Subway Cinema News

Sure we had a fancy jury that give out awards this year, but the prize that the New York Asian Film Festival has been giving out for seven years is the Audience Award that is picked by, you guessed it, our audience. Past winners include, THE TASTE OF TEA, MY SASSY GIRL, PING PONG and ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET.

It took a while to tally them up, but we finally have the results of this year’s voting. The winner of the New York Asian Film Festival 2008 Audience Award is…FINE, TOTALLY FINE!

However, because the voting is only half scientific (we use magic for the other half) we also want to recognize the achievements of the five top-ranked movies out of the 43 we showed. They are:

1) FINE, TOTALLY FINE
2) ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2
3) KING NARESUAN 2
4) PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS
5) SPARROW

Congrats to all the winners!

“What do you mean I won?”

This year’s New York Asian Film Festival is over, and we all want to thank everyone who came. To be honest, we only make about 20% of our budget from sponsors; people buying tickets accounts fro 80% of what we spend so if you don’t like the festival, don’t come. If you do like the festival, then come on down. It’s that easy. As long as you buy tickets, the NYAFF will be here. We’re still working through the numbers, but this year it looks like we broke even with a little left over to start it up all over again next year, so for that we sincerely thank you.

We’ll be announcing the Audience Award winner on Wednesday. But for now, that’s it for this year!

Thanks for coming! Without you, it’s just showing movies in an empty room. With you, it’s a festival.

Yesterday was the last day at the IFC Center and now the New York Asian Film Festival has moved up to Japan Society (47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues) for the last three days of the fest. We ended our IFC run on July 3rd with the Super Mega Enormous Prize Pack Giveaways (one at each show), sold out screenings of PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS and a near-capacity crowd for the Korean stuntman documentary ACTION BOYS with the movie’s director Jung Byoung-Gul (who also went through stunt school and is now working on his second film, a black comedy), producer Lee Ji-Youn (who spent her time filming every single thing that happened) and stuntman Kwak Jin-Seock (he of the mighty abs - which he refused to bare to the audience at the Q&A, allowing the NYAFF to retain some small measure of its dignity).

Here’re Magic Marker Rembrandt’s contributions for the day:

Look at the care lavished on TGP…

And here’re the last works of art from Magic Marker Rembrandt:

As promised, the face of Magic Marker Rembrandt revealed. James, one of the IFC theater managers, does these the night before a show or early in the morning. High on toxic marker fumes, fingertips bleeding, poisonous ink seeping into his fingernails and causing them to fall off, all so patrons know which theater is playing their movie.

And here’s his final message, a scream of delight and farewell from the heart of his felt-tipped wonderland:

And now the New York Asian Film Festival is at Japan Society, uptown - where it’s art. Quick note: ACCURACY OF DEATH screenings are all sold out, as is SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO. Tickets are available for FINE, TOTALLY FINE, ALWAYS 2, YASUKUNI and UNITED RED ARMY but they’re going fast!

Probably the most controversial, acclaimed, attacked, defended, studied and debated Korean director these days is Lee Myung-Se, director of the kinetic action movie, NOWHERE TO HIDE, the swooningly gorgeous swordplay film, DUELIST, and this year’s psychedelic romance, M. Director Lee has been a good friend of the New York Asian Film Festival for years, and we’re pleased as punch to announce that he’ll be here for the Tuesday, July 1 screening of M at 7pm. Director Lee will be introducing the movie and then conducting a Q&A afterwards - and if there’s ever a movie that leaves the audience wanting to know more, it’s M.

Starring one of Korea’s biggest male stars, Jang Dong-Won, M is a movie that director Lee started writing when he was living in NYC after the release of NOWHERE TO HIDE. Informed by a short story by Truman Capote, Haruki Murakami’s novel East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a dream he had about Alfred Hitchcock and a complicated and tangled dreamscape that grew in his mind based on his observations of New York City and his memories and dreams about Seoul, M sounds simple: a writer is followed by a young woman who claims to know him. She could be real, she could be a ghost, she could be a memory or a dream, and that’s when things get funky. It’s like dreaming with your eyes open, and here’s what critics have to say:

“The film’s initially disorienting avant-garde tropes and heavy noir atmosphere, as it progresses, gradually reveals its big, beautiful romantic heart.” - Meniscus Magazine

“… impressive and bewitching…” - New York Press

“Lee’s M drowns in style…Bodies overlap, rooms merge into one another or turn on their axis’; a running girl vanishes into a pitch-black alley and emerges into a sunny street that instantly becomes a noon-time thunderstorm.” - Brooklyn Rail

“There is little doubt that Korea’s Lee Myung-Se is one of the purest cinematic talents working in the world today.  His grasp of the language unique to cinema is staggering, his ability to merge cinematography, editing and sound unparalleled.” - Twitch Film

Tickets are available and on sale now. You really don’t want to miss this. Director Lee’s Q&A sessions are legendary, he’s truly a unique artist and his brain works in ways most of us don’t understand.

