this week in film and television

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL / JAPAN CUTS: ASURA

An animal-child is hungry for food — and blood — in Keiichi Sato’s striking anime, ASURA

ANIME FROM HELL: ASURA (Keiichi Sato, 2012)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Thursday, July 12, $12, 8:00
Series runs July 12-28
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.subwaycinema.com

Based on George Akiyama’s banned 1970-71 manga and inspired by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, Keiichi Sato’s Asura is a striking and shocking tale of survival. In fifteenth-century Kyoto, a child is born in what seems like the middle of hell. His starving mother has thoughts of devouring her newborn son, but he manages to survive, becoming a ferocious cannibal himself, living off of human flesh while he roams a nightmarish, postapocalyptic landscape. Named Asura (voiced by seventy-five-year-old actress Masako Nozawa), the animal-child is taken in by a gentle Buddhist monk (Kinya Kitaoji) and later helped by a young woman named Wakasa (Megumi Hayashibara), both of whom try to teach him elements of humanity, but it might be too late to change him from a monster into a young boy. Using a hybrid of 2D and 3D techniques, Sato (Tiger & Bunny) has created a visually stunning world of muted colors and effects that meld with a powerful soundtrack, resulting in an unrelenting battering of the senses. Asura is no coming-of-age story; instead, it continually goes to unexpected places, filled with twists and turns that lead to yet more bloodshed, though not without a yearning if unsentimental heart at its core. And be sure to hang around through the final credits. Asura is screening July 12 at Japan Society as part of the Anime from Hell section of the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND — ALL ME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WINFRED REMBERT

Winfred Rembert will be back at the Maysles Institute on July 11 to once again share his fascinating life story

ALL ME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WINFRED REMBERT (Vivian Ducat, 2011)
Maysles Institute
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Wednesday, July 11, $10, 7:30
212-582-6050
www.allmethemovie.com
www.mayslesinstitute.org

Born in 1945 in rural Georgia to a mother who abandoned him when he was three months old, Winfred Rembert grew up picking cotton, dropped out of high school, spent time in jail and on a chain gang, and lost nearly all his teeth. But it was his years behind bars that turned him into a new man, as he learned to read and write and developed a unique art style that soon had him carving out the tales of his life on leather. Longtime journalist, producer, and writer Vivian Ducat tells Rembert’s amazing story in her engaging feature-length debut, All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert. Ducat follows the oversized Rembert, who regularly bubbles over with joy, as he returns for a show in Cuthbert, Georgia, and prepares for a big opening in New York City. “I know he’s here for a reason,” his sister Lorraine says in the film. “To help people and to be a witness through his art.” Throughout All Me, Rembert discusses many of his works, in which he uses indelible dyes on carved leather, in great detail, each one representing a part of his life, focusing on being a poor black man in a white-dominated society. It is quite poignant late in the film when he points out that his art seems to be most appreciated by whites even though it is meant as a visual history for blacks. But what really makes the documentary work is not just that Rembert is such an enigmatic, larger-than-life figure but that his art is exceptional, his self-taught, folksy style reminiscent of such forebears as Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, capturing a deeply personal, intensely intimate part of the black experience in twentieth-century America. The film was previously shown at the Maysles Institute this past January, but it’s now back for a return engagement July 11, with Rembert and Ducat participating in a Q&A following the screening of this extraordinary story.

IMAGENATION OUTDOORS — EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE

Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher are the heart and soul of Fishbone (photo by Erin Flynn)

EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (Lev Anderson & Chris Metzler, 2010)
Marcus Garvey Park
18 Mount Morris Park West
Wednesday, July 11, free, music at 7:30, film at 8:30
imagenation.us
www.fishbonedocumentary.com

When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine is screening on July 11 in Marcus Garvey Park as part of the ImageNation Outdoors summer series and will be preceded by live performances by GAME Rebellion and Daví. The festival continues with such free screenings as Night Catches Us on July 21 at Weekesville, Africa United with live music by Taj Weekes & Adowa, Shine & the Moonbeams, and Randolph Matthews on July 29 in Springfield Park, and Taking Root! A Tribute to Wangari Maathal on August 1 in West Harlem Pier Park.

