NY Asian Film Fest 2008 Kicks Off

Asian cinema fans rejoice, the New York Asian Film Festival is back with a vengeance! Every summer since 2002 Grady Hendrix and the fine folks over at Subway Cinema roll out a collection of some 30 films representing the best Asia has to offer. Now in its 7th year, the NYAFF has established itself as one of the very best Asian film fests going anywhere, with a cross-section of art-house, big budget, and plain weird pictures abound.

This year’s fest promises to be the largest in its short history with 43 films screening along with two programs of short films out of South Korea. They’ve also scored some big time guests to present their latest works including Myung-se Lee (M) and Ryo Iwamatsu (Then Summer Came). In a major coup for the fest, legendary (and infamous) film provocateur Koji Wakamatsu will hold a live Q&A via satellite for his latest United Red Army. The director is barred from traveling to the US due his past ties to a left-wing militant group so this screening promises to be a rare treat.

Here are my 12 must-sees for this year’s NYAFF:

Action Boys (Byoung-Gul Jung, South Korea, 2008)
Adrift in Tokyo (Satoshi Miki, Japan, 2007)
Dainipponjin (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan, 2007)
Fine, Totally Fine (Yosuke Fujita, Japan, 2007)
L: Change the World (Hideo Nakata, Japan, 2008)
M (Myung-Se Lee, South Korea, 2007)
Mad Detective (Johnnie To, Hong Kong, 2007)
Sad Vacation (Shinji Aoyama, Japan, 2007)
Strawberry Shortcakes (Hitoshi Yazaki, Japan, 2006)
Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike, Japan, 2007)
This World of Ours (Ryo Nakajimi, Japan, 2007)
United Red Army (Koji Wakamatsu, Japan, 2007)

I’ll be sharing my thoughts on all of these along with a few others over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned for much more coverage! The 7th Annual NYAFF begins today and runs through July 6th. Scheduling and ticket info can be found right HERE.