If you're a New York cinephile then today is the day you basically will much of your summer away to the guys at Subway Cinema, as they've announced the full line up for the 2014 edition of NYAFF.
Chock full of new and rare Asian fare, many flicks are bowing with their North American debuts. Briefly of note: Nakata Hideo's Monsterz, a remake of NYAFF 2011 favorite Haunters, Kumakiri Kazuyoshi's My Man, which is based on a controversial best seller and stars Asano Tadanobu. Then there's a new thriller from Kurosawa Kiyosji, Seventh Code, Lee Joon-ik's family drama Hope, and Eternal Zero, one of Japan's biggest (and arguably most controversial) box office draws of all time. Meanwhile , Alan Mak and Felix Wong's Overheard 3 makes its international premiere as the opening night film.
NYAFF 2014 takes place across Manhattan (but mostly at the Walter Reade Theatre at FSLC) June 27 - July 14. Get the full lineup and schedule below:
New York, NY, May 30, 2014 - The Film Society of Lincoln Center and
Subway Cinema in association with Japan Society announce the full lineup today
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.
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.
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.
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 FILM
International
Premiere
OVERHEARD 3 (2014)
Country: Hong Kong
Directors: Alan Mak & Felix Chong
After tackling
insider trading and stock market manipulation, writers-directors Alan Mak and
Felix Chong--the minds behind Infernal
Affairs--turn to the real estate conspiracies in the Hong Kong New
Territories in the third and reportedly final installment of the hugely popular
Overheard series. Recently released
from prison, Jau (Louis Koo) leads an intricate plan to take down the Luk
Brothers, a group of bullies who rule the villages with an iron grip, and Uncle
To (Kenneth Tsang), the self-proclaimed godfather of the New Territories.
Featuring an all-star cast--including Mainland China's Zhou Xun--and a story
ripped from the headlines, Overheard 3
is an epic saga of loyalty and morality that Sergio Leone might have made had
he been working in Hong Kong.
Directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION
North American
Premiere
KANO (2014)
Country: Taiwan
Language: Japanese, Taiwanese, Hakka, and Taiwan Aboriginal with English
subtitles
Director: Umin Boya
The star of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale and
already an award-winning television director, Umin Boya, makes his feature-film
directorial debut with the true story of Kagi Agriculture and Forestry Public
School's baseball team. Known as the pioneers of Taiwanese baseball in the
1930s, this ragtag group of young players--made up of both Japanese and
Taiwanese students--went from holding a losing record to playing in the finals
of Japan's high-school baseball tournament in one year under the leadership of
their new Japanese coach (Nagase Masatoshi). A love letter to the sport of
baseball and imbued with the never-give-up spirit, this three-hour crowd-pleasing
sports epic is a triumph of Taiwan cinema and one of the highest-grossing local
films of all time.
Director Umin Boya will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.
CLOSING FILM
North American Premiere
MANSHIN: TEN THOUSAND SPIRITS
(2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Park Chan-kyong
Directed by visual
artist Park Chan-kyong (Day
Trip and Night Fishing, both co-directed with his brother Park
Chan-wook), Manshin is a cinematic
feast for the mind and the senses, a thought-provoking mystical journey into
the psyche of Korea and its modern history through a life story of Korea's most
famous living shaman, Kim Keum-hwa. Both the life 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 (Moon So-ri portrays Kim in the
1970s), and even animation and fantasy sequences. Featuring original music by
Korean indie band UhUhBoo Project (Night
Fishing), Manshin transports
viewers beyond the borders of past and present, South and North Korea, life and
afterlife, reality and fantasy. It is unlike any other film you'll see at NYAFF
this year.
Moon So-ri will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
North American
Premiere
3D NAKED AMBITION (2014)
Director: Lee Kung-lok
Country: Hong Kong
This hilarious sex comedy follows Chapman To (Vulgaria) as he leaves Hong Kong for Japan in hopes of becoming a
porn producer. The film feels like a throwback to some of the best Hong Kong
Cat III comedies, with tons of innuendo, a bit of social comedy and rapid-fire
wit, and fun (if a bit sticky) uses of 3-D.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
ABERDEEN (2014)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
A beautifully composed, imaginative,
and finely observed dramedy that examines relationships across three
generations of a Hong Kong family. Pang
Ho-cheung's magic-realist touch gives the story grace notes like whale
sightings, kaiju rampages, and
unexploded WWII bombs found in the center of downtown Hong Kong.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
U.S. Premiere
AIM HIGH IN CREATION! (2013)
Country: Australia
Director: Anna Broinowski
In this revolutionary comedy documentary about the
cinematic genius of North Korea's late Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, Anna Broinowski visits
North Korea with a goal to learn first hand how to make a propaganda
film, according to the rules of his 1987 Manifesto "The Cinema and Directing."
