NY Asian Film Festival 2011

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 26 June 2011 05:00

Written by Film FestivalTraveler Staff

Subway Cinema presents the 2011 New York Asian Film Festival from July 1 - 14, 2011 at Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater and Japan Society in Manhattan, New York City.

Presented in partnership with The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with programming support from Japan Society's Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, the popular film festival will showcase 46 films (45 feature length and 1 short film) from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, The Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The lineup features World Premieres:

• Takashi Miike’s Ninja Kids!!!
• Eiji Uchida’s The Last Days of the World

International Premieres:

• Johnnie To-produced thriller Punished
• Yu Irie’s Ringing in Their Ears

In addition, 2011 NYAFF will feature 12 films making their North American premieres and 15 more making their New York City debuts.

The Opening Night Film is Milocrorze: a Love Story, directed by Yoshimasa Ishibashi. The "bizarro musical/variety/ samurai/love story" introduces us to three young men who are all in Milocrorze’s thrall, either literally or figuratively. Starring Takayuki Yamada in three different roles. Presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, Yoshimasa Ishibashi and Takayuki Yamada will both attend the screening.

The two Centerpiece Presentations are:

Takashi Miike’s Ninja Kids!!!
Making its world premiere, Ninja Kids!!! is the big-screen adaptation of the long-running Japanese television show Rantaro the Ninja Boy. The film follows the adventures of a young aspiring ninja as he battles with mutant ninjas, monsters and gangster hairdressers, after he is sent to ninja school by his parents as a way to escape his lower class background. Ninja Kids!!! is presented with Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
 
Benny Chan’s Shaolin
This North American premiere is an epic adventure in a retelling of the primal martial arts story: the attempted destruction of Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of martial arts. A ruthless warlord gets his comeuppance and has his entire world destroyed to the point he must seek refuge and (ultimately) redemption with the Shaolin monks. The film stars Andy Lau, Nic Tse, Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing, Wu Jing, Yu Hai. Benny Chan will attend the screening.

The Closing Night film is The Yellow Sea, directed by Na Hong-Jin. Na Hong-Jin makes a big, relentless follow-up to his film The Chaser, about a gambling addicted cabbie set up by a crime boss to take a big fall in Seoul. However, he turns out to have a talent for survival. Starring Ha Jung-Woo, Kim Yun-Seok. Na Hong-Jin will attend the screening.

The NY Asian Film Festival will present its 2011 Star Asia Rising Star Award to Takayuki Yamada. "Arguably Japan’s most versatile young actor," Yamada, who started as a TV heartthrob, has played the gamut from Train Man (his breakthrough role), through being one of Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, to playing every single male part in this year’s Opening Night selection, Milocrorze: a Love Story.

The 2011 Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Hong Kong film legend Tsui Hark.

In 2001, the NYAFF held the first major retrospective of Tsui Hark’s work. This year the Festival presents Tsui Hark himself to headline the programming section, Wu Xia: Hong Kong’s Flying Swordsmen.

Presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, NYAFF will screen new and old classics of the wu xia genre. Wu xia films are visual marvels, with flying swordsmen, magical blades and glowering female steel-slingers.

The line-up includes Tsui Hark’s latest mega-hit, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, and several retrospective titles:

• The Blade
• Dragon Inn
• Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

In honoring Tsui Hark, NYAFF co-founder Goran Topalovic said, "One of the NYAFF’s first events was the Tsui Hark retrospective in 2001, and since we consider him to be one of the most important living Hong Kong directors, we figured it was time to bring him to the festival and give him an award."

Another special NYAFF section is The Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers Focus. "In 2008, when the Korean film industry was at its lowest point, Na Hong-Jin released the word-of-mouth hit, The Chaser, launching a wave of twisty thrillers focused on intense action and ace performances. In this special focus, presented in association with the Korean Cultural Service New York, NYAFF presents the best of What The Chaser has wrought."
 
In addition to Na Hong-Jin’s The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, the Sea of Revenge Focus will include Ryoo Seung-Wan’s The Unjust, Jang Cheol-su’s Bedevilled, Kim Min-Suk’s Haunters, Lee Jeong-Beom’s The Man from Nowhere and Kwok Hyok-Jae’s Troubleshooter.

The third special focus is Su Chao-pin: Taiwan’s King of Entertainment. With the support of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, the NYAFF brings to the city one of Taiwan’s most popular and entertaining directors. Highlighted films will include Reign of Assassins (co-directed with John Woo), The Cabbie, featuring Su’s first produced screenplay, and his directorial debut, BTS: Better than Sex.

Other films making their North American premieres at NYAFF 2011 are:

• Buddha Mountain
• Foxy Festival
• Gantz 2: Perfect Answer
• Heaven’s Story
• Horny House of Horror
• Love and Loathing and Lulu and Ayano
• Ocean Heaven
• Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha: the Great Departure
• Shaolin
• The Unjust

The New York premieres at include:

• 13 Assassins: Director’s Cut
• Abraxas
• Battlefield Heroes
• Bedevilled
• BKO: Bangkok Knockout 
• Gantz
• Haunters 
• Karate Robo Zaborgar
• Machete Maidens Unleashed
• The Recipe
• Reign of Assassins
• Sell Out!
• Troubleshooter
• Yakuza Weapon

For more information, go to www.subwaycinemanews.com.

2011 New York Asian Film Festival
July 1 - 14, 2011

Walter Reade Theater
Film Society of Lincoln Center
165 W. 65th St. (at Amsterdam Ave.)
New York City
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

Japan Society
333 E 47th Street
New York City
212-832-1155
www.japansociety.org

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