Sept 15 - 22, 2005

COMING SOON

MIKIO NARUSE RETROSPECTIVE (Oct. 21 - Nov. 17)
Another Japanese master who's rarely seen getting the deep retro treatment from Film Forum.

100 YEARS OF CHINESE CINEMA (Oct. 21 - Nov. 10)
They can't show all 100 years, but they manage to hit a lot of the highlights in this Walter Reade retro.

KENJI MIZOGUCHI RETROSPECTIVE (Oct. 31 - Nov. 22)
Japan's often-unseen master gets a full retro (well, pretty full) out at BAM.

THE OVERTURE (Oct. 9)
Thailand's posh period flick about dueling xylophone players is coming from Kino this October. While it can be a little staid at times, the blazing xylophone duels are pretty hot stuff. It opens Oct. 9 on the West Coast and then comes to NYC.

THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG (Oct. 14)
Kino trots out this super-controversial Korean flick about the assassination of President Park back in the early 80's - starring the always-incredible Han Suk-Gyu and Baek Yoon-Sik (the CEO in SAVE THE GREEN PLANET). Totally scatological, funnier than a film about presidential assassination has any right to be, and so well-made and intense that it puts American political thrillers to shame.
read a review:
http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm05.html#lastbang

PULSE (Nov. 9) 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.
read a review:
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/kairo.shtml



NOW PLAYING
Brooklyn Heights Cinema (70 Henry Street, Between Cranberry & Orange)
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


Cinema Village
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


ImaginAsian Theater
(239 East 59th Street, btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave)
OLDBOY (2004, Korea)
Park Chan-Wook's most purely cinematic, chewably pulp, comic book movie. It's got more brains and more nasty secrets and satanic perversions than your average comic book inspired flick, but its cliffhanger plot and hypnotic style are the kind of thing SPIDERMAN 3 wishes it could have a little more of. Oh Dae-Su is an ordinary schlub, abducted and imprisoned for 15 years and suddenly released with a rage-induced hard-on to mess up the guy who locked him up. Then things get really twisted.
read a review:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/oldboy

NORTH KOREA: A DAY IN THE LIFE (48 minutes)
SEOUL TRAIN (54 minutes)
Daily @ 12:30PM, 2:40PM, 4:50PM, 7:00PM
A documentary double feature. SEOUL TRAIN looks at the underground railroad ferrying North Koreans down to South Korea, and NORTH KOREA: A DAY IN THE LIFE is a North Korean approved documentary look at the daily life of a textile worker. But the director uses a variety of methods to subtly critique what he's showing. Intelligent!


Japan Society
AFTER THE WAR: September 27 - October 23
A screening series looking at postwar Japan.
Go here for full details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/category.cfm?id_category=1

THE FACE OF JIZO (2004, Japan, 100 minutes)
Tuesday, Sept 27 @ 7:30PM
Tadanobu Asano and Rie Miyazawa star in this flick about a Hiroshima survivor haunted by the cranky ghost of her dead dad. Based on a play.
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=1828759063&id_performance=1900895585

UNDER THE FLAG OF THE RISING SUN (1972, Japan, 96 minutes)
Saturday, October 1 @ 5PM
A video projection of this Kinji Fukasaku (BATTLE ROYALE) flick about a widow whose husband was executed for desertion in the last days of the war. She wants to know the truth but everyone thinks she can't handle the truth!
Introduced by Kenta Fukasaku, the director's son (and the director of BATTLE ROYALE 2).
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=757200645&id_performance=39322576

CHILDREN OF THE BEEHIVE (1948, Japan, 86 minutes)
Sunday, October 2 @ 2PM
Stark and depressing, this is the story of a gang of war orphans living feral-style in the rubble of postwar Japan, who latch onto a returned war veteran.
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=1903775953&id_performance=1099363863

OUT OF THIS WORLD (2003, Japan, 123 minutes)
Sunday, October 9 @ 2PM
A bunch of Japanese musicians try to make their living catering to the taste for jazz that the Occupation Forces have, make their way as a band performing on military bases. Jo Odagiri and Peter Mullan perform in this flick about doing what you need to do to survive. Introduced by director Junji Sakamoto and followed by a reception.
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=1130202519&id_performance=171129198

JAPANESE DEVILS (2001, Japan, 160 minutes)
Sunday, October 16 @ 2PM
The SHOAH of Japanese war crimes, this exhausting documentary looks on as several Japanese veterans finally talk about what they did during the war.
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=1373758248&id_performance=1923182362

A MAN'S FACE IS HIS RESUME (1966, Japan, 89 minutes)
Sunday, October 23 @ 2PM
Tai Kato, one of Japan's most undervalued and stylish directors, offers up a brutal, noir look at simmering racial tensions in postwar Japan.
more details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=374869285&id_performance=749416326