Director Anna
Broinowski will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of American Australian
Association's Dame Joan Sutherland Fund.
North American
Premiere
ALL-AROUND APPRAISER Q: THE
EYES OF MONA LISA (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Shinsuke Sato
In this adaptation of the popular eponymous mystery novel
by Keisuke Matsuoka, Paris provides the gorgeous backdrop for a grand intrigue
involving the world's most iconic artistic treasure: the Mona Lisa. Minds will be blown, puzzles will be solved, but will a
500-year-old curse be removed? From the director who gave you the blockbusters Gantz and Library Wars.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
New York Premiere
APOLITICAL ROMANCE (2012)
Country: Taiwan
Director: Hsieh Chun-yi
A China-Taiwan cross-cultural
rom-com with an excellent, unforced chemistry between its leads, Apolitical Romance follows Mainland girl
(Huang Lu) as she visits Taiwan and gets involved with a local guy (Bryan
Chang) who helps her track down her grandmother's first love from 60-odd years
ago.
Presented with
the support of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.
North American
Premiere
AS THE LIGHT GOES OUT (2014)
Country: Hong Kong/China
Director: Derek Kwok
Hong Kong stars Simon Yam, Shawn Yue, Nic Tse, and Hu Jun (Firestorm, Drug War) play a squad of firefighters trapped in a
testosterone-fueled soap opera. If you aren't wiping away Man Tears by the end
of this movie, then it's only because you're running out of the theater to file
your application to join the fire department.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
U.S. Premiere
AU REVOIR L'ÉTÉ (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Koji Fukada
A light comedy of manners played
out during 10 days in a seaside town, Au
revoir l'été is a nicely played Eric Rohmer-esque rondo of human behavior, with its teenage central character
Sakuko (a strikingly assured Fumi Nikaido) philosophically observing the small
hypocrisies and lies by the adults around her, as well as going through a small
learning experience of her own.
Fumi Nikaido will attend the screening.
North American
Premiere
BLIND MASSAGE (2014)
Country: China/France
Director: Lou Ye
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. By following the lives of the blind and partially sighted
masseurs and masseuses of Sha Zonqi Massage Centre in Nanjing, Lou creates a
true ensemble movie and a powerful ride through a parallel world of
metaphysical cinema.
THE CHINESE BOXER (1970)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Jimmy Wong Yu
When you talk about
movies that changed the world, The
Chinese Boxer unquestionably has to take its place among them. Jimmy Wang
Yu was already an established superstar in Hong Kong and Asia, but The Chinese Boxer, his first film as
director, wasn't just the first open-handed martial-arts film from Hong Kong to
become a worldwide blockbuster, but its influence on all martial-arts films
since, especially Bruce Lee's, cannot be understated.
Jimmy Wong Yu will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
New York Premiere
COLD EYES (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Choi Eui-seok
A splashy and gripping remake of Johnnie To's Hong Kong hit thriller Eye in the Sky (2007), which became a surprise box-office smash last
summer in Korea, Cold Eyes is anchored
by Sol Kyung-gu's performance as a rumpled middle-aged surveillance guru. Watch
for a cameo by Eye in the Sky star,
Simon Yam, right before the credits roll.
Sol Kyung-gu will attend the screening on July 7, and will be presented
with Star Asia Award.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
North American
Premiere
CONTROL (2013)
Country: Hong Kong/China/Taiwan
Director: Kenneth Bi
Writer-director Kenneth Bi (Rice Rhapsody, The Drummer) delivers his most ambitious movie to date, the
futuristic thriller Control, a big-budget, noirish mystery with
multiple twists, set in an unnamed Asian metropolis. The film follows an
insurance salesman, played by Daniel Wu, as he is coerced to commit criminal
acts by an unseen villain, who sends instructions over the phone and has
control of the city's surveillance cameras.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
THE DELINQUENT (1973)
Country: Hong Kong
Directors: Chan Cheh & Kuei Chih-Hung
In one of the most aggressively experimental action movies ever to come
out of Shaw Brothers, Wang Chung plays an angry young man sweating to death in
the grotty ghetto of modern-day Hong Kong, who gets recruited by a local gang.
