SUBWAY CINEMA NEWS: May 1 - 7, 2008
NOW PLAYING
Angelica Film Center
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS (2008, Hong Kong/USA)
Daily
Wong Kar-wai’s latest movie stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and a bunch of other folks and, frankly, you should save your money. Interminable and screechy it’s one of WKW’s only true misfires. It looks good, though, but you’ve seen all these visual tics and tricks in his other movies, and done better, too.
read reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/myblueberrynights2008?q=my%20blueberry%20nights
BAM
AS TEARS GO BY (Hong Kong, 1988)
May 2 – 8
Before Wong Kar-wai was the darling of the international jet set, he was a Hong Kong screenwriter who worked hard on movies like HAUNTED COP SHOP 2. Then he was able to slowly transition to being a director, but he still had to deliver enough mainstream thrills to please local investors. His first flick, AS TEARS GO BY, is a mesmerizing blend of Wong Kar-wai romance and style with down-and-dirty Hong Kong gangster action. Savage beatings, swooning romance, Maggie Cheung in her first real role that required her to do more than be onscreen candy. It was a big hit at the Hong Kong box office (Wong’s only film to do that for almost ten years) and if you haven’t seen it but you like Wong Kar-wai then you need to see where it all began.
read a review:
IFC Center
UP THE YANGTZE (China/Canada, 2008)
Daily – with director at screenings 4/26 and 4/27
A Canadian/Chinese documentary charting the part of the country that Jia Zhangke’s STILL LIFE took place in: the Yangtze River where the Three Gorges Dam will soon flood the recently evacuated cities. The doc focuses on a tour boat that sails through these deserted, soon-to-be-submerged towns, and lots of time is given to the bizarrely trained Chinese staff (who are told never to mention Quebec Independence to Western tourists).
see trailer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1fFuynf-Yw
read more:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/uptheyangtze
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Taiwan/France, 2008, 115 minutes)
The latest movie from Taiwan’s great auteur, Hou Hsiao-hsien, is being hailed as one of his best and most accessible movies yet. Set in Paris and starring Juliette Binoche, it’s all about single mothers trying to raise their kids and stay connected to other people in the modern world.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117933651&cs=1
THE FILMS OF KENJI MIZOGUCHI
Friday, Saturday and Sunday @ 11AM
Japan’s master director has been largely relegated to lurk in the shadow of Akira Kurosawa, but over the past five years a number of retrospectives have hauled him back into the light. He’s one of Japan’s best, most subtle and most heart-breaking directors, like the Lubitsch of tragedy: making gorgeous women’s pictures that are delicate, understated and poignantly softspoken.
STORY OF LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Japan, 1939)
May 9-11
Kent Jones says it’s “One of the ten greatest films of all time,” and he’s been around. A kabuki play updated to tell the story of the son of a great kabuki actor who ditches his family in order to chase after the inappropriate love of his life. A boxing match between art and life, desire and duty.
read more:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/36/story_chrysanthemums.html
UTAMARO AND HIS FIVE WOMEN (Japan, 1946)
May 16-18
A feminist manifesto by Mizoguchi that was made under the American occupation and is generally considered one of his lesser films. But still, essential if you’ve fallen under his spell.
read more:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/03/25/utamaro.html
UGETSU (Japan, 1953)
May 23-26:
Mizoguchi’s ghost story is about as far away from THE RING as you can get. Richard Corliss says it contains one of cinema’s great tracking shots. You can bet that it’s a quiet scream of desperation.
read more:
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,ugetsu_monogatari,00.html
THE LIFE OF OHARU (Japan, 1952)
May 30-Jun 1
This is the Mizoguchi movie most fans see one time only. Oharu is a lady of the court and this film is a greased pole that sends her sliding on the fast road to hell, winding up a broken-down beggar. Every inch she falls hurts, hurts, hurts. Cinematic suffering at its most acute.
read more:
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/22/oharu.html
SANSHO THE BAILIFF (Japan, 1954)
Jun 13-15
This is Mizoguchi’s masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it I don’t have anything to say but, “Go!” And maybe I’ll add, “Now!” Lots of critics cite it as the movie that opened their eyes to what film is capable of, this is one of the great Japanese classic movies, based on a great Japanese classic story. Action, romance, slavery, mothers, sons, mistaken identities...if Kurosawa whispered instead of shouted he’d have made it.
