Hey everybody!

It’s less than two weeks until the start of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival and we’re looking for a few folks to help us out. We need people before and during the festival.

Before the festival we’ll have fliers to hand out in the city.

During the festival we need people to help with our prize giveaways, guests and general question answerin’. Both kinds of help earn free screenings (space permitting). It’s fun work and you get to see a few films on top of it. To apply for shifts or jobs that need doing, email us.

Our full screening schedule is listed here, we certainly appreciate the help and try to be accommodating but the shifts will assigned on a first come first serve basis. Take a look and mark your calendars with when you would want to and be available to help out. Then, of course, let us know!

See you at the festival!

•    UPDATE! Tickets will go are now on sale for Japan Society shows on Wednesday of this week! And the full listing of films (both co-presentations and Japan Cuts-only entries) is already available on their site.

•     UPDATE! Tickets for nearly all the shows at Film Society Lincoln Center / Walter Reade are also now on sale! Check out our listings here.

•     The official New York Asian Film Festival 2011 website will be going live at some point next week. Watch this space for more details, or follow us on Twitter or “like” us on Facebook to get more immediate updates.

•     Ticket prices this year will be:

•     Film descriptions can, for now, be found on our blog here or, for co-presented shows, at the Japan Society site.

•     All guest appearances are, as always, subject to change but the information listed below is, as of today, confirmed.

And without further ado, here’s the schedule. All listings are for the Walter Reade theatre at Film Society Lincoln Center unless listed otherwise. Start making your plans….now!

Fri, July 1

6:00      SELL OUT (110) – director Yeo Joon Han & actor Peter Davis will appear
9:00      MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY (90) -
Director Yoshimasa Ishibashi & star Takayuki Yamada will appear. Yamada will receive the Star Asia Rising Star Award as part of the presentation.
12:00    HORNY HOUSE OF HORROR (75), preceded by DARK ON DARK (17)
** audiences from the 9:00 and 12:00 shows can join us for a special Opening Night Reception in the gallery space across the lobby from the Walter Reade cinema, for free beer (id required) and some snacks, starting at about 11:00 pm

Sat, July 2

12:15     BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT (105)
2:30      PUNISHED (94)
4:30      13 ASSASSINS: DIRECTOR’S CUT (141) – star Takayuki Yamada will appear
7:30      SHAOLIN (131)
10:15     MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! (84)
12:00    RAW FORCE (86)

Sun, July 3

12:30    A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI (109)
2:45      DUEL TO THE DEATH (83)
4:45      KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR (106)
7:00      NINJA KIDS!!! (100)
9:10      BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (105)

Mon, July 4

1:00      ABRAXAS (113)
3:30      SELL OUT (110) – director Yeo Joon Han & actor Peter Davis will appear
6:30      A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI (109)
9:00      THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD (96)

Tue, July 5

1:30      BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (105)
3:45      THE RECIPE (107)
6:15       ABRAXAS (113)
8:45      KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR (106)

Wed, July 6

1:00      FOXY FESTIVAL (110)
3:30      THE UNJUST (119)
6:15       HAUNTERS (114)
8:45      BEDEVILLED (115)

Thu, July 7

1:15      OCEAN HEAVEN (96)
3:30     B.T.S. BETTER THAN SEX (92) – director Su Chao-pin will appear
6:15      THE MAN FROM NOWHERE (119)
8:45     SHAOLIN (131)

Japan Society:
6:45     OSAMU TEZUKA’S BUDDHA: THE GREAT DEPARTURE (111)
9:00    RINGING IN THEIR EARS (89)

Fri, July 8

1:15      THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD (96)
3:30     THE CABBIE (94) – director Su Chao-pin will appear
6:45     OCEAN HEAVEN (96)
9:00     FOXY FESTIVAL (110)
12:00   RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY (91)

Japan Society:
7:00     LOVE AND LOATHING AND LULU AND AYANO (105)
9:15      BATTLE ROYALE (114)

Sat, July 9

1:30      ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (94) – director Tsui Hark will appear
4:00     REIGN OF ASSASSINS (117) – director Su Chao-pin will appear
7:00     THE RECIPE (107)
9:30     HAUNTERS (114)
12:00   BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT (105)

