March 23 - March 30, 2006

COMING SOON

THE PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL
O.K. its not here in New York City, but not everything good can happen here. This year they are loaded up with some new Asian films and it's well worth a quick train trip to do an all-day viewing. I will be there Saturday to check out a few. MEATBALL MACHINE anyone?

Some Asian highlights: HANGING GARDENS which I saw already but can't wait to see it again - it's angry, bitter, surrealistic, funny and absurd - but mainly it's just brilliant. A few other highlights are WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL (a Korean tale that is a fabulous and touching mix of Brigadoon and the Korean War), IT'S ONLY TALK (another ode to modern angst from the director of VIBRATOR), A BITTERSWEET LIFE (splashy Korean gangster flick), MIDNIGHT MY LOVE (sweet Thai romance between a lonely taxi driver and a massage worker), LADY VENGEANCE (formerly known as SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE - the ultra-stylish third part of Park Chanwook's vengeance trilogy) and plenty of others.
http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/templates/home.cfm

Which reminds me that the New York Asian Film Festival is coming out of it's slumber and waking up to the fact that we are back for the fifth year in only a few months! Yay. We sure never expected to last this long, but are kind of glad to be here again. We have a few good films lined up already but plenty more to go. Keep your eye on our site to see what is coming:
http://subwaycinema.com/

KEKEXILI: THE MOUNTAIN PATROL
(April 21)
A wide release for the Chinese film about where your pashmina comes from - with AK-47's! KEKEXILI is beautiful, raw and depressing: everything you've ever wanted in a Spring movie.
read more:
http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff05-kekexili.htm

AGAINST THE TIDE: REBELS AND MAVERICKS IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE FILM
(April 6 - 16 2006)
Movies about characters who rebel against society (not the Japan Society, just society in general). Featuring Kinji Fukasaku, Tadanobu Asano and the debut of RIKIDOZAN, the Korean film about the Korean wrestler who hid his origins and became a star in Japan.
More details:
http://www.japansociety.org/events/series.cfm?id_series=1694866756

LADY VENGEANCE
(May 5)
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, the third and final installment in Park Chan-Wook's vengeance trilogy (including SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and OLDBOY) opens at the Angelica in all its impeccably styled, somewhat confusing glory.
read a review:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10005750-sympathy_for_lady_vengeance/

AZUMI
(Sometime in Spring, 2006)
Everyone's favorite female samurai in a micro-mini and cape hacks n'slashes her way onto US screens this Spring.
read more:
http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff04-azumi.htm

NOW PLAYING

Anthology Film Archives
DREAM SHOW: THE FILMS OF TAKMINE GO
March 22 - 26 @ 8pm
Japan's film poet of Okinawa gets a retro at the Anthology, unleashing his singular vision on nervous audiences. Some of his movies are completely impressionistic, some are narrative films, some are a mix of the two. Also, on Saturday at 8pm Takamine Go will be in attendance along with Yoshiro Urasaki performing live. Okinawan music is the roadhouse blues of Japanese folk music and it's infectious and foot-stompingly great, so if you're up for it this is an event you shouldn't miss.
more info: http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/?festival_id=14

Cinema Arts Center (423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY)
BEYOND OUR KEN (2004, Hong Kong, 98 minutes)
Monday, March 27 @ 7:30pm
Probably the best female bonding film from Hong Kong in 2004. A young woman is contacted by her boyfriend's ex who wants help in stealing back nude pictures of herself that the boyfriend, named Ken, is passing around to his friends. A low key comedy in the vein of IN HER SHOES only less saccharine.
And I'll be introducing the flick. So come throw tomatoes.
read a review:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/beyond_our_ken.htm
more info:
http://www.cinemaartscentre.org/specialevents.html

IFC Center
RAN (1985, Japan, 160 minutes)
March 24 - 26 @ noon
Akira Kurosawa's final, major samurai epic, RAN is King Lear that unfolds with all the high style of kabuki, running with rivers of blood and featuring some of the most intense and beautiful battle scenes between warring, armor-clad armies you'll ever see. Plus Buddhism.
read a review:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ran/

ImaginAsian Theater
(239 East 59th Street, btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave)
BEING CYRUS (2005, India, 90 minutes)
daily @ 1:00 pm, 3:10 pm, 5:20 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:40 pm
An example of India's parallel cinema, and art film about a romance in a Parsi community that looks fine on the surface, but is weird and (according to one review) "morbid" once you start delving into it.
read a guarded review:
http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/12565/index.html
more info:
http://www.theimaginasian.com/nowplaying/index.php

Museum of Modern Art
NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS (March 22 – April 2)
This year's New Directors/New Films features only two Asian films, but they're both from the Philippines and they've both gotten great word of mouth. On March 25 there'll be the final screening of THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS, a slum saga about a transgendered little kid and her love for a hunky young police officer. Then on March 24 and 26 there's CAVITE, a hostage thriller that is like a grittier, more compelling version of CELLPHONE.
more info:
http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/ndnf.htm

Museum of the Moving Image
THE FILMS OF ANNA MAY WONG
(March 4 - April 16)
A retrospective of Hollywood's first Asian star.
more info:
http://www.movingimage.us/site/screenings/index.html

NYU (Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, room 656)
CHINESE VILLAGERS’ DV DOCUMENTARIES
March 24 from 10am - 5pm
A panel discussion and screening of works by Wu Wenguang who gave DV cameras to Chinese villagers and got them to film their lives to show how the opening of China has affected them on a daily level. This screening will be of the 95 minute feature taken from their footage, and an hour long making-of documentary.
more info:
http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/965