INTRODUCTION | THE NYAFF 2008 JURY

Not sure which films are for you? Then check out our handy MOVIE GUIDE!

New York Magazine (June 15, 2008): Navigating the Asian Film Festival by Sara Cardace

The Village Voice (June 17, 2008): Life Beyond J-Horror at Asian Film Fest by Aaron Hillis

Firefox News: The Best Asian Genre Movies, Period by Peter Gutiérrez

ACCURACY OF DEATH (aka SWEET RAIN) (Japan, 2008) | Japan Cuts |

Takeshi Kaneshiro (CHUNGKING EXPRESS) is the Grim Reaper, settling accounts with expiring mortals in 1988, 2008 and the near future. Sure-footed romance, spiked with fantasy, that turbo charges your sense of optimism, while refusing to insult your intelligence.

ACTION BOYS (Korea, 2008) | guest |

Koreans filmmakers prove they’re the cruelest people on earth in this documentary revealing the insane physical and mental suffering piled on four wannabe stuntmen. Dreams shatter on sets for movies like THE HOST, destroyed by injuries, humiliations, poverty and death.

ADRIFT IN TOKYO (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts | stylejam |

Joe Odagiri (Japan’s Johnny Depp) is a broke student forced to take walks around Tokyo with a middle-aged gangster in this bizarre comedy kaleidoscope of cos-playing superheroes, the power of character actor Ittoku Kishibe (Kishibe Power!), the taste of dirty socks and the plight of the pygmy hippopotamus.

ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET (Japan, 2005)

Back for an encore engagement, it’s the big budget feel-good flick that rocked the 2005 NYAFF and won 12 Japanese Academy Awards.

ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2 (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts |

The scrappy, World War II surviving residents of Third Street are back! The 1964 Olympics are coming, the economy’s booming, but the good times are killing them. Plus...Godzilla?!?

ASSEMBLY (China, 2007)

Set in China’s 1948 Civil War this is a turbocharged dirt-in-your-teeth war movie until, halfway through, it becomes deeper and richer as it charts what happens to good soldiers when the war is over.

ARCH ANGELS (Japan, 2006)

HARRY POTTER meets CHARLIE’S ANGELS in this surreal flick about Catholic schoolgirls with superpowers fighting evil nuns and funky kidnappers.

BODYGUARD (Thailand, 2004)

BODYGUARD 2 (Thailand, 2007)

Two of Thailand’s biggest action blockbusters of all time, these two off-the-wall comedies are like vintage Stephen Chow (KUNG FU HUSTLE) on crack. Plus: cameos by Tony “Ong Bak” Jaa.

THE BUTCHER (Korea, 2007)

The Korean film industry spent last year falling apart so first-time director Kim Jin-Won made this grotty horror flick about Korean snuff film producers totally off the industry map and without a scrap of good taste. Barf bags provided.

CHANBARA BEAUTY (Japan, 2008)

Based on a video game this twitchy, itchy, finger-popping, head-lopping junk food fiesta teaches us that the solution to the coming zombie apocalypse involves bikini girls with machine guns. And swords.

DAINIPPONJIN (aka BIG MAN JAPAN) (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts |

Why is a middle-aged loser the subject of this documentary? Because when giant monsters attack Japan he turns into a 500 foot tall superhero and beats them with a stick. The movie CLOVERFIELD should have been, starring and directed by Japan’s most famous comedian.

DOG IN A SIDECAR (Japan, 2007) | stylejam |

Star Yuko Takeuchi (THE RING) won six “Best Actress” awards for her performance as the lazy, chain-smoking girlfriend of a recently-divorced dad in this pitch perfect, gentle coming of age film.

DORORO (Japan, 2007)

Disney movie + Lord of the Rings + samurai film + LSD = this huge Japanese blockbuster about a wandering swordsman who fights demons. Crazy fun for the whole family!

FINE, TOTALLY FINE (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts | stylejam |

Spiritual successor to previous NYAFF hit, THE TASTE OF TEA, it’s about three 30-somethings who are on the road to nowhere and the quest to create the world’s greatest haunted house. And true love.

