twi-ny recommended events

BREAKING THE WAVES — THE FILMS OF ZERO CHOU: SPIDER LILIES

Isabella Leong and Rainie Yang star as potential lovers in Zero Chou’s award-winning SPIDER LILIES


SPIDER LILIES (CI QING) (Zero Chou, 2007)
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium
40 Lincoln Center Plaza (111 Amsterdam Ave. & 66th St.)
Thursday, June 9, free, 6:30
Series continues Thursday nights at 6:30 through June 30
www.nypl.org

Winner of the Teddy Award for best queer feature film at the 2007 Berlinale, Zero Chou’s Spider Lilies is an involving melodrama that starts out silly and quirky but quickly turns to far more serious topics. Rainie Yang is delightful as eighteen-year-old Jade, a kawaii innocent who tries to make money as a sexy web-cam girl but never goes too far, sometimes because her granny walks into her room and looks into the camera at rather inappropriate moments. When one of her loyal followers — an internet cop participating in a sting to entrap online sex sites but who harbors a hidden affection for Jade — suggests she get a tattoo, Jade goes to a local parlor run by Takeko (Isabella Leong), a slightly older young woman whom Jade had a puppy-dog crush on when she was nine. But Takeko, a serious person with a wild tattoo running up and down her left arm, doesn’t seem to remember Jade, at least not at first. When Jade asks for the same spider lily tattoo, Takeko refuses, claiming that they “are the flowers that grow along the path to hell.” Indeed, Takeko seems to live in a private hell all her own, filled with haunting childhood memories centered around an earthquake that killed her father and left her brother, Ching (Shen Jian-hung), with severe mental problems that require special care. She is also a surrogate older sister for Ah-Dong (Shih Yuan-chieh), a wannabe-rebel who finds strength and confidence from Takeko’s tattoos but uses them to bully unsuspecting students. Although the story, written by Singing Chen, goes off on too many tangents, Chou brings everything together as the characters approach a bittersweet finale. Leong and Yang make a fascinating potential couple; Chou, the only openly lesbian filmmaker in Taiwan, prepared them for their roles by having them watch episodes of The L Word. Spider Lilies continues Chou’s use of one of the colors of the gay pride rainbow flag in each of her films; in this case, she features green, seen in the flashy wig that Jade wears. Spider Lilies will be shown at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on June 9 at 6:30 as part of the series “Breaking the Waves: The Films of Zero Chou” and will be introduced by the director. The series continues on June 16 with 2004’s Splendid Float, June 23 with 2008’s Drifting Flowers, and June 30 with 2001’s Corners. Keep watching twi-ny for select reviews of these rarely shown but important and evocative works.

RADIAN

Radian will be in Brooklyn on June 8 for a rare show

Union Pool
484 Union Ave. at Meeker Ave.
Wednesday, June 8, $15, 9:00
718-609-0484
www.myspace.com/radianvienna
http://unionpool.blogspot.com

Austrian trio Radian creates fascinating cinematic soundscapes bult on layers of ambient electronic noise and acoustic and amplified instrumentation. Featuring Mosz Records cofounder Stefan Németh on guitars and synthesizers, John Norman on bass, and Martin Brandlmayr on drums, vibraphones, samples, and editing, Radian restructures, reorganizes, and rearranges its sound into a palimpsest through computer manipulation on such records as 2000’s TG11, 2002’s Rec.Extern, and 2004’s Juxtaposition, but they take it to a whole new level on their most recent disc, 2009’s Chimeric (Thrill Jockey). The six-track LP is, according to the band, “not a polished album. Within our context it is raw, broken, even dark sometimes. . . . A lot on this album is about control and the loss of control. The risk of failure.” Songs such as “Feedbackmikro / City Lights,” “Git Cut Derivat,” and “Kinetakt” move in and out of fractured chaos, powered by Brandlmayr’s ecstatic percussion. The songs twist and turn around quiet, even silent passages, always on the cusp of an explosion that never quite takes place. You can catch Radian tempt chaos, loss of control, and the risk of failure when it comes to Brooklyn for a rare show June 8 at Union Pool with Sawyer/Yeh/Wooley Trio and Koen Holthamp.

