Q-Tip and Friends played Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival
July 19th, 2011 by chocko
I almost missed the big hip hop event of the year, but after I woke up from a long nap and rolled out of bed, I went straight to Brooklyn…just in time for Q-Tip’s headlining set last Saturday under the Brooklyn Bridge. The folks at Brooklyn Bodega put together a week of hip hop events and I can’t stress it enough to get a ticket in advance for the main day. There was a long line of people stranded by the gates, not sure if they got in, but with my ticket I printed out at home, I was whisked away from the sweaty crowd and thrown in the sea of happy faces. I’m sure the day of hip hop music was a great one (I missed Random Axe-Sean Price, Guilty Simpson and Black Milk…Damn!), but one of the most influential and smoothest emcees was on the microphone. Q-Tip’s catalog runs deep and had solo songs as well as A Tribe Called Quest songs. The crowd got moving as soon as “Anita Applebum” started. Q-Tip was accompanied by Brooklyn’s own J. Period on the turntables and a band which had dudes on the keyboards and the bass. Business started picking up when his friends were invited on stage. First, from Flatbush…Shawn Pen. I never heard of him, but he sounded great. Next “Buddy” a song off the classic De La Soul album “3 Feet High and Rising” got going and Monie Love hopped on stage and joined in for a verse. Before leaving the stage, Monie performed some “Monie in the Middle” and got the crowd in a frenzy. Each guest got the crowd more hyped up….Black Thought from The Roots came through. When Busta Rhymes came out for “Scenario” and did his verse you know the one…”Rawr, Rawr like a dungeon dragon!” the audience went buck wild, jumping up and down and rapping along to Tip and Busta’s verses. Busta stayed for some rapid fire, tounge twisting rhyming and admitted when he was on a lot of Tribe records and samples back in the day that he was having problem with his own crew, The Leaders of the New School, and was THISCLOSE to joining the Tribe. Q-Tip nodded in agreement. Busta left the stage and thanked the crowd and especially Q-Tip for the “Scenario” money that still to this day pays for his “fly shit.” That could’ve been it but once the song “Dark Fantasy” started and Kanye West came out, backward baseball cap and all…forget about it. Kanye jumped into the crowd and started up “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” and came back on the stage for some “All of the Lights” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Award Tour.” Those are the kind of moments one can only wish for at a hip hop show…classic songs you remember and love and surprise cameos. Q-Tip also mentioned the Tribe Called Quest documentary “Beats, Rhymes and Life” out in theatres right now and suggested people go check it out. For the encore, Q-Tip performed “Can I Kick It” and capped the night off with his solo track “Vivrant Thing.”
Posted in music | Comments (1)
Company Flow and Juggaknots played Santos Party House
July 19th, 2011 by chocko
Company Flow is…
BIGG JUS
EL-P
and MR. LEN
Last Saturday night at Santos Party House in NYC started with Juggaknots performing a set of their underground classics. Breeze Brewin’, Buddy Slim, Queen Herawin and DJ Boo were all in attendance to set it off right. They were also joined on stage by legendary hip hop producer, Jesse West (aka 3rd Eye) who’s produced songs and remixes for some of hip hop’s biggest names…KRS-One, PMD, Mary J. Blige, Biggie Smalls. Breez and Buddy Slim are some the most talented and underrated MC’s out there. Complex and intelligent lyrics are what you get and the stuff they put out in 1996…nothing on the radio right now comes close. Queen Herawin is a fly female MC not to be messed with and DJ Boo…always on point. Back in the late 90’s, DJ Bobbito put out an EP of 9 classic Juggaknots tracks titled “Clear Blue Skies” on Fondle ‘Em Records. It’s definitely one of those hard to find albums, but a couple of years ago it got rereleased on Third Earth Music with 11 additional tracks. Definitely pick that up. Juggaknots brought some of their friends on stage with them including Mr. Len, MC SubCon who performed a song with the group and spit a little acapella and INI…Rob-O and the crew put out some dope stuff back in the day with Pete Rock and they definitely reminded the crowd who they were and announced that a new album was in the works.
After a brief introduction by DJ Bobbito, Company Flow took to the stage nearly 10 years after their “final” show. EL-P, Bigg Jus and DJ Mr. Len were asked to perform at the upcoming ATP festival in the U.K. and NYC was lucky to get a show too. In case you don’t know…Company Flow put out a ground breaking album in 1997 titled “Funcrusher Plus” which was filled with futuristic doom and gloom, dope beats and intelligent lyrics and a sense of humor to match-these guys were definitely ahead of their time. After getting screwed by Rawkus Records, the group eventually disbanded and everybody went solo. Many MCs and DJs came out to see Co Flow rock the stage once again: Poison Pen, Pumpkin Head, Sucio Smash, John Robinson, J-Zone, just to name a few. The place was sold out weeks before the show and many in the crowd came from great distances to see the underground legends. They started with “Bad Touch Example” and a song for all the graffiti writers, “Lune TNS.” The crowd was amped and rapped along to anthems like “Vital Nerve” and “The Fire In Which You Burn Slow” which featured Breeze Brewin’ back on stage. After a brief break, Company Flow returned for a set that featured EL-P doing “Deep Space 9mm” from his solo album “Fantastic Damage” and Mr. Len brought out Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch for a performance of “Taco Day” a song that explores the mindset of a high school prom queen with a gun, out for revenge. Deep stuff. The night ended with a performance of “8 Steps To Perfection.” El-P, Bigg Jus and Mr. Len perform so naturally together…why stop now? Put out a new album and get the show on the road again!
