January 10 – 17, 2008
Welcome to Subway Cinema News 2008! It’s a new year but we’re still hugging and squeezing Asian cinema like nobody’s business.
COMING SOON
February 2 – 10 sees and Olivier Assayas retrospective at the Anthology Film Archives, featuring his movie with Maggie Cheung, IRMA VEP, and his terrific documentary about Hou Hsiao-hsien, HHH: A PORTRAIT OF HOU HSIAO-HSIEN.
February 29th the amazing, the inimitable FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT appears at the ImaginAsian and it’ll run in repertory with its director’s previous movie, A TASTE OF TEA. You will never experience joy in a theater the way you will during A TASTE OF TEA and FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT. Weird, surreal, hopeful, disjointed, bizarre...treat yourself to something different.
NOW SHOWING
Anthology Film Archives
MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS: THE FILMS OF APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL
January 17 – 19
With Apichatpong Weerasethakul appearing on Friday, January 18!!!
His film SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY appeared on pretty much every single “Best of” list of 2007, he’s been treated like a criminal in Thailand where government officials banned SYNDROMES and insulted the director by claiming no one in the country wanted to watch his movies, and he’s become an essential part of the international film festival scene in only a few short years. You’d be silly not to check out SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY or TROPICAL MALADY or one of the two short programs.
read an essay about the director and the retro:
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0802,lee,78795,20.html
Cinema Village
SUMMER PALACE (China, 2007, 104 minutes)
Starts Friday, January 18
Lou Ye’s lush flick about a young woman moving to the big city and falling in love is set against the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 earned the acclaimed director a five year ban from filmmaking. Was it worth it? See the film and decide for yourself. Lou’s previous films include the Zhang Ziyi spy film, PURPLE BUTTERFLY and the elliptical VERTIGO-esque SUZHOU RIVER.
read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?summer+palace
LOST IN BEIJING (China, 2007, 112 minutes)
Starts Friday, January 25
This black comic duel between two married couples who are fighting over the same baby stars classic Chinese diva, Elaine Jin, Hong Kong firebrand Tony Leung Kar-fai (ELECTION) and up and coming starlette Fan Bingbing, in a movie that’s cracking AIDS jokes one minute and threatening to drop a baby out a window the next. It might be too strong for American audiences, but critics have loved it around the world, and it was a major hit in China with its bare-knuckled depiction of modern day life in Beijing. Oh, and the producer is being brought up on criminal charges and the movie has been banned in China for showing Chinese people in too negative a light.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117932766&cs=1
Film Forum
WOMAN ON THE BEACH (Korea, 2006, 127 minutes)
Daily @ 1:15pm, 3:45pm, 6:45pm, 9:15pm
Ends January 22nd
Hong Sang-Soo is one of the most acclaimed directors in Korea, viewed as the king of the art films in his homeland. But don’t let that scare you. His movies are about relationships and they’re often funnier than they are intellectual, charting every shift in mood and feeling like a weatherman tracking a storm system. There’s no better way to promote this flick, viewed as his crowning achievement, than to send you to read just a handful of the critical hosana’s sung for Hong.
Go read them:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/womanbeach.html
The ImaginAsian
A BLOODY ARIA (Korea, 2006, 114 minutes)
Daily @ 12:30pm, 9:40pm
DELIVERANCE goes Korean, this bloody film is an exercise in savagery. When an opera coach takes his prize student to a deserted river and tries to jump her things are uncomfortable enough. But they get worse when a gang of local thugs stroll by and rapidly demonstrate that they’re all total psychos. Sick, gory and a real exploitation gem.
read a review:
http://koreanfilm.org/kfilm06.html#bloodyaria
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR (India, 2007, 165 minutes)
Daily @ 3pm
A Bollywood version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY focusing on a dyslexic kid, directed by and starring the multi-talented Aamir Khan (LAGAAN). Expect to cry. A lot. It’s already been ranked as one of the best Bollywood films of 2007 by most Indian critics.
read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taare_Zameen_Par
LE GRAND CHEF (Korea, 2007, 113 minutes)
Starts January 18
this movie does not have English subtitles. Yikes! But if you’re Korean and you want to see a cooking competition flick that’s based on a hit manhwa (like manga, but Korean) with a big budget, then this is your ticket.
read more:
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/le-grand-chef.html
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.
RED HANDKERCHIEF (Japan, 1964, 98 minutes)
Friday, Jan 18 @ 7:30pm
Starring Yujiro Ishihara (a star so huge that he even has a museum dedicated to him) this cop drama is one of the pivotal movies in the series and an essential title demonstrating Nikkatsu’s “mood action” style. Ishihara shoots a witness during a failed drug raid and moves to the frozen north of Japan in self-exile. Years later he returns to solve the case so expect maximum melancholy, maximum fistfights, cool music and sharp suits. In color!
read details:
http://www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=4517028a
watch the trailer:
http://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/red_handkerchief_trailer
Landmark Sunshine
LUST, CAUTION (Taiwan, 2007)
Daily @ 11:45am, 2:45pm, 6:00pm, 9:15pm
Ang Lee’s dirty movie is moody, repressed and features lots of scenes of Tony Leung naked. It’s also about 500 hours long. Still: Tony Leung naked.
