this week in film and television

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2018: PREMIKA

Premika (center; Natthacha De Souza) haunts a new hotel in fantabulous Thai horror-comedy

PREMIKA-PARAB (Siwakorn Jarupongpa, 2017)
SVA Theatre
333 West Twenty-Third St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Friday, July 13, 8:15
Festival runs through July 15
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org

You’re going to think twice about the next time you see a karaoke machine after watching Premika, Siwakorn Jarupongpa’s delightfully fun 2017 horror-comedy making its North American premiere July 13 at the New York Asian Film Festival. The candy-colored Thai flick is set at the grand opening of a hotel in the middle of a forest, where an oddball group of supposed VIPs have gathered. When one of the guests asks if the hotel is haunted, hotel manager Mr. Lee (Fu Nan) freaks out, because of course there is a ghost, and quite an awesome one at that. A young woman in a Sailor Moon outfit whom the police have dubbed “Premika” (Natthacha De Souza) has been murdered by a lake, her body chopped into pieces by a mystery assailant, and she’s determined to stick around until the killer is caught.

An odd assortment of people must sing well or die a grisly death in Premika

Among those wandering around the hotel and forest are Tun (Nutthasit Kotimanuswanich) and Aek (Kidakarn Chatkaewmanee), leaders of a boy band known as the Youth; sexy singing duo Noey (Asiah Johnson) and Yam (Praemai Bailee), accompanied by record producer Somkiat (Pariyate Angoonkitti); the goofy Uab (Tiwat Srisawat) and Uan (Anupapr Suriyathong), who want to be the next big boy band; the adorable Muay (Peraya Aksorndee), whose snide boyfriend, Bird (Nattachai Sirinanthachot), is having problems in the sack; photographers Top (Papinee Srimee) and Nate (Anongnart Yusananda); and Jo (Chattiwut Rungrojsuporn), who has the hots for Noey and Yam. On the Premika murder case are Lt. Poom (Todsapol Maisuk) and Sgt. Ped (Kittipos Mangkang), who have to answer to the chief (Kittiphong Dumavibhat). While the guests grow increasingly uneasy, Premika’s heart beats on in a jukebox, which she uses to test the people at the hotel as she seeks justice. She and the machine will suddenly appear out of nowhere, and the guest, transformed into the star of a lush music video, must sing the selected song perfectly or die a grisly death at the hands of the vengeful Premika, who really knows how to use a hatchet. The longer the investigation goes on without finding her killer, the more brutal Premika becomes.

In his feature-film debut, writer-director Jarupongpa displays quite a knack for both horror and comedy, and his crew, including cowriters Komsun Nuntachit and Sukree Terakunvanich, cinematographer Chukiat Narongrit, production designer Dusit Yapakawong, art director Thiranan Chanthakhat, and costume designer Pirom Ruangkitjakan, has a field day upping the cheese factor while never chintzing on the gore. There’s lots of Three Stooges-level slapstick, utterly silly sound effects, ridiculous double takes, and kooky sexuality, along with plenty of fantabulous carnage. The film is screening July 13 at 8:15 at the SVA Theatre, with De Souza in attendance. The “Savage Seventeenth” edition of the New York Asian Film Festival continues at the SVA Theatre and the Film Society of Lincoln Center through July 15 with a wide range of movies from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Denmark.

THE BEATLES: YELLOW SUBMARINE

The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine film is being rereleased in a 4K restoration for its fiftieth anniversary

YELLOW SUBMARINE (George Dunning, 1968)
IFC Center and other locations
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Monday, July 9
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.yellowsubmarine.film

