VULGARIA will be the Opening Night Presentation,
DOOMSDAY BOOK and GUNS AND ROSES make their North American Premieres
as the Centerpiece Selections and POTECHI (CHIPS)
makes its North American Premiere as the Closing Night Presentation
Highlights will include the presentation of the
2012 Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award to Chung Chang-Wha,
the 2012 Star Asia Award Donnie Yen,
and the 2012 Star Asia Rising Star Award to
Michelle Chen and Masami Nagasawa
Many more filmmaker appearances, including Will Yun Lee
and the creative team behind Square Enix’s upcoming
Hong Kong cinema-inspired video game Sleeping Dogs
New York, NY, May 31, 2012 - The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema announce the full schedule today for the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) which will screen June 29 – July 15. Presented in partnership between the two organizations with programming support from Japan Society, the popular film festival will showcase over 50 feature films and 3 programs of short films from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, USA and Vietnam. 2012 NYAFF will feature 20 films making their North American premieres and 1 more making its US debut.
Pang Ho-cheung’s VULGARIA will make it’s North American Premiere as the Opening Night Presentation. Chapman To plays a hapless movie producer trying to get his skin flick off the ground, and he’ll do anything to finance it, including auctioning off visitation rights to the daughter he adores, sucking up to gangsters named Brother Tyrannosaurus, and making not-so-sweet love to a mule. Hilariously offensive, The Hollywood Reporter calls it “laugh-out-loud” and “aptly titled.” Pang Ho-cheung will be at the screening.
Centerpiece Presentations include Kim Ji-Woon’s and Yim Pil-Sung’s DOOMSDAY BOOK and Ning Hao’s GUNS AND ROSES. Making its North American Premiere, DOOMSDAY BOOK is a three-part science fiction film about all the ways the world can end. Ranging from the hilarious, to the gory, to the existential, the film features a robot who achieves Buddhist enlightenment, a virus that turns humanity into death-crazed zomboids, and a meteor (or is it?) that smashes into the planet.
The second Centerpiece presentation will be the North American Premiere of GUNS AND ROSES. Director Ning Hao enjoyed success with CRAZY RACER in 2009, but his next movie was shelved by censors. He has followed that experience with a savagely funny action movie chronicling a gold heist in 1930’s Japanese-occupied Mongolia. Among the film’s familiar faces are Yang Kil-Young, Huang Bo.
Yoshihiro Nakamura’s POTECHI (CHIPS) will make its International Premiere as the Closing Night selection. The film follows two men - one, a star professional baseball player and the other, a petty thief, whose lives become intertwined in Sendei, epicenter of the 2011 Japanese earthquake.
NYAFF will honor Chung Chang-Wha with the 2012 Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. Chung Chang-Wha, the director of what is one of the most influential martial arts movies of all time, KING BOXER (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH), started his career in Korea where he basically invented the modern day Korean action film. His movies earned him a Shaw Brothers contract and his FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH was the first martial arts movie to cross over in the West, paving the way for Bruce Lee and setting the tone for the hundreds of kung fu films to follow.
Donnie Yen will be presented with the 2012 Star Asia Award. Following a long and steady career in the Hong Kong and Hollywood film industries, Donnie Yen made a major impact in Wilson Yip’s KILLZONE (SPL: SHA PO LANG) in 2005. Going from hit to hit, often working on Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions, he has turned in a remarkable body of work in only seven years, including IP MAN 1 & 2, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, DRAGON (WU XIA), FLASHPOINT, and PAINTED SKIN.
The 2012 Star Asia Rising Star Award honorees will be Michelle Chen and Masami Nagasawa. Chen’s fateful meeting with director Giddens Ko in an elevator as they were leaving a party led to her being cast as the object of attraction in YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE. The movie has become a massive hit that’s swept Asia, turning Chen into a major star. Nagasawa started out appearing in Toho’s Godzilla series (GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS) before she scored big with her performance in the romance CRYING OUT LOVE IN THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. Voted one of the most influential people in Japan, and topping polls for “Most Popular Actress” year after year, she will attend NYAFF with her musical comedy, LOVE STRIKES!, for which she won a Japanese Academy Award.
