Thu, 20 June 2013 01:44 AM (HKT)

NY Asian Festival powers up

NY Asian Festival powers up

By Patrick Frater

Mon, 04 June 2012, 16:01 PM (HKT)

Festival News

PANG Ho-cheung 彭浩翔's comedy Vulgaria 低俗喜劇 (pictured) has been set as the opening title of the 11th New York Asian Film Festival, which gets underway at the end of the month (29 Jun — 15 Jul).

Over its two week run, the festival will also give centre stage to NING Hao 寧浩's new Guns and Roses 黃金大劫案 and three part science fiction film Doomsday Book 인류멸망보고서. The closing night event is the screening of NAKAMURA Yoshihiro 中村義洋's Chips ポテチ, about a baseball star and a small time crook who find themselves at the epicentre of the Sendai earthquake.

Since partnering with the Film Society of Lincoln Center with programming support from Japan Society, the festival has leaped ahead in terms of visibility and can now claim to be North America's biggest festival of popular Asian film.

As such it is able to attract top directing and acting talent.

Those expected to attend the festival include Pang, CHOI Min-shik 최민식 | 崔岷植, Giddens 九把刀 (You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我們一起追的女孩。 (2011)), TOYODA Toshiaki 豊田利晃 (Monsters Club モンスターズクラブ (2011)), YEUN Sang-ho 연상호 (The King of Pigs 돼지의 왕 (2011)), Davy CHOU, Will Yun LEE 윌윤리 and actress YOON Jin-seo 윤진서 (Secret Love 비밀애 (2009)).

Arguably the biggest star in attendance is Donnie YEN 甄子丹 who will receive the festival's 2012 Star Asia Award. Martial arts legend JUNG Chang-hwa 정창화 receives the festival's Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. And Taiwan's Michelle CHEN 陳妍希 and Japan's NAGASAWA Masami 長澤まさみ (Love Strikes! モテキ (2011)) — both attending — will share the 2012 Star Asia Rising Star Award.

The festival programmers have focused on three key thematic strands — "Warriors and Romantics: New Cinema from Taiwan"; "Return of the King: Hong Kong Movies 15 Years After the Handover", with selections ranging from action-drama Wu Xia 武俠 (2011) to melodrama A Simple Life 桃姐 (2011); and "Choi Min-shik: Mr Vengeance" celebrating the career of the South Korean actor.

And in a retro throwback, NYAFF will also play Infernal Affairs 無間道 (2002) and its prequel in a single session.

Related Reviews

  1. Chips | ポテチ
    An offbeat, multi-character comedy that's expertly played and plotted.
  2. Doomsday Book | 인류멸망보고서
    Triptych of futuristic tales is given weight by a more thoughtful centrepiece.
  3. Guns and Roses | 黃金大劫案
    Busy but uneven heist movie by Ning Hao, set in '30s Manchuria under the Japanese.
  4. The King of Pigs | 돼지의 왕
    Very conventional look at bullying in middle school, South Korean style.
  5. A Simple Life | 桃姐
    Deanie Ip and Andy Lau make memorable chemistry in the moving story of an amah's final lap.
  6. Vulgaria | 低俗喜劇
    Rough-and-ready satire of low-end Hong Kong filmmaking is what it is, and no more.
  7. Wu Xia | 武俠
    Sumptuously shot spin on the costume action genre has good performances but a slightly bumpy script.
  8. You Are the Apple of My Eye | 那些年，我們一起追的女孩。
    Likable but lightweight compendium of high-school romances, well cast and slickly packaged.

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