So I just learned the news! Rajinikanth’s ENDHIRAN (aka ROBOT) is screening in Manhattan at a theater that’s NOT infested with bedbugs. It’s up at the ImaginAsian on East 59th Street. (showtimes and tickets) (note: it’s a Hindi dub) (more on Rajinikanth)

Comments (0) Oct 15 2010

There’re a bunch of special movies and events coming up in October and here’s just a fistful of them to whet your appetite:

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IP MAN hits Cinema Village on October 1

On October 1st, Well Go is unleashing Donnie Yen’s martial arts masterpiece, IP MAN, at Cinema Village for a limited theatrical run. Want to go see him crack joints and realign spines on the big screen? Now’s your chance. (read a review & watch the trailer)

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Ip Man is carrying a big stick!

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ENTHIRAN opens on October 1

The greatest Bollywood movie of the year is unleashed at Big Cinemas Manhattan. See the most expensive Indian movie ever made with action by Yuen Wo-Ping, special effects by Stan Winston and ILM and totally awesome punching power by Superstar Rajinikanth.

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Rajinikanth is a ROBOT!!!

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Jpop Rocks NYC on October 10

Japan’s favorite Jpop group, Puffy AmiYumi, will be playing a show at Irving Plaza, along with Boom Boom Satellites and Zazen Boys. (more info & tickets)

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Free Screening of heart-stopping documentary GRANDMOTHER’S FLOWER on October 12

It’s one of the free Korean movies screening down at the Tribeca Cinemas and you should not miss it. Seriously. This documentary is about a family torn apart by the anti-communist violence in Korea in the 20th Century and it features everything from self-mutilation, to uncovered murders to the director having his life threatened on camera. Heartbreaking, intense and raw, if you thought your family had problems… (more info)

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KURONEKO at Film Forum (Oct. 22 – 28)

Holy cats! From the director of ONIBABA comes this intense 1968 B&W masterpiece and I don’t use that word lightly. In fact, I’d take KURONEKO over ONIBABA any day. Intensely violent, beautifully directed, eerily staged – there is nothing wrong and everything’s right in this otherworldy horror film about two cat spirits taking revenge on the human world. As one review says:

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As the victims pile up, the seduction and destruction is edited down to an ultimately extraordinary compression of flying figures, jump cuts and half-glimpsed facial close-ups that can’t help but look like a template for later works by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark…it also draws on the traditions of both Noh and Kabuki theatre, vampire cinema of various nations, and a fair number of earlier Japanese film works…A must for aficionados of Japanese cinema, it’s also a chillingly effective, intelligently staged and sometimes supremely creepy tale of the supernatural that no truly discerning horror fan can afford to miss.”

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A new print will be playing at Film Forum. (more info)

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KURONEKO is spooky!

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South Asian International Film Festival (October 27 – November 2)

This year’s fest features a bunch of World Premieres including one of the freakiest movies you’ll ever see: GANDU (The Loser). Check out the trailer and be prepared to get your hip hop rig on. (Festival website)

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GANDU is dirty!

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Free Halloween afternoon screening of GHOST (aka BE WITH ME)

Sunday, October 31 @ 4pm sees a free screening at Tribeca Cinemas of this summer’s best Korean horror movie, an omnibus film about lonely ghosts and high school kids that actually manages to be a cut above your standard Korean horror fare. And it still gives you plenty of time to go trick or treating afterwards. (more info)

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Comments (1) Sep 27 2010

A friend in Hong Kong just saw this in East Week Magazine and sent it over: it’s Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Joyce Mina Godenzi and Simon Yam’s wife, Qi Qi, shopping in NYC when they were here for the festival. Big shout outs to American Girl Place, since Simon and Qi Qi were picking up lots of loot there for their daughter. The headline reads, “Glory of the Chinese!”

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Comments (2) Aug 17 2010

Welcome, everyone! A few movies are screening this week.

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Parents be warned! The faux-Miyazaki movie, TALES FROM EARTHSEA, is screening at the Angelika this week. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, not only did dad blast his son’s movie, and not only did Earthsea creator, Ursula K. LeGuin, disavow the movie, but it’s really, really boring.

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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. (more info, just scroll down)

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It’s a week away, but don’t miss SUMMER WARS at the IFC Center!

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Acclaimed Bollywood movie, PEEPLI LIVE, opens up at Big Cinemas in Manhattan this Friday, August 13. 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 movies to play at the Big Cinemas all year.

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Comments (2) Aug 11 2010

New York Asian Film Festival 2010 ended tonight with a big bang: a sold-out show of BLADES OF BLOOD, prizes, bloodbath, drunken revelry and eventually, regret. Here are the details.

We’re proud to announce that the winner of two airplane tickets (courtesy of American Airlines, our official airline sponsor) was present in the audience tonight to celebrate his win. Congratulations to Tyrone Turner – we’ll be in touch soon with details about how to collect your prize. Have some sake on us.

We’re also happy to announce the winners of our Audience Awards:

First place: a tie between GALLANTS and CASTAWAY ON THE MOON!

(director Lee Hay-june collected his prize of a bottle of champagne onstage, sans translator)

Second place: IP MAN 2!

Third place: a three-way tie between LITTLE BIG SOLDIER, CONFESSIONS and ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW!

Fourth place: a tie between LIVE TAPE and CRAZY RACER.

Honorable mention goes to RED CLIFF, which had a great showing in the audience awards, but because it already had a U.S. release, was disqualified from winning!