The 2012 New York Asian Film Festival will feature three special focuses:
WARRIORS AND ROMANTICS: NEW CINEMA FROM TAIWAN
Presented with the support of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, this special focus is a look at the new wave of Taiwanese blockbusters that are sweeping Asia. Despite being home to some of Asia’s great art house directors, like Hou Hsia-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, for the past decade Taiwan’s domestic film industry has hit hard times. However, all that changed in 2008 when Wei Te-Sheng’s CAPE NO. 7 became the highest grossing Taiwanese movie of all time, setting a trend in which quality local movies suddenly became the hottest exports accross Asia.
RETURN OF THE KING: HONG KONG MOVIES 15 YEARS AFTER THE HANDOVER
When Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, its film industry was already in a tailspin from the bursting of the production bubble and the first stirrings of the Asian Economic Crisis. A few years later, the industry, once the biggest film producer in Asia, was written off. But these days, Hong Kong movies like Ann Hui’s A SIMPLE LIFE are winning awards around the world, while Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions like DRAGON (WU XIA), helmed by Hong Kong directors and stars, are turning into international box office hits. The Return of the King Focus is presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, which is celebrating this year the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
CHOI MIN-SIK: MR. VENGEANCE
The revered Korean star, Choi Min-Sik, shot to fame for his performance as a North Korean terrorist in SHIRI, the first blockbuster of the new Korean cinema. He went on to capture the attention of international audiences with his crazed, dazed, hammer-wielding performance as Oh Dae-Su in Park Chan-Wook’s OLDBOY. In 2006, he quit moviemaking to protest American pressure on the Korean film industry, but made a triumphant return a few years later with Kim Ji-Woon’s I SAW THE DEVIL. Presented in association with the Korean Cultural Service New York, NYAFF will present a series of new and classic Choi Min-Sik performances to honor the man himself.
Twenty films will make their North American premieres at NYAFF 2011. Those films are; ALL ABOUT MY WIFE; ASURA; THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION; BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY; DAED BITE; DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE; DOOMDAY BOOK; EAST MEETS WEST 2011; GUNS AND ROSES; HENGE; LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE-CLUB; LOVE STRIKES!; MAKE UP; NASI LEMAK 2.0; PANG HO-CHEUNG’S FIRST ATTEMPT; POTECHI (CHIPS); RED VACANCE, BLACK WEDDING; SCABBARD SAMURAI; SECRET LOVE; VULGARIA; and ZERO MAN VS. THE HALF VIRGIN. One film will be making its US premiere - MONSTERS CLUB.
Films by Country at NYAFF 2012:
Cambodia
GOLDEN SLUMBERS
China
GUNS AND ROSES
SACRIFICE
THE SWORD IDENTITY
Hong Kong
BOXER’S OMEN
DRAGON (WU XIA)
EAST MEETS WEST 2011
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2
KILLZONE (SPL: SHA PO LANG)
KING BOXER (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH)
THE LOST BLADESMAN
LOVE IN THE BUFF
PANG HO-CHEUNG’S FIRST ATTEMPT
A SIMPLE LIFE
THE SWIFT KNIGHT
VULGARIA
Japan
ACE ATTORNEY
ASURA
THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION
GOKE, BODYSNATCHER FROM HELL
GYO
HARD ROMANTICKER
HENGE
LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE-CLUB
LOVE STRIKES!
MONSTERS CLUB
POTECHI CHIPS
SCABBARD SAMURAI
SMUGGLER
TOKYO PLAYBOY CLUB
TORMENTED (RABBIT HORROR)
ZERO MAN VS. THE HALF VIRGIN
Malaysia
NASI LEMAK 2.0
South Korea
ALL ABOUT MY WIFE
BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY
COUPLES
CRYING FIST
DOOMSDAY BOOK
FAILAN
THE KING OF PIGS
KOREAN SHORT FILM MADNESS
NAMELESS GANGSTER
OLDBOY
RED VACANCE, BLACK WEDDING
SECRET LOVE
WAR OF THE ARROWS
Taiwan
10 + 10
DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE
HONEY PUPU
MAKE UP
STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEQIQ BALE 1 & 2
YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE
Thailand
DEAD BITE
USA
THE MIAMI CONNECTION
Vietnam
BLOOD LETTER
The New York Asian Film Festival is presented in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Japan Society's Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
A huge thanks to Square Enix who are supporting NYAFF in a major way as well as hosting a double screening of INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1 & 2, on the tenth anniversary of the film. Their new game, SLEEPING DOGS, is inspired in part by the IA series and it hits the street August 14 for PS3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC. Before the screening of IA 1 & 2 on Friday, July 6, there will be a panel with the creative team behind SLEEPING DOGS, including Stephen Van Der Mescht (THE HULK, SCARFACE), Justin Bullard (BULLY, MAX PAYNE 3), Jeff O'Connell (NEED FOR SPEED, TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR), and actor Will Yun Lee (HAWAII FIVE-0, TOTAL RECALL, RED DAWN).