Japan Society:
12:30  GANTZ (130)
3:00    GANTZ: PERFECT ANSWER (150)
** there will be a special double-feature ticket available for both GANTZ movies, for $20 / $14 students, seniors & members (only available for purchase in person or by phone); tickets to individual shows also available
6:00    NINJA KIDS!!! (100)
8:15    YAKUZA WEAPON (105) – director Yudai Yamaguchi & director / star Tak Sakaguchi will appear
** ticket price of $16 general / $12 students, seniors & members also includes admission to a Sushi Typhoon after-party with the guests, plus free food and beer!

Sun, July 10

1:00      REIGN OF ASSASSINS (117) – director Su Chao-pin will appear
4:00      DRAGON INN (109) – producer Tsui Hark will appear
7:00      BEDEVILLED (115)
9:30      PUNISHED (94)

Japan Society:
12;30    OSAMU TEZUKA’S BUDDHA: THE GREAT DEPARTURE (111)
2:45      HEAVENS STORY (278)
8:00     MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY (90) – director Yoshimasa Ishibashi will appear

Mon, July 11

1:30      RINGING IN THEIR EARS (89)
3:30     LOVE AND LOATHING AND LULU AND AYANO (105)
6:00     THE BLADE (100) – director Tsui Hark will appear
8:30     DETECTIVE DEE: THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (122) -
Director Tsui Hark will appear & receive the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the presentation.

Tue, July 12

12:30    MISE-EN-SCENE SHORT FILM PROGRAM #1 (92)
2:30      TROUBLESHOOTER (99) – director Kwok Hyeok-jae & producer Ryoo Seung-wan will appear
5:00      VERSUS (119) – star Tak Sakaguchi & writer Yudai Yamaguchi will appear
7:45      YAKUZA WEAPON (105) – director Yudai Yamaguchi & director / star Tak Sakaguchi will appear
10:15    HORNY HOUSE OF HORROR (75), preceded by DARK ON DARK (17)

Wed, July 13

1:00      MISE-EN-SCENE SHORT FILM PROGRAM #2 (92) – short film director guest will appear
3:30      CITY OF VIOLENCE (92) – director Ryoo Seung-wan will appear
6:15      BATTLEFIELD HEROES (118) – director Lee Joon-ik will appear
9:00     THE UNJUST (119) – director Ryoo Seung-wan will appear

Thu, July 14

12:30     BATTLEFIELD HEROES (118) – director Lee Joon-ik will appear
3:15     THE CHASER (125) – director Na Hong-jin will appear
6:15      TROUBLESHOOTER (99) – director Kwok Hyeok-jae & producer Ryoo Seung-wan will appear
9:00     THE YELLOW SEA (156) – director Na Hong-jin will appear

“Andy On will Poison your mind”

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The big news for this week is Indomnia’s theatrical release of Yuen Woo Ping’s big budget Beggar So movie “True Legend” starring one-time (well 2 and a TV series) Wong Fei Hung, Vincent Chao, and up and coming star Andy On. Oh and also some guy named Jay Chou that I hear is a little famous. The Trailer can be found here And theaters and showtimes can be found here.

Both Lincoln Center’s Taiwan series and Asia Society’s amazing Thai cinema series (screening Tears of the Black Tiger in eye melting 35mm!) continue. Tickets and schedules are available:

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Asia Society Use discount code asia725 to buy tickets online at member rate ($7)!

The Rubin Museum of Art shows the documentary “Dongba: China’s Forgotten Priests” this Sat, May 14th. More info here.

Film Forum opens “City of Life and Death” from China and has held over Kon Ichikawa’s “The Makioka Sisters” through May 24th. Tickets and schedule here.