Tags: bigg jus, breeze brewin', el-p, hip hop, mr. len, nyc, underground
Posted in music | Comments (1)
Asian American International Film festival & Sony Wonder Technology Lab updates!
July 18th, 2011 by Mr. C
Just wanted to provide a few updates before the Planet Chocko spaceship lifts off from dirty jerzy, headed straight towards the confines of sunny san diego for a weekend full of wind sailing, surfing, tanning, & roller blading…NOT! Instead, we are taking these chiseled all star profiles full of edward scissor-hand landscapers, dock workers, line cooks, & 21 Jump street wannabees on this geek expedition known as the San Diego Comic Con to shadow box amongst the best of the sci fi, comic, kung fu, manga, & anime nerds! One love, y’all! Chocko & Joel NJ Dev have been rockin’ this funky joint since they were nursing halo-halo (filipino dessert) from their martian moms while I made cameo appearances every now & then with my soy bean milk inspired self so that I can pay my union card nerd membership dues! But seriously, the San Diego Comic Convention is a holding cell full of creative geniouses from all different types of media outlets & demographics showing their wares for a fun filled weekend! I usually have an affinity for checking out Ric Meyers’ Kung Fu extravaganza show piece as well as the Spike & Mike’s sick & twisted animation showings while Chocko goes full force with hunting down comic book sketches from his favorite artists, attending Q&A sessions from cast members of new shows, getting autographs from his favorite comic book writers, & going to movie screenings! Joel NJ Dev is a hybrid gecko absorbing all of the above while maintaining a sci fi cocoon in Hall H!
We were planning on having a limited paper print run of Planet Chocko Zine to hand out at the San Diego Comic con just like old times, but life got in the way. Besides, the godzilla like xerox machines at this office space location were on sabbatical!
Getting back to the matter at hand, I wanted to give a proper shoutout to the 34th annual Asian American International Film festival which takes place from August 10-20th! Asian Cinevision, who runs this event deserves a standing ovation & a high flying somersault, if possible because as far as I know, ACV was one of the 1st organizations in New York City to bring Hong Kong & chinese cinema to the american masses via film festivals! This is where many NYC gwai lo’s & gwai po’s first got introduced to John Woo’s Hardboiled & The Killer, Super Cop, City on Fire, Fong Sai Yuk, & Once upon a time in China to just name a few movies! When Tsui Hark was talking about working in NYC at the Daily News as a reporter and starting a project on an asian american documentary program 30 years ago, ASIAN CINEVISION would be this catalyst that would battle in the ring for the development, promotion and preservation of film and video arts by and about people of Asian descent. Tsui Hark’s vision to take asian films to the next level would inspire the creation of ASIAN CINEVISION in 1976! Nowadays, ACV seems to be more focused on the Asian AMERICAN aspect of films with their new mission statement. We would like to thank Asian Cinevision, Tsui Hark, Peter Chow, & the whole host of ACV all stars for shining such a bright light on making asian films more accessible! With that, I encourage you all to support & checkout a few screenings at the 34th annual AAIFF taking place throughout a few venues in NYC including the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas & the Museum of Chinese Americas on centre street in chinatown!
The 2nd bird that I wanted to cast a stone to in this planet chocko update are the FREE screenings that take place EVERY saturday at the Sony Wonder Technology Labs on 56th street! I caught wind of this free movie event last Saturday while watching INSIDIOUS at the Sony Technology Labs 73-seat stadium seating HI-DEF theater! The Sony Wonder Technology labs project sony blu ray formatted films as opposed to traditional film but free is free & the projection screen is a decent contender for your viewing pleasures! Check out their list of films & the process to RSVP for these free screenings: here!
Tags: aaiff, asian american international film festival, free screenings, sony, sony wonder technology labs
Posted in community, movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
Relatively cheap eats up & around the NY Asian Film festival!
July 17th, 2011 by Mr. C
Of course with the frenzy of attending 20+ movie screenings at the New York Asian film festival in the Lincoln Center & Japan Society area from July 1st-14th, there had to be a decent staple of affordable foods to fuel these chiseled silhouettes of ours! We tried to keep it fun by eating the same region themed food as the movie that we were screening for the night! For example, if we watched BANGKOK KNOCKOUT then Thai food it would be! If it was the korean sea of vengeance theme, then BON CHON chicken…cluck, cluck, cluck..here we come! When someone said SELL OUT(Malaysian), we did our best & went to an Indonesian joint in Hell’s Kitchen! Did you say HORNY HOUSE OF HORROR? Donburi-ya on 47th street, make room for the planet chocko shogun raggamuffins…Sho-nuff! One of our rag-tag team champions of many things japanese, mondo curry-san breaks it down much better on his mondo curry epicuriosities food blog of NYC cheap eats! Without further adieu AND with the same energy as Jim Belushi in ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)…..FOOD PORN!!!
Dan Dan Ramen @ Terakawa Ramen in Hell’s Kitchen
Tonkotsu Ramen @ Terakawa Ramen in Hell’s Kitchen
Real decadent double chocolate chip cookies at Levain Bakery. There’s also a peanut butter version to keep the double chocolate company!
