Posted on 07.10.12 by David @ 12:35 pm
  [Asura screens at the Japan Society on July 12.] For today, CSB is focusing on unconventional animation. A full screening schedule for NYAFF 2012 can be found here. A full screening schedule for Japan Cuts 2012 can be found here. Asura
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Studios: Toei and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2012 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2012 Comments: None |
Asura begins in an apocalyptic vein, with the poor struggling to survive in a famine and warfare-ridden medieval landscape. Befittingly, it is a Toei film - no other studio’s bumper evokes disaster like Toei’s crashing waves. This introduction is perfect for such a dark film – a grim fable about a child born out of fire, starvation and murder who kills other humans for food.|
Posted on 07.09.12 by David @ 10:01 am
[Guns and Roses screens on July 10 at Lincoln Center] For today, CSB is focusing on period pieces. A full screening schedule for NYAFF 2012 can be found here. A full screening schedule for Japan Cuts 2012 can be found here. Guns and Roses
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Movie Reviews: China and People: Huang Bo and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2012 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2012 and People: Ning Hao Comments: None |
After a soul-crushing experience with the Chinese censorship board’s rejection of his three-years-in-the-making magnum opus, No Man’s Land (still in limbo), director Ning Hao has returned with a cathartic dark comedy, reportedly named after his favorite band. The twisty plot pits Chinese revolutionaries against Japanese troops in the 1930s puppet state of Manchuria (Manchukuo at the time). Entangled in the mess is protagonist Xiao Dongbei (rubber-faced Jiayin Lei), a thief and reluctant rebel who is only after the money, Spaghetti Western style. |
Posted on 06.28.12 by David @ 6:23 pm
The best time of year for Asian film is here again with Subway Cinema’s New York Asian Film Festival and the Japan Society’s Japan Cuts series bringing all the kung fu madness, elaborate period pieces, bizarro sex comedies, trippy freak-outs and other greatness viewers have come to expect. Per usual, the lineup is heavy on China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, but Taiwan makes a strong showing this year, along with films from Thailand, Malaysia and a documentary about Cambodian cinema. Special guests this year include old school martial arts director Chung Chang-Wha, kung fu superstar and noted crack squirrel Donnie Yen, mercurial Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho-cheung, along with two of the best actors working on either side of the Pacific, Choi Min-Sik and Koji Yakusho, and an assortment of younger luminaries. Also on display are new films from Yoshihiro Nakamura (Fish Story), Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl), Ning Hao (Crazy Racer), Toshiaki Toyoda (Nine Souls), Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer), Kim Ji-Woon (Tale of Two Sisters), Chen Kaige (Farewell, My Concubine), Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on), Ann Hui (The Way We Are), and Hitoshi Matsumoto (Big Man Japan). For today, CSB is focusing on the NYAFF’s opening weekend. Additional reports will follow. A full screening schedule for NYAFF 2012 can be found here. A full screening schedule for Japan Cuts 2012 can be found here. Nameless Gangster
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Studios: Shaw Brothers and People: Cecilia Cheung and People: Choi Min-shik and Movie Reviews: Taiwan and People: Lo Lieh and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Studios: Shochiku and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2012 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2012 Comments: None |
The highlight of the festival for me so far (though it is early yet), Nameless Gangster is an unusual rise-and-fall epic that wears its influences on its sleeve yet manages to be completely unique. Choi Min-sik once again proves himself the perfect chameleon, owning his role as Choi Ik-Hyun (practically everyone in the movie is named Choi), a sleazy, middle-aged former customs official who browbeats and whines his way to top of the criminal power structure in Pusan. |
Posted on 07.18.11 by David @ 9:08 am
NYAFF 2011 may be over, but coverage continues. Look for my interview with Su Chao-Pin later this week, but today we have reviews of two big-budget, Chinese-language action films and two very unconventional Korean romances. Meanwhile, get over to the Japan Society – there is still a lot to see at the Japan Cuts festival. Reign of Assassins
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: South Korea and People: Michelle Yeoh and People: Andy Lau and People: Nicholas Tse and People: Jackie Chan and Movie Reviews: Taiwan and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 Comments: None |
