The New York Asian Film Festival is drawing to a close over the next three days, so go out with us Viking funeral style and let’s burn it all down. Bring a friend, and come check out one of these amazing movies before they’re gone forever.

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GALLANTS – the number one, can’t-miss movie of the festival, this is Hong Kong filmmaking at its finest. Four foot tall rock n’roll pioneer, Teddy Robin, gives a lesson in cool. Shaw Brothers icon, Chen Kuan-tai, is older and grayer but he’s still made of hero. And pug-ugly Bruce Leung shows you how a 60-year-old martial artist takes care of business. Bonus! Bruce Leung is in the house, and at the July 8 screening, Chinese rapper MC Jin will be on stage as well. He plays the bad guy in the film and rarely has a man with this many hip hop skills been willing to look so stupid onscreen. Last screening: Thursday, July 8 @ 6pm.

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DOMAN SEMAN – you won’t see another movie like this in your life: infuriating, ecstatic, transcendent, challenging, psychedelic, hilarious, stupid, hyper-intelligent and completely unique. With wall-to-wall rock, ska and thrash music from Kyoto’s best underground bands, this occult odyssey needs an explanation, and who better to provide it than director Go Shibata and actor Monchi who will be onstage after the show to give A’s to your Q’s. Last screening: Wednesday, July 7 @ 5:45pm.

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MERANTAU – yes, the screening slot is sucky, but exploitation movies don’t cut any closer to the bone than this Indonesian martial arts meat grinder that makes a bid to achieve ONG BAK-style immortality. Fast and furious, it comes with delicious trash garnish like evil Eurotrash villains, human trafficking subplots and broken glass being plucked out of faces and used as a weapon. Only screening: Thursday, July 8 @ 3:45pm. Skip work and come get your thrill centers adjusted.

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CASTAWAY ON THE MOON – don’t judge a book by its cover. We were nervous about this film as well but it is inarguably the best romance to hit cinema screens this summer, and it puts Hollywood’s hamhanded attempts at romance to shame. At the first screening, every single member of the sold-out house stayed for the Q&A with director Lee Hey-Jun, and the audience award scores were super-high. This is the ultimate date movie, and the only believable romance we’ve seen this year. Last screening: Wednesday, July 7 @ 8:45pm.

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We’re in the home stretch now, and some of Lincoln Center is still standing. Come on up and help us out. By the time we leave, this place should be a smoking crater that smells like awesome.

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Comments (3) Jul 06 2010

Sure Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and Huang Bo were amazing guests, but there are a bunch of guests in town right now for upcoming shows and you shouldn’t miss them.

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DOMAN SEMAN – imagine A HARD DAY’S NIGHT only it’s about Aleister Crowley instead of the Beatles and you’ve got an idea of the occult intensity of Go Shibata’s new movie. Time Out New York writes, “Ladies and gentlemen, meet the 2010 fest’s candidate for MVP mind-melter. Damnations of modern society are rarely so full of free-form rage, nor this fantastically fucked up.”

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Director Go Shibata will be on hand to explain everything, and actor Mochi, who plays immortal incarnation of evil, Kato the Catwalk, will be at the screenings too.

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GALLANTS – Hong Kong’s legendary martial arts stars of the 70’s, now in their sixties and at the top of their game in this action comedy that hits you like a human tornado. Here’s the full info on the film.

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Star Bruce Leung, best known for his role as “The Beast” in Stephen Chow’s KUNG FU HUSTLE, will be at the screenings. Also, we just found out that MC Jin, the Chinese-American rapper who plays the neck-braced bad guy, will be at the July 8 screening of GALLANTS.

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ACTRESSES – one of our favorite guests, director E J-Yong, will be here with his new film, ACTRESSES. Director of the Korean version of Dangerous Liasions, UNTOLD SCANDAL, and the high school sex musical, DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS, he gives the best Q&A we know. ACTRESSES is screening tonight, Saturday, July 3, and Monday afternoon at 3:40pm, both times at the Walter Reade. More info on the film.

