One of my favorite cinematic events to attend in the city is the New York Asian Film Festival. The guys that run it rock and the people that go make the experience even better. This isn’t your average festival and when you take the passion the fans and curators have for Asian films and bring back the Old School Kung Fu Fest you know you’re in for a wild time.
After a 10 year absence and after the death of NYAFF programmer Daniel Craft, Subway Cinema is bringing this gem of a fest back and I couldn’t be more excited. This past summer I got to see the Five Fingers of Death on the big screen and it was a magical and ridiculous experience. The Old School Kung Fu Fest promises that glory and more. If you’re in the NYC area April 19-21st and happen to love Asian films or want to watch something new, come check out one of the films, I know I’ll be there for one or two.
Check out the full press releases and schedule below:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the movie theater…the Old School Kung Fu Fest is back! The New York Asian Film Festival’s wildly popular celebration of kung fu movies from the 70s and 80s that pop your lock, rattle your chops, and put the pain inside your brain has returned after a 10-year absence to send your kung fu knowledge back to school. This time the spotlight shines on some of the biggest stars in some of their rarest movies. We’ve got Gordon Liu (36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN), Sammo Hung (Jackie Chan’s “big brother”), Kara Hui (Lau Kar-leung’s female star of choice), Bruce Leung (KUNG FU HUSTLE), and even Bruce Lee (after a fashion). With prints loaned from the vaults of the American Genre Film Archive and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office New York, prepare to earn your Master’s Degree in Kick Ass-ology!
Organized by the New York Asian Film Festival (www.subwaycinema.com), featuring old school curatorial skillz by Grady Hendrix and Goran Topalovic. In memory of our friend Daniel Anderson Craft. Special thanks to Jerry Ma of Epic Proportions (www.epicprops.com) for another kick-ass poster design. Daniel would’ve approved!
Unless otherwise noted, the 35mm prints were provided by the American Genre Film Archive (www.americangenrefilm.com).
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Lau Kar-wing
THE ODD COUPLE
1979, 97 min, 35mm
There are 18 different weapons in Chinese martial arts, and in this flick someone’s gonna get stabbed with every single one of them. Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing play elderly martial arts masters who duel each year to decide whose technique is better, but they always end in a draw. Now they’ve each taken a student (also played by Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing) leaving it to the younger generation to duke it out. Problem: their students get kidnapped by an old enemy (played by the inimitable martial arts mimic, “Beardy” Leung Kar-yan). Solution: both masters team up to kick maximum butt with maximum weaponry. A face bomb of comedy kung fu as well as serious, old school action, it’s the opening and closing movie of the Old School Kung Fu Fest because it is, quite simply, the alpha and omega of martial arts movies. Truly unbeatable.
–Fri, April 19 at 6:15 and Sun, April 21 at 9:15.
Gordon Liu
SHAOLIN AND WU-TANG
1983, 89 min, 35mm
The movie that inspired the Wu-Tang Clan’s first album is a blast of hardcore, old school mayhem. Gordon Liu (bald-headed brother of Lau Kar-leung) was ticked off that the sequel to his landmark 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN was played for laughs, so he headed to Taiwan where he directed, choreographed, and starred in this ‘real’ sequel. A brutally authentic ode to Shaolin Fist and Wu-Tang Sword, Liu plays a student of Shaolin, and his buddy, the charming Adam Cheng, is a student of Wu-Tang. Their masters refuse to teach the Manchu prince their moves, so the prince manipulates the two schools into combat, counting on killing the winner. Then: everybody fights! Shot with the scale and scope of a Shaw Brothers production, this movie is an avalanche of action with its stars unleashing the beast in scene after scene of blistering combat.
–Fri, April 19 at 8:30 and Sat, April 20 at 2:00.
Law Kei
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN
1977, 95 min, 35mm
WARNING: Watching This Movie Will Destroy Your Brain!!!!! Four years after Bruce Lee died, everyone was cashing in on his legend with look-a-like films, but this is the most notorious Brucesploitation movie of them all. Bruce Lee is dead, but his adventures aren’t over. He arrives in Hell where he must fight Dracula, Clint Eastwood, and the Godfather in order to come back to life. Fortunately, Popeye is there to lend a hand. Bruce Lee is played by Bruce Leung (KUNG FU HUSTLE) but even his genuine skills can’t stop the madness. Beginning with the corpse of Bruce Lee getting an erection (Don’t worry – it’s just his nunchakus!) and ending with him flying away as the cast waves “Goodbye!”, you cannot unsee this movie. You will laugh! You will cry! And you will scream as the spirit of Bruce Lee kicks his way out of your stupid skull!
