Subway Cinema, Funimation, Giant Robot and Japan Society bring you…
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ROBOGEISHA

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Tuesday, May 18, 7:30 PM
at Japan Society

Buy tickets now!

$12 general admission

$8 seniors, students and Japan Society members

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A special event to herald the coming of Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film (July 1 – 16) and the New York Asian Film Festival (June 25 – July 8 )
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Films will be announced! Prizes will be given! There will be a party after the screening! Two Iguchi/Nishimura shorts will be shown in the US for the first time! Possible Q&A via the internets! Your pants will explode!

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Geisha Chainsaw!

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Watch the amazing ROBOGEISHA trailer. It will make you levitate.

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From the demented imagination of director Noboru Iguchi, the man who brought the world the cult sensation MACHINE GIRL, comes the latest installment of outrageous genre-stomping cinema from Japan: ROBOGEISHA!
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Kikue and Yoshie, two sisters in geisha training, are kidnapped and forced into the shadowy world of the Kageno Corporation, a steel company that’s actually the front for a terrorist organization bent on returning Japan to more traditional values. Using their massive Geisha Army and a pair of seemingly supernatural, bikini-clad female assassins, Kageno’s maniacal president and his handsome son plot to assassinate business and political leaders throughout the country, then drop an atomic device directly onto Mt. Fuji, in order to disrupt the economy so that their puppet government can take over. Central to their plan are the two sisters, who will be converted into mechanical geisha in order to lead the army to victory. But before that can happen, Yoshie begins to question the deadly work they’ve been assigned, and ask herself: “Is there is more to life than being a kimono-clad, robotic killing machine?”
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Geisha Mini-Tank!

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Over-the-top doesn’t even begin to describe the work of director Iguchi and his collaborators, including makeup effects supervisor Yoshihiro Nishimura, (TOKYO GORE POLICE and VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL). Acid breast milk, fried shrimp used as weapons, butt-swords, a giant castle robot, and geisha that transform into dune buggies make up just 1/10th of this wild mix of crazy action, splatter, peek-a-boo sexiness, bizarre movie references, and inappropriate comedy.
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This is the antidote to overblown, bloated, mega-budgeted American action films that have lots of money but no creativity. ROBO-GEISHA has so many insane ideas that you’ll either end up with your jaw on the floor or your head in your hands.
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This screening will be followed by a party of epic proportions, special announcements will be made revealing top secret titles in this year’s festivals, prizes will be given away and two short films by director Iguchi and Nishimura will be screened for the first time with English subtitles:
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SCARY GEISHA ARMY: WELCOME TO HELL!
(16:50, directed by Noboru Iguchi, starring Yui Murata, Asami, Masaki Suzumura)
A spin-off from ROBOGEISHA, a young girl joins the Geisha Army with a secret mission: to discover what happened to her missing brother. The truth, it turns out, is far more ridiculous than anything she could have imagined.

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Geisha Aerobics…in 3D?!?

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VAMPIRE FRANKENSTEIN GIRL
(15:30, directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura, starring Tsugumi Nagasawa, Maki Mizui, Yoshiki Takahashi, Cay Izumi)
Set in the VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL universe, it follows Monami as she becomes a vigilante avenger, tracking down a red-haired, serial killer who’s targeted the infamous Ganguro Girls and Wrist-Cutter champion from the original film. If you thought the original VG vs. FG was politically incorrect, you won’t believe the follow-up.

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And, if the internet gods cooperate, there will be a one-of-a-kind, sure-to-be-ridiculous Q&A with the makers of the film afterward, live from Tokyo. If you value your fanboy cred, and if IRON MAN 2 didn’t quite satisfy your jones for weapon-encrusted, battle-suit action, don’t miss this show!
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Tickets on sale now!
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And here’s the Japan Society write-up!

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Comments (0) Apr 27 2010

The New York Asian Film Festival 2010 is here!

June 25 – July 8

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Co-presented for the first time with The Film Society of Lincoln Center!
All screenings at the Walter Reade Theater!
Additional screenings July 1 – 4 at Japan Society!
Special Midnight shows Fridays & Saturdays at the IFC Center!

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The NYAFF arrives at Lincoln Center.

Meanwhile, Rome burns.