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Comments (0) Jul 03 2010

Tomorrow, Saturday, July 3, the Japan Society will shake to its very foundations underneath the onslaught of the Sushi Typhoon – an enormous storm of masterfully sliced raw fish, flying through the air at speeds of up to 55 mph.

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First….

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Alien vs Ninja @ 6pm

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Then….

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Mutant Girls Squad @ 8:30pm

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And then? And then? And then there is the Sushi Typhoon Costume Party. It’s open to the entire audience (and even if you just want to come by, we probably won’t throw you out). Free beer from our sponsors! Free food! And even better…it’s a costume party.

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Dress as a mutant:

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Or a girl:

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Or a mutant girl:

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Or an alien:

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Or a ninja:

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Directors Noboru Iguchi (ROBOGEISHA) and Yoshihiro Nishimura (MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD) will select the best costume and give that person…A Head! (no, not head. A head.) Hand picked from Nishimura’s workshop, a hideous, gruesome, artisanal head could be yours.

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So come on up to see the movies, or just show up for the Sushi Typhoon Costume Party at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues), on Saturday, July 3 @ 10:30pm!

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The heads in question.

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We’ll be there with our party heads on. Will you?

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Comments (1) Jul 02 2010

This piece on Sammo Hung just appeared in the New York Times and in the International Herald Tribune, all about his lifetime achievement award. Thought folks might be interested.

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Here it is!
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Only one more Sammo Hung movie left to screen: the Monday, July 5 show of KUNG FU CHEFS. Skip work and come get hungry!

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Fan Siu-wong hates Sammo’s tummy!

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Sammo Hung: Butt-kicker. Sauce-maker.

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Comments (0) Jul 02 2010

While he’s in town, Kenta Maeno will be playing a couple of gigs around town. The first is:

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Kenta Maeno.

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Friday, July 2nd @ 10pm
A FREE acoutic set by Kenta Maeno & drummer POP Suzuki at Coco66 (66 Greenpoint Avenue, between Franklin and West) out in Brooklyn. For info, call 718-389-7392.

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Saturday, July 3rd @ 7pm
At the Blue Owl (196 Second Avenue @ 12th Street, downstairs). $7 at the door, more info here or call 212-505-2583. There’s also live Brazilian jazz at 6pm courtesy of Yuko Ito.

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More on LIVE TAPE, the documentary about Kenta Maeno, and some footage of him performing.

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Also performing this week, Cay Izumi from MUTANT GIRL SQUAD and ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL will be pole dancing all over NYC!
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Cay Izumi.

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Friday, July 2nd @ 2am
Trash at Webster Hall (125 E. 11th Street, btwn 3rd & 4th). $5 cover with online flyer, $10 without.

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Then she’ll also be performing on Monday, July 5 @ 9:30pm
Moco Moco (516 Third Ave, btwn 34th & 35th)
$10 cover, more info at 212-685-3663
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She’s aiming to corrupt NYC and shock the unwary. See videos of her performances and be singed.

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Comments (3) Jul 01 2010

Tomorrow, the New York Asian Film Festival splits in two like some kind of hideous earthworm and continues to exist in two places at the same time!

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Like a horrible amoeba!

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One half of us will continue to wiggle away at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade theater, while the other half will be squirming around at Japan Society from July 1 – 4.

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We’ll look a little like this.

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You can find the full Japan Society schedule on the main schedule page, but here are some things you shouldn’t miss:

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- SAWAKO DECIDES (Thursday, 6:45pm) – it’s a one-time-only screening of this movie that the Twitch reviewer calls, “one of the best chick flicks I have ever seen, ever.” Later, someone seconds that emotion in the comments with “best of the fest.” And it’s true: Sawako really is something else.

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- CONFESSIONS (Thursday, July 1 @ 9pm; and Sunday, July 4 @ 2pm) – this is the movie from the director of MEMORIES OF MATSUKO that has been number one at the Japanese box office for weeks. The July 1 screening is SOLD OUT, but the July 4 screening still has some tickets left.

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Confessions

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- Sushi Typhoon Saturday - on Saturday, July 3, Sushi Typhoon is in the house! Starting with a 6pm screening of ALIEN VS NINJA, the chaos continues with the official Sushi Typhoon launch, an 8:30pm screening of the unbelievable MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD and a Sushi Typhoon Costume Party with free beer and food for all ticket holders.

