The Asian Film Series will soon return. Screenings will now be held on Wednesdays at 7:00PM, look to this BLOG for more information in the days to come.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Asian film series will soon return on its new day
The Asian Film Series will soon return. Screenings will now be held on Wednesdays at 7:00PM, look to this BLOG for more information in the days to come.
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Dream Sword (1979)
The Dream Sword (1979)
December 17th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Wu Xia (swordplay) films are one of China’s oldest and most popular cinematic genre. Because of internal politics during the Nationalist era of the 1930's these films were banned. This lead to boom in Hong Kong productions of this form. As the Nationalists were deposed by the Communists the ban still held, and so Hong Kong continued to carry the torch.
During the late 1950's new writers came onto the scene creating the novels that hundreds if not now thousands of films would stem from. Beginning with rather primitive productions Taiwan created its own Wu Xia boom. They could not compete with the mammoth productions of Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studio, but they were able to take advantage of their domestic market. Most of these films were cheaply made knock offs of Hong Kong Wu Xia films, but there were a few directors such as King Hu and Cheung Paang Yik that were able to improve the quality and inventiveness of Taiwanese productions.
The Dream Sword is average by Hong Kong standards, but a solid film containing the complexity for which the genre is known. This typically includes wild plot twists, double identities and an atmosphere where nearly anything can happen. The film itself deals with the hunt for a magical sword and its unbalancing affects upon the martial world.
December 17th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Wu Xia (swordplay) films are one of China’s oldest and most popular cinematic genre. Because of internal politics during the Nationalist era of the 1930's these films were banned. This lead to boom in Hong Kong productions of this form. As the Nationalists were deposed by the Communists the ban still held, and so Hong Kong continued to carry the torch.
During the late 1950's new writers came onto the scene creating the novels that hundreds if not now thousands of films would stem from. Beginning with rather primitive productions Taiwan created its own Wu Xia boom. They could not compete with the mammoth productions of Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studio, but they were able to take advantage of their domestic market. Most of these films were cheaply made knock offs of Hong Kong Wu Xia films, but there were a few directors such as King Hu and Cheung Paang Yik that were able to improve the quality and inventiveness of Taiwanese productions.
The Dream Sword is average by Hong Kong standards, but a solid film containing the complexity for which the genre is known. This typically includes wild plot twists, double identities and an atmosphere where nearly anything can happen. The film itself deals with the hunt for a magical sword and its unbalancing affects upon the martial world.
Taiwan, Director Li Chao Yung, Cast Chiang Ming, Chung Wa, Hu Chin and Lung Fei, 93 minutes, in Mandarin with English Subtitles
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thirst (2009)
Thirst (2008)
December 10th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
.jpg)
Director Park Chan-Wook’s lose adaptation of the novel Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. The plot of Thirst involves a Catholic Priest played by Song Kang-ho who falls in love with a married woman only to run afoul of a medical experiment that turn him into a modern day vampire.
.jpg)
Beyond horror or a thriller film, it explores ideas of desire and human psychology delving into darker subject matter. This sort of material is old hat for writer director Park Chan-Wook who’s credits include the Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy of Mr. Vengence (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)) and JSA - Joint Security Area (2000).
.jpg)
The film stars Song Kang-ho, who has gained stardom through major roles in blockbusters such as The Host (2006) and The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008) as a comic actor that is also very comfortable with darker material making him the perfect choice for this reinterpretation of the vampire myth.
The Thirst is also a tangible example of the relative closeness of the American and South Korean film markets that has been developing over the last decade with its home video release happening simultaneously between the two countries becoming a fine starting point for someone who is becoming introduced to South Korean cinema.
December 10th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
.jpg)
Director Park Chan-Wook’s lose adaptation of the novel Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. The plot of Thirst involves a Catholic Priest played by Song Kang-ho who falls in love with a married woman only to run afoul of a medical experiment that turn him into a modern day vampire.
