FILM FESTIVALS

April 30 - May 1  2nd Annual Short Shorts Film Festival.

Largest shorts festival in Japan, Films from around the globe w/ several of the filmmaker's in attendance.

May 2 – 14

The American Cinemateque’s 1st Festival of Japanese Anime.

With the breakout success of films like SPIRITED AWAY and METROPOLIS and television shows like "POKEMON," "COWBOY BEBOP" and "DRAGON BALL Z", Japanese anime has finally gone above-ground to become a pop culture phenomenon in the U.S. The Cinematheque's 1st Annual Anime Festival will feature Los Angeles Premiere screenings of features including TAMALA2010: A PUNK CAT FROM SPACE, A TREE OF PALME, JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO and PARASITE DOLLS (U.S. Premiere), plus episodes from cult hit TV series including "AURA BATTLER DUNBINE," "RAHXEPHON," "BRIGADOON," "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST," "BERSERK," "DNA2," "DESCENDANTS OF DARKNESS," "SCI-FI HARRY" and the original uncut version of "SAILOR MOON", a tribute to hentai pioneer, Toshio Maeda (UROTSUKIDOJI, LA BLUE GIRL), plus early anime classics such as JACK & THE BEANSTALK and ALAKAZAM THE GREAT, and much much more!!

THE FIVE OSCAR-NOMINATED FOREIGN FILMS

Spirited Away (Japan)

Hero (People's Republic of China), Miramax releases later this year

Nowhere in Africa (Germany), now playing at Laemmle’s Royal Theater. The true tale of a Jewish couple and their young daughter who flee the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence, they must deal with the harsh realities of their new life. The attorney father adjusts to life as a farm caretaker and the shy daughter feels immediately at home. The mother, who finds the adjustment most difficult, in the end grows to cherish her new home more than anyone. Nominated for a Golden Globe, the film won five German Film Awards. Caroline Link wrote and directed, basing the script on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig.

Man Without a Past (Finland) is coming to a Laemmle Theater. Look for our review.

Zus & Zo (the Netherlands) awaiting release.

NOW PLAYING

Bend It Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha, starring Parminder K. Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. London teen, Jess (Nagra), wants to be a soccer star like her idol, David Beckham. But her traditional Indian family wants her to be like her older sister and make the family proud by marrying well. With the encouragement of her tomboy friend, Jules (Knightley), and their handsome coach, can she bring her family around and realize her dreams?

Cradle 2 the Grave, starring: Jet Li, DMX and Mark Dacascos. A renowned criminal kidnaps the daughter of a gang leader during a diamond heist.

Shanghai Knights, starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Fann Wong. Our heroes, seeking to avenge a murder, stumble into a possible conspiracy to kill the royal family.

Dreamcatcher, starring Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane and Jason Lee. Based on a Stephen King novel. Four boyhood friends reunite for a hunting trip and meet a strange guy who seems possessed by an alien force.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Dir. SHINICHIRO WATANABE, TAKAYUKI YOSHII and RYOHEI TSUNODA, screenplay by KEIKO NOBUMOTO, was featured in our December anime/manga issue. One of the greatest Japanese anime imports ever, it’s based on the  popular animated television show (currently on Cartoon Network) and fuses sci-fi elements with startling animation effects and a captivating soundtrack.

Cowboy Bebop	Cowboy Bebop	Cowboy Bebop

City of Ghosts. Matt Dillon's directedial debut, starring Matt Dillon, James Caan, Stellan Skarsgard, NatashaMcElhone, Sereyvuth Kem and Gerard Depardieu. Written by Dillon and Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart). Jimmy Cremming (Dillon), in Bangkok after fleeing an insurance scam investigation in  States, finds that his partner, Marvin (Caan), is in Cambodia. He sets off to track him down for his share of the action but he finds a lot more than he bargained for.

Under the City's Skin. Dir. Bani-Etemad, Iran's premiere female filmmaker. Tula (Adineh) works at a textile factory and is beset with problems at home, like her pregnant daughter (Kosari) whose husband regularly beats her. She dreams of getting an engineering job in Japan and escaping Iran with her family.

Confidence. Dir. James Foley, starring Ed Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia, Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman. Jake Vig is a consummate grifter about to pull his biggest con yet, one set to avenge his friend's murder. But his last scam backfired, leaving him indebted to a mob boss and his enforcer. Vig brings in Lily, a brazen pickpocket who's sudden decision to become a red-head may or may not precipitate an unlucky  chain of events in this LA crime thriller that is pure fun.

.  .   .  AND

Ripley's Game 
What a Girl Wants
The Good Thief
Levity/Studio Canal
The Guys/ContentFilm
Cet amour-là
Anger Management
Stevie
XX/XY
Lilya 4-Ever

DVD NEW RELEASES

Vitagraph DVD Releases (available in retail stores, on the internet and at the Egyptian Theatre through American Cinemateque)

BLACK ROSE MANSION (KURO BARA NO YAKATA) 1969. Dir. Kinji Fukasaku, starring famous drag-star/singer Akihiro Maruyama. Wealthy Eitaro Ozawa installs songbird "Black Rose" in his elegant private men's club to bolster business but he gets more than he bargained for when she attracts scores of homicidal past lovers, and he and his ne'er-do-well son both fall for the femme fatale.

THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS, 2001, Shochiku. Dir. Takashi Miike (AUDITION, DEAD OR ALIVE). Cheerfully grotesque musical comedy about a family-run inn in the Japanese mountains, where all the guests seem to die in bizarre fashion. There’s a delusional secret agent who thinks he's an illegitimate relation of the British Royal Family, a well-endowed sumo wrestler and his underage girlfriend, and a host of karaoke-style musical numbers.

Four Japanese genre films from American Cinematheque’s Japanese Outlaw Masters series. Thirty years old but never released or available on video here: BLACK TIGHT KILLERS, ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS, GO GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN and FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION - JAILHOUSE 41).

Upcoming releases include Carlos Reygadas' acclaimed JAPON (JAPAN), winner of a special Jury Prize from the Directors Fortnight Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Reygadas was also named one of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch" at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

 . . . AND . . . 

Pokemon 4Ever
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
L'Atalante
Waking Up in Reno
Things Behind the Sun
Dream For an Insomniac
Hit Me
The Transporter
Drumline (widescreen)    Drumline (full screen)
The Big Shot's Funeral
Second Skin (unrated)
Kandahar: Afghanistan before 9-11.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Once a Thief
Treasure Planet
Biggie and Tupac

Fulltime Killer

Starring Andy Lau, Takashi Sorimachi, Simon Yam and Kelly Lin
Directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai
101 minutes, subtitled in English

Hong Kong fu flicks are sure to come back with a bang in Fulltime Killer, a stylish, hyper-violent shoot 'em up that follows the twisted tale of two professional killers, the cop that wants to stop them, and a lonely video store clerk that cleans apartments on the side.

Without giving too much away, top international assassin O (Sorimachi) is the target of Tok (Lau), a talented yet flawed up-and-coming killer for hire. As part of his plan, Tok makes the moves on Chin, the video store clerk who innocently works for O as a house cleaner, inviting her to be a "professional killer's woman." Meanwhile, Interpol agent Lee (Yam) is just one step behind catching O, who is getting tired of the game and thinks about throwing in the towel. Amid brutal assassination scenes and bloody confrontations with clients and the police, the fate of O and Tok unravels like a water hose on full-blast, surprising and full of twists and turns. Who is the bad guy? Who is the good guy? Whose house will Chin decide to clean forever?

Fulltime Killer is an enjoyable movie for those who are fans of watching unadulterated, no-holds-barred Hong Kong-style street fighting, shooting and explosion action. As is typical of the genre, don't expect too much emotion or even story to be involved. The plot, which requires a little patience to get through, is secondary to the cinematic bullet ballets that directors To and Fai obviously had a lot of fun filming.

Andy Lau, long-time Hong Kong singer and actor (and producer on this movie), was exciting to watch as the flamboyant yet desperate Tok, and Kelly Lin was the appropriately meek-outside and adventurous-inside love interest / victim / lyin', cheatin' heart.   Takashi Sorimachi, also a veteran singer and actor in Japan, was cool and sexy as O, and Simon Yam's role as the obsessed detective was well acted if not well-defined.

The international scope of this movie was really interesting. You may think that subtitles are not your thing, but this movie was actually filmed in equal parts Japanese, Chinese and English. The different national origins of each of the characters was a bit confusing at first, but with patience really added to the overall picture.

If you are expecting a moving film with tear-jerking scenes, skip Fulltime Killer for Tears of the Sun. But for fans of Hong Kong cinema, this movie is a real must-see.

Now showing in Los Angeles, Irvine and New York.
www.fulltimekiller.com
www.palmpictures.com

– Susan Yee

BETTER LUCK TOMORROW

Starring Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho, and Karin Anna Cheung
Directed by Justin Lin

16-year-old Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) is a junior determined to get into one of the nation's most prestigious universities. Civic-minded and responsible honor students by day, Ben and his best friend Virgil (Jason Tobin) have earned the complete trust of their parents with their good grades and their model behavior. But with that trust comes too much freedom. Bored by suburban life and no longer satisfied with simply staying ahead of the grading curve, Ben and Virgil throw themselves into increasingly risky extracurricular activities, in contrast to the wholesome ones listed on their college applications. With Virgil's cousin Han (Sung Kang) and the captain of the academic decathlon team Daric (Roger Fan), a most unlikely crew is formed, and the foursome begins earning their own "financial aid," under the pretense of free enterprise. In this tale of adolescent discontent, the fast-track to the American Dream exacts a heavy toll in a suburban landscape of moral collapse.

This film was the subject of intense controversy at Sundance last year, when famed critic Roger Ebert defended the film from others who wanted to know why director Lin didn't make a film with a more "positive portrayal" of Asian-Americans. "Asian-American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be!" he said. Ebert's rave review sparked a bidding war that sent Lin to the top of Hollywood's "Top Ten Director's to Watch" list. Better Luck Tomorrow opens in theaters in April 11, 2003.

www.betterlucktomorrow.com

– Susan Yee