February 10 - February 17, 2005

COMING SOON - THEATRICAL RELEASES

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 real-life transsexual kickboxing champion.



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

3/4 - 5/27 OTAKU CINEMA SLAM
Cult and pop films screening at the Japan Society.

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

ONG BAK (2003, Thailand, 108 minutes)
If you're white, this movie is loved by Richard Corliss, Elvis Mitchell at the New York Times and New York Magazine. If you're black, then RZA loves this movie. Never have I seen a film split its marketing campaign so completely between the "upscale" and "urban" markets, but who cares? This Thai action film is the best action flick since Jackie Chan's 1994 DRUNKEN MASTER 2. Get off your bottom and go see it.
read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=Ong+Bak



NOW PLAYING
Anthology Film Archive
HOU HSIAO-HSIEN RETROSPECTIVE
February 4 - 13
The king of Taiwanese cinema gets a full retro at the Anthology. 11 movies: everything from A CITY OF SADNESS, with Tony Leung Chiu-wai of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and INFERNAL AFFAIRS, to MILLENNIUM MAMBO, his 2001 film with Shu Qi.

A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE
(Taiwan, 1985, 145 minutes)
Friday, February 4 @ 7:00 & Tuesday, February 8 @ 9:30.

DUST IN THE WIND
(Taiwan, 1987, 110 minutes)
Friday, February 4 @ 10:00 & Tuesday, February 8 @ 7:00.

THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME
(Taiwan, 1982, 92 minutes)
Saturday, February 5 @ 2:30 & Monday, February 7 @ 7:00.
in 16mm.

THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI
(Taiwan, 1983, 98 minutes)
Saturday, February 5 @ 4:30 & Monday, February 7 @ 9:00.
in 16 mm

DAUGHTER OF THE NILE
(Taiwan, 1987, 90 minutes)
Saturday, February 5 @ 7:00, Friday, February 11 @ 7:00 & Sunday, February 13 @ 4:30.

A CITY OF SADNESS
(Taiwan, 1989, 157 minutes)
Saturday, February 5 @ 9:00 & Friday, February 11 @ 9:00.

THE PUPPETMASTER
Sunday, February 6 @ 3:30 & Saturday, February 12 @ 6:30.
His best film!

GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN
(Taiwan, 1995, 108 minutes)
Sunday, February 6 @ 7:00 & Saturday, February 12 @ 4:00.

GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE
(Taiwan, 1996, 112 minutes)
Sunday, February 6 @ 9:15 & Saturday, February 12 @ 9:30.

FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI
(Taiwan, 1988, 113 minutes)
Wednesday, February 9 @ 7:00 & 9:30 & Sunday, February 13 @ 6:30.
His other movie with Tony Leung.

MILLENNIUM MAMBO
(Taiwan, 2001, 105 minutes)
Thursday, February 10 @ 7:00 & 9:15 & Sunday, February 13 @ 9:00.



China Institute
HITCHCOCK WITH A CHINESE FACE
Friday, February 11 @ 6:30PM
A discussion of three outstanding films that demonstrate the ironic borrowing of Western cinematic culture to critique the impact of foreign values entering the Chinese moral sphere. Fun for the whole family!
Followed by a screening of Yim Ho's 1994 THE DAY THE SUN TURNED COLD.

Film Forum
BORN INTO BROTHELS (USA, 2004)
Daily @ 2:50PM and 8:20PM
read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=born+into+brothels

ImaginAsian Theater
(239 East 59th Street, btwn 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
BLACK (2005, India, 125 minutes)
Starts February 11 @ 12:20, 5:15, 9:45
Sanjay Leela Bansali directed HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM and DEVDAS, two of Bollywood's best movies. Now he's back with a Bollywood version of "The Miracle Worker", and it's hard to tell. Will it be good? Will it stink? Only time will tell.
read a review:
http://www.mtvindia.com/mtv/movies/reviews/05/black/index.php



STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL (2003, Mongolia, 87 minutes)
Starts February 11 @ 3PM and 7:45PM daily (one week only)
The much loved story of camel herders who have to reunite a rejected camel with its mother. So they have to hire a musician to give a ritual performance that will unite the mother with her baby. Awww...
read a review:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=story+of+the+weeping+camel+

LITTLE TERRORIST (2004, 15 minutes)
February 11 - 17 @ 7:45PM & 9:45PM
February 18 - March 3 @ 10:15PM
Nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Narrative Short Film" this is the story of a little Pakistani kid who accidentally crosses the border into India, and the Hindu man who helps him return home. Watch out for the land mines.

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.