.jpg)
Beyond horror or a thriller film, it explores ideas of desire and human psychology delving into darker subject matter. This sort of material is old hat for writer director Park Chan-Wook who’s credits include the Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy of Mr. Vengence (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)) and JSA - Joint Security Area (2000)..jpg)
The film stars Song Kang-ho, who has gained stardom through major roles in blockbusters such as The Host (2006) and The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008) as a comic actor that is also very comfortable with darker material making him the perfect choice for this reinterpretation of the vampire myth.
The Thirst is also a tangible example of the relative closeness of the American and South Korean film markets that has been developing over the last decade with its home video release happening simultaneously between the two countries becoming a fine starting point for someone who is becoming introduced to South Korean cinema.South Korea, Park Chan-wook, Cast Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-bin and Shin Ha-kyun, 134 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Red Cliff Part II (2008)
Red Cliff Part II (2008)
December 3rd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Red Cliff Part II continues the events of the first part, whereby the two forces are camped as opposing sides of the river making ready for battle. For more information please see the previous BLOG entry on Part I, which has more in depth information on the overall story and more details of production.
As the first part was geared towards introducing the characters and setting up the climactic final battle, this part features the battle itself. While there was extensive use of CGI, there were also 100,000 extras in the form of Chinese soldiers provided by the PRC for the filming.
The naval sequences use twenty-four full scale ships made for the production, although through camera maneuvering and CGI, many more ships are seen onscreen. The sequences were filmed at a reservoir and during their production a stuntman was fatally burned during a fire sequence.
Mainland China, Director John Woo, Cast Song Jia, Hu Jun, Zhang Feng-Yi, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro, 140 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.
December 3rd, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Red Cliff Part II continues the events of the first part, whereby the two forces are camped as opposing sides of the river making ready for battle. For more information please see the previous BLOG entry on Part I, which has more in depth information on the overall story and more details of production.
As the first part was geared towards introducing the characters and setting up the climactic final battle, this part features the battle itself. While there was extensive use of CGI, there were also 100,000 extras in the form of Chinese soldiers provided by the PRC for the filming.
The naval sequences use twenty-four full scale ships made for the production, although through camera maneuvering and CGI, many more ships are seen onscreen. The sequences were filmed at a reservoir and during their production a stuntman was fatally burned during a fire sequence.
Mainland China, Director John Woo, Cast Song Jia, Hu Jun, Zhang Feng-Yi, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro, 140 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
No Screning this Thursday (Thanksgiving)
No Screening This Thursday (Thanksgiving)
The Series will continue next week Thursday (December 3rd) with Red Cliff Part II
The Series will continue next week Thursday (December 3rd) with Red Cliff Part II
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Red Cliff Part I (2008)
Red Cliff Part I (2008)
Part II will be shown in two weeks time
November 19th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
The differences between the two versions amounts to Part I and II being condensed together into a single shortened film. This was done at the request of the films Director John Woo who believed that many of the sub plots would be distracting if not all together meaningless to Western viewers unfamiliar with the events of the story. The majority of the cuts come from non-action sequences in Part I.
Red Cliff is John Woo’s return to Chinese cinema. Beginning in the mid 1970's, Woo became a well known director of Screw-ball comedies for the Golden Harvest studio directing such films as Money Crazy (1977) and From Riches to Rags (1979). Later he helped to begin the Heroic Bloodshed wave of action films of the 1980's which use a unique mixture of fanatic gunplay, melodrama and male bonding similar to that featured in the films of Chang Cheh of who Woo served as an assistant director under. He left Hong Kong after creating his Heroic Bloodshed masterpiece Hard Boiled (1992) to come to work in the United States. While in the US he directed a series of high profile films including Broken Arrow (1996) and Face-Off (1997).
Red Cliff was given the largest budget of any mainland Chinese film and in addition to the use of CGI for some of the epic battle scenes, it makes use of massive sets and large numbers of costumed extras. Both parts have been widely released throughout Asia, typically to great commercial and critical success.
