Next week Film Comment Selects kicks off at the Walter Reade with a bunch of Asian movies in its line-up, most importantly a screening of Edward Yang’s 1991 A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY which hasn’t been screened in years and which is almost totally unavailable on video. (Full info)

.

It looks like IFC’s run of HOUSE is wrapping up on 2/15, so get on over to see it if you haven’t. I just rewatched it over there recently and HOUSE never disappoints. (tickets & showtimes)

.

Jackie Chan’s earnest but disappointing crime film, THE SHINJUKU INCIDENT, is still screening at the Loew’s on 3rd Avenue and 11th Street (showtimes).

.

.

On Friday, February 19 @ 7:30pm the Japan Society is screening the psychedelic samurai film, DESTINY’S SON. How psychedelic is it? Here’s a bit of the write-up:

.

“DESTINY’S SON is a film filled with stylistic highlights: the one-take dolly shot of Ichikawa’s running battle with a battalion of swordsmen under an inky sky, the labyrinth of empty castle chambers through which he attempts to find his ambushed master, the scene in which the unarmed hero defends himself with a twig of cherry blossom, and especially the recurring flashback to his mother’s execution at the hands of her own lover, in a barren landscape beside a single, ancient tree.”
– Tom Mes, Midnight Eye

.

.

(tickets & more info)

.

Today’s the last day for the Bollywood film ISHQIYA to be screened at the old ImaginAsian, now Big Cinemas. What starts tomorrow? The mega-huge Shah Rukh Khan film MY NAME IS KHAN. Directed by reliable crowdpleaser, Karan Johar, it’s SRK’s musical about 9/11 and living in America as a South Asian. Everyone expects this to be huge! (more info)

.

.

A few upcoming events: the Korean American Film Festival has a great line-up, including an encore presentation of Park Chan-Wook’s THIRST and a screening of the widely acclaimed (even by Roger Ebert) film MUNYURANGBO. (more info)

.

On Tuesday, February 23 @ 7pm there’s a free screening of the amazing Korean film, BREATHLESS, with director/writer/star/producer, Yang Ik-June, present for a Q&A. (more info)

.

Starting February 25, BAM is holding a Bong Joon-Ho (THE HOST) retrospective, including a sneak peak at his new film, MOTHER, which opens theatrically on March 12. Most urgent: a rare screening of his first and best film, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (more info).

.

Comments (0) Feb 11 2010

Film Comment Selects is the annual, slightly less geriatric version of the New York Film Festival that takes place up at the Walter Reade and it’s programmed by Gavin Smith who is a lot more welcoming of Asian film. This year’s program includes the following:

.

.

THE ACCIDENT (Friday, Feb. 19 & Saturday, Feb. 20) – everyone wondered what Hong Kong director, Soi Cheang, would do after his brutal DOG BITE DOG (and everyone sort of dismissed his hair metal SHAMO) and the answer is THE ACCIDENT. A locked-down, chilly thriller about a group of hitmen in Hong Kong who make each death look like a Rube Goldberg-style, one-of-a-kind accident, this movie has set pieces galore and features a mondo freako performance from Louis Koo. It loses its energy towards the end, but most of Soi Cheang’s movies do that. Well worth seeing this little beauty on the big screen. (tickets and showtimes)

.

.

AIR DOLL (Tuesday, Feb. 23 & Saturday, Feb. 27) – Kore-eda shocked the simple-minded puritans when he decided not to make yet another mellow exploration of life and love and instead shot this punky little flick about an inflatable sex doll who comes to life when her owner is away at work. It’s like a porno version of The Velveteen Rabbit and it stars Bae Doo-Na (THE HOST, LINDA LINDA LINDA) one of Korea’s best actresses. No surprise it’s showing up on lots of Japanese top ten lists.

.

.

A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Sunday, Feb. 28) – this is the can’t miss item in this year’s line-up. Edward Yang’s 1991 masterpiece about unrest in Taipei reinvented Taiwanese cinema and gave first jobs to a host of its biggest future stars, cameramen, production designers and actors. Almost totally unavailable on video, it’s also a stunning movie that stands with the best of world cinema.

.

.

THE EXECUTION OF P (Friday, Feb. 26 & Sunday, Feb. 28) – Brillante Mendoza likes his crime movies, and this one (also known as KINATAY), repulsed audiences at Cannes. A slice of kitchen sink realism about a young man recruited to assist in the execution of a hooker, it’s pure intensity times 1000.

.

.

LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Tuesday, Mar. 2 & Wednesday, Mar. 3) – everyone loves Hong Sang-Soo, Korea’s arthouse comedian. If Woody Allen was Korean and had continued to mature and grow rather than stagnate and fester, he would have wound up like Hong, a director who knows how to tell a joke. In this flick, a director is invited to serve on a film festival jury and things quickly fall apart.

.

PERFECT LIFE (Saturday, Feb. 20) – if you like Jia Zhangke then you’ll love this movie he produced all about hotel maids and troubled wives and capitalism and China.

.

THE REVENGE: A VISIT FROM FATE (Sunday, Feb. 21)

THE REVENGE: THE SCAR THAT NEVER HEALS (Sunday, Feb. 21) – before Kiyoshi Kurosawa was Kiyoshi Kurosawa he was the director of a lot of low budget crime films, and these two have rarely been seen in theaters before. Shot in 1997, these quickies take the Dirty Harry concept and turn it inside out, Kurosawa-style.

.

Tickets and schedule.

.

Comments (0) Feb 11 2010

One of the major finds of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival was BREATHLESS, a movie about a violence-for-hire, gutter trash thug who is totally addicted to the rough stuff. Rather than being yet another Korean movie full of people smashing each other over the head with soju bottles, it quickly morphs into a sharp meditation on violence, both emotional, familial and physical, when our foul mouthed hero runs into a schoolgirl who can take whatever he can dish out.

.

The movie was a labor of love for its star and director, Yang Ik-June, a no-name actor who sold his house to produce his movie which went on to win awards and accolades around the world. Now, thanks to the Korean Cultural Service, he’s coming to NYC along with BREATHLESS for a free screening on February 23 @ 7pm at the Tribeca Cinemas down on the corner of Varick and Canal. Yang Ik-June will be there and he’ll do a Q&A after the film.

.

To reserve a place at the screening, just RSVP to

rsvp_cine at koreanculturedotorg

.

Even if you RSVP-ed already, it’s a good idea to do it again because I think they’re restarting the RSVP list.

.

.

BREATHLESS

Free screening

Tuesday, February 23 @ 7pm

At the Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal and Varick, one block from the A, C, E and 1 train Canal Street stops)

.

Comments (0) Feb 11 2010