read more:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19530101/EDITOR/40827002/1023
ImaginAsian
TASHAN (India, 2008, 165 minutes)
Daily @ 12:00pm, 3:15pm, 6:40pm, 10:00pm
Yash Raj Films of Bollywood makes family friendly musicals and TASHAN is their latest, one of the most anticipated films of the year in India. Starring Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan it’s about a gangster, a femme fatale and a call center executive on a trip across India. An action thriller, it also stars Anil Kapoor, one of Bollywood’s most charismatic actors who’s like a late-career Elvis on speed.
see the teaser trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFUBW1bv_ts
read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashan_(film)
Japan Society
ROUGHNECK (Japan, 1969, 86 minutes)
Friday, May 2 @ 7:30pm
The last installment in the sold-out, super cool, ultra-mod Nikkatsu Action series, this flick takes it out in true yakuza style. Check out the trailer at the link below and you’ll be saying, “Dynamite!” Literally.
more info:
http://www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=e074498
MOMA
KIM KI-DUK RETROSPECTIVE
April 23 – May 8
It’s about time. Love him or hate him, Korea’s Kim Ki-Duk is one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers and until D-WAR came along he was the director of the highest grossing Korean movie ever released in America. Now the Museum of Modern Art is honoring Kim with a complete, 14-film retro, and Kim himself will be attending to introduce some of the films. It’s Korea’s most controversial talent, and if you’ve never experienced one of his movies you should, if only so you can have an opinion.
complete details:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=8164&ref=calendar
Paris Theater (4 West 58th Street)
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Taiwan/France, 2008, 115 minutes)
Daily
The latest movie from Taiwan’s great auteur, Hou Hsiao-hsien, is being hailed as one of his best and most accessible movies yet. Set in Paris and starring Juliette Binoche, it’s all about single mothers trying to raise their kids and stay connected to other people in the modern world.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117933651&cs=1
NOW PLAYING
Angelica Film Center
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS (2008, Hong Kong/USA)
Daily
Wong Kar-wai’s latest movie stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and a bunch of other folks and, frankly, you should save your money. Interminable and screechy it’s one of WKW’s only true misfires. It looks good, though, but you’ve seen all these visual tics and tricks in his other movies, and done better, too.
read reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/myblueberrynights2008?q=my%20blueberry%20nights
BAM
AS TEARS GO BY (Hong Kong, 1988)
May 2 – 8
Before Wong Kar-wai was the darling of the international jet set, he was a Hong Kong screenwriter who worked hard on movies like HAUNTED COP SHOP 2. Then he was able to slowly transition to being a director, but he still had to deliver enough mainstream thrills to please local investors. His first flick, AS TEARS GO BY, is a mesmerizing blend of Wong Kar-wai romance and style with down-and-dirty Hong Kong gangster action. Savage beatings, swooning romance, Maggie Cheung in her first real role that required her to do more than be onscreen candy. It was a big hit at the Hong Kong box office (Wong’s only film to do that for almost ten years) and if you haven’t seen it but you like Wong Kar-wai then you need to see where it all began.
read a review:
IFC Center
UP THE YANGTZE (China/Canada, 2008)
Daily – with director at screenings 4/26 and 4/27
A Canadian/Chinese documentary charting the part of the country that Jia Zhangke’s STILL LIFE took place in: the Yangtze River where the Three Gorges Dam will soon flood the recently evacuated cities. The doc focuses on a tour boat that sails through these deserted, soon-to-be-submerged towns, and lots of time is given to the bizarrely trained Chinese staff (who are told never to mention Quebec Independence to Western tourists).
see trailer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1fFuynf-Yw
read more:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/uptheyangtze
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Taiwan/France, 2008, 115 minutes)
The latest movie from Taiwan’s great auteur, Hou Hsiao-hsien, is being hailed as one of his best and most accessible movies yet. Set in Paris and starring Juliette Binoche, it’s all about single mothers trying to raise their kids and stay connected to other people in the modern world.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117933651&cs=1
THE FILMS OF KENJI MIZOGUCHI
Friday, Saturday and Sunday @ 11AM
Japan’s master director has been largely relegated to lurk in the shadow of Akira Kurosawa, but over the past five years a number of retrospectives have hauled him back into the light. He’s one of Japan’s best, most subtle and most heart-breaking directors, like the Lubitsch of tragedy: making gorgeous women’s pictures that are delicate, understated and poignantly softspoken.