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lust_caution/
MOMA
KUBRADOR aka THE BET COLLECTOR (Philippines, 2006, 98 minutes)
Thursday, January 10, 7:00 (Introduced by Jeturian, the director; cast and crew present)
Friday, January 11, 8:00
Saturday, January 12, 4:00
Sunday, January 13, 4:00
Monday, January 14, 7:00 (a Modern Mondays discussion with Jeturian, the director)
Wednesday, January 16, 8:30
One of the most acclaimed recent movies from the Philippines, THE BET COLLECTOR hits MOMA for a full run courtesy of Global Lens which has made a mission out of bringing undistributed foreign films to the US. Gina Pareño, a grand dame of the Philippino screen, plays a the matriarch of a family which has fallen on hard times. To make ends meet she works for an illegal numbers game, making her rounds to collect money owed by the game’s losers. A slice of seedy life and a great performance by an actress who’s almost unknown in North America.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931871.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
OPERA JAWA (Indonesia, 2006, 120 minutes)
Wednesday, January 16, 6:00
Thursday, January 17, 8:00
Friday, January 18, 8:00
Saturday, January 19, 2:00
Sunday, January 20, 5:00
Monday, January 21, 4:00
Hold onto your hats, this is a musical like none you’ve ever seen before. We tried to get it for the New York Asian Film Festival last year but for some reason the distributor wasn’t having any of it. Too bad, but it’s out now and if you’re into music this is the must-see event of the month. A full-out folk opera based on the “Abduction of Sita” from India’s “Ramayana” it’s set in a small village in the modern day with the villagers playing all the parts, making convincing monsters out of sheets and baskets, with full-blown production numbers breaking out all over, and surreal art installations growing out of the sandy beach like wild weeds. Hypnotic and existing in a dimension all its own, this is one of the few movies you can truly say is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s got a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, too!
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/opera_jawa/
Welcome to Subway Cinema News 2008! It’s a new year but we’re still hugging and squeezing Asian cinema like nobody’s business.
COMING SOON
February 2 – 10 sees and Olivier Assayas retrospective at the Anthology Film Archives, featuring his movie with Maggie Cheung, IRMA VEP, and his terrific documentary about Hou Hsiao-hsien, HHH: A PORTRAIT OF HOU HSIAO-HSIEN.
February 29th the amazing, the inimitable FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT appears at the ImaginAsian and it’ll run in repertory with its director’s previous movie, A TASTE OF TEA. You will never experience joy in a theater the way you will during A TASTE OF TEA and FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT. Weird, surreal, hopeful, disjointed, bizarre...treat yourself to something different.
NOW SHOWING
Anthology Film Archives
MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS: THE FILMS OF APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL
January 17 – 19
With Apichatpong Weerasethakul appearing on Friday, January 18!!!
His film SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY appeared on pretty much every single “Best of” list of 2007, he’s been treated like a criminal in Thailand where government officials banned SYNDROMES and insulted the director by claiming no one in the country wanted to watch his movies, and he’s become an essential part of the international film festival scene in only a few short years. You’d be silly not to check out SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY or TROPICAL MALADY or one of the two short programs.
read an essay about the director and the retro:
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0802,lee,78795,20.html
Cinema Village
SUMMER PALACE (China, 2007, 104 minutes)
Starts Friday, January 18
Lou Ye’s lush flick about a young woman moving to the big city and falling in love is set against the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 earned the acclaimed director a five year ban from filmmaking. Was it worth it? See the film and decide for yourself. Lou’s previous films include the Zhang Ziyi spy film, PURPLE BUTTERFLY and the elliptical VERTIGO-esque SUZHOU RIVER.
read reviews:
http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?summer+palace
LOST IN BEIJING (China, 2007, 112 minutes)
Starts Friday, January 25
This black comic duel between two married couples who are fighting over the same baby stars classic Chinese diva, Elaine Jin, Hong Kong firebrand Tony Leung Kar-fai (ELECTION) and up and coming starlette Fan Bingbing, in a movie that’s cracking AIDS jokes one minute and threatening to drop a baby out a window the next. It might be too strong for American audiences, but critics have loved it around the world, and it was a major hit in China with its bare-knuckled depiction of modern day life in Beijing. Oh, and the producer is being brought up on criminal charges and the movie has been banned in China for showing Chinese people in too negative a light.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117932766&cs=1
Film Forum
WOMAN ON THE BEACH (Korea, 2006, 127 minutes)
Daily @ 1:15pm, 3:45pm, 6:45pm, 9:15pm
Ends January 22nd
Hong Sang-Soo is one of the most acclaimed directors in Korea, viewed as the king of the art films in his homeland. But don’t let that scare you. His movies are about relationships and they’re often funnier than they are intellectual, charting every shift in mood and feeling like a weatherman tracking a storm system. There’s no better way to promote this flick, viewed as his crowning achievement, than to send you to read just a handful of the critical hosana’s sung for Hong.