Raw and feral.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
New York Premiere
THE DEVIL'S PATH (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Shiraishi Kazuya
An ambitious, brooding character study that intelligently tackles heavy
issues like press ethics, the nature and causes of crime, the throes of guilt,
the (im)possibility of redemption, and, at the deepest level, the banality of
evil, The Devil's Path is a slow burn
that shows the hellish torment of a guilty conscience as it chronicles the case
of a condemned yakuza played by actor-singer Pierre Taki.
Presented with Japan
Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
U.S. Premiere
THE ETERNAL ZERO (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Japan's biggest hit last year, and one of the 10 top-grossing Japanese
films of all time, The Eternal Zero will
no doubt provide the most extreme film experience of the NYAFF/Japan Cuts 2014
lineup. Infuriating in its ideological and political black holes as it is
exhilarating in its superb visual artistry and emotional intensity, it's a film
that will leave no one indifferent.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
THE FACE READER (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Han Jae-rim
The Face Reader,
which beat Iron Man 3 at the Korean
box office last year, is a lavish period drama with high-level cast at the top
of its game, witty dialogue, and a smooth mixture of low comedy and high drama.
The film spins on the contradictions between outward appearances and inner
feelings as it follows a professional physiognomist, hired to weed out corrupt
officials at Joseon dynasty court, who becomes entangled in a power struggle
for the throne.
Lee Jung-jae will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
New York Premiere
FIRESTORM 3D (2013)
Country: Hong Kong/China/Malaysia
Director: Alan Yuen
Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau plays Lui, a prissy police detective who's
getting his butt handed to him by flashy thief Nam (Hu Jun, Drug War and As the Light Goes Out), an insanely competent career criminal who
knocks over armored cars like dominos. What follows is an action movie turned
up to 11, in which everything goes to hell hard and fast and by the time the
end credits roll, pretty much everyone in Hong Kong has been murdered in an
epic shootout.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
New York Premiere
FROM VEGAS TO MACAU (2014)
Country: Hong Kong/China
Director: Wong Jing
A semi-sequel to God of Gamblers
(1989), one of the most iconic Hong Kong movies of all time, this flick is a
showcase for Chow Yun-fat, the Godzilla of Hong Kong movies: a massive megastar
who towers over the landscape. A charmer who oozes so much debonair sexiness
that he makes Don Draper look drab, Chow is firing on all cylinders in this
no-holds-barred gambling movie, directed by Wong Jing, who will do absolutely
anything to entertain an audience.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
North American
Premiere
FUKU-CHAN OF FUKUFUKU FLATS
(2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Yosuke Fujita
An irresistibly quirky comedy about
love, losers, loners, and life in a run-down apartment complex called FukuFuku
Flats, Fuku-chan offers laughs
aplenty, sweet and bitter, in the expert hands of helmer Yosuke Fujita (Fine, Totally Fine, winner of the 2008
Audience Award at NYAFF) and his lead actress, comedienne Miyuki Oshima (Gu Gu the Cat, The Handsome Suit, Miss
Kurosawa), who's cast here in the improbable role of a Japanese everyman
(sort of) rich in friends and poor in romance.
GOLDEN CHICKEN (2002)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Samson Chiu
Sandra Ng plays Kum, a hooker with a heart of gold and a brain of
bubblegum who takes us on a tour of Hong Kong history, as seen from the
bedroom. Kum started turning tricks in high school, then moved on to an upscale
nightclub where she overcame her lack of good looks by developing a
never-say-die personality. She goes independent, weathers Tiananmen Square, a
couple of financial crises, the 1997 handover, and everything else that life
throws at her, never losing hope that there will always be a better tomorrow.
Sandra Ng will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
North American
Premiere
GOLDEN CHICKENSSS (2014)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Matt Chow
This bawdy comedy, featuring veteran comedienne Sandra Ng as a mama-san with a calculator for a soul, is a celebration of Hong
Kong, and a real treat for the fans of HK cinema. Shambolic, reckless, and
defiantly un-PC, Golden Chickensss
celebrates hard work, hard weiners, big hearts, and big boobs. One of the most
loving, high-spirited movies about sex workers you'll ever see, the whole thing
even ends with the cast bursting into song for no good reason other than
they're having a blast.
