MANSHIN: TEN THOUSAND SPIRITS to close NYAFF 2014

Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits

Written and Directed by Park Chan-kyong 

South Korea, 2013, 105 minutes 

Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits will have its International Premiere as the closing film of this year's New York Asian Film Festival (details below). The Korean word manshin is a respectful term for shaman, and the film is about Manshin Kim Keum-hwa, who in 1985 became the first shaman of her type to be named an "Intangible Cultural Asset."

The film, written and directed by Park Chan-kyong (Anyang, Paradise City, and the two shorts Day Trip and Night Fishing) is part bio-pic, part documentary. Manshin Kim is depicted at various stages of her life by different actresses, including Moon So-ri, who portrays her during the 1970s. But Kim also appears as herself, both in old and in contemporary footage.

Moon So-ri as Manshin Kim during the 1970s

She was born in 1931 during the Japanese Occupation of 1910-1945 in the northern part of Korea. When she was fourteen she married a man she had never met to avoid becoming a "comfort woman" for the Japanese troops. Horribly mistreated by her mother-in-law, she returned to her parents after three years.

Prone to visions from an early age, which had led to her being shunned by village children, Kim received her Naerim-Gut (initiation ritual) in 1948 when she was seventeen years old. Shamans dream more than other people and see images even when awake. Always outsiders, forever between spirits and "normal people," they have periodically been subject to efforts to end their practices. There was a campaign to expel superstition during the Japanese Occupation, and in the 1970s by the South Korean government with the New Community Movement.

Manshin Kim during filming

Kim, who came to Incheon in South Korea by boat, managed to survive these campaigns and other threats to both her calling and her life. In the 1980s, shamanism got a reprieve, first from the repressive government of Chun Doo-hwan and then from anti-government student activists. Prejudice against traditional culture and shamanism was alleviated, and shamanism came to be regarded as a new type of culture instead of merely backward superstition. It was at this time that Kim made numerous TV appearances, leading to her becoming an "Intangible Cultural Asset" in the middle of the decade. Kim eventually came to have more than eighty spiritual sons and daughters.

The film makes clear the conflicting dual attitudes that Koreans tend to have toward shamanism. On the outside, they seem to despise it and act dismissively towards it. However, in private, they hold rituals when they have important house issues or seek to have heir fortunes told.

Kim (portrayed by a young actress) followed by part of the film crew. "Augment" refers to becoming a powerful visionary shaman.

Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits provides a fascinating look at a unique and remarkable woman and into the realm of Korean mysticism and spirituality. It ends on a note of self-reflective filmmaking that is both touching and artistically sublime.

AsianCineFest Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits is showing on Monday, July 15 at 8:05 pm at Asia Society as the closing film of the New York Asian Film Festival. The full schedule for NYAFF 2014 can be found here.

THE MOLE SONG: UNDERCOVER AGENT REIJI screening July 10th

The Mole Song - Undercover Agent Reiji

(Mogura no uta - sennyû sôsakan: Reiji)

Directed by Takashi MIIKE

Written by Kankuro KUDO

Japan, 2014, 130 minutes

When: Thursday, July 10, 2014 at 6:00pm

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

(Between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

U.S. Premiere

Buy tickets

The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji is the latest offering from Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins, and about 90 other titles), Japan's enfant terrible director. Co-presented by the New York Asian Film Festival, it will be the opening film of this year's JAPAN CUTS: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.

Reiji Kikukawa (Toma Ikuta, The Brain Man) is a conscientious cop but totally ineffectual. This is not surprising since he graduated with the lowest score in police academy history. However, his superiors come to believe that his ineptness makes him perfect as an undercover agent, a.k.a., a mole. His assignment: get the goods on and bring down the Sukiya-kai, Japan's most nefarious criminal organization.

Reiji receives training from Kazumi Akagiri and some other police officers, part of which consists of a series of tests. After he finally passes, his instructors sing "The Mole Song" (yes, there actually is a song!).  From it Reiji learns the "Rules of a Mole": never reveal your identity, beware of female pheromones, etc.

