11th New York Asian Film Festival

June 29 – July 15, 2012 at the Walter Reade Theater and Japan Society
co-presented with Film Society of Lincoln Center, in association with Japan Society/JAPAN CUTS

The New York Asian Film Festival is back…with a vengeance! And this year we’re celebrating everything else that is back…with a vengeance, too! We’ve got “Warriors and Romantics: New Cinema from Taiwan” a look at Taiwan’s film industry which went from making 10 films a year and holding 2% of its domestic box office in the 90’s, to unleashing a wave of blockbusters like Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale and You Are the Apple of My Eye that are currently sweeping Asia. Then there’s “Return of the King: Hong Kong Movies 15 Years After the Handover” which takes the temperature of the current Hong Kong film industry and discovers that rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Science has proven that Asia is making the most awesome movies in history right now. Sure, Abraham Lincoln was a great president, but he had never even heard of Boxer’s Omen so how good could he have been? The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, but were they capable of making a movie as epic as Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale? We think not. You live in a time of plenty, when we can show brand new crazymakers like our Centerpiece Presentations, Guns n’Roses (Ning Hao’s latest movie, which he named after his favorite band just because he could) and Doomsday Book (Kim Ji-Woon of I Saw the Devil delivers a hard science fiction flick that serves up three different flavors of apocalypse). And we can unleash the best movies of the past, like The Miami Connection, maybe the most unhinged ninja movie ever made, and Goke, Bodysnatcher from Hell, which will give you many uneasy nights to come.

But the NYAFF isn’t just about movies, it’s also about people (awww…), and for two weeks we will be home to the best people on the planet. Donnie Yen, probably the biggest action star in the world right now, will be at the festival with his movies Wu Xia, The Lost Bladesman, and Killzone (aka SPL: Sha Po Lang). Japanese superstar Masami Nagasawa will be here with her new movie Love Strikes! Mr. Vengeance himself, Choi Min-Sik, will be here with his latest epic, Nameless Gangster, as well as a retrospective that includes some of his best movies, like Crying Fist, Failan, and, of course, Oldboy. And don’t get us started on director Pang Ho-cheung, who’ll open the festival with his vulgar Vulgaria, or Michelle Chen and Giddens Ko, the star and director of the unstoppable You Are the Apple of My Eye, or Chung Chang-Wha, the director of the kung fu movie that changed the world, Five Fingers of Death.

But there’s another group of people who are more important than any of these celebrities: you, our audience. You’re not just our boss, you’re Donnie Yen’s boss, and Michelle Chen’s boss, and even Choi Min-Sik’s boss, too. (Okay, maybe not Choi Min-Sik’s boss; no one is Choi Min-Sik’s boss, but you get the point we’re trying to make here). This festival only exists because you keep coming back, and you keep bringing your friends, and you keep bringing your families, and in a strange, sick, co-dependent way you’ve become our family, too. You are like a party army, and every year you get bigger and more unstoppable and soon this puny planet shall be ours.

You swore you’d be back…with a vengeance…and now our time has come. Summer is here, and the moment is ripe to take revenge on the puny movies that have infested cinema screens all year long. Ladies and gentlemen of the NYAFF audience…prepare to unleash hell!

Sidebars

WARRIORS AND ROMANTICS: NEW CINEMA FROM TAIWAN
Presented with the support of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, this special focus is a look at the new wave of Taiwanese blockbusters that are sweeping Asia. Despite being home to some of Asia’s great art house directors, like Hou Hsia-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, for the past decade Taiwan’s domestic film industry has hit hard times. However, all that changed in 2008 when Wei Te-Sheng’s CAPE NO. 7 became the highest grossing Taiwanese movie of all time, setting a trend in which quality local movies suddenly became the hottest exports accross Asia.

