THE GREAT BUDDHA + will be shown at the NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS festival in New York

Cheng Cheng FIlms

presents

The Great Buddha +

Written and directed by HUANG Hsin-Yao

Starring Cres CHUANG, Bamboo CHEN, and Leon DAI

Taiwan, 2017, 104 minutes

Taiwanese director HUANG Hsin-Yao's feature film debut The Great Buddha + will have its New York Premiere at the 47th New Directors/New Films festival. It will be shown on Tuesday, April 3rd at 8:45 PM at MoMA's Titus 2 theater and on Wednesday, April 4th at 6:30 PM at the Walter Reade Theater of the Film Society of New York. For venue information and to buy tickets, click here.

Synopsis:
Provincial friends Pickle and Belly Button idle away their nights in the security booth of a Buddha statue factory, where Pickle works as a guard. One evening, when the TV is on the fritz, they put on video from the boss’s dashcam—only to discover illicit trysts and a mysterious act of violence. Expanded from a short, Huang Hsin-yao’s fiction feature debut The Great Buddha + (the plus sign cheekily nodding to the smartphone model) is a stylish, rip-roaring satire on class and corruption in contemporary Taiwanese society.

HARMONIUM reviewed; opens today at Lincoln Center in New York

Toshio, Yasaka, Akié, and Hotaru dining together

Harmonium / Fuchi ni tatsu

Directed by Kôji Fukada

Japan/France, 2016, 118 minutes

Japanese with English subtitles

When: Opens today, Friday, June 16, 2017

Where: Howard Gilman Theater

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Film Society of Lincoln Center

144 West 65th Street, NYC

Showtimes and Tickets

Harmonium, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes in 2016, opens today in New York. It is a powerful drama about a Japanese family, with strong elements of the mystery-thriller genre.

Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) has a metal workshop in the garage attached to the home where he lives with his wife Akié (Mariko Tsutsui) and their adorable daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa), who plays the harmonium. One day, Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano), a friend of Toshio's, unexpectedly shows up. He has just been released after serving a substantial prison sentence.

Toshio hires him to work as an assistant for what is to be a relatively short period of time. Clearly there is some mystery not only about why Yasaka was imprisoned, but also just what history he and Toshio share. The upshot -- not to give anything away, which would be a crime in its own right -- is that strange and weird elements creep into the relationships within the family and between them and Yasaka.

When I finished watching the film, I let out a soft, quiet "whoa" because I was so stunned. Harmonium is a masterful tale that is sure to grip you and not let go, even after it is over.

AsianCineFest Rating: 4 out of 4 stars; very highly recommended

On May 22, 2016, after Harmonium had won its prize at Cannes, Film Comment ran Nicholas Rapold's interview with director Kôji Fukada. It's available to be read online here.

Kôji Fukada's award winning HARMONIUM opens at Lincoln Center next Friday, June 16th

Harmonium / Fuchi ni tatsu

Directed by Kôji Fukada

Japan/France, 2016, 118 minutes

Japanese with English subtitles

When: Opens June 16, 2017

Where: Howard Gilman Theater

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Film Society of Lincoln Center

144 West 65th Street, NYC

Showtimes and Tickets

“Winner of the Prix du Jury in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Harmonium observes a family as it’s dealt a tragic blow and then no less shaken by the process of recovery. Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) runs a garage workshop that opens right into the home he shares with his wife, Akié (Mariko Tsutsui), and their cute-as-a-button daughter, Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa). Trouble arrives when Toshio hires Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano), a friend with an unsavory past who’s in need of a break—though the complicated effects of his arrival on the close-knit family are best left unrevealed.” (Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment)

A Film Movement release.

Complete lineup for 15th New York Asian Film Festival announced

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema have announced the full lineup for THE 15th New York Asian Film Festival, which will run June 22 – July 9, 2016.