Grilled khmer sausage at Num Pang (cambodian sandwich)
Grilled skirt steak at Num Pang
Roasted chicken with yellow rice & beans at La Caridad 78
Ja Ja ramen at Menkui Tei on 56th st
vietnamese pork meatball hero at Mooncake Foods in Hell’s kitchen
pulled pork sandwich with curry lime BBQ sauce at Mooncake Foods
Addresses:
Mooncake Foods
359 West 54th St, New York, NY 10019
La Caridad 78
2199 Broadway, New York 10024 At 78th St
Num Pang
140 east 41st street
Levain Bakery
167 West 74th St
New York, NY 10023
Terakawa Ramen
885C 9th Ave
(between 57th St & 58th St)
Manhattan, NY 10019
Men Kui Tei
60 W. 56th St. (between 5 & 6th)
honorable mentions:
Gray’s Papaya
2090 Broadway
(between 72nd St & 73rd St)
New York, NY 10023
Bouchon Bakery (Time Warner building)
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
Bon Chon chicken
325 5th Ave
(between 32nd St & 33rd St)
New York, NY 10016
Bali Nusa Indah (Indonesian)
651 9th Ave (Hell’s kitchen)
New York, NY 10036
Pure Thai shophouse
766 9th Ave
(between 51st St & 52nd St)
New York, NY 10019
Gourmet Garage
155 W 66th St (between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave) New York, NY 10023
Donburi-ya
137 E 47th St
(between 3rd Ave & Lexington Ave)
New York, NY 10017
Tags: cheap eats, food
Posted in food, mr. c | Comments (0)
movie theaters in chinatown
July 16th, 2011 by Mr. C
Since we’ve been on an asian film kick for the past several weeks due to the NY Asian film festival, I would love to share some cool pics I found floating on the interwebz! I wanted to pay homage to some of those grindhouse-sleazy style theaters from chinatown which included the Pagoda on 11 E. Broadway, The Music Palace on 91-93 Bowery, the Sun Sing Theater underneath the Manhattan bridge on 75–85 East Broadway, & the Rosemary Theater on 133 Canal Street which is close to the entrance of the manhattan bridge. These theaters would play host to comedy, period piece wu xia, & old skool kung fu movies! Sometimes, the films wouldn’t even have english subtitles! Some of the venues even played category 3 (adult) films!
The Rosemary is now a beautiful buddhist temple! Buddha bless you, but we still miss the theater! I’m failing to name some other smaller theaters around chinatown, though. I do remember one on the corner of Canal & Mulberry but I forgot the name. If anybody has any recollection of any phantom & lesser known theaters in chinatown, please shout it out! I grew up in the ‘burbs of NJ not far from NYC but my mom, dad, & sisters all worked in Chinatown so a lot of my weekends would be spent roaming around C-Town aimlessly! I have some distant memories of my sister taking me to see movies at the music palace, the Rosemary, & Sun Sing! I think the first time I laid my eyes on Donnie Yen films was in one of those chinatown theaters with his DRUNKEN TAI CHI! I also got my Jackie Chan fixation on with SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW among many other slapstick, buster keaton like movies from Jackie, Yuen Biao, & Sammo Hung!
Grady Hendrix from Subway Cinema has a great article ode to the Music Palace on the bowery! PLEASE spare us with your extracurricular activities at the Music Palace, Grady! You are one crazy Gwai Lo! Click here to read Grady’s Music Palace article!
There’s also a very cool 9 minute documentary on the MUSIC PALACE directed by Eric Lin that you can buy for $1.99 at Amazon for your viewing pleasure! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N9YSKA/?tag=renmed-20
I’m really fiending for some of those dried cuttlefish treats to go with that Jackie Chan movie at those retro chinatown theaters! Is that cat urine, I smell?
The Museum of Chinese in America on centre street should have ALL the answers & pictures that we’re looking for in getting a slice of the old Chinatown!
Tags: chinatown theaters, music palace, rosemary, sun sing
Posted in community, movies, mr. c, photos | Comments (2)
THE YELLOW SEA + final comments: NYAFF – day 14
July 16th, 2011 by Mr. C
The 10th annual NY Asian Film Festival came in whimpering to the theme of love & being horny on the 1st day of screenings to going out with a bang on the Yellow Sea of revenge by the 14th night! Mucho thanks to the guys & gals at Subway Cinema for organizing such a fun event!
