Subway Cinema News

You’ll get a full Subway Cinema News with much more nutritious info early next week, but for now here’s a glance at the slew of flicks hitting NYC theaters and video store shelves next week.

In Theaters
Three amazing movies are coming to NYC screens next week, all of which have some NYAFF connection.

First up, there’s LATE BLOOMER, which starts a run at the Pioneer Two Boots Theater in the East Village. Imagine TAXI DRIVER meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in a flick about a dude with cerebral palsy. We screened it way back in 2005 and I don’t really have words for how astonishing this picture is. Director Go Shibata bet everything on this film, and even tossed out a year’s worth of footage he shot because he felt that his relationship with Sumida (the lead actor, who is handicapped) was too colored by his own personal prejudices to be useful. This is one of the most vile, heartbreaking, eye-opening, breath-taking films about handicapped people you’ll ever see and it’s a great movie with a soundtrack from electronic group, World’s End Girlfriend, that’s sounds like ear sugar. (read our write up) (And here’s the trailer)

Then there’s this year’s NYAFF crowd-pleaser TOKYO GORE POLICE which has way more gore and way more substance than you can possibly imagine. It’s also starting a run at the Pioneer Two Boots next week because it couldn’t get into any other theater which is too bad - this is a movie that deserves to be seen in public where you can’t hide the sick joy it puts into your heart. (Here’s our write up and a link to the trailer which will slap your brain like jelly)

Finally, SWORD OF THE STRANGER starts a run at ImaginAsian. Not sure why Bandai turned us down when we offered this animated action flick a slot in the festival this year, but maybe they know secrets that we don’t. None of us in the festival are big anime fans, but this flick (produced by BONES who also did the animation on FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST) is a gritty, well-choreographed swordplay movie that not only keeps its feet on the ground, but it keeps them ankle-deep in blood-soaked mud. (Here’s the trailer)

On DVD
It’s a thin week for Asian DVDs coming out next Tuesday, but keep your eyes peeled for the following:

HIGH AND LOW (Akira Kurosawa’s kidnapping film gets a two-disc special edition from Criterion - full details)

(Taiwan’s HELP ME EROS is not a fun sex film, in fact it’s a somber, painful, grueling sex film directed by and starring Lee Kang-sheng, the Taiwanese actor who has appeared in pretty much all of arthouse favorite, Tsai Ming-liang’s, films) (More info on the disc) (read Variety’s review)

One of Johnnie To’s best recent movies, MAD DETECTIVE, got a screening at the New York Asian Film Festival and was then slated to move on to a theatrical run at the IFC Center as part of their First Take series. Then uncertainty reigned as it was announced for a full run, then for two midnight shows only. Now, however, it looks like IFC is giving it a full run and tickets are currently available. From 7/18 to 7/19, MAD DETECTIVE will have three screenings per day at 12:50pm, 8:25pm and Midnight. From 7/20 to 7/22 during 7/20-7/22 it will be screening twice a day at 12:50pm and 8:25pm. It’ll also be screening simultaneously on their Video-on-Demand service.

(Read more about the movie and see the trailer)

(UPDATE: here’s the official screening schedule now up at IFC website)

(Buy tickets)

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?”

Welcome to Subway Cinema News – Chopping rice noodles in one blow, while expanding your mind. Newsworthy Asian events in New York City delivered every week.

THIS WEEK
At MoMA on Wednesday, July 9 at 5:30 pm, Deepa Mehta’s FIRE is heating up theatres with a romantic drama about two women caught between conservative traditions and modern freedoms. What happens when lust unfolds from once innocent minds and virginal passions?  The answer: controversy, courage, and erotic synergy all around.
(More info)

Also at MoMA on Wednesday, July 9 at 8 pm and Friday, July 11 at 5:30 pm, Jia Zhangke’s HIJIE (THE WORLD) depicts the economic and social transitions transforming the modern Chinese landscape.  Enter the John Water’s-esque setting within the bizarre world of the Beijing World Park and gaze upon the characters that make up this film as they take you on a visual adventure.
(More info)

On Friday, July 11 at 8:15 pm and Saturday, July 12 at 4 pm at MoMA, Olivier Assayas’ IRMA VEP features Asian superstar Maggie Cheung playing herself.  Romance, drama, and comedy go hand in hand as Assayas explores and exploits the hilarious nuances of the film industry.  Refreshing and odd, the film mirrors the antics of the confused and often misdirected director played by Jean-Pierre Léaud.  Cheung portrays the iconic hot Asian chick in her slick latex costumes and makes you think twice about the representation of Asian women in Western films.
(More info)