The Opening Gala will be the World Premiere of Kazuya Shiraishi’s Japanese crime epic Twisted Justice; the Centerpiece Gala is the North American Premiere of Ralston Jover's Hamog (Haze); and the Closing Gala is the International Premiere of Adam Tsuei’s The Tenants Downstairs from Taiwan.

The 51-film festival features spotlights on the cinemas of Hong Kong, South Korean, and Southeast Asia.

Festival honorees include Lifetime Achievement awardee Iwai Shunji, Screen International Rising Stars Go Ayano, Jelly Lin, and Teri Malvar, and Star Asia Award recipients Miriam Yeung, Lee Byung-hun, and John Lloyd Cruz.

Complete information about the full lineup and guests can be found here.

You can keep up to date with information at www.subwaycinema.com and www.filmlinc.org. Subway Cinema can be followed on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nyaff and Twitter at www.twitter.com/subwaycinema.

New York Asian Film Festival 2016

Here's the recent press release from Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema concerning the first fifteen titles that have been announced. AsianCineFest has covered NYAFF since 2006 and once again looks forward to covering this year's festival. 

Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema

announce initial details for

THE 15th NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

June 22 – July 9, 2016

15 FOR 15: THE COOL, THE CRAZY, THE CORRUPT

This summer’s New York Asian Film Festival (June 22 – July 9) has its most cutting-edge lineup yet, with a cast of Asia’s hottest stars, some receiving our significantly expanded Star Asia and Screen International Rising Star Awards. Today, we give our first glimpse at this year’s offerings, revealing the 15 key titles that shape the themes of our 15th anniversary edition.

From the Philippines we present three genre-defying films that explore fatherhood, and what it means to be an adult: Erik Matti’s religious crime drama Honor Thy Father, Ralston Jover’s noir youth drama Hamog (Haze), and Mario Cornejo’s sensual surfing film Apocalypse Child, which posits that Francis Ford Coppola left behind an illegitimate son as well as a surfboard after shooting Apocalypse Now in the Philippines.

We cling to the company of lost souls to explore the little known territory of Tamil-language Malaysian cinema and the plight of the local Indian community in the 1990s. First-time director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s Jagat (Brutal) follows the hardships of a 12-year-old boy as he gets drawn into the criminal lifestyle of his uncle, a henchman for a local Malaysian gang. Channeling the spirit of Satyajit Ray, this raw coming-of-age story receives its North American premiere at NYAFF.

From South Korea come films about people selling their souls, both figuratively and literally. In E J-yong’s The Bacchus Lady, an elderly prostitute plies her trade in city parks. The bittersweet tale reflects the national scandal of a generation facing abject poverty and abandonment. Kim Jin-hwang’s The Boys Who Cried Wolf follows an unemployed actor paid to be a false witness to a child’s murder, while Jang Jae-hyun’s modern exorcist thriller The Priests will have heads spinning with its hair-raising car chases, piglets as demonic vessels, and the antichrist.

In explorations of innocence corrupted, we put the spotlight on first-time female directors with China’s What’s in the Darkness (dir. Wang Yichun), about a curious teenage girl who is seduced into her cop father’s investigation of a serial killer; Hong Kong’s Lazy Hazy Crazy (dir. Jody Luk), in which schoolgirls explore the city’s heart of greed by charging for sex; and Thailand’s Grace (dir. Ornusa Donsawai & Pun Homchuen), a merciless attack on social-media idolatry.

We next descend into Japanese madness with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s unnerving Creepy, about a maniac who infiltrates and corrupts the nuclear-family unit; Sakaki Hideo’s shocking Kiyamachi Daruma, featuring a manipulative yakuza boss who lacks not only digits but also his arms and legs; and the loony Hentai Kamen 2, the hotly anticipated sequel to our 2013 Audience Award winner about a fetishistic superhero who wears his crime-busting underwear on his head.