Sandra Ng will attend the screening on June 27, and
will be presented with Star Asia Award.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
New York Premiere
THE GREAT PASSAGE (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Yuya Ishii
Cult arthouse director Yuya Ishii (Sawako Decides) has racked up all the
top honors at the Japan Academy Awards earlier this year with this deceptively
simple yet immensely captivating, existential comedy/drama about a charmingly
nerdy editor, Majime Mitsuya (Ryuhei Matsuda), who spends decades dutifully
writing and compiling definitions for a "living language" dictionary entitled The Great Passage.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
New York Premiere
HAN GONG-JU (2014)
Country: South Korea
Director: Lee Su-jin
This supremely beautiful social and
psychological drama follows a high-school girl, as she seeks anonymity and
escape from the horror of an unnamed past experience. Praised by Martin Scorsese,
who presented it with the Golden Star for Best Film at the Marrakech
International Film Festival last year, the feature debut from writer-director
Lee Su-jin is a devastating portrait of South Korea's blame culture, embedded
cronyism, and destructive family pressures.
Director Lee Su-jin will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of The Korea Society.
North American
Premiere
HOPE (2014)
Country: South Korea
Director: Lee Joon-ik
Inspired by a horrifying case of
child rape some five years ago in South Korea, Hope brings a fresh approach to a difficult subject matter, and by
focusing on the victim's recovery, ultimately delivers technically flawless
feel-good human drama, guided by the steady hand of producer-director Lee
Joon-ik (King and the Clown), and
anchored by veteran actors Sol Kyung-gu and Uhm Ji-won as the child's parents.
Sol Kyung-gu will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
IL MARE (2000)
Country: South Korea
Director: Lee Hyun-seung
Two enormous Korean stars (Lee Jung-jae and Jun Ji-hyun), a magical
time-portal mailbox, and a house by the lake were all mixed into the Korean
melodrama pot in 2000 and out came Il
Mare. The performances of the leads along with the brilliant production
design by Kim Ki-cheol and
beautiful cinematography by Alex Hong have since cemented this in the canon of
Korean romantic dramas.
Lee Jung-jae will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
KILLER CONSTABLE (aka KARATE
EXTERMINATORS) (1980)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Kuei Chih-hung
Shaw Brothers legend Chen Kuan-tai out-grims the Grim Reaper playing a
Qing Dynasty constable assigned by the Empress to track down a stolen shipment
of gold. Probably Kuei Chih-hung's masterpiece, Killer Constable is a classic martial-arts film, served bleaker and
angrier than ever before. Coming at the end of the new wuxia cycle that kicked off in 1967 with The One-Armed Swordsman, it is a movie in which everyone is exhausted
to the depths of their souls, every swordsman is a sadist, and every blade has
to be bathed in blood before it's put away.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
KILLERS ON WHEELS (aka MADBOYS
IN HONG KONG) (1976)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Kuei Chih-hung
Kuei Chih-hung loves his exploitation tropes, and with this movie he
gives the world his very own, very bloody take on the biker picture (known more
evocatively as Madboys in Hong Kong).
Motorcycles jump through houses! Stuntmen on fire get thrown off rooftops!
Boiling oil scorches faces! Biker gals strip naked! Spearguns will be used! By
the end of this movie, everyone under the age of 21 has been run over, pierced,
chopped, slashed, burned to death, or just bludgeoned into submission with a
big old hog.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN
VAMPIRES (1974)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Shaw Brothers wanted to rule the world in 1974, and stage one in their
plan for global domination was to team up with Hammer Studios, England's House
of Horror, and make a kung-fu vampire movie. Starring Peter Cushing as Van
Helsing the vampire hunter, and Shaw Brothers icon David Chiang as his Chinese
counterpart, this Saturday matinee horror hybrid was co-directed by Chang Cheh
(uncredited; The One-Armed Swordsman)
and Roy Ward Baker (Quatermass and the
Pit).
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
THE MAGIC BLADE (1976)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Chor Yuen
One of the finest wuxia films ever made (#85 on Time Out Hong Kong's list of the
Greatest Hong Kong Films of All Time), The
Magic Blade (adapted from Gu Long's celebrated novel) is a perfect mixture
of swordplay, fantasy, martial arts, heroic bloodshed (and we do mean
bloodshed), and more Ti Lung greatness that any moviegoer could ever ask for.
It remains one of the true classics of the entire Shaw Brothers library.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
New York Premiere
MARUYAMA, THE MIDDLE SCHOOLER
(2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Kankuro Kudo
The sole spine-cracking ambition in life of sex-crazed 14-year-old
Maruyama (Takuma Hiraoka) is to lick his own weenie. Described by acclaimed
actor/screenwriter/director Kankuro Kudo (writer of Ping Pong and Zebraman)
as a "self-fellatio" comedy, Maruyama
is actually a deeply moving coming-of-age story, an exploration of the
liberating possibilities of the human imagination, and a study of what it means
to live with other people.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American
Premiere
MAY WE CHAT (2013)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Philip Yung
A teen slice-of-life drama that suddenly transforms into a gangland
noir, it's a modern-day version of the kind of hard-hitting juvenile-delinquent
drama that Hong Kong used to be the master of, only updated to the 2.0 version.
