This week’s Subway Cinema News starts with the news that Tsai Ming-liang is getting a semi-retrospective at the Asia Society called “The Faces of Tsai Ming-liang” (Nov. 13 – 21) and that title is, like, a play on words because on Nov. 15 he’ll be here with his regular lead actor, Lee Kang-sheng, to host a free screening (sold out!) of his new movie FACE. Get it? “Faces of Tsai Ming-liang?” “FACE?” It’s like Oscar Wilde is running the Asia Society or something. (more info)

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At the ImaginAsian there’s the last in the Korean Cultural Service’s “Sisterly Ties” series (Nov. 12 @ 7pm) THE GRACE LEE PROJECT (more info).

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ONG BAK 2 is still playing at the Village East Cinemas, only at 2:50pm and 10:30pm. (read a review)

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And up at the former ImaginAsian, now renamed Phoenix Adlabs Big Cinemas, there are two Bollywood films playing:

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AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI (12:30pm, 7pm) – a romantic comedy with a Salman Khan guest appearance. If you can squeeze out any information from this head-spinning opening paragraph in the Times of India then you deserve an award:

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“Gazab comedy, this one. Really, Ranbir is a revelation, Katrina is full of beans and the newly formented Ranbir-Katrina chemistry sets the screen on fire in this mad hatter’s tea party roller-coaster ride as Raj Kumar Santosh tries to retrack his way to his Andaz Apna Apna days.”

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JAIL (4pm, 10:20pm) – a hard hitting musical about the grim realities of prison life. The director, Madhur Bhandarkar, was forced to delete a masturbation scene from the final print and pixilate some nudity, so it actually sounds pretty good. (read a review)

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JAIL is hardcore.

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Comments (0) Nov 06 2009

One of Taiwan’s biggest directors, Tsai Ming-liang, will not only be getting a retrospective of his films at the Asia Society (The Faces of Tsai Ming-liang, Nov. 13 – 21) but he’s also going to be here to introduce a screening of his latest film, FACE (Nov. 15 @ 2pm – more info) and with him will be his longtime onscreen alter ego, Lee Kang-sheng. It’s an extreme bummer that the series doesn’t include THE WAYWARD CLOUD, Tsai’s most controversial and best movie (it’s an anti-porn musical) but it does include a rare screening of his first film, REBELS OF THE NEON GOD, so that’s something.

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Pretentious still from WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?

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(More info on the series)

Comments (0) Nov 06 2009