Port of Call
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema have announced the lineup for the 14th annual New York Asian Film Festival, North America's leading showcase of popular Asian cinema, which takes place June 26 – July 11 at the Film Society and the SVA Theatre. The festival will feature dozens of premieres and appearances by filmmakers from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S.
Every year, NYAFF offers up a diverse lineup of Asian cinema, incorporating everything from action blockbusters to art-house dramas. This year's festival will kick off with the North American Premiere of Philip Yung’s Port of Call. The film centers on the brutal murder of a 16-year-old Hunan girl who moves to Hong Kong with her family and falls into prostitution. Winding through time and grounded by Christopher Doyle’s gauzy cinematography, it follows both the story of the young girl’s descent into sex work and the grizzled detective (Aaron Kwok) who obsessively works to solve the murder. Kwok is astonishing here in a career-best performance, with all the tics and haggard body language of a man beaten down by the violence that threatens to drown him at every turn.
Chaisuke's Journey. © Bandai Visual, Shochiku, and Office Kitano
The Centerpiece Presentation will be the North American premiere of Sabu’s Chasuke’s Journey, which was in Competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. According to Variety, the film finds “Sabu in his most fun-loving element, stirring Okinawa’s magical folk art into a Capraesque yarn that flirts with ideas of fate and self-determination, but really just revels in a rich tapestry of human experience. [The film is also] full of whimsical twists and high-octane action.”
The 14th edition of the NYAFF will feature five focus programs: “Hong Kong Panorama”; “New Cinema from Japan”; “Taiwan Cinema Now!”; the previously announced “Myung Films: Pioneers and Women Behind the Camera in Korean Film”; and “The Last Men in Japanese Film,” a joint tribute to Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara, both of whom passed away last November.
Tickets go on sale June 11. Early access for Film Society members (Cinephile and higher) begins June 9. To see the full lineup and purchase tickets, click here.
