ACF 1271: NEW PEOPLE presenting three special film screenings

Japanese Pop Culture VenueWelcomes The Holiday Season And

Presents Eatrip, DOCUMENTARY Of AKB48 to becontinued, And

GANTZ II: Perfect AnswerAt The Bay Area’s Hottest Movie Theatre

NEW PEOPLE, the nation’s only entertainmentcomplex dedicated to Japanese popular culture, has announced a trio of Japaneselive-action films to screen on Saturday, December 17th at thevenue’s SF Film Society | NEW PEOPLE Cinema. The screenings willinclude the culinary documentary Eatrip,which plays at 1:00pm, the newly released music biopic, DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 to be continued, which plays at 3:00pm and againat 8:30pm, and finally the action-packed conclusion of the celebrated GANTZsci-fi saga with a showing of GANTZ II:Perfect Answer at 5:00pm. Tickets are $10.00 each per film. Information andadvance tickets are available at: www.newpeopleworld.com.

Filmgoersthat bring their movie ticket to NEWPEOPLE, The Store, located in the building’s lobby, before or after eachshow will receive $10.00 off any NEW PEOPLE Entertainment DVD or Blu-ray releasethat day.

Eatrip                Screensat 1:00pm

The film takes audiences on an intriguingjourney throughout Japan and features interviews with interesting personalitiesfrom a variety of walks of life to look at how life can be led richly throughthe daily ritual of eating. To eat is more than a necessity – it’s a universal experience all humanbeings share. In the film, Yuri Nomuraembarks on an insightful journey throughout Japan to examine the daily ritualsof eating among people from different walks of life. Actor Tadanobu Asano, singer UA, and fashion designerJurgen Lehl are among those featured. From the Tsukiji fish market to a farm inOkinawa, Eatrip offers poignantinterviews with intriguing personalities including the head monk of a famousBuddhist temple; a distributor of Japanese soup stock (Bonito broth); anOkinawan woman leading a self-sustainable lifestyle devoid of modernconveniences; a tea ceremony master, and a musician and writer who recitespoems about food. Eatrip is availablenow on DVD from NEW PEOPLE Entertainment.

DOCUMENTARYof AKB48 to be continued               Screens at 3:00pm & 8:30pm

Thenew music biopic follows the unstoppable all-femaleJapanese pop idol group, AKB48, on their incredible rise to fame.  AKB48 was conceived in 2005 by YasushiAkimoto, one of Japan’s most respected music producers. Beginning as a smallall-girl singing group based in the Akihabara district of Tokyo – the city’sbustling electronics and anime/pop culture shopping Mecca – AKB48 has grown to60 members and topped Japan’s Oricon music charts with the two best-selling popsingles in 2010 as well as another two singles ranking in the Top 10. The filmwas just released by NEW PEOPLE Entertainment on DVD on December 1st.

GANTZ II:Perfect Answer               Screens at5:00pm

The GANTZsaga meets its ultimate conclusion in GANTZ II:Perfect Answer, which offers an intensely gripping story-line yetto be known to even readers of the original manga series. Determined toresurrect his friends who have died on previous missions, Kei and other memberstrapped in the world of GANTZ aim to score the 100 points needed to breakthrough and regain their freedom. Butwith the emergence of a mysterious man investigating the Gantz members, Gantzbegins to act up and the next target shocks the members. Some fight for love,some for justice but what will each member have to sacrifice? GANTZ is based on a popular manga seriescreated by Hiroya Oku and star leadingJapanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters fromIwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (DeathNote, Detroit Metal City). GANTZ II:Perfect Answer will be released by NEW PEOPLE Entertainment on DVD andBlu-ray on January 17th, 2012.

The SF Film Society | NEW PEOPLE Cinema is a 143-seat subterranean theatre located at 1746 Post Street in San Francisco’s Japantown and features plushseating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX-certifiedsound system.

ACF 1270: VIZ manga updates and digital download news for December

ONE PIECE © 1997 by Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA Inc.

  Viz Media Kicks Off December With

Digital Manga Speed Up for ONE PIECE

Latest Update For VIZManga.com And

The VIZ Manga App For iPad, iPhone And

iPod Touch Includes Limited Time Volume1

20% Off Promotion Starting December 7th

VIZ Media delivers a festive dose of digital sparkle as the 2011 HolidaySeason begins with the latest update of manga (graphic novels) titles availableon VIZManga.comand for digital download on the VIZ MANGA App for the Apple iPad, iPhoneand iPod touch.

