ACF 1266: Retrospective of 15 animation films from Studio Ghibli coming to IFC Center NY

Kiki's Delivery Service

Studio Ghibli RetrospeciveAll 15 Films from 1984 to 2009

Where: IFC Center, 323 6th Ave, NYC

When: December 16, 2011 - January 12, 2012Multiple Shows Per Day

GKIDS brings a complete retrospective of films from Japan's famed Studio Ghibli animation studio to the IFC Center this winter. Don't miss your chance to see some of the greatest films of all time on new 35mm prints, including the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and North American Premieres of Only Yesterday and The Ocean Waves.

Films will be presented in both subtitled and English language versions (where available), with subtitled versions playing 6:00 pm and later.

Complete information including lineup, film descriptions and showtimes here.

ACF 1248: Two Chinese films to close-out IN FOCUS: FORTISSIMO FILMS at MoMA

In Focus: Fortissimo Films will conclude tomorrow with these two screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC.

 Beijing Bastards / Beijing Zazhong

Directed by Zhang Yuan

With Cui Jian, Li Wei, Bian Jing, Wu Lala

China/Hong Kong, 1992, 95 minutes
When: Monday, November 21, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Synopsis: Beijing Bastards, regarded as China’s first independent film, has been officially banned, widely boycotted, and constantly hunted down. Zhang Yuan, a leading figure of China’s so-called Sixth Generation Filmmakers, bravely took on the taboo subject of Beijing’s disaffected youth, brilliantly combining reality and fantasy in the tale of a rock idol who attempts to organize a concert and is prevented from doing so, and a young woman whose failed suicide attempt brings her into contact with different cultures within and on the edges of the city and society. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

 Springtime in a Small Town / Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun

Directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang

With Hu Jing Fan, Wu Jun, Xin Bai Qing

China, 2002, 112 minutes
When: Monday, November 21, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Synopsis: In a small southern Chinese town in 1946, an unexpected visitor stirs up feelings of lust and passion within the serene walls of the Dai family’s traditional courtyard home. The young but sickly head of the household, his devoted, beautiful wife, and everyone else in the house soon begin to question the meaning of friendship, honor, and trust—all with decidedly unexpected results. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

ACF 1245: ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU at MoMA tomorrow

  All About Lily  Chou-CHou

Written and directed by Shunji Iwai

With Hayato Ichihara, Shugo Oshinari, Ayumi Ito

Japan, 2001, 146 minutes
When: Sunday, November 20, 2011, 2:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Where: MoMA, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC 

In Japanese; English subtitles

Beginning as an interactive novel Iwai wrote and posted on the Internet, All About Lily Chou Chou perfectly captures the absurdities of growing up in Japan’s pervasive pop/cyber culture, in which Internet chat rooms, pop-idol worship, and harrowing school bullying are just part of a teenager’s daily life. Iwai’s poetic, gorgeously shot coming-of-age tale provides a disturbing look at the violence, terror, and isolation that characterize growing up in Japan today. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

This screening is part of the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films.

ACF 1244: Free screening of DANCING ZOO next Tuesday

 Korean Cultural Service NY

presents

Korean Movie Night

Series 6: Music Films

 

  Dancing Zoo

South Korea, 2010, 114 minutes

When: Tuesday, November 22, 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.

North American Premiere

It flew under the radar when it was first released, but since then it’s picked up thousands of passionate underground fans. A riff on A Star is Born mixed with a little bit of Once, this is one of the sweetest, saddest movies about two kids with guitars who fall in love ever made. It’s a familiar story for everyone from struggling Williamsburg singer-songwriters, to Seoul’s underground rockers.

Joon-Soo and Hee-Jung meet cute when he’s singing a break-up song to a monkey in the zoo, the two fall for each other and decide to take their relationship to the next level: they start a band together. But one gets successful, while the other falls by the wayside, and it’s not clear that any number of power pop duets can keep them together. If you were ever in a band, this one’s for you.

ACF 1243: SHOWER at MoMA

Da Ming, Master Liu, and Er Ming

 Shower / Xizhao

Directed by Zhang Yang

With Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu

China, 1999, 92 minutes
When: Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
Where: MoMA, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC

 This evening the Museum of Modern Art will again present this wonderful drama with comic touches as part of the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films.

