Subway Cinema News

HWANG JIN-YI premiers at the New York Korean Film Festival’s opening reception on Thursday, August 21 at the New York Times Building and will be screened again during the festival. Detailed schedule and locations here. 

Opening credits appear as luminescent folds of embroidered silk fill the screen. The rich fabric and gold threads are indicative of the handiwork that one finds on the highest quality hanbok (traditional Korean clothing). Like the complexity and craftsmanship of the hanbok that is still worn during holidays, this film integrates history and old world traditions with the benefits of modern filmography. Chang Yoon-Hyun’s HWANG JIN-YI is based on the life of renowned kisaeng who lived in the 16^th century. Kisaengs were high-class entertainers who had more sexual freedom than other women but were not prostitutes. She was accomplished in many art forms but she specialized in poetry and the use of her wit to point out the corruption among local officials.

Frequent flashbacks to childhood when she explored the town with Nomi, her close friend, border on becoming trite, yet they’re a vital prelude to the proud and defiant woman she becomes. After many years, Nomi returns to the village to guard the Hwang family estate. He comes back with long hair, broader shoulders and is now a badass fighter who protects his first love. Fist-flying action and Robin Hood-esque adventures unfold each time Nomi appears. The bad boy gone good is easy on the eyes and his noble intentions to dole out rice to the poor add to his charm.

The movie gains momentum and grit as Jin-Yi’s fate throws her from a life of sheltered privilege into testing out her own will and talents in the abrasive world outside her family’s gates. She is forced to become a kisaeng to survive and renames herself Myeongwol. In renaming herself, she finds conviction in living a life answering to no one. Myeongwol is mesmerizing with her pale (rice powder) beauty and stands bold as a rebel in silk and brocade. Despite her great success and prosperity, her dark tantrums surface behind closed doors. Haunted by childhood memories, it’s clear that she is worn down by the truth: Nomi can never be her true lover because of the life he leads.

As the cultural trends of modern Korea change, so do the historical fictions that are being remade into films and dramas. These feature films focus on women in Korean history who openly challenged gender roles and dynamics. Chang Yoon-Hyun’s HWANG JIN-YI translates the edgier aspects of the tale through the tainted lust between the young lovers as well as the use and misuse of sexual power and domination. Chang eases you into the glamour and cruelty of the Joseon Dynasty with an exquisite use of lighting. The precise lighting reveals the contradictory underworld of rebels against the opulence that surrounds the government officials and nobles. Despite some of the expected turns of the story, bring your hankie because the stellar performances of the lead roles by Yu, Ji-Tae (Nomi) and Song, Hye-Kyo (Hwang Jin-Yi) will move you. When I watched this film at the Pusan International Film Festival, the audience was sobbing and sniffling so loud that I missed some of the dialogue.

I bought this film before I left Korea because I love watching Jin-Yi’s disdain for haughty, righteous men who think they are above judgment. She lowers a man’s ego with one glance of her perfectly crafted eyebrows and full peach lips. An ancient Korean Wonder Woman, Hwang Jin-Yi was a famous kisaeng poet and philosopher who stood up for the underdogs and executed justice on her own sexy terms.

(Watch the trailer)

Welcome to Subway Cinema News – You can’t cook rice with good intentions.

THIS WEEK

At the Walter Reade, courtesy of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, don’t miss the tail end of the film series “In Honor of Madame Kawakita“ playing through August 14.

Anthology Film Archives and the Korean Cultural Service are presenting a super-rare, don’t-miss-it screening of Lee Myung-Se’s FIRST LOVE (Thursday, August 21).  A drama that espouses the painful virtue of facing reality versus living in a fantasy via the one-sided love a student has for her drama teacher. Her idea of the perfect man painfully burns to the ground while she discovers the truth can set her free or at least wake her up.This is the movie where critics really sat up and started taking notice of Director Lee, and it’s not available on home video. Considered to be a classic of Korean film.