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 that rates high on the confusion meter but is well worth trying to parse through.
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 contortionist sisters. 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

Landmark Sunshine
NOBODY KNOWS (Japan, 2004, 141 minutes)
Director Hirokazu Kore-eda (AFTER LIFE) returns to top form with this uncomfortably intimate story about four kids abandoned by their mom who must try to survive in their increasingly dirty apartment. If grubby kids make you shiver...avoid. Otherwise, it's great! Go home and hug your kids afterwards.
read a review:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/nobodyknows



Lincoln Plaza
NOBODY KNOWS (Japan, 2004, 141 minutes)

Loew's State
BLACK (2005, India, 125 minutes)
Starts February 11 @ 12:20, 5:15, 9:45

SHABD (India, 2005, 146 minutes)
This is why you read this blog - would you ever have learned that Aishwarya Rai had another movie out this week otherwise? And, it's written and directed by one of India's only female directors. And it's all about Sanjay Dutt's plight as a Booker Prize winning novelist. Yowza! Aish and Sanjay play a happily married couple but Sanjay's got writer's block. So he gets his wife to sleep with a stranger so he can do "research" for his new book. Where was I when they were asking for volunteers! It's the first film from Leena Yadav, and it's getting very mixed reviews.
read one of them:
http://bollywoodmantra.com/website/reviews-205.html



Paris Theater
(58th Street and Fifth Avenue, 212-688-3800)
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2004, USA, 120 minutes)
Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) has delivered an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" via Bollywood, complete with Aishwarya Rai, musical numbers, and Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls"). The movie itself is a complete mess, but some folks have actually enjoyed it and it does have an appealing loosey-goosey kind of charm.
read a review:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=bride+and+prejudice



Quad
TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS (Bhutan, 2003, 108 minutes)
Bhutan, stuck between India and China, is really pretty. Just how pretty you'll see in this flick that pulls a "Canterbury Tales" and tells the story of a bunch of travelers hiking to the capital and the noir-esque story a monk tells them to pass the time. This much-loved flick is from the director of THE CUP.
read a review:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=travellers+and+magicians

Village East
APPLESEED (2004, Japan)
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)

Walter Reade Theater
FILM COMMENT SELECTS
Film Comment Selects has an envy-inducing selection of Asian films this year.

OLD BOY (Korea, 2003, 120 minutes)
Wednesday, February 9 @ 4PM & 9PM
Park Chan-Wook (SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, JSA) straddles the line between the out-and-out horror of SYMPATHY and the box office friendly tragedy of JSA in OLD BOY, winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes and accolades and awards all over the place. I don't think it's the world's greatest (it falls apart a bit at the end) but it's so deeply filmic and well-made that you'll be halfway through it before you remember to take a breath.

SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (Korea, 2002, 129 minutes)
Sunday, February 13 @ 7PM
Friday, February 18 @ 8:30PM
Hard to watch, upsetting, painful, and likely to induce stomach pains, this is Park Chan-Wook's best movie. The plot sounds like a soap opera (a deaf-mute factory worker kidnaps his boss' daughter to pay for his sister's kidney transplant) but that doesn't matter. Insanely well-shot it's the kind of movie you have to see on the big screen.

MEMORIES OF MURDER (Korea, 2003, 130 minutes)
Monday, February 21st @ 7PM
Wednesday, February 23 @ 1PM and 9PM
One of the biggest movies of 2003, this is the second film from Bong Joon-Ho, one of Korea's best directors who gave us all BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE a few years ago. Based on the real life investigation of a serial killer who stalked a rural township in the early 80's this movie should have been on everyone's "Best of" lists in 2003.

VITAL (Japan, 2004, 86 minutes)
Thursday, February 10 @ 6:15PM
Saturday, February 12 @ 6:45PM
Shinya Tsukamoto (TETSUO: IRON FIST, BULLET BALLET, GEMINI) is one of Japan's most distinctive voices. Here he gives us an atypical story of the love between an amnesiac medical student and his dead girlfriend's corpse that he's dissecting in class.

IZO (Japan, 2004, 128 minutes)
Sunday, February 20 @ 1:30PM
Takashi Miike leaves behind his audience-friendly movies like GOZU and ZEBRAMAN for the insane, over-the-top, pretentious fury of IZO. An act of gruesome violence in medieval Japan creates a demon, Izo, who's going after the architects of the universe while he tumbles through time killing people again, and again, and again, and again. Maddening, repetitive, hilarious, and weird, featuring some of the most bizarre stylized dialogue ever put on film. As they say in IZO, "Let your testicles fill with carnal desire!'