NYAFF is deeply grateful for the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, the Korean Cultural Service New York,the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York,The Kitano Hotel, Hotel Beacon, Radius, Funimation, Asian Media Rights, Manhattan Portage, Kirin, IZZE, Epic Proportions, Korean Cuisine Globalization Committee USA, Mooncake Foods, Well Go USA, China Lion, and Drafthouse Films.
Keep up with the latest festival news at:
Filmlinc.com
facebook.com/NYAFF
www.subwaycinemanews.com
Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway) and Japan Society (333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues).
PUBLIC SCREENINGS (AT THE WALTER READE THEATRE)
Friday, June 29
6:00PM WAR OF THE ARROWS (121min)
8:30PM VULGARIA (90min) + guest director Pang Ho-cheung
12:00AM BOXER’S OMEN (105min)
Saturday, June 30
1:00PM OLDBOY (120min) + guest actor Choi Min-Sik and actress Yoon Jin-Seo
4:00PM PANG HO-CHEUNG’S FIRST ATTEMPT (50min) + guest director Pang Ho-cheung
5:30PM KING BOXER (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) (98min) + guest director Chung Chang-Wha
9:00PM NAMELESS GANGSTER (133min) + guest actor Choi Min-sik
12:00AM GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (84min)
Sunday, July 1
1:00PM THE SWORD IDENTITY (110min)
3:20PM THE SWIFT KNIGHT (81min) + guest director Chung Chang-Wha
6:00PM YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE (109min) + guest director Giddens Ko and actress Michelle Chen
8:45PM LOVE IN THE BUFF (106min) + guest director Pang Ho-cheung
Monday, July 2
1:00PM MAKE UP (107min)
3:30PM FAILAN (116min) + guest actor Choi Min-sik
6:30PM YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE (109min) + guest director Giddens Ko and actress Michelle Chen
9:00PM CRYING FIST (134min) + guest actor Choi Min-Sik
Tuesday, July 3
1:00PM NAMELESS GANGSTER (133min)
3:30PM STARRY STARRY NIGHT (99min)
6:00PM COUPLES (109min)
8:30PM SACRIFICE (123min)
Wednesday, July 4
1:00PM COUPLES (109min)
3:30PM EAST MEETS WEST 2011 (99min)
6:00PM WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE I (143min) + SEEDIQ BALE II (131min) [274min total]
Thursday, July 5
1:30PM HONEY PUPU (102min)
4:00PM DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE (123min)
6:30PM 10+10 (114min)
9:00PM ALL ABOUT MY WIFE (120min)
Friday, July 6
1:30PM ZERO MAN VS THE HALF VIRGIN (105min)
3:30PM SCABBARD SAMURAI (103min)
6:00PM INFERNAL AFFAIRS (101min) + guest actor Will Yun Lee and Sleeping Dogs game creators
8:40PM INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2 (119min)
11:10PM DEAD BITE (94min)
Saturday, July 7
1:30PM ZERO MAN VS THE HALF VIRGIN (105min)
3:45PM THE KING OF PIGS (97min) + guest director Yeun Sang-Ho
6:30PM THE LOST BLADESMAN (108min) + guest star Donnie Yen
9:00PM GUNS AND ROSES (108min)
11:15PM MIAMI CONNECTON (83min)
Sunday, July 8
12:30PM BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY (89min)
2:30PM ACE ATTORNEY (135min)
5:15PM KILL ZONE (SPL: SHA PO LANG) (93min) + guest star Donnie Yen
8:00PM THE KING OF PIGS (97min) + guest director Yeun Sang-ho
10:30PM HONEY PUPU (102min)
Monday, July 9
12:30PM YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE (109min)
2:50PM NASI LEMAK 2.0 (108min)
5:00PM A SIMPLE LIFE (119min)
7:30PM DRAGON (WU XIA) (110min) + guest star Donnie Yen
10:15PM RED VACANCE, BLACK WEDDING (86min)
Tuesday, July 10