THE YELLOW SEA directed by Na Hong-Jin, part of the korean sea of vengeance themed programming was the last screening on this fortnight of NYAFF bliss! Let me highlight a few things from this festive night that made the finale quite unique before going off on a tangent with an abbreviated mr. c monarch note of the film. Trouble would lurk in the projection booth at Walter Reade Theater before the Yellow Sea screening. There were technical difficulties with projecting the subtitles and/or they didn’t have the right format of the film for the showing. The movie seemed to be of the digital projection variety as opposed to traditional film with no subtitles burned onto the image. The director, Na Hong Jin had to use power point with the english text translations on each slide to translate the dialogue for all the scenes in the movie while he tapped on the computer to forward each slide in morse code like rhythm to be in sync with the conversations in real time! The power point slide would be projected onto the digital print of the movie on the bottom of the screen where traditional burned in translations would be! Na Hong Jin did a great job with the subtitles as his timing was impeccable! There were a few instances when the subs were a millisecond or two ahead of the dialogue but better early than late, I suppose! The director told us that he had only one hour to prepare for this debacle! Kudos to Na Hong Jin for rolling with the punches to allow us to watch this film! The 2nd highlight or more accurately, lowlight of the night was the Q&A session after the screening. Some of the questions that were asked by the audience to the director were totally ridiculous & quite embarrassing in my opinion. It definitely made the Q&A awkward & sort of weirded out the night to an otherwise enthusiastic crowd for the screening! The translator also looked confused. Maybe she botched up the translations so we didn’t look as bad?! The 1st question/comment posed to Na Hong-Jin from the audience was: I screened this film in china a few months ago & I liked that version better. Do you think an alliance or collaboration with east asia is important? *WHAT?*
The 2nd question was: How many cars did you smash up on the set? Another bright question: How pertinent was north korea in relation to the film? *WHAT?* The film had nothing to do with North Korea. It was all about south korea, china, & the ethnic koreans living in china. You should of seen the look on the director & translators face! One south asian film student asked: Do you think about the edited portion of the scene before you actually shoot the footage? *WHAT*
The one question that took the golden trophy was (not in the exact words): What is going on with Korea & the epidemic of recent thriller-killer-violent films like the Yellow Sea, I saw the Devil, The Chaser, and so on! What does that say about korean society? *STEREOTYPE* It’s called entertainment, buddy!
To be honest, I had mixed feelings about THE YELLOW SEA. The movie had big budget aesthetics written all over it and it seemed to be expertly filmed minus a little bit too much of the shaking camera syndrome & closeup shots to show intensity when under the duress of a life or death action sequence. For fans of ultra violence & blood splatter induced by a hatchet in a thriller setting which crosses over to the horror umbrella, you might find this of interest! For you realism fans, you might start out believing in the dream like Martin Luther King Jr said, but after a few twists & turns here and there, you might start questioning the script. The story starts out great, real grim, dark, & bleak! The setting of the movie takes place in Yanbian, China, a city that is not too far from the borders of north korea. Yanbian would be heavily populated by ethnic koreans otherwise known as joseonjok who live/work there in hopes for a better opportunity outside of Korea. Our main character, Ku-nam is a cabbie, living day to day with a mah jong gambling habit. He suspects that his wife is cheating on him as she disappears into the arms of south korea while the grandma takes care of their child. Temptations would soon grab a hold of our furry ethnic korean friend when a proposal from a raggamuffin gangster type who is very proficient with a hatchet wants to hire him as a hitman to eliminate someone in Seoul. With a big debt on his hand, a runaway wife, and a kid to support, our joseonjok man takes up the offer of murdering the professor. The only caveat is that he must complete this mission under a strict time limit or else his mother & daughter will be in harms way. The games would soon begin as a rocky boat ride of immigrants from yanbian china to south korea proves to be lethal for some. Things don’t go as planned as Ku-nam entangles with another mafioso when going for the hit. Things from here on out will get the movie realists to shake their heads. Car chases, evading police, eating dog meat off the bone, hatchet hacking, running…lots of running, & some south korean, benny hill style law enforcement will all be a part of this dark thriller-horror-comedy?! The prospects of finding his wife and/or the lover will add fuel to the fire! The crazy hatchet master that hired Ku-Nam will eventually come out from yanbian-china to play in south korea! Both of these characters will have more than 9 lives each as death seems to elude them! Realizing that he has been framed, ku-nam tries to unearth the story as survival & the search for his wife will make a heavy heart. This movie will be a real hit or miss for some. The story takes a bit to build up, but when it does, it gets real suspenseful offering up lots of violence to boot. The instrumental soundtrack to this film is very eery and puts you on edge when the characters start fleeing for their lives or while they are breaking down human parts for portability reasons! The movie is over 2.5 hours long & even with the unbelievable plot, I have to say that I was still engrossed in all the melee! I was completely fascinated by the ethnic Koreans aka joseonjok’s that are living in Yanbian, China! I hope to see more movies on this subject!
Tags: na hong jin, new york asian film festival, nyaff, the yellow sea
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (1)
Raekwon, Smif-N-Wessun, Joell Ortiz, Large Professor, Neek The Exotic and Skyzoo played Prospect Park
July 15th, 2011 by chocko
Raekwon The Chef
Smif-N-Wessun
Joell Ortiz
Large Professor and Neek The Exotic
Skyzoo
The annual Celebrate Brooklyn! shows at Prospect Park featured a hip hop lineup last weekend courtesy of Lyricist Lounge. The performance area was packed and the crowd was eager to hear some real hip hop. Skyzoo started off the night with songs from his new mixtape that just dropped titled “The Great Debater.” Skyzoo got the crowd hyped, however he rarely performed to the audience on the left side. It was pretty weird and cats around me were noticing. He worked the middle and stage left but left the rest of us out in the cold. He closed with the bass in your face “Speakers On Blast” from his second release with Duck Down Records titled “Live From The Tape Deck.”