The film is anchored and elevated by three electric performances from three
first-time actresses: there's Rainky Wai as deaf-mute Chiu (who earns cash with "compensated dating"), Kabby Hui
as shallow rich girl Li, and Heidi Lee as Wai-wai (who's dealing with a junkie mom).
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
New York Premiere
MISS ZOMBIE (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Sabu
Carefully blending horror tropes
and thriller elements into a formally restrained, razor-sharp social satire
that lovingly melds the humdrum and the deranged, Sabu's Miss Zombie is a movie so dense it could bend light. Set in a
futuristic Japan where zombies are domesticated as house pets and servants,
it's a work of compact beauty, predominantly monochrome and largely free of
dialogue.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
New York Premiere
MOEBIUS (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Kim Ki-duk
A playfully twisted black comedy with no dialogue, Moebius is an everyday tale of penectomy, rape, sadomasochistic
sex, and incestuous love. It continues
maverick writer-director Kim Ki-duk's journey into the madness of the Korean
soul--though in a much more in-your-face way than last year's Pietà. It is a quintessentially Kim
Ki-duk movie in its risk-taking and outsider feel, and could have been made by
no other filmmaker currently working in the country.
Presented with
the support of The Korea Society.
U.S. Premiere
THE MOLE SONG: UNDERCOVER
AGENT REIJI (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Takashi Miike
Japan's most prolific and most popular gonzo director Takashi Miike
offers two irresistibly frantic hours of undiluted insanity. An out-and-out
balls-to-the-wall cops vs. yazuka farce, based on a popular manga series about
a cop infiltrating a powerful yakuza clan, the film leaves respectability,
restraint, and decency at the door. The
Mole Song is a monument erected to pop madness and perhaps, in more ways
than one, an apotheosis of post-cinema cinema.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American
Premiere
MONSTERZ (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Hideo Nakata
Japanese horror master Hideo Nakata (Ring
and Dark Water) returns with the remake
of the 2010 South Korean film Haunters
(NYAFF 2011 selection, directed by Kim Min-seok), a somber paranormal thriller
that offers an original, exciting variation of the tale of two men with
supernatural abilities, locked in a duel to the death.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
MR. VAMPIRE (1985)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Ricky Lau
Bouncing through the moonlight like demented, bloodthirsty pogo sticks,
hopping vampires are one of Hong Kong cinema's most absurd and unique sights,
and this is the movie that launched the craze that spawned hundreds of films.
An avalanche of Canto comedy, genuine horror, and slam-bang stunts, this is
probably the movie people are talking about when they say how awesome and
insane Hong Kong cinema is.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Fortune Star.
North American
Premiere
MY MAN (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
A poignant, powerful, erotic drama about an adolescent
girl (Fumi Nikaido) who is raised by her distant relative (Tadanobu Asano)
after she loses her family in a tsunami. Based on Kazuki Sakuraba's controversial best seller, and directed by
the award-winning Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Sketches
of Kaitan City), My Man is the
quietly disturbing tale of two lost souls, fatefully brought together by a natural disaster,
in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of the Japanese archipelago.
Fumi Nikaido will attend the screening and will be presented with the
Screen International Rising Star Award.
NEW WORLD (2013)
Country: Korea
Director: Park Hoon-jung
Park Hoon-jung took what could have been another run-of-the-mill Korean
gangster film and turned it into an absolutely fascinating, harrowing, and
dizzying look at the power structures and politics of a criminal organization, anchored by phenomenal
performances by Lee Jung-jae, Hwang Jeong-min, and Choi Min-sik.
Lee Jung-jae will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
North American
Premiere
NO MAN'S LAND (2009)
Country: China
Director: Ning Hao
One part The Road Warrior and
one part The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
this spaghetti Western via the Coen Brothers is a black comedy of errors from
the director who brought us festival favorite Crazy Racer a couple of years ago. A savage, cynical satire, the
film is a savvy indictment of the dog-eat-dog capitalism that's currently
eating China (and America) alive.
THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Chang Cheh
The movie that changed everything. Chang Cheh's breakthrough film, with
action by the legendary Lau Kar-leung (Drunken
Master II) and Tong Kai and starring Jimmy Wang Yu, a man who can convey an
entire encyclopedia's worth of badassery with one glower, The One-Armed Swordsman still has the power to kick over the
establishment and drop a blade right through its skull.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
THE PINKIE (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Lisa Takeba
Ryosuke is drifting through life, but when he seduces a yakuza's
mistress, the gangsters rough him up and chop off his pinkie. It comes into the
possession of Momoko, a girl who has been stalking him. She gets herself a
cloning kit and grows her own Ryosuke-clone. Winner of the Grand Prix at the
24th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, Lisa Takeba's debut feature
is a hyper-imaginative crazytown sci-fi drama that's flashy, funky, and filled
to the brim with genre influences of all kinds.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
PORTLAND STREET BLUES (1998)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Yip Wai Man
Hong Kong's mighty Young &
Dangerous film series about young gangsters were huge hits that spawned
numerous sequels and spin-off films, the best of which is this one, a
stand-alone flick about Sister 13 (Sandra Ng), a lesbian pimp who sports a
spiky 'do and boss suits. Shot in the streets at a breakneck pace, it's a gutsy
entertainer about the fluidity of sexuality, gangster feminism, and hardcore
street fighting.
Sandra Ng will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
PUBLIC ENEMY (2002)
Country: South Korea
Director: Kang Woo-suk
In one of his career-defining
roles, Sol Kyung-gu is fantastic as a corrupt detective relentlessly pursuing
a murderer
(Lee Sung-jae). In addition to all of the graphic violence are equally
graphic jokes, and the audience comes away with one of the grittiest social
satires to come out of Korea. Both characters are the titular "public enemy," and
the dedicated performances by the two lead actors carry this fiercely
intelligent, darkly funny, and well-crafted film into classic territory.
Sol Kyung-gu will attend the screening.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
Manhattan Premiere
R100 (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Hitoshi Matsumoto is Japan's most famous comedian, but even if you've
seen his absurdist movies like Big Man
Japan and Symbol you'll barely be
prepared for the bizarro S&M antics of this straight-faced send-up of every
single genre in Japanese cinema. This is one of the funniest movies of the
year, with something profound to say about the pursuit of pleasure, girl gangs,
dominatrix armies, and total bondage warfare.
RIGOR MORTIS (2013)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Juno Mak
A spiritual sequel to Mr. Vampire,
this moody flick is a gothic reinvention of Hong Kong's classic hopping-vampire
movies that turbo-charges the tired old formula with modern filmmaking chops.
Crammed with a gallery of old-school greats, from Shaw Brothers vet Kara Hui,
to famed Eighties comedian Richard Ng, this cast is a blast from Hong Kong's
creepy old past.
Presented with the
support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
North American
Premiere
ROUGH PLAY (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Shin Yeon-shick
Rough. Raw. Real. From the Kim Ki-duk school of filmmaking comes this
hard-edged drama about the pains of being an actor, featuring Korean heartthrob
Lee Joon in a breakthrough role. Lee is absolutely captivating in a performance
all about the destruction that narcissism and rampant ego can bring. A darker
than dark take on the Korean film industry, Rough
Play rails against the apathy of a business wholly concerned with
appearance and that gives no long-term thought to the future.
Director Shin Yeon-shick will attend the screening.
Presented with
the support of the Korea Society.
SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983)
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Chuan Yang
In this outrageous
exploitation horror film from Shaw Brothers, a taxi driver enlists the help of
a sorcerer to avenge the brutal murder of his wife. If
you've got any personal rules about not watching movies featuring necrophilia,
worm eating, or mutant births, then you should probably stay home. If you want
to see tentacled hell beasts issuing from poisoned wombs and chowing down on
yuppies, then you should definitely come on down.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York and Celestial
Pictures.
North American
Premiere
SEVENTH CODE (2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Putting aside his J-horror
roots after the Cannes award-winning Tokyo
Sonata (2008) and the widely praised TV serial/movie Penance (2012), Kurosawa offers a surprising, radical break from an
already broad oeuvre with this freewheeling fast-track thriller full of twists
and turns. The film follows a kooky, pretty girl (Atsuko Maeda, a hugely
popular idol/singer in Japan) as she wanders the mean streets of bleak,
post-Soviet Vladivostok. Preceded by
Kurosawa's 29-minute Beautiful New Bay Area Project.
