A fantastic fest
It’s a bit far afield of New York City, but Austin’s Fantastic Fest thunders like a herd of longhorns into the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in two weeks, and we’d feel like sad little cowpokes if we didn’t give our friends down there a shout-out. Besides, there are more than a few connections between FF and NYAFF.
For starters, they’re going to be screening the splatterific TOKYO GORE POLICE, which we hosted the North American premiere of back in June. Madman director Yoshihiro Nishimura is due in Austin for the screening, and based on his bad behavior at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival in July, it sounds like a can’t-miss screening. Bring a raincoat.
Fantastic Fest is also going to be screening a bunch of highly-recommended new Asian films that we really wanted to show, but for various reasons weren’t able to book. FF, since it takes place in the highly-enviable spot immediately after the behemoth Toronto Film Festival, had better access to these tentpole titles, and as a result will be presenting the US premieres of many of them, like the acclaimed (and extremely violent) Korean serial killer thriller THE CHASER (picked up not long ago by IFC for US release); the Thai RAIN MAN-with-martial-arts-and-a-girl action-fest CHOCOLATE; Japanese heartwarming pro wresting comedy GACHI BOY (aka WRESTLING WITH A MEMORY); A BITTERSWEET LIFE director Kim Ji-woon’s all-star, big-budget, Italian western / martial arts homage THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD (also picked up by IFC for US release); and the anthology film TOKYO!, 1/3 of which is truly Asian and directed by THE HOST’s Bong Joon-ho.
But those aren’t the only Asian titles in their lineup. They’ll also be screening a couple of films NYAFF programmers liked, but decided not to show, like the is-it-the-third-part-of-a-trilogy-or-only-a-sequel? gore flick ART OF THE DEVIL 3 and the well-made, but overly familiar Thai boxing-versus-friendship epic MUAY THAI CHAIYA.
We’re also very excited to see that the Alamo guys aren’t averse to throwing some challenging titles into their lineup, like a movie we screened back in 2005 and continue to shower our love on, Go Shibata’s handicapped serial killer art film LATE BLOOMER, a movie that took years to find distribution in Japan and deserves all the adventurous viewers it can find. And they’re going retro with a rare 35mm screening of the Australia / Hong Kong co-production THE MAN FROM HONG KONG, which features beautiful scenery, awesome action (including Sammo Hung in a fight scene atop Ayers Rock), a killer theme song, Jimmy Wang Yu, and George Lazenby sporting a killer moustache and flared pants.
Last but not least, FF is presenting a four-film retrospective of Japanese pink films, in conjunction with the launch of the new FAB Press book BEHIND THE PINK CURTAIN: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF JAPANESE SEX CINEMA, by Midnight Eye founder and Raindance programmer Jasper Sharp. All four films are difficult to see, with two of them being given their international premieres via newly-struck, English-subtitled 35mm prints. But since one of the Subway members also helped to organize this retro, we’ll point you to his blog for the full details.
Good luck, defenders of the Alamo, and enjoy the BBQ! - mw