The ImaginAsian is hosting Anees Bazme’s SINGH IS KINNG a hip shakin’ Bollywood comedy that’s so goofy it makes your teeth hurt.  An Indian comedy of misadventure and coincidence with a love story thrown in to thwart the big plans of the underworld ringleader.

The New York Korean Film Festival opens on August 21 at the New York Times Building (242 West 41st Street) with a cocktail reception at 6pm.  The reception will include special guests: director Chang Youn-hyun and actor Yoo Ji-tae, the leading male of the movie HWANG JIN-YI. The festival will continue until August 31.  For a full schedule of events and locations, go here.

Chang Youn-hyun’s HWANG JIN-YI is a classic Korean tale of forbidden love.  There have been many incarnations of this film, a romantic tale of Robin Hood meets Romeo and Juliet -Asian style.  This most recent version is a cut above the rest for its gorgeous use of costumes and barely-restrained lust.

Welcome to Subway Cinema News, your guide to all kinds of Asian shenanigans in New York City and sometimes - just sometimes - beyond.

THIS WEEK

Japanese Screen Classics, in Honor of Madame Kawakita will end next Thursday, August 14 at the Walter Reade Theater. It’s screening classic flicks from the likes of Oshima, Seijun and Kurosawa and the must see items are coming up this weekend: Suzuki Seijun’s brain-exploding crime movies BRANDED TO KILL and TOKYO DRIFTER.
(More info)

Anthology Film Archives will be hosting a screening of FIRST LOVE on August 21. This is Lee Myung-Se’s first movie to really be worshipped by critics and it’s ultra rare (there is no home video version). It’s a simple love story from 1992, but it’s the one that worshippers in his cult hold as one of the best. Don’t miss it.

At the ImaginAsian, August 7 sees the start of SINGH IS KINNG which stars Akshay Kumar and sounds like typical Bollywood fare. Here’s the plot description:

“Singh is Kinng is a story about Happy Singh, a Punjabi Sikh. He is very mischievous and gets involved in a number of disastrous situations, so the villagers plan to send him to Australia to bring back his fellow villager, Lucky Singh. It is then revealed that Lucky is an underworld Don in Australia. Then, in a accident, Happy saves Lucky but still Lucky becomes paralysed. Hence, Happy becomes the new King of the Australian Underworld.“

LOVE AND HONOR, the third film in Yoji Yamada’s Samurai trilogy is still playing at the Pioneer TwoBoots (ends August 7)

Welcome to Subway Cinema News – Flying to Asia for cheap: because it happens inside your brain.

This Week
On Wednesday, July 30 as the sun goes down, watch the gruesome Korean monster in Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST at Socrates Sculpture Park. THE HOST will be screened outdoors in conjunction with the Museum of the Moving Image. Breaking box-office records in its domestic run, this film has repackaged the monster flick into a moving and satirical film about familial bonds and environmental hazards. To contrast the slime and horrors of the mutant creature, preceding the film will be a lovely performance by the Song Hee Lee Dance Company.
(More info)

At the ImaginAsian playing until July 31 is Akihiko Shiota’s CANARY.  The story spotlights 12-year-old Koichi who lives with his mother and li’l sister in a cult compound (the cult is based on Aum Shinrikyo).  When the cult disbands, their mother goes missing, and they are forced into a children’s center until their grandfather arrives, but he’s only there for the sister.  Koichi runs away from the center looking for his mother and sister.  On his search, he runs into a young girl who is also on the run, this time from an abusive father and from then on it’s a searing road trip to find his sister and escape the police. Painful, touching and unique.
(More info)

Also at the ImaginAsian, Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s TAKE OUT opens Friday, August 1st.  Ride the streets of New York with a Chinese take-out deliveryman, biking through the spires and mire of the city.  Ming Ding struggles to stay on top of his debt for being smuggled into the States, but the pressure is turned up when the collectors demand payment in full by the end of the day. Although it’s a feature film it’s shot with a clear-eyed, straight-forward documentary realism that makes it feel more than real. It’s a look at the guys who bring your bags of dripping, oily food up five flights of stairs in the pouring rain for a $1 tip.
(More info)