STORY OF LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Japan, 1939)
May 9-11
Kent Jones says it’s “One of the ten greatest films of all time,” and he’s been around. A kabuki play updated to tell the story of the son of a great kabuki actor who ditches his family in order to chase after the inappropriate love of his life. A boxing match between art and life, desire and duty.
read more:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/36/story_chrysanthemums.html
UTAMARO AND HIS FIVE WOMEN (Japan, 1946)
May 16-18
A feminist manifesto by Mizoguchi that was made under the American occupation and is generally considered one of his lesser films. But still, essential if you’ve fallen under his spell.
read more:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/03/25/utamaro.html
UGETSU (Japan, 1953)
May 23-26:
Mizoguchi’s ghost story is about as far away from THE RING as you can get. Richard Corliss says it contains one of cinema’s great tracking shots. You can bet that it’s a quiet scream of desperation.
read more:
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,ugetsu_monogatari,00.html
THE LIFE OF OHARU (Japan, 1952)
May 30-Jun 1
This is the Mizoguchi movie most fans see one time only. Oharu is a lady of the court and this film is a greased pole that sends her sliding on the fast road to hell, winding up a broken-down beggar. Every inch she falls hurts, hurts, hurts. Cinematic suffering at its most acute.
read more:
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/22/oharu.html
SANSHO THE BAILIFF (Japan, 1954)
Jun 13-15
This is Mizoguchi’s masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it I don’t have anything to say but, “Go!” And maybe I’ll add, “Now!” Lots of critics cite it as the movie that opened their eyes to what film is capable of, this is one of the great Japanese classic movies, based on a great Japanese classic story. Action, romance, slavery, mothers, sons, mistaken identities...if Kurosawa whispered instead of shouted he’d have made it.
read more:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19530101/EDITOR/40827002/1023
ImaginAsian
TASHAN (India, 2008, 165 minutes)
Daily @ 12:00pm, 3:15pm, 6:40pm, 10:00pm
Yash Raj Films of Bollywood makes family friendly musicals and TASHAN is their latest, one of the most anticipated films of the year in India. Starring Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan it’s about a gangster, a femme fatale and a call center executive on a trip across India. An action thriller, it also stars Anil Kapoor, one of Bollywood’s most charismatic actors who’s like a late-career Elvis on speed.
see the teaser trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFUBW1bv_ts
read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashan_(film)
Japan Society
ROUGHNECK (Japan, 1969, 86 minutes)
Friday, May 2 @ 7:30pm
The last installment in the sold-out, super cool, ultra-mod Nikkatsu Action series, this flick takes it out in true yakuza style. Check out the trailer at the link below and you’ll be saying, “Dynamite!” Literally.
more info:
http://www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=e074498
MOMA
KIM KI-DUK RETROSPECTIVE
April 23 – May 8
It’s about time. Love him or hate him, Korea’s Kim Ki-Duk is one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers and until D-WAR came along he was the director of the highest grossing Korean movie ever released in America. Now the Museum of Modern Art is honoring Kim with a complete, 14-film retro, and Kim himself will be attending to introduce some of the films. It’s Korea’s most controversial talent, and if you’ve never experienced one of his movies you should, if only so you can have an opinion.
complete details:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=8164&ref=calendar
Paris Theater (4 West 58th Street)
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Taiwan/France, 2008, 115 minutes)
Daily
The latest movie from Taiwan’s great auteur, Hou Hsiao-hsien, is being hailed as one of his best and most accessible movies yet. Set in Paris and starring Juliette Binoche, it’s all about single mothers trying to raise their kids and stay connected to other people in the modern world.
read a review:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117933651&cs=1
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