Firecracker supports NYAFF 2007 - Starts Tomorrow

Firecracker is delighted to be on board as a media sponsor for this year's New York Asian Film Festival. Kicking off tomorrow, this year's line-up once again confirms the event's place as the best Asian movie event in the Big Apple, with juicy titles such as I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, The Banquet, Exiled, Nightmare Detective and City of Violence among the highlights, and there's an awesome range of special guests and events.

More coming soon but in the meantime over to the guys at Subway Cinema:

Dragon Dynasty and Subway Cinema Present NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2007 June 22 - July 8, 2007 at the IFC Center and Japan Society

The New York Asian Film Festival 2007 thunders back into town with a herd of rowdy movies that are ready to blow your mind and cleanse your soul. A seventeen day orgy of new films from PARK Chan-wook, Johnnie To, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takashi Miike, this year's festival will introduce you to buffalo-busting action flicks from Thailand, cartilage-cracking gangster films from Korea, and the first gore flick ever made in Pakistan!
SPECIAL GUESTS!

E. J-yong
Director of Dasepo Naughty Girls and curator of Mise-en-scene's Genres Film Festival (MGFF)

Shusuke Kaneko
director of Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name

HAN Jae-rimDirector of The Show Must Go On

Sion Sono
director of Exte

Omar Khan
Director of Hell's Ground (Zibhakhana) and Pakistani film preservationist Pete Tombs and Andy Starke: producers of Hell's Ground and kings of the Mondo Macabro DVD label.

LEE Sang-geun
Director of award-winning short film Do You Wanna Baby?

SPECIAL EVENTS!

The NYAFF has partnered with Korea’'s Mise-en-scene’s Genres Film Festival (MGFF) to bring over their award-winning horror, comedy, melodrama, sci-fi and action short films, selected by MGFF’s committee and jury members, Bong Joon-ho (The Host), Kim Ji-woon (A Bittersweet Life), Ryoo Seung-wan (The City of Violence), Jang Joon-hwan (Save the Green Planet), E. J-yong (Dasepo Naughty Girls), and Park Chan-wook (I'’m a Cyborg, But That's OK). Presented with the generous support of the Korean Cultural Service New York.

From Lahore with Gore
–July 3 sees the New York debut of Hell's Ground, Pakistan’s first splatter film, produced by the good people at the Mondo Macabro DVD label. The director and producers will be at the screening with a clip reel highlighting the wildest Pakistani exploitation movies from the 70’s and 80’s and there will be big hugs for audience members who are suddenly terrified to realize that Pakistan is infested with zombies and hairy monsters.

THE TRAILER!
check out the official festival trailer on YouTube here

THE LINE-UP!
Full write-ups and schedule are available here

Dragon Tiger Gate and The Duelist arrive in the U.K.

Two great films of Eastern Cinema are fianlly arriving on UK DVD:

Action superstar Donnie Yen (Seven Swords, Hero, Blade II) blasts back on to the screen in inimitable fashion as both star and action director in one of the most highly anticipated Hong Kong movies in recent years, Dragon Tiger Gate.

Released on DVD on 25th June 2007, Dragon Tiger Gate comes packed with over two hours of extra features including behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews with the film's stars and director.

Special Features include: "Making of" featurette; Pre-Production featurette; Shooting Diaries; four location featurettes; deleted scenes; trailer gallery; interviews with Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, Dong Jie, Li Xiao-Ran and Wilson Yip; Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 audio options; chapter index.

Loosely based on an original manga by Bang Hak-gi and set during Korea's late Chosun Dynasty era, acclaimed Korean filmmaker Lee Myung-Se's (Nowhere To Hide, Bitter and Sweet) innovative and visually impressive reinvention of martial arts genre conventions, Duelist, is a ravishingly shot and brilliantly choreographed tale of intrigue and romance now coming to DVD, courtesy of Premier Asia.

Duelist will be released on DVD as a two disc special collector's edition by Premier Asia on 2nd July 2007. Over two hours of special features include: a making of documentary; an interview with director Lee Myung-se; featurettes on the editing, music and visuals of the film; behind the scenes interviews and footage of the cast and a promotional gallery. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a choice of Korean Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 sound tracks and optional English subtitles.

Read Firecracker's review of Duelist's UK Theatrical Release

Read Firecracker interview with Lee Myung-se

Sequels Galore - Nightmare Detective 2 And The Host 2 announced

Straight off the press: Two of this year's big hits are getting a sequel. Whilst Nightmare Detective will be helmed once again by Shin'ya Tsukamoto , the director for Host 2 is yet to be announced.

More details can be found on the Twitch website:

Nightmare Detective 2

The Host 2

PiFan Reveals its Lineup

PiFan - or to use its full title, the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival - is Korea's second biggest film fest (after Pusan) and the biggest genre-based fest in Asia. Its line-up is always worth a look and this year - the 11th edition - is no exception, with titles in the competition including the latest from Nobuhiro Yamashita, the acclaimed Japanese director of No One's Ark (2003) and high school girls' rock 'n roll charmer Linda Linda Linda (2005). Yamashita's crime-comedy The Matsugane Potshot Affair is joined by Oxide Pang's Diary, Thai director Chookiet Sakveerakul's 13 and Resurrection of the Butterfly by Korean directorial team Kim Min-sook & Lee Jung-gook.

While a Korean movie - Chulsoo and Younghee director Hwang Kyu-deok's latest For Eternal Hearts - opens proceedings, there's a more unexpected closer, with Indonesian director Joko Anwar's supernatural thriller Kala. The follow-up to the acclaimed Joni's Promise (Janji Joni) (Firecracker Showcase 2006), Kala represents something of a change of tack for this rising talent, but looks like following in its predecessor's footsteps as one of the few Indonesian movies to make an impact overseas. This is something Firecracker TV hopes to change very soon, with several of the best recent Indonesian flicks set to go live.

Read more on PiFan at Variety

Visit the PiFan site

Johnny To 'Exiled' to... the UK?!

Also out in the UK this week is Johnny To's superb semi-sequel to The Mission : Exiled

Proving that he is still one of the best and most masterful directors out there, Johnny To gathers his actors from the first film to weave a tale of past, present, friendship, honour and looking as cool as possible whilst blasting a gun.

Anyone who is not accustomed to Johnny To's usual quirkiness will be in for a treat as he regularly punctuates the action with the most beautifully mundane events and details, elevating the whole film above the level of an average Pistol Opera/Heroic Bloodshed.
Anthony Wong delivers a stunning performance, as well as looking extremely dashing and handsome, as the hit man assigned to kill an old friend. The rest of the cast, including Francis Ng, Nick Chung, Roy Cheung and Suet Lam, are spectacular, too, reminding us why The Mission is still one of the most wonderful films ever.

All UK readers, take notice.

Click for Firecracker review of Exiled

News: Pakistani Zombie Splatter Movie Ahoy! Revisited

Keen eyed readers may remember a post from 30th of April by Mr. David announcing a new Pakistani Zombie Splatter called Zibahkhana.

Well now, UK readers can rejoice in the fact that so very soon after our brief report, the film will be playing as part of the Frightfest Xtra day in the Cambridge Film Festival on Saturday 7th Of July.

Although ticket arrangements have not been announced yet , can you think of a better way than spending the afternoon in hot July in a cinema watching Pakistani zombies? I know I certainly can't!

Click here for Frightfest screening details