Asian Film Festival Of Dallas Starts Tomorrow!

We wanted to remind everyone about the 8th Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas that starts tomorrow. We've posted some of the genre specific highlights for us below, but there's tons of other movies showing as well. All the info for the fest is below.

8th Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas
July 17th to 23rd

Venue:
Landmark’s Magnolia Theatre
3699 McKinney Avenue Dallas, TX 75204

The Magnolia is conveniently located in the West Village on the southeast corner of McKinney and Lemmon.

Parking and Transportation:
The West Village has multiple free parking garages with over 800 free covered spaces. You can also reach the West Village area via DART bus and light rail, or the McKinney Avenue Trolley.

Special Guests:
This year we are pleased to welcome Mark Tran, director of the film All About Dad. He will be joining us for the screening of his film on Saturday, July 18 at 5:30pm. Please stay for a Q&A session with him after the film.

Genre Films Being Shown at the Festival:

4BIA:
Remember the spooky stories you used to tell at sleepovers? The ones you and your friends would whisper to each other until everyone was freaked out and hiding under the blankets? 4BIA is a lot like that – only with more eye-gouging. And falling off balconies. Seriously, you’d think people would be more careful. Don’t they watch movies? Which is exactly the point. 4BIA is a Thai anthology film for jaded, seen-it-all horror fans – a series of tales that poke open, mean-spirited fun at the Asian horror conventions that have sadly become trite and tired over the last 15 years (complete with sneering references to long-haired ghost girls), while incorporating the crutches and conventions of our modern world. Bullies! Texting! Bromance! Food Allergies! All there, and part of the nasty, shrieking fun.

In 4BIA, restless spirits aren’t looking for sweet, warm closure. They want someone to PAY, and aren’t particularly choosy about whom. And in the end, isn’t that what we’re looking for in a scary movie? If brutal, unfair, bloody twists of fate aren’t your bag, you might be better off keeping your head under the blankets for this one.


Dara:
Indonesian horror short film directed by The Mo Brothers (Macabre, The Forbidden Door)


The Beast Stalker:
In Dante Lam's The Beast Stalker, practically every character's face is weighted down by physical scars and the intense burden of some unforgettable, traumatic event.

Captain Tong (Nicholas Tse) is the intense leader of a strike force out to nab a rarely-seen crime-lord. Ann Gao (Zhang Jingchu) is a prosecuting attorney faced with a moral and ethical dilemma brought on by the crime-lord's activities, while she also deals with the grief of a recent, deeply personal loss. Hung (Nick Cheung) handles kidnappings for the crime-lord's outfit, while caring for his bedridden wife and slowly going blind due to a mysterious injury.

The film begins with an explosive raid which is quickly followed by a car chase where Tong and his men almost catch up to the crime-lord's gang. Their pursuit ends in a gut-wrenching, multiple-car collision; this accident is revisited twice, each time exposing more shocking impacts on the people involved.

After the accident, Tong is conflicted by the agonizing regret and failure he feels due to an incidental shooting; his nose bleeds when he becomes stressed, and he fights to keep his emotions in check at all times. Ann's daughter Ling (the adorable Wong Suet-Yin, who handles the grueling events of the film like a champ) is kidnapped to force the attorney to destroy evidence, and Tong's off-the-record investigation brings him face to face with Hung. Their final confrontations rely more on dramatic intensity than acutely-paced action.

Nominated for 5 Hong Kong Film Awards and winner of 2 (Nick Cheung for Best Actor and Liu Kai-Chi for Best Supporting Actor as Tong's right-hand man), The Beast Stalker is a highly entertaining mix of action and melodrama bolstered by a strong cast and production values.


Hansel and Gretel:
Written and directed by Yim Pil-sung—whose claustrophobic 2005 outing ANTARCTIC JOURNAL served up evidence of a promising talent—HANSEL AND GRETEL begins by introducing us to kind-hearted father-to-be Eun-soo (brilliantly essayed by handsome up-and-comer Cheon Jeong-myeong). Having skidded off the motorway on the way to visit his hospitalized mother, our leading man wakes up in the middle of a woodland and, after following a path through the forest, finds a desolate mansion. There he is introduced to three children (one girl of kindergarten age and her sister and brother, who both look to be in their early teens) and their painfully polite “parents,” who insist on cooking him a sumptuous feast and preparing a bed for the night. However, come the next morning, Eun-soo finds that he has been a left a short note from “Mom and Dad” asking that he take care of the kids for the next week (it seems the two elders have had to make a sudden, emergency trip into town).

With some of the most detailed art direction you will ever see, HANSEL AND GRETEL serves as a dark, creepy modern fairytale.


Ichi:
From the director of PING-PONG and VEXILLE comes this update of the legendary Zatoichi narrative.

Ichi is a young blind woman who wanders the countryside as a Goze (musician), and runs afoul of the dreaded Banki Gang. Fortunately for her, and for the villagers forced to deal with the gang's criminal activities, Ichi possesses skills far more deadly than her ability to sing and play the shamisen (a traditional three-stringed Japanese guitar). The near-silent and self-sufficient Ichi is accompanied in her travels by a tragic, would-be samurai named Touma. When the local villagers decide that Touma is the one repeatedly slaying Banki thugs, they propose he accept the job of bodyguard to the village master. While the pay looks promising, an impending Banki attack is the last thing on Touma's mind.