We round out our 15 key films with two thrillers that explore institutionalized corruption—in the police, in the courts, in the media, and on the political stage—with Woo Min-ho’s Inside Men from South Korea and Cheng Wen-tang’s Maverick from Taiwan. Both films are razor-sharp dissections of the corruption at the heart of the two fragile democracies at a moment when both are swinging pendulums of political turmoil.

The festival’s executive director, Samuel Jamier, says, “To celebrate our 15th edition, we made the difficult and deliberate decision to have a lean selection of approximately 50 features. Bigger isn’t better; better is better. While maintaining a focus on quality, we’re putting our energies into promoting each film, so that they have a life after the festival. We have a larger lineup of exciting guests booked, including Asian stars who are joining us for our anniversary celebration.”

The festival will announce its opening film and the Screen International Rising Star Award recipients in mid-May from Cannes, followed by the full-lineup reveal at the end of May.

15 for 15
1. Apocalypse Child; dir. Mario Cornejo [Philippines], North American Premiere
2. The Bacchus Lady 죽여주는 여자; dir. E J-yong [South Korea], New York Premiere
3. The Boys Who Cried Wolf 양치기들; dir. Kim Jin-hwang [South Korea], North American Premiere
4. Creepy クリーピー　偽りの隣人; dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa [Japan], New York Premiere
5. Grace อวสานโลกสวย; dirs. Ornusa Donsawai & Pun Homchuen [Thailand], International Premiere
6. Hamog (Haze); dir. Ralston Jover [Philippines], North American Premiere
7. Hentai Kamen 2 HK 変態仮面 アブノーマル・クライシス; dir. Yuichi Fukuda [Japan], North American Premiere
8. Honor Thy Father; dir. Erik Matti [Philippines], New York Premiere
9. Inside Men 내부자들; dir. Woo Min-ho [South Korea], New York Premiere
10. Jagat (Brutal); dir. Shanjey Kumar Perumal [Malaysia], North American Premiere
11. Kiyamachi Daruma 木屋町DARUMA; dir. Hideo Sakaki [Japan], International Premiere
12. Lazy Hazy Crazy 同班同學; dir. Jody Luk [Hong Kong], North American Premiere
13. Maverick 菜鳥; dir. Cheng Wen-tang [Taiwan], North American Premiere
14. The Priests 검은 사제들; dir. Jang Jae-hyun [South Korea]
15. What’s in the Darkness 黑处有什么; dir. Wang Yichun [China] North American Premiere

The New York Asian Film Festival is co-presented by Subway Cinema and the Film Society of Lincoln Center and takes place from June 22 to July 5 at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater, and July 6 to 9 at SVA Theatre. Keep up to date with information at www.subwaycinema.com and www.filmlinc.org.

THE SLEEPING BEAST WITHIN reviewed; two screenings today

Film Society of Lincoln Center

presents

Action and Anarchy: The Films of Seijun Suzuki

The Sleeping Beast Within / Kemono no nemuri

Directed by Seijun Suzuki

Japan, 1960, 86 minutes, 35mm

Japanese with English subtitles

When: Saturday, November 7 at 5:00 PM (Buy Tickets)

and Saturday, November 7 at at 9:00 PM (Buy Tickets)

Where: Walter Reade Theater

165 W 65th Street, NYC

Map

Soon after businessman Junpei Ueki returns to Japan after two years in Hong Kong, he mysteriously vanishes. His daughter Keiko enlists the aid of her boyfriend Shotaro, who just happens to be a newspaper reporter, to help locate him. Although the father returns in a few days claiming that he'd gone to a spa after his retirement party, Shotaro can't help but thinking that something's not quite right with this explanation. Like a dog with his bone, Shotaro relentlessly pursues leads he's uncovered, leading him deeper and deeper into a world of suicides -- or are they murders? -- and drug smuggling, all seemingly related to the suspicious Sun God sect.

Like Smashing the 0-Line (also being shown today), The Sleeping Beast Within is an urban crime tale that Suzuki directed for Nikkatsu. But the acting and screenplay of Sleeping are a cut above those in Smashing.

