Screening this Saturday and Sunday at the IFC Center is SUMMER WARS, the summer’s best animated movie, and a kid flick better than anything Miyazaki has put out in years. You won’t regret it. (full info)

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The IFC Center’s Ozu retro continues with 11am screenings Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the 1951 melodrama, EARLY SUMMER. (tickets and showtimes)

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Acclaimed Bollywood movie, PEEPLI LIVE, is still playing up at Big Cinemas in Manhattan. The Village Voice raves, the LA Times raves and the Hollywood Reporter does too. Produced by Bollywood superstar, Aamir Khan, it’s probably the best-reviewed movie to play at the Big Cinemas all year. (tickets and showtimes)

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And when it’s not playing, Big Cinemas is screening AASHAYIEN, starring John Abraham as a dude who wins a ton of money, announces he’s marrying his girlfriend and then collapses from…CANCER!!! Like most motion picture characters diagnosed with a terminal disease, he tries to make everyone’s lives happier. Those with weak stomachs should avoid it. (read a review) (tickets and showtimes)

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Bruce “Driving Miss Daisy” Beresford directed the new film, MAO’S LAST DANCER, about a Chinese dissident ballet dancer trying to follow his art during the Cultural Revolution. Joan Chen, Kyle MacLachlan and Bruce Greenwood also star. It’s the twelfth highest grossing Australian movie of all time. (read the reviews) (now playing all over town)

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Comments (0) Aug 27 2010

The Asian movies are piling up fast and furious right now.

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On Tuesday, August 24 @ 7pm, the Korean Cultural Service is screening not one but TWO free movies at the Tribeca Cinemas. Both are made-for-tv movies and each runs about an hour. The first is the sexy comedy, A LITTLE NAUGHTY ROMANCE OF OURS, starring the king of television romance, Lee Seon-Gyun. Then, it’s gangsters vs. ghosts in the horror-comedy, THE SCARY ONE, THE GHOST AND I, starring character actor Lee Won-Jong, who you’ve seen in a million movies before. (full details)

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Acclaimed Bollywood movie, PEEPLI LIVE, is still playing up at Big Cinemas in Manhattan. The Village Voice raves, the LA Times raves and the Hollywood Reporter does too. Produced by Bollywood superstar, Aamir Khan, it’s probably the best-reviewed movie to play at the Big Cinemas all year. (tickets and showtimes)

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Also playing at Big Cinemas, whenever PEEPLI LIVE isn’t, is HIDING DIVYA, a South Asian drama about mental illness, set in New Jersey and originally shot way back in 2006. Reviews haven’t been kind. (tickets and showtimes)

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The very stodgy animated film, TALES FROM EARTHSEA, is still plodding away down at the Angelika. This blog is so angry about this film because there are so many better movies that could use the screen space.

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Bruce “Driving Miss Daisy” Beresford directed the new film, MAO’S LAST DANCER, about a Chinese dissident ballet dancer trying to follow his art during the Cultural Revolution. Joan Chen, Kyle MacLachlan and Bruce Greenwood also star. It’s the twelfth highest grossing Australian movie of all time. (read the reviews) (now playing at the Kew Garden Cinemas, Landmark Sunshine and the Paris Theater)

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Hey, that’s Jet Li actually playing an actual character in THE EXPENDABLES. Too bad the action is shot and edited really poorly, because the remarkable Corey Yuen was brought in just to choreograph the Jet-ster’s big fight scene.

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“They’re only giving one award for

‘Best Over-Actor’ in this movie. You

gonna let me take that from you, little girl?”
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John Woo’s delirious FACE/OFF is screening at midnights this weekend at the IFC Center. Come on, you know you want to see it – two of cinema’s biggest hams in an action movie that redefines “over the top.” This and CON AIR are in a league of their own. (tickets and showtimes)

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Whenever FACE/OFF is mentioned, you have to

show the inside of Nic Cage’s gun box in the film.

It’s the law.

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The IFC Center’s Ozu retro continues with 11am Fri, Sat and Sun screenings of A HEN IN THE WIND, a straight-up melodrama about a soldier who returns from the big war to discover his wife has turned to *choke* *gasp* prostitution! (tickets and showtimes)

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And this weekend marks the beginning of a run of Lou Ye’s SPRING FEVER, a drama about a married man’s infidelity with his male lover boy. Lou’s the director of the astonishing PURPLE BUTTERFLY and SUZHOU RIVER and although this movie doesn’t live up to those previous works, it’s still a worthwhile drama about modern day China. (tickets and showtimes)

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And don’t miss SUMMER WARS, screening August 28 and 29 at the IFC Center.