Da Ming (Pu Cun Xin), a businessman in Shenzhen in southern China,  returns north to his home in Beijing because he believes that his widowed father has died. But Master Liu (Zhu Xu) is very much alive, running his traditional bathhouse with his younger son Er Ming (Jiang Wu), who has mental retardation but functions at a relatively high level. Da Ming had misinterpreted a card his brother had sent, a crayon drawing showing him standing next to their father who is laid out flat in bed. When asked about why he drew the picture that way, Er Ming explains that their father is asleep in bed and that he sent the card because he missed his brother.

Da Ming in a high-tech shower prior to his trip to Beijing

Since both his father and brother are well, Da Ming, who clearly has not visited in quite some time, intends to make it a short visit and to fly back to his wife and job. But situations arise that repeatedly delay his departure. In the course of the film, Da Ming, whose life centers on making money in China's changing and booming economy comes to realize the value and importance of family and social traditions, both of which tend to be forgotten in the quest for wealth.

The three lead actors are all excellent in their roles, particularly Wu Jiang. The film also boasts fine  performances in supporting roles. These include two elderly regulars at the bathhouse who engage in cricket fighting, and a husband and wife who have been fighting with each other since an unusual incident two years earlier.

Er Ming listens to 'O Sole Mio

But the most important supporting character is a young man who sings 'O sole mio while standing under the shower. Whenever he does, Er Ming comes over, sits down, and listens to his singing with rapt attention. This connection between them plays an important role in two scenes. One is late in the film at the Neighborhood Culture Party, where the young man freezes with stage fright in front of the audience until Er Ming comes to his aide with a hilarious ploy. The other is the final scene in the film involving Er Ming at the bathhouse.

It would have been easy for this film to wallow in cloying melodrama. But Zhang Yang displays a deft hand directing a fine script about an all too human situation. Rather than being manipulative in typically all-too-obvious ways, the film takes hold of your heart and gently squeezes, genuinely earning every bit of the viewers emotional involvement and response.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars. Very highly recommended.

ACF 1242: LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE screening at MoMA tomorrow afternoon

 Last Life in the Universe

Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Screenplay by Prabda Yoon, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Cinematography by Chris Doyle

With Asano Tadanobu, Sinitta Boonyasak, Matsushige Yutaka

Thailand, 2003, 112 minutes

In Thai, Japanese, English; English subtitles

Friday, November 18, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Last Life in the Universe will be shown at the New York's Museum of Modern Art tomorrow afternoon as part of the series In Focus; Fortissimo Films.

This beautifully photographed film—one of several in this exhibition photographed by Doyle— illustrates Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s profound understanding of the aimless spirit and cautious dreams of Asia’s youth. The fortunes of Kenji, a suicide-obsessed Japanese man living in Bangkok, take a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills a Yakuza gang member. That same night, Noi, a Thai barmaid in the burnt- out beach town of Pattaya, accidentally kills her sister. Thrown together by this common twist of fate, Kenji and Noi find their lives inextricably linked as they hide out together, hoping to find love and redemption. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

ACF 1241: A RATIONAL MIND: THE FILMS OF EDWARD YANG

Yi Yi

A Rational Mind: The Films of Edward Yang

When November 22-27, 2011

Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center

The Walter Read Theater, 165 West 65 Street 

“Life is a mixture of happy and sad things. Movies are so lifelike—that’s why we love them.”
“Then who needs movies? Just stay home and live life.”
“My uncle says we live three times as long since man invented movies.”
“How can that be?”
“It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life.”
—Dialogue from Edward Yang’s Yi Yi

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be presenting this eight film retrospective of films by the highly regarded Taiwanese director Edward Yang.

Born in Shanghai in 1947, Edward Yang was still a toddler when his family, like some two million other Chinese citizens, emigrated from mainland China to Taiwan after the end of the Chinese Civil War. Not surprisingly, one of the richest themes in his films (as in those of his friend and contemporary Hou Hsiao-Hsien) would become the search for identity—personal, social and political—in the small island nation.

But Yang’s work was equally concerned with such universal subjects as the longing for missed opportunities and the age-old conflicts between parents and children, his deeply rational mind (he came to filmmaking after studying computer science and applied physics) always striving to impose order on the irrational world of human experience.

His untimely death in 2007 robbed world cinema of one of its greatest talents at the peak of his career. All the more tragically, only one of Yang’s features, the acclaimed Yi Yi, had managed to receive commercial distribution in the United States, where the director lived for much of his adult life.  This retrospective will serve as a noteworthy effort to correct this neglect.