The SHONEN JUMP DIGITAL WARP starts todayfor ONE PIECE, with the release of Vol. 59, available the same day the printversion debuts, along with the digital first of ONE PIECE Vol. 60. This will bequickly followed by the digital first debut of ONE PIECE Vols. 61-62 onDecember 12th. The SHONEN JUMP DIGITAL WARP is a ‘speed-up’ of selected titles to bring U.S. readersup-to-date with Japanese releases and prepare for the January 2012 launch ofVIZ Media’s WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP ALPHA, North America’s only near-simultaneousdigital manga magazine.

The SHONEN JUMP DIGITALWARP also continues for Masashi Kishimoto’s hit ninja series NARUTO, with Volume 56 now available,and for Tite Kubo’s supernatural action saga, BLEACH, with Volume 52 debuting onDecember 12th. NARUTO Vols. 54-55 and BLEACH Vols. 49-51, are also available now, ahead of the printeditions.

December 7th willalso see the kick-off of a special limited time promotion that makes all Volume1 manga titles available for up to 20% off (regular prices range from $4.99 to $9.99).This offer will run until midnight PST on December 12th. 

Other notable December digital manga highlights include the release onDecember 12th of fifth and final volume of Kaori Yuki’s GRANDGUIGNOL ORCHESTRA, as well as Vol. 4 of Shunju Aono‘sI’LL GIVE IT MY ALL TOMORROW. Both editions hit one day ahead of their printcounterparts’ release.

Eiichiro Oda’s high seas pirateadventure, ONE PIECE (rated ‘T’ for Teens), is one of the best selling mangaseries of all time. As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of thePirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretchlike rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years, later, Luffysets off in search of the "One Piece," said to be the greatesttreasure in the world...

ONE PIECE Vol. 59

After risking everything he had tosave his brother, Luffy faces his biggest tragedy. Whitebeard will make onelast stand against the Navy forces, but when the epic pirate war finally comesto an end, the entire world will be shaken!

ONE PIECE Vol. 60

With the epic Paramount War nowover, the scene shifts back to when a young Luffy first met Ace. Luffy, Ace andtheir friend Sabo get into all types of trouble as they grow up in a tumultuoustime.

ONE PIECE Vol. 61

Determined tobecome stronger and challenge the toughest seas in the world, Luffy and hiscrew decide to go into training. When they finally reunite years later, theywill meet brand new enemies and adventures!

ONE PIECE Vol. 62

Luffy and theStraw Hat crew board their trusted ship and head under the sea towards Fish-manisland. However, getting in their way will be fierce pirates, underwatervolcanoes, and a humongous sea creature!

Additionalmanga volumes launching the first part of December include:

AvailableNow:

BLEACHVols. 36-37

DENGEKIDAISY Vol. 7

NARUTOVol. 56 – Digital first!

NEONGENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 18

NURA:RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN Vol. 6

OISHINBOVol. 5

ONEPIECE Vols. 59-60 – Digital first forVol. 60!

OURANHIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB Vol. 13

TORIKOVol. 7

December12^th:

BAKUMANVol. 8

BLEACHVol. 52 – Digital first!

BLUEEXORCIST Vol. 5

FUSHIGIYUGI: GENBU KAIDEN Vol. 9

GRANDGUIGNOL ORCHESTRA Vol. 5 – Final volume!

I’LLGIVE IT MY ALL TOMORROW Vol. 4

KEKKAISHIVol. 19

NEONGENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 19

ONEPIECE Vols. 61 & 62 – Digital first!

RUROUNIKENSHIN Vol. 28 – Final volume!

VIZ Media’s multiple digital manga platforms allow for universal access toread manga from an iPhone, iPodtouch, iPad, and now, on VIZManga.com fordesktop/laptop computers as well as Android-powered devices with built-in webbrowsers. Withone account, registered users may access their purchases across even moredevices than ever.

The free VIZManga App continues to be the top app for reading manga and features a rapidlygrowing library of the most popular manga series in the world. Over 45 series and 500+ volumes are currently available, with new additions and free Chapter 1 previews added weekly.

For more information, visit VIZManga.com or www.VIZ.com/apps. 

ACF 1269: Free screening of LEE Chang-dong's POETRY

Korean Cultural Service

presents

Korean Movie Night

Poetry/ Shi

South Korea, 2010, 139 minutes

When: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

Doors open: 6:30 PM

Where: Tribeca Cinemas

54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal Street, NYC

Near the A, C, E @ #1 Canal Street subway stops

Admission: FREE!!!

All seating is first-come, first served.

Winner - “Best Screenplay” - Cannes Film Festival

Winner - “Best Screenplay” - Asian Film Awards

“…quietly devastating…” - The New York Times

“…daring…haunting…a character study of remarkable subtlety…” - The Los Angeles Times

Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine, Oasis, Peppermint Candy) delivers yet another big screen triumph with Poetry, a movie which also marks the return to the silver screen of acting legend, Yoon Jeong-Hee, who has been retired since 1994. In Lee’s film, she plays a 67 year-old grandmother, taking care of her loutish grandson and barely scraping by with a series of odd jobs.