Some aspects of Red Cliff’s back story are not explicitly stated in the film. This is not a disadvantage to most Chinese audiences who are familiar with the characters and events. The film, who’s tittle references the location for the climactic battle of the Three Kingdoms era, is based upon The Chronicles of Three Kingdoms, an official historical account of a period of division and Civil War in the wake of the collapse of the Han Dynasty. This means that the film deviates from some of the aspects of the 14th Century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, recognized as one of the four great novels of classical Chinese literature.
In short, the events leading up to the Battle of the Red Cliffs are as follows. The Han Dynasty, already in a weakened state is thrown into confusion after the death of the Emperor. His two prepubescent sons, born of different mothers are used by relatives who jockey for the thrown. This causes many alliances to be formed and broken. After a long period of fighting there are only three sides left, each controlling an area of the Empire.
Of the three sides Cao Cao controls the North and with it the capital city and the remaining son, now made Emperor, but in reality only a figurehead. Cao Cao has massive numbers of troops and industrial capacity and rules by the use of fear and mistrust. For the events of the film he decides to move against the last two challengers to his ultimate victory. The first of these is Liu Bei, a distant relative of the Emperor and hence member of the Royal Family. When the era began he was a minor official who never sought power for himself. Later on he was given a secret mandate by the imprisoned Emperor to restore the Dynasty and defeat Cao Cao. Liu is honest and generous, leading by example and personal loyalty. By the time of the film he has been beaten back to the South-East and only has a small force remaining at his command. The second man is Sun Quan who holds a hereditary claim upon the South-West. He is a shrewd leader who has hung back for the majority of the conflict and because of this, still controls many major cities as yet untouched by the war. In the film Liu Bei and Sun Quan must join forces to somehow turn back Cao Cao’s great conquest.
Mainland China, Director John Woo, Cast Song Jia, Hu Jun, Zhang Feng-Yi, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro, 140 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Part II will be shown in two weeks time
November 19th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Red Cliff Part I is the first instalment in a two part Chinese period war epic. Part two will be shown in two weeks later, the next Thursday after Thanksgiving. The story deals with the climactic battle of the Three Kingdoms era 169-280AD. For those unfamiliar with the wider story, a brief description is provided bellow. In the near future Red Cliff will be receiving a limited US theatrical release and later domestic DVD and BluRay.
The differences between the two versions amounts to Part I and II being condensed together into a single shortened film. This was done at the request of the films Director John Woo who believed that many of the sub plots would be distracting if not all together meaningless to Western viewers unfamiliar with the events of the story. The majority of the cuts come from non-action sequences in Part I.
Red Cliff is John Woo’s return to Chinese cinema. Beginning in the mid 1970's, Woo became a well known director of Screw-ball comedies for the Golden Harvest studio directing such films as Money Crazy (1977) and From Riches to Rags (1979). Later he helped to begin the Heroic Bloodshed wave of action films of the 1980's which use a unique mixture of fanatic gunplay, melodrama and male bonding similar to that featured in the films of Chang Cheh of who Woo served as an assistant director under. He left Hong Kong after creating his Heroic Bloodshed masterpiece Hard Boiled (1992) to come to work in the United States. While in the US he directed a series of high profile films including Broken Arrow (1996) and Face-Off (1997).
Red Cliff was given the largest budget of any mainland Chinese film and in addition to the use of CGI for some of the epic battle scenes, it makes use of massive sets and large numbers of costumed extras. Both parts have been widely released throughout Asia, typically to great commercial and critical success.
Some aspects of Red Cliff’s back story are not explicitly stated in the film. This is not a disadvantage to most Chinese audiences who are familiar with the characters and events. The film, who’s tittle references the location for the climactic battle of the Three Kingdoms era, is based upon The Chronicles of Three Kingdoms, an official historical account of a period of division and Civil War in the wake of the collapse of the Han Dynasty. This means that the film deviates from some of the aspects of the 14th Century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, recognized as one of the four great novels of classical Chinese literature.
