Umin Boya's NYAFF Centerpiece Kano
Early details of the 13th New York Asian Film Festival were unveiled Friday. Umin Boya's NYAFF Centerpiece Kano, produced and co-written by Taiwan's Wei Te-Sheng (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale) is a sports tale about an underdog mixed-race high-school baseball team that beat the odds and earned the right to travel to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament. In order to succeed against their elite competition, the team had to overcome their ethnic differences and find a way to utilize their individual strengths in order to come together as a true team.
Highlights from the first group of titles announced Friday include Philip Yung’s female-juvenile-delinquent drama May We Chat; Benny Chan’s resurrection of the heroic bloodshed genre The White Storm; Lee Kung-lok’s porn-industry comedy 3D Naked Ambition (NYAFF’s first 3-D movie); superstar Andy Lau in Allen Yuen’s heart-busting police thriller Firestorm; Juno Mak’s hopping-vampire homage Rigor Mortis, along with the classic that inspired it, Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire. Also on tap, Chow Yun-fat reunites with director Wong Jing for the gambling comedy From Vegas to Macau.
The legendary Takashi Miike will also be represented at NYAFF once again with his gangster comedy based on a popular manga, The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji. Korean cops take on a criminal mastermind in Jo Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo’s thriller Cold Eyes; Takashi Yamazaki’s Japanese WWII kamikaze pilot drama The Eternal Zero; and Anna Broinowski’s Aim High in Creation, a behind-the-scenes look at the North Korean film industry, are also set to screen.
Lee Jung-jae will be this year's NYAFF Korean Actor in Focus. The spotlight will feature some of Lee's most notable films including recent releases including Han Jae-rim’s historical comedy-drama The Face Reader and Park Hoon-jung’s epic gangster thriller New World.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Subway Cinema in association with the Japan Society will announce the complete lineup of the 13th New York Asian Film Festival soon. NYAFF will take place at the Film Society June 27 – July 10, the Japan Society July 10-13, and the Asia Society July 13-14.
[Tickets will go on sale to Members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Tuesday, June 3 and to the General Public on Thursday, June 12. Single screening tickets are $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. A three-film package is $30; $24 for students and seniors (62+); and $21 for Film Society members. Discount prices apply with the purchase of tickets to three films or more. Visit www.FilmLinc.com for complete film festival information.]