1:30PM GUNS AND ROSES (108min)
4:00PM KOREAN SHORT FILM MADNESS (90min)
6:00PM GOLDEN SLUMBERS (98min) + guest director Davy Chou
9:00PM DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE (123min)
****at Tribeca Cinemas:
7:00PM SECRET LOVE (111min) + guest actress Yoon Jin-Seo
Wednesday, July 11
1:15PM ALL ABOUT MY WIFE (120min)
3:50PM DEAD BITE (94min)
6:00PM THE SWORD IDENTITY (110min)
8:15PM DOOMSDAY BOOK (115min)
10:30PM MAKE UP (107min)
Thursday, July 12
1:00PM DOOMSDAY BOOK (115min)
3:30PM BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY (89min)
6:15PM NASI LEMAK 2.0 (108min) + guest producer Fred Chong
9:00PM BLOOD LETTER (90min)
JAPAN SOCIETY
Thursday, July 12
6:30PM ASURA (78min)
8:15PM SMUGGLER (114min)
Friday, July 13
6:30PM HARD ROMANTICKER (108min)
9:00PM The Atrocity Exhibition (3 films back-to-back: LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE CLUB + BIG GUN + HENGE) (145min)
Saturday, July 14
1:00PM SCABBARD SAMURAI (103min)
3:15PM TOKYO PLAYBOY CLUB (97min)
5:30PM GYO (70min)
7:15PM LOVE STRIKES! (118min) + guest actress Masami Nagasawa
– plus Striking Love after party
Sunday, July 15
1:30PM ACE ATTORNEY (135min)
4:15PM TORMENTED (83min)
6:00PM MONSTERS CLUB (72min) + guest director Toshiaki Toyoda
8:00PM POTECHI (CHIPS) (68min)
FILM DESCRIPTIONS FOR THE 2012 NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Opening Night Selection – North American Premiere
VULGARIA (2012) 90min
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Country: Hong Kong
Pang Ho-cheung’s outrageous comedy stars Chapman To as a hapless movie producer trying to get a skin flick off the ground, and he’ll do anything to finance it, including auctioning off visitation rights to the daughter he adores, sucking up to gangsters named Brother Tyrannosaurus, and even making not-so-sweet love to a mule.
Director Pang Ho-cheung will attend the screening.
Centerpiece Presentation – North American Premiere
DOOMSDAY BOOK (2012) 115min
Directors: Kim Ji-Woon, Yim Pil-Sung
Country: South Korea
A three-part hard science fiction omnibus film from directors Kim Ji-Woon (A BITTERSWEET LIFE, I SAW THE DEVIL) and Yim Pil-Sung (HANSEL & GRETEL) it’s visually stunning and, at times, very unhinged.
Centerpiece Presentation – North American Premiere
GUNS AND ROSES (2012) 108min
Director: Ning Hao
Country: China
Director Ning Hao’s savagely funny action flick chronicles a gold heist in 1930’s Japanese-occupied Mongolia. With action by Yang Kil-Young (OLDBOY), his cast of regular comedy character actors (including Huang Bo), and a blackly, bleakly comic view of human struggles.
Closing Night Selection – North American Premiere
POTECHI (CHIPS) (2012) 68min
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Country: Japan
Yoshihiro Nakamura, director of FISH STORY, GOLDEN SLUMBERS and NYAFF 2011 Audience Award winner, A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI presents a film about petty thieves, potato chips, the 2011 Japanese earthquake, baseball stars, and the meaning of life.
Additional 2012 New York Asian Film Festival films include:
New York Premiere
10 + 10 (2011) 114min
Directors: Various
Country: Taiwan
A series of short films by directors from Hou Hsian-hsien, to Sylvia Chang, starring actors like Jack Gao and Shu Qi, 10 + 10 presents a multitude of viewpoints on Taiwan from violent thrillers, to documentaries, to comedies about censorship.
