August 26 - September 1, 2005

During our New York Asian Film Festival, we asked all of you on our forms what was your favorite all-time Asian film. We got thousands of responses and hundreds of films mentioned, but these were the top 30 films voted by you in the order of most votes. Not a bad list at all but lots of room for argument - where is Peking Opera Blues?

Oldboy
Seven Samurai
Chungking Express
My Sassy Girl
Audition
Ichi the Killer
In the Mood for Love
Hero
Battle Royale
Tampopo
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Killer
Akira
Rashomon
Spirited Away
Godzilla 1954
Kung Fu Hustle
Save the Green Planet
Infernal Affairs
Ran
Ping Pong
Fallen Angels
Yojimbo
Hard Boiled
House of Flying Daggers
Shall We Dance
Versus
Princess Mononoke
Wild Zero
Ikiru


COMING SOON

Sept. 1 - 9
NEW YORK KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL
Bringing MY MOTHER THE MERMAID, SPIDER FOREST, the goofy GHOST HOUSE, the fast food horror of BUNSHINSABA and more to NYC.
http://www.koreanfilmfestival.org/

Sept . 23 - Oct. 9
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE! THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG! The latest from Hong Sang-Soo and Shinya Tsukamoto, plus a 45 film retrospective from Shochiku Studio.
http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.htm

September 14, 2004 -January 2006
Masterworks of Japanese Cinema from the National Film Center, Tokyo
For the first time in its history, the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, opens its archival holdings to another FIAF institution, and presents a groundbreaking series of fifty-three films spanning the classic years of Japanese cinema: 1929-1970. Every print screened in the series is in 35mm and is newly struck from archival negatives; in addition, new English subtitles have been created by the National Film Center for each film.
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2005/japanese_cinema.html

October 21 - November 10
Lincoln Center
100 Years of Chinese Cinema
Twenty-four films celebrating the centennial of Chinese film production, from 1922 through 2004, including panel discussions with filmmakers Xie Jin, Xie Fei, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Hu Mei, and Jia Zhangke at the Walter Reade, Asia Society and China Institute, in conjunction with a 2-day symposium at the College of Staten Island.

October
PULSE
Coming out in the fall, this is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's most accessible flick, and one of the best Japanese horror movies ever made. If you're tired of dead wet girls with long black hair then this one's for you.


NOW PLAYING

Film Forum
SAMURAI SUMMER
August 19 - Septemeber 15
Film Forum re-introduces us to all to the movies that used to remind us of exactly why we hate our jobs: samurai movies. Your boss sucks, he asks you for ridiculous things, there's only one thing to do: bear with it and then, when it gets to be too much, whip out your sword and KILL EVERYONE YOU CAN FIND!!!
read more:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/samuraireb.html

IFC Center
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON(Japan)
Saturday and Sunday at Noon
Another quiet classic from Ozu.
Read a review:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?isindex=late+autumn

ImaginAsian Theater
(239 East 59th Street, btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave)
LA VISA LOCA (Philippines)
OLD BOY
For the schedule and information:
http://www.theimaginasian.com/index2.php

Korean Cultural Service
These are DVD projections and they are free!

Thursday, September 15, 6:30 pm - Crying Fist (Joo-meok-ee oon-da)
Film screening. Running time: 134 minutes.
In Korean with English subtitles.
Directed by: Seung-wan Ryoo.
Winner of the Cannes FIPRESCI Jury Award, Crying Fist turns the boxing movie genre on its head and paints a gritty picutre of a world in which protagonist and antagonist roles are not clear-cut.

Thursday, September 29, 6:30 pm - This Charming Girl (Yeoja, Jeong-hye)
Film screening with introduction and discussion led by Ms. Hyun-Ock Im.
Running time: 95 minutes.
In Korean with English subtitles.
Directed by: Yoon-ki Lee.
Honored at the Berlin and Sundance film festivals, This Charming Girl uses flashback to trace the history of a reserved postal clerk as she goes along her everyday routine.

Location: Korean Cultural Service New York
Korean Consulate General
460 Park Ave., (at 57th St.), Sixth FloorNew York, NY 10022

Landmark Sunshine
2046 (2005, Hong Kong)
Wong Kar-wai's latest features Tony Leung Chiu-wai flirting with and seducing Faye Wong, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau and, most memorably, Zhang Ziyi. A spiritual successor to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, this WKW movie represents the end of the road for the DAYS OF BEING WILD crowd.
read reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/2046

Akira (Japan)
This classic anime plays the midnight show on Friday and Saturday

Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the AMC Empire on 42nd Street
2046 (2005, Hong Kong)
read reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/2046

Loew's State Theater
BARSAAT (2005, India
With Bobby Deol and two of Bollywood's sexist women, Bispasha Basu and Priyanka Chopra, it still absolutely bites - the only reason to see this is for the wet sari scenes.

THE RISING (2005, India)
Aamir Khan whose last mighty hit was LAGAAN, returns to tell the epic tale of the Indian Mutiny under British colonial rule and the life of Mangal Pandey. All singing! All dancing! One of the most anticipated Bollywood movies of the year opens to very mixed reviews from Bollywood fans.
read all about it:
http://news.sawf.org/Bollywood/1054.aspx


Museum of Modern Art
ANIME!! (July 10 - September)
A three month celebration of anime, including screenings of the big screen blockbusters like AKIRA, GHOST IN THE SHELL and MIND GAME as well as tv episodes like the great FLCL, HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES and the mind-blowing EVANGELION: END OF EVANGELION.
More info:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2005/anime.html

Museum of the Moving Image
HOUSE OF FURY (2005, Hong Kong, 102 minutes)
Friday, August 26 @ 7:30PM
Non-stop, big stupid head action fun from Hong Kong with Anthony Wong, the TWINS, Daniel Wu turning in the kind of performances you'd expect. And, Hong Kong's hardest working white man, Michael Wong, plays a paralyzed villain and he's STILL unconvincing.

Paris Theater (4 West 58th Street)
BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (2003, China/Paris, 111 minutes)
This French/Chinese film, directed by Chinese director Dai Sijie and based on his best-selling novel of the same title, is a lot better than you'd think. Combining his memories of being sent down to the countryside for re-education, his love for Western literature, and the Three Gorges Dam Project into a gorgeous, well-acted, occasionally gruesome love letter to his youth this flick is worth your time if you're into this sort of thing.
read a review:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/balzacandthelittlechineseseamstress

Quad Cinemas
TONY TAKITANI (2005, Japan, 75 minutes)
Japanese arthouse legend, Jun Ichikawa, has crafted a slow, subdued, quiet chamber movie from a Haruki Murakami short story. If you don't like art films it's not for you, but if you love the arthouse movies then this is one of the better ones.
Read a review:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/tonytakitani

FORMULA 17 (Taiwan)
The film industry in Taiwan has been in the dumps for years and it's only their directors of art films that get any recognition, but this lightweight gay romantic comedy was a huge hit.
Read a review:
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=10&id=6827

Village East
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002, Korea, 124 minutes)
You probably know Park Chan-Wook from JSA or OLDBOY, but his SYMPATHY is the most amazing, most grueling, most bestest movie he's ever made. This simple Jacobean revenge drama will test your tolerance and strain your heart but it's all in a good cause. Amidst all the stabbings, beating, drownings and electrocutions he's begging us: can't we just stop hurting each other?
read a review:
http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/archives/nyaff03/sympathy.htm