RETURN OF THE KING: HONG KONG MOVIES 15 YEARS AFTER THE HANDOVER
When Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, its film industry was already in a tailspin from the bursting of the production bubble and the first stirrings of the Asian Economic Crisis. A few years later, the industry, once the biggest film producer in Asia, was written off. But these days, Hong Kong movies like Ann Hui’s A SIMPLE LIFE are winning awards around the world, while Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions like DRAGON (WU XIA), helmed by Hong Kong directors and stars, are turning into international box office hits. The Return of the King Focus is presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York, which is celebrating this year the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

CHOI MIN-SIK: MR. VENGEANCE
The revered Korean star, Choi Min-Sik, shot to fame for his performance as a North Korean terrorist in SHIRI, the first blockbuster of the new Korean cinema. He went on to capture the attention of international audiences with his crazed, dazed, hammer-wielding performance as Oh Dae-Su in Park Chan-Wook’s OLDBOY. In 2006, he quit moviemaking to protest American pressure on the Korean film industry, but made a triumphant return a few years later with Kim Ji-Woon’s I SAW THE DEVIL. Presented in association with the Korean Cultural Service New York, NYAFF will present a series of new and classic Choi Min-Sik performances to honor the man himself.

Films
10+10 (2012)
ACE ATTORNEY (2012)
ALL ABOUT MY WIFE (2012)
ASURA (2012)
BIG GUN, THE (2008) - short
BLOOD LETTER (2012)
BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY (2011)
THE BOXER’S OMEN (1983)
COUPLES (2011)
CRYING FIST (2005)
DEAD BITE (2011)
DIN TAO: LEADER OF THE PARADE (2012)
DOOMSDAY BOOK (2012)
DRAGON (2011)
EAST MEETS WEST (2011)
FAILAN (2011)
GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968)
GOLDEN SLUMBERS (2011)
GUNS AND ROSES (2012)
GYO (2012)
HARD ROMANTICKER (2011)
HENGE (2012) - short
HONEY PUPU (2011)
INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002) & INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2 (2003) + Sleeping Dogs video game panel
KILL ZONE aka SPL: SHA PO LANG (2005)
KING BOXER aka FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH (1972)
KING OF PIGS, THE (2011)
LET’S MAKE THE TEACHER HAVE A MISCARRIAGE CLUB (2012) - short
LOST BLADESMAN, THE (2011)
LOVE IN THE BUFF (2012)
LOVE STRIKES! (2011)
MAKE UP (2011)
MIAMI CONNECTION (1988)
MONSTERS CLUB (2012)
NAMELESS GANGSTER (2012)
NASI LEMAK 2.0 (2011)
OLDBOY (2003)
PANG HO-CHEUNG’S FIRST ATTEMPT (2012)
POTECHI (CHIPS) (2012)
RED VACANCE BLACK WEDDING (2011)
SACRIFICE (2010)
SCABBARD SAMURAI (2011)
SECRET LOVE (2010)
SIMPLE LIFE, A (2011)
SMUGGLER (2011)
STARRY STARRY NIGHT (2011)
SWIFT KNIGHT, THE (1971)
SWORD IDENTITY, THE (2011)
TOKYO PLAYBOY CLUB (2011)
TORMENTED (2011)
VULGARIA (2012)
WAR OF THE ARROWS (2011)
WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE 1 & 2
YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE (2011)
ZERO MAN vs THE HALF VIRGIN (2011)

Selection of short films from the 10th Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival
NIGHT FISHING (2011)
THE HIDEOUT (2011)
HEART (2010)
THE LUCKY GUMBOY (2011)
FINIS OPERIS (2011) 

Guests
Donnie Yen (DRAGON, THE LOST BLADESMAN)
Chung Chang-wha (KING BOXER, THE SWIFT KNIGHT)
Choi Min-sik (NAMELESS GANGSTER, CRYING FIST, OLDBOY, FAILAN)
Masami Nagasawa (LOVE STRIKES!)
Michelle Chen (YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE)
Pang Ho-cheung (VULGARIA, LOVE IN THE BUFF, PANG HO-CHEUNG’S FIRST ATTEMPT)
Giddens Ko (YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE)
Toshiaki Toyoda (MONSTERS CLUB)
Yoon Jin-seo (SECRET LOVE)
Yeun Sang-ho (THE KING OF PIGS)
Grand Master Y.K. Kim (THE MIAMI CONNECTION)
Davy Chou (GOLDEN SLUMBERS)
Fred Chong (NASI LEMAK 2.0)
Edison Chan (Sleeping Dogs)
Will Yun Lee (Sleeping Dogs)