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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 Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China 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: David and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews 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 Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David 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 Movie News: South Korea and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David 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: None |
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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 Movie News: South Korea and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Film Festivals: News and People: Park Chan-wook and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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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. Filed under: Movie News and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Film Festivals: News and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2007 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.25.06 by David @ 9:29 pm
 The fifth annual Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival continues. Here’s a rundown of some of the films that played during the second week of the festival (some of which still have additional showings, check the schedule here.) There’s still lots of good stuff in the last week, including a final showing of Linda Linda Linda, so get out there! Oh! My Zombie Mermaid [aka Ah! Ikkenya puroresu]  Forget the zombie, forget the mermaid, what this movie has is a full-blown, knock-down drag out battle to the finish that’ll knock your socks off. See the full review here. Recommended. Funky Forest: The First Contact [aka Naisu no mori: The First Contact]  Last year, Katsuhito Ishii directed A Taste of Tea, which was a sweet and funny look at an eccentric family. This year, he decided to let it all hang out, and the result was Funky Forest, a completely bizarre mélange of sketch comedy, non-sequitur humor, and cheerfully obscene special effects. And dancing, lots of dancing. I absolutely loved it, and so did the crowd at the Festival. Many of you will too, and you probably know who you are. With Tadanobu Asano as “Guitar Brother.” Highly recommended. (a full review will be forthcoming, but don’t expect any more enlightenment) Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood 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 Movie Reviews: India and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2006 and People: Nobuhiro Yamashita and Movies: Linda Linda Linda (2005) Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.20.06 by David @ 7:51 am
The fifth annual Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival kicked off with some doozies – including the first Malaysian film ever to screen at the festival, one of Takashi Miike’s latest works, and the outstanding Indian crime film, Ab Tak Chhappan. Here’s a rundown of some of the films that have played so far (all of which, except for Art of the Devil 2, will be playing again during the festival. Check the schedule here.) Gangster  Azmi’s ultra-modern Kuala Lumpur is filled with drug dealers, illegal street racers, and transvestite prostitutes. In keeping with this mix, Gangster is equal parts social drama, racing film, and gangster morality tale. Azmi also plays with form – the film has an elliptical structure and converging storylines, not to mention an amazing performance by Malaysia’s most popular actor Rosyam Nor in three very different roles (it really is impressive - I knew he was playing three people and still could not tell which three). Gangster is more than your average mindless exercise in car chases and shoot-outs. Recommended. A Bittersweet Life  Gorgeously shot, but ultimately pointless, this gangster revenge tale positively wallows in style. Unfortunately, the theme – coldblooded hitman shows emotion and finds himself at odds with his former gang – has been done to death. Fortunately, style in sufficient quantity and quality can go a long way, and this film has style in spades. It also has Lee Byung-hon, who despite suffering from “pretty-boy hitman” syndrome, turns in an intense, dedicated performance that keeps you caring about his character long after you know you shouldn’t bother. I think that director Kim Jee-woon has yet to surpass his earlier The Foul King, which had style, humor and heart, but A Bittersweet Life is very entertaining, and that’s enough. Recommended. 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 Movie News: India and Movie News: Thailand and Movie News: Malaysia and Movie Reviews: India and Movie Reviews: Thailand and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2006 and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.18.06 by David @ 2:01 pm
AKA: 4 Inyong shiktak Review By: David Austin  Many horror films nowadays, particularly Asian horror films, mimic one of two very successful templates – Ring (Ju-on, One Missed Call, Dark Water) and The Sixth Sense (The Eye, Inner Senses). Superficially, The Uninvited falls into the latter category (by which I mean that characters in the film “see dead people”). Sixth Sense-inspired screenplays tend to focus more on the ability of the main characters to deal with, and adjust to, the presence of the dead, than on scares and linear plot advancement. Consequently, the films tend to have a heavy psychological component (not coincidentally, one of the two main characters in The Sixth Sense was a psychiatrist). In The Uninvited, director Su-yeon Lee ups the ante, and focuses almost entirely on the psychological angle, almost to the complete exclusion of the supernatural. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Panik House Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 10.07.05 by Charlie @ 12:12 pm
AKA: Chinjeolhan Geumjassi Review By: Charlie Prince
Director Park Chan Wook is hands down the best director working in South Korea today, and with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (친 한 금자씨) he completes what we have belatedly come to know as the Vengeance trilogy (with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and OldBoy). Lady Vengeance played this past Sunday at the New York Film Festival, and Cinema Strikes Back was there for the film as well as the Q&A with the director which followed (Q&A notes available here). Lady Vengeance is one of the most-anticipated movies of the year for us foreign film nuts, and so it is with great pleasure that I am able to inform you that the film meets expectations, which is to say it’s excellent. Anyone who is seeing Park Chan Wook’s work for the first time will be blown away, and anyone who has seen Mr. Vengeance or OldBoy will likely not be disappointed – this is as good as either. And more than in the prior two films, the slow, unwinding explanation as to why our heroine seeks revenge is so tantalizingly mysterious, that for the first half of the film, it works just as well as a suspense film as it does in the second half as a revenge drama. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: Charlie and Rating: Great ★★★★ and Film Festivals: News and Movies: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) and People: Park Chan-wook and People: Lee Young-ae and Film Festivals: New York Film Festival 2005 Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 06.13.05 by Pete @ 12:08 pm
Rating 3 out of 4 stars (good) Playing June 19, 6:30 pm and June 24, 11:15 pm Arahan jangpung daejakjeon is playing in New York as part of the New York Asian Film Festival 2005 and is well worth checking out. The film borrows a few tricks from Stephen Chow with the idea of everyday people being Tao masters in their own little workaday ways and they have tremendous fun with it. A hapless cop named Sang-hwan inadvertently gets hit with a palm blast by an incredibly attractive crime fighting clerk. Eu-jin, played by the lovely Yoon So-yi, is actually the daughter of one of the Seven Tao Masters. She takes Sang-hwan home where her father and the other four “Seven Masters” discover that Sang-hwan has tremendous chi that has been released by the palm blast administered by Eu-jin. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: Pete and Rating: Good ★★★ and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2005 and People: Ryoo Seung-wan and Studios: Cinema Service Comments: None |
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