New York Asian Film Festival

NYAFF

The New York Asian Film Festival begins this Friday... right when I'll be headed for a warmer climate. Luckily it lasts until July 1st, and I'll be back in time to catch a movie or two.

There are several that I'd love to see, as always; the fest is one of the best the city offers. You can check Kaiju Shakedown for updates, but here's my take on a couple of what seem like must-see's...

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The Great Yokai War - Japan - directed by Takashi Miike

Honestly, they had me at "directed by Takashi Miike"... anyone who's read this blog for five seconds know my affinity for the antics of Japan's wildman cinematic genius. But then they went and wrote this sentence in describing the movie:

"The flick kicks off in true family film fashion with a nightmare vision of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, a slinky female demoness (played by Chiaki Kuriyama of KILL BILL VOL. 1 and BATTLE ROYALE) in a short skirt and wielding a whip, and then the birth of a goo-covered, flayed, screeching cow fetus who prophesizes the apocalypse."

Um... AWESOME. Anyway, it's Miike, the man who used piano wire on my heart, doing a kiddie-flick. So. There.

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Krrish - India - directed by Rakesh Roshan

It's a massively-budgeted Bollywood superhero-musical. It stars this man:





It is described thusly:

"All you need to know is that Hrithik was a mentally challenged fellow who found an alien in the woods which gave him superpowers and increased his intellect. He got married to the ever-eligible Preity Zinta and the two had a baby named Krishna (or Krrish) who is, oddly enough, also played by Hrithik. Now, in KRRISH, the kid is all grown up and he takes a trip to Singapore where he discovers that a) he has superpowers (awesome!), b) girls are pretty (double awesome!), and c) Dr. Siddhant Arya is trying to take over the world with his supercomputer (bummer!). It's up to Krrish to stop Dr. Arya, get the girl, rescue the circus performers from the fire, unleash out some gnarly dance moves, and bust up the screen in total super-bad fashion."

Seriously, is there a better film festival in the world? Take your Cannes and shove it, we're talking singing-alien-hottie-superheroes here!

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Hair - Korea - directed by Jang Jun-Hwan

Just look at that picture!

And read this description:

"HAIR. The powerful truth that it reveals? That you must have chest hair! You have to have it! Without chest hair you are a worm man! Nude! Pink! Smooth and disgusting!

If you do not have chest hair you must die. And in HAIR, one man is on a suicide mission to get chest hair, lots of chest hair, so much chest hair that it looks like a dog is asleep between his boobs, and if he can't have a Chewbacca chest…then give him death !"

I can't even describe how giddy this film festival makes me. This is a short film by the guy who directed the film Save The Green Planet, which I sort-of-reviewed (and sort-of-enjoyed) here.

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There are many more films which inspire varying levels of awe to read about, just click on over to Subway Cinema for the goods.
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