Reiji begins his assignment by befriending Masaya Hiura, a.k.a. "Crazy Papillon" (Shinichi Tsutsumi, Why Don’t You Play in Hell?). Papillon is the boss of an illegal casino run by the Akogi-gumi, an arm of Sukiya-kai. He's also fond of butterflies and detests drugs. The bond between the two of them becomes stronger when they come in conflict with Issei Nekozawa (Takashi Okamura, The Great Yokai War).

Bald and with diamond teeth, Nekozawa is a boss of the Hachinosu-kai, the biggest yakuza clan in Kansai. A fragile peaceful co-existence between it and the Sukiya-kai is on the verge of ending because of the ambitions of Aiko, the new director and 5th generation boss of Hachinosu-kai.

Reiji's assignment to penetrate the Sukiya-kai, which has its own perils, is thus further endangered by the threat of an all out war between rival yakuza gangs. The situation could well be more than this mole is able to handle, even if he is "the ultimate non-existent undercover agent"!

The film is a combination of outrageous comedy, all-out action and garish costumes. For me, at 130 minutes, it's a tad on the long side. Some of the fight scenes, for example, might have been trimmed a bit. It's somewhat lesser Miike, but certainly still quite enjoyable.

AsianCineFest Rating: 3 out of 4 stars, recommended. It may not be a great film, but it's a good one and definitely entertaining.

Oh, be sure to stay though the credits for the film's coda.

The full schedule for NYAFF 2014 can be found here; the Japan Cuts schedule, here.

RIGOR MORTIS at NYAFF on Friday

Rigor Mortis / Geung si

Directed by Juno Mak

Produced by Takashi Shimizu and Juno Mak

Hong Kong, 2013, 101 minutes
When: Friday, July 4th @ 2:00pm
Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center's
Walter Reade Theater, 165 W 65th Street, NYC
Buy tickets

Rigor Mortis will be shown at the New York Asian Film Festival as part of a Chinese "hopping-vampires" double-feature with Mr. Vampire (1985). The showtime for Friday is indicated as 2:00pm, and I believe that Mr. Vampire will be shown first.

In Juno Mak's 2013 film, Chin Siu-Ho stars as a has-been actor who moves into a decrepit tenement building complex. He had left his village when he was 13 and become a leading actor by 16, but has fallen on hard times. Divorced, or at least separated (it's not clear which and doesn't really matter), he dearly misses his son. Not helping his depression is the fact that his room, number 2442, is inhabited by the ghosts of twin sisters who died there under horrific circumstances.

Chin Siu Ho moves in

The tenement's denizens are a strange bunch. Yau (Anthony "Friend" Chan, in his first film in nearly 20 years) is the last in a line of vampire hunters. He saves Chin when he hangs himself from the ceiling fan in his room. Yeung Feng (Kara Wai, My Young Auntie) used to live in #2442 with her husband and son Pak. Now she wander the halls and lives with Pak in an area provided by Uncle Yin (Lo Hoi Pang, Blind Detective, Drug War), the building's 72-year-old security guard.

Yau, the vampire hunter

Auntie Mui (Nina Paw, a.k.a. Hee Ching Paw, Bullet in the Head, Special ID) has diabetes; she does sewing and takes care of children. Her "Old Man" is Tung (Richard Ng, Once Upon a Time in China and America), who has a serious fall in one of the building's stairwells.) Finally there's Gau, who dabbles in the black arts.

Auntie Mui

The film genre of Chinese hopping vampires is known as Geung Si. Although termed "vampires," to me they're more like zombies. But unlike their Western counterparts, these creatures are extremely rigid (hence the title Rigor Mortis) and can only ambulate by hopping around. (Mr. Vampire, in which Chin Siu-Ho was one of the stars, was of the most popular Geung Si films. That 1985 film's success led to a number of sequels.)

