music of Journey! Yes - JOURNEY! Do summer movies come any better than this? Sales for this film will go up on Smart Tix this weekend.





Also, BAM presents the Village Voice's "Best of 2003" series in June, featuring: GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (June 5); UNKNOWN PLEASURES (June 8); and BLISSFULLY YOURS (on June 12 and 13).






NOW PLAYING

Anthology Film Archives - 2nd and 2nd
PEDICAB DRIVER (1986, Hong Kong, 94 minutes)
Sunday, May 30 @ 4PM
This is it, folks! One of the greatest martial arts movies ever made, starring (and directed by) Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan's kung fu brother (who's appearing in the upcoming AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS). Sammo plays a pedicab driver (duh!) in 1930's Macau -- which isn't as easy as it sounds. Shaw Brothers' legend, Lau Kar-leung, makes an appearance, as does superkicker Billy Chow, action director/actor Corey Yuen (SO CLOSE), and the man who always fights Jackie Chan, Dick Wei. One screening only! Don't take our word for it, read the reviews:

"...a love story with barbed hooks and exquisite martial action..."
Stefan Hammond, SEX AND ZEN AND A BULLET IN THE HEAD

"The film strikes a perfect balance between its comic and tragic elements, with Hung dominating the kung fu action from start to finish."
Bey Logan, HONG KONG ACTION CINEMA

"Sugar-bowl-haircutted, possessed of a moon-pie face that suggests Buddy Hackett's Asian cousin, Sammo Hung is the workin' man's Hong Kong action hero--a fat, squat lump who in a lightning flash can bust Jackie Chan moves."
Internet Movie Database

This week the New Yorker had this cartoon about the film:





American Museum of the Moving Image

I HAVE FOUND IT (2000, India, 150 minutes)a.k.a. Kandukondain Kandukondain
Friday, May 28 @ 7:30PM
This South Indian film sets Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in India. Don't know much about this one, but with Aishwarya Rai and Tabu starring and music by genius A.R. Rahman, it's probably worth watching.





Angelika Film Center

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING (2003, Korea, 103 minutes)
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



Brooklyn Academy of Music

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING (2003, Korea, 103 minutes)
May 19 - 27 @ 2:20PM (Fri-Sun only), 4:50PM, 7:15PM, 9:30PM

General admission tickets to BAM Rose Cinemas are $10. Tickets are $7 for students 25 and under (with valid I.D. Monday-Thursday, except holidays) and $6 for seniors, BAM Cinema Club members, and children under twelve. Tickets are available at the BAM Rose Cinemas box office, by phone at 718.777.FILM (order by "name of movie" option), or online at www.bam.org.



Broadway Theater (Broadway and 53rd)

The hit British musical, BOMBAY DREAMS is now open. But even a score by A.R. Rahman (including "Chaiya Chaiya" from DIL SE, and "Shakalaka Baby" from NAYAK), a role for Madhur Jaffrey, the biggest Indian cookbook writer in the West, and inflatable Ganesh statues (plus a big fountain for a wet saree number) haven't saved it from almost unanimous critical slams. Yikes! I liked it, but I like Bollywood, and if you don't know Bollywood you probably won't like it, and who in the US knows much about Bollywood? Bolly-bummer.
Ticket info:
212-239-6200





Cinema Village

TWILIGHT SAMURAI (2003, Japan, 130 minutes)
Starts Friday, May 14
In general release (check theater listings for showtimes)
It's ended its run at the Landmark Sunshine, but someone thinks it's not over yet, so TWILIGHT SAMURAI moves to Cinema Village for more screenings. 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




SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN (2002, China)
Special engagement starts May 14
In general release (check theater listings for showtimes)
Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang's moving and beautiful tale of a love triangle in a Chinese village after World War II is a remake of a 1940's melodrama, but Tian manages to turn this unpromising premise into a gorgeously shot, psychologically-riveting film that exerts a hold on viewers far beyond what you'd expect. Widely lauded at film festivals, it won "Best Film" at the 2002 Venice Film Festival.
more info:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?springtime+in+a+small+town


GODZILLA (1954, Japan, original running time...plus 40 more minutes!)
special encore engagement starts May 21
It's Godzilla's 50th birthday, and not only is Ryuhei Kitamura (see AZUMI at this year’s NYAFF) shooting the latest (and supposedly last) Godzilla flick in NYC this summer, but the original GODZILLA movie (minus the Raymond Burr footage) was screening at Film Forum ... and it was so popular that when its engagement closed it moved to Cinema Village. Hooray! Let's face it, folks, there's no one out there like Godzilla. See it before it goes away.
more info:
www.rialtopictures.com/godzilla



Empire 25 (42nd St. between 7th and 8th Avenues)

SHAOLIN SOCCER (2002, Hong Kong, 87 minutes)
in general release (check theater listings for showtimes)
Stephen Chiau's comic masterpiece is keeps going, and going, and going. 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. Dedicated to everyone who ever played soccer, anywhere.
more info:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/shaolinsoccer/



Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (Broadway, between 62 and 63 Streets)

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING (2003, Korea, 103 minutes)
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

SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN (2002, China)
Special engagement starts May 14
in general release (check theater listings for showtimes)
Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang's moving and beautiful tale of a love triangle in a Chinese village after World War II is a remake of a 1940's melodrama, but Tian manages to turn this unpromising premise into a gorgeously shot, psychologically-riveting film that exerts a hold on viewers far beyond what you'd expect. Widely lauded at film festivals, it won "Best Film" at the 2002 Venice Film Festival.
more info:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?springtime+in+a+small+town



Loew's State Theater

MAIN HOON NA (2004, India)
Showtimes @ 12PM, 2PM, 4PM, 6PM, 8PM & 10PM
The first big Bollywood film of the year (it is breaking all sorts of attendence records back in India) 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, wear nerdy clothes and romance a teacher, 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. It is a huge amount of crazy fun that can make your head spin with its rat-a-tat genre shifting.
read a review:
http://www.indiafm.com/reviews/04/mainhoonna/index.shtml




YUVA (2004, India)
Showtimes @ 2:30PM, 6PM, 9:30PM
Mani Ratnam is one of India's great directors (he made DIL SE, and if you haven't seen it then go out and get the DVD immediately) and YUVA is one of the biggest films of his career. Abishek Bachchan plays a street thug, Vivek Oberoi (COMPANY) plays a party boy and Ajay Devgan (KHAKEE, COMPANY) plays a student political leader. The three cross paths on a bridge one day in a traumatic incident and the film follows the paths that led them there. The first 2/3's are fantastic, with a ferocious performance by Abishek. The last 1/3 falls into kitsch with scenes of happy tractor-driving farmers and marching students. However, taken as a whole, this is a pretty formidable film about electoral corruption. Great action scenes, and good music by A.R. Rahman as well as terrific female performances by Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee make it worthwhile. Given the latest round of election madness in India, the movie's practically psychic and is a great look at the on-the-ground tactics behind getting out the vote.






*Special Programs*
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.