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Like Vandals storming the gates of Rome, the New York Asian Film Festival rampages through the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater June 25 – July 8, unleashing an orgy of the latest and greatest pop masterpieces Asian cinema has to offer. For nine years, the NYAFF has been North America’s leading festival of popular Asian cinema but now it’s teamed up with the Film Society of Lincoln Center to also become North America’s fanciest!
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America’s art-house theaters normally show an anemic sliver of what Asian cinema has to offer but the NYAFF’s 2010 line-up is a brawny slab of 35 blockbusters and break-out hits that audiences in Thailand, China, Korea, Hong Kong and Japan actually buy tickets to watch.
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The full line-up will be announced in May, but this year’s festival will have three major events, so mark them on your flesh now!

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THE STAR ASIA AWARDS

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The NYAFF will be presenting three Star Asia Awards to actors Western audiences should know more about. The ceremony will take place on opening night, June 25, and the recipients will all be at the festival to receive their awards.
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Rising Star of Asia Award to Huang Bo

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One of China’s most popular new actors, Huang Bo got his break in Ning Hao’s 2006 comedy, CRAZY STONE, and he’s gone on to specialize in earthy, foul-mouthed characters. A leading man with a character actor’s face, he won a Golden Horse for his performance in COW, and we’ll be screening it as part of the NYAFF 2010, as well as his movie CRAZY RACER.

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Star Asia Award to Simon Yam

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Starting as a character actor in the 1970’s, Simon Yam has gone on to become one of Hong Kong’s favorite leading men, winning “Best Actor” at the 2010 Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW, an official selection of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival. From his performance as the insane fashion plate, Judge, in Ringo Lam’s FULL CONTACT to his turn as the dapper pickpocket, Kei, in Johnnie To’s SPARROW, Simon Yam has been one of the world’s best, and most debonair, actors. In this year’s festival, he appears in ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW, STORM WARRIORS and BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS.
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Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award to Sammo Hung

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A special Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award will go to the legendary actor and director, Sammo Hung, to honor his legacy of onscreen work. Jackie Chan’s “older brother” at Master Yu Jim Yuen’s Chinese Opera School, Sammo has worked as a producer, director, action-choreographer or stuntman in over 230 films. In this year’s NYAFF, Sammo Hung choreographed the action in IP MAN, he co-stars in the festival’s official opening night film, IP MAN 2, and he stars in the cracked action-cooking-comedy KUNG FU CHEFS. There will also be a special screening of his 1987 Vietnam War movie, EASTERN CONDORS, preceded by an onstage chat with the maestro about his career.
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RETURN TO THE OLD SCHOOL: HONG KONG’S

NEW MARTIAL ARTS CINEMA

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After 2009’s film, IP MAN, became a massive box office hit, savvy Hong Kong producers unleashed a wave of old school-inspired martial arts films that went back to basics: no CGI, no fancy wire work, no fakery. Instead, they were all about blazing hand-to-hand combat, hard-falling stuntmen and lightning fast kung fu. In conjunction with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, this year’s NYAFF features a special focus on Hong Kong’s new wave of old school kung fu.
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Jackie Chan’s in LITTLE BIG SOLDIER, his best

movie since DRUNKEN MASTER 2.

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This year’s line-up will include Jackie Chan’s latest movie, LITTLE BIG SOLDIER; we’ll be screening GALLANTS, a rollicking action comedy starring a gallery of old school greats like Bruce Leung and Chen Kuan-tai; and two movies about Bruce Lee’s teacher and Chinese folk hero, Ip Man: an encore presentation of the original IP MAN and the North American Premiere of IP MAN 2, our official Opening Night Film.
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We’ll also be screening the award-winning, 2009 Hong Kong blockbuster, BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS; the insane cooking kung fu flick, KUNG FU CHEFS; and the totally mad throwback to visually bonkers Hong Kong comic books of the 70’s, THE STORM WARRIORS, and much more
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UP FROM THE JAPANESE UNDERGROUND

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Independent movies get a bad rap, but for the past two years some of the wildest Japanese films have been shot on video for about $1.95. Hip hop wannabes stranded in the middle-of-nowhere will be ripping up the screen in the award-winning 8000 MILES (about male rappers, dying on the vine) followed by a screening of the much-anticipated follow-up 8000 MILES 2 (about female rappers, languishing in obscurity). Director Yu Irie will be here for both screenings. We’ll also be screening two films from director Tetsuaki Matsue, who will also be attending the festival. First up is his Japanese/Korean personal odyssey porno documentary, ANNYONG YUMIKA, that’s a testament to the passions aroused by one Japanese skin flick actress working in Korea. Then we’re screening LIVE TAPE, one of the most ambitious concert films ever made and winner of “Best Japanese Film” at the Tokyo International Film Festival, starring Kenta Maeno, known as Japan’s Bob Dylan. Kenta Maeno is expected to attend the screenings.
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8000 MILES: these rappers only wanna break your heart.