Info, schedule, and tickets here.

A Brighter Summer Say

In a related event, the U.S. theatrical premiere of Yang's A Brighter Summer Day, will take place November 25 - December 1 in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.  Info/Tickets

ACF 1239: DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP and THE EYE at MOMA

After a one day hiatus, the film series In Focus: Fortissimo Films will return to New York's Museum of Modern Art tomorrow with two fine Asian films.

Devils on the Doorstep / Guizi lai le

Directed by Jiang Wen

Screenplay by You Fengwei, Shi Jianquan, Shu Ping, Jiang Wen.

With Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding

China, 2000, 140 minutes

In Mandarin, Japanese; English subtitles

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Synopsis: To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners have long been “devils”—potentially dangerous outsiders who arrive with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of the Japanese soldiers who invaded China in the 1930s. Despite having to give a percentage of the grain harvest to the Japanese, Ma Dasan and his neighbors in a small northern Chinese village coexist with them peacefully—until the night two prisoners are dumped on Ma Dasan’s doorstep, one a Japanese soldier, the other a Chinese collaborator. Director Jiang Wen, the most famous actor of his generation thanks to the TV series A Beijinger in New York, brings great emotional weight to the role of Ma Dasan. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

ACF Comments: At the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, Devils on the Doorstep won the Grand Prize of the Jury (though not the Palme d'Or for which it was nominated. It has been banned in China, for which various explanations have been offered.  In any case, it's a truly great film with spot on performances and exquisite black-and-white cinematography.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended

For those unable to make this, the second and final screening at this film series, Devils on the Doorstep is available with some nice extras on DVD from Home Vision, which became part of  Entertainment/Image Entertainment in 2005.

The Eye / Jian Gui

Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang
Written by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Jo Jo Hui, Yuet Chun

With Lee Sin-jie, Lawrence Chow, So Yut Lai.

Hong Kong/Thailand, 2001, 98 minutes

In Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, English; English subtitles

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 

Synopsis: A cornea transplant restores a young musician’s vision, but a series of inexplicable events leads her to believe that her restored sight involves “more than meets the eye.” Her new eyes foresee disasters that only she can stop, but will she have the courage to change the future? The American remake, starring Jessica Alba, was a dud, but the original shook audiences around the world and spawned a string of successful sequels from the Pang Brothers. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

ACF Comments: As has been the case (usually unfortunately) with numerous recent Asian horror films, The Eye was remade by Hollywood. The 2008 U.S. version stars Jessica Alba and was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. Definitely stick with the original Pang brothers film.

ACF 1237: Chinese comedy SHOWER showing at MoMA tomorrow

 Shower / Xizhao

Directed by Zhang Yang

With Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu

China, 1999, 92 minutes

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Monday, November 14, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 

Shower will be the next film showing in the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films at MoMA, in midtown Manhattan at 11 West Fifty-third Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. It will also screen on Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2.

Synopsis: Evoking the sharp contrasts of China’s rapid transition from traditional living to ultra-modernization, Shower opens with a wondrous fantasy of a high-tech automated shower, which then slams into a vision of a traditional bathhouse—a couple thousand years old and a culture unto itself. Mistakenly believing that his father has passed away, a man returns to Beijing from the Shenzhen region, where he had been looking to be part of China’s economic boom. His father, meanwhile, has remained behind to raise a develop-mentally challenged son and manage a run-down bathhouse in dire need of upkeep. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

ACF 1231: Three Asian films screening at MoMA tomorrow, November 12th

Three more Asian films will be playing in the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films at MoMA on Saturday. (For today's lineup, see ACF 1228.)

Devils on the Doorstep / Guizi lai le

Directed by Jiang Wen

Screenplay by You Fengwei, Shi Jianquan, Shu Ping, Jiang Wen.

With Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding

China, 2000, 140 minutes

In Mandarin, Japanese; English subtitles

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 2:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 

To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners have long been “devils”—potentially dangerous outsiders who arrive with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of the Japanese soldiers who invaded China in the 1930s. Despite having to give a percentage of the grain harvest to the Japanese, Ma Dasan and his neighbors in a small northern Chinese village coexist with them peacefully—until the night two prisoners are dumped on Ma Dasan’s doorstep, one a Japanese soldier, the other a Chinese collaborator. Director Jiang Wen, the most famous actor of his generation thanks to the TV series A Beijinger in New York, brings great emotional weight to the role of Ma Dasan. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

Last Life in the Universe

Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Screenplay by Prabda Yoon, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Cinematography by Chris Doyle

With Asano Tadanobu, Sinitta Boonyasak, Matsushige Yutaka

Thailand, 2003, 112 minutes

In Thai, Japanese, English; English subtitles

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 5:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 

This beautifully photographed film—one of several in this exhibition photographed by Doyle— illustrates Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s profound understanding of the aimless spirit and cautious dreams of Asia’s youth. The fortunes of Kenji, a suicide-obsessed Japanese man living in Bangkok, take a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills a Yakuza gang member. That same night, Noi, a Thai barmaid in the burnt- out beach town of Pattaya, accidentally kills her sister. Thrown together by this common twist of fate, Kenji and Noi find their lives inextricably linked as they hide out together, hoping to find love and redemption. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

Beijing Bastards / Beijing Zazhong

Directed by Zhang Yuan

With Cui Jian, Li Wei, Bian Jing, Wu Lala. 

1992. China/Hong Kong, 1992, 95 minutes

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 8:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 

Beijing Bastards, regarded as China’s first independent film, has been officially banned, widely boycotted, and constantly hunted down. Zhang Yuan, a leading figure of China’s so-called Sixth Generation Filmmakers, bravely took on the taboo subject of Beijing’s disaffected youth, brilliantly combining reality and fantasy in the tale of a rock idol who attempts to organize a concert and is prevented from doing so, and a young woman whose failed suicide attempt brings her into contact with different cultures within and on the edges of the city and society. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

ACF 1229: LOVE EXPOSURE to close out Sion Sono retrospective

Love Exposure / Ai no mukidashi
Directed by Sion Sono
With Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima and Sakura Andô
Japan, 2008, 237 minutes, Digital Projection

When: Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Where: The Museum of Arts and Design ("MAD")
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
Admission: $10 general / $7 members and students 

The Museum of Arts and Design's eight film retrospective Sion Sono: The New Poet will conclude tomorrow night with this riveting epic.

Synopsis: A diversion from Sono's widely recognized horror films, Love Exposure offers both an in-depth and hilarious discourse on sin and lust, as well as a complex study of the loss of identity. Centering around an unusual love triangle made up of characters that defy societal norms, "Love Exposure" is critically acclaimed as Sono's masterpiece.

Winner of numerous international film awards including the Asian Film Awards Best Director award for Sono and the Berlin International Film Festival Caligari Film Award, Love Exposure is a tour de force on repression, cults, Catholicism, and of course, love.

To purchase tickets, click here or call 1.800.838.3006.

ACF 1228: TEARS OF THE TIGER and HAPPY TOGETHER to screen at MoMA on Friday, November 11th

Featuring 10 Asian and 1 non-Asian films, In Focus: Fortissimo Films begins at MoMA tonight with a screening of Warriors of the Rainbow. (Read about it at ACF 1225.) Two other terrific films will be shown tomorrow, Friday, November 11th:

 

Tears of the Black Tiger / Fata Lai Jone 

Written and directed by Wisit Sasanatieng

With Chartchai Ngamsan, Stella Malucchi, Supakorn Kitsuwon 

Thailand, 2000, 104 minutes
In Thai; English subtitles 
Friday, November 11, 2011, 4:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 

Inspired by classic Westerns and romantic dramas, this Thai-spiced “Spaghetti” Western, about the impossible love of a governor’s daughter for the bandit nicknamed the Black Tiger, adds a gorgeous soundtrack to the requisite shoot-outs, broken-hearted cowboys, and beautiful women. The film’s faux-hand-tinted, supersaturated palette emphasizes the nostalgic atmosphere, in a unique homage to the larger-than-life Thai Western genre. For my review of the film last June, when it scrteened at Asia Society, click here.