Large Professor and Neek The Exotic performed next. Just a quick recap in case your memory’s a little foggy, but Large Pro was a member of the trailblazing hip hop group Main Source and is a legendary producer who’s worked with Nas on Illmatic, A Tribe Called Quest, and Kool G. Rap…just to name a few. Neek is a NYC native who was on the Main Source track, “Fakin The Funk” and has worked with Large Professor during the recording of his independent releases, “Exotic’s Raw” and “Exotic Species.” They both tag-teamed for a new album which came out earlier in the year titled “Still On The Hustle.” They performed a no-nonsense set of dope rhymes and the show was definitely picking up. The crowd was receptive and it was nice to hear the new stuff sprinkled in with the old hits and familiar songs. Get their new album now!
The Brooklyn MC, Joell Ortiz got a huge response from the the crowd. Ortiz came with the goods and performed the most energetic, crowd pleasing set of the night. Ever since his involvement with the hip hop super group, Slaughterhouse, Ortiz has been more popular than ever. Ortiz is not to be messed with lyrically and his freestyle skills are one of the best. The hometown crowd ate up the the back to back performances of “Brooklyn” and “Brooklyn Bullshit.”
Smif-N-Wessun entered the stage, first Steele and then probably the most off the wall entrance I’ve seen a while….Tek comes out running with a baby stroller! Park Slope represent! The baby in the stroller making the grand entrance was Shaun Price, Sean Price’s little daughter. Sean Price was on hand and joined the Duck Down crew along with Buckshot and Rock (aka Tha Rockness Monstah) from Heltah Skeltah. These guys were no joke and performed a solid set with lots of hits going way back to the early 90’s. Hearing “Bucktown” live never gets old. Be sure to pick up the new Smif-N-Wessun album titled “Monumental” with all tracks produced by Pete Rock!
Raekwon The Chef of Wu-Tang Clan headlined the evening and stepped on stage with a man-purse…the soccer mom swagger seemed to be the running theme of the night. After the unsightly murse was placed down, The Chef got cooking and provided us with the food we needed in the form of hip hop classics. Or rather, pieces of hip hop classics…you were lucky if you heard 2 verses of a song. The norm was one verse and then a chorus, an explosion sound effect, some banter then on to the next song. Why perform a snippet of a song…I just don’t get it. If Springsteen performed only half of “Thunder Road” or cut “Born To Run” short in concert, the crowd would riot in the parking lot. Besides the shortened version of songs such as “C.R.E.A.M”, “Incarcerated Scarfaces”, “Ice Cream” and Wu bangers “Da Mystery of Chessboxin”, and “Triumph” it was a fun, solid hour of showmanship complete with plenty of audience participation. The Ol’ Dirty Bastard tribute performance of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” was definitely a highlight with the crowd rapping along to Raekwon’s take on the classic ODB track. Check out the videos below of Raekwon’s performance of “C.R.E.A.M.” and Smif-N-Wessun along with Sean Price doing “That’s Hard.”
Tags: brooklyn, celebrate, concert, hip hop, rap, rapper, show
Posted in music | Comments (0)
The City of Violence + The Unjust : NYAFF – Day 13
July 14th, 2011 by Mr. C
Day 13 of the NYAFF would feature the films of Ryoo Seung Wan and Lee Joon-Ik which was part of the Korean inspired sea of vengeance theme! The films on the Walter Reade chalkboard on day 13 seemed to be a nice 3 course meal of contrast representing the work of these multifaceted directors. THE CITY OF VIOLENCE, BATTLEFIELD HEROES, & THE UNJUST would anchor the Ryoo Seung Wan & Lee Joon-Ik boat ride! Action, dark comedy, & a crime drama would be the cine-cuisine special of the day! I was only able to set sail with the City of Violence and The Unjust, though.
It took me quite a bit of time to decompress & settle my chi after watching the ultra uber-violent piece of art on film known as The City of Violence! To me, this movie is a slice of heaven in my favorite genre of film! Thanks to mondo curry-san for reminding me of this gem last year which I overlooked since 2006! This movie has a non cerebral vengeance plot with some of the most energized martial arts action & raw stunts reminiscent of the 1980-1990’s HK action films! Director, Ryoo Seung Wan & actor, Doo-hong Jung most DEFINITELY displayed the korean art of Tae Kwan Do to its highest form as the ballet like flow of spinning kicks performed with killer instinct & fury was a sight to behold! The story evolved from 5 childhood friends growing up together in a small city with all the friendship dynamics you would expect, to eventually grow up & out while finding their own paths in life. Four of the friends (3 are brothers) remain in the city they grew up in still ruling the roost with original ganster mentality except the older, weaker brother while the 5th friend, Tae-Su is a cop in big city pimpin’ Seoul. One of the five friends would let greed & power get the best of him as he tries to turn the small, quaint city that he grew up in into a money making tourist machine as per the brass of asses from Seoul! “By Any means neccessary” would be a great phrase for this antagonist as nothing will stand in his way, not even lifelong friends! You get a feeling that this character is subconsciously striking back at his old crew from past experiences as a child, now that he has the authority to lash back in different ways to finally achieve the power & fame that he ultimately wanted! The two fight sequences in the movie that will create orgasmic spasms while under the watchful eye include the street fight scene & the finale martial art rendezvous that had the flow of Bruce Lee going through the levels of the pagoda like in the game of death! The street fight scene has got to be on my top 10 list of all time best action skirmishes in a movie! I mean, that sequence totally blew me out of the galaxy! You had the rhythm of the jackie chan like action, battling characters that looked like they could be from THE WARRIORS who teamed up with the korean hip hop/b-boy dance troupe while adding reinforcements from the BMX team & cute korean school girls?! Director Ryoo Seung Wan summed it up perfectly! His state of mind when filming THE CITY OF VIOLENCE incorporated the mindset of a typical 1970’s like crime action drama with Jackie Chan acting, Martin Scorcese directing, Sam Peckinpah editing the film, & Sergio Leone scoring the soundtrack! To me, City of Violence inherited all of those traits & then some! The birds eye-view/overhead camera shots of the fight scenes truly complimented the beautiful art of Tae Kwan Do as they twist & turned 360 degrees while demolishing their opponents! Ryoo Seung Wan would also mention that Tsui Hark’s THE BLADE, John Boorman’s POINT BLANK, & John Woo’s slow motion, big city pimpin’ style really influenced his personality in the direction of the film! Another awesome tidbit of information from the Q&A session with the director after the screening was the question: who was the costume designer? The designer was the same person that worked on OLD BOY & LADY VENGEANCE! Ryoo Seung Wan requested that the costume design have the same look & elegance reminiscent to the old Shaw Brother films!