Yeung Feng and son Pak

Rigor Mortis is an homage to these classic genre movies, but one with a modern day visual sensibility. It's dark and eerie, and it'll keep you enthralled.

AsianCineFest rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

The sisters from Room 2442

For those interested in reading more about Chinese hopping vampire films, I strongly urge you to check out Grady Hendrix's Film Comment article Kaiju Shakedown: Hopping Vampires Edition. Grady was one of the founders of Subway Cinema, the organization that began the annual New York Asian Film Festival.

The New York Asian Film Festival 2014 runs through July 14, 2014.

R100 playing at NYAFF tomorrow

R100

Written and directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto

Japan, 2013, 98 minutes
When: Wednesday, July 2 at 7:15pm
Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center's
Walter Reade Theater, 165 W 65th Street, NYC
Buy tickets

R100 is the latest offering from Japanese cult fave director Hitoshi Matsumoto. His previous works include  Big Man Japan (2007; original title Dainipponjin)  and Scabbard Samurai (2011), both of which played as co-presentations of the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts in 2008 and 2012 respectively. This time around he ventures into the world of S&M. The title is a play on the Japanese film rating system: it indicates that this is a film that should only be seen by viewers at least 100 years old!

Takafumi gets some in a restaurant

The film centers on Takafumi Katayama (Nao Omori, whose credits include Ichi the Killer, the "Interior Design" segment of Tokyo!, Helter Skelter, and over eighty other films). He's a salesman  in a department store who has an eight year old son named Arashi. His wife Setsuko is in Japan University Hospital where she has been in a "persistent vegetative state" (that is, a coma) for three years.

With his father-in-law, Takafumi (right) celebrates his son's 8th birthday

Takafumi doesn't have a lot of joy in his life, what with his bland job and non-present spouse. One day he goes to a club specializing in providing masochistic experiences doled out by a variety of dominatrices. By signing a contract, Takafumi is to receive one year of visits from different dominatrices who will appear at different times. (One just has to accept that he somehow has the money to do so, since this can't come cheaply.) For his part, he must comply with the club's three rules:

1. There is no cancellation in mid-contract
2. The customer must always be submissive
3. There is to be no touching, no violence, and no initiating of any activities by the customer

The dominatrices who tend to Takafumi, sometimes to his displeasure

Initially he is pleased with the services he receives. Indeed, ripples of joy can actually be seen emanating from his face. But as the visits begin to intrude on his workplace and his home, he realizes that he's gotten himself more than he bargained for. The club is quite serious about their "no-cancellation" rule and things get weirder-and -weirder for the increasingly desperate Takafumi.

Takafumi gets some on the street

Director Matsumoto likes to mix things up in this film. Instead of just a straight narrative, we also get two diversions. One is a number of quasi-documentary interviews with the club manger and several of the dominatrices. The other is a self-referential look at the film.

Five people periodically come out of the screening room where the film is being shown. The two who remain standing to the left of the image, one male, the other female, apparently are on the film crew, perhaps an assistant director and the script girl. The other three -- all males -- discuss the problems they have with the film. It wasn't clear to me if they were censors or just involved with the production company, though I suspect the latter. It really doesn't matter just who they are; their discussion of the film, especially the absurdity of the director's intention that it be shown only to people a hundred years old -- is hilarious. These episodes include shots of the director seated in the screening room. Maybe it's just me, but the actor playing him seemed to be made to look like venerable Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, who just happens to have turned ninety this past May.

Takafumi tries to get help but the police are not sympathetic

R100 is a crazy, kinky comedy, quite unique and very entertaining, assuming you're not the type automatically offended by the subject matter.

ACF rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; very good.

This screening of R100 is part of the New York Asian Film Festival 2014.