Reign of Assassins is one of the best wu xia films of the past few years, marrying old school pleasures with comic book aesthetics and inventive action instead of relying on the grim seriousness mandated by the Hero model. Characterization is often a weak point in the genre but director Su makes it a strength, casting a combination of reliable warhorses and talented new faces who imbue even minor parts with dignity and depth. Particularly fine is Michelle Yeoh, in one of her best leading roles (even though she shares her character with Kelly Lin in the beginning of the film) as a deadly assassin turned small town romantic. Yeoh gets to mix domestic comedy into her usual repertoire of steely determination and fatal strikes, and carries the film with her charm and charisma. Shawn Yue, Barbie Hsu, and Wang Xueqi also shine in supporting roles as her assassins’ guild colleagues, with Hsu breaking out as Turquoise, a venomous ball of minx-like cunning and seduction.|
Posted on 07.05.11 by David @ 12:07 pm
For today, CSB is focusing on the NYAFF’s sidebar “Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers,” with reviews of The Chaser, The Man from Nowhere, Troubleshooter, The Unjust and Bedevilled. A full screening schedule can be found here. As part of the series, the NYAFF will also be screening Na Hong-jin’s latest The Yellow Sea, which we have not screened yet, but plan to cover later, and Ryoo Seung-Wan’s 2006 slugfest City of Violence. The Chaser
Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and People: Ryoo Seung-wan and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2011 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2011 Comments: 2 Comments |
Na Hong-Jin’s The Chaser revitalized a moribund Korean film industry in 2008 and it is easy to see why. This low budget thriller is extraordinarily well-crafted, with a number of genuinely tense, nail-biting sequences that are enhanced by a constantly reinforced perception that the events will not necessarily go in the expected direction. Na eases into the narrative obliquely, hinting at horrors to come while establishing a unique protagonist - surly Kim Yun-Seok as a corrupt ex-cop turned pimp. When Kim and his stable come into contact with misogynistic serial killer – played effectively and creepily by Ha Jung-Woo – The Chaser becomes a thriller of frustration as numerous coincidences both aid and hinder Kim in his hunt for resourceful call girl Mi-Jin (Seo Young-Hee), and the action plays out almost in real time. While evoking everything from the grisly shocks of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to classic Hitchcockian suspense, The Chaser maintains its own distinctive style and is easily one of my favorite Korean films of the past decade. [For Charlie’s take on The Chaser from Cannes 2008, click |
Posted on 06.25.10 by David @ 4:57 pm
 The NYAFF is upon us again! I’ve been following Subway Cinema since back when they used to hold the occasional Old School Kung Fu fest at the Anthology and Village Cinema downtown through the fancier digs at IFC, but I never thought I’d see the day when the New York Asian Film Festival invaded the hallowed halls of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. Truly high culture has been overthrown. Of course, I’ve had the opportunity to watch both Ichi the Killer and Raw Meat at Lincoln Center, so perhaps the dichotomy was never so clear. But on with the show. As usual, the Subway gang has picked some doozies, some whoppers, and some head-scratchers (in both the good and bad sense). I wanted to pattern my festival reports after the Korean blockbuster from last year, The Good, The Bad and the Weird, but frankly, with very few exceptions, there aren’t any flat-out bad films in the pack. So as an alternative, I’ll be breaking things down into The Good, the Not-Quite-So-Good, and The Weird. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Film Festivals: News and People: Takashi Miike and People: Sammo Hung and People: Simon Yam and People: Lo Meng (5 Venoms) and People: Tony Leung Ka-Fai and People: Chen Kuan-tai and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2010 and People: Huang Bo and People: Hitoshi Matsumoto Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.24.09 by Administrator @ 9:06 am
 Crush and Blush CRUSH AND BLUSH PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 24 AT 9:15 PM AND ON JUNE 25 AT 5:00 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 Koreans filmmakers have proven themselves to be masters of the losers-in-love comedy in films like The Foul King and Please Teach Me English. In Crush and Blush, director Lee Kyeong-Mi and actress Kong Hyo-Jin add to the tradition with a sharply edited, wickedly funny story about a social outcast who never got over her crush on her teacher and is willing to go to absurd efforts to secure his attentions. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Contributors: David and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.22.09 by David @ 10:51 am