John, Paul, George, and Ringo are summoned to save Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies in the 1968 psychedelic, surreal animated favorite, Yellow Submarine, being rereleased in theaters July 9 in a sparkling, newly restored 4K version with 5.1 Stereo Surround Sound. The Beatles’ fourth movie, following the dynamic duo of A Hard Day’s Night and Help! and the television disaster Magical Mystery Tour, was based on the Fab Four’s 1965–67 Saturday morning cartoon series and the 1966 song “Yellow Submarine,” which appeared on side one of Revolver. The chief Blue Meanie (voiced by Paul Angelis), with his ever-faithful right-hand man, Max (Dick Emery), by his side, declares war on music, sending his troops, including the Apple Bonkers, Clowns, Snapping Turks, and Dreadful Flying Glove, to attack Pepperland, trapping the band in an opaque sphere and turning the residents into stagnant, colorless beings. Only Old Fred (Lance Percival), newly appointed lord admiral by the mayor (Emery), escapes, taking off in an unusual yellow submarine and rounding up John Lennon (John Clive), Paul McCartney (Geoffrey Hughes), George Harrison (Peter Batten and Angelis), and Ringo Starr (Angelis) to try to save the day against the fascist Blue Meanies, who only take no for an answer.

The Blue Meanies prepare to invade Pepperland in Yellow Submarine

The film mainly comprises set pieces, in varied animation styles, built around such Beatles songs as “Eleanor Rigby,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Nowhere Man,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “All Together Now,” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” as the Mop Tops are joined by the brilliant but strange Jeremy Hillary Boob (Emery) on their dangerous mission, which is like an acid trip gone loco. Of course, that doesn’t preclude them from sharing silly little jokes, puns, and double entendres along the way as they reference war, soccer, loneliness (“Nothing ever happens to me. I feel like an old splintered drumstick,” Ringo opines), monsters, the art of Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico, Apple Records, famous celebrities, cartoon villains, Albert Einstein’s time-space continuum theory, and other Beatles songs. There are comic scenes in a grand, door-filled hallway and in an expanse of black holes. And of course, there’s an endless parade of great music, including “Hey Bulldog,” which was deleted from the original US release.

Sure, a lot of it doesn’t make any sense, but when was the last time you sat down and really listened to such gems as “Only a Northern Song” and “It’s All Too Much”? More than two hundred animators — whose faces can be seen in the “Eleanor Rigby” scene — worked on the project, which was written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn, and Erich Segal — yes, the author of Love Story — with dialogue enhancement by Liverpool poet Roger McGough and lead animation by Robert Balser and Jack Stokes under the creative direction by Heinz Edelmann. The Beatles, who occasionally made script suggestions but mostly stayed in the background, make an appearance at the end as themselves, not in cartoon form, perhaps to satisfy their movie contract, but they still seem to be having fun, as you will too. And remember, as George says, “It’s all in the mind.” The fiftieth-anniversary restoration of Yellow Sumbarine will be playing at IFC Center, Landmark at 57 West, the Beekman, the Alamo Drafthouse, Kew Gardens Cinemas, Williamsburg Cinemas, and other theaters in the tristate area. Oh, and by the way, “Are you bluish? You don’t look bluish.”

FREE SUMMER EVENTS JULY 8 – 14

Rebecca Manson’s “Closer and the View Gets Wider” will be installed in Tribeca Park on July 9 (photo courtesy Rebecca Manson)

The free summer arts & culture season is under way, with dance, theater, music, art, film, and other special outdoor programs all across the city. Every week we will be recommending a handful of events. Keep watching twi-ny for more detailed highlights as well.

Sunday, July 8
Summergarden: New Music for New York: Juilliard Concert I: New Music for Mixed Ensembles, featuring Tanada II by Shin-ichirō Ikebe, Leonora Pictures by Philip Cashian, and A Sibyl by James Primosch, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, Museum of Modern Art, 8:00

Monday, July 9
Public Art Opening: Rebecca Manson at Tribeca Park, installation of “Closer and the View Gets Wider,” Tribeca Park, 6:00

Tuesday, July 10
Bryant Park Reading Room: Poetry, with Shara McCallum, Jill McDonough, Alessandra Lynch, and Donald Revell, produced in partnership with Alice James Books, Bryant Park, 7:00

Wednesday, July 11
Films on the Green: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972), J. Hood Wright Park, 351 Fort Washington Ave., 8:30