AsianCineFest rating: 3 out of 4 stars; solidly recommended.

These two screenings of The Sleeping Beast Within are part of Action and Anarchy: The Films of Seijun Suzuki, a twenty-one film retrospective programmed by Tom Vick, Curator of Film, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, and co-organized with the Japan Foundation. Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.

SMASHING THE O-LINE reviewed; showing today at Suzuki Retrospective

Film Society of Lincoln Center

presents

Action and Anarchy: The Films of Seijun Suzuki

Smashing the O-Line / Mikkō zero rain

Directed By Seijun Suzuki

Japan, 1960, 83 minutes, 35mm

Japanese with English subtitles

When: Saturday, November 7 at 3:00 PM (Buy Tickets)

and Saturday, November 7 at 7:00 PM (Buy Tickets)

Where: Walter Reade Theater

165 W 65th Street, NYC

Map

This crime thriller (listed at IMDB as Clandestine Zero Line) focuses on the rivalry of two journalists who work for different papers. One of them is utterly unscrupulous. He sells out friends, sex partners and informers after they've helped him get a scoop and are no longer of use to him. The other takes the high road, even if it means coming in second with the story. The two are brought together in the course of investigating a drug smuggling and human trafficking operation in this dark urban tale.

One of the many B-movies Suzuki made for Nikkatsu, the script and acting of Smashing the O-Line are both less than stellar. But it's certainly worth seeing, especially for Suzuki aficionados.

AsianCineFest Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars; recommended, but not with great enthusiasm.

These two screenings of Smashing the 0-Line are part of Action and Anarchy: The Films of Seijun Suzuki, a twenty-one film retrospective programmed by Tom Vick, Curator of Film, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, and co-organized with the Japan Foundation. Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation.

ACTION AND ANARCHY: THE FILMS OF SEIJUN SUZUKI - a 21 film retrospective coming to Lincoln Center

ACTION AND ANARCHY: THE FILMS OF SEIJUN SUZUKI

When: November 6-17, 2015

Where: Walter Reade Theater

West 65th Street, NYC

Map

“To experience a film by Japanese B-movie visionary Seijun Suzuki is to

experience Japanese cinema in all its frenzied, voluptuous excess.

—Manohla Dargis

In a career spanning nearly five decades, Seijun Suzuki amassed a body of work ranging from B-movie potboilers to beguiling metaphysical mysteries. On the occasion of the publication of Tom Vick’s new book Time and Place Are Nonsense: The Films of Seijun Suzuki, the Film Society will present a retrospective of twenty-one of Suzuki’s films, ranging from his greatest hits to a selection of seldom-seen rarities.

Suzuki first became famous when he was fired by Nikkatsu Studios for making films that, as he put it, “made no sense and made no money.” But it was his freewheeling approach and audacious experimentation that gained Suzuki a cult following in Japan and abroad. Suzuki’s job at Nikkatsu was to make B movies out of scripts that were assigned to him. In the mid-1960s, with dozens such films under his belt, Suzuki’s restlessness began to come through as he and his collaborators, art director Takeo Kimura and cinematographers Shigeyoshi Mine and Kazue Nagatsuka, began experimenting with the assigned material. These films established Suzuki as a stylistic innovator working within—and rebelling against—the commercial constraints of B-movie studio work.

In the 1980s, Suzuki reinvented himself as an independent filmmaker. Freed from the commercial obligations of studio work, he elected to indulge his passion for the Taisho era (1912–26), a brief period of Japanese history that has been likened to Europe’s Belle Époque and America’s Roaring Twenties. Though not linked by plot, these three films—Zigeunerweisen, Kagero-za, and Yumeji—embody the hedonistic cultural atmosphere, blend of Eastern and Western art and fashion, and political extremes of the 1920s, infused with Suzuki’s own eccentric vision of the time.

