We are the Community Co-Presenter for Michael Aki's STRANGERS. Starring Eugenia Yuan, STRANGERS is one of the eight nominees for the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature. For tickets, click here.
Newport Beach Film Festival - Asian films and gala
Newport Beach, Calif. (April 1, 2010) – On Wednesday, April 28, 2010 the 11th annual Newport Beach Film Festival will present its Asian Showcase, an evening celebration of Asian cinema and culture. The event will feature premiere screenings of acclaimed Asian films, followed by a festive post screening gala. Representing China, Japan, and Korea, the Asian Showcase will give filmgoers an opportunity to experience Asian film and culture at its finest.
The showcase will feature the regional premieres of Sophie’s Revenge as the Chinese Spotlight, Air Doll as the Japanese Spotlight and Private Eye as the Korean Spotlight. Sophie’s Revenge was a box office hit in China and stars Zhang Ziyi as a graphic novelist whose boyfriend has left her for a famous actress. Her plans to seek revenge reveal, in time, a deeper understanding of life and love. From the award-winning director, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Air Doll, is the modern-day Pinocchio story of an inflatable plastic doll, maid costume and all, which comes to life. The journey through her new world prompts key questions of existence. Where do we find meaning in our own lives? What ultimately makes us human? A favorite on the film festival circuit, Private Eye, is a well crafted mystery-thriller. Set in 1910, the film tells the story of a Korean “Sherlock Holmes” who must help a local doctor, accused of murder, prove his innocence.
The films will screen at the Edwards Island Cinemas, located in Fashion Island at 999 Newport Center Drive in Newport Beach. Attendees can choose one of the three Showcase films and participate in the after event.
“The Newport Beach Film Festival consistently seeks to bring the best in Asian cinema to Orange County”, stated Gregg Schwenk, CEO of the Newport Beach Film Festival. “The artists from China, Japan, and South Korea clearly reflect some of the strongest filmmaking in the world. We are greatly honored to be working with such a distinguished array of talent.”
The post-screening celebration will take place at RED Night Club, located at 4647 MacArthur Boulevard, Newport Beach, CA 92660. RED Night Club is the top ultra lounge in Orange County – Offering an upscale blend of exotic eastern and sophisticated western ambience.
Admission to one of the Asian Showcase films and the post event is $35.00. For ticket and information and updates visit Newportbeachfilmfest.com.
Chan's 2007 film won eight Hong Kong Film Awards and four Golden Horse Awards (equivalents of Oscars in Hong Kong and Taiwan), including both Best Picture and Best Director honors and a Best Actor for Jet Li. Mega-idols Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro also star in this saga in which the heroic brotherhood of three grow out their hair, don rags, forego Chapstick, and plow through their enemies without the benefit of animal forms or wirework. Their rise to political power is truly Shakespearean with equally epic consequences.
The free screening will take place on Tuesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 274-6869
To attend, please send an email with your name to rsvp@filmmatters.com and specify how many guests you will be bringing. Guests who respond in time will receive a confirmation email. Spaces are limited, so arrive early. First come, first serve.
FILMMATTERSis a national list of innovative films, screenings, festivals and related events that we at Giant Robot find important and worth noting.
The Warlords opens in theatres April 2. Please join them on Facebook.
Community Cinema Screening Presented by ITVS, Bioneers and Youth Service America
DIRT! The Movie
By Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow
March 16, 2010 Organic Reception at 7:00 PM Screening at 7:30 PM
Silver Screen Theater Pacific Design Center 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA
RSVP Requested: www.kcet.org/weho_itvs
It's under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan's acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well...dirt.
Q&A following the film with filmmakers
Free Event Parking Available in the PDC garage for $7.
Giant Robot/Filmmatters screening of Mother - Martin's blog
Thanks to Magnolia, MPRM, and the Laemmle Music Hall for helping Giant Robot present an advance screening of Bong Joon-Ho's new movie, Mother. On a chilly Tuesday night, we had a big enough turnout to get promoted to the larger screen and filled it out comfortably. Two guests walked away with posters signed by the director. One had to answer a trivia question provided by MPRM regarding actress Kim Hye-Ja. The other was the first GR subscriber to hold up her hand!
Lots of faces in the crowd. Above, director Reggie Hudlin, who has impeachable taste in film and comic books. I can count always count on seeing him at the San Diego Comic-Con and GR screenings.
Cate with actors Perrey Reeves (Entourage) and Johann Urb (2012).
Lana Kim of The Directors Bureau, The Lana Show, and J.Lep. In addition to bringing a boxful of GR47 (which featured an interview with Bong) to distribute to early arrivals, I brought new one and wound up giving it to her because she's featured in our mutual friend Saelee Oh's article about Kona coffee and so is her brother Ely.