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Comments (1) Aug 20 2010

Welcome back to the latest Subway Cinema News.

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On Tuesday, August 10 @ 7pm, the Korean Cultural Service is hosting a free screening of the girl power, ultra-slappy movie, PUNCH STRIKE down at the Tribeca Cinemas. One of the few Korean movies with a female director, it’s a “down with teachers” rabble rousing comedy set in a girls’ high school. (full details)

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Glory be! This weekend, August 7 & 8, starting at noon, Anthology Film Archives is showing Masaki Kobayashi’s HUMAN CONDITION TRILOGY in all its splendor. One of the great film trilogies of all time, and one of cinema’s true masterpieces, Director Kobayashi’s three-part story of one soldier’s life during World War II, is a life long dream fulfilled by the director who wanted to capture the dehumanizing aspects of war during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. The silver screen can hardly hold the scope, length, and the horrible visual splendors of war with cloudscapes towering over the black and white shadows of the countryside. (see the schedule) (read an essay about the film by Grady Hendrix)

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More Japanese masterpieces in IFC’s Ozu series, with THERE WAS A FATHER (1942) screening Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 11am. (more info)

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Big Cinemas (the old ImaginAsian on the Upper East Side) is showing Bollywood film, AISHA, which is the Bolly-adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. (schedule & tickets)

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Next week, on Saturday, August 14 from 6 – 8pm, stop by the Giant Robot store (9th street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) for the DVD launch party of the indie stunner, CHILDREN OF INVENTION. The director, producer, and the actors (including the kid who plays the little girl) will all be there signing DVDs and chatting.

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Comments (1) Aug 05 2010

A massive, major, no-holds-barred Subway Cinema News update!

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So the Asian American International Film Festival is wrapping up. It seems that on 7/23 it’ll move its venue out to “Queens” and be screening films like WO AI NI MOMMY, UNTOLD STORIES (not that UNTOLD STORY!) and THE MOUNTAIN THIEF. Where in Queens? Previously we didn’t know but an intrepid commenter found out it’s at the Flushing Library. He reveals the full location in the comments section. And for more info on the fest, here’s their official website .

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Girl by Girl: baseball bats and toilet paper.

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On Tuesday, July 27 @ 7pm, the Korean TV movie, GIRL BY GIRL, will be having a free screening at the Tribeca Cinemas. Korean TV is way more famous around the world than Korean movies, and here’s your chance to see a hard-punching, teen comedy featuring a knockout performance by Kwak Ji-Min (star of Kim Ki-Duk’s SAMARITAN GIRL). (more info)

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Maggie Cheung looking radiant

in Center Stage.

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Anthology Film Archives is featuring a rare screening of two Asian movies as part of their Anti-Biopic series. The first is Paul Shrader’s MISHIMA, a stylish and abstract biography of the Japanese author-turned-bodybuilder-turned-revolutionary-suicide-stabber. But even better, they’re screening Stanley Kwan’s shimmering, luminous CENTER STAGE, starring Maggie Cheung as the suicidally depressed silent film actress, Ruan Ling-yu. If you’ve never seen it before, you need to see it now. CENTER STAGE screens Sunday, July 25 @ 3:30pm and Thursday, July 29 @ 9pm. (listings)

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TIRADOR (aka SLINGSHOT) is an earlier film by prolific Philippino filmmaker, Brillante Mendoza, and it’s one of his best. A free-form NASHVILLE of a movie about low life thugs and criminals in a Manila slum instead of about country music, it features some scenes that feel so real you’ll wonder how he shot them. Add in the fact that it takes place in a slum that feels like something out of BLADE RUNNER and you’ve got a hell of a film on your hands. It’s screening this weekend at the Indiehouse Theater on 44th Street. (schedule and showtimes) (read a review)

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An action scene from Tales of Earthsea.