In the 1990s, a traveling retrospective brought long-overdue attention to Suzuki’s films in the United States and Europe. A new generation of devotees, most notably Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, praised Suzuki in the press and referenced his work in their films. Perhaps inspired by this newfound attention, Suzuki returned to filmmaking after another decade-long absence, making two films—Pistol Opera and Princess Raccoon—that look back on his career while advancing it with new technology.

Programmed by Tom Vick, Curator of Film, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, and co-organized with the Japan Foundation.

Tickets are on sale and are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members. See more and save with the All Access Pass or 3+ film discount package.

Click here for descriptions of the films, showtimes, and to order tickets.

Initial details for 14th New York Asian Film Festival have been announced!!!

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER and SUBWAY CINEMA

Announce initial details for

THE 14th NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

June 26 – July 11, 2015

Director Ringo Lam will be presented with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award, superstar Aaron Kwok with the 2015 Star Asia Award, and Japanese actor Shota Sometani with the 2015 Screen International Rising Star Award

Film lineup to include the North American premieres of Nobuhiro Yamashita's La La La at Rock Bottom and Yim Soon-rye's The Whistleblower and the international premiere of Namewee’s Banglasia, which was banned in Malaysia

A spotlight on Myung Films and Korean women filmmakers and a joint film tribute to Japanese legends Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara are among the notable sidebars

The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), North America’s leading festival of popular Asian Cinema, is back for its 14th edition. Co-presented with Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema, the festival will run from June 26 to July 11. The festival takes place from June 26 to July 8 at the Film Society and July 9 to 11 at SVA Theatre (333 W. 23rd Street). Initial details include notable awards to be presented to director Ringo Lam, superstar Aaron Kwok, and actor Shota Sometani. The festival will also host a slew of North American film premieres, as well as spotlight the works of Korean female directors and honor the memory of Japanese legends Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara with a joint tribute.

Hong Kong’s legendary director Ringo Lam (City on Fire) will receive the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. One of Hong Kong’s most influential directors, Lam was directing comedies when City on Fire was released in 1987, fusing the social-protest movie with kinetic action filmmaking. It was followed by the massive hit Prison on Fire later that year, and then School on Fire, a movie so unblinking that nervous Hong Kong censors sliced it to ribbons. Lam became one of the city’s best action filmmakers, and one of the few local directors to be so deeply concerned with the price of progress, the corrosive influence of money on human relationships, and the lives of the little people crushed beneath the wheels of change. In 2003, he directed what was to be his final feature and went into semi-retirement, only to be lured out again in 2015 with Wild City, in which Lam’s tooth-and-claw vision of modern urban living remains untamed.

Hong Kong’s superstar actor-singer Aaron Kwok (Divergence, After This Our Exile, Cold War) will receive the festival’s 2015 Star Asia Award on June 26. One of Hong Kong’s Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop, Kwok has won dozens of awards for his chart-topping albums. For over 30 years, he has performed steadily both on television and in movies and is respected for his box-office star power as well as his outstanding acting chops. Kwok has worked with some of Hong Kong’s finest directors, like Johnnie To, Jacob Cheung, Andrew Lau, and Patrick Tam. His self-described Method acting was rewarded in 2005 and 2006 when he won back-to-back Golden Horse awards for Best Actor, a feat previously achieved only by Jackie Chan. Kwok was awarded his first Best Actor prize was for his performance in 2005’s Divergence, but it was his work in the 2006 After This Our Exile, for which he won his second award, that blew audiences away. In that film, Kwok’s fearless portrayal of a gambling addict exhibited a serious commitment to his craft as well as a complete lack of vanity. He then went on to give a series of startling performances in films like Yim Ho’s Floating City, the blockbuster Cold War, as well as his upcoming tour de force, Port of Call.