I couldn’t help but cream in my pants when I watched this film, y’all! It’s a fun movie to behold with plenty of action that will make you say…oh..ah..oh my god..what da! The soundtrack of The City of Violence is off the charts as well! Spaghetti western, korean hip hop along with some bad ass funk is a win, win for me! Get a copy of the DRAGON DYNASTY released version of THE CITY OF VIOLENCE, y’all! You’ll thank me later!
I’m not sure if I have enough words to give THE UNJUST a proper hype-up that it deserves! My 2nd screening of the day directed by Ryoo Seung Wan with the korean sea of vengeance theme in mind from the NYAFF was a by-product of deception in the justice system & the politics that are involved in the internal fight! The aftermath of watching The City of Violence was of the energy zapping sorts & it absorbed all my midi-chlorians (star wars reference)! I might need some tag team help from fellow writers, Mondo Curry & DB with an assist for THE UNJUST bon bon trail to go along with my abbreviated cliff notes! First of all, the movie was filmed with dazzling aesthetics in mind with a suspenseful like artisan precision leaving you to jump around in your seat not knowing what to expect! The cityscape camera shots that would eventually innovate monster like acts manifested by these characters in the so called noble like professions of crime & justice would be stunning to the eye! The Unjust was basically a chess match of corruption involving the south korean crime fighting force of various departments including a prosecutor that was played by the real life brother of Ryoo Seung Yan, & an internal affairs unit. A massive hunt & the pressures of trying to crack the case of a serial killer on the loose that has an affinity for school girls is at large. The local crime unit seemed to have a lead to the real serial killer but unfortunately the team killed him with no substantial evidence that would of clearly convicted him. So goes the massive coverup of trying to frame an innocent somebody X for these killings. The bad cop, bad prosecutor, & bad justice team in general, keep digging themselves deeper and deeper until the truth is unearthed. The dirty cop is one ruthless & selfish son of a bitch willing to do anything including beating up & instilling fear into anyone standing in his way. I would definitely think twice before stealing this dudes lunch money! The prosecutor is no angel, either with his manipulative ways! The ping pong match of covering deceit on top of deceit was fascinating! The action is few & far in between but when something does kick off, someone is getting a deep thrashing of a beatdown! The last 30 minutes of the film will have you jumping around like HOUSE OF PAIN!
Tags: city of violence, new york asian film festival, nyaff, ryoo seung wan, the city of violence, the unjust
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
spotlight: film fan depot
July 13th, 2011 by Mr. C
We had a chance to speak with Dolores, a big fan of asian films for quite some time now. I met her at last years NY Asian Film Festival at one of the Sammo Hung screenings and bumped into her again at the SELL OUT screening at the NYAFF this year. She was also one of the winners of the SELL OUT soundtrack that night! I was so jealous! Dolores has an extensive knowledgebase of asian films including chinese, korean, and japanese films as well as classic american films. What sparked my conversation with her was her familiarity with the old chinese movie theatres in chinatown-NYC including the Pagoda (11 E. Broadway), The Music Palace (91-93 Bowery), Sun Sing Theatre (75–85 East. Broadway), & the Rosemary Theatre (133 Canal Street). All of these movie theatres in chinatown have been defunct & torn down for quite some time now. The Music Palace was the last to be demolished in 2000. What a shame! I had a chance to ask Dolores a few questions after the screening of DRAGON INN at the NYAFF.
PC: How many years have you been attending the NY Asian Film Festival?
DN: I’ve been attending the NYAFF for 8 years now. Some of the 1st venues for the NYAFF include the Anthology Archives on 2nd ave as well as the IFC on 6th ave. I’m surprised that Anthology Archives is still in business. Everytime I attend a screening there, it’s usually empty. Besides, Anthology usually plays film-noir and art house films which I’m not a big fan of.
PC: What are some of your favorite and least favorite films of the NYAFF so far?
DN: Ocean Heaven (a drama film with Jet Li) & A Boy and a Samarai are some of my favorites so far. SHAOLIN was very disappointing & too long. NINJA KIDS was cute but very distracting with all the schools involved.