As the movie begins, she has been given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and so she enrolls in a poetry class in an effort to sharpen her mental faculties and delay the advance of her dementia. Simultaneously, a young girl who lives in her neighborhood commits suicide and slowly, in Lee’s expert hands, the strands of this narrative — a brute of a grandson, a tired old woman, poetry, suicide, senility — all come together to deliver yet another of Lee’s enormous, epic, subtle, sprawling portraits of the wo rld.

It’s a movie that should be compared to a novel for all of its elegance and depth, but that is also, truly, cinema: a story that could not be told any other way but in enormous, illuminated images.

For my review of Poetry, which ran on September 26, 2010, click here. The film, which was then screening at the New York Film Festival, earned the highest possible ACF Rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I've watched it again since then, and that rating holds now and will no doubt hold in the future.

ACF 1268: RA.ONE now available on Bollywood Hits On Demand

Bollywood'sBiggest Fall Blockbuster Exclusively Available

On BOLLYWOOD HITSON DEMAND Before Its DVD Release

Bollywood’s blockbuster hit Ra.One, starring international sensations Shah RukhKhan (in dual roles) and Kareena Kapoor, is now available exclusively onBollywood Hits On Demand, prior to its DVD release later this month, less than sixweeks after it’s theatrical release.

Bollywood Hits on Demand, the subscription video on demand servicefeaturing Bollywood blockbuster movies and music, is available to Comcast,Cablevision, Cox, Time Warner, CenturyLink and RCN cable customers in selectareas in the U.S. market.  The movie will remain available on Bollywood Hits On Demand until January 5,2012.  For Comcast and Cox customers, Ra.One will also be available toorder on an a la carte basis for $4.99. 

“Ra.One had a record opening in the U.S., beating those of recentreleases, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer this super blockbuster hit tocable platforms prior to its DVD release. We remain committed to offering thebest of Bollywood movies and music to our on demand customers,” said Ken Naz, President of ErosInternational, USA. 

Ra. One was released theatrically on October 26, 2011,with astounding box officeresults, making it one of the most successful Diwali openings in Indian cinemaby grossing more than $35 million worldwide. This Bollywood blockbusteris a sci-fi,action film filled with stunning visual effects directed by Anubhav Sinha and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal andKareena Kapoor.  The film also features awidely acclaimed soundtrack produced by Vishal & Shekhar, featuring Grammyaward nominee Akon in the hit Bollywood song “Chamak Chalo.”

ACF 1267: Debut screening of award-winning vampire short Bloodtraffick in Hong Kong this weekend

International Award-Winning Vampire Short Bloodtraffick announces its

Debut Asian Screening at Music & Arts Festival Clockenflap 2011

Hong Kong action short starring The Man with the Iron Fists’ Grace Huang

Basking in its recent wins for Best Short, Best Editing and Best Cinematography at the 2011 Salty Horror International Film Festival, Bloodtraffick continues to rule the film festival circuit. After garnering multiple awards abroad, the highly anticipated short Bloodtraffick will be screened on Asian soil for the first time at Hong Kong’s Music & Arts Festival Clockenflap 2011. The festival is taking place December 10h and 11th in West Kowloon from 12 PM to 10 Pm.

Shot in Hong Kong and starring rising Asia artiste Grace Huang – who won Best Actress for Bloodtraffick at the HollyShorts 2011 Film Festival in August – and directed by award-nominated American director Jennifer Thym, the short is currently being produced into a full length feature film with the same title.

Set in a war torn world with vampires pitted against angels, a human vigilante (Ava, played by Grace Huang) – on the hunt for her missing sisters – is lured into the den of a vampire where she faces both a formidable opponent and her darkest fears.

“Bloodtraffick is a kick-ass short that flawlessly combines an intense storyline of good versus evil with brutal action, breath-taking cinematography and an epic original soundtrack. Bloodtraffick gives audiences a unique taste of the dark, gritty side of Hong Kong cinema,” said Grace Huang, Bloodtraffick's lead actress. Director Jennifer Thym goes on to say, “This film represents the Hong Kong film industry’s untapped potential and further enhances the city’s reputation as a hotbed for original movie ideas and talent. We felt that Clockenflap was a perfect venue to offer the diverse grassroots creative community in Hong Kong a taste of the work that is being produced right here and is currently receiving International accolades.”
  

Bloodtraffick premiered at the world renowned Gen Con Indy 2011, followed by screenings at the HollyShorts 2011 Film Festival, the 12th San Diego Asian Film Festival and The 2011 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. Clockenflap 2011 marks its debut screening on the same soil it was shot on.

For more information on Bloodtraffick, visit bloodtraffick.com.