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The New York International Children’s Film Festival is screening Hayao Miyazaki’s TALES FROM EARTHSEA on Sunday, August 1. It’s a DOA animated film produced by Miyazaki and directed by his son, Goro Miyazaki, based on Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books. And, in case you were wondering, LeGuin doesn’t seem to like this big screen version of her books, either. (showtimes) (read a review)

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The IFC Center is also hosting a series of films by Yasujiro Ozu, Japan’s master filmmaker whose quiet portraits of everyday life have made him a legend. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 23, 24 and 25 at 11am and 12:25pm they’re screening Ozu’s second sound film, a satire called WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET? And on Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 30, 31 and August 1, they’re screening BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE TODA FAMILY at 11am.

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Comments (1) Jul 23 2010

There are three big events coming up that you need to know about.

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First off, Hrithik Roshan is in town! Bollywood’s biggest star, the world’s most famous dancing fool, and the only celebrity with three thumbs, Hrithik will be here at 3:30pm on May 15 at the Big Cinemas, Manhattan, for an onstage interview and a screening of his film, KAHO NA PYAR HAI. You can win tickets here!

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It’s all a big promo push for his new movie KITES.

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Some tickets are still available for the ROBOGEISHA party and screening on Tuesday, May 18 at 7:30pm up at Japan Society. A special, pre-New York Asian Film Festival event, tickets are only $12 and you’ll get: ROBOGEISHA, the world’s weirdest movie; a party afterwards; special screenings of never-before-seen shorts and, hopefully, a live Skype Q&A with the director, Noboru Iguchi. Also, the New York Asian Film Festival Japanese line-up and guests will be revealed! Tickets are selling like ice water in Hell…hot, fast and furious. (more info) (the amazing ROBOGEISHA trailer) (buy tickets)

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RoboGeisha loves to kill with shrimp.

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Also at Japan Society, on Friday, May 14, is a double feature of samurai films that you won’t see anywhere else. At 6:30pm is THE LONE STALKER (aka LONE WOLF ISAZO) starring Raizo Ichikawa in a moody death spiral as he becomes a vengeance-obsessed swordsman in this 1968 classic. Then, at 8:30, is THE DEVIL’S TEMPLE, about a Buddhist monk and a fallen samurai (Shintaro Kagu) who encounter each other at a remote temple and lose their immortal souls! You wont get a chance to see these anywhere else, ever again!

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The Devil’s Temple. It doesn’t look that bad.

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Also playing: at the IFC Center, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD is still paying tribute to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. Bong Joon-Ho’s grim, gothic thriller, MOTHER, is back for some encore screenings, and HOUSE, the 1977 Japanese cult classic is still playing midnights!

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MY NAME IS KHAN is playing at the Angelika Film Center, oddly enough.

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And Hrithik isn’t just in NYC at random. He’s here promoting his new movie, KITES, which opens at the Big Cinemas on 5/21 (tickets are on sale now). A week later, on 5/28, Brett “Rush Hour” Ratner’s re-edit of KITES will open in theaters across America. I strongly advise you to check out the original if you’re interested in seeing this movie – romance isn’t one of Ratner’s strong suites (AFTER THE SUNSET, anyone?) In the meantime, Big Cinemas are showing the non-Bollywood movie LBS. which was shot in 2004.

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Comments (0) May 13 2010

Your emails have been heard – details of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, June 25 – July 8, line-up will be revealed soon. But for now, what’s happening in NYC?

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Two Wives.

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We’re in the last three days of Japan Society’s MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS to know. Catch these electrifying, rarely screened features before they’re packed back away in the vaults and go unseen for all eternity. The remaining movies are THE AFFAIR (Thursday, April 15 @ 7:30pm) with Mariko Okada embracing the legacy of her mother’s infidelity by seducing a couple of guys herself as the movie unfolds in a stark succession of black&white images; WOMAN OF THE LAKE (Sunday, April 18 @ 6:30PM) sees Mariko Okada in a movie described as a “…surrealist erotic story reminiscent of Antonioni’s visual universe and some of Bergman’s formal experiments…” and which sounds a bit like Shinya Tsukamoto’s A SNAKE OF JUNE; and then there’s TWO WIVES (Sunday, April 18 @ 8:45pm) a color masterpiece from famed director Yasuzo Masumura that has never been screened before outside of Japan. Starring Mariko Okada and Ayako Wakao this is the last movie  in the series and it’s absolutely unmissable.