PC: Are you enjoying Tsui Hark’s discussions and Q&A with Grady Hendrix?
DN: yes, very much so. Tsui Hark speaks very fluent english and is very knowledgeable in his craft. I’m very impressed.
PC: What are some of your favorite theatres in Chinatown?
DN: The Pagoda on East Broadway & The Rosemary Theatre by the manhattan bridge was one of my favorites. The Sun Sing Theatre underneath the Manhattan bridge on East broadway was horrible. It was messy, smelly, with rats running around. Really filthy.
PC: Who were some of your favorite chinese actors?
DN: I really liked Ti Lung, he was very handsome. I also liked David Chiang, Chen Kuan Tai (Chan Koon Tai), & Fu Sheng . Did you know that Fu Sheng died in a car accident? That was such a shame. It looked like he was well on his way to international stardom.
PC: Yes, it was very tragic when Fu Sheng died. He seemed to have that star charisma that probably would of crossed over to US films.
PC: What genre of films do you enjoy the most?
DN: I really like period piece films such as the Dowager empress type movies. I’m also a big fan of Japanese cinema with films from Kurosawa & Yasujiro Ozu. Nagisa Oshima films are a bit too eccentric for me.
PC: Are you a fan of Bruce Lee films?
DN: Yes, I like Bruce Lee films. I didn’t think he was a great actor, but he had a great film presence. I actually visited Bruce Lee’s grave in 1977 when I was in Seattle attending a King Tut Exhibition. I thought I was weird when I asked the cemetary caretakers where Bruce Lee’s grave was but the staff said no they have had many many visitors asking about his gravesite.
PC: Do you have any favorite american actors/actresses?
DN: Some of my favorites are Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, Betty Davis, Claudette Colbert, Marlon Brando, & Montgomery Clift. Some of my favorite performances include Marlon Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT and Peter O’toole in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.
PC: Do you have any comments on some of our contemporary actors?
DN: I can’t stand Tom Cruise. I think he is overrated. I also don’t think too much about Sean Penn. He gets too hysterical. Dennis Hopper is another crazy actor. Who can believe that THE REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE actor would live to be 74. I thought he was destined to a tragic death similiar to James Dean.
PC: What’s your next NYAFF screening?
DN: I’m attending the Korean film, BATTLEFIELD HEROES.
PC: It was a pleasure speaking to you Dolores! See you at the NYAFF!
Posted in community, interviews, movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
Love & Loathing and Lulu & Ayano + The Blade : screening at NYAFF – Day 11
July 12th, 2011 by Mr. C
Day 11 of the NYAFF started with my master plan of attending 3 screenings including Love and Loathing & Lulu and Ayana, & Tsui Hark’s THE BLADE and DETECTIVE DEE. My batting average ended up being .666 for the day but luckily Chocko took over the controls of the spaceship by attending THE BLADE & DETECTIVE DEE while I crashed & burned.
With Love and Loathing & Lulu and Ayana, I was expecting a cute, lighthearted reality check *hehehehe*, tits and ass tale of two porno stars from Japan with a hello kitty personality, but this story would prove to be much deeper, darker, & more mind blowing than that. L&L and L&A is an eye opening, but sad, social commentary on an issue in Japan that is more widespread than we think. In a nutshell without spoiling the film, Lulu is a beautiful, young lady that has been mentally neglected, oppressed, & verbally abused while growing up which would naturally lead to low self esteem & confidence. Pressures from a single parent to succeed in japanese society without their child ever developing their own individuality proves to be a train wreck in disguise. Void of any positive role models, filial support, or confidants to lay a shoulder on for advice, one can easily sway over to the dark side especially if that side is a smooth talking, conniving, hustling son of a pimp that promises fame & fortune in the cough..cough…ACTING business (porn). Lulu totally engrosses herself in an anime character while performing which gives her a personality and voice that she has never known being harbored & sheltered throughout the majority of her life. As strange as this may sound, this provided solace to her soul, giving her a place to go to escape the negativity of her family life. Ayana would be the other more experienced young lady of the business that had already walked the path of no return that Lulu is about to embark on. They both go through the struggles of coming to grips with reality until a few major events would change the ballgame. I definitely recommend giving this movie a look-see. Just a fair warning to potential viewers of L&L though, blood splatter, TnA, hi def nipples (via wanderingasian), and a rollicking bush amongst anime inspired *hehehehe* moans & groans are all on the menu!
The screening of THE BLADE couldn’t have been more different than LOVE AND LOATHING & LULU AND AYANA. However, they both were bound together as by-products of “action” porn in their own sense! It was an honor to watch the rare 35mm print of The Blade at the NYAFF because of how closely guarded the film reels seem to be while under the possession of warner brothers’ slimey paws.
