Hey Everyone,
Subway Cinema has released the next set of lineups for the New York Asian Film Festival over on their website. Today’s list includes the Korean, Indonesian, and Thai films that will be shown at the festival. There are some really cool films so read the plot summaries and check out the trailers embedded in the press release after the jump.
NYAFF 2010: The Korean Line-Up (and more)
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Korean Line-Up is Go!
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ACTRESSES (2009, New York Premiere) – six of Korea’s biggest actresses play cockeyed versions of themselves in this real-time chronicle of a Vogue photo shoot gone wrong. Endlessly self-referential, it speaks the international language of celebrity and looks like the kind of project Andy Warhol would have come up with if he edited US Weekly. (watch the trailer)
***Director E J-Yong (DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS) will be at the screenings.
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ANIMAL TOWN (2009, North American Premiere) – a savage, austere art film, this brutalist nightmare follows an ex-con and the owner of a small business as the economic crisis, and Korea’s bleak urban hellscapes, grind them into pulp. The solution to the happiness problem is found in this flick that is the most aggressively artistic in our line-up. But what’s a film festival without at least one feel bad discovery? (watch the trailer)
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BLADES OF BLOOD (2010, International Premiere) – from the director of KING & CLOWN (one of Korea’s most successful films of all time) comes this massive swordplay flick about a hero leading a coup against the king and the blind swordsman who sets out to stop him. Based on an award-winning manga, Like the Moon Escaping from the Clouds, it’s a posh swordplay epic that turns sword-fights into muscular beatdowns. Hwang Jung-Min is at his capering, gerning, unpredictable best as the blind swordsman, Hwang, but it’s Cha Seung-Won (KICK THE MOON, BLOOD RAIN) as Lee Mong-Hak, the revolutionary who’s drunk on power and killing everyone that gets in his way, who turns in the performance of his career. (watch the trailer)
***Official Closing Night Film
***Director Lee Joon-Ik will be at the screening.
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CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (2009, New York Premiere) – WHEN HARRY MET SALLY meets LOST by way of a J.G. Ballard novel…and it’s a romantic comedy! A businessman tries to kill himself by jumping off a bridge and instead winds up stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the Han River. Unable to swim, he might as well be stuck thousands of miles from civilization instead of a few hundred meters from downtown Seoul. His only hope of rescue? An OCD agoraphobe spying on him from her apartment. We all had reservations about this movie based on the description, but when we finally got around to watching it we were all blown away. If you let this one slip by you, you’re missing one of the freshest and most original movies in this year’s line-up. (watch the trailer)
***Director Lee Hey-Jun will be at the screening.
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CHAW (2009, North American Premiere) – a box office hit back in Korea, this bacon-flavored version of THE HOST is a send-up of JAWS only with a giant killer pig instead of a giant killer shark and, probably, a lot more pot got smoked while the script was being written. Simultaneously celebrating and satirizing the giant monster genre, it feels more like a movie from Joe Dante (GREMLINS, SMALL SOLDIERS) than from Steven Spielberg, but that’s a good thing. (watch the trailer)
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A LITTLE POND (2010, International Premiere) – one of the most controversial movies of the year, this all-star flick about the American massacre of Korean civillians at No Gun Ri in 1950 is a quiet, underplayed, life-goes-on account of the bloody incident, that unspools as gently as a Hou Hsiao-hsien film. Director Lee Sang-Woo avoids the easy cliches and instead makes a movie in which the main character is the Korean countryside itself, and when its face is spattered with blood it almost feels like blasphemy. (watch the trailer)
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MISE EN SCENE SHORT FILM PROGRAM – two 90 minute programs of short films from the genre film festival curated by E J-Yong, Park Chan-Wook, Kim Ji-Woon and Bong Joon-Ho. These short flicks pack more of a punch than many longer features, and it’s your chance to see Korea’s future filmmakers trying their hands at weird little romances, gore and animated films. The MSFF has become a bit of a talent farm for these directors, with many of the short filmmakers going on to bigger jobs on bigger productions, and it’s easy to see why: at their worst these short films are technically slick and well-made, at the very least. This year’s line-up is heavier on horror and comedy than it has been in past years and it has an unhealthy obsession with children and four-inch-tall women.
*** one of the directors will be here for the screening (we’re waiting to see which one)
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THE SCANDAL MAKERS (2008, New York Premiere) – why on earth are we showing a movie from 2008 in this year’s festival. Because it’s really funny. The highest grossing comedy of all time at the Korean box office (8.3 million admissions) this is crowd-pleasing mainstream entertainment at its best. A celebrity DJ (the radio kind, not the nightclub kind) has it all figured out, but then a woman shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his daughter. Worse, she’s got an alleged grandchild in tow. It’s already been optioned for a Hollywood remake with Barry Sonnenfeld (MEN IN BLACK) attached to direct, but the original gets this delicate formula right. (watch the trailer)
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SECRET REUNION (2009) – the director of ROUGH CUT returns with this two-hander for Song Kang-Ho (THE HOST) and Gang Dong-Won (THE DUELIST) playing retired spies battling it out long after their missions are over. It’s a throwback to 80’s style buddy movies (LETHAL WEAPON, 48 HOURS) set against the backdrop of the Cold War between North and South Korea. (watch the trailer)
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That’s it for Korea, but while we’re at it, here’s what we’re showing from Thailand and Indonesia (and watch for the IFC @ Midnights line-up on Tuesday, since there’re more Thai films there, as well).
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Indonesian Line-Up
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MERANTAU (2009, New York Premiere) – if you thought Tony Jaa was awesome, then check out this rocking slab of exploitation b-movie action starring Iko Uwais, an ace practicioner of Silat, Indonesia’s martial art. Better at taking on big crowds of baddies than Jaa, and with the ability to crack a smile from time to time, Iko Uwais is the reason to see this flick which is a giant excuse for him to put evil Eurotrash slave traders in traction and to jump off of buildings. (watch the trailer)
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Thai Line-Up
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RAGING PHOENIX (2009, New York Premiere) – Jeeja Yanin, Thailand’s only female action star, burst onto the scene with CHOCOLATE and now she’s back in this flick where she learns how to combine muay thai beatdowns with sick B-boy moves. Truly jaw-dropping, and completely weird (the plot centers on a gang of kidnappers who steal women for their scent) it’s full of high impact kicks, lethal breakdancing and the discovery that the greatest martial art of all is “Drunken Muay Thai.” Come drunk, leave happy! (watch the trailer)
On Monday, the Hong Kong and Chinese line-ups are revealed, and on Tuesday we finish things off with our Midnights at IFC line-up featuring one world premiere and a movie you’ll never see anywhere else because no one else would dare show it. Plus, pink films!
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