January 20 - January 27, 2005

COMING SOON - GUITAR WOLF!
Here are the upcoming east coast dates. After this they move westward.

Feb 25 North Star Bar/Philadelphia
info/215-235-78286

Feb 26 Ottobar/Baltimore
info/410-662-0063

Feb 27 Maxwell's/Hoboken
info/201-798-0406

Feb 28 CBGB/New York
info/212-982-4052

Mar 2 El Salon/Montreal
info/514-284-0122


COMING SOON - THEATRICAL RELEASES

1/28 NOBODY KNOWS
Japan's feature that's been sweeping international festivals comes to the US.

1/28 EDWARD YANG RETROSPECTIVE
The Anthology hosts this retrospective of Taiwan's great director, Edward Yang, who directed YI YI.

2/9 FILM COMMENT SELECTS
A retrospective assembled by the Film Society of Lincoln Center that includes Maggie Cheung's new film, CLEAN, MEMORIES OF MURDER, Takashi Miike's IZO and more.

2/11 BRIDE AND PREJUDICE
The director of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM directs a Bollywood version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

2/11 ONG BAK: MUAY THAI WARRIOR
The title's too long, but who cares? The Thai action flick that you're dying to see. Trust us: it's worth it.

2/18 SKY BLUE
Theatrical release for the animated Korean sci fi epic.

2/18 BAD GUY
A Kim Ki-Duk feature from last year, at Cinema Village. In Disturb-o-Rama.

2/25 BEAUTIFUL BOXER
The hit Thai movie about a real-life transsexual kickboxing champion.

3/3 SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE
A three day screening of Park Chan-Wook's sophomore film at BAM.

3/18 KUNG FU HUSTLE
The latest from Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow...more of an action flick than a comedy, but something of a marvel of modern-day filmmaking.

3/18 STEAMBOY
From the director of AKIRA comes this steampunk adventure flick.

3/28 OLD BOY
Cannes Grand Prix winner and critical darling gets a US release.

4/20 SAVE THE GREEN PLANET
The cracked Korean masterpiece at Film Forum. The most violent anti-violence movie ever made!

4/29 3-IRON
Kim Ki-Duk's latest festival favorite gets a NY/LA release, followed by a national roll-out.


IN GENERAL RELEASE
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (2004, China, 119 minutes)
Read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=house+of+flying+daggers

APPLESEED (2004, Japan)
Opened Jan. 14th at the AMC Empire 25 and the Union Square Stadium 14
Adapted from Masume Shirow's popular manga, APPLESEED is the latest theatrical anime release to hit the US. Utopias that aren't what they seem, tank mecha, snipers in ruined cities...it's all here. It's a 2-D looking movie that was all created on the computer.
Read a review:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?%5eAppurush%eedo+(2004)


NOW PLAYING
American Museum of the Moving Image
THE LAST DRAGON (1985, USA, 108 minutes)
Friday, January 28 @ 7:30PM
Produced by Motown's Berry Gordy! Introduced by the star...Taimak! A full-on hunk a 80's cheese about a dude going to Africa to master the martial arts. Deep Blaxploitation richness. Over on IMDB the first few reviews explain endlessly about how they were forced to watch this movie against their will, or they were falling down a long elevator shaft and it happened to be playing on the wall and they had no choice but to watch it. Then some other folks chime in to say that it changed their life and caused them to become martial arts masters.
Wow. That's a lot to think about.

Cinema Village
A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
Daily @ 9:30PM
Everyone's calling this a "horror movie" but don't be fooled. Director Kim Ji-Won (THE FOUL KING, THE QUIET FAMILY) takes all the cliches of Asian horror (the dead wet girls, the weird noises, the burlap bags with something bloody inside, the heavy art direction) and actually says something with them. The movie itself sounds (and looks) like a Bavarian fairy tale (and it's based on a Korean folktale). Two little girls are sent into the woods to live with their wicked stepmother, and things get very weird, very fast. But Director Kim is not trying to scare you with this flick, he's trying to turn your heart inside out. Absolutely wrenching.
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10004048-tale_of_two_sisters/
for more info:
http://films.tartanfilmsusa.com/ataleoftwosisters