–Fri, April 19 at 10:30 and Sun, April 21 at 1:00.
Cheung Gin-gat
SHAOLIN TEMPLE AGAINST LAMA
1980, 85 min, 16mm.
Print provided by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office New York. Taiwan’s indie kung fu films eschewed slick sets and smooth camera movements to shoot on location with urgent handheld cameras wielded by operators who were constantly freaking out. In this flick, Tibet’s evil Black Lamas (you know they’re evil by the skulls in their hair) decide to wage war on Shaolin Temple while wearing costumes that would put Bootsy Collins to shame. The Lamas manipulate a righteous Tibetan prince to be their proxy face-breaker in a war with the hard-hitting Shaolin monks, and what ensues is a whirlwind of non-stop mayhem spiced with a whiff of funky incense. Never content to show two men fighting when it could show 20, this film is a psychedelic throwback to a time when kung fu movies were allowed to pull out all the stops and do absolutely anything as long as they kept your eyes glued to the screen.
–Sat, April 20 at 4:00 and Sun, April 21 at 7:15.
Wai Lit
ANGEL TERMINATORS
1990, 91 min, 35mm
B-movies always have to try harder, and this girls-with-guns flick gets an A++ for (intense) effort. Shot in 1990 but not released until two years later, it’s an undiscovered grindhouse joyride full of bare-knuckled stars: Lau Kar-leung acolyte, Kara Hui; the “lady Jackie Chan” Sharon Yeung, whose career never caught fire; Japanese back-breaker, Michiko Nishiwaki; the sultry Carrie Ng; angry white boy, Mark Houghton; and everyone’s favorite bad guy, Dick Wei. They all turn in blistering action work in this mile-a-minute rampage through exploitation heaven. Two lady cops and one gangster’s ex-girlfriend endure drug addiction, theme park shoot-outs, having their heads shoved in toilets, kicks to the face, terrifying high impact falls, and major concussions to prove that women are 10 times better than men. No subtitled prints of this movie exist, so we’re subtitling this one live in a twice-in-a-lifetime celebration of high caliber girl power.
–Sat, April 20 at 6:00 and Sun, April 21 at 5:15.
SECRET SCREENING – ONE SHOW ONLY!!!!
We can’t tell you the title of this rarely-seen martial arts movie, but trust us: you want to see it on the big screen. In the early 80s, big studios were trying anything to attract audiences, so this flick mixes three genres and then adds plenty of crack: you’ve got your wandering swordsman movie, your gore film, and a sexploitation shocker. The result is a whacked-out, hyper-gothic version of “The Monkey’s Paw”, full of occult dungeons, human face frisbees, wild plot twists, swinging swordplay, and naked demon ladies having kung fu freak-outs.
–Sat, April 20 at 8:00.
Titus Ho
RED SPELL SPELLS RED
1983, 93 min, 35mm
Career-minded Hong Kongers with no respect for tradition go to Borneo to shoot a TV segment and wind up violating the tomb of the Red Dwarf Sorcerer, who returns the favor by violating their bodies from beyond the grave with scorpions, killer trees, and even more scorpions. Scorpions attack! Scorpions get smashed! Scorpions crawl out of pustulent blisters! Never released on DVD, this unhinged rarity makes BOXER’S OMEN look like Walt Disney as it flings shovelfuls of objectionable content in your face, from busty women in see-through t-shirts, to the slaughter of a LOT of real pigs, to a slew of outrageously nasty deaths. Technically it’s not an action film, but there’s no way we could not show this gore-soaked hayride! Truly dangerous movies make you doubt the sanity of the people who made them. In RED SPELL SPELLS RED there is no doubt: these filmmakers are insane.
–Sat, April 20 at 10:00 and Sun, April 21 at 3:15.
One of my favorite cinematic events to attend in the city is the New York Asian Film Festival. The guys that run it rock and the people that go make the experience even better. This isn’t your average festival and when you take the passion the fans and curators have for Asian films and bring back the Old School Kung Fu Fest you know you’re in for a wild time.
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