HAPPINESS (Korea, 2007)

Hur Jin-Ho (CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST, APRIL SNOW) rescues the romance by pumping up its IQ. An exquisite tear-jerker about two terminally ill people and the impossibility of ever being truly happy.

KALA (Indonesia, 2007)

A narcoleptic reporter and a gay cop are trapped in a labyrinthine conspiracy to steal the First President’s Treasure in this alternate-history sci-fi horror flick that was a massive blockbuster in Indonesia. Stylish, film noir dread at its best.

KING NARESUAN (Thailand, 2007)

KING NARESUAN 2 (Thailand, 2007)

Thailand’s number one and number two box office hits of all time, these massive epics tell the saga of warrior king, Naresuan. Sets drip gold, political intrigue simmers and swashbuckling action scenes explode with war elephants, nine-foot-long rifles and warrior princesses.

L: CHANGE THE WORLD (Japan, 2008)

The DEATH NOTE movies were massive hits in Japan (and at last year’s NYAFF) and here’s the latest installment in the series, courtesy of Hideo Nakata (THE RING). L, the Goth Sherlock Holmes with the killer sweet tooth, fights a flesh-melting virus in this slick summer blockbuster.

LIKE A DRAGON (Japan, 2007)

Takashi Miike’s story of one sweaty Shinjuku night slams an indestructible yakuza hero, incompetent bank robbers, young crooks in love, Korean hitmen, masochistic gun dealers and an ultraviolent baseball fan into each other like a game of human pinball on hyperspeed. Based on a video game.

LOVE ON SUNDAY (Japan, 2006)

Part WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, part SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL this is a breathless roundelay of romance, misunderstandings, hurt feelings, missed opportunities and teenage angst compressed into 24 hours. From Ryuichi Hiroki (VIBRATOR).

LOVE ON SUNDAY 2: LAST WORDS (Japan, 2007)

Director Ryuichi Hiroki, again. This story of a young woman who has cancer is a tour de force that will leave viewers shaken, drained and feeling much alive.

M (Korea, 2007) | guest |

Psychedelic eye-melter about a man stalked by his high school sweetheart who may be real, or a ghost, or a memory, or there may be no difference between the three. Like dreaming with your eyes open. From Lee Myung-Se (DUELIST, NOWHERE TO HIDE).

MAD DETECTIVE (Hong Kong, 2007)

New York Times says this flick, “...reaffirms To’s status as an action master,” and they’re right. After seven years, Johnnie To reunites with actor Lau Ching-wan to make this crime flick that’s like a high performance engine firing on all cylinders.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NIGHT IN THE WORLD (Japan, 2008)

The son of legendary director Shohei Imamura delivers this rural epic about a country town with Japan’s highest birth rate. Featuring bizarro animation and a 50-person-orgy.

MSFF KOREAN SHORT FILMS - Program 1 (Korea) | guest |

MSFF KOREAN SHORT FILMS - Program 2 (Korea) | guest |

Korea’s number one festival of short films is back for a return engagement. A gang of chickens eats the moon, zombies control Korea’s film industry, corporate drones unleash kung fu, and “Our Puppy, Our Family” about a fluffy puppy seeking bloody revenge is the best Korean movie of 2007. Learn why MSFF rocks!

PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS (Korea, 2008) | Centerpiece Presentation |

Kang Woo-suk (Korea’s Steven Spielberg) directs this massive summer blockbuster about a lowlife cop going after a pillar of society. Starring Sol Kyung-Ju (CRUEL WINTER BLUES & OASIS) it’s Korea’s most anticipated film of the year.

THE REBEL (Vietnam, 2007)

An old time Republic serial, pumped up on politics and super-charged with ONG BAK style action scenes, THE REBEL is Vietnam’s biggest box office hit ever. Set in the 1920’s, it’s a bloody knuckled ode to Vietnamese freedom. Starring Dustin Nguyen from “21 Jump Street!”