CINÉMATUESDAYS: THE MAGIC OF JEAN GRÉMILLON

Michèle Morgan and Jean Gabin star in Jean Grémillon’s 1941 melodrama REMORQUES

French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesdays in June from June 7-28, $10
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org

Born in Normandy in 1901, French auteur Jean Grémillon got his start in the world of film by playing violin accompaniment to silent films, then making documentaries, silent pictures, and, ultimately, feature-length narratives. Ranging from melodramas to social realism, his films were popular in his native country, especially during a particularly fruitful period around WWII, but he has not retained the international notoriety associated with such contemporaries as Marcel Carné and Jean Renoir. But institutions such as the Harvard Film Archive and now the French Institute Alliance Française are reexaming the career of the man who once said, “Who could fail to sense the greatness of this art, in which the visible is the sign of the invisible?” For its “CinémaTuesdays: The Magic of Jean Grémillon” series, FIAF will be screening four of Grémillon’s films on Tuesdays in June, beginning tonight with what is considered his masterpiece, Lumière d’été, followed by Daïnah la métisse on June 14, Little Lise on June 21, and Remorques (Stormy Waters), starring the great Jean Gabin, on June 28. [Ed. note: The June 7 screenings of Lumière d’été were canceled because of delays in shipping the print to FIAF; there has been one screening rescheduled for June 17 at 7:30, and admission is free.]

KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: VEGETARIAN

Chae Min-seo stars as a deeply troubled young woman in VEGETARIAN

THE HIDDEN GEMS OF INDIE CINEMA: VEGETARIAN (CHAESIKJUUIJA) (Lim Woo-seong, 2009)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, June 7, free, 6:30
Series runs every other Tuesday through June 21
212-759-9550
www.subwaycinema.com
www.tribecacinemas.com

Next up in Subway Cinema’s free “Hidden Gems of Indie Cinema” series at Tribeca Cinemas is Lim Woo-seong’s creepy debut, Vegetarian, which caused quite a stir at the Pusan and Sundance Film Festivals last year. Based on a short story by Han Gang, the psychological drama stars Chae Min-seo as Yeong-hye, a young woman whose dreams lead her to suddenly become a fierce vegetarian, alienating her from her husband, Gil Soo (Kim Young-jae), and her family; a scene in which her father, during his birthday party, tries to force meat into her mouth is particularly unnerving. As Yeong-hye teeters on the edge of sanity, she stirs something deep within her brother-in-law, Cho Min-ho (Kim Hyun-sung), an artist mired in a creative funk. The film slips a bit as it gets more luridly disturbing before returning to the more interesting relationship between Yeong-hye and her older sister, Ji-hye (Kim Yeo-jin), who is desperately trying to save her from permanently losing her mind. Evoking both Todd Haynes’s Safe (1995) and Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (1996), writer-director Lim sustains a tense mood with the help of cinematographer Kang Chang-bae and composer Jeong Yong-jin, exploring just how far obsession can go. Vegetarian might not be a diatribe about vegetarianism, but it still is likely to put you off your lunch, so eat carefully either before or afterward. The series concludes June 21 with Jeong Seong-il’s awesome epic, Café Noir.

TASTE OF TIMES SQUARE

Taste of Times Square will offer local tasty delights (photo by Mary Day)

Times Square
Broadway plazas between 42nd & 47th Sts.
Monday, June 6, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
Tasting plates: $1-$5
www.timessquarenyc.org

The Crossroads of the World is hosting the eighteenth annual Taste of Times Square today, offering up tasting plates from area restaurants for $1 to $5 from 5:00 to 9:00. Tickets can be picked up at the Times Square Visitor Center on Seventh Ave. between 46th & 47th Sts., giving you access to food and drink from approximately three dozen local eateries, including B. Smith’s, Blue Fin, Brooklyn Diner, Carmine’s, Dervish, Gallagher’s Steak House, Havana Central, John’s Pizzeria, Junior’s, Ruby Foo’s, Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen, the Village Pourhouse, and Virgil’s Real Barbecue. There will also be live entertainment and other activities.

