9th New York Asian Film Festival

June 25 – July 8, 2010 at the Walter Reade Theater, Japan Society, and IFC Center
co-presented (for the first time!) with Film Society of Lincoln Center, in association with Japan Society/JAPAN CUTS

WE’VE SOLD OUT! The New York Asian Film Festival was started to give New York audiences a taste of the kind of crazed populist filmmaking going on all over Asia, the kind of awesome movies that the Film Society of Lincoln Center would never screen. But we’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers and one of the kindest, and strangest, has been Gavin Smith, the editor of Film Comment and one of the programmers at the Film Society. He’s been coming to the NYAFF for years, and at last year’s festival as he got into his official Film Comment limousine, he slipped a $20 down our dress and whispered, “What do you think about coming uptown?”

How could we resist?

This move uptown is really about you, our audience. For ten years you’ve been partying up a storm at our weird little festival over on the margins and now the mainstream has finally caught up with your good taste. You loved the best movies before the rest of New York City was prepared for them, and now that they’re finally ready, we think it would be unfair not to share.

And we’re sharing a feast of films. This year, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, we’re celebrating Hong Kong’s new wave of old school kung fu with Return to the Old School: Hong Kong’s New Martial Arts Cinema. After 2009’s IP MAN became a massive box office hit, savvy Hong Kong producers, eager to make a buck, unleashed a whole wave of old school martial arts films that went back to the basics: no CGI, no fancy wire work, no fakery. Just blazing hand-to-hand combat, hard-falling stuntmen and lightning fast kung fu.

Japan’s film industry has been having its biggest box office in years, but all its mainstream movies have been intensely local, based on television shows or vehicles for pop stars. Fortunately, the NYAFF likes to dig, and we struck a rich vein of low budget, Japanese, independent movies that offer the kind of unhinged insanity that we used to get from the mainstream. These flicks, which include ANNYONG YUMIKA, 8000 MILES and LIVE TAPE, are Up From the Japanese Underground and they’re as raw and potent as moonshine. We’re also proud to be the launching pad for Nikkatsu’s Sushi Typhoon label, under which some of the most deranged indie filmmakers (Takashi Miike, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi) will unleash hell on unsuspecting overseas audiences.

 In a summer where the line-up from Hollywood largely consists of movies like MARMADUKE, we’re on a rescue mission to save New York City from motion picture mediocrity. And we didn’t come alone. We brought Sammo Hung, Bruce Leung, Simon Yam, Huang Bo, killer pigs, killer kids, friendly cows, giant robots and mutant girls. And behind them, there’s you: our audience. You’ve always had our backs. And this summer we’ll try not to let you down.

Welcome to an alternate universe where the summer blockbusters are movies like CONFESSIONS and BLADES OF BLOOD. Welcome to an alternate universe where the big Jackie Chan movie is not THE KARATE KID. Welcome to an alternate universe where selling out is how we’re trying to save this city’s moviegoing soul.

Films
8000 MILES (2009)
8000 MILES 2: GIRL RAPPER (2010)
ACTRESSES (2009)
ALIEN vs. NINJA (2010)
ANNYONG YUMIKA (2009)
BLADES OF BLOOD (2010)
THE BLOOD OF REBIRTH (2009)
BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (2009)
BOYS ON THE RUN (2010)
CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (2009)
CHAW (2009)
CONFESSIONS (2010)
COW (2009)
CRAZY RACER (2009)
DEATH KAPPA (2010)
DEAR DOCTOR (2009)
DEVELOPMENT HELL (2010)
DOMAN SEMAN (2010)
EASTERN CONDORS (1987)
ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (2010)
GALLANTS (2010)
GOLDEN SLUMBER (2009)
GROPER TRAIN: SCHOOL UNIFORM HUNTER (2007)
IP MAN (2008)
IP MAN 2 (2010)
JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR PART 2 (2004)
KUNG FU CHEFS (2009)
L.A. STREETFIGHTERS (1986)
LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (2010)
A LITTLE POND (2009)
LIVE TAPE (2010)
MERANTAU (2008)
MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD (2010)
POWER KIDS (2009)
RAGING PHOENIX (2009)
RED CLIFF: UNCUT (2008)
SAWAKO DECIDES (2010)
SCANDAL MAKERS (2008)
SOPHIE’S REVENGE (2009)
SYMBOL (2009)
THE SECRET REUNION (2010)
THE STORM WARRIORS (2009)
TIAN AN MEN (2009)
YATTERMAN (2009) 

Selection of short films from the 8th Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival
INTERVIEW WITH A COURTEOUS MURDERER (2009)
LET ME KNOW YOUR PHONE NUMBER (2009)
PRELUDE TO AN EMOTIONAL FIGHT (2009)
SHALL WE TAKE A WALK? (2009)
HIS NAME IS TREVOR (2009)
MOM’S HOLIDAY (2009)
METAL MOVIE (2009)
DUST KID (2009)
MATE (2009)
DRINK & CONFESS (2009)
ME FOUR INCHES PRECIOUS (2009)
DON’T STEP OUT OF THE HOUSE (2009) 

Guests
Sammo Hung (IP MAN 2, EASTERN CONDORS, KUNG FU CHEFS)
Lee Joon-ik (BLADES OF BLOOD)
Huang Bo (COW, CRAZY RACER)
Simon Yam (BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW, THE STORM WARRIORS)
Bruce Leung (GALLANTS)
Hiroshi Fukazawa (DEVELOPMENT HELL)
E. J-Yong (ACTRESSES)
Toshiaki Toyoda (THE BLLOD OF REBIRTH)
Lee Hey-jun (CASTAWAY ON THE MOON)
Yu Irie (8000 MILES, 8000 MILES 2: GIRL RAPPERS)
Masanori Mimoto (ALIEN VS NINJA)
Tetsuaki Matsue (ANNYONG YUMIKA, LIVE TAPE)
Go Shibata (DOMAN SEMAN)
Monchi (DOMAN SEMAN)
Kenta Maeno (LIVE TAPE)
Yoshihiro Nishimura (MUTANT GIRL SQUAD)
Noboru Iguchi (MUTANT GIRL SQUAD)
Yoshinori Chiba (MUTANT GIRL SQUAD, ALIEN vs NINJA, YATTERMAN)
Masanori Mimoto (ALIEN vs NINJA)
Cay Izumi (MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD)
Asami (MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD, GROPER TRAIN: SCHOOL UNIFORM HUNTER)
Jo Sung-hee (DON’T STEP OUT OF THE HOUSE)