Happy Together / Cheun gwong tsa sit 

Written and directed by Wong Kar-wai

With Leslie Cheung Kwong-wing, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Chang Chen

Hong Kong, 1997, 96 minutes

Friday, November 11, 2011, 8:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1

Lovers who are happy together are all the same. Lovers whose relationships fall apart are all different, unique in the ways they inflict emotional torture on themselves and each other. Lai Yiu-fai and Ho Po-wing are in love when they arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong, but something goes wrong as they travel south in search of adventure. Poetic, inventive, and heartbreakingly honest, Happy Together garnered several major awards and cemented Wong Kar-wai’s status as one of contemporary cinema’s preeminent talents. Courtesy Kino Lorber. In Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish; English subtitles. 96 min.

The film will be introduced by renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle!!!!!

 

ACF 1225: Two screenings of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale at MoMA

 Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

Written and directed by Wei Te-sheng

With Lin Ching-tai, Umin Boya, Ando Masanobu, Vivian Hsu Ando

Taiwan, 2011, 150 minutes

In Japanese; English subtitles.

When: Thursday, November 10, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

and Sunday November 20, 2011 @ 5:00 PM
Where: The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY

MoMA will present two sneak previews of Wei Te-sheng’s historical epic, fresh from its recent world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The film offers a unique retelling of a little-known episode from 20th-century history: between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a Japanese colony inhabited by both Han Chinese immigrants and the remnants of the aboriginal tribes who first settled the land.

In 1930 Mouna Rudo, the leader of one of these Seediq tribes, forged a coalition with other Seediq tribal heads and plotted a rebellion against their Japanese colonial masters. Wei Tesheng’s previous film, Cape No. 7, became Taiwan’s highest-grossing film ever, thus allowing him to realize this ambitious passion project, which has been in the planning stages for a decade. The film will be introduced by director Wei.

These two screenings of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is part of the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films,  which runs November 10–21, 2011.

ACF 1209: IN FOCUS: FORTISSIMO FILMS to feature 10 Asian films

Last Life in the Universe (Thailand)

In Focus: Fortissimo Films is an upcoming series that will screen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from November 10-21, 2011. Ten of the eleven films are from Asian countries, including All About Lily Chou Chou (Japan), Devils on the Doorstep (China), and Tears of the Black Tiger (Thailand). The one non-Asian film is Yes Nurse! No Nurse! from The Netherlands.

An early, visionary force in the global independent film movement, Fortissimo Films now has offices in several entertainment capitals and maintains an expansive reach within the international independent film community, nurturing relationships with talented directors and producers throughout the world. Fortissimo has played an especially important role in the international expansion of Asian cinema, helping to introduce a multitude of talented and innovative artists. The company’s willingness to champion films that confront tough political and artistic issues is evident in the titles in this exhibition, which stretch across many territories to represent two decades of production, sales, and distribution.

In addition to supporting scores of notable films from Hong Kong and China—from Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (Hong Kong) to Tian Zhuangzhuang’s Springtime in a Small Town (China) and Zhang Yuan’s Beijing Bastards (China/Hong Kong)—the company has helped to develop titles from Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines and, in particular, Thailand, with filmmakers such as Wisit Sasanatieng and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (both of whom are represented in this series).

Full information about the films to be shown, the screening schedule, and ordering tickets can be found here.

In Focus: Fortissimo Films was organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film at MoMA.

ACF 1204: Museum of Arts and Design presents EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS at 7:00 PM this Friday night

 Exte: Hair Extensions / Ekusute
Directed by Sion Sono
With Chiaki Kuriyama, Miku Sato, Megumi Sato
Japan, 2007, 108 minutes, Digital Projection
When: Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Where: The Museum of Arts and Design ("MAD")
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
Admission: $10 general / $7 members and students 

The Museum of Arts and Design's film program Sion Sono: The New Poet continues this Friday, October 27th with Exte: Hair Extensions.

Synopsis: In this horrific, comedic, and mesmerizing film, director Sion Sono explores the dark undercurrents in the superficial world of beauty. Starring Chiaki Kuriyama (who made her international debut in Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 as Lucy Liu's bodyguard/yakuza schoolgirl, Gogo Yubari), Exte: Hair Extensions starts with the mysterious delivery of human hair along with a dead girl with a shaved head to a beauty salon. Her corpse miraculously starts growing hair, which is then sold as hair extensions to young women—who are then found murdered. A truly unique horror tale as only Sono could tell it.

Tickets here or call 1.800.838.3006.

Recently yours truly became a co-host on the VCinema Podcast. I suggested Exte as the film to be reviewed on my first show. It's Episode 035 and you can access it here. Our discussion of the film begins at around the 47:08 minute mark.