In short, the events leading up to the Battle of the Red Cliffs are as follows. The Han Dynasty, already in a weakened state is thrown into confusion after the death of the Emperor. His two prepubescent sons, born of different mothers are used by relatives who jockey for the thrown. This causes many alliances to be formed and broken. After a long period of fighting there are only three sides left, each controlling an area of the Empire.
Of the three sides Cao Cao controls the North and with it the capital city and the remaining son, now made Emperor, but in reality only a figurehead. Cao Cao has massive numbers of troops and industrial capacity and rules by the use of fear and mistrust. For the events of the film he decides to move against the last two challengers to his ultimate victory. The first of these is Liu Bei, a distant relative of the Emperor and hence member of the Royal Family. When the era began he was a minor official who never sought power for himself. Later on he was given a secret mandate by the imprisoned Emperor to restore the Dynasty and defeat Cao Cao. Liu is honest and generous, leading by example and personal loyalty. By the time of the film he has been beaten back to the South-East and only has a small force remaining at his command. The second man is Sun Quan who holds a hereditary claim upon the South-West. He is a shrewd leader who has hung back for the majority of the conflict and because of this, still controls many major cities as yet untouched by the war. In the film Liu Bei and Sun Quan must join forces to somehow turn back Cao Cao’s great conquest.
Mainland China, Director John Woo, Cast Song Jia, Hu Jun, Zhang Feng-Yi, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro, 140 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Guard From The Underground (1992)
The Guard from the Underground (2002)
November 12th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Ever since the 1997 film The Cure, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been recognized as one of Japans premiere directors. This recognition has grown to place him as one of the worlds prominent art house film makers. But his early career mirrored the path of many other Japanese directors in that it began in V-Cinema.
Beginning in the 1980's the Toei Studio began producing direct to video films, usually Yakuza (gangster) and other genre productions. These films were given reduced budgets compared to major theatrical productions, but the production values are far from paltry. Other major directors to begin in V-Cinema include Takashi Miike with Dead or Alive (1999) and Takashi Shimizu with Ju-On (2000). These films do not garner the same automatic prejudice as direct to video productions in the US.
By genre, Guard From the Underground is a 1980's style slasher film, but by inclination it is a satire of Japanese business culture of the late 80's. Akiko Narushima (Makiko Kuno) begins work as a fine art expert for a major corporations new art division. Her position there seems ad hoc at best. While exploring the office building she also meets a series of stereotypical corporate personal as well as an enigmatic boss. But the danger comes from a former Guard who might just be that sumo wrestler everyone was talking about who was banned from the sport because of excessive violence.
November 12th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
Ever since the 1997 film The Cure, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been recognized as one of Japans premiere directors. This recognition has grown to place him as one of the worlds prominent art house film makers. But his early career mirrored the path of many other Japanese directors in that it began in V-Cinema.
Beginning in the 1980's the Toei Studio began producing direct to video films, usually Yakuza (gangster) and other genre productions. These films were given reduced budgets compared to major theatrical productions, but the production values are far from paltry. Other major directors to begin in V-Cinema include Takashi Miike with Dead or Alive (1999) and Takashi Shimizu with Ju-On (2000). These films do not garner the same automatic prejudice as direct to video productions in the US.
By genre, Guard From the Underground is a 1980's style slasher film, but by inclination it is a satire of Japanese business culture of the late 80's. Akiko Narushima (Makiko Kuno) begins work as a fine art expert for a major corporations new art division. Her position there seems ad hoc at best. While exploring the office building she also meets a series of stereotypical corporate personal as well as an enigmatic boss. But the danger comes from a former Guard who might just be that sumo wrestler everyone was talking about who was banned from the sport because of excessive violence.
Japan, Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cast Makiko Kuno, Yutaka Matsushige, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Ren Osugi and Taro Suwa, 96 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)