Rough Cut ROUGH CUT PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 23 AT 9:30 PM AND ON JUNE 24 AT 6:30 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 I am tempted to dismiss Rough Cut as just another Korean gangster film, filled with “cooler-than-thou” characters who engage in brutal fisticuffs every ten minutes or so, like so many of its predecessors. In many ways it is just that. However, Rough Cut has a little more on its mind, mingling the worlds of filmmaking and organized crime, and playing with notions of artifice and reality in interesting ways. Rough Cut blurs the distinction between truth and fiction from the get-go, setting its story during the filming of (what else?) a gangster film. The lead actor, Su Tae (Kang Ji-Hwan), is obsessed with “keeping it real.” His tough-guy posturing and desire to fight for real eventually lead to injured co-stars and problems on the set of the film-within-a-film - a gangster opus in which he and a rival compete over the same girl (played in the film by “actress” Kang Mi-Na, in turn played by real actress Hong Su-Hyeon). Fiction becomes a form of truth when Su Tae persuades gangster and former wannabe actor Gang-Pae (So Ji-Seob) to join the film on the condition that they do everything “for real.” Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Contributors: David and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.21.09 by David @ 2:14 pm
Tactical Unit: Comrades In Arms TACTICAL UNIT: COMRADES IN ARMS PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 22 AT 5:20 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 PTU, with its understated cool and Rube Goldberg-esque plotting was one of Johnny To’s masterpieces and one of my favorite films of the 2000s. When I spoke to To in 2007 (see here), he was gearing up to produce a series of television features through his Milkyway production company under the “Tactical Unit” banner, using the same actors and characters. So far five of these films have been shot, some on video and some on film, some achieving theatrical release and some not. I have not had a chance to see the others yet (though I intend to), but Comrades in Arms, while no masterpiece, is great fun in the classic Milkyway tradition and a worthy successor to PTU. Filed under: General and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: South Korea and People: Simon Yam and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.26.08 by Charlie @ 3:14 am
 The Rebel  Vietnam muscles its way onto the martial arts scene with this Ong Bak-inspired action flick, starring Johnny Nguyen of Tom Yum Goong fame. As much as we love the Thai kickboxing films, The Rebel raises the bar somewhat by having an actual plot. Nguyen stars as a government official during 1920s Vietnam, when the country was under French colonial rule. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Movie Reviews: Vietnam Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.20.08 by Charlie @ 9:15 pm
 The Chaser Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)  South Korean thriller The Chaser is fascinatingly ambiguous. The lead is Jung Ho, a former detective played by Yoon-Suk Kim, who over the years has given in to cynicism, trading in his badge for a higher-paying living as a low-life pimp, though it has clearly not made him a happy man, or rich for that matter. In fact he’s broke, in part because he put large down payments on several new prostitutes who disappeared before they’d cleared their (and his) debts. He had assumed they’d simply run off. But, as the film starts, another girl has gone missing, Mi-Jin, and now he’s having second thoughts because he realizes that all of the missing girls were contacted by someone at the same telephone number. This sets the star scrambling to find out what’s happened, and I can tell you right now the results are going to be violent and bleak. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: Charlie and Rating: Good ★★★ and Film Festivals: Cannes Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 07.02.07 by David @ 9:53 am
 Part 8 of our report on the always-outstanding 2007 Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival, which runs until July 8 (schedule here): The Show Must Go On In The Show Must Go On, Song Kang-ho, possibly the most enjoyable Korean film actor today, plays a middle-aged, middle-management gangster named In-gu. The set-up finds In-gu caught between the escalating demands of his wife and daughter, and his increasingly hazardous racketeering activities, including a stupendous brawl between construction workers and mobsters, and a semi-comical botched assassination attempt in a convenience store. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Korean gangster movies like A Bittersweet Life, The Show Must Go On, and Cruel Winter Blues, it’s that Korean gangsters, like Shakespearean characters, can get a lot done even after receiving massive puncture wounds.  Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Movie News: South Korea and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Contributors: Jeff and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 06.25.07 by David @ 9:28 am