I've seen Exte three times to date and have really enjoyed it each time. I give it a minimum ACF Rating of 3.5 out of 4 stars, very highly recommended.

For those of you who can't make it to Friday's screening, despair not. Exte under the title Hair Extensions, is available in a fine double disc DVD set from Media Blasters. It can be purchased at Amazon.com and elsewhere.

And in a final related news item, director Sion Sono (who will be 50 on December 18th) and 30 year old actress Megumi Kagurazaka are reportedly going to marry before the end of this year. Megumi has been in three of Sono's films, the first being 2010's Cold Fish. Read more about the planned nuptials at Tokyograph.com by clicking here.

ACF 1202: BEIJING BESIEGED BY WASTE at Asia Society NY

Beijing Besieged by Waste (2011). (dGenerate Films)

 Beijing Besieged by Waste

Directed by WANG Jiuliang

China, 2011, 72 minutes, Digibeta, English Subtitles

When: Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Where: Asian Society

725 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Asia Society NY's Visions of a New China documentary film series concludes this coming Saturday afternoon with this recently and timely look at the impact of waste on Beijing's environments.



Synopsis: With a population of about 20 million, the growing city of Beijing produces 30,000 tons of waste each day. Photographer/filmmaker Wang Jiuliang traveled around the city and visited 460 legal and illegal landfills from 2008 to 2010 to document the collection of garbage and excrement, the environmental calamity and the life cycles around these landfills, which include scavengers building a precarious livelihood, green spaces forming on top of waste, and livestock being fed trash. An informative and alarming portrait of urban ecology, the film has earned keen Chinese media coverage and the attention of government officials.

Interview with director WANG Jiuliang:

WANG Jiuliang was born in Anqiu, Shandong Province in 1976. He is a graduate of the Cinema-Television School at Communication University of China. Wang is also a photographer. Beijing Besieged by Waste accompanies a larger photography project.

Tickets here.

The Visions of a New China film series was curated by La Frances Hui and is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Center on U.S.-China Relations and New York State Council on the Arts.

ACF 1198: Free screning of "Moss"

 Korean Cultural Service NY

presents

Korean Movie Night

Series 5: Hidden Gems of Korean Cinema, Part II

Moss

Directed by: Kang Woo-Suk

South Korea, 2010, 163 minutes

When: Monday, October 31st @ 7:00 PM
(Halloween Special Screening)

Doors open: 6:30 PM

Where: Tribeca Cinemas

54 Varick Street, NYC

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

Admission: FREE!!!

All seating is first-come, first served.

Kang Woo-Suk has made more blockbusters than any other Korean director
(PUBLIC ENEMY, SILMIDO, HANBANDO) and this movie, stuffed with stars, was
yet another massive critical and commercial hit for him.

A disgraced cop travels to the remote village where his estranged father has just died of "natural causes" and rapidly uncovers a conspiracy that reaches back decades and encompasses hundreds of people. An epic thriller, this unrelenting flick grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go.

ACF 1197: Sion Sono's STRANGE CIRCUS at MAD tomorrow night

Strange Circus / Kimyo na Sakasu 
Directed by Sion Sono 

With Masumi Miyazaki, Issei Ishida and Rie Kuwana
Japan, 2005, 108 minutes, Digital Projection
When: Friday, October 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Where: The Museum of Arts and Design ("MAD")
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
Admission: $10 general / $7 members and students 

The Museum of Arts and Design's film program Sion Sono: The New Poet continues tomorrow, Friday, October 21th with Strange Circus.

Synopsis: The film is Sono's exploration of the constraints of reality—through the eyes of a disabled erotic novelist. Novelist Taeko writes stories of incest, murder, and abuse. As her own life and relationships are revealed, Taeko leads her assistant Yuji and the audience through an exploration of the confines of both her fictional stories and her own understanding of what is real. Thought-provoking and visually stunning, Strange Circus won the Berlin International Film Festival’s Reader Jury of the “Berliner Zeitung” in 2006.

Click here to purchase tickets, or call 1.800.838.3006.

ACF 1195: FLOATING at Asia Society NY this Friday, October 21st

Floating

Directed by HUANG Weikai

China, 2005, 93 minutes, DVCAM, English Subtitles

When: Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6:45 PM

Where: Asian Society

725 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Asia Society NY's Visions of a New China documentary film series continues this coming Friday evening with HUANG Weikai's Floating.