Japanese actor Shota Sometani will attend the festival on July 4, on the occasion of the New York premiere of Kabukicho Love Hotel, to receive the Screen International Rising Star Award. Director Ryuichi Hiroki will also be in attendance. This marks the second year of a partnership with Screen International, with whom the NYAFF will honor an emerging talent in the East Asian film world each year. At age 22, Sometani is already a leading man in both blockbusters and indie gems and has earned critical acclaim on the international film festival circuit. In 2011, he received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in Himizu, along with his co-star Fumi Nikaido (last year’s recipient of the Screen International Rising Star Award).

Notable NYAFF titles this year will include the North American premieres of Nobuhiro Yamashita's La La La at Rock Bottom and Yim Soon-rye's The Whistleblower and the international premiere of Namewee’s Banglasia, which was banned in Malaysia, its home country.

The festival will also feature a section on Korea’s production company Myung Films, highlighting a few of their major works—Cart, The President’s Last Bang, The Isle, and Waikiki Brothers—as part of a greater focus on women who work behind the camera. Producer Shim Jae-myung and directors Yim Soon-rye (The Whistleblower) and Boo Ji-young (Cart) will be in attendance.

Japanese film legends Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara, both of whom passed away last November, will be the subject of the first joint tribute outside of Japan, which will feature the brand-new digital remaster of the 1973 classic Battles Without Honor and Humanity—screened for the time in North America—among others.

Keep up with the latest festival news at:
www.facebook.com/NYAFF, www.subwaycinema.com, twitter: @subwaycinema (#NYAFF15)

Tickets will go on sale on June 9 for Film Society Members and June 11 for general public, both at the box office and online. Discounts are available for Film Society members. Read more about the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam and Broadway), and SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

An Evening With JIMMY WONG YU at Lincoln Center on November 11

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER and SUBWAY CINEMA

in association with

Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York

announce

WONG-YU (Photo courtesy Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival; photographer: Liang Su)

AN EVENING WITH JIMMY WONG YU

on November 11 with the presentation of the

New York Asian Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award

and screening of Wong Yu’s grindhouse masterpiece

MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE in 35mm

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema, in association with Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, announce An Evening with Jimmy Wong Yu on November 11 at the Walter Reade Theater. The legendary Taiwanese actor will be presented with the New York Asian Film Festival’s esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award and participate in an on-stage conversation prior to the screening of his 1977 grindhouse masterpiece Master of the Flying Guillotine, in glorious 35mm!

In the 1960s the Shaw Brothers were looking to expand from their more traditional dramas and romances to martial-arts films, and one of their hires was a former water polo champion, horse rider, and car racer: Jimmy Wong Yu. Appearing in films like Temple of the Red Lotus, Twin Swords, Magnificent Trio, and Tiger Boy at the beginning of his career, his true breakthrough came in Chang Chen’s landmark The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), the film that launched Wong Yu’s career as well as the martial-arts sword-fighting movie (wuxia pian) craze. With all the fury and intensity exploding from the screen, Jimmy Wong Yu became the prototype for the tough stoic masculine characters that this new wave of sword-fighting films brought to the screen.

WONG YU Tribute Poster by Jerry Ma

If The One-Armed Swordsman launched Wong Yu into stardom, it was The Chinese Boxer (1970) that cemented his legendary status by igniting the kung-fu fever that was to become a global phenomenon. Written and directed by and starring Wong Yu, The Chinese Boxer was the first major movie to devote itself entirely to the art of kung fu. It established the basic conventions, such as revenge as a motive, Chinese martial arts versus Japanese martial arts, and strong nationalistic feeling, all of which later found their way into the films of Bruce Lee. Following this movie, Wong Yu broke his contract with Shaw Brothers and started making films in Taiwan with Golden Harvest, including his masterpiece Beach of the War Gods (1973), described by scholar Stephen Teo as “the sword-fighting movie to end all sword-fighting movies.”