New York Premiere
ACE ATTORNEY (2012) 135min
Director: Takashi Miike
Country: Japan
Takashi Miike, brings one of the world’s most popular Gameboy and Nintendo DS games to the big screen in an incredibly faithful version of the blockbuster game about the adventures of a rookie defense attorney, only with Miike’s inimitable stamp. The music is the 8-bit chirping, given a full orchestral treatment and the costumes, hairstyles, names - even the basic plot are all taken right off the tiny screen.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American Premiere
ALL ABOUT MY WIFE (2012) 120min
Director: Min Kyu-Dong
Country: South Korea
The latest romantic comedy from Korea is a sleek blockbuster with an all-star cast. Depressed by his marriage, a wimpy husband hires a rental Casanova to seduce his wife so he can get a divorce. A riff on Taming of the Shrew, it schools Hollywood in how rom coms should be made.
North American Premiere
ASURA (2012) 78min
Director: Kei’ichi Sato
Country: Japan
A lushly animated feature about a child cannibal in famine-wracked feudal Japan whose taste for human flesh has turned him into a demon. Based on George Wakiyama’s banned manga.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
North American Premiere
THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION: LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE CLUB, HENGE, THE BIG GUN (2012) 145min
Directors: Eisake Naito, Hajime Ohata
Country: Japan
Trio of short films includes; LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE CLUB is a sensitive and sometimes shocking exploration of schoolgirls gone bad, HENGE is a take on Kafka’s The Metamorphsis mixed with J-horror and kaiju tropes, and THE BIG GUN is the same director’s early film about a steel factory worker extorted by the yakuza into making guns. Unfortunately for them, he starts a side project making, well, the Big Gun.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
North American Premiere
BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY (2011) 89min
Director: Ji Ha Jean
Country: South Korea
One lone stranger rides into a town ruled by an out-of-control construction cartel, ready to settle old scores with his two fists in this modern day spaghetti western.
New York Premiere
BLOOD LETTER (2012) 90min
Director: Victor Vu
Country: Vietnam
A Vietnamese martial arts movie full of flying swordsmen, weapon-wielding woman warriors, and wu xia passion.
Special Midnight Movie Screening
BOXER’S OMEN (1983) 105min
Director: Chih-Hung Kuei
Country: Hong Kong
A black magic martial arts movie that looks like the last 10 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey if you replaced the flashing colors and swirling stars with writhing maggots and bright green pus.
New York Premiere
COUPLES (2011) 110min
Director: Jeong Yong-Ki
Country: South Korea
A remake of the NYAFF hit, A STRANGER OF MINE, this time-looping, multiple-POV Korean romance is about finding true love in the midst of an economic meltdown.
CRYING FIST (2005) 134min
Director: Ryoo Seung-Wan
Country: South Korea
Choi Min-Sik is a middle-aged boxer reduced to renting himself out as a human punching bag for frustrated salarymen. Ryoo Seung-Beom is a self-destructive punk who discovers the power of boxing in juvie lock-up. An amateur prizefight with a fat purse offers a chance for redemption, but there can be only one winner.
Star, Choi Min-Sik, will attend the screening.
Special Midnight Movie Screening – North American Premiere
DEAD BITE (2011) 94min
Director: Joey Boy
Country: Thailand
A crazy zombie flick that is all blood, bikinis, B-boys, enthusiastic gore, and surreal humor.
North American Premiere
DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE (2012) 123min
Director: Kai Feng
Country: Taiwan
Based on a true story, this hit film tracks a rundown Din Tao (drumming ceremony) group that came back from the dead. Din Tao itself had been dismissed as a quaint cultural embarrassment, with many troupes made up of homeless kids, who would fill the ranks for a buck. The film became a remarkable word-of-mouth success story, earning over NT$300 million and sparking a revival of Din Tao pride across Taiwan.
New York Premiere
DRAGON (WU XIA) (2011) 110min
Director: Peter Chan
Country: Hong Kong/China
Donnie Yen plays a ferocious kung fu fighter hiding under a fake name in a small village after renouncing violence. Takeshi Kaneshiro (CHUNGKING EXPRESS) is the investigator assigned to figure out exactly who he is. Also featuring old school Shaw Brothers heroes, Jimmy Wang Yu and Kara Hui, this is one of the expensive, elegant, and electrifying (literally) martial arts movies to come along in years.
