Welcome to Subway Cinema News – Flying to Asia for cheap: because it happens inside your brain.

This Week
On Wednesday, July 30 as the sun goes down, watch the gruesome Korean monster in Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST at Socrates Sculpture Park. THE HOST will be screened outdoors in conjunction with the Museum of the Moving Image. Breaking box-office records in its domestic run, this film has repackaged the monster flick into a moving and satirical film about familial bonds and environmental hazards. To contrast the slime and horrors of the mutant creature, preceding the film will be a lovely performance by the Song Hee Lee Dance Company.
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At the ImaginAsian playing until July 31 is Akihiko Shiota’s CANARY.  The story spotlights 12-year-old Koichi who lives with his mother and li’l sister in a cult compound (the cult is based on Aum Shinrikyo).  When the cult disbands, their mother goes missing, and they are forced into a children’s center until their grandfather arrives, but he’s only there for the sister.  Koichi runs away from the center looking for his mother and sister.  On his search, he runs into a young girl who is also on the run, this time from an abusive father and from then on it’s a searing road trip to find his sister and escape the police. Painful, touching and unique.
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Also at the ImaginAsian, Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s TAKE OUT opens Friday, August 1st.  Ride the streets of New York with a Chinese take-out deliveryman, biking through the spires and mire of the city.  Ming Ding struggles to stay on top of his debt for being smuggled into the States, but the pressure is turned up when the collectors demand payment in full by the end of the day. Although it’s a feature film it’s shot with a clear-eyed, straight-forward documentary realism that makes it feel more than real. It’s a look at the guys who bring your bags of dripping, oily food up five flights of stairs in the pouring rain for a $1 tip.
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At Film Forum Masaki Kobayashi’s THE HUMAN CONDITION plays until August 7. This epic film is divided in three, and it was a life-long dream project for director Kobayashi, who wanted to capture the dehumanizing aspects of war during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Played by an all-star cast that shines with a gritty charm, THE HUMAN CONDITION tracks the lives of several compelling characters who are embittered and hardened by warfare but who remain distinctly human. The silver screen can hardly hold the scope, length, and the horrible visual splendor of these movies.
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At the Walter Reade the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents Japanese Screen Classics: In Honor of Madame Kawakita from July 30 – August 14, 2008.  Madame Kashiko Kawakita and Nagamasa Kawakita put their incredible minds together to create the Japan Film Library Council and they’re responsible for placing Japanese film on the global map. In honor of her contributions to Japan’s film industry, a series featuring 24 films by internationally celebrated directors from Japan will be shown. Some of the winners of the prestigious Kawakita Award that will be screened are Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Suzuki Seijun and Sumiko Haneda.  Detailed screening schedule below.
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At MoMA on Thursday, August 7, 2008, Geoffrey Selden’s BLUES FOR TRUMPET AND KOTO, his 50 minute short film, will be screening with two other short flicks about jazz. Using the backdrop of Japan and New York, this trancelike narrative film features jazz that will keep you humming and strumming your air bass as you get lost in two cities.  Full of sounds and tunes from big names in jazz such as Quincy Jones and Nobuo Hara.
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