New York Asian Film Festival 2019

[Chris Knipp]

WALK WITH ME 雙魂 (Ryon Lee 2019)

A shy, bespectacled young garment factory worker is menaced by everyone, boss, father, random men, querulous mom, takes refuge in a doll that may contain the malevolent ghost of her dead little brother. It's a horror movie, the Malaysian-born screenwriter-director's fourth, heavy on the melodrama but gentle with the gore, and with nice colors, green and blue predominating.

In the New York Asian Film Festival, at Lincoln Center and 23rd St., which is now under way. It began last night.
NYAFF Showtime:
Thursday, July 4
10:00 PM

[Chris Knipp]

Nana Komatsu (Princess Yuri in Samurai Marathon) received the 2019 Screen
International Rising Star Award


WINTER AFTER WINTER (Xian Jian 2019)

The title is apt because the snow never goes out of this chilly picture. It's a depiction in intense black and white of life in Manchuria in WWII when the Japanese are desperately trying to hold onto remnants of their empire. Definitely another example like Pema Tseden's Jinpa of "slow cinema." Not for the impatient.

Showing in the NYAFF
NYAFF showtime:
Friday, July 5
3:00 PM

[Chris Knipp]

MONEY 돈 (Park Noo-ri 2019)

A financial immorality movie in the vein of Wall Street, Boiler Room, Wolf of Wall Street, only set in Seoul's Yeouido financial district and more of a high energy crime thriller. Sharp and energetic. The young star Ryu Jun-yeol (who is actually 32 but looks like a college kid here) shows why he's getting the Rising Star Asia Award the night of this NYAFF showing and the director, who I believe is a woman, scores a creditable debut.

Showing at the NYAFF:
NYAFF showtime:
Showtimes
July 6
6:00 PM

[Chris Knipp]

WHITE SNAKE 白蛇：緣起 (Amp Wong, Ji Zhao 2019)

A big ($12 million, a lot by local standards) Chinese animation of an ancient popular folktale that has been often told and dramatized, even in film. A battle of good and evil forces is sweetened into the tale of a human boy falling in love with a demon girl who turns into a white serpent, and back again. Screen Daily says it has grossed $67 million at home this year ahead of its Annecy premiere.

Showing at the NYAFF:
NYAFF showtime:
Sunday, July 6
1;30 PM

[Chris Knipp]

DARK FIGURE OF CRIME 암수살인 (Kim Tae-kyun 2018)

A different Korean police procedural where the cop is not done when the crazy murderer gets convicted of multiple murders. He is concerned to solve the unsolved ones - the "dark figure of crime" - for the sake of the suffering families living with no answers. A prize-winning screenplay and truly excellent performances by the two leads, Kim Yoon-seok as the detective and Ju Ji-hoon as the maniacal, provocative murderer.

NYAFF Showtimes
Saturday, July 6
9:00 PM

[Chris Knipp]

SONG LANG (Leon Le 2018)

A lead performer of traditional folk opera (opulently represented) and a hardened debt collector, two beautiful, lonely young men, are drawn together in 1980's Saigon in this homage to Wong Kar-wai in a continual sequence of beautifully lighted, richly saturated 3:2 ratio scenes less kinetic but otherwise worthy of Wong's superb cameraman, Christopher Doyle - though the dp, an Aussie like Chris, was free of such influences.

NYAFF Showtimes:
Sunday, July 7
6:30 PM

[Chris Knipp]

LYING TO MOM 鈴木家の嘘 (Katsumi Nojiri 2018)

A film about dealing with death, particularly a suicide in your immediate family. The suicide was a hikikomori so this is a particularly Japanese treatment. Lots of topics are covered, but the film would have benefited from some strenuous tightening up.

In the NYAFF.
Showtimes
Wednesday, July 10
6:00 PM