It’s been over a decade since we last saw The Blade and the story itself was still as confusing as the 1st viewing. Perhaps the movie had too many entanglements concerning other relationships added to the mix or maybe the english subs were not the greatest. This film was based on the one armed swordsman character made famous by the shaw brothers’ chang cheh but Hark’s version would be muscled up on steroids with a more complex story. The main gist of the plot involves ON, the main character who works in a sword factory forging blades, discovering that this barbaric man & his entourage that terrorizes the village is also the same man that killed his father. Soon thereafter, this innocent man will lose his arm to a whole host of indigenous scavengers ravaging his community. Sexual innuendos, revenge, & bandits galore will take stage on this ancient & remote village. Meanwhile, the one armed man takes refuge with rage on his mind, plotting his vengeance which prompts the birth of the unique one armed swordsman techniques which he learns from a book with a stunted blade left by his father. Some real astonishing stunted sword techniques involved the action of spinning like a tornado with the blade in a 360+ circle which added continuous deadly flow to the spinning wheel of death. Another technique would embrace the stunted sword attached to a rope in order to use the slashing movements in an extended deadly fashion. The rabbid movement of the camera along with the closeups, & multiple angles involving 3 cameras, enhanced the stunning visual image! Tsui Hark who was present after the screening for a brief discussion with Grady Hendrix mentioned that he was one of the three cameramen on the dolly! Tsui Hark also harped that The Blade relied very little on wirework with the fighting and action being filmed old school style with new school filming techniques! The ancient village movie set was also a studio that was owned by Tsui Hark in the new territories area in Hong Kong which was disbanded by the Hong Kong government shortly thereafter. THE BLADE was certainly raw, dark, & vicious! You know this film has got to be the bomb if the director of Battlefield Heroes: Lee Joon-ik, director of City of Violence: Ryoo Seung-wan , & Milocrorze director: Ishibashi Yoshimasa were all in the house for the screening!
Tags: love and loathing, lulu ayano, new york asian film festival, nyaff, the blade
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
REIGN OF ASSASSINS screening at the NYAFF – day 10
July 11th, 2011 by Mr. C
director of the film, Su Chao Pin after the screening!
Drizzle my nizzle, my kung fu sizzle chest brethrens! The REIGN OF ASSASSINS screening at the NY Asian Film festival would rain martial arts heaven in all its wu xia glory! I was shocked that this 1pm screening was not even close to being at full capacity. Perhaps, the showing of Heaven’s Story at the Japan Society at 2:45 pm stole the show? Reign of Assassins would slowly strip tease itself as a revenge-love story combo punch that would cast Michelle Yeoh as the character of “Drizzle”, an assassin that would be knee deep in tofu, busy slaughtering, laundering, & scheming about with the dark stone gang. One of Drizzle’s main projects was to find then hide the centuries old remains of a great buddhist monk which is said to provide immortality & eternal life for someone possessing the corpse because of the high level of karma that this monk had achieved before his passing! Deception, love, & vengeance would all come into play when Drizzle decides to leave her past behind with the dark stone chain gang and live a normal life! Michelle Yeoh’s character wields an unflappable, bendable, & unbreakable double edge sword with an advanced technique called water shedding which basically shreds her opponents with precise ginsu cuts! It’s tough for Drizzle because she needs to hide her past & that includes public display of her martial mastery! Only a man like John Woo, Nicholas Cage, or John Travolta would understand her situation! Drizzle’s new found husband is also a bumbling idiot that can double as Mr. Magoo or can he? He is a man who is passionate about his noodles including having first hand knowledge of tortoise powder! The end game would reveal who the real eunuch is & the motives for the endless slashings by the chinese lord sith! Love will be the final say as I wiped a tear or two away in the finale! The director Su Chao Pin was on hand after the screening for a brief discussion with Grady Hendrix! (see the Q & A video below). The director explains that Reign of Assassins is loosely based on an old martial arts novel that he tweaked & twisted with a non-traditional ending! So far, I have screened about 15 films at the NYAFF and Reign of Assassins is my favorite to date at the festival! I usually don’t fall for love stories but vengeance fueled the fire with lots of martial arts eye candy as support, but the relationships in this film do poke away at you in the heart! I’m sure this movie will get a release in movie theatres near you sometime soon!
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (3)
ZU: WARRIORS FROM MAGIC MOUNTAIN – NY Asian Film Festival – day 9
July 10th, 2011 by Mr. C
Tsui Hark thinking deep thoughts after the screening!
Tsui Hark was on hand for a brief discussion with Grady Hendrix of Subway Cinema at the Walter Reade Theatre with some fancy wireworks on his mind after the screening of ZU: Warriors from Magic Mountain! It was a trip and a half seeing Zu again decades later with my last viewing being on a VHS bootleg copy, Planet Chocko style thanks to Tower Books & Video rental on 4th & Lafayette! ZU is still a kung fu laser light extravaganza to behold with first rate wu xia dancing, prancing, & flying about! The story is a bit convoluted & wacky with the fantasy plot of centuries old jockeying of the evil underworld & demonic sect with their obsession to defeat the GOOD in attempts to take over the martial art world for eternal existence and power! What do you expect when the ZU story is based on a very long martial arts novel which is then crammed into 90 minutes or so of Tsui Hark’s pink floyd interpretation of it on film? I must admit that Zu is definitely not one of my favorite movies in the wu xia fantasy genre but the special effects, wirework, & martial arts are first rate especially when names like Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, & Adam Cheng are some of the major players in the movie! Zu was a breakthrough film of its time as Tsui Hark set a new standard in relaying the chinese fantasy stories adding western technology to enhance the wu xia experience. The soundtrack to the film was also created by the same person who did the music to Star Wars as well! When Zu Warriors from Magic Mountain was released in the early 1980’s, Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao were already flexing their kung fu muscles