IFC Center continues to screen Takashi Miike’s newest masterpiece (and we mean that word) “13 Assassins” and Kurasawa’s “Red Beard” and a special midnight screening of NYAFF fave “Hasu” aka “House”. Details here

Big Cinemas Manhattan continues to offer a smorgasbord of Bollywood hits including “Haunted” and “Dum Maaro Dum” Details and showtimes here

Okay, it’s not Asian cinema-related, but a fellow named Abe Goldfarb—who goes by the burlesque handle of Bastard Keith—is inaugurating a new series called The Bastard Keith Movie Club, wherein he will host a live commentary during a favorite “bad” movie, accompanied by burlesque dancers and lots of drinking. This is the kind of stuff we’re also into, and since Abe will be helping us with the New York Asian Film Festival 2011 (expect to see him on our stage at Lincoln Center introducing some movies), we wanted to help him out.

The first movie-skewering at the Bastard Keith Movie Club will take place on Wednesday, May 4th at 8:00 pm at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo. The victim for the inaugural effort will be the notorious 1980 Cannon-produced musical travesty, THE APPLE. Directed by Israeli movie mogul Menahem Golan and starring Catherine Mary Stewart and a host of B-level stars who’ve since removed the film from their resumes, THE APPLE is the epitome of ill-conceived big-screen musicals: a futuristic disco science-fiction fantasy set in the far future of….1994! It’s also hilariously entertaining, and an appropriate choice for the first Movie Club entry.

Join us with Bastard Keith at the show and watch for a ticket giveaway via our Subway Cinema Newsletter very soon. Tickets for the show are available now, only $10 each! Less than a regular movie, and you get some naked ladies to go with it.

The 10th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival is now in full swing, and Subway Cinema is happy to be co-presenting two films in their lineup.

First up is Tsui Hark’s amazing, retro-style wu xia extravaganza DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung Ka-fai. Its final screening will be this Thursday the 28th, at 9:30 pm, at the Clearview Cinemas Chelsea. Rush tickets are still available.

We’re also co-presenting Jiang Wen’s comic Western LET THE BULLETS FLY, starring Chow Yun-fat in a grand return to form, and perennial Chinese box office megastar Ge You (IF YOU ARE THE ONE). BULLETS screens three more times: Monday at 9:00 pm, Wednesday at 8:30 pm, and Friday the 29th at 3:00 pm, all shows at the Loews Village 7. Tickets are still available for all shows.

If you’re signed up for our Subway Cinema News weekly email, you already know that we gave away a ton of free tickets to the above shows. If you didn’t know, you can get in on the next giveaway by clicking here. See you at the movies.

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HOUSE, the crazed Japanese masterpiece, is screening at the IFC Center on weekend midnights again. Holy crap! Nothing can kill this movie! (full schedule)

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The Museum of the Moving Image has reopened out in Astoria, and it’s got a bunch of Asian films screening to celebrate. First up is HA HA HA (Sunday, February 20 @ 6pm) the latest from Hong Sang-Soo, Korea’s master of awkard arthouse comedy, which won Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year. (read a review) (screening info)

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The Museum of the Moving Image will also be showing MUMBAI DIARIES on Sunday, January 16 @ 7pm. (more info)

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Also opening this week from India is the acclaimed political thriller, NO ONE KILLED JESSICA, based on the Jessica Lal murder case in which a cocktail waitress was killed at a party in front of dozens of witnesses. Her accused killer, the son of a powerful rich man, was later acquitted of all charges, leading to nationwide protests. (more info) (screening times across the city)

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On Tuesday, December 14 @ 7pm the Korean Cultural Service is holding a free screening of Korean and Korean-American short films at the Tribeca Cinemas. It’s a special, end-of-year event for them to celebrate their year of bringing free Korean movies to NYC and it’s going to be a bit of a party. Seating if first-come, first-served, but there’s plenty of room for everyone, so come on down!