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We may be in a new location, but the NYAFF will still be as raw and potent as moonshine. Although we’re on the Upper West Side, we’re still showing movies that’ll mess you up and ruin you permanently for the pale, lifeless junk Hollywood has to offer.
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Let us save you from the boring movies.

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Comments (13) Apr 20 2010

Your emails have been heard – details of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, June 25 – July 8, line-up will be revealed soon. But for now, what’s happening in NYC?

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Two Wives.

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We’re in the last three days of Japan Society’s MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS to know. Catch these electrifying, rarely screened features before they’re packed back away in the vaults and go unseen for all eternity. The remaining movies are THE AFFAIR (Thursday, April 15 @ 7:30pm) with Mariko Okada embracing the legacy of her mother’s infidelity by seducing a couple of guys herself as the movie unfolds in a stark succession of black&white images; WOMAN OF THE LAKE (Sunday, April 18 @ 6:30PM) sees Mariko Okada in a movie described as a “…surrealist erotic story reminiscent of Antonioni’s visual universe and some of Bergman’s formal experiments…” and which sounds a bit like Shinya Tsukamoto’s A SNAKE OF JUNE; and then there’s TWO WIVES (Sunday, April 18 @ 8:45pm) a color masterpiece from famed director Yasuzo Masumura that has never been screened before outside of Japan. Starring Mariko Okada and Ayako Wakao this is the last movie  in the series and it’s absolutely unmissable.

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From April 14 – April 22, Film Forum is screening (still) movies by Akira Kurosawa. This time out, it’s two of his lesser-screened movies, DERSU UZALA and DODES’KA-DEN (screening in a new 35mm print). (tickets and showtimes)

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Jet Li’s WARLORDS is still playing at Cinema Village and has plenty of showtimes listed, which means that it’s doing well. And that’s as it should be. This is the most satisfying ancient Chinese martial epics to come along in years. (tickets & showtimes)

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The old ImaginAsia, now the Big Cinemas, is still playing DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, which is weird. Whatever happened to Bollywood films?

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The works of Korean indie director, Jeon Soo-Il, are largely unseen in North America, but NYU is hosting the director and a selected retrospective of his films from April 23 – 25 and they’re well worth your time. Also, if you’re a fan of actor Choi Min-Sik (of OLDBOY fame) he’s the star of Jeon’s latest, HIMALAYA: WHERE THE WIND DWELLS, which will also be featured in the retro. (full info)

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Comments (0) Apr 15 2010

Almost totally unseen in the US, Jeon Soo-Il is one of Korea’s most important independent directors and he, and a retrospective of his films, are coming to NYU this weekend. None of us have seen the films, although we’ve all heard of them, so we’ve pulled the info from the official press release. Here it is:

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Jeon’s films have been awarded and featured internationally in film festivals, including the Cannes International Film Festival (WIND ECHOING IN MY BEING, 1997), Venice International Film Festival (WITH A GIRL OF BLACK SOIL, 2007) and Pusan International Film Festival (HIMALAYA, 2008). His energetic creativity never stops while teaching film production in Kyungsung University and currently is in production for his 8th film.  New York University will showcase Jeon’s three films; HIMALAYA WHERE THE WIND DWELLS (2008), WITH A GIRL OF BLACK SOIL (2007), THE BIRD WHO STOPS IN THE AIR (1999).

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Screening Schedule

Director Jeon Soo-il will be present at the screenings.

Friday, April 23, 6:00pm

WITH A GIRL OF BLACK SOIL (2007, 89 min)

Cantor Film Center, 36 E. 8th Street

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Saturday, April 24, 2:00pm

THE BIRD WHO STOPS IN THE AIR (1999, 106 min)

Michelson Theater, 721 Broadway, 6th Floor

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Sunday, April 25, 2:00pm

HIMALAYA: THE PLACE WIND DWELLS (2008, 95 min)

Michelson Theater, 721 Broadway, 6th Floor

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WITH A GIRL OF BLACK SOIL (2007, 89min)
In a small mining village in the Kangwon Province, a 9-year-old girl Young-lim lives a financially limited but cozy life with her miner father, and her mentally challenged brother. But their happiness is interrupted as her father loses his job after a mining incident.  Jeon’s most acclaimed film – it won awards at the Venice, Pusan, Deauville and Barcelona film festivals, among others – is a “quiet wonder” (Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter) that effectively plunges the viewer into its rugged, forlorn setting and the interior world of its young heroine.