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From April 14 – April 22, Film Forum is screening (still) movies by Akira Kurosawa. This time out, it’s two of his lesser-screened movies, DERSU UZALA and DODES’KA-DEN (screening in a new 35mm print). (tickets and showtimes)

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Jet Li’s WARLORDS is still playing at Cinema Village and has plenty of showtimes listed, which means that it’s doing well. And that’s as it should be. This is the most satisfying ancient Chinese martial epics to come along in years. (tickets & showtimes)

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The old ImaginAsia, now the Big Cinemas, is still playing DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, which is weird. Whatever happened to Bollywood films?

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The works of Korean indie director, Jeon Soo-Il, are largely unseen in North America, but NYU is hosting the director and a selected retrospective of his films from April 23 – 25 and they’re well worth your time. Also, if you’re a fan of actor Choi Min-Sik (of OLDBOY fame) he’s the star of Jeon’s latest, HIMALAYA: WHERE THE WIND DWELLS, which will also be featured in the retro. (full info)

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Comments (0) Apr 15 2010

Welcome to this week’s Subway Cinema News.

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From March 31 – April 18 one of the most astonishing film retrospectives of the year takes place at Japan Society, MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS TO KNOW, which pays tribute to three of Japan’s greatest actresses. The films being screened are all trippy, stylish and fun, fun, fun. Not to be missed: the best and most visually experimental women-in-prison movie ever made, FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41; also on that tip, but not quite as insane, is FEMALE CONVICT #701: SCORPION; do not doubt that STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER is as kicky as its title, all girl gang action and fabulous hats; you haven’t seen a WW II movie until you’ve seen the bleak and hallucinatory RED ANGEL about a nurse menaced on the front lines by her maimed and embittered patients. (showtimes and tickets) (read the Village Voice’s take on the series)

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Film Forum is going totally Buddhist these days. Playing this week is THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS, a documentary about the latest in the struggle for Tibetan independence. It claims to be presenting an evenhanded, two-sided view of the politics around the struggle, as well as a look at internal cultural and political clashes in Tibet, so there you go. If you go to the 6pm shows on Thursday, April 8, Saturday, April 10, Sunday, April 11 or the 8pm show on Friday, April 9 you can talk to filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam yourself. (read an article about the film) (tickets and showtimes)

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WARLORDS, the Jet Li movie that played last year’s New York Asian Film Festival is still playing theatrically at Cinema Village. And it got good reviews. Plus: big man-love between Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. (showtimes and tickets) (read a review)

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Oddly enough, all that’s showing at the Big Cinemas  (formerly ImaginAsian) this week is DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and broadcasts of cricket games.

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. Coming up are the last two films in the series: GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS (April 9 @ 6:45pm) and FUJIAN BLUE (Friday, April 16 @ 8:15pm). (full info and showtimes)

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Comments (0) Apr 08 2010

Welcome to April. No clever April Fool’s jokes here. This is a humor-free zone.

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It seems like a joke, but it’s true-ness. WARLORDS, the Jet Li movie that played last year’s New York Asian Film Festival is finally opening theatrically at Cinema Village. (showtimes and tickets) (read a review)

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“I’m in a movie called PHONE and I am

four years old and I am completely insane!”

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There’s a free screening of the Korean horror flick, PHONE, on Tuesday, April 6 @ 7pm at the Tribeca Cinemas. Tickets are first-come, first-served. The reason to see this movie? Four-year-old actor Eun Seo-Woo who is the most insane freak in the history of motion pictures. This kid is like watching a drag queen play Joan Crawford playing a four-year-old Korean kid tweaking out of her mind on crystal meth.

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New Directors/New Films stretches itself and this year it includes two…two…Asian films. Whoa, Nellie! The first is the Danish documentary shot in North Korea, RED CHAPEL, an elaborate pranking of the dictatorship. Then there’s LAST TRAIN HOME, a documentary about the 130 million Chinese people who hit the trains on New Year’s to head to their home towns.