North American
Premiere
SILENT WITNESS (2013)
Country: China
Director: Fei Xing
This superbly crafted crime/courtroom
procedural follows the trial of a millionaire's daughter for the murder of her
future stepmother. With a script that doesn't ever loosen its grip, a big-name
cast at the top of its game, and an atmospheric production package that's all
in service of the drama, Silent Witness
is mesmerizing entertainment, and a game-changer in Mainland genre cinema.
Director Fei Xing will attend the
screening.
U.S. Premiere
THE SNOW WHITE MURDER CASE (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Powered by a complicated Chinese
puzzle box of a murder plot, The Snow
White Murder Case was helmed by the director of Fish Story and Golden
Slumbers (both NYAFF/Japan Cuts favorites), and it's one of the best brainteasers
of the year. Based on a novel by best-selling author Kanae Minato (who wrote Confessions), the film dissects the odd
goings-on behind the grim discovery of a burned-to-the-crisp corpse found in a
national park near Tokyo.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
New York Premiere
SOUL (2013)
Country: Taiwan
Director: Chung Mong-hong
Taiwan's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Oscars
is a dark, art-house slasher-psychodrama set in the backwoods of Taiwan, starring
legendary actor Jimmy Wong Yu.
Jimmy Wong Yu will attend the screening on July 5, and will be presented
with the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award.
Presented with
the support of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.
THE TERROR LIVE (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Kim Byeong-woo
Unfolding in real time, and set mostly in the claustrophobic radio
studio, this film is a showcase for Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, Nameless Gangster),
who plays a call-in-show host who manipulates, bullies, cajoles, cowers, lies,
and unleashes righteous anger as he goes up against an unseen terrorist who
threatens to blow up a bridge on the Han River.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
North American
Premiere
TOP STAR (2013)
Country: South Korea
Director: Park Joong-hoon
The directorial debut of veteran actor Park Joong-hoon (Nowhere to Hide, Two Cops) is a perfect study of the ephemeral nature of fame and
success, set in the cutthroat world that is the Korean film industry. Park
relies on his 28 years of acting experience working on films with major Korean
directors to confidently deliver a stylish and compelling tale of the rise,
fall, and redemption of an actor.
Director Park Joong-hoon will attend the screening on June 28, and will
be presented with The Celebrity Award.
Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in
New York.
North American
Premiere
UZUMASA LIMELIGHT (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Ken Ochiai
A moving, nostalgic portrait of the men behind the golden age of chanbara (sword-fighting dramas and
films) that goes behind the scenes of the distinctive film genre for which
Japan is most famous, with dominant performance by real-life kirare-yaku Seizo Fukumoto.
Director Ken Ochiai, Chihiro Yamamoto, and Seizo Fukumoto will attend
the screening.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American
Premiere
THE WHITE STORM (2013)
Country: Hong Kong/China
One part Reefer Madness, one
part John Woo-level action bromance (with Louis Koo, Nick Cheung, and Sean Lau
in the leads), The White Storm is an
all-you-can eat buffet that piles its plate high with gunfights, male bonding,
car crashes, snappy action, super melodrama, handsome cops, and intense style.
Presented with
the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
Manhattan Premiere
WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL?
(2013)
Country: Japan
Director: Sion Sono
A delirious back-to-bloody-basics film that pays tribute to old-school
yakuza cinema and low-budget amateur filmmaking, Why Don't You Play in Hell is based on a screenplay bad-boy
director Sion Sono (a NYAFF/Japan Cuts guest in 2009) wrote 17 years ago. The
director himself describes it as "an action film about the love of 35mm."
Fumi Nikaido will attend the screening.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American
Premiere
WOOD JOB! (2014)
Country: Japan
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi
The new film from the director of Water
Boys is based on Miura Shion's bestseller, a bittersweet coming-of-age
novel dealing with forestry (the "wood job" of the title... nothing dirty here!),
and has earned praised from Studio Ghibli's very own Hayao Miyazaki.
Presented with
Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
New York Premiere
ZONE PRO SITE: THE MOVEABLE
FEAST (2013)
Country: Taiwan
Director: Chen Yu-hsun
Failed actress Chan runs away to her hometown trying to stay a step
ahead of debt collectors. While there, she discovers that the only way to raise
the cash she needs is to start catering out of her stepmother's
hole-in-the-wall restaurant. As colorful as a bowl full of hard candies, Zone Pro Site is a delightful foodie comedy feast that will have
you gnawing on the stuffing from your seat cushion in hunger.
Presented with
the support of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.
