The big news this week: L is coming! Last year, Viz did one-night-only screenings of the popular live action DEATH NOTE movies. Now they’re doing a two-night-only screening of the next movie in the franchise, DEATH NOTE: L CHANGE THE WORLD, aka L: CHANGE THE WORLD. We screened this flick last year at the New York Asian Film Fest and it’s Japanese pop cinema at its trashy best, a sugar-coated international thriller directed by Hideo Nakata (THE RING) featuring L, the goth, hunch-backed, candy gobbling teenage Sherlock Holmes of the DEATH NOTE movies, taking on a bunch of terrorists who are armed with a flesh-melting virus. It’ll be screening for two nights at various theaters: on Wednesday, April 29 a subtitled version will screen and on Thursday, April 30 a dubbed version will play. It’s going to hit hundreds of theaters across the country on those nights, so go here for showtimes and venue information. And go here to read more about the movie.

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Also, we missed an event last week, so our apologies. The Korean film, TREELESS MOUNTAIN, is now playing at Film Forum (run ends on Tuesday, May 5). This independent Korean flick (from the director of arthouse hit IN BETWEEN DAYS) is about two little girls who are ditched by their feckless, reckless mom and who have to raise themselves. Trauma ensues. Shot almost entirely in close-ups of the young lead actresses, this is a terrific film if you’re into this kind of painful arthouse thing. Director Kim So-Yong will be at the Friday, April 24, 8pm show. (More info) (Read a rave review from the Village Voice)

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Next week, Japanese film DEPARTURES will be screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Why does this movie sound familiar? Because it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The story of a young, unemployed musician who stumbles into a job as a mortician it’s actually a really good slice-of-life comedy. In Japan, working with dead bodies is still a taboo and this flick takes a frank look at what happens to people when they die. What’s most astonishing about it is that director Yojiro Takita is best known in Japan for directing pink films, softcore porn movies, including installments in the famed “Groper Train” series (and “Groper Bus,” of course). (Tickets and showtimes) (More on the film)

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Also playing Tribeca next week is the Russian  remake of Johnnie To’s BREAKING NEWS. Called NEWSMAKERS (weak!) it’s got the same bang bang, but without Johnnie To’s deft touch. Still, it’s supposedly quite good and if you want to see what Hong Kong filmmaking looks like through Russian eyes (actually, the director is Swedish) then this one’s for you. (Tickets and showtimes)

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Also playing at Film Forum is BURMA VJ, which’ll run for two weeks. A documentary about the massive September 2007 street protests in Burma, it’s comprised almost entirely of video footage taken by VJs (video journalists) who were associated with underground journalism group, The Democratic Voice of Burma, whose members risked torture and imprisonment by taking this footage and smuggling it out of the country to be screened. Come on, the least you can do is buy a ticket. (More info)

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Okay, it’s not a movie but you do NOT want to miss this. Here’s the description of “Bodies of Pyongyang:”

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“Around thirty girls wearing North Korean schoolgirl uniforms are situated inside a (70?x70?x70?) clear plexiglass cube box, which is located off a street intersection. These tightly packed schoolgirls try to move about the enclosed cube box expressing their emotional pain and struggle. Red strings symbolizing their dual inner states of suppression and resistance entangle the girls further confining their freedom to move within their already limited and hermetic space.”

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And, of course, the schedule of appearances:

SUNDAY April 19, Abe Lebewohl Park / St. Mark’s Church
SATURDAY April 25, Foley Square
SATURDAY May 2, Washington Square Park
SATURDAY May 9, Tompkins Square Park

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More details. And you know you need more details.

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The Japan Society is screening their second-to-the-last film in their wildly popular Tora-san series this coming Friday, April 17 @ 7:30pm. It’s HEARTS AND FLOWERS FOR TORA-SAN and it’s more of the same…which is why these movies are so good. Being dependable and pleasant is a real achievement these days, any way you slice it, and Tora-san is nothing if not 100% dependable and 150% pleasant. (More info)

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TOKYO! the three-part film by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-Ho (THE HOST) is STILL playing at the Landmark Sunshine, currently doing a 2:05pm and a 9:30pm show. (Read a review)

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