Star and fight choreographer, Donnie Yen will attend the screening.
North American Premiere
EAST MEETS WEST 2011 (2011) 99min
Director: Jeff Lau
Country: Hong Kong
Wong Kar-wai’s longtime collaborator, Jeff Lau, delivers an exhausting and exhilarating comedy about reincarnated superheroes and failed pop stars that includes musical numbers, animated sequences, giant battles, stupid jokes, mile-a-minute parodies and some genuine heartbreak.
FAILAN (2001) 116min
Director: Song Hae-Sung
Country: South Korea
Choi Min-Sik teams up with Hong Kong’s superstar, Cecilia Cheung, in this film about a third-rate gangster who’ll do anything for a buck and a Chinese immigrant who needs a marriage for business reasons. Mutual need draws them together, but fate keeps them apart.
Star, Choi Min-Sik, will attend the screening.
Special Midnight Movie Screening
GOKE, BODYSNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) 84min
Director: Hajime Sato
Country: Japan
A dreamy, surrealist horror film that has taken on legendary status. Survivors of a plane crash are attacked by a blob-like alien creatures that turn its victims into blood thirsty vampires.
New York Premiere
GOLDEN SLUMBERS (2011) 98min
Director: Davy Chou
Country: Cambodia
Documentary focuses on Cambodia's lost cinema, following the effects and actions of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 via the memories of the filmmakers and stars who survived the genocide in this moving oral history.
Director, Davy Chou will attend the screening.
New York Premiere
GYO (2012) 70min
Director: Takayuki Hirao
Country: Japan
Adapted from Junji Ito’s fan-favorite horror manga, this animated film is about stinking killer fish with legs who attack Japan. It is much weirder than it sounds.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
New York Premiere
HARD ROMANTICKER (2011) 108min
Director: Gu Suyeon
Country: Japan
the Korean-Japanese director, Gu Suyeon, delivers a two-fisted, breakneck story of growing up in Japan’s Korean slums which is a throwback to Toei’s old school youth gang films of the 60’s and 70’s.
Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
New York Premiere
HONEY PUPU (2011) 103min
Director: Hung-I Chen
Country: Taiwan
Hung-I Chen directs a musically supercharged meditation on things that have gone missing. A radio DJ looking for her missing boyfriend, and she finds a group of kids making online memorials for everything from missing buildings to missing pets, and discovers an alternate earth. Trippy sci-fi at its best.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1 & 2 - Tenth Anniversary Screening (2002/2003) 101/119min
Director: Wai-Keung Lau, Alan Mak
Country: Hong Kong
INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1 & 2 are two movies that comprise Asia’s richest, most complex crime epic. IA 1 is familiar to most viewers, but IA 2 ups the stakes, going back in time and showing how the heroes of the first movie are really the villains, and the villains are really the heroes.
The screening will be preceded by a panel with the creators of the Square Enix’s Sleeping Dogs video game, due to be released August 14, which is inspired in part on the INFERNAL AFFAIRS movies.
KILLZONE (SPL: SHA PO LANG) (2005) 93min
Director: Wilson Yip
Country: Hong Kong
The classic action film which features Donnie Yen, elder kung fu statesman Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, and Wu Jing in the story of a senior detective nearing the end of his career, engaged in an all-out final attempt to take down a crime lord.
Star and fight choreographer Donnie Yen, will attend the screening.
KING BOXER (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) (1972) 98min
Director: Chung Chang-Wha
Country: Hong Kong
Two martial arts schools prepare for an important tournament in one of the most influential and important kung fu movies of all time. FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH launched the kung fu craze in the West, and paved the way for Bruce Lee’s success.
Director, Chung Chang-Wha will attend the screening.
New York Premiere
THE KING OF PIGS (2012) 97min
Director: Yeun Sang-HO
Country: South Korea
Fresh outta Cannes, this animated drama is about two adults trying to remember what exactly happened to them as kids when they attended a nightmarish high school where the kids were divided into the bullies (“Dogs”) and the bullied (“Pigs”).
Director, Yeun Sang-Ho will attend the screenings.
Korean Short Film Madness (2010 - 2012) 90min
Directors: Park Chan-Wook, and more
Country: South Korea
Featuring NIGHTFISHING, a short film directed by Park Chan-Wook (OLDBOY) and his brother, as well as new shorts from Korea’s MSFF genre film festival, these movies move fast and hit hard.