Moonstruck will screen for free at Oculus Plaza on July 13

Thursday, July 12
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival: Antibalas, Combo Chimbita, DJ Nickodemus, Prospect Park Bandshell, 7:30

Friday, July 13
Tribeca Drive-In Presents Westfield Dinner and a Movie: Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987), Oculus Plaza, 7:30

Saturday, July 14
NYC Audubon: “It’s Your Tern!” Festival, Governors Island, 12 noon – 4:00

DAVID BOWIE IS

Heroes contact sheet, 1977 (photograph by Masayoshi Sukita. © Sukita/The David Bowie Archive)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, fifth floor
Daily through July 15, $20-$35
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Any major career survey of gender-bending, genre-redefining, multidisciplinary, intergalactic superstar David Bowie must be innovative, unique, cutting-edge, and unusual, for nothing less would do justice to the man born David Jones in Brixton in 1947. The Brooklyn Museum’s “David Bowie is,” the most successful exhibition in the institution’s history, is just that, an illuminating exploration of the actor, musician, singer-songwriter, fashion icon, painter, video artist, husband, father, and more. Given unprecedented access to Bowie’s personal archive, the wide-ranging, highly ambitious, immersive multimedia presentation collects hundreds of items, from sketches of his parents to his baby pictures, from handwritten lyric sheets to books that influenced him, from posters of his early bands to drawings of his costumes and sets for live performances, among a multitude of other memorabilia and paraphernalia. One section is devoted to a single song, “Space Oddity,” with video, photographs, screenprints, album artwork, music sheets, related toys, and more, another looks at his various stage personas (the Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust, Hamlet), and another explores his work in film and theater, including Labyrinth, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Elephant Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Basquiat, and The Image. A five-minute clip from the 1969 promotional film Love You till Tuesday features “The Mask (A Mime),” in which Bowie performs as a mime.

Original lyrics for “Ziggy Stardust,” by David Bowie, 1972 (Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum)

Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the show gets everything right that MoMA’s 2015 disaster, “Björk,” got wrong. Purchasing timed tickets in advance, visitors traverse the exhibition at their own pace and in whatever order they would like, wearing headphones that, in a move of genius, react to where they are physically. Thus, when you’re in front of a video screen depicting Bowie performing “The Man Who Sold the World” on Saturday Night Live, that is what you are hearing. Turn around and take a few steps in any direction and the audio will switch to whatever you are now looking at, whether it’s an interview with designer Kansai Yamamoto, Bowie’s preparations for the never-made Diamond Dogs film, or a small room dedicated to his final record, Blackstar. There is something to experience in almost every nook and cranny, so sometimes it is fun to let the audio guide you, attracted by what you hear instead of what you see.

David Bowie with William Burroughs, February 1974 (Photograph by Terry O’Neill with color by David Bowie. Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum)

Among the items to watch out for are a series of line drawings that serves as an artistic conversation between Bowie and Laurie Anderson; Guy Peellaert’s original painting for the Diamond Dogs album cover; the original lyrics to “Rebel, Rebel”; a Bowie painting of Iggy Pop in a Berlin landscape; a letter from Jim Henson to Bowie about Labyrinth; a John Lennon sketch (“For Video Dave . . .)”; Bowie’s script for the Lazarus musical; a Bowie doodle on a cigarette pack; a telefax from Elvis Presley; and Bowie’s charcoal drawing of his adopted home, New York City. The exhibition culminates in high style in a room blasting the original “Heroes” video and live footage of “Rebel, Rebel” from the Reality Tour and “Heroes” from the Concert for New York City, headphones off, everyone experiencing transcendence as one. “Though nothing, nothing will keep us together / We can beat them, forever and ever / Oh, we can be heroes just for one day,” Bowie declares, leaving behind a remarkable legacy that will continue to keep people together, believing that every one of us has the possibility of being a hero. On July 7 (exhibition ticket required, 8:00), Resonator Collective will perform a Bowie tribute, on July 14 ($16, 2:00), there will be a conversation between Daphne Brooks and Jack Halberstam about Bowie’s lasting influence, and on July 15 ($16, 2:00), the final day of the exhibit, the museum hosts the discussion “The Soulfulness of David Bowie” with Carlos Alomar, Robin Clark, and Christian John Wikane. After seeing the exhibit, you’ll have yet more ways to end the already tantalizing sentence fragment “David Bowie is . . .”