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FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41

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From March 31 – April 18 one of the most astonishing film retrospectives of the year takes place at Japan Society, MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS TO KNOW, which pays tribute to three of Japan’s greatest actresses. The films being screened are all trippy, stylish and fun, fun, fun. Not to be missed: the best and most visually experimental women-in-prison movie ever made, FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41; also on that tip, but not quite as insane, is FEMALE CONVICT #701: SCORPION; do not doubt that STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER is as kicky as its title, all girl gang action and fabulous hats; you haven’t seen a WW II movie until you’ve seen the bleak and hallucinatory RED ANGEL about a nurse menaced on the front lines by her maimed and embittered patients. (showtimes and tickets) (read the Village Voice’s take on the series)

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FALLING FOR GRACE is screening at the former ImaginAsian theater (now the Big Cinemas Manhattan). It’s gotten some mixed reviews (read some) but it does feature Margaret Cho, so that’s something. (tickets and showtimes)

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. Coming up are LITTLE MOTH (April 2 @ 6:45pm) and GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS (April 9 @ 6:45pm). (full info and showtimes)

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Comments (0) Apr 01 2010

(all images in this post are taken from the current art exhibit at Japan Society)

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Drop everything! On Tuesday, March 23, the Korean Cultural Service is holding a free screening of SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE at the Tribeca Cinemas at 7pm. Park Chan-Wook’s movie is one of the few Korean movies that can truly be called a masterpiece of world cinema. A soul-destroying look at the necessity of revenge and the price it exacts, this jaw-dropping film stars Song Kang-Ho, Bae Doo-Na and Shin Ha-Kyun – three of Korea’s best actors. Tickets are free and given on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 6:30pm. (more info) (read more about the film)

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CHILDREN OF INVENTION and FALLING FOR GRACE are both screening at the former ImaginAsian theater (now the Big Cinemas Manhattan). CHILDREN has gotten rave reviews (read one in the NY Times) and is a powerful tearjerker about a single mom raising her two children. FALLING has gotten much more mixed reviews (read some) but it does feature Margaret Cho, so that’s something. (tickets and showtimes)

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As part of their chanbara series, the Japan Society is screening the fifth Zatoichi films, ZATOICHI ON THE ROAD: FIGHTING JOURNEY (read a review). One of the darker Zatoichi movies, it’s screening on Saturday, March 20 @ 5pm – that’s a new screening time for this series, so make a note. (tickets and showtimes)

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. What’s screening this week? PERFECT LIFE, produced by Chinese arthouse god, Jia Zhangke, is part documentary/part feature film, it’s a movie that tells, “the bleak stories of female migrant workers in China.” So if that’s what you’re into, head to the Asia Society on Mar 19 @ 6:45pm.

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Unbelievably, HOUSE is still playing midnights at the IFC Center. (tickets and showtimes)

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Taiwanese freedom flick starring James Van der Beek (Dawson!), FORMOSA BETRAYED, is still playing in NYC. (showtimes)

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Bollywood blockbuster about 9/11, MY NAME IS KHAN, is still playing in Kew Gardens and Edison, NJ. (showtimes)

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Comments (0) Mar 18 2010

The big news this week is the free screening of action maestro, Ryoo Seung-Wan’s, deubt feature, DIE BAD. (full info)

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. First up is the Saturday, March 6 screening of XIAO JIA GOING HOME at 2:30pm. Here’s what they say:

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French-Algerian documentary filmmaker Damien Ounouri follows leading Chinese Sixth Generation film director Jia Zhangke to his small home town of Fenyang in Shanxi province after he won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for Still Life (2006).

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Better yet, the movie is followed by a Q&A with Jia Zhangke and his muse, Zhao Tao. Live! They’re in New York! (Tickets are only $7) (more info)

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And Jia Zhangke is in town all weekend – after Asia Society he moves over to MOMA for a Jia Zhangke retrospective from March 5  – 20. It’s all of Jia’s films, from his earliest to his most recent (PICKPOCKET! PLATFORM! THE WORLD! and the amazing STILL LIFE!). Even better, on Monday, March 8 @ 7pm there’s An Evening with Jia Zhangke with clips from his latest film, SHANGHAI LEGEND, and a chit chat with Howard Feinstein. (more info)

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It’s the last days of BAM’s slice of art films fresh out of the Rotterdam Film Festival, including several Asian titles. (full info)

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Taiwanese freedom flick, FORMOSA BETRAYED, is still playing in NYC at the Village East theater. (full info)

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Amazingly, MY NAME IS KHAN (Bollywood, 9/11 film) and HOUSE (Japanese, psychedelic film) are both still playing in NYC (KHAN showtimes) (HOUSE showtimes)

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Comments (0) Mar 08 2010