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THE BIRD WHO STOPS IN AIR (1999, 106 min)

Kim teaches at a provincial film school and is no favourite among the students. Different from other professors who help them find contacts and start their film careers, Kim is too focused on film itself and on making his own film, a desire which begins to merge with his longing to fly. Having kept the memories of birds from his childhood, he intends to make a film based on the images of birds that appear in his dreams. He is slowly working on his own screenplay and doesn’t notice that his professional and personal lives are falling apart. Kim’s girlfriend, Young-hie, struggles with her fears about the future and tries to interest her lover in their relationship – to no avail. Yet he agrees to accompany Young-hie on a trip to her hometown, though he is plainly becoming ever more estranged from the human world.

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HIMALAYA: THE PLACE WIND DWELLS (2008, 95min)

The film begins with the protagonist Choi (Choi Min-Sik, OLDBOY), who has just finished his divorce procedures. When he visits his brother’s factory, he receives a request to deliver one of the Nepali workers’ ashes to his homeland and family. After suffering from nasal haemorrhage and headache due to mountain sickness, he arrives in Sham’s hometown in the Himalayas to find Sham’s ill mother and his three sisters living in a ragged house.  Unable to deliver the news, Choi stays in the Himalayas, which forces him to choose between the village life and modernity.

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Comments (0) Apr 15 2010

Welcome to this week’s Subway Cinema News.

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From March 31 – April 18 one of the most astonishing film retrospectives of the year takes place at Japan Society, MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS TO KNOW, which pays tribute to three of Japan’s greatest actresses. The films being screened are all trippy, stylish and fun, fun, fun. Not to be missed: the best and most visually experimental women-in-prison movie ever made, FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41; also on that tip, but not quite as insane, is FEMALE CONVICT #701: SCORPION; do not doubt that STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER is as kicky as its title, all girl gang action and fabulous hats; you haven’t seen a WW II movie until you’ve seen the bleak and hallucinatory RED ANGEL about a nurse menaced on the front lines by her maimed and embittered patients. (showtimes and tickets) (read the Village Voice’s take on the series)

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Film Forum is going totally Buddhist these days. Playing this week is THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS, a documentary about the latest in the struggle for Tibetan independence. It claims to be presenting an evenhanded, two-sided view of the politics around the struggle, as well as a look at internal cultural and political clashes in Tibet, so there you go. If you go to the 6pm shows on Thursday, April 8, Saturday, April 10, Sunday, April 11 or the 8pm show on Friday, April 9 you can talk to filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam yourself. (read an article about the film) (tickets and showtimes)

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WARLORDS, the Jet Li movie that played last year’s New York Asian Film Festival is still playing theatrically at Cinema Village. And it got good reviews. Plus: big man-love between Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. (showtimes and tickets) (read a review)

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Oddly enough, all that’s showing at the Big Cinemas  (formerly ImaginAsian) this week is DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and broadcasts of cricket games.

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. Coming up are the last two films in the series: GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS (April 9 @ 6:45pm) and FUJIAN BLUE (Friday, April 16 @ 8:15pm). (full info and showtimes)

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Comments (0) Apr 08 2010

Welcome to April. No clever April Fool’s jokes here. This is a humor-free zone.

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It seems like a joke, but it’s true-ness. WARLORDS, the Jet Li movie that played last year’s New York Asian Film Festival is finally opening theatrically at Cinema Village. (showtimes and tickets) (read a review)

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“I’m in a movie called PHONE and I am

four years old and I am completely insane!”

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There’s a free screening of the Korean horror flick, PHONE, on Tuesday, April 6 @ 7pm at the Tribeca Cinemas. Tickets are first-come, first-served. The reason to see this movie? Four-year-old actor Eun Seo-Woo who is the most insane freak in the history of motion pictures. This kid is like watching a drag queen play Joan Crawford playing a four-year-old Korean kid tweaking out of her mind on crystal meth.

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New Directors/New Films stretches itself and this year it includes two…two…Asian films. Whoa, Nellie! The first is the Danish documentary shot in North Korea, RED CHAPEL, an elaborate pranking of the dictatorship. Then there’s LAST TRAIN HOME, a documentary about the 130 million Chinese people who hit the trains on New Year’s to head to their home towns.