Wong Yu is currently enjoying an Indian Summer in his long career, with juicy roles in Peter Chan’s Wu Xia (aka Dragon, 2011), and Andrew Lau’s The Guillotines (2012). Most recently, he starred in Chung Mong-hong’s arty slasher Soul (2013), turning it into a showcase for his acting talent—with hardly a change in facial expression, he’s able to summon up a whole range of emotions (sadness, paternal love, madness).

With a career spanning over five decades, he has acted in over 80 films, directed 12, and left an indelible mark on the history of martial-arts cinema.

An Evening with Jimmy Wong Yu 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).

Tickets will go on sale this Thursday, October 23rd. Admission is $25; $20 for students, seniors, and Film Society members. For more information visit www.filmlinc.com.

Schedule
5:30pm Reception - open to all ticket holders
7:00pm Master of the Flying Guillotine, preceded by Lifetime Achievement Award presentation and an on-stage conversation with Wong Yu

Master of the Flying Guillotine (Image courtesy-Pathfinder-Pictures)

MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE

aka THE ONE-ARMED BOXER VS. THE FLYING GUILLOTINE

1976, 93min, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles

Wong Yu writes, directs, and stars in this massively entertaining grindhouse masterpiece. A blind lama assassin employed by the Qing Emperor goes after the righteous “One-Armed Boxer” (Wong Yu). Intent on avenging his two disciples, whom Wong Yu killed, the imperial assassin packs his monk robes, his unbeatable flying guillotine, and soon he’s keeping the clashes coming, the blood flowing, and the heads rolling. His killer quest ends at a kung-fu tournament full of freaky martial artists who employ ponytail-strangling, yoga-magic-stretching, and kickboxing, but they’re no match for the killer lama and his one-armed foe! Featuring extravagant choreography by brothers Lau Kar-leung and Lau Kar-wing, Master of the Flying Guillotine set the ultimate template for martial-arts video games, and the fireworks of its final showdown (set in a booby-trapped coffin shop) have yet to be equaled.

Encore screening of HONG Sang-soo's HILL OF FREEDOM tomorrow

Kwon (Seo Young-hwa) and Mori (Ryo Kase)

Hill of Freedom /  Jayuui Eondeok

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

2014 South Korea, 2014, 66 minutes

Korean and English with English subtitles

When: Sunday, October 12 at 12:30 pm
Where: The Walter Reade Theater

Ticket Info

Hill of Freedom, the most recent film from Korean director Hong Sang-soo, had its U.S. premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival on Tuesday, September 30th and was also shown on Wednesday, October 8th, which was when I saw it. A third screening has been added as part of the NYFF52 Encore Screenings series. That screening will take place at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater.

With a 66 minute running time, the film is too short to qualify as a feature film (85 minutes or more), but too long to be a short (30 minutes or less). I'd be inclined to call it a featurette, but in our age of DVDs and Blu-rays, that term has come to refer to a short documentary film about the making of a feature-length film. And I don't think mini-film sounds right.

Youngsun (Moon So-ri), her boyfriend, and Mori

So, while I'm unsure how to technically characterize it in terms of its length, I will say it's a smart, well-made movie that departs from the kind of film for which Hong is typically known. Hong is frequently described as a director who makes the same film over and over, but with slight variations. Thus he can be regarded as a "one-trick pony," although this may or may not have a pejorative connotation, depending on the commentator's viewpoint. Most of his films rely heavily on repetition, of scenes and/or dialogue. What keeps his films interesting are the variations he employs.

Hill of Freedom for me was very different from the other films by Hong that I have seen, and I've seen a fair number of them. Here there really isn't much of the repetition for which he's known. In fact, the film is really a linear story -- no going back to visit the same scene from different perspectives -- although the elements of which it is comprised are not told in chronological order. (More on that in a moment.)

The film also employs the surprise of having the characters speak the vast majority of the dialogue in English. This device seems to have been used because one of the main characters is Japanese and doesn't speak any Korean, the language of all the other characters. English gives them a common language by which they can communicate.