MOVIES UNDER THE STARS: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Caesar has had quite enough in Planet of the Apes reboot

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (Rupert Wyatt, 2011)
Father Macris Park
Lamberts Ln. & Arlene St., Staten Island
Friday, July 6, 8:30
718-667-3545
www.apeswillrise.com
www.nycgovparks.org

Director Rupert Wyatt and writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver reimagine Pierre Boulle’s original Planet of the Apes story in the exciting and inventive reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Taking elements from the first five Apes films, especially the fourth flick, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the blockbuster is a more science-based thriller that delves into the evolutionary (and devolutionary) nature of humans and animals. James Franco stars as Will Rodman, a scientist working on the anti-Alzheimer’s drug ALZ-112 for Gen-Sys, a big pharmaceutical company run by Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo). After a demonstration for potential investors goes terribly wrong, Jacobs orders all of the ALZ-112 test subjects to be destroyed, but the baby of the primary subject survives and is brought home by Will, who raises Caesar (a motion-captured Andy Serkis) as if the chimpanzee were his own child, with the help of his scientist girlfriend, Caroline (Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto) and his father (John Lithgow), who was suffering from Alzheimer’s but is seeing remarkable improvement as Will secretly treats him with the controversial drug. As Caesar grows up, he gains insight into the state of the world, especially how apes are forced to literally live like caged animals, and soon he is ready to do something about it. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is no mere remake or summer popcorner capitalizing on the fame of the series (for that, see Tim Burton’s terrible 2001 disaster); instead, it is a moving, thoughtful study of the development of mammalian intelligence and the very basic need to be free. Wyatt (The Escapist) moves things along at a slow pace in the first half of the film, allowing Caesar’s character to blossom, leading to a believable revolution that culminates in an action-packed showdown on the Golden Gate Bridge. Serkis, who previously played such motion-capture characters as Gollum and King Kong, breathes remarkable life and emotion into Caesar, so much so that there was Oscar buzz around his performance.

Although it is not a remake or a sequel, Rise does fit within the Apes mythology, and it includes numerous tributes to its predecessors: Gen-Sys head Jacobs is named for the producer of the five original films, Arthur P. Jacobs; Gen-Sys chimp handler Robert Franklin (Tyler Labine) is a subtle nod to the director of the first film, Franklin J. Schaffner; the circus orangutan Maurice pays tribute to Maurice Evans, who played the orangutan Dr. Zaius in the original; the chimp Cornelia is a sly combination of favorite characters Cornelius and Dr. Zira from the first flicks; and Brian Cox as John Landon and Tom Felton as Dodge, his son, remember original Apes astronauts Landon (Robert Gunner) and Dodge (Jeff Burton). In addition, at one point a television monitor shows a clip of Charlton Heston playing Julius Caesar, and one of the most famous lines from the original makes an appearance in this reboot, which ends with more than a hint that sequels are to follow, leading to Matt Reeves’s even better Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014 and the excellent War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017. Rise is screening July 6 at 8:30 in the free “Movies Under the Stars” series in Father Macris Park in Staten Island.