BREAKING THE WAVES — THE FILMS OF ZERO CHOU: WAVE BREAKER

WAVE BREAKER examines a family tragedy with warmth and a touch of humor

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium
40 Lincoln Center Plaza (111 Amsterdam Ave. & 66th St.)
Tuesday, June 7, and Thursdays June 9-30, free, 6:30
www.nypl.org

The only openly lesbian Taiwanese filmmaker, forty-one-year-old Zero Chou has been making documentaries and narrative features since 1997, dealing with issues and concerns central to the LGBT community in Taiwan, Mainland China (where her films are banned), and around the world. Her feature films each highlight a color from the rainbow flag, so it is appropriate that she will be in New York City during Gay Pride Month for a retrospective being held at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where several of her films will be screened as part of the LGBT, LPA Cinema Series in conjunction with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. On June 7, she will introduce her 2009 film, Wave Breaker, and she will introduce the award-winning Spider Lilies on June 9. The series continues on June 16 with 2004’s Splendid Float, June 23 with 2008’s Drifting Flowers, and June 30 with 2001’s Corners. Keep watching twi-ny for reviews of these rarely shown but important and evocative works.

WAVE BREAKER (Zero Chou, 2009)
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium
40 Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway & 66th St.
Thursday, June 9, free, 6:30
www.nypl.org

The domestic opening-night selection of the 2009 Women Make Waves Film Festival in Taipei, Zero Chou’s Wave Breaker is a heart-wrenching family drama that pulls no punches. Made for public television, Wave Breaker stars Yao Yuan Hao as Ho Hao-yang, a dedicated teacher and surfer who contracts the debilitating — and fatal — congenital disease spinocerebellar ataxia. As he begins losing his balance and his vision blurs, his mother, Shen Li-ping (Xu Gui-Ying), a local politician, is determined to help him through physical therapy and do anything she can to keep him alive so he doesn’t suffer the same fate her husband did. Meanwhile, his younger brother, Ho-ting, has dropped out of school, refuses to get a job, and instead devotes all his time to his rock band, whose main song asks the obvious question, “What is the meaning of life?” Writer-director Chou, an openly lesbian filmmaker whose previous work often examines issues involving the LGBT community, here plays it straightforward, focusing on the mind-set of the three protagonists and not getting caught up in subplots or medical jargon. Hao-yang, Ho-ting, and Ms. Shen each faces the family crisis in their own way as multiple tragedies await. The only breaks Chou offers from the stark reality of the awful situation are short animated clips that compare Hao-yang to a penguin, briefly lightening the darkness. Wave Breaker is screening June 7 at 6:30 as part of the Library of Performing Arts series “Breaking the Waves: The Films of Zero Chou” and will be introduced by the director.

SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS AT THE MET

Shen Wei will perform the first site-specific dance in the Met’s history June 6 & 13 (photo courtesy Shen Wei Dance Arts)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Charles Engelhard Court
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Monday, June 6 & 13, $30-$75, 7:00
212-570-3949
www.shenweidancearts.org
www.metmuseum.org

Born in Hunan, China, in 1968 and based in New York City since 1995, visual artist, dancer, and choreographer Shen Wei founded Shen Wei Dance Arts in July 2000, appearing over the last ten years at such prestigious venues as the Venice Biennale, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Kennedy Center, the New York City Opera, the Sidney Opera, and the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In June 2009, SWDA performed a thrilling site-specific dance in and around Ernesto Neto’s “anthropodino” sculpture in the Park Ave. Armory, and this June they’re set for another unique experience: On June 6 and 13, SWDA, which favors slow, careful movement, will present the first-ever site-specific dance in the long history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The company, which consists of Javier J. Baca, Cecily Campbell, Hunter Carter, Sarah Lisette Chiesa, Evan Copeland, Jenna Fakhoury, Sara Procopio, Joan Wadopian, Adam H. Weinert, and Brandon Whited, will perform a new multimedia piece, with costumes by Shen Wei and Austin Scarlett and a live electronic score by Illusion of Safety’s Daniel Burke, in addition to a piece from their repertoire. The event will be held in the recently renovated Charles Engelhard Court of the America Wing, among works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick William MacMonnies, Hiram Powers, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Janet Scudder, John La Farge, Daniel Chester French, and Paul Manship as well as Martin E. Thompson’s massive Branch Bank of the United States facade. “I am looking forward to the experience of joining the beauty of bodies in stillness and the beauty of movement,” Shen Wei said in a statement, explaining that he has created “a piece celebrating the body in works of art of the past and the body in movement in the present.” Part of the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Series, the performance can be seen seated around the court ($60) or standing in the Balcony Galleries above ($30). The June 6 performance will be followed by a reception with Shen Wei and the dancers (an additional $15).