Congratulations to all the winners, movies, human and otherwise. See you in 2011, maybe?

Comments (9) Jul 09 2010

We owe a huge apology to Jerry Ma of Epic Proportions, whose designs for our shirts have nearly become as big a draw as the films. In all the excitement of springing Angela Mao Ying on Sammo, we neglected to tell the crowd that the award incorporated Jerry’s original artwork for the shirt (see photo below).

Sammo was told backstage, once we realized our mistake, and he was clearly impressed. We love the design and value Jerry’s work highly, so we apologize and hope we can continue to work with him for many more years.

We encourage you to visit Jerry’s blog, and Epic Proportions web site, where you can get more of his great T-shirts (some of our favorites are  “Super Fly,” “Golden Arms,” and “You Have Our Gratitude”). And if you like comic books, you should also check out Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology where Jerry was one of the key creative forces.

Comments (0) Jun 30 2010

It’s not officially part of the festival, but a special side event is happening on the evening of July 4th, aimed especially at fans of crazy-ass Japanese cinema in general, and people—like us—who love cherubic pervert Noboru Iguchi (THE MACHINE GIRL, ROBO-GEISHA) in particular.

It’s the International Premiere of THE ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL: MOVIE EDITION!

What is THE ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL: MOVIE EDITION, you may well ask? That requires a bit more storytelling. For those of you who were hooked at “Noboru Iguchi,” or “crazy-ass Japanese cinema,” or even “cherubic pervert,” details are below. For anyone still undecided, read on…

Anthology Film Archives – special benefit screening
Second Street & Second Ave, East Village
Sunday, July 4th at 6:00 pm
tickets are $9 general admission, available day-of-show at box office only

Now, for those of you still with me…check out the trailer for the movie edition here.

Does that tell you what you need to know? How about this?

Or this?

Or this?

THE ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL: MOVIE EDITION began its life as a TV series, created by Iguchi, that aired on late-night Kansai (western Japan) television beginning last fall. It’s about a 10,000 year old “yokai / monster hunter” who is resurrected from the earth by a bumbling archaeologist and his high schooler son. In each episode, the hunter, or “Dogoo Girl”, sniffs out monsters in the modern world and, at the same time, copes with being a 21st-century high school gal with big boobs who runs around in a stone bikini.

The first season of the series (a second is in the works) ran 13-some episodes, and all along, the creators had planned to turn it into a movie edition for overseas sales, as well as for viewers in the rest of Japan to see. Iguchi, along with TOKYO GORE POLICE director Yoshihiro Nishimura, cut down the full series into a 90 minute movie, and Nishimura directed a half-hour “pilot episode” gore version that was added at the end. Fans in Tokyo were not disappointed, and we thought you’d like it, too, which is why we’re showing it here.

The problem, however, is that the movie doesn’t exist in a film festival-screenable form (with English subtitles) except on DVD. So if you’re a bit forgiving regarding the technical format, we promise that the presence of Iguchi, Nishimura, Nikkatsu producer Yoshinori Chiba, and actresses Asami (who plays Dogoo Girl in the pilot version) and Cay Izumi (who plays a liver-sucking vampire pole dancer), will more than make up for it.

Come celebrate America’s independence with breasts, monsters and Noboru Iguchi—that’s the true meaning of freedom!

Erika Yazawa wants you to come to Anthology Film Archives! Happy Birthday, America!

Comments (3) Jun 28 2010

I don’t have any photos of it yet, and the videos aren’t up, but last night’s Star Asia Awards were awesome. Years ago, we wanted to bring Angela Mao to the NYAFF. She lives in NYC, and we talked about doing it with she and her son but it never came together.

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This year, when we knew we were presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Sammo Hung, we called her and asked if she’d present it. Immediately, she said, “Yes.” But we wanted it to be a secret. So began weeks of secret stress. On Friday when Sammo and his wife, Joyce Mina Godenzi, said they were going to see a few friends for dinner, we all thought, “Oh, crap,” positive that they were going to call Angela Mao and she’d say, “But I’m giving you an award first.”

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Then, last night, we got Angela there, a volunteer took her through a back entrance and hid her, then when the time was right she was snuck into the back of the house. And onstage, the intro was, “Let’s talk about Sammo Hung and women…” and a big wind-up about all the women he’s worked with. “And the only person qualified to give him this award…Ms. Angela Mao Ying.” And up she came. His face froze, his mouth dropped open. I’ve never seen a human being look so stunned.

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The theater went ballistic and were up on their feet. And then the two of them took the mic like they’d just been shooting a movie the week before. It was absolutely perfect. I don’t care what else happens. We surprised Sammo Hung and got he and Angela Mao on stage together again. That’s worth everything.

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Comments (4) Jun 26 2010

Howard Feinstein weighs in on the festival over at Indiewire, doing three better than Time Out New York and one better than the Village Voice with “Eight to Watch at the Upcoming New York Asian Film Festival.”

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His picks include SYMBOL in the number one slot, COW (he calls Huang Bo’s performance “astounding”) THE BLOOD OF REBIRTH and (surprisingly) A LITTLE POND.

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Read the full article.

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Comments (0) Jun 25 2010

If you’re curious, there’s a digital version of this year’s program book up on the internets. It was designed by Jason Powell and Goran Topalovic and we’ve got a couple thousand of them in a truck rumbling towards Lincoln Center tomorrow morning.

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Here it is, in all its digital glory.

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Comments (0) Jun 22 2010