At Film Forum Masaki Kobayashi’s THE HUMAN CONDITION plays until August 7. This epic film is divided in three, and it was a life-long dream project for director Kobayashi, who wanted to capture the dehumanizing aspects of war during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Played by an all-star cast that shines with a gritty charm, THE HUMAN CONDITION tracks the lives of several compelling characters who are embittered and hardened by warfare but who remain distinctly human. The silver screen can hardly hold the scope, length, and the horrible visual splendor of these movies.
(More info)

At the Walter Reade the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents Japanese Screen Classics: In Honor of Madame Kawakita from July 30 – August 14, 2008.  Madame Kashiko Kawakita and Nagamasa Kawakita put their incredible minds together to create the Japan Film Library Council and they’re responsible for placing Japanese film on the global map. In honor of her contributions to Japan’s film industry, a series featuring 24 films by internationally celebrated directors from Japan will be shown. Some of the winners of the prestigious Kawakita Award that will be screened are Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Suzuki Seijun and Sumiko Haneda.  Detailed screening schedule below.
(More info)

At MoMA on Thursday, August 7, 2008, Geoffrey Selden’s BLUES FOR TRUMPET AND KOTO, his 50 minute short film, will be screening with two other short flicks about jazz. Using the backdrop of Japan and New York, this trancelike narrative film features jazz that will keep you humming and strumming your air bass as you get lost in two cities.  Full of sounds and tunes from big names in jazz such as Quincy Jones and Nobuo Hara.
(More info)

Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST is playing at sunset on Wednesday, July 30 at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. (Here’s full info on the screening and on the park itself)

I used to live with Godzilla. He was three feet tall, made of gray/silver plastic, and sat at the foot of my son’s bed. Because of my son’s obsession, I sat through hours of Godzilla films and developed a fondness for the over grown lizard. But while watching THE HOST, a Korean monster flick, I felt no empathy for the amphibious villain. Complete with a long slick tongue and a bulimic approach to eating, the monster makes you cringe and shiver in all the right places. Using the stretch of the Han River, the director shot beautiful pans of the murky, swirling waters against the steel skyline of Seoul.

The loveliest aspects of the film are the peculiar characters that make up the Park family who own a concession stand by the Han River. The Parks come together to battle the monster and recover their lost daughter. Everyone has their favorite member of the Park family, mine being the young aunt who is an archer with a quiet mean streak and doe-like eyes played by Bae Doo-Na, best known to New York audiences as the Korean exchange student in LINDA, LINDA, LINDA and much-absent from Korean screens these days.

The creature’s ravenous rampage is a catalyst for the larger story of the family that is held together by their mutual love for the young girl. I found myself rooting for the father, Gang-du (Song Kang-Ho), whose clumsy miscalculations and narcoleptic tendencies lead to one tragedy after another. The Parks collectively band together and contribute their talents to her rescue: the uncle’s intelligence, the aunt’s archery skills, the grandfather’s devotion, and the father’s absolute love.

You find yourself laughing and crying at inappropriate times. After the monster’s first run for human takeout, people gather in a large hall to grieve the lost victims. Sounds of wailing and sobbing accompany the wall of images of the dead. I almost wet my pants during this somber moment as the family convenes over the sweet portrait of the little girl, they become hysterical, violent, and start wrestling each other to the ground. The director, Bong Joon-Ho (who’s currently working on another family genre film, this time about a mother trying to prove her son’s innocence) has a knack for doing this, taking the unsuspecting viewer to the extremities of bipolar emotions.

The bad guy in this movie isn’t the monster, it’s America personified here as a gang of benignly idiotic occupiers and military goons, and their sidekick is control (with a capital C) as they try to keep a city plagued by a monster under wraps. It’s eerily reminiscent of news footage from the Bird Flu scare showing the streets of Seoul filled with people wearing protective masks, fearful of each other and of possible contamination. The threat of the virus which the Americans claim the creature is spreading keeps the masses in check and distracted from the real danger of the monster chowing down citizens. Ironically enough, the only solution for the virus and the monster’s end is a chemical that is dubbed “Agent Yellow.” Yellow powder fills the screen with alarming toxic clouds that fall on masses of rioting citizens. As Gang-Du escapes the binds of the military enforced hospitals again and again to search for his daughter, you get the feeling that he is not only trying to save his daughter but himself. Called a loser and dismissed as a moron he has a need to redeem himself in her eyes and in the eyes of his family.