Synopsis: A 30-year-old rural-born singer brings his guitar to Guangzhou to eke out a living by performing in public spaces. Like many migrant workers who don’t possess residence permits to stay in this southern metropolis, he is constantly dodging the authorities. The camera closely follows the singer’s daily life as he performs in pedestrian underpasses and lives out his tumultuous romantic life, which involves suicide, abortion and a bad break-up. As the film progresses, we find the filmmaker, who also made the much-praised Disorder (2009), getting intimately involved with his subject’s precarious existence. Floating offers a humanist portrayal of those who drift on the fringes of society.

Black Pottery Prize and Audience Award, Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, China (2005)
New Filmmaker Award, Reel China Documentary Biennial, New York, Shanghai (2006)
Hong Kong International Film Festival (2006)
The International Umbria Film Festival, Italy (2007)

Director HUANG Weikai was born in 1972 in Guangdong Province, China. He studied Chinese painting for 15 years and graduated from the Chinese Art Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He used to work as a cinema promoter, art editor, graphic designer, movie script writer and cameraman. Since 2002, he has been directing independent films. His 2009 found-footage documentary, Disorder, has been acclaimed as "One of the most mesmerizing films I’ve seen in ages" by Hua Hsu in The Atlantic for its unflinching look at the absurdity and anarchy of urban life in contemporary China

Tickets for Floating here.

The Visions of a New China film series is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Center on U.S.-China Relations and New York State Council on the Arts.

ACF 1191: CHILDREN OF THE CHINESE CIRCUS at Asia Society

 Children of the Chinese Circus
Directed by GUO Jing and KE Dingding
China/UK., 2007, 58 min. Digibeta.
When: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 3:00 pm 

Where: Asia Society 

725 Park Avenue 

New  York, NY 10021 

"Recalling the finestnonfiction achievements of Frederick Wiseman…. Fiercely intelligent." —Robert Koehler, Variety 

Visions of a New China, the nine film documentary series presented by Asia Society (NY) continues this afternoon with this fascinating and revealing movie. It's about the rigorous training to which young and teenage children are subjected in order to acquire the skills to become circus performers. In terms of who is being depicted, the film's English title would more accurately be "Children of the Shanghai Circus School," but this is not a significant matter.

Synopsis: Take a behind-the-scenes look at thetraining of some of the world’s best acrobats and circus performers. In thisShanghai circus school, a highly disciplined environment, small children endureexcruciating and dangerous training regimes. Mostly from poor families, thesechildren are sent to the school by their parents in the hope that the specialtytraining will secure them a future. While small children sustain agonizingdaily practice, the teachers are also under tremendous pressure to produceaward-winning stunts. A faculty meeting turns into a Cultural Revolution-styledcriticizing session. This film is set to change your perception of acrobaticperformances forever. 

ACF Review: The film focuses on three acts. One is a young boy who performs solo acrobatics, such as one-armed handstands. He is prone to overeating and gaining too much weight when he visits his parents, who are both mute. (He is shown practicing a headstand in the top image.)

The Threesome Handstand Group at practice

Second is the Threesome Handstand Group, which as its name suggest is a trio of acrobats. The older male does a handstand on the ground, forming the base for the performance. One girl does a handstand on his feet, then another girl does the same on the first girl's feet. We watch them and their female coach as they struggle to find the proper balance points in order to free themselves of the need for safety harnesses.

Two members of the Flying Trapeze troupe during a performance.

Lastly, there is the large group of male and female Flying Trapeze artists. They too go through a long period of struggle; in their case the problem is missed catches of the girls by the males on the trapeze swings.

The coaches are generally harsh and at times brutal with their students. Though they can also be the same with one another, as shown in an intense self-criticism session that the female coach of the handstand group undergoes. On the other hand, at times the coaches do give positive pep talks to their students, and when one young girl in the trapeze act suffers an injury, the care and concern of the coaches is clearly genuine, and even borders on tenderness.

One of the things that occurred to me while watching this film was that Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao must have undergone much the same type of training at the China Drama Academy, the Peking Opera school they attended.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

 Children of the Chinese Circus will be shown in a double bill with Brave Father, a film about a peasant father who sacrifices for his son's college education. Brave Father will screen at 4:10 pm