BLIND MASSAGE at NYAFF 2014

Image © Copyright Wild Bunch 2014

Blind Massage / Tui na

Directed by Lou Ye

China, 2014, 117 minutes

When: Monday, June 30 at 8:45pm

and Wednesday, July 2 at 2:30pm 

Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center's

Walter Reade Theater, 165 W 65th Street, NYC

U.S. Premiere

Buy tickets

Synopsis (courtesy Subway Cinema and the Film Society of Lincoln Center):
Easily the most powerful and innovative Asian film of this year, Blind Massage consolidates the rebirth of Mainland director Lou Ye (NYAFF 2013 selection Mystery) as a world-class talent. Lou creates a true ensemble movie: the blind and partially sighted masseurs and masseuses of Sha Zonqi Massage Centre, in Nanjing, central China, a distinctly unglamorous, bottom-line undertaking run by the light-hearted Sha Fuming (Eric Qin Hao) and the more serious Zhang Zongqi (Wang Zhihua).

It’s a powerful ride through a parallel world of metaphysical cinema that Lou first flirted with in Suzhou River (1999) and the big-budget Purple Butterfly (2003), but this time he also shows us a world of faces without eyes, full fathom five into the fundamentals of cinema and the very fabric of perception, a world where light and darkness lose their usual meaning but basic human emotions (love, jealousy, friendship) remain the same.

Alongside its scenes of beauty felt or briefly glimpsed, Blind Massage contains moments of humor, joy, and pure horror, and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s music is always there to add color to Lou’s magnificent poetic canvas.

Image © Copyright Wild Bunch 2014

AsianCineFest Thoughts:
I saw Blind Massage at a press screening at the beginning of June. The film is a very compelling drama. What impressed me was how, for the most part, what the blind and partially sighted are concerned with are the same things that the sighted confront: the search for love and companionship, family pressures, and so forth.

Some of the scenes are depicted in what -- for lack of a better term -- I'll call "blind-o-vision." By this I mean that what's depicted on the screen turns dark and out of focus, much like what I imagine a partially sighted person sees. For me this served to create empathy with what the lives of the blind and partially sighted are like in that regard.

Blind Massage is a far different film from the vast majority of those shown at NYAFF, this or any other year. It's to the credit of the Subway Cinema programmers of the festival that they include such a film and it most certainly deserves viewer support.

AsianCineFest Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

These screenings of Blind Massage are part of the New York Asian Film Festival 2014.

GOLDEN CHICKENSSS at NYAFF

Star (and producer) Sandra Ng (fourth from left) and some of her "Golden Chickens"

Golden Chickensss / Gam Gai SSS

Written and Directed by Matt Chow

With: Sandra Ng (who also produced), Ronald Cheng, Louis Koo, Nick Cheung,
Anthony Wong, Dayo Wong, Chin Ka-lok, Chapman To, Jinny Ng,
Elena Kong, Eman Lam, Rainky Wai, Monna Lam, Fiona Sit,
Michelle Wai, Ivana Wong, Carl Ng, Eason Chan,

Lo Hoi-pang,Tony Leung Ka-fai,… and others

Hong Kong, 2014, 102 minutes

Language: Cantonese with English subtitles

When: Friday, June 27, 8:30pm

and Tuesday, July 1, 4:00pm

Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, NYC

North American Premiere

Purchase Tickets

In the Hong Kong comedy Golden Chickenss, Sandra Ng Kwan Yue reprises her role as Kam, first seen as a charming prostitute (i.e., a "Golden Chicken") in Golden Chicken (2002) and then in Golden Chicken 2 (2003). After this eleven year hiatus, Kam is now a highly successful madam with a large roster of her own "chickens." (Ms. Ng will attend the Friday evening screening of  Golden Chickensss and will be presented with the Star Asia Star Award. Golden Chicken will be shown at NYAFF on Saturday, June 28th at 12:30pm)

She shepherds them to clubs, beach parties, whatever and wherever there's a way to cash in on the "do-anything-for-money spirit" of Hong Kong. She even goes with two of her girls to Japan to learn about their blowjob parlors, where customers stand on one side of a wall while the employees -- including Takuya (Wyman Wong), a man who excels at his job -- sit on the other. Access is provided by holes in the wall. Other lessons are learned in the "20 second subway grope" cars.