THE HOST is a heady, mind-bending blend of monster thriller, family narrative and social commentary that keeps you grossed out, queasy and thoroughly entertained. The director, Bong Joon-Ho, co-wrote the screenplay with Baek Chul-Hyun and his previous film, MEMORIES OF MURDER, won many accolades and was, until THE HOST came along, one of Korea’s top-grossing films. In South Korea, THE HOST played in a record number of theaters and broke box office numbers throughout its domestic run.

What better way to take it in than to sit outside in Long Island City and enjoy this al fresco screening? And if you see something swimming through the East River during the movie, and if it looks big and hungry, don’t stop to warn anyone and don’t stay through the end of the film. Just run. (-SYL)

(More reviews of THE HOST)

No less than twelve Asian DVDs are hitting store shelves tomorrow, which is just about the silliest thing ever. You can look at all twelve over here, or just take our recommendations because, trust us, only four of them are really worth your money.

They are:

TAI CHI MASTER - a two-disc special edition DVD of the B+ Jet Li/Michelle Yeoh early 90’s Hong Kong action movie.

EXTE - a special edition DVD of Sion Sono’s terrifically funny, weird, and deeply upsetting hair horror movie that’s a hell of a lot better than it sounds.

MADAME O - Synapse restores (albeit dubbed) this 1967 roughie sexploitation film from Japan.

PERHAPS LOVE - not entirely successful, you still have to give Peter Chan credit for just how enjoyable this show business musical (yes, a musical) really is.

There’s also CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS a good, but not great, Shaw Brothers flick, which gets a special shout-out because Shaw Bros. discs should be picked up whenever possible as they run a risk of going out-of-print within a year or so.

One of the biggest crowd-pleasers at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival was TOKYO GORE POLICE, a movie that unleashes both gore and police in head-spinning quantities. Now the legit reviews are coming in, and one of the first up is Maggie Lee writing for the Hollywood Reporter. Short answer: she likes it. Which makes her a weirdo. Read it here.

Most of us Subway Cinema-ites have other endeavors that keep us busy during the nine months of the year we’re not working steadily on the NY Asian Film Festival (and sometimes they also keep us busy during festival time, too). While some other members have day jobs, a couple of us are freelancers or otherwise semi- or non-employed and have our fingers in a number of different projects involving film or video.

One of the things I’ve been involved with for the past year or more is a retrospective film series called NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA. It’s basically a touring program of originally eight (now six) films produced in the 1960s by Japanese studio Nikkatsu. From the mid 1950s to the early 1970s, Nikkatsu produced a steady stream of hundreds of “action” films, heavily inspired by Western genre filmmaking that was popular at the time. Many of these took the form of gangster movies, westerns, melodramas, films noir, and the like, and seem to have been equally inspired by American moviemakers and the French New Wave as well as other European auteurs. Many of the films were extremely popular at the time, although virtually none of them were ever seen outside Japan until 2005, when a large series of them was programmed for the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. American journalist Mark Schilling, who’s lived in Japan for many years, was the original programmer, and he has recently written a book on the genre—the only comprehensive writing on the subject in English—which was debuted at the first screenings we held, at Austin’s Fantastic Fest in September 2007.

Since then, the series has traveled in various forms to fourteen different venues throughout the U.S. and Canada, and I’ve been traveling with it for the most part, projecting the English subtitles onto the subtitle-less prints via a digital slideshow; this is the only way these films can be seen in English, since none of them are available on video anywhere in the world except Japan, and even there only a handful have come out on DVD. It’s been a great experience, and several U.S. home video companies have learned about the genre through this series and purchased various titles for release on DVD here. But as of early August, the final set of screenings will have happened, the prints will be shipped back to Japan, and I’ll have to find some other underpaying pursuit to occupy my time with.

