Director Mamoru Oshii, best known for “Ghost in the Shell”, will have his latest anime feature film “The Sky Crawlers” premiere in New York City. The film received its international premiere at the 65th Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. Later, it was greeted with 3 awards at Sitges 08.

“The Sky Crawlers” was produced by Production I.G., who also produced the animation sequences of “Kill Bill, Vol.1″ Oshii’s credits include “Mobile Police Patlabor”, “Ghost in the Shell,” and “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence”. Oshii intends “The Sky Crawlers” to be his message to the youth of the world. More »

17 Comments

During the days of November 18-21 my school, Fayetteville State University, held the event “China On The Screen” A Chinese Movie Week. We were shown four films: Shanghai Dream, Still Life, The Drifter, and The World in the language lab in our univesity. I attended all screenings and enjoyed the movies. My favorite was Shanghai Dream. The organizers of the film week were FSU faculty and staff. They included my Chinese language professor, Dr. Hongbing Zhang, Dr. Yali Li, Director of our Language Lab, and Yikang Bai who assists Dr. Li in the lab and teaches Chinese language. Dr. Li worked very hard to ensure that the films shown ran smoothly and she was a wonderful hostess during Chinese Movie Week. I spoke with Dr. Zhang a little about the background of China On the Screen. More »

8 Comments

The Korean American Film Festival NY (KAFFNY) is a one-day New York City showcase for emerging and established Korean filmmakers. KAFFNY 2009 is accepting short film submissions from filmmakers of ethnic Korean descent of any nationality around the world. All genres are welcome: narrative, animation, music video, documentary, experimental, etc. There is no entry fee. Submission deadline is November 30, 2008.

Please send DVD submissions, NTSC Region 0 or 1, to: KAFFNY c/o Barrel 23 W 36th Street, Suite 401 New York, NY 10018 USA

Dae Hoon Kim is one of the founders of the Korean American Film Festival New York (KAFFNY). Dae Hoon just wrapped up promoting his film “It Strikes Twice” at Pusan International Film Festival. He’ll be coming back to New York for KAFFNY in February 2009. We were able to catch up with him while he travels through Asia this month. More »

7 Comments

Wayne Wang’s new feature film “The Princess of Nebraska” is hosted in its one hour and 19 minutes entirety on YouTube. At the time of this posting, it was on its way to 200,000 views since it’s debut two weeks ago. View counts on YouTube must be from a single unique IP address and a complete view. So with that in mind, that’s a lot of people who have sat down at their monitors and watched a movie about the identity differences of “New China” Chinese and Chinese-Americans who left “Old China.” (That’s my own take of the film. Wayne Wang’s interpretation, and yours, may be different. -David.)

It’s unclear what kind of business model this will evolve into for online distribution of films. Artistically, Wayne Wang has gotten more people to watch “The Princess of Nebraska” than a similar two-week art house run in LA and NYC could ever bring him. But these are 200,000 unpaid movie tickets. With an estimated quarter million production budget for the film, I’m sure YouTube and Magnolia Pictures will be doing some serious accounting on their returns on investment.

“The Princess of Nebraska” stars Li Ling, Brian Danforth, Pamelyn Chee, and Qing Lin. More »

16 Comments

Tora-san arrived on the screen when anything was possible if you worked hard enough, and people were forward-thinking and full of energy… A penniless, comic anti-hero, Tora-san lacked good looks and smarts and remained oblivious to the country’s modernization, living solely to bring happiness to those he loved. –Yoji Yamada, Director

It’s a busy month for Japan Society in New York City! They spent an entire weekend at the New York Anime Festival, then invited us in for a private advance look at the new gallery exhibition New Bamboo. Then we dropped by to sit it on Dan Pink’s Adventures in Manga lecture. Now Monthly Classics begins again with Best of Tora-san on Friday, October 17, at 7:30pm!

Last year the Japan Society Film Program launched the highly successful Monthly Classics film series. A classic Japanese film was screened once a month as part of a curated series that ran for over several months. Last year’s series was the classic Nikkatsu films that defined the modern yakuza genre. The term Nikatsu came from Nikkatsu studio, Japan’s oldest film studio that produced many of the most popular yakuza films of the 1960s and 70s.

This year Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp (Otoko wa tsuraiyo), the movie that introduced Tora-san to the world in 1969, kicks off the Best of Tora-san film series. More »

7 Comments

The New York Korean Film Festival hosted actor/director Yoo Ji-Tae the 4th week of August for several events. First being the opening reception, where the humble Mr. Yoo answered questions about his part in the cinematic celebration, that has become a staple of the New York art & culture scene.

There is a successful aura about everything that Yoo Ji-Tae works on like his role as the villain in top rated film Oldboy. He was a vital ingredient, in the reason the film was awarded the top prize at 2004 Cannes Film Festival. His many other works are well known throughout Korea and by foreign film aficionados. More the 2003 movie, which he also starred in, “Into the Mirror”, has just inspired a western remake called Mirrors.

The historical film “Hwang Jin Yi” was showing at the reception of the NYKFF. The Korean release of “Hwang Jin Yi” took place last year. The film stars himself along side actress Song Hye Kyo, and is based on a North Korean novel. The hype following this movie is do to its cinematic grandeur and has had many recent dramatic adaptations. Besides supporting this films North American release, he promoted his own directorial work with a short film called “Out of my Intention”. Due to the many press vying for time with the talented thespian the limit of five minutes was downgraded to three minutes as we waited for everyone to be seated. We were very lucky that the first two questions received time saving replies of smiles, blushes, and chuckling nods. More »

27 Comments

Kal Penn, the Asian American actor who has starred in several movies, including the famous “Harold and Kumar” stoner movie franchise (in which he plays “Kumar”), was spotted in a green neon vest working on the floor of the Democratic National Convention this past week. Being a big supporter of Senator Barack Obama, the 31 year-old actor has been traveling around the country hoping to lend his star power to generate more support for the Presidential nominee.

More »

20 Comments

As we gear up for next month’s release of Ping Pong Playa, here’s more of my conversation with Roger Fan. An interview is always about the artist’s thoughts. But we had such a great rapport, I couldn’t help but share a few of my own. Roger has a natural love for the human race that makes him an excellent listener. Here’s more on Asian film, American film, stereotypes, and Justin Lin.

More »

78 Comments