As you can tell from the above partial list of those appearing in the film, there are a ton of Hong Kong's film stars who are present, some in significant roles, others in brief cameos. My favorite occurred early on in a brief scene in which Donnie Yen plays Ip Man, only he's dressed like Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Ip Man in Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster! Hilarious!

Louis Koo has a terrific bit as a Lous Koo look-alike from -- get ready -- Bumfuck, China. And be sure to stay through the credits or you'll miss Sandra Ng wrestling with Andy Lau in a spoof on his popularity. (A running joke in Hong Kong is that he's so beloved that he could be elected Chief Executive.)

I really enjoyed Golden Chickensss. Just about all the comedy comes across well, which is not an easy thing in a film with subtitles, especially one from a place that has its own idiosyncratic sense of humor. There's more to appreciate in the film if you're familiar with Hong Kong cinema and its major screen personalities. I recognized quite a few, but there were some that I didn't until I saw who they played on the film's IMDb cast page.

AsianCineFest rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

These screenings of Golden Chickensss, presented with the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, are part of the HONG KONG FOREVER! spotlight section of the New York Asian Film Festival 2014.

2014 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) complete lineup announced

Andy Lau, center, in Firestorm 3D (2013)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema in association with Japan Society has announced the full lineup for the 2014 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), which will take place June 27 – July 14. The festival of popular Asian cinema will showcase 60 feature films, including 1 major international premiere, 20 North American premieres, 6 U.S. premieres, and 11 more films making their New York City debuts. The festival will be attended by over 20 star filmmakers and celebrity guests traveling from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

The complete announcement with film descriptions and details is available here.

NYAFF’s Opening Night presentation will be the International Premiere of Overheard 3, the highly anticipated finale to the immensely popular Hong Kong franchise. A stand-alone story of loyalty and morality that Sergio Leone might have made had he been working in Hong Kong, graced with a star-studded cast, and geared with heart-busting action, the ultimate episode in the epic saga, after tackling insider trading and stock market manipulation, sees writers-directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong—the creators of the Infernal Affairs trilogy—turning to real estate conspiracies in the Hong Kong New Territories.

The Closing Film will be Park Chan-kyung’s Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits, a cinematic feast for the mind and the senses, a thought-provoking mystical journey into the psyche of Korea and its modern history through the life story of Korea’s most famous living shaman, Kim Keum-hwa. Both the story of Kim—who was born in 1931 and became a shaman at 17—and significant moments of modern Korea are chronicled through rare archival footage, performances of shamanistic gut rituals, dramatic reenactment of real stories (actress Moon So-ri portrays Kim in the 1970s), and even animation and fantasy sequences.

Umin Boya’s baseball epic Kano was previously announced as NYAFF’s Centerpiece Presentation. Produced and co-written by Taiwan’s hit maker director Wei Te-Sheng (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale), it’s a triumph of Taiwanese cinema and one of the highest-grossing local films of all time.

Chapman To in 3D Naked Ambition (2014)

Other highlights include Lou Ye’s Berlinale Golden Bear contender Blind Massage, considered by many critics as his masterpiece, and Japanese director Kazuaki Kumakiri’s My Man, the quietly disturbing tale of two lost souls fatefully brought together by a natural disaster, and the only Japanese film competing at the 36th Moscow International Film Festival in June).

NYAFF will honor Jimmy Wong Yu with the 2014 Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. Currently enjoying a bright Indian Summer in his long career, with juicy roles in Peter Chan’s Wu Xia (aka Dragon, 2011) and Chung Mong-hong’s art-house slasher Soul (2013), he has set the template for modern kung-fu movies with The Chinese Boxer (1970), and was instrumental in kicking off the swordfighting (wuxia) movie craze with his star-making performance in Chang Cheh’s The One Armed-Swordsman (1967).