Inside, GR's own Minister of Color, Pryor Praczukowsski. He makes the photography in our magazine look great. Look for a new, improved Cine House site to go up soon, as well as the movie he served as DP for, Strangers, which screens at FAAIM's Asian American Showcase next month.
Ken Wong (a.k.a. Monkmus) contributes the excellent "'Tween the Cracks" comic to the back page of every GR but is best-known for his music videos and his cool wife Linda, who gave me some popcorn when I was starving.
GR's longtime friend/lawyer/enforcer Mitch Mitchell and his better half, Emiko.
Oscar is one of los bros, who I can always count on to see at GR events. But were was Luis?
Rudy was part of the crew at GR's table at Comic-Con last year. Says he can't wait for this year...
Alexi helps out with proofreading when she can. Excellent spelling and command of grammar, as well as taste in movies.
Filmmaker Wing Ko probably worked on some of your favorite skate videos and provided "the voice" of ON Video. Only recently have I learned about his astounding jello-making skills (GR58) and mastery of Italian cuisine (two weeks ago).
This is what the crowd looked like. You should have been there. I'm serious. Sign up to be on our mailing list at the Filmmatters site. We don't have events every week, but when we do something it's always cool.
Above: the trailer. Mother opens on Friday, March 12. Below: my review which appears in GR64.
Mother (South Korea, 2009) Director Bong Joon-ho has told the story of a dumb guy, the corrupt world that takes advantage of him, and the female family members who save him before. Last time, it was the protagonist’s smarter and stronger sisters that saved his ass from a sea monster. This time, it’s the protagonist’s mom who fights for him after he is framed for murder by the local, lazy, small-town cops. The lengths to which she goes to protect her dull son are astounding, and so are the twists to the dark plot that Bong masterfully weaves. Can a mother’s love go too far? The only thing that could possibly make the movie better would be to have Danzig’s “Mother” play over its closing credits. [Magnolia] mw
Magnolia Pictures and Filmmatters are very proud to present an advance screening of Bong Joon-Ho's Mother.
The South Korean filmmaker is known to most American moviegoers for his post-modern monster movie, The Host, but before that he directed the much darker works -- Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder. Since contributing the otaku-themed "Shaking Tokyo" segment of the Tokyo! omnibus (along with Michel Gondry and Leos Carrax), Bong has gone on to direct Mother, which competed at Cannes in 2009 and has gone on to win accolades for his unrelenting direction and lead actress Kim Hye-ja's gritty performance.
Trust us: (1) The less you know about the plot about a single mother's relentless efforts to defend her obtuse son from a murder charge, the better, and (2) you'll want to see this harsh-but-human movie in a theater.
The free screening will take place on: Tuesday, March 9 7 p.m. Laemmle Music Hall 9036 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 274-6869
To attend, please send an email with your name to rsvp@filmmatters.com and specify if you will be bringing a guest. Spaces are limited, so first come, first serve.
Mother opens in theatres March 12th. Please join them on Facebook.
FILMMATTERS is a national list of innovative films, screenings, festivals and related events that we at Giant Robot find important and worth noting.
Free Movie Screening - Shinjuku Incident Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Free Movie Screening - Jackie Chan's Shinjuku Incident in Santa Monica
You and a guest are cordially invited to a special advanced screening of Derek Yee's Shinjuku Incident, starring Jackie Chan & Daniel Wu.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
7:00PM Doors open
7:30PM Screening
This special evening is presented by Barking Cow Distribution & FILMMATTERS, a national list of innovative films, screenings, festivals and related events that we at Giant Robot find important or worth noting.
RSVP Essential:filmmatters@giantrobot.com
Laemmle Monica 4-plex
1332 2nd Street (between Santa Monica Blvd & Arizona Ave)
"More in common with The Yakuza Papers than The Young Master." - Martin Wong, Editor, Giant Robot 61
Director Derek Yee's intense, action-packed film about lowly Chinese immigrants taking on the yakuza first gained notice when it was announced that its legendary star Jackie Chan would not be doing martial arts to concentrate on dramatic acting. It made deadlines once more when it was deemed too violent to show in China. Please join us for a special screening of the movie, which also features Hong Kong cinema upstart andGiant Robot contributor Daniel Wu, on Tuesday, February 2nd.
For more information on Shinjuku Incident, please check out their site & follow them on Facebook.
"I always wanted to make a great, epic movie like Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, or Spartacus. But I was young and that was just a dream to me." - John Woo (Giant Robot 63)
GR63 preview/interview excerpt with John Woo, up at Martin's blog.
