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Thread: NY ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL July 15-28, 2022

  1. #16
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    Legendary in Action! / 大俠Action! (Justin Cheung, Li Ho, Hong Kong, 2022

    Veteran actor Cheung directs with Li Ho and stars in his first feature as a washed-up director who tries to make an old-style Hong Kong kung fun picture such as delighted him as a youth using an old star, played by real -life former wuxia star Chen Kuan Tai. It's all rather messy but Chen Kuan Tai impresses at the moves he's still capable of.

  2. #17
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    Big Night!(Jun Robles Lana, Philippines, 2021

    A jokey, campy Odyssey that is also a Kafkaesque journey through hell when a young gay Filipino finds he's landed on a government hit list and spends a long torturous day trying to find out how to get taken off of it.

  3. #18
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    Happy Together 春光乍洩 (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong 1997)

    Wong's memorable gay love story set in Buenos Aires and starring big Hong Kong stars Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung is included in the NYAFF 2022 revivals. I've included my review from the Roxie Wong Kar-wai revival of a couple years ago. It's my mest statement - for now.

    Saturday Jul 16, 9:00pm (Hearst Plaza, Hearst Plaza)
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-06-2022 at 12:16 AM.

  4. #19
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    #LookAtMe (Ken Kwek, Singapore, 2022)

    This story of an ambitious YouTuber with a gay twin (both played by Thomas Pang/aka/yao) who winds up provoking massive retaliation after attacking a homophobic televangelist. The filmmaker is so good at shocking and surprising he may squander the film's possibilities as social commentary. .

    NYAFF SHOWING: Sat. Jul. 23, 2022, 4pm, Walter Read Theater. World Premiere | Q&A with Ken Kwek, Yao, Pam Oei. World premiere

  5. #20
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    The Girl on a Bulldozer 불도저에 탄 소녀 (Park Ri-woong, South Korea, 2022)

    A feisty teenage girl fights financial confusion, insurance company red tape, and a local boss's corruption with fists, fire, and big machinery. A Korean supergirl. Is this a new kind of YA film from Asia? Or just craziness? Anyway the young actress, Kim Hye-yoon, is great.

  6. #21
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    I Am More 모어 (Lee Il-ha, South Korea, 2021)

    A documentary about noted Korean drag queen/ballerina MO Jimin ("MOre"), celebrating the occasion of MOre's trip to New York to perform in multiple roles in 14 Fruitcakes, a celebration of gay history at Theater La MaMA in the East Village on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-12-2022 at 10:26 AM.

  7. #22
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    Perhaps Love 장르만 로맨스 (Cho Euon-ji, South Korea, 2022)

    An amusing romantic farce also involves a young gay writer who's hopelessly in love with a formerly successful straight older writer going through a long period of writer's block and complications with his publisher, his ex-wife, and their crazy kid. The screenplay is so good it can be complicated and I can still follow, and enjoy, the action despite my difficulty with Korean names.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-08-2022 at 09:05 PM.

  8. #23
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    Nothing Serious 연애 빠진 로맨스 (Jeong Ga-young , South Korea 2021)

    A risqué, but sweet rom-com. Bruised, he and she, meeting via a dating app, want to keep it unromantic and uncommitted, but of course as in most FWB tales, that doesn't quite work. He's a writer for an online mag forced by his editor to start a sex column, so he mines this new affair - to his regret. Son Sukku, who is quite famous, and Jeon Jong-seo, who costarred in Lee Chang-dong's Burning, make a watchable couple.

  9. #24
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    Confession 자백 (YOON Jong-seok, South Korea 2022)

    A smooth, good looking, twisty, convoluted, well acted crime and homicide thriller mystery, this is a remake of the very popular 2016 Spanish original by Oriol Paulo, The Invisible Guest/Contratiempo, of which there are three other remakes in other languages. It's tense, involving, and purest hokum.

  10. #25
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    Funeral, The 頭七 (Dan-Guei Shen, Taiwan, 2022)

    Yes, there is a traditional funeral with an impressive, spooky and at the end violent mourning hall in rural Taiwan, where a mother and frail teen daughter go after a long period of estrangement from mom's wealthy, disapproving parents. There may be too much religious folklore and family psychodrama for pure horror genre fans, but the visuals are often good.

  11. #26
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    Life for Sale 售命 (Tom Teng, Taiwan 2021)

    This black comedy about a suicidal young man fired from an insurance company (a feature directorial and writing debut) starts out admirably. It feels like early William Burroughs directed by David Cronenberg. We're in a kooky urban purely cinematic world. There's lively visual style and an amusing a manic nihilism. Noting else in this year's NYAFF seems quite so stylish and fun. However, as incidents and plot lines multiply the film drifts too much into genre violence. Better work in future may come from Mr. Teng who maybe was trying too hard this time.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-16-2022 at 11:37 AM.

  12. #27
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    Mama Boy 初戀慢半拍 (Arvin Chen, Taiwan 2022)

    A young man who lives with his bossy mom and is still dominated by her at nearly age thirty breaks out of his strangeness when he falls for the madam at a "love hotel." Taiwan stars Kao Ko and Vivian Hsu become ordinary and dive into their roles in this charming and offbeat film. Arvin Chen was born in Boston and attended Berkeley and USC film school but now lives in his parent's native Taiwan. This is a fresh and delightful film.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-16-2022 at 11:36 AM.

  13. #28
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    Manchurisn Tiger 东北虎 (Geng Jun 2021)

    A man, his wife, his mistress, his dog, and a friend with mental problems are the subject of this dry, uneventful sort-of-comedy set in China's chilly northeastern corner. Only for the patient.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-14-2022 at 10:58 PM.

  14. #29
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    Ripples of Life 永安镇故事集 (Wei Shujun China 2021)

    Under thirty Wei Shujun won an award at Cannes for his shortOn the Border (2018) and many other awards. His first feature Striding into the Wind (2020) was also presented at Cannes, got a lot of festival attention, and even, the disapproving Derek Elley admits, did well at the box office in China. This second feature was at Directors' Fortnight this year and turns away from the autobiographical indulgence of the first feature for an ironic, rueful, sometimes beautiful picture in three chapters, partly in emulation of early Jia Zhang-ke, about preparations for a perhaps abortive film production set in the female star's remote hometown in Hunan province.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-14-2022 at 11:14 PM.

  15. #30
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    Reclaim 一家之主 (C.J. Wang Taiwan 2022)

    This promising debut feature by a young Taiwanese woman director provides much detail of everyday life from the point of view of a sixtyish middle class woman. At least from a western POV it seems insufficiently aware of how much her family exploits her. It's also too long and its latter part, especially a confused dream sequence, show need for a shapelier screenplay. The lead won acting awards.

    Friday Jul 29, 6:00pm
    Asia Society

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