Star Asia Award recipients will include Hong Kong’s award-winning Queen of Comedy and most bankable actress Sandra Ng, who has starred in over 100 movies (including the Golden Chicken trilogy), and Korea’s Sol Kyung-gu, an absolute powerhouse of an actor who has a career that spans both high art (Oasis) and mass-appeal blockbusters (Cold Eyes). The inaugural The Celebrity Award will be presented to Park Joong-hoon, who’s been Korea’s top leading man since the 1980s (Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide), and who has made an impressive transition to directing with Top Star (2013).

Fumi Nikaido will be the first Screen International Rising Star Award honoree. At 20 years old, she is already a full-fledged actress whose career has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years, and who has shown incredible talent and range in various films ranging from Sion Sono’s Himizu and Why Don’t You Play in Hell? to Koji Fukada’s summer-at-the-beach drama Au revoir l’été, and the superbly disturbing My Man by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri.

Scene from The White Storm (2013)

NYAFF will also feature three focus programs for this 13th edition of the festival of popular Asian cinema: Hong Kong Forever!, Korean Actor in Focus: Lee Jung-jae, and Sir Run Run Shaw Tribute. These three programs, along with the main selection, highlight the film legacy of East Asia, and its current, crucial role in today’s ever-changing world of film, one that can’t (and shouldn’t) be shelved in the dusty corner conveniently and dismissively known as “world cinema.” At a time when many major film festivals are more Eurocentric and West-dominated than ever, NYAFF aims every year to show that the life of cinema is out there.

HONG KONG FOREVER!
For Hong Kong cinema in 2013 and 2014, it’s all been about the renewed confidence and energy of the local film productions, and a return to the uniquely Hong Kong–focused stories. The tide started to turn with Pang Ho-cheung’s 2012 comedy about filmmaking, Vulgaria (Opening Film of NYAFF 2013). It became one of the highest grossing Hong Kong films of 2012, as Pang made Hong Kong audiences feel important again by producing a film filled with local humor for a homegrown audience. Critical and commercial successes continued for Hong Kong films throughout 2013 and local films even returned to the top of the Lunar New Year box office in 2014, led by outrageous comedy Golden Chickensss. So this year, we’re celebrating this restored strength of Hong Kong films with: 3D Naked Ambition, Aberdeen, As the Light Goes Out, Control, Firestorm, From Vegas to Macau, Golden Chicken, Golden Chickensss, May We Chat, Mr. Vampire, Overheard 3, Portland Street Blues, Rigor Mortis, and The White Storm.
Presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.

KOREAN ACTOR IN FOCUS: LEE JUNG-JAE
Discovered while working at a café in the trendy Seoul neighborhood of Apgujeong, Lee Jung-jae began his career as a model. He made the transition to television in 1993 with Dinosaur Teacher and became a star almost overnight. He gained his first film role in 1994 in The Young Man but that same year the TV drama Feelings cemented Lee as a household name. Lee was a heartthrob and went on to appear in several more dramas before a starring role in E J-yong’s 1998 romantic drama An Affair turned him into a full-fledged movie star. Recently he has had a string of hits with films like the international crime caper The Thieves, the political gangster film New World, and the Joseon-era courtroom drama The Face Reader—the latest two films in particular have demonstrated Lee’s maturation as a character actor, where he has delivered some of his best dramatic performances to date. This focus will include The Face Reader, New World, and Il Mare.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in New York.

SIR RUN RUN SHAW TRIBUTE
The legendary media mogul Sir Run Run Shaw (1907-2014) will forever be remembered for his instrumental role in revolutionizing the Chinese film industry by co-founding the famous Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd in 1958, building Asia’s largest film studio in Clearwater Bay (completed in 1964), and along with Raymond Chow, creating a mass production system with in-house talent—including directors Li Han-hsiang, King Hu, Chang Cheh, Lau Kar-leung, Chor Yuen, Kuei Chih-hung, and stars like Jimmy Wang Yu (Jimmy Wong), Gordon Liu, and Ti Lung. While the studio delivered more than 1,000 films over the years, in a wide range of genres, it was best known internationally for its martial-arts cinema. Our tribute will include the following films: The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), The Chinese Boxer (1970), The Delinquent (1974), The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), Killers on Wheels (1976), Killer Constable (1980), and Seeding of a Ghost (1983).
Presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial Pictures.