Part 5 of our report on the always-outstanding 2007 Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival, which runs until July 8 (schedule here): Retribution  Retribution is an unusually straightforward horror film from the noted arthouse horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. While Kurosawa’s other films range from the terrifying (Kairo) to the outright goofy (Loft - see our review here, Guard from the Underground), almost of them contain inscrutable elements that defy rational explanation. Not so Retribution, which features Kurosawa’s frequent leading man Koji Yakusho (Cure, Doppelganger) as a cop investigating a series of drownings that he may have committed himself while in a trance-like state. Forensic evidence and Yakusho’s dreams both lead our protagonist to encounter a malevolent spirit who has a number of surprises in store for our protagonist and the audience. Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Contributors: David and Movie News: South Korea and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Film Festivals: News and People: Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Contributors: Jeff and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.23.07 by David @ 11:00 pm
Part 4 of our report on the always outstanding 2007 Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival, which runs until July 8 (schedule here): Freesia: Bullets Over Tears Director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri makes a specialty out of crafting the bleakest possible scenarios. Kichiku was positively brutal, and 2004’s Antenna saw Ryo Kase chewing into his own arm during dominatrix therapy for childhood traumas. Now, in Freesia, we are given characters whose emotions and sensations literally have been frosted out of them. Freesia takes place in a future Japan – not quite post-apocalyptic, but certainly well on its way. The country is militarized, and vendetta – revenge killings – against criminals have been legalized. Tetsuji Tamayama plays Kano, a mild-mannered apparatchik hitman whose feelings accidentally were destroyed in a military test of a weapon designed to freeze enemy combatants. He takes his assignments from Higuchi (Tsugumi), a similarly crippled woman who eventually manipulates her position to gain her own vengeance against those responsible for the bomb.  Superficially, Freesia is one of Kumakiri’s most commercial films, based as it is on a manga and containing sci-fi and violence elements. However, Freesia is far too cold-blooded to aspire to the popcorn film status that a plot description might indicate. The legalized killings serve a secondary purpose in the plot – as in Robert Sheckley’s The Tenth Victim (though with a far different tone), we do not openly explore the origin or morality of the hunt, but rather the minds of the players. Kumakiri is far more interested in exploring the scars on his protagonists’ psyches. Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Contributors: David and Movie News: South Korea and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Film Festivals: News and People: Park Chan-wook and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 06.18.07 by David @ 12:01 am
The 2007 Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival starts this weekend, on June 22, and we couldn’t be more excited. Here is the first of our reports on the films that will be showing over the next few weeks. Check back here for your guide to the good, the bad-ass, and the ugly: Exiled  Johnnie To’s Exiled is a true throwback to the glory days of heroic bloodshed, as well as a tribute to the spaghetti western, done Hong Kong-style. Check out my full review of Exiled from back in October here. Aachi & Ssipak  Aachi & Ssipak is a gleefully filthy little bit of pop trash that owes more than a little spiritual debt to Ralph Bakshi. The plot is entirely disreputable, concerning two pea-brained hoodlums who live in a world entirely powered by poop. Those who, ahem, produce (as calculated by implanted anal id tags) are rewarded with narcotic “Juicy Bars,” whose morphogenic effects lead to the ravages of the Diaper Gang, an army of impotent, constipated, murderous Smurfs. Our heroes stumble into trouble when they rescue “Beauty,” a porn star into whom the Diaper Gang has implanted their useless ids in an effort to create a Juicy Bar jackpot. Opposing the gang, though not necessarily on the side of Aachi and Ssipak, are the uptight government forces headed by Geko, an android killing machine on a phallic motorcycle. I guarantee Freud would have loved this thing. Filed under: Movie News and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Film Festivals: News and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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