Go read them:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/womanbeach.html
The ImaginAsian
A BLOODY ARIA (Korea, 2006, 114 minutes)
Daily @ 12:30pm, 9:40pm
DELIVERANCE goes Korean, this bloody film is an exercise in savagery. When an opera coach takes his prize student to a deserted river and tries to jump her things are uncomfortable enough. But they get worse when a gang of local thugs stroll by and rapidly demonstrate that they’re all total psychos. Sick, gory and a real exploitation gem.
read a review:
http://koreanfilm.org/kfilm06.html#bloodyaria
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR (India, 2007, 165 minutes)
Daily @ 3pm
A Bollywood version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY focusing on a dyslexic kid, directed by and starring the multi-talented Aamir Khan (LAGAAN). Expect to cry. A lot. It’s already been ranked as one of the best Bollywood films of 2007 by most Indian critics.
read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taare_Zameen_Par
LE GRAND CHEF (Korea, 2007, 113 minutes)
Starts January 18
this movie does not have English subtitles. Yikes! But if you’re Korean and you want to see a cooking competition flick that’s based on a hit manhwa (like manga, but Korean) with a big budget, then this is your ticket.
read more:
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/le-grand-chef.html
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.
RED HANDKERCHIEF (Japan, 1964, 98 minutes)
Friday, Jan 18 @ 7:30pm
Starring Yujiro Ishihara (a star so huge that he even has a museum dedicated to him) this cop drama is one of the pivotal movies in the series and an essential title demonstrating Nikkatsu’s “mood action” style. Ishihara shoots a witness during a failed drug raid and moves to the frozen north of Japan in self-exile. Years later he returns to solve the case so expect maximum melancholy, maximum fistfights, cool music and sharp suits. In color!
read details:
http://www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=4517028a
watch the trailer:
http://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/red_handkerchief_trailer
Landmark Sunshine
LUST, CAUTION (Taiwan, 2007)
Daily @ 11:45am, 2:45pm, 6:00pm, 9:15pm
Ang Lee’s dirty movie is moody, repressed and features lots of scenes of Tony Leung naked. It’s also about 500 hours long. Still: Tony Leung naked.
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lust_caution/
MOMA
KUBRADOR aka THE BET COLLECTOR (Philippines, 2006, 98 minutes)
Thursday, January 10, 7:00 (Introduced by Jeturian, the director; cast and crew present)
Friday, January 11, 8:00
Saturday, January 12, 4:00
Sunday, January 13, 4:00
Monday, January 14, 7:00 (a Modern Mondays discussion with Jeturian, the director)
Wednesday, January 16, 8:30
One of the most acclaimed recent movies from the Philippines, THE BET COLLECTOR hits MOMA for a full run courtesy of Global Lens which has made a mission out of bringing undistributed foreign films to the US. Gina Pareño, a grand dame of the Philippino screen, plays a the matriarch of a family which has fallen on hard times. To make ends meet she works for an illegal numbers game, making her rounds to collect money owed by the game’s losers. A slice of seedy life and a great performance by an actress who’s almost unknown in North America.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931871.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
OPERA JAWA (Indonesia, 2006, 120 minutes)
Wednesday, January 16, 6:00
Thursday, January 17, 8:00
Friday, January 18, 8:00
Saturday, January 19, 2:00
Sunday, January 20, 5:00
Monday, January 21, 4:00
Hold onto your hats, this is a musical like none you’ve ever seen before. We tried to get it for the New York Asian Film Festival last year but for some reason the distributor wasn’t having any of it. Too bad, but it’s out now and if you’re into music this is the must-see event of the month. A full-out folk opera based on the “Abduction of Sita” from India’s “Ramayana” it’s set in a small village in the modern day with the villagers playing all the parts, making convincing monsters out of sheets and baskets, with full-blown production numbers breaking out all over, and surreal art installations growing out of the sandy beach like wild weeds. Hypnotic and existing in a dimension all its own, this is one of the few movies you can truly say is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s got a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, too!
read reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/opera_jawa/
Links
Archives
This is really, really simple, but - as a service to those who like their hand held - we're gonna spell it out...
TO BE NOTIFIED OF UPDATES TO THIS SITE (approx. once per week)
1) Print this page and then Click Here. This will take you to a new page.
2) Enter you email address in the space designated and click ENTER or OK or GO or whatever
the heck the button on that page says.
3) This should result in two things happening.
First, your browser should change to a message reading:
"Thank you! You will receive an email shortly with instructions on how to confirm
and complete your subscription. You will not be subscribed until you click on
the link in that email. Thanks!"
Secondly, as stated above, you should receive an email in your inbox.
It will be from the following address: listapp-subscribe-bounce@www.server.com
4) Open that email and click on the link within (or cut and paste the listed URL into your browser).
5) This will result in your browser opening to the following message:
"Success! You should begin receiving your weekly Subway Cinema News shortly!"
6) That's it!
© 2000-2005 Subway Cinema. All Rights Reserved.