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FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41

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From March 31 – April 18 one of the most astonishing film retrospectives of the year takes place at Japan Society, MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS TO KNOW, which pays tribute to three of Japan’s greatest actresses. The films being screened are all trippy, stylish and fun, fun, fun. Not to be missed: the best and most visually experimental women-in-prison movie ever made, FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41; also on that tip, but not quite as insane, is FEMALE CONVICT #701: SCORPION; do not doubt that STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER is as kicky as its title, all girl gang action and fabulous hats; you haven’t seen a WW II movie until you’ve seen the bleak and hallucinatory RED ANGEL about a nurse menaced on the front lines by her maimed and embittered patients. (showtimes and tickets) (read the Village Voice’s take on the series)

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FALLING FOR GRACE is screening at the former ImaginAsian theater (now the Big Cinemas Manhattan). It’s gotten some mixed reviews (read some) but it does feature Margaret Cho, so that’s something. (tickets and showtimes)

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At the Asia Society is the series “China’s Past, Present, Future on Film” from March 6 – April 16. Coming up are LITTLE MOTH (April 2 @ 6:45pm) and GAI SHANXI AND HER SISTERS (April 9 @ 6:45pm). (full info and showtimes)

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Comments (0) Apr 01 2010

On April 9 @ Anthology Film Archives (corner of Second Avenue and Second Street) there will be three performance-based films from avante-garde filmmaker Taka Iimura. It starts at 7:30pm. Take a look at some of Taka’s other experimental works and then decide if this one’s for you.

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(Full info on the performance)

Comments (0) Apr 01 2010

This is the second amazing and mind-melting Japanese art exhibit in NYC this spring (the first is still running at the Japan Society). “Garo Manga, 1964-1973″ at the Center for Book Arts runs April 14 – June 26 and it looks at the wildly influential experimental manga publication, Garo, during its most political and wildass years. Come see art that will melt your face and realize that whatever you think you know…there’s always something like this exhibit that’ll come along show you how much awesomeness there is out there that you never heard of before.

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Garo!

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Garo!!!

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(Full info on the show)

(Check out a gallery of Garo covers by Shirato Sanpei)

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Comments (0) Apr 01 2010

On Tuesday, April 6 @ 7pm the Korean Cultural Service will hold a free screening of the Korean horror flick, PHONE. It’ll be at the Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal, one block from the A,C, E and 1 train Canal Street stops).

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Tickets are free. We’re seating first-come, first-served and doors open at 6:30pm. With 130 seats to give away, there’s plenty of room.

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But why should you see PHONE? This is part of the Korean Cultural Service’s “Remakes” series, and the movie has been slated for a Hollywood remake with original director, Ahn Byung-Ki at the helm. PHONE was the highest-grossing Korean horror movie of 2002, and it’s a consumerist nightmare that unfolds in sterile, over-designed homes that turn into gothic graveyards, as if a layout in
Architecture Today suddenly got hijacked by Mario Bava, and he turned all those contemporary furnishings into mossy headstones.

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And the Academy Award for Over-Acting by

a Child goes to…

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It’s all about a career journalist getting stalker calls after busting a kiddie porn ring. She switches to a new cell phone number and instead of menacing calls from gangland pimps, she starts getting spooky calls from beyond the grave. Things get worse when she visits her best friend, Ho-Jun, and lets Ho-Jun’s daughter answer her cell phone. Before you can say “Linda Blair” this perfect little tyke is possessed by an evil spirit. This gang of other well-dressed yuppies quickly discover that their stylish clothes and chic haircuts are no match for the spirit of a moldering schoolgirl having the ultimate bad hair day. Not just another clone of Japan’s THE RING, this character-driven movie is a very Korean nightmare where all those pretty things you buy are just a cheap bandaid on a festering wound.

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“Killing you makes me giggle!”

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But the real reason to see this movie is the cute little possessed girl, Young-Ju, played by the most insane freak in Korea, Eun Seo-Woo, who deserves a special Academy Award for her performance. Whether she’s French kissing daddy, hissing like a cat, or trying to break her own neck, this tyke is out of control in a way even Maury Povich can’t handle. It’s like watching Joan Crawford give the performance of her life if she was four-years-old and Korean.

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In true gothic fashion, the family unit of PHONE turns out to be just another nest of neurotic possessiveness, hidden homicide, and lustmord. As the minutes tick off until “The End” rolls across the screen, all the stylish ephemera of modern Korean filmmaking does a time lapse dissolve into an Edgar Allan Poe haze with unlimited minutes and no roaming charges.

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Comments (0) Apr 01 2010