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They are mutants. They are girls. They are squad.

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And throughout the entire weekend, you’ll be able to bathe in the mystical, healing waterfall in Japan Society’s lobby.

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All these screenings are co-presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Film (July 1 – 16) which is screening a “Best of the 2000’s” retrospective. You cannot miss HANGING GARDEN (Toshiaki Toyoda’s version of TOKYO SONATA that is far superior to Kurosawa’s twee, later version) and the glorious, monumental musical, MEMORIES OF MATSUKO, winner of the NYAFF Audience Award in 2007 by a country mile.

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Comments (0) Jun 30 2010

Comments (1) Jun 29 2010

After telling us to get lost this year, the New York Times has come through and run a piece on the festival just when all of us were despairing that for the first time in years the Grey Lady would ignore us, just when we’d crept into a bastion of Upper West Side respectability. Credit for this one goes to Emilie Spiegel over at the Film Society of Lincoln Center who pitched woo to the Times long after we’d given up hope and taken to our daybeds in a state of nervous exhaustion.

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Actresses.

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Writer Mike Hale singles out a bunch of movies as “ones to watch” but the two he goes gaga over the most are ACTRESSES and ANNYONG YUMIKA. He writes about them at length, calling them two of the most adventurous movies in the festival, and while he wallows in the backstage, meta- antics and over-the-top diva-licious performances in ACTRESSES, he saves his highest praise for ANNYONG YUMIKA:

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“…a lark of a film with a serious, and moving, undercurrent, one that builds as Mr. Matsue single-mindedly burrows into Ms. Hayashi’s life. It’s about Korean perceptions of Japanese women and about the price of being a free spirit in Japanese society, at the same time that it celebrates a profoundly Japanese idea: the rippling effects, through many lives, of something as ephemeral, and even perhaps ugly, as “Junko: The Tokyo Housewife.”

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Read the full article.

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Mike Hale makes us all feel like pretty ponies!

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Comments (2) Jun 25 2010

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Bless the Village Voice. I know they’ve gone national, and they’re franchised, and they’re not what they used to be, etc. But every year they cover the New York Asian Film Festival in high style, usually via Michael Atkinson who digs deep into our line-up and emerges with takes on movies that even we never expected. This year’s article is up, and here’re some excerpts:

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GOLDEN SLUMBER: “a kind of reinvention of the JFK shooting from Oswald’s perspective…Stirring and sweet.” (info and tickets)

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CRAZY RACER: “…a shitstorm of ludicrous crime bosses, switched identities, assassins, evil pharma charlatans, doubling coincidences, digital wipes, and “Triad-style” funeral catering: “Cool like gangster!” (info and tickets)

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SYMBOL: “If you thought 2005’s Funky Forest: The First Contact left Earth for ether-realms unknown, you were right, and Hitoshi Matsumoto’s preposterous spiritual odyssey gives it a run to the chalk line…Exhilarating, as only an unprompted slap in the face can be.” (info and tickets)

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He also gives some praise, a lot of it actually, to A LITTLE POND. We all love this movie for its audacity and have already received some international hate mail for screening it. However, it’s a low profile picture and so we thought that it would struggle to find an audience. Michael Atkinson let’s us know that we might be wrong – and that would be great.

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A LITTLE POND: “Coming out of left field for us, this historical 2009 Korean scorcher, starring a phalanx of Korean stars, chronicles in grueling detail the notorious No Gun Ri Massacre, in which American forces in 1950 simply mowed down 300 villager refugees in South Korea. The incident was covered up…but director Lee Sang-woo doesn’t fuck around…genuinely upsetting…” (info and tickets)

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The whole write-up, covering 7 of his picks for the best in the fest.

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So “thank you” Village Voice. It’s nice to know that as the old media burns, we’re still not too strange for you to cover!

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Comments (0) Jun 23 2010

What happened? Suddenly, Hong Kong movies are rocking again. They’ve given up on making bloated, flavorless international action oatmeal and they’re making hard-hitting, deeply local kung fu congee once more. Was it a miracle? Divine intervention? The phases of the moon?