RIVER FLICKS FOR GROWN-UPS: MONEYBALL

Oscar nominees Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill take a different approach with the Oakland A’s in MONEYBALL

MONEYBALL (Bennett Miller, 2011)
Hudson River Park, Pier 63 at 23rd St.
Wednesday, July 11, free, dusk
www.moneyball-movie.com
www.riverflicks.com/RFgrownups.html

After winning 102 games during the 2001 season but then falling to the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series in five tough games, the cash-poor Oakland A’s also lost three of their most prominent players, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen, to free agency. To rebuild the team with limited funds, general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) turns to an unexpected source: Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young stat geek who believes that on-base percentage is the key to the game. The A’s scouts find it hard to believe that Beane is looking at has-been catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt), aging outfielder David Justice (Stephen Bishop), and underperforming submariner Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) to get the A’s to the World Series, as does manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who refuses to use the new players the way Beane insists. But when the A’s indeed start winning after a few more questionable deals pulled off by Beane and Brand, the entire sport world starts taking a much closer look at what is soon known as “moneyball.” Based on the 2003 bestseller Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, Moneyball is an exciting film even though the vast majority of it occurs off the field. Pitt is wonderfully understated as Beane, a former five-tool prospect for the Mets and divorced father of a twelve-year-old girl (Kerris Dorsey). Pitt earned an Oscar nod for Best Actor for his portrayal of the real-life Beane, a confident but nervous man who may or may not have a big chip on his shoulder. Hill was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as wiz-kid Brand, a fictional character inspired by Paul DePodesta, who refused to let his name and likeness be used in the film; Brand instead is an amalgamation of several of the people who work for Beane. Director Bennett Miller (The Cruise, Capote) takes the viewer into a number of fascinating back-room dealings, including a revealing scene in which Beane tries to acquire Ricardo Rincon from the Cleveland Indians, furiously working the phones to pull off the deal. Also nominated for Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Adapted Screenplay, Moneyball firmly belongs in the playoff pantheon of great baseball movies, with the added bonus that you don’t have to be a fan or know a lot about the game to get sucked into its intoxicating tale. Moneyball is screening July 11 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63, kicking off the free River Flicks for Grown-Ups series, which continues through August 22 with such films as Super 8, Bridesmaids, Limitless, Cowboys & Aliens, Crazy, Stupid Love, and Horrible Bosses. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings in New York City, go here.

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL: SECRET LOVE

Yeon’s (Yoon Jin-seo) and Jin-ho (Yoo Ji-tae) get caught up in complex family affair in SECRET LOVE

KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: SECRET LOVE (Kwon Ji-yeon & Ryoo Hoon-I, 2010)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, July 10, free, 7:00
212-759-9550
www.koreanculture.org
www.subwaycinema.com

A soap-opera melodrama that morphs into an erotic thriller, Secret Love tells the intense story of a complex and dangerous love triangle in modern-day Korea. Shortly after a whirlwind courtship, Yeon’s (Yoon Jin-seo) new husband, Jin-woo (Yoo Ji-tae), lapses into a coma that he might never awake from. Yeon is soon shocked to meet Jin-woo’s twin brother, Jin-ho (also played by Yoo Ji-tae), who recently emerged from a coma himself. As Yeon and Jin-ho grow closer, their relationship threatens to go to the next level — but when Jin-woo suddenly and unexpectedly arises from his coma, the love triangle becomes overwhelmed by betrayal, uncontrollable passion, and mistaken identity. Directed by Kwon Ji-yeon and cowriter Ryoo Hoon-I (who penned the screenplay with Park Hyun-soo), Secret Love, which is also known as The Secret River, uses water as an underlying motif, with many scenes taking place over a river, in the shower or bath, or at an aquarium. Although it begins slowly and sappy, the film picks up speed as hidden passions explode and danger lurks at every twist and turn. Secret Love is screening for free July 10 at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the ongoing Korean Movie Night series as well as the New York Asian Film Festival, which continues through July 12 at Lincoln Center and July 15 at Japan Society in conjunction with Japan Cuts. As an added bonus, Yoon Jin-seo, who has also appeared in such films as Oldboy, Chihwaseon, and A Good Day to Have an Affair, will participate in a Q&A following the screening. She had to cancel an earlier appearance at a screening of Oldboy because she was rushed to the emergency room less than two weeks ago after an overdose of cold medication that was initially — and apparently falsely — reported to be a suicide attempt, so it should make for a lively discussion on July 10.