New York Premiere
THE LOST BLADESMAN (2011), 107min
Directors: Felix Chong, Alan Mak
Country: Hong Kong/China
Directed by the writers of the INFERNAL AFFAIRS films, this mighty martial arts spectacular tells the story of China’s legendary warrior, General Guan. Played, of course, by Donnie Yen.
Star and fight choreographer, Donnie Yen will attend the screening.
LOVE IN THE BUFF (2012) 106min
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Country: Hong Kong
A romantic comedy that feels like an update of the classic Hepburn-Tracy movies, it stars Shawn Yue as a self-centered advertising exec and Miriam Yeung as his lazy girlfriend, who split up and try to move on, but keep meeting up, ripping off each other’s clothes, and making the same mistakes all over again.
Director, Pang Ho-cheung, will attend the screening.
North American Premiere
LOVE STRIKES! (2011) 118min
Director: Hitoshi Ohne
Country: Japan
Masami Nagasawa won a Japanese Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actress” for her role in this blockbuster, musical romantic comedy about a nerd who becomes irresistibly attractive to women.
Star, Masami Nagasawa, will attend the screening.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
North American Premiere
MAKE UP (2011) 107min
Director: Lien Yi-chi
Country: Taiwan
A mortician finds a new “customer” on her slab: the woman she loved in high school. What follows is a gorgeously detailed, emotionally brutal investigation into how the love of her life wound up dying.
Special Midnight Movie Screening
THE MIAMI CONNECTION (1987) 83min
Directors: Grandmaster Y.K. Kim,
Country: USA
The director of LA STREETFIGHTERS (NYAFF 2010), delivers this hallucinatory tale of ninjas, a tae kwon do rock band known as Dragon Sound, Miami drug dealers, bad dubbing, and strange costumes. Thanks to the efforts of Drafthouse Films, THE MIAMI CONNECTION will return to cinemas, home video and debut on digital platforms in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Co-director/writer/producer and star Grandmaster Y.K. Kim will attend the screening.
US Premiere
MONSTERS CLUB (2011) 72min
Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
Country: Japan
Sympathy for the Unabomber in Japan’s visionary director, Toshiaki Toyoda’s retelling of the Ted Kaczynski story, only with added transsexual monsters and ghosts.
Director, Toshiaki Toyoda will attend the screening.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema Cinema
NAMELESS GANGSTER (2012) 133min
Director: Yun Jong-Bin
Country: South Korea
Set in the 80’s, Choi Min-Sik plays a corrupt customs inspector whose knowledge of how to leverage personal connections and family relationships turns him into a criminal on the rise. But he’s not really a gangster, just a smart hick with a gift of the gab, and when the government begins instituting reforms the world he lives in turns into a cage of crazed predators, eating one another alive.
Star, Choi Min-Sik, will attend the screening.
North American Premiere
NASI LEMAK 2.0 (2011) 108min
Director: Namewee
Country: Malaysia
A food movie, directed by a rapper who has been investigated for sedition, that feels like delirious early Stephen Chow, that was a massive hit, sparked protests, and features a hip hop street vendor battle.
Producer Fred Chong will attend the screening
OLDBOY (2003) 120min
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Country: South Korea
A Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival, it might just be the most iconic movie of the New Korean Cinema. Choi Min-Sik is at his hammer-wielding best as a man mysteriously imprisoned for 15 years and then released. Hell-bent on revenge, he wants to know why.
Stars, Choi Min-Sik and Yoon Jin-Seo, will attend the screening.
North American Premiere
Pang Ho-cheung’s First Attempt 50min
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Country: Hong Kong
Pang Ho-cheung screens the shot-on-video shorts he made when he was 14 year old, providing live commentary. The shorts include THE FIRST ADVENTURES OF THREE GANGSTA BEARS.
Director, Pang Ho-cheung, will attend the screening.
North American Premiere
RED VACANCE, BLACK WEDDING (2011) 86min
Director: Kim Tae-Sik, Park Cheol-Su
Country: South Korea
This two-part film about adultery, is a sexy, funny, over-the-top exploration of why we cheat.
New York Premiere
SACRIFICE (2010) 123min
Director: Chen Kaige
Country: China
Chen Kaige (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE) employs an all-star cast in this searing drama about a doctor who must sacrifice his own son to protect the child of a disgraced court official.