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VENGEANCE, Johnnie To’s movie starring French icon Johnny Hallyday, opens at the IFC Center this Friday, 12/10. The movie was originally released back in 2009 and while To purists won’t be blown away, this is Johnnie To’s greatest hits album, a visually-striking series of setpieces that will pound your eyeballs with gunsmoke drifiting on the wind, shootouts choreographed to the light and darkness of the moon passing behind the clouds and AK-47’s shredding giant piles of garbage. (read a review) (watch the trailer) (tickets and showtimes)

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Film Forum is holding a special retrospective for Toru Takemitsu (Dec. 3 – 16) and they’re screening a bunch of amazing films. Right up there with Ennio Morricone and John Williams, Takemitsu has put his sonic fingerprints all some of Japan’s greatest movies and there are plenty of amazing classics in this line-up, including: Akira Kurosawa’s RAN, Masako Kobayashi’s HARAKIRI (one of the best samurai movies ever made, and right up there with SEVEN SAMURAI as a masterpiece of the genre), KWAIDAN (one of Japan’s most beautiful horror movies), and the trippy THE FACE OF ANOTHER. The following films are in the series and unavailable on DVD in the US: Kobayashi’s YOUTH OF JAPAN, Kon Ichikawa’s ALONE ON THE PACIFIC and BALLAD OF ORIN, BAD BOYS and SHE AND HE. (full info)

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Speaking of Kon Ichikawa, his anti-war masterpiece, FIRES ON THE PLAIN, is screening at Japan Society as part of their Shadows of the Rising Sun: Cinema and Empire (Dec. 10 – 12). Two of the stand-out films are Nagisa Oshima’s rarely-screening Takeshi “Beat” Kitano and David Bowie POW movie, MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (that’ll restore your faith in the resiliency of the human soul) and Koji “United Red Army” Wakamatsu’s perverse and erotic CATERPILLAR. They’re also screening Cannes Grand Prize winner DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP. (full info)

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The Asia Society’s Japan Cinema in the 60’s series is 100% free and it’s screening its last film this Friday, Dec. 10 @ 6:45pm. The movie? FORT OF DEATH, a ninja-tastic, 60’s, full-color action film. (full info)

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The latest Bollywood movie from the family-friendly Yash Raj Entertainment banner is BAND BAAJA BAARAAT which opens this Friday, 12/10 at Big Cinemas (formerly the ImaginAsian). It’s a musical comedy set in the world of wedding planners. (see the trailer) (showtimes and tickets) (more info)

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This weekend is the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival (Thursday 9/23 – Friday 10/1) and they’ve got one Asian film left in the schedule, the brand new Japanese comedy, CAST ME IF YOU CAN, which is screening on Saturday night at Japan Society with the director present. (tickets and schedule)

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Prepare yourself for the annual Korean film festival, now with a new even longer name:

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Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today, a Weeklong Exhibition of Innovative New Korean Cinema (Sept. 22 – 30) also at the Museum of Modern Art

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There’s the full website here, but the most recommended title left is yet another NYC screening of FROZEN FLOWER (always a fun movie, with lots of sex and violence) and there’re also a screening of WOCHI and GOOD MORNING, MR. PRESIDENT coming up. (more info)

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Dance of Time

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On Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7pm there’s a free screening of the documentary DANCE OF TIME, down at Tribeca Cinemas. Seating is first-come, first-served and the doors open around 6:30pm. This is a technically accomplished and music-packed documentary about the Korean community in Cuba, directed by Song Il-Gon, director of THE MAGICIANS and FEATHER IN THE WIND. (more info)

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IFC Center continues its Ozu retrospective with TOKYO TWILIGHT, a rarely screened movie from the master of melancholy. (more info)

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Big Cinemas Manhattan is screening the Bollywood action movie DABANNG, a blockbuster action movie and a huge grosser, as well as the Bollywood remake of Julia Roberts/Susan Sarandon starrer, STEPMOM, which is called WE ARE FAMILY. (showtimes and tickets)

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DABANNG!!!!

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The New York Film Festival starts today and has a few Asian films in the line-up. One is Cannes Palm D’Or winner UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Inexplicably, it’s getting a Saturday matinee showing and a second screening at 9pm on Sunday night. Lee Chang-Dong (SECRET SUNSHINE) is having his film POETRY screened this weekend as well. And next Thursday will see a screening of Hong Sang-Soo’s OKI’S MOVIE. (full line-up)

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Also part of the NYFF is a retrospective of Masahiro Shinoda, the Japanese New Wave director best known for his film DOUBLE SUICIDE. (full info)

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Double Suicide

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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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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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