Korean Cultural Service
THIS CHARMING GIRL (2004, Korea)
Thursday, Sept. 29 @ 6:30PM
Scooping up prizes at film festivals all over the world, this flick once again demonstrates the precision brand of romantic comedy that Korea has perfected. Starting off as a romantic comedy, this flick suddenly started taking its lead character seriously and reveals her to be a lonely, damaged young woman.
With an introduction by Im Hyun-Ock.
read a review:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/this_charming_girl.htm


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


Lincoln Plaza Cinema
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


Loew's State Theater
DIL JO BHI KAHEY (2005, India, 144 minutes)
Amitabh Bachchan in a family film about a cultural clash between traditional and modern values and you wanna bet love conquers all? Yeah, it probably does.
read a bit about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/films/bollywood/2005/07/dil_jo_bhi_kahey_preview.shtml

SALAAM NAMASTE (India, 2005)
The latest movie from India's Walt Disney, Yash Raj, is family-friendly entertainment with an urban romantic edge. It's making tons of money in the USA already and it's an "I hate you, I love you" romance between a chef played by Saif Ali Khan and a radio host played by Preity Zinta both living in Australia.
read a review:
http://planetbollywood.com/Film/SalaamNamaste/


MoMA
Early Autumn:
Masterworks of Japanese Cinema from the National Film Center, Tokyo
September 14 - January, 2006

Japan's National Film Center opens its archives and releases 53 prints of some of Japan's classic must-see films.

For the historically-minded, there's rare, early classics on hand like MR. THANK YOU, RICKSHAW MAN, WHERE CHIMNEYS ARE SEEN and INO AND MON.

If you're looking for early work by major directors, there's Mizoguchi's SISTERS OF THE GION and Kurosawa's SUGATA SANSHIRO.

And if you like your movies pulpy, don't miss MATANGO (ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE), GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA and the first ZATOICHI movie, here called: THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF MASSEUR ICHI.

Full listings: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2005/japanese_cinema.html


MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE
36 CHAMBERS OF SHAOLIN (1978, Hong Kong, 115 minutes)
Friday, Sept. 23 @ 7:30PM
It's the ur-Shaw Brothers movie, the classic, the one we all know and love. The training sequences. The bald head of Gordon Liu. The monks. The kicking and hitting. What would make this movie better? Only the pre-screening appearance of the finalists in the Miss New York Chinese Beauty Pageant! And what are they there for? To screen a short, martial arts film that they made as part of the competition. That's right, there's no bathing suit category in the Miss New York Chinese Beauty Pageant, but there is a martial arts film category. Weird or compelling or both?


Pioneer Two Boots
KUNG FU HUSTLE (2005, Hong Kong)
9/24 @ 10:45PM
Stephen Chow is god, and now you know. Sony Pictures Classic releases the King of Comedy's latest flick in 2,000 theaters nationwide and you owe it to the universe to buy a ticket. The most imaginative movie to hit US screens so far this year. Plot? You don't need to know the plot... it's Stephen Chow. Just go!
read a review:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/kungfuhustle


Symphony Space
IKIRU (1952, Japan)
9/25 @ 7PM
9/27 @ 6PM
I'm going to reprint the Symphony Spaces blurb here, because nothing more needs to be said about this amazing film...
"Arguably Kurosawa’s finest film, a masterful and inspiring tale of redemption about an old bureaucrat who learns he’s dying of cancer"
Do NOT miss this one!
read some reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Ikiru+(1952)

HERO (2002, China)
Oct 2 @ 4:45PM
Oct 9 @ 8PM
Oct 10 @ 8PM
Oct 11 @ 4:45PM
Jet Li returns to serious filmmaking in a film that reminds us that historical "truth" is always decided by the winners.
read some reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Ying+xiong+(2002)



Walter Reade
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL (Sept. 24 - October 20)
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE! THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG! New Hou Hsiao-hsien! Plus a 35 film Shochiku retrospective.
Tickets are on sale! Go here for fun!http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.htm


Proctor's Theatre, Schenectady
Finally, if you want to get out of the city, get yourself up to the 2nd Annual Celebration of Chinese Film at Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady (located 8 miles west of Albany). Go NOT ONLY for the film program, but also to see the magnificently grand ol' vaudville palace that is Proctor's Theater. They don't build them like this anymore and there is not even anything nothing in NYC that compares! Films in the program include HERO, JUST ONE LOOK, BLIND SHAFT, SUZHOU RIVER, POSTMEN IN THE MOUTAINS, and KUNG FU HUSTLE.
Go here for more info: http://proctors.org/index.php/MoviePage