SAD VACATION (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts | stylejam |

Shinji Aoyama (EUREKA, ELI ELI LEMA SABACHTANI), Tadanobu Asano (MONGOL), Joe Odagiri (ADRIFT IN TOKYO) and Aoi Miyazaki (HULA GIRLS) team up for this devastating drama about the monsters we call our parents.

SASORI (Hong Kong/Japan, 2008)

Can you say sleazy? This women-in-prison flick starts like an art film but, suddenly: lethal mud wrestling, gang violence, metal plates ripped from skulls, an evil warden. Thrilling! Trashy! Tasteless!

THE SHADOW SPIRIT (Japan, 2007)

Howard Hawks protege, Masato Harada, makes the ultimate Hawksian adventure movie, with an all-star cast solving cult murders in post-war Tokyo.

SHADOWS IN THE PALACE (Korea, 2007)

The female quarters of the royal palace is a pool of piranhas stirred into a blood frenzy when a young nurse tries to sick conspiracy. A lush all-female murder mystery, set in the 15th Century, and made by a female director. And it is evil.

SHAMO (Hong Kong, 2008)

From the team who brought you last year’s DOG BITE DOG this manga movie about a teen who slaughters his parents, becomes a lethal pit fighter in prison and comes out looking for his sister-turned-hooker is high fashion rabies.

SPARROW (Hong Kong, 2008)

Johnnie To woke up in love one morning, because this sparkling caper about a gang of pickpockets working old Hong Kong feels like having your soul dipped in a glass of sparkling champagne for 87 minutes.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES (Japan, 2006)

Imagine SEX AND THE CITY directed by Robert Altman and you get this flick, considered by many to be the best Japanese film of 2006. The ultimate chick flick, it redefines chicks and flicks.

SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts |

Takashi Miike’s English-language spaghetti western is bigger! Louder! Faster! More! Wild shoot-outs, female gunslingers and Quentin Tarantino in a supporting role – pure maniac movie overload orgasm!

TAMAMI: THE BABY'S CURSE (aka AKANBO SHOJO) (Japan, 2008)

Director of CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL adapts an insane Kazuo Umezu horror manga into a pitch perfect homage to kitsch Japanese 80’s iconography in a flick about a mutant, killer monster baby.

THEN SUMMER CAME (Japan, 2008) | Opening Film | stylejam | guest |

World premiere of this Joe Odagiri/Yoshio Harada father-son marriage comedy directed by Japan’s most respected playwright.

THIS WORLD OF OURS (Japan, 2008)

First film from a 25-year-old kid, it’s a howl of rage about the death of innocence. Drawing a line from 9/11 to school shootings it’s a digital riff on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE that screams and howls and bleeds.

TOKYO GORE POLICE (Japan, 2008)

Bring a raincoat. This gleeful sci-fi destructo party is STARSHIP TROOPERS + EVIL DEAD, with some Cronenberg body horror and a waterfall of freaky gore. Plus: the return of the penis gun!!!

UNITED RED ARMY (Japan, 2007) | Japan Cuts | guest |

Koji Wakamatsu, Japan’s most controversial filmmaker, is barred from entering America but that didn’t stop him from blowing our minds with this epic drama about Japan’s most notorious terrorists, the Red Army faction. How did 60’s idealism curdle into terrorism.

X-CROSS (Japan, 2007)

X-treme female bonding as two young women wander into a village where young women are ritually mutilated. High gloss, high IQ survival horror at its twisty best.

YASUKUNI (Japan/China, 2008) | Japan Cuts |

This documentary about Japan’s Yasukuni shrine to its war dead set off a firestorm of controversy in Japan and cinemas showing the film were threatened with bombings. A hair-raising look at the protestors, nationalists, thugs, patriots and misguided Americans who use the Yasukuni shrine to rage against the world.

| stylejam | = Part of Focus on Stylejam program

| guest | = indicates festival guest appearance; see details for individual film for more information