Opening Night After-Party
NYAFF 2014, in collaboration with Flaskingtree Marketing Group (flaskingtree.com), will host the official Opening Night After-Party on June 27, 2014, 8:00pm-1:00am, at the Empire Rooftop Bar & Lounge. Located across the street from the Lincoln Center, at the Empire Hotel, the After-Party will be co-hosted by celebrity DJ Whoo Kid.

2014 New York Asian Film Festival Dates and Highlights Announced

 

13th NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

June 27 – July 14, 2014

at Film Society of Lincoln Center (June 27 – July 10)

Japan Society (July 10-13)

Asia Society (July 13-14)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema, in association with the Japan Society, have announced that Umin Boya’s Kano has been selected as the Centerpiece selection for this year’s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), June 27 – July 14, 2014. Returning for its 13th edition, the New York Asian Film Festival is one of North America’s leading festivals of popular Asian Cinema.

 

Umin Boya's Kano, produced and co-written by Taiwan's hitmaker Wei Te-Sheng (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, Cape No.7), is an epic sports tale, based on a true story from Taiwan's colonial past, about an underdog mixed-race high-school baseball team that beat the odds and earned the right to travel to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament. In order to succeed against their elite competition, the team had to overcome their ethnic differences and find a way to utilize their individual strengths in order to come together as a true team. The screening will mark the film’s North American Premiere.

 

NYAFF’s Korean Actor in Focus program will welcome Lee Jung-jae to New York City and present some of his most notable films as well as two exciting recent releases: Han Jae-rim’s historical comedy-drama The Face Reader, and Park Hoon-jung’s epic gangster thriller New World.

 

Early highlights among the first group of titles announced include Philip Yung’s explosive female-juvenile-delinquent drama May We Chat; Benny Chan’s resurrection of the heroic bloodshed genre The White Storm; Lee Kung-lok’s porn-industry comedy 3D Naked Ambition (NYAFF’s first 3-D movie!); superstar Andy Lau in Allen Yuen’s heart-busting police thriller Firestorm; Juno Mak’s hopping-vampire homage Rigor Mortis, along with the classic that inspired it, Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire; and Chow Yun-fat reuniting with director Wong Jing in the gambling comedy From Vegas to Macau.

 

The legendary Takashi Miike will also be represented at NYAFF once again with his outrageous gangster comedy based on a popular manga, The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji. Korean cops take on a criminal mastermind in Jo Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo’s thriller Cold Eyes; Takashi Yamazaki’s Japanese WWII kamikaze pilot drama The Eternal Zero; and Anna Broinowski’s Aim High in Creation, a behind-the-scenes look at the North Korean film industry, are also set to screen. 

Keep up with the latest festival news at: www.facebook.com/NYAFF, www.subwaycinema.com, www.filmlinc.com, twitter: @subwaycinema (#NYAFF14)

Tickets will go on sale to Members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Tuesday, June 3 and to the General Public on Thursday, June 12. Single screening tickets are $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. A three-film package is $30; $24 for students and seniors (62+); and $21 for Film Society members. Discount prices apply with the purchase of tickets to three films or more.

Visit www.FilmLinc.com for complete film festival information.

Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway), Japan Society (333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues), and Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street).

 

The 2014 NYAFF receives support from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, the Korean Cultural Service New York, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, and The Celebrity magazine.

NYAFF's sponsors include The Kitano Hotel, Anthology Film Archives, Møsefund Farm, Manhattan Portage, Well Go USA, Epic Proportions, Flaskingtree, and Kirin.  Its media partners are Screen International, Film Business Asia, and Noonchi.