THALIA FILM SUNDAYS: GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING

Gerhard Richter reveals his creative process in fascinating new documentary (photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING (Corinna Belz, 2011)
Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, July 8, 15, 22, $14, 8:00
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
www.gerhard-richter-painting.de

There’s nothing abstract about the title of Corinna Belz’s documentary on German artist Gerhard Richter, no missing words or punctuation marks. Gerhard Richter Painting is primarily just that: Ninety-seven minutes of Gerhard Richter painting as he prepares for several exhibitions, including a 2009 show at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City. In 2007, Belz got a rare chance to capture Richter on camera, making a short film focusing on the stained-glass window he designed for the Cologne Cathedral. Two years later, the shy, reserved German artist, who prefers to have his art speak for itself, invited Belz into his studio, giving her remarkable access inside his creative process, which revealingly relies so much on chance and accident. Belz films Richter as he works on two large-scale canvases on which he first slathers yellow paint, adds other colors, then takes a large squeegee and drags it across the surface, changing everything. It’s fascinating to watch Richter study the pieces, never quite knowing when they are done, unsure of whether they are any good. It’s also painful to see him take what looks like an extraordinary painting and then run the squeegee over it yet again, destroying what he had in order to see if he can make it still better. “They do what they want,” he says of the paintings. “I planned something totally different.” About halfway through the film, a deeply concerned Richter starts regretting his decision to allow the camera into his studio. “It won’t work,” he says. “At the moment it seems hopeless. I don’t think I can do this, painting under observation. That’s the worst thing there is.” But continue he does, for Belz’s and our benefit. Belz (Life After Microsoft) even gets Richter to talk a little about his family while looking at some old photos, offering intriguing tidbits about his early life and his escape to Düsseldorf just before the Berlin Wall went up. Belz also includes clips from 1966 and 1976 interviews with Richter, and she attends a meeting he has with Goodman about his upcoming show, lending yet more insight into the rather eclectic artist. “To talk about painting is not only difficult but perhaps pointless, too,” Richter, who turned eighty last month, says in the 1966 clip. However, watching Gerhard Richter Painting is far from pointless; Belz has made a compelling documentary about one of the great, most elusive artists of our time. “Man, this is fun,” Richter says at one point, and indeed it is; watching the masterful artist at work is, well, a whole lot more fun than watching paint dry. Gerhard Richter Painting is screening at Symphony Space on July 8, 15, and 22 at 8:00 as part of the ongoing series Thalia Film Sundays.

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL: THE MIAMI CONNECTION

THE MIAMI CONNECTION (Y. K. Kim & Park Woo-sung, 1987)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Saturday, July 7, 11:15 pm
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinema.com

Ever since Bruce Lee became a superstar in America in such action flicks as Fist of Fury, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death, there has been an unending search for the next martial arts master to become a cinematic superhero in the United States. Over the years, there have been hits and misses with Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, Stephen Chow, and others, each one showing off his remarkable adeptness at karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, or other disciplines in movies both good and not-so-good. It has also led to such good and not-so-good Hollywood films as The Karate Kid and the unforgettable Gymkata. One of the lesser-known attempts involved Korean taekwondo grandmaster Y. K. Kim and a little 1987 film that is being resurrected from the near-dead, looking to become a cult classic in a new HD version. Directed by Kim with Park Woo-sung, The Miami Connection stars Kim as a high school student and taekwondo teacher who is also the guitarist in the band Dragon Sound, which gets into a heated, violent battle against a group of men led by a tough-talking dude who looks like G.I. Joe with Kung Fu Grip and is dangerously overprotective of his sister, who sings in the band. With its 1980s hairstyles, insipidly bad music, ridiculous story lines, and absurd taekwondo scenes, The Miami Connection has plenty of potential to become an underground cult classic as it turns twenty-five. The movie is screening Saturday night at 11:15 as part of the New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center, with Grandmaster Kim on hand to talk about the movie — but beware, as today he is a very successful motivational speaker.