Mori and his landlady

The story begins with Kwon (Seo Young-hwa), a young woman who has just returned to Seoul, being given a packet of letters left for her by Mori (Ryo Kase), a Japanese who fell in love with her during a previous visit and has returned after two years to see her again. The letters were written while Mori was trying to find her after he returned to Seoul.

While walking down a flight of stairs, Kwon drops the letters, destroying the order in which they were packaged. Since they apparently bear no dates, she can only read them in the random order in which she's picked them up. The film thus presents the various experiences Mori has had since his return in whatever order Kwon has arranged the letters. His experiences include his encounters with Youngsun (actress Moon So-ri) who works at the café whose name gives the film its title, as well as with the landlady of the guest house where he is staying and with other guests.

The viewer is thus left with the same challenge as Kwon: trying to figure out what happened when. Fortunately, this is a non-critical task; knowing the precise order of every event depicted is not crucial. It's sufficient to have a general sense of the order in which things probably took place.

I found Hill of Freedom to be one of the most enjoyable of the films by Hong that I've seen. And I've liked several of them a lot. It's funny, light-hearted and intriguing.

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

Hong Sang-soo's HILL OF FREEDOM to screen twice at NY Film Festival

Hill of Freedom /  Jayuui Eondeok

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

2014 South Korea, 2014, 66 minutes

Korean and English with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Showtimes

Tuesday, September 30 at 6:00 pm at the Walter Reade Theater

and

Wednesday, October 8 at 9:00 pm at the Howard Gilman Theater

Ticket Info

Kwon (Seo Young-hwa) returns to Seoul from a restorative stay in the mountains. She is given a packet of letters left by Mori (Ryo Kase), who has come back from Japan to propose to her. As she walks down a flight of stairs, Kwon drops and scatters the letters, all of which are undated. When she reads them, she has to make sense of the chronology… and so must we.

Hong Sang-soo’s daring new film, alternately funny and haunting, is a series of disordered scenes based on the letters, echoing the cultural dislocation felt by Mori as he tries to make himself understood in halting English.

At what point did he drink himself into a lonely stupor? Did he sleep with the waitress from the Hill of Freedom café (Moon So-ri) before or after he despaired of seeing Kwon again?

Sixteen films into a three-decade career, Hong has achieved a rare simplicity in his storytelling, allowing for an ever-increasing psychological richness and complexity.

These two screenings of Hill of Freedom are part of the NYFF52 Main Slate.

Korean documentary NON-FICTION DIARY to screen twice at NYFF52

Non-fiction Diary

Direc ted by JUNG Yoon-suk
South Korea, 2013, 93 minutes

Korean with English subtitles

Showtimes: Tuesday, September 30 at 6:00pm at the Francesca Beale Theater

and

Wednesday, October 1 at 3:00pm at the Howard Gilman Theater

Ticket Info

U.S. Premiere

Chronicling a history of violence and death from society’s lower depths to its corridors of power, Jung Yoon-suk’s gripping documentary is a quietly devastating indictment of pervasive injustice nested within the post–military dictatorship economic breakout of South Korea in the 1990s.

The film begins by recounting the case of the “Jijon Clan” (“Supreme Gangsters”), a group of youths from a backwoods province arrested in 1994 for committing a series of horrific murders, enacting a savage and warped form of class warfare in the face of growing social inequity. Jung provocatively compares and contrasts their case with two other notorious episodes of the era—the 1994 Seongsu Bridge disaster and the death of 502 people in the Sampoong Department Store collapse of 1995.

Resisting the temptation to sensationalize, this cool and methodical cinematic essay uses these ostensibly unrelated incidents to demonstrate that the punishments did not fit the crimes, and also to draw a series of uncomfortable conclusions about South Korean society.

These two screenings of Non-fiction Diary are part of the Spotlight on Documentary section of the 52nd New York Film Festival which runs September 26 – October 12, 2014.

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.

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.