Trailer, complete write-up and showtimes here.

Magic Marker Rembrandt returned with a vengeance!

Another sold out screening of L: CHANGE THE WORLD, preceded by a t-shirt giveaway/strip tease that saw one Subway Cinema member reveal his naked, burly chest and shock the entire theater with his mandom. The line for L started an hour before showtime and wound up reaching the end of the block. Here’s the photographic evidence:

Witness…The End of the Line.

Tonight’s other big show was KALA and an Indonesian theater director came out of the screening (she’s teaching at NYU right now) and started filling us in on fun facts about the actors. It turns out that almost every single actor in KALA does most of their work in Indonesian experimental theater.

Finally, if you’re buying tickets, SPARROW, TOKYO GORE POLICE, PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS, ACCURACY OF DEATH, SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (with a party afterwards), the 7/1 screening of M (with director Lee Myung-Se present) and ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 1 and 2 are selling out fast. Get your tickets quick before they’re all gone and you’re left with nothing but tears staining your face and a pocketful of regrets.

Last night was Day 1 of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival and it was the kind of film fiesta that people will be regurgitating onto the heads of their children and their grand-children for generations to come. See these happy merry-makers in their enormous reclining lounge chairs before the sold-out screening of THEN SUMMER CAME? They make the “V” for victory right before director Ryo Iwamatsu takes the stage after he spent all day at Yankee stadium hanging out with Matsui who was recovering from a lightly injured knee.

The audience lurks in the dark, like wolves.

See their faces and TREMBLE WITH FEAR!

The audience suddenly stops lurking in the dark, as we start taking pictures with a better camera!

Director Iwamatsu takes the stage.

Also, at the IFC Center, some secret usher or manager has started doing magic marker sketches for every movie on the dry erase board they use to direct ticket-holders to the right theater. Ephemeral art, preserved forever on our blog for the space children of our future loins to enjoy.

Joe Odagiri: magic marker man.

Chanbara Beauty is a thing of deviant beauty.

Reviews of this year’s line-up are coming fast and furious, like a veritable blizzard of ink and paper. So what do the critics think you should see?

ADRIFT IN TOKYO (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“…aimless, but consciously, introspectively, and out-of-left-field hilariously so…[director] Miki’s bizarre vision is sweet, not saccharine, and too modest to boast its cunning.” - the Village Voice

ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2 (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“This sequel to the retro 2005 sleeper hit is another sweet-natured, cozy nostalgia trip that plays like a love letter to Tokyo - think IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE only with chopsticks and Godzilla references.” - New York Magazine

(we’re also screening the first ALWAYS movie, winner of 12 Japanese Academy Awards - more info, tickets and showtimes here)

THE BUTCHER (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“…one of the most disturbing pieces of unrelieved horror I’ve had the pleasure of enduring.” - Firefox News

DAINIPPONJIN (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“I hurt myself laughing at this amazingly inventive mockumentary, and because it’s so good, I refuse to give away much more than an insistent recommendation.” - the Village Voice

“…one of the most thoughtful and funny superhero films for adults because it’s not serious…ultra-human and really funny.” - the New York Press

MAD DETECTIVE (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“Johnnie To outdoes himself with this dark police procedural blessed with a clever, densely plotted script by co-director Wai Ka-fai…” - Time Out New York

“Wai and To’s MAD DETECTIVE continues to push the limits of their viewers’ sanity with more brilliant images and ideas…an unhinged blast.” - the New York Press

“Displaying virtuosity at every turn, MAD DETECTIVE is the kind of film that doesn’t just invite multiple viewings, but practically demands them.” - Firefox News

THE REBEL (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“…the rousing set pieces and a rollercoaster pace keep the formula successful…replete with gun fights, torture, opium smoking, eye-gouging (off screen, thankfully), nail biting chase scenes and astonishingly acrobatic martial arts thrashings.” - the Brooklyn Rail

SAD VACATION (more info, tickets and showtimes)
“This very well could be the film of the festival.” - Time Out New York