Film Forum
BORN INTO BROTHELS (USA, 2004)
Daily @ 2:50PM and 8:20PM
A documentary about kids growing up in the Calcutta brothels, this film is saved from a myriad of sins by the fact that the director gave cameras to the kids and let them shoot photos of their own lives. Sure - they'd probably be better off with full tuition to a boarding school, but apparently they love it and some of them are even ace photographers.
read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=born+into+brothels

ImaginAsian Theater
(239 East 59th Street, btwn 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
RAINCOAT (2004, India, 120 minutes)
Aishwarya Rai (you know who she is) and Ajay Devgan (COMPANY, HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM) star in the latest film by Rituparno Ghosh (CHOKER BALI) in this depressing drama that's already being hailed as one of the best Indian films of the year. Ajay Devgan plays a failed businessman who goes back to his hometown to beg ex-classmates for money. While there he looks up with high school sweetheart, Aishwarya Rai, and finds that she's a ghost of her former self. The two spend an afternoon lying about how well they're doing and picking at now-painful memories.
read a review:
http://planetbollywood.com/Film/Raincoat/

ARAKIMENTARI (2004, USA, 85 minutes)
opens Friday, January 21st
Nobuyoshi Araki is not only one of the world's most published photographers (350 books and counting), but he's a big ol' pervert. His photos of naked Japanese women are the kind of things that the people who go to Suicide Girls collect. If you're too hip to be caught with pornography, you buy his books. Now he's got a documentary about his life and work. Great for making out.


Korean Cultural Service
The KCS will be hosting a series of DVD projections of Korean films each month, hosted by Im Hyun-Ock who is one of the producers of NOWHERE TO HIDE, Lee Myung-Se's incredible cop film.

ADDRESS UNKNOWN (Korean, 117 minutes)
Thursday, January 27 @ 6:30PM
Director Kim's film after his breakthrough THE ISLE, this flick is about Koreans eking out a living next to a US military base in Korea.
Read a review:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/address_unknown.htm

MY MOTHER, THE MERMAID (Korean, 115 minutes)
Thursday, February 10 @ 6:30PM
A charming Korean version of BACK TO THE FUTURE if it were a drama instead of a comedy, sort of.
Read a (very biased) review:
http://aznfilms.com/product_info.php/products_id/1392

SPIDER FOREST (2004, Korea, 113 minutes)
Thursday, February 24 @ 6:30PM
Last year's festival hit, this creepy film is a moody, good-looking thriller about brain damage.
Read a review:
http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10677

THREE...EXTREMES (2004, Korea/Hong Kong/Japan, 118 minutes)
Hong Kong's Fruit Chan (DURIAN, DURIAN), Korea's Park Chan-Wook (JSA, OLD BOY), and Takashi Miike (AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER) team up to make a three part horror flick. Miike's is a moody, slow-paced story about a pair of contortionists. Fruit Chan's is a body horror epic about eating dumplings made of fetuses in order to stay young, and Park Chan-Wook's is a tight, real-time thriller about a film director and a disgruntled extra.
Read a review:
http://www.heroic-cinema.com/review.php?ID=3extreme

REWIND (2002, Korea, 100 minutes)
A melancholy romance.
Read a review:
oops, couldn't find one

Loew's State
ELAAN (India, 2004)
A remake of the all-time Indian classic, SHOLAY, this action film stars Miss World (and ex-New Yorker) Lara Dutta, and is full of style and flash. And some flashy style, too. But, unfortunately, that's about it. All set-up, no pay-off.
Read a review:
http://www.indiafm.com/reviews/05/elaan/index.shtml

Museum of Modern Art
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Friday, January 28 @ 5PM and Saturday, January 29 @ 8PM
Hayao Miyazaki's rough and bloody eco-fantasia launches itself right for your neck. Truly one of his best, and most troubling movies, PRINCESS MONONOKE deserves better than it got in the US. If you read about Miyazaki in last week's New Yorker and you want to check him out, here's your chance to do it on the big screen.
THIS IS THE DUBBED VERSION. No subtitles. All voice acting by English-speakers. However, it's a pretty good dub as far as they go, except for one terribly unfortunate line right at the very end.