As I write this, I’m en route to Seattle, where four films from the series will be presented at the NW Film Forum, from July 25-28. After that, I travel to Vancouver to present six films from the series at the legendary Pacific Cinematheque, from July 31 - August 4. Both of these cities have substantial Japanese populations and are well-known for their Asian film scenes, so I’m hoping for good audiences at both venues. If you happen to live in either of these cities, try to stop by and see some of the films. They’ve all been real discoveries for the audiences exposed to them up until now, with many people calling them some of the best classic genre films they’ve ever seen coming out of Japan. Imagine spending your entire life not knowing about or having seen any movies from American Independent Pictures in the 1950s and 60s, then suddenly running into the works of Roger Corman and others by accident. That’s something akin to the experience of discovering Nikkatsu Action, and it’s made die-hard fans out of many of the audience members who’ve attended the screenings. I hope you’ll be able to see these films at some point in the future, either on the big screen or in some of the forthcoming DVD releases. For an Asian cinema fan, they’re a missing link between the works of Akira Kurosawa and Takashi Miike, and a treasure unto themselves. —MW

(Read a review of the films in the series from Fantastic Fest)

(Read the Boston Globe’s coverage of the series)

(Read the New York Sun’s coverage of the series)

Playing this week in New York

Anthology Film Archives
WHALE HUNTING (Korean, 1984, 112 minutes)
Thursday, July 24 @ 6:30pm
Bae Chang-Ho’s WHALE HUNTING was a massive popular hit in Korea when it opened, one of the first movies to come along in a while that sought to do little more than entertain the audience. Byung-Tae becomes a whale fisherman after his crush crushes his heart.  Circumstances lead him to be arrested when he meets a beggar (played by Korean icon, Ahn Sung-Ki) who becomes his ally in an existential mission to rescue a mute woman.  They band together and vow to take her back to her remote hometown.  Sounds somewhat idyllic if you don’t count the gangsters on their tail and the challenges that arise to foil their honorable intentions.  As the film progresses, it is unclear whether Byung-Tae is driven to rescue the woman or himself from tragedy.
(More info)

WONDERFUL TOWN (Thailand, 2008, 92 minutes)
Last Day is Thursday, July 24
Aditya Assarat’s WONDERFUL TOWN plays until Thursday, July 24. The love story is set in post tsunami Thailand between an architect from the city and a small town local.  The backdrop of this film looms large with its contrasting scapes of gorgeous scenery and pervading sense of tragedy. Caught between the expansive tides of the ocean and the defeating force of nature, the lovers fall prey to the surging tides of emotion and longing.
(Read a review)
(Showtimes and schedule)

BAM
BEST OF THE OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL (Friday, July 25)
ANIMATION BLOCK PARTY (Saturday, July 26 & Sunday, July 27)
Feeling too old for cartoons?  Justify your obsession with hundreds of other kids trapped in adult bodies at this weekend-long fest of local and international animation films. A smoldering mix of independent, musical, and narrative films will be featured for your indulgent pleasure. Includes a smattering of Asian filmmakers. Many filmmakers of all kinds and blends to introduce their work.  Feel free to leave your Speed Racer underoos at home.
(More info)

Film Forum
THE HUMAN CONDITION (Japan, 1959 - 1961)
Through August 7
One of the great film trilogies of all time, Director Kobayashi’s three-part story of one soldier’s life during World War II, is finally being shown in New York with all three parts playing virtually back to back. The schedule’s too complicated to get into, but you don’t want to miss this. This epic film was a life long dream fulfilled by the director, Kobayashi, who wanted to capture the dehumanizing aspects of war during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Played by an all-star cast that shines in all their gritty charm, THE HUMAN CONDITION tracks the lives of compelling characters who are embittered and hardened by war. The silver screen can hardly hold the scope, length, and the horrible visual splendors of war with cloudscapes towering over the black and white shades of the countryside.
(More info and schedule)