ICHI is a beautifully photographed tale of mistaken identities and rediscovered courage, with enough swordplay to keep the action-film aficionados engaged while telling its dramatic story.


Ip Man:
There are three ways you can view Ip Man: as a historical drama about the legendary martial arts master under whom Bruce Lee studied, and his struggles during the Japanese occupation of China; as a folk-hero tale of a martial arts master who stands for all things modest and honorable, yet who is capable of taking on every soldier in the Japanese army and remains standing tall when the fight is finished; or as an intense Donnie Yen fight film, where the actor's best skills are put to work in brutal, technically awesome fight sequences (choreographed by action director Sammo Hung) that will have audiences cheering.

Yen is suitably restrained as the quiet, polite and extremely modest martial arts master, who is wealthy enough that he does not entertain the idea of taking on new students, or threats by newcomers who need to make their reputations in the township of Fo Shan. Ip Man's family is quickly displaced when the occupation occurs; forced into manual labor, he is still viewed as a beacon of hope to the locals, especially when a new army commander looks for men to challenge him in martial arts contests. Winners walk away with a bag of rice, but losers don't walk away. Ip Man does not immediately respond to the challenge; only when those closest to him are threatened does he take up the fight.

The terrific supporting cast includes AFFD favorite Simon Yam as Ip Man's best friend, an industrialist who is determined to see success despite the war, and Lam Ka Tung as a sympathetic local cop who acts as a translator for the Japanese. Ip Man is a technically polished film that summarizes its historical facts while giving abundant time and attention to thrilling martial arts action.


K-20: Legend of the Mask:
Fans of the 2004 pulp classic Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow will immediately feel at home in Director Shimako Sato's inspired K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK. Boasting a massive budget by Japanese standards, (2 billion yen, or 20 million US dollars), Sato delivers a compelling fantasy picture rife with action and energy.

Set in an alternate 1949 reality where World War II never occurred, K-20 takes place in the fictional Japanese city of Teito. Teito's skies are dominated by ominous zeppelins as well as other hybrid flying devices. The film is centered around the age old conflict of class divide, and Sato does a good job in conveying this visually. The affluent elite have embraced the tesla coil as a source of energy, and their brightly illuminated skyscrapers boast this triumph. On the other hand, the proletariat masses struggle with daily existence in their lantern lit hovels. Proof of the large budget can be seen in the opening shot, as a sweeping flyover shows the city constructed with CGI in incredible detail.

K-20 is centered around the character of Hikichi Endo, (played by the popular Takeshi Kaneshiro), a brilliant circus acrobat who performs nightly for the lower class denizens. After one such show, Endo is approached by the mysteriously masked K-20, who offers Endo cash in exchange for using his acrobatic skills to infiltrate a private ceremony. It turns out to be a setup, which forces Endo to hunt down K-20 and prove his innocence.


Mushishi:
Katsuhiro Otomo is best known for his animation projects, including segments of the anthologies Memories, Neo-Tokyo and Robot Carnival, the feature narrative Steamboy and the renowned classic Akira. With Mushishi, he shifts gears with a lyrical, live-action adaptation of Yuki Urushibara's comic series of the same name. A mushishi is a sort of travelling shaman who employs remedies against different forms of mushi, spirit creatures that attack the human body, causing all manner of illnesses and disabilities. When we first meet Ginko, he stops at a lodge where several residents have mysteriously lost their hearing in one ear. The lodge-keeper also requests Ginko's help with her granddaughter, who is beset by mushi so intensely she has grown little horns. The mushishi's story alternates with that of Yoki, an orphaned boy who learns of the mushi from a mystical woman with striking grey hair very similar to Ginko's. Otomo takes his time with the story and utilizes beautiful camerawork and simple but captivating effects. After creating several blackly comic and action-based works that delve into scientific and technological concepts, he has summoned up a reverent mixture of characters, relationships and lore that make for a modest, quiet portrayal of pure fantasy.

Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf:
A low-budget revenge tale with grindhouse flourishes, actor/director Kurando Mitsutake's film follows the bloody trail of a wronged man who battles seven unique assassins to reach the villain who destroyed his life. Blind Wolf (Mitsutake) and The Drifter team up to hunt down Nathan Flesher, a murderous thug who is about to be released from the weakest-looking jail cell in the west (he is able to walk outside freely and beat up guards with impunity...because he is EVIL). Flesher's mercenary killers are charged with taking out the strangers with no name. Yet with each fight the pair gets closer to their final encounter with Flesher, and the audience gets a further glimpse into their blood-soaked reasons for vengeance.

Filled with dirty cowboys, bikini-clad assassins, ancient sword masters, snipers, flashbacks, showdowns, severed limbs and helpful narration, Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf is for the midnight/exploitation movie-lover in us all.


The Screen at Kamchanod:
When a monk warns you against meddling in otherworldly affairs, you should pay attention.

Dr. Yuth knows the legend of a film that was shown years before on Kamchanod island, and how it allegedly beckoned ghosts into our world. Now he sets out to locate the film and re-create the screening. But what will be the outcome?

An eerie and unsettling horror film, The Screen at Kamchanod uncovers mysteries both paranormal and domestic, as Yuth, his ailing girlfriend and the local lock-pick expert seek out the meanings behind a lost film, messages scrawled on the back of a torn page, and the medallion clutched by a bedridden old man.

For ticket info and to see other films on the schedule, go here.

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