North American Premiere
SCABBARD SAMURAI (2011) 103min
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Country: Japan
From the popular comedian (and director of SYMBOL and BIG MAN JAPAN) comes this deadpan comedy about a disgraced samurai who has 30 days to make a dejected boy prince laugh, or he has to kill himself.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema Cinema
North American Premiere
SECRET LOVE (2010) 111min
Director: Hoon-I Ryu
Country: South Korea
Yoon Jin-Seo plays a wife who meets her husband’s identical twin brother and must choose between the two of them.
Star, Yoon Jin-Seo will attend the screening.
A SIMPLE LIFE (2011) 119min
Director: Ann Hui
Country: Hong Kong
The award winning drama about an elderly nanny (Deanie Ip) and the man she raised from childhood (Andy Lau), this film turns a compassionate, unblinking eye on aging and dying.
New York Premiere
SMUGGLER (2011) 114min
Director: Katsuhito Ishii
Country: Japan
From one of the directors of FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT comes this tale of a criminal underground staffed by debt-ridden losers who can’t catch a break.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
New York Premiere
STARRY STARRY NIGHT (2011) 99mins
Director: Tom Lin
Country: Taiwan
A coming-of-age movie about a 13-year old girl coping with the reality of her parents’ impending divorce. She copes by escaping into a fantasy world depicted onscreen as a beautiful carnival of origami animals, dragons, and hyper-real landscapes.
THE SWIFT KNIGHT (1971) 81min
Director: Chung Chang-Wha
Country: Hong Kong
Lifetime Achievement Award-winner, Chung Chang-Wha (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH), counts this Shaw Brothers swordplay movie as his favorite of his own movies.
Director, Chung Chang-Wha will attend the screening.
New York Premiere
THE SWORD IDENTITY (2011) 110min
Director: Xu Haofeng
Country: China
The directorial debut by Xu Haofeng, the writer of Wong Kar-wai’s upcoming THE GRANDMASTER, this is a deconstruction of the traditional swordplay movie. Exchanging flying sword slingers for a down-to-earth, reality-based fighting style, it punctures the pomposity of the traditional swaggering swordsman film with a bleak blast of black comedy.
New York Premiere
TOKYO PLAYBOY CLUB (2011) 97min
Director: Yosuke Okuda
Country: Japan
Japan’s 25-year-old enfant terrible of yakuza films, directs this bloody-knuckled, highly stylized gangster film that put him on the map as the new king of the genre.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
New York Premiere
TORMENTED (2011) 83min
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Country: Japan
Better known as RABBIT HORROR, cinematographer Christopher Doyle teams up with director Takashi Shimizu (JU-ON, THE GRUDGE) to deliver this gothic fairytale about a murderous bunny.
Co-presented with Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema
WAR OF THE ARROWS (2011) 122min
Director: Han-min Kim
Country: South Korea
Korea’s surprise #1 blockbuster of 2011, this swashbuckling period action riff on Robin Hood won 14 major film awards.
New York Premiere
WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE 1 & 2 (2011) 274min
Director: Wei Te-Sheng
Country: Taiwan
Wei Te-Sheng’s follow-up to CAPE No. 7 is the true, and previously untold, story of an indigenous uprising in 1930 as the Seediq tribes fought the occupying Japanese army to save themselves from extermination. The film has been released in the US in a 2-1/2 hour version, but this is the full, uncut, two-part, 4-1/2 hour epic screened as a double feature.
New York Premiere
YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE (2011) 109min
Director: Giddens Ko
Country: Taiwan
Based on a novel by first-time director Giddens Ko, YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE is a bittersweet movie about how nothing will ever live up to your first love. A huge hit in Taiwan, it is the highest grossing Mandarin-language movie ever released in Hong Kong and the highest-grossing Taiwanese movie released in China.
Director, Giddens Ko, and star, Michelle Chen, will attend the screenings.
North American Premiere
ZERO MAN VS. THE HALF VIRGIN (2012) 105min
Director: Sakichi Satô
Country: Japan
From the writer of ICHI THE KILLER and GOZU comes the tale of a cop who can see the number of times you’ve had sex written on your forehead whenever he plays with himself.
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