The Asian American International Festival reaches across the country and the Pacific to present some of the most interesting films from Asian countries and from Asian-Americans.
The festival is presented by Asian CineVision, an organization founded in the 1970s by a group including Tsui Hark and Christine Choy to promote Asian-American filmmakers. Now in its 24th year, the festival claims to be the first to have showcased films from Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan — all hot cinematic centers today.
Some of this year's most interesting offerings include:
Joint Security Area: A profound and politically astute military murder mystery set on the one tense meeting point between North and South Korea. As the true nature of the bloodbath slowly emerges, it's not what either country had claimed — it's actually a tragedy with roots in the Korean's people's simultaneous vision of each other as bitter enemies and blood brothers.
Cure: A strange Japanese thriller about a murderer who leaves an "X" on the bodies of his victims. Only, the murders don't stop when the police have the killer in custody.
Body Drop Asphalt: (photo above) An odd, hypnotic Japanese film about a young romance-novel writer who tries to incorporate her book's lessons into her own stagnant love life.
The Chinatown Files: A documentary about the toll of McCarthyism on Chinese immigrants to the United States in the 1950s.
The Flip Side: A much-talked-about feature by Filipino-American director Rod Pulido about a college student who returns to his family's home in Los Angeles with what he thinks is enlightenment.
An intelligent murder mystery set at the only meeting point between North and South Korea, whose tragic solution reveals the war zone's tension between hate and humanity.
A misguided and poorly made update of the 1930s Shanghai classic "Crossroads," with Chinese actors speaking bad English and a former American sitcom star.
JULY 19, 2001 OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