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2018: THE BIG CALL

Xu Xiaotu (Jiang Mengjie) goes deep undercover to foil a complex phone-scam ring in The Big Call

HONG KONG PANORAMA: THE BIG CALL (巨额来电) (Oxide Pang, 2017)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Wednesday, July 4, 2:40
Festival runs through July 15
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org

Hong Kong-born filmmaker Oxide Pang Chun has his work cut out for him in The Big Call, a thriller about phone scams somewhat more complicated than the classic Nigerian cons. “It’s a war with keyboards,” one character proclaims, and indeed, much of the film is spent showing people on their smartphones and typing at computers, trying to explain the often inexplicable plot, which is riddled with ridiculous twists and turns yet still has its compelling moments and, ultimately, foot and car chases, torture, and violence. After his high school teacher commits suicide because of a scam, young cop Ding Xiaotian (Cheney Chen) begins investigating a ring of high-tech thieves who trick and/or threaten people in order to drain their bank accounts. Run by lovers Lin Ahai (Zhang Xiaoquan) and Liu Lifang (Gwei Lun-mei), the operation recruits women and essentially imprisons them in Thailand, where they make the calls in a carefully orchestrated system that rarely fails. They have been infiltrated by Xu Xiaotu (Jiang Mengjie), an ambitious officer who went to the academy with Ding, who has joined the Anti-Telecommunication Fraud Centre, where he butts heads with Inspector Tan Sirong (Zhang Zhaohui). When Lin Xiaoqin (Peng Xinchen), Lin’s sister, gets scammed and Taiwan mastermind Lu Chixiong (Luo Dahua) makes an aggressive bet with Lin Ahai, the risks rise and the blood-spilling ratchets up.

Ding Xiaotian (Cheney Chen) and Xu Xiaotu (Jiang Mengjie) are on the case in Oxide Pang’s The Big Call

Pang has made a series of popular films with his twin brother, Danny Pang Phat, including Bangkok Dangerous,
The Eye, and Re-Cycle. Working solo here, Pang, who cowrote the screenplay with Liu Hua, keeps the tension building, pulling you back in every time the ever-more-absurd story nearly flies off the handle. Taiwanese star Lun-mei (Girlfriend, Boyfriend; Black Coal, Thin Ice) is ultracool as the vicious Liu and the main reason to keep on watching. The Big Call is screening July 4 at 2:40 at Lincoln Center in the Hong Kong Panorama section of the “Savage Seventeenth” edition of the New York Asian Film Festival, which continues through July 15 with a wide range of movies from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Denmark, by such directors as Wilson Yip, Zhou Ziyang, Dante Lam, Shinsuke Sato, Lee Byeong-heon, Huang Xi, and Masato Harada.

FREE SUMMER EVENTS JULY 1-8

Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo will defend their hot-dog-eating titles at Nathan’s on July 4

Sunday, July 1
SummerStage: Northern Beat: Broken Social Scene, Melissa Laveaux, and the East Pointers, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 3:00

Monday, July 2
Movies Under the Stars: Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017), Walt Whitman Park, Cadman Plaza East, blankets and chairs permitted, no alcohol, 8:30

Tuesday, July 3
Lincoln Sessions at Pier 17: Atlas Genius, free with advance RSVP, Seaport Square at Pier 17, South Street Seaport, 5:00

Wednesday, July 4
The Hot Dog Eating Contest, Nathan’s Famous, Surf Ave. at Stillwell Ave., Coney Island, women’s competition (four-time defending champion Miki Sudo) at 10:50 am, men’s (defending champion Joey Chestnut) at 12 noon

Peridance moves from Bryant Park [above] to Union Square Park for July 5 performance (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Thursday, July 5
Summer in the Square: including yoga at 7:00, cardio at 8:00, Art Farm in the City at 9:00, Hopalong Andrew at 11:00, the New School Jazz Trio at 12 noon, Dueling Performances with Peridance Contemporary Dance Company at 5:00, and Sunset Vinyasa Yoga at 7:30, Union Square Park, 7:00 am – 8:30 pm

Friday, July 6
Bryant Park Picnics: Contemporary Dance, with Steps on Broadway Summer Study NYC Theater/Jazz Intensive, Monteleone Dance, Tiffany Mills Company, and Jennifer Muller/The Works, Bryant Park Fountain Terrace, 6:00

Saturday, July 7
Rite of Summer Music Festival: Dither Quartet, Colonels Row, Governors Island, 1:00 & 3:00

Sunday, July 8
Laughter in the Parks, with Dean Edwards and others, Garibaldi Plaza, Washington Square Park, 2:00