NYAFF
2014 Full Schedule
Film Society of Lincoln
Center's Walter Reade Theater
Fri, June 27
5:00 OVERHEARD 3 (111) + guest appearance
8:30 GOLDEN CHICKENSSS (102) + guest appearance (Star Asia Award
presentation)
11:30 SEEDING OF A GHOST (90)
Sat, June 28
12:30 GOLDEN CHICKEN (106) + guest appearance
3:15 PORTLAND STREET BLUES (120) + guest appearance
6:15 TOP STAR (107) + guest appearance (The Celebrity Award
presentation)
9:15 3D NAKED AMBITION (120)
Sun, June 29
12:30 AS THE LIGHT GOES OUT (116)
2:50 THE WHITE STORM (137)
5:35 KANO (185) + guest appearance
9:30 BEAUTIFUL NEW BAY
AREA PROJECT (29) + SEVENTH CODE (60)
Mon, June 30
3:30 TOP STAR (107)
6:00 HAN GONG-JU (112) + guest appearance
8:45 BLIND MASSAGE (117)
Tue, July 1
4:00 GOLDEN CHICKENSSS (102)
6:30 ROUGH PLAY (98) + guest appearance
9:15 NO MAN'S LAND (115)
Wed, July 2
2:30 BLIND MASSAGE (117)
5:00 MAY WE CHAT (100)
7:15 R100 (98)
9:30 MOEBIUS (88)
Thu, July 3
3:30 ROUGH PLAY (98) + guest appearance
6:00 FUKU-CHAN OF FUKUFUKU FLATS (110)
8:30 THE ETERNAL ZERO (144)
Fri, July 4
2:00 MR. VAMPIRE (96) + RIGOR MORTIS (101) double feature
6:00 FROM VEGAS TO MACAU (93)
8:00 KILLERS ON WHEELS (MADBOYS IN HONG KONG) (95)
10:00 THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (83)
Sat, July 5
1:00 ZONE PRO SITE: THE MOVEABLE FEAST (145)
4:00 THE TERROR LIVE (97)
6:15 THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (111) + guest appearance
9:15 SOUL (112) + guest appearance (Lifetime Achievement Award
presentation)
Sun, July 6
1:00 MONSTERZ (111)
3:30 THE CHINESE BOXER (86) + guest appearance
6:00 NEW WORLD (134) + guest appearance
9:15 SILENT WITNESS (118) + guest appearance
Mon, July 7
2:00 PUBLIC ENEMY (135)
5:15 THE FACE READER (139) + guest appearance
8:45 COLD EYES (118) + guest appearance (Star Asia Award presentation)
Tue, July 8
1:00 THE TERROR LIVE (97)
3:30 IL MARE (95) + guest appearance
6:00 HOPE (123) + guest appearance
9:00 AU REVOIR L'ÉTÉ (125) + guest appearance
Wed, July 9
1:00 SOUL (112)
3:30 MISS ZOMBIE (85)
6:00 MY MAN (128) + guest appearance (Screen International Rising Star
Award presentation)
9:15 FIRESTORM 3D (109)
Thu, July 10
1:00 COLD EYES (118)
3:30 ABERDEEN (98)
5:40 CONTROL (92)
8:15 AIM HIGH IN CREATION! (97) + guest appearance
Japan Society
Thu, July 10
6:00 THE MOLE SONG: UNDERCOVER AGENT REIJI (130)
8:30 WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL? (119) + guest appearance
Fri, July 11
6:00 THE SNOW WHITE MURDER CASE (126)
8:30 MARUYAMA, THE
MIDDLE SCHOOLER (120)
Sat, July 12
12:30 THE GREAT PASSAGE (134)
3:00 THE ETERNAL ZERO (144)
6:00 THE DEVIL'S PATH
(128)
8:30 MISS ZOMBIE (85)
10:30 THE PINKIE (65)
Sun, July 13
12:30 WOOD JOB! (116)
3:00 MONSTERZ (111)
5:30 ALL-AROUND APPRAISER Q: THE EYES OF MONA LISA (119)
8:00 UZUMASA LIMELIGHT (103) + guest appearance
Asia Society
Fri, July 11
6:30 KOREAN SHORT FILM MADNESS (120)
Sun, July 13
3:00 THE DELINQUENT (96)
5:10 KILLER CONSTABLE (KARATE EXTERMINATORS) (98)
7:20 APOLITICAL ROMANCE (88)
Mon, July 14
6:00 THE MAGIC BLADE (97)
8:05 MANSHIN: TEN THOUSAND SPIRITS (105) + guest appearance