Welcome to this week’s Subway Cinema News. The big news this week…the New York Film Festival is in town with tons of new Asian movies and retro goodness.

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In terms of new movies, they’re screening Bong Joon-Ho’s unmissable MOTHER, Sabu’s much-acclaimed CRAB CANNERY SHIP (going by the Japanese title KANIKOSEN and one of the Village Voice’s top five picks of the fest – watch the trailer here) and the other big movie that’s getting a lot of press, Zhao Dayong’s three-hour documentary GHOST TOWN about the few remaining residents of a tiny little town in the middle of Nowheresville, China. (tickets and more info)

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Bong Joon-Ho’s unmissable MOTHER.

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The New York Film Festival is going all-out for Asian retrospectives this year. From September 26 – October 6 they’ll be presenting the academically-titled (Re)inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society 1949 – 1966 which is a massive, twenty-film retrospective of movies from early Communist China. (Full info)

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Then, from October 7 – 11 they’ll be doing a Guru Dutt retrospective, A Heart as (Big) as the World: the Films of Guru Dutt. Although black-and-white Indian movies may not be your cup of tea, give something by Guru Dutt a chance. Like Hollywood’s golden age studio slaves, he created a personal cinema inside a massive commercial moviemaking system. (Full info)

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October 3, the Korea Society and the Film Society of Lincoln Center present CROSSROADS OF YOUTH, a very special screening for the Keaton’s in which Alex learns that kindly, fun-loving Uncle Ned may have a problem with…alcoholism. Just kidding! It’s actually a very special screening of Korea’s oldest surviving silent film, with live musical accompaniment and a narrator. Much more information here. This is part of the New York Film Festival.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s PONY is still playing all over town, including screenings at the Landmark Sunshine. Still! Unbelievable! And great! (showtimes)

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Comments (0) Sep 24 2009

Subway Cinema News: your weekly guide to Asian movies in NYC! And this week it’s stuff but there’s also news about upcoming stuff that’s pretty exciting.

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Have you ever heard of the Sikh International Film Festival (SIFF!)? Neither have we, but it’s true and it’s happening. September 18 – 19, at the Asia Society and their guest of honor is Mira Nair (that’s funny, she doesn’t look like a sikh). They’ve got a party, shorts, documentaries and three feature films, MY MOTHER INDIA, FLYING SIKHS (about Sikh fighter pilots) and NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR AND THE VIA DOLOROSA PROJECT, described as a “semi-autobiographical art documentary” which spells “party!” to me. (more info)

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EVANGELION 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE sounds like the title of a really bad song about a break-up in Kansas that you find on a cassette tape on the floor of your car but it’s not. It’s the latest blossoming of the EVENGELION franchise, the first in a four-part series of animated features that reboots the franchise, directed by its creator, Hideaki Anno. I say “latest” but it’s from 2007. Still, it hasn’t had a US release yet and now it’s playing at Cinema Village. (more info) (the trailer)

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Speaking of Japanese animation, Hayao Miyazaki’s PONYO is still playing at Manhattan’s Landmark Sunshine as well as a ton of other theaters around the city (full list here).

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UPCOMING STUFF:

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October 3, the Korea Society and the Film Society of Lincoln Center present CROSSROADS OF YOUTH, a very special screening for the Keaton’s in which Alex learns that kindly, fun-loving Uncle Ned may have a problem with…alcoholism. Just kidding! It’s actually a very special screening of Korea’s oldest surviving silent film, with live musical accompaniment and a narrator. Much more information here. This is part of the New York Film Festival.

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This is the CROSSROADS OF YOUTH!

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The New York Film Festival is going all-out for Asian retrospectives this year. Along the same lines as EVANGELION 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE, From September 26 – October 6 they’ll be presenting (Re)inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society 1949 – 1966 which is a massive, twenty-film retrospective of movies from early Communist China. (Full info)

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“We’ve got our tickets!”

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Then, from October 7 – 11 they’ll be doing a Guru Dutt retrospective, A Heart as (Big) as the World: the Films of Guru Dutt. Although black-and-white Indian movies may not be your cup of tea, give something by Guru Dutt a chance. Like Hollywood’s golden age studio slaves, he created a personal cinema inside a massive commercial moviemaking system. (Full info)

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Guru Dutt will cry if you don’t see his movies.

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And speaking of the New York Film Festival, there are plenty of contemporary Asian films in their line-up, including the much-anticipated, supposedly incredible CRAB CANNERY SHIP by Sabu and Bong Joon-Ho’s MOTHER, a return to form after the massive special effects of THE HOST. (Full festival info)

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Comments (0) Sep 16 2009