September 28 – October 5, 2007

Coming Soon
From October 9 – 16, as part of the New York Film Festival, there will be a Cathay retrospective at Lincoln Center. Cathay was the Hong Kong studio that was the good twin to Shaw Brothers’ evil twin: they did some action, but they mostly focused on musicals, melodramas and women and young pictures. They’ve got some great stuff in their catalogue and it’ll be interesting to see what shows up here.

From October 17 – 25, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be doing a retro of the last ten years of Hong Kong film. Some stuff you’ve seen before, some surprises, and a couple of must-sees.

Now Playing

EVERYWHERE
DRAGON WARS (Korea, 2007)
At the AMC Empire 25 in Manhattan and all over Queens & Brooklyn
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the highest-grossing Korean movie ever released in America...DRAGON WARS. A sci-fi spectacle about giant snakes and dragons starring American actors it has handily beat out Kim Ki-Duk’s previous record holder SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING by earning twice the money in one weekend that S,S,F,W...AS earned in its entire run. THE HOST? SHIRI? TAE GUK GI? What’re those? Imoogi is the new king of Korean cinema in the USA. Expect apocalypse.
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/d_war/

Cinema Village
MILAREPA (2006, Bhutan, 95 minutes)
From the star of THE CUP comes this life of the Buddhist saint, Milarepa. Beautiful cinematography and locations tell the story of a kid born and bred for revenge who grew up to achieve enlightenment.
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/milarepa/

VANAJA (India, 2006, 111 minutes)
A story about class divisions in India, as well as a coming of age tale for a 15-year old girl, VANAJA is full of all the colors, music and dance you’d expect from India. A bit didactic, but completely satisfying.
read reviews that call it one of the best of the year:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vanaja/

IFC Center
THE MAKIOKA SISTERS (1983, Japan, 130 minutes)
Friday, September 28 – Sunday, September 30 @ noon
Kon Ichikawa adapts what is considered to be one of Japan’s greatest 20th Century novels, THE MAKIOKA SISTERS, and turns in a nostalgic, big budget ode to cozy, Japanese family life in the years leading up to the Pacific War. It’s been criticized for what it leaves out of the novel, but it’s also considered a masterful piece of cinema.
read a review:
http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/72607/The_Makioka_Sisters.html

The ImaginAsian
CHAK DE INDIA (2007, India)
Daily @ 10pm
The nuttiest sports movie ever made, this flick about a women’s field hockey team from India going to the World Cup of women’s field hockey is so exciting you might just explode. It is to sports movies what Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES remake is to sci fi: off-the-wall.
read a review:
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=90708

Japan Society
NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960’s Nikkatsu Action Cinema
This retrospective screens a film a month from the Nikkatsu vaults and it’s not to be missed. The movies have had subtitles made by Subway Cinema’s very own Marc Walkow who will painstakingly run them BY HAND during the screening (we whipped him until he got the timing perfect). This is the genius period of Nikkatsu when they were turning out stylish, jet set, visually jaw-dropping films from directors like Suzuki Seijun (PRINCESS RACCOON) and you really shouldn’t miss this opportunity to see these flicks.
A COLT IS MY PASSPORT (1967, Japan, 84 minutes)
Friday, September 28 @ 7:30pm
Jo Shishido (the chipmunk-cheeked killer from BRANDED TO KILL) plays a hitman who pulls off a job a little too daringly and needs to grab his cash, stash his weapons and get out of town all within the next few hours. Double crosses and betrayals abound and it all winds up in one of the bleakest, starkest shoot-outs ever put on film. One part spaghetti western (with a soundtrack to match) and one part gutter level crawl through the stink of the Japanese underworld, with a title this cool, how can you miss it?
buy tickets:
http://japansociety.org/events/event_detail.cfm?id_event=1387003007&id_performance=513415271

Korean Cultural Service (460 Park Avenue, 6th floor)
PASSAGE TO BUDDHA (1993, Korea, 108 minutes)
Thursday, September 27 @ 6:30pm
Jang Sun-Woo, one of Korea’s best directors who remains mostly unknown in the West, is responsible for films like A PETAL, LIES and the amazingly mind-blowing RESURRECTION OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. Here he makes a film that some consider one of his best, about a young boy on a quest to find his mother after the death of his dad. Free screening!
more info:
http://www.koreanculture.org/bbs/view.php?id=event&no=118