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It was IP MAN.

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This sleek, hard-hitting 2008 movie about Bruce Lee’s master, Ip Man, starred Donnie Yen, it was directed by Wilson Yip (SPL) and the action was by Sammo Hung. It made a mint and launched a craze for old school martial arts movies as well as an “Ip Man Wave” which has given birth to a sequel, a prequel, the currently-shooting Wong Kar-wai Ip Man movie and a TV series coming soon.

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This year’s festival had an embarrassment of riches to choose from in terms of Hong Kong movies, and with the support of the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office, New York, we launched…

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RETURN TO THE OLD SCHOOL:

HONG KONG’S NEW WAVE OF MARTIAL ARTS FILMS

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IP MAN

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The movie that started it all!

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(Read more and get yer tickets – one screening only! Saturday, June 26 @ noon)

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IP MAN 2

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The sequel, co-starring Sammo Hung in the performance of his career. And don’t worry, you don’t need to have seen IP MAN to enjoy this film. That “2″ in the title just means it’s twice as good as the original.

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(Read more and get tickets – the June 25 screening is SOLD OUT, and the June 27 screening only has about 70 tickets left!)

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EASTERN CONDORS

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And speaking of Sammo Hung, this is his jaw-dropping 1987 masterpiece, set in Vietnam and full of more action heroes than there are stars in the heavens. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a rare 35mm print of the movie with Sammo Hung (and his wife and co-star, Joyce Mina Godenzi) in the house. Followed by an onstage chat with Sammo Hung.

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(One show only – Saturday, June 26 @ 4:45pm)

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KUNG FU CHEFS

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Sammo Hung likes to do two things: cook food and kick ass. Fortunately, here’s a movie that allows him to do both!

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(Read more, and get your tickets)

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GALLANTS

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COCOON with kung fu, this flick about old school martial arts heroes making their comeback is the discovery of the festival. Just check out the trailer if you don’t believe me.

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(Read more about it, and get your tickets before they’re gone!)

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LITTLE BIG SOLDIER

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The best Jackie Chan movie since 1994’s DRUNKEN MASTER II. If you’ve been a Jackie Chan fan lost in the wilderness, here’s the film you can finally drag your friends to so they can see why this man is great. This one goes in his top ten for proving that he’s more than just a stuntman.

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(Read more, check out a special message from Jackie, and buy your tickets!)

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BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS

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Nominated for more Hong Kong Film Awards than any other movie in history, this is a massive, all-star spectacle about a ragtag gang of volunteer bodyguards protecting Dr. Sun Yat-sen on a trip to Hong Kong.

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On Sunday, June 27, one $15 ticket gets you admission to DEVELOPMENT HELL, which tells the tale behind the making of this “cursed” Hong Kong production, and to BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS. Hiroshi Fukazawa, director of DEVELOPMENT HELL, will be there, and so will Simon Yam, one of the stars of B&A.

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(Read more, and get your tickets – note, the 6/27 double feature is 60% sold out and every day about 20 more tickets for it disappear. Get yours now!)

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STORM WARRIORS

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Hong Kong has always made two kinds of martial arts movies: hardcore, hand-to-hand flicks, and fantasy swordplay films. This one is the fantasy film cranked up to the max. Swords cut the weather in half and weapons are forged from the spinal columns of dead gods. Truly ridiculous and over-the-top, it’s a movie where too much is never enough.

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(Read more, and note: Simon Yam, one of the movie’s stars, will be at the Sunday, June 27 @ noon screening. Be there or face his wrath!)

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RED CLIFF UNCUT

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Celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July with this massive, mega-screening. When John Woo’s return to greatness was released in the US, it came out as a two-and-a-half hour, chopped up FrankenFilm. But see it now the way the rest of the world saw it: as two movies lasting almost FIVE HOURS!!! Screened back-to-back for the price of one ticket. Happy Birthday, America!

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(Read more and get those tickets – it’s a war, it’s an epic, it’s a movie and it’s a bargain. The perfect way to celebrate the Fourth of July!)

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Comments (2) Jun 22 2010