At BAM  Sergei Bodrov’s epic MONGOL is still thundering in all its surround sound splendor.  While humanizing and glorifying Genghis Khan, the film awes its audience with heart wrenching passion and hair-raising triumphs.  Cheer for the little bad boy who had to survive his tortuous childhood to become a legendary and often misunderstood hero.  FYI, my son was born with a red birthmark on his head, a purported sign of the reincarnation of Genghis.  We are seeing this one together for sure, with our Mongolian (Koreans are Mongolian descendants) pride on, but leaving the spears at home.  This Lord of the Rings meets Asian man god thriller is even lovelier because it is told in Mongolian with English subtitles.
(More details)

Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film wraps up at Japan Society this weekend. It kicked off last weekend with a few days of co-presentations with the New York Asian Film Festival and now it comes to an end with screenings of new Japanese films like MOURNING FOREST, GUMMI CHOCOLATE PINE and SAKURAN. And don’t miss the closing film, KISARAGI, about five fans who meet after the death of their idol only to discover that one of them is responsible for her suicide. Black fanboy comedy at its best.
(More info)

The Asia Society and Asian Cinevision presents the 2008 Asian Film Festival at the Asia Society and Museum, Auditorium, 725 Park Avenue starting July 10th - July 19th.  This year’s selection of Asian American filmmakers includes 13 features, 9 documentaries, and 10 shorts.  Get a buffet sampling and heaping portions of the hottest directors and newbies on the Eastern film scene.
(More info)

At ImaginAsian on July 9th, and ongoing, Harry Baweja’s LOVE STORY 2050 is an action adventure love story that happens in different time zones of the present and future worlds.  The story of opposites attracting gets complicated as they travel forward in time, to the land of flying cars, robot friends and pets, and height-defying sky-scrapers.  Luck would have it that the soul mates get separated, leaving the brave young man to fight the villains of the future without his love by his side.
(More info)

At Lincoln Center on July 8 – July 9 at 7 pm, see the moving stories as they were seen before films with THE MAGIC LANTERN.  This un-film is a super-sized lantern show performed by Tokyo’s renowned Minwa-za Company that will hold you captive with dazzling shapes, sounds, and music.  A historical lecture is included.
(More info)

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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.

This year, for the first time in our history, the New York Asian Film Festival had a jury. And that jury gave out awards! They gave a Grand Prize and then five other awards that they also selected, and it was all announced onstage on Sunday night before the screening of ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2.

The winners are:

Winner - New York Asian Film Festival Grand Prize
SAD VACATION directed by Shinji Aoyama

Honorable Mention for Best Ensemble Cast
SPARROW

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES

Best Visual Achievement
Lee Myung-Se for M

Joko Anwar for KALA

Outstanding Achievement
Koji Wakamatsu for UNITED RED ARMY

Best Debut Feature
Ryo Nakajima for THIS WORLD OF OURS

Congratulations to the winners. The jury really surprised us with their choices, but in a good way. And now the distributors all have little laurel leaves to put on their posters, which is fun for them.

And a final thank you to the jurors, they really outdid themselves and we couldn’t be happier with all their hard work: Vincent Musetto (film editor at the New York Post), John Mhiripiri (Coordinator/Big Cheese of the Anthology Film Archives), Dave Fear (film critic for Time Out New York), Maitland McDonagh (film critic for TVGuide.com and author of several books on film) and Benson Lee (director of PLANET B-BOY).

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!

I think it’s Thursday, but here at New York Asian Film Festival central time is a long-forgotten concept. The sun goes down, audiences come, audiences go, the sun comes up, audiences, audiences, audiences, movies, intros, prize giveaways, drink, day, night, day, night. It’s a big swirl. So forgive us for giving up on the day-by-day for the time being.

Last night was another sold-out crowd for SPARROW and it marked the first time that the Subway members who programmed the film got to see it for real. Previously all we had was a little tiny screener copy with giant watermarks all over it so the picture onscreen was barely visible. But projected in widescreen on a great-looking print with that beautiful international jet set soundtrack kicking in our ears in surround sound it was a damn-near religious moment.

If you want to hear the soundtrack for yourself, then head over here and take a listen.

