14th New York Asian Film Festival
June 26-July 11, 2015 at Walter Reade Theater and SVA Theater
co-presented with Film Society of Lincoln Center
Welcome to the 14th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF)! We’re back with 52 feature films, including 1 World Premiere, 3 International Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, 5 US Premieres, and 14 New York City debuts. The festival will be attended by 19 international filmmakers and celebrity guests traveling from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the US, headlined by this year’s NYAFF award recipients: Hong Kong’s legendary director Ringo Lam (Lifetime Achievement Award), Hong Kong superstar Aaron Kwok (Star Asia Award), and Japanese actor Shota Sometani (Screen International Rising Star Award).
NYAFF 2015 will feature five focus programs: “Hong Kong Panorama”; “Myung Films: Pioneers and Women Behind the Camera in Korean Film”; “New Cinema from Japan”; “Taiwan Cinema Now!”; and “The Last Men in Japanese Film,” a joint tribute to Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara, both of whom passed away last November.
Though the festival is traditionally rooted in genre film, NYAFF 2015 continues to feature ambitious storytelling that delineate themes that unite, rather than divide, the nations and their cinemas. The goal of this year’s program is to look in both directions: the present and the past, with the inclusion of a number of movies that cast an unblinking eye on the wounds of history (the Khmer Rouge in The Last Reel, the Cultural Revolution in Red Amnesia). In an age when nationalism has taken firm root in many countries, denying cinema its freedom and jeopardizing the existence of some of the most established festivals, this year’s lineup also offers emotional morality tales (Little Big Master, Cart, Socialphobia) and films that speak truth to power (The Whistleblower, Solomon’s Perjury Part 1 & 2).
Women come to the fore with both a program highlighting directors and producers currently working behind the scenes in Korea, and films from Japan that offer superb portraits of women: defiant, fierce, and free. The festival also celebrates the Asian masculinity on screen, with a tribute to two iconic Japanese actors who set the blueprint for machismo and cool in Japan and beyond — Ken Takakura’s death was widely lamented on Weibo (China’s most popular social media site) and even on state run China Central Television (CCTV).
After eight successful years of partnership with Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Films, this year’s diverse selection of Japanese films has been fully integrated with the rest of the Festival’s program, and SVA Theatre’s Silas and Beatrice Theatres have been added to the list of venues. With three days of screenings at the SVA Theatre (June 9 - 11), we’ll be able to bring downtown audiences the biggest and boldest in Asian cinema — sensory feasts that deserve to be experienced on the biggest screens (such as Brotherhood of Blades, The Royal Tailor, The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D, and Vengeance of an Assassin).
More than ever, the festival strives to highlight East Asia’s crucial role in today’s ever-changing world of film. At a time when many major film festivals are more Eurocentric and Western-dominated than ever, NYAFF continues to show that the real heartbeat of the movies lies in Asia.
Sidebars
HONG KONG PANORAMA
MYUNG FILMS: PIONEERS AND WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA IN KOREAN FILM NEW CINEMA FROM JAPAN
TAIWAN CINEMA NOW!
THE LAST MEN IN JAPANESE FILMS - a Ken Takakura/Bunta Sugawara Tribute
Films
ABASHIRI PRISON (1965)
BANGLASIA (2015)
BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY (1973)
BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES (2014)
CAFÉ. WAITING. LOVE (2014)
CART (2014)
CHASUKE’S JOURNEY (2015)
CITY ON FIRE (1987)
COIN LOCKER GIRL (2015)
COLD WAR (2012)
COPS VS. THUGS (1975)
EMPIRE OF LUST (2015)
A FOOL (2014)
FULL ALERT (1997)
FULL STRIKE (2015)
FUNUKE, SHOW SOME LOVE YOU LOSERS! (2007)
INITIATION LOVE (2015)
INSANITY (2014)
THE ISLE (2000)
IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW IN HONG KONG (2014)
KABUKICHO LOVE HOTEL (2014)
LA LA LA AT ROCK BOTTOM (2015)
THE LAST REEL (2014)
LITTLE BIG MASTER (2015)
THE MAN WHO STOLE THE SUN (1979)
MEETING DR. SUN (2014)
MY LOVE, DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER (2014)
NOWHERE GIRL (2015)
PALE MOON (2014)
PARTNERS IN CRIME (2014)
PERMANENT NOBARA (2010)
PORT OF CALL (2015)
THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG (2005)
RED AMNESIA (2014)
REVIVRE (2014)
RIVER ROAD (2014)
ROBBERY (2015)
THE ROYAL TAILOR (2014)
RUINED HEART: ANOTHER LOVE STORY BETWEEN A CRIMINAL AND A WHORE (2014)
SECOND CHANCE (2014)
SOCIALPHOBIA (2014)
SOLOMON’S PERJURY PART 1: SUSPICION (2015)
SOLOMON’S PERJURY PART 2: JUDGEMENT (2015)
THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN (2014)
TAKSU (2014)
TALES OF CHIVALRY IN JAPAN (1964)
TOKYO TRIBE (2014)
TWENTY (2015)
TWO THUMBS UP (2015)
VENGEANCE OF AN ASSASSIN (2014)
VIOLATER (2014)
WAIKIKI BROTHERS (2001)
THE WHISTLEBLOWER (2014)
WOLVES, PIGS, AND MEN (1964)
Guests
Ringo Lam (CITY ON FIRE, FULL ALERT)
Aaron Kwok (PORT OF CALL, THE DETECTIVE)
Shota Sometani (KABUKICHO LOVE HOTEL, TOKYO TRIBE)
Shim Jae-myung (CART, WAIKIKI BROTHERS)
Daihachi Yoshida (FUNUKE SHOW SOME LOVE YOU LOSERS!, PALE MOON) Ryuichi Hiroki (KABUKICHO LOVE HOTEL)
Sabu (CHASUKE'S JOURNEY)
Yim Soon-rye (THE WHISTLEBLOWER, WAIKIKI BROTHERS)
Boo Ji-young (CART)
Philip Yung (PORT OF CALL)
Yee Chih-Yen (MEETING DR. SUN)
Lee Won-suk (THE ROYAL TAILOR)
Namewee (BANGLASIA)
Kulikar Sotho (THE LAST REEL)
Lau Ho-Leung (TWO THUMBS UP)
Emily Ting (IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW IN HONG KONG)
Jamie Chung (IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW IN HONG KONG)
Bryan Greenberg (IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW IN HONG KONG)
https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff15/films
New York Asian Film Festival 2015 (at Film at Lincoln Center)