ImaginAsian
CANARY (Japan, 2005, 132 minutes)
starts Friday, July 25
Inspired by the deadly gas attacks by the members of the Aun Shinrikyo cult on the Tokyo subway system.  The story spotlights 12-year-old Koichi who lives with his mother and l’il sister at the cult compound.  When the cult disbands, their mother is missing, and they are forced into a children’s center until their grandfather comes only for the girl.  Koichi runs away from the center looking for his mother and sister.  On his search, he runs into a young girl who is also on the run from her abusive father.  As their young fates intertwine while they head for Tokyo, be prepared to be sucked into the touching and painful tween world they create together.
(More info)

TAKE OUT (2008)
Starts Friday, August 1
Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou ’s TAKE OUT takes you on a ride through the streets of New York as seen through the eyes of a Chinese take-out deliveryman biking through the spires and mire of the city.  Ming Ding struggles to stay on top of his debt for being smuggled into the States.  The pressure is on when the collectors demand the payment at the end of the day. Shot with a clear vision and offering an undoctored portrayal of the (fictional) life of an illegal immigrant, TAKE OUT shows you how it feels to be the guy at your apartment door with a bag full of Chinese food, waiting for you to tip him a dollar.
(Read a review)

Walter Reade
Japanese Screen Classic Series (July 30 - August 14)
Starting Wednesday, July 30 at 5pm with Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON.  The highly acclaimed film is set in feudal Japan where a violent crime takes place.  The story is told and retold from the different perspectives of the witnesses.  As each story is shared, it becomes clear that memory is a subjective and fuzzy human asset.  Beyond the confusion, a vein of truth is revealed among the combined narratives.  A black and white Zen lesson in letting go of perception as a fixed reality,  RASHOMON unfolds like a multilayered steel cut fan that holds the secrets of a gruesome and intriguing tale.

Also screening this week:
Kon Ichikawa’s HER BROTHER on Wednesday, July 30 at 7pm
Kento Shindo”s A LAST NOTE on Wednesday, July 30 at 9pm
On Thursday, July 31 at 6:15 pm, Yoji Yamada’s TORA-SAN’S SUNRISE AND SUNSET.
Nagisa Oshima’s VIOLENCE AT NOON on Thursday, July 31 at 8:30 pm
(More info)

Today is a beautiful day because today marks the release of the Image DVD of HUMAN LANTERNS, the 1982 Shaw Brothers horror/kung fu thriller about two rich guys who hate each other so much that they get into…a Lantern Making Contest! But since they’re rich guys they have to hire someone else to make the lanterns for them and so they hire…a lunatic who makes lanterns out of human skin! Spooky, gory and atmospheric, the Image DVD also includes lots of gore that was previously cut including…boiling mercury poured directly onto a living human brain!

DVD Verdict sez: “When the Shaw Brothers floodgates were thrown open, all manner of bizarre creations came pouring out. As bizarre goes, HUMAN LANTERNS is in its very own league. If I were to watch another 50 crazy kung-fu movies, I doubt any of them would even approach the insanity that is this film.”

See a decorative hanging made entirely of DECAPITATED HUMAN HEADS!

See Lo Lieh, Chen Kuan-tai and Lo Meng fight to the death in a ghoulish house of horrors full of vats of boiling human hamburger!

Marvel at the enormous sets and big budgets used to tell this terrible tale that is like a Herschell Gordon Lewis movie with martial arts and swank production values. An entire house destroyed with one well-placed kick! Women flayed alive! Bratty rich men fighting bodyguards armed with fans and dancing in formation! The terrible Skull Monkey!

If you buy one DVD today…make it HUMAN LANTERNS! The best horror/martial arts/women-being-turned-into-decorative-lanterns movie ever made!

(John Charles provides more sober commentary on the previous disc of this movie - the missing footage he mentions looks like it’s been restored, or leastways I can’t imagine the flaying scenes getting any gorier)

(Buy it on Amazon)