(The SPARROW soundtrack, streaming at you like a bar act from a Melville film)

And of course, the night before we had a massively and gruesomely oversold screening of Lee Myung-Se’s M with the director present. He’s hanging out in NYC for a few more days working on his next script, but the screening itself was great and M proved to be as divisive as ever. The audience gave the movie an enormous number of “10″ ratings (although those were balanced out by some who gave it a “5″), and director Lee confirmed his reputation as the esoteric master of the Q&A session. His intro was brief, “I first wrote this movie in New York, then I made it, and now you’re here watching it. I want you to enjoy the film.” When asked about how he chose the leads for the film he said, “I knew Jang Dong-Won and he wanted to do it, and Lee Yeon-Hee was right for the part. So I put her in the movie.” Later that night, bombarded with technical questions after the Q&A he said, “I don’t know anything about lighting. I don’t know all these things. I’m the director. I only know how to direct.” Modest, cryptic and funny - it’s exactly what we wanted.

Thursday, July 3 is the day before independence day in the US, so we’re calling it Dependence Day and celebrating our sick dependency on Asian movies by showing some of our best films, all in a row. Also, we’re giving out massive prizes. We’re getting rid of tons of swag that hasn’t been given out yet, plus at all 6 of the day’s screenings we’ll be giving away a Mega Supreme Enormous Prize Pack that contains the following prizes from our sponsors:

1 Dragon Dynasty DVD of either PTU or Jackie Chan’s ROB-B-HOOD
1 Bonehouse Asia DVD of either LONG DREAM or NORIKO’S DINNER TABLE
1 TLA Releasing DVD of Pakistani horror film HELL’S GROUND
1 copy of Osamu Tezuka’s manga, DORORO vol. 1, from Vertical
1 six pack of Kirin Beer
1 bottle of Jinro Soju
1 year-long subscription to Giant Robot Magazine
1 Danger After Dark t-shirt from TLA Releasing
1 SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO t-shirt
1 New York Asian Film Festival t-shirt
And it will all come to you in a special edition New York Asian Film Festival messenger bag from Manhattan Portage. You can’t beat that with a stick. Well, you could, but it would be difficult. And strange.

Our screenings that day are:

12:00 noon - high-kicking, adrenalized Vietnamese flick, THE REBEL

2:10pm - Takashi Miike’s action fest, LIKE A DRAGON (which some of us like better than SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO)

4:20pm - the awe-inspiring glory of TOKYO GORE POLICE

6:30pm - Korea’s biggest blockbuster of the year, PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS

9:00pm - the jaw-dropping documentary about stuntmen, ACTION BOYS, followed by a Q&A with director Jung Byung-Gil, producer Lee Ji-Youn, and actor/stuntman Kwak Jin-Seock

11:55pm - the sleaziest women-in-prison movie ever made, SASORI

And because THE REBEL, LIKE A DRAGON and TOKYO GORE POLICE are all matinee shows you can use your matinee pass to get in or purchase a Subway Matinee Six Pack so that if you bring friends you guys can go to these matinee shows for $8.25/ticket instead of $11.50/ticket.

Nothing to report, not even Magic Marker Rembrandt. Tired. Body is exhaustion-shaped. The only thing to warn people about is that the Wednesday, July 2 screening of SPARROW is getting very close to selling out so get your tickets early. They’re going even faster after this piece in last Friday’s New York Times in which Dave Kehr wrote

“But the most beautiful film in the festival has got to be SPARROW (Wednesday)…a new work by Hong Kong’s prolific and prodigiously talented Johnny To. Simon Yam, the ruthless gang boss in Mr. To’s 2005 ELECTION, here slips into a weightless, Cary Grant manner as the leader of a small band of Hong Kong pickpockets — all brothers — whose gallant attempt to liberate a young woman (Kelly Lin) from her older underworld protector leads him into a gloriously staged finale: a pocket-picking duel conducted in the rain. No gore here, just an infectious joy that somehow evokes Ernst Lubitsch collaborating with Sergio Leone.”

And, we’re going to be making another live, on stage phone call to Johnnie To’s offices right before the screening hoping that he’ll pick up and give us all a special message of peace, love and understanding.

Also, ALWAYS 1, screening Wednesday, July 2, is getting close to sold out. If you want to experience one of the biggest, best feel good movies of the last few years (and its sequel, ALWAYS 2, coming up over the weekend at Japan Society) then get your tickets before they’re gone or you’ll become a regret machine.

Also, the two shows of ACCURACY OF DEATH at Japan Society are close to selling out. Very close. So close that Criswell predicts they’ll be totally gone by Wednesday. And, finally, a reminder that SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO is completely sold out. Sorry, but it’s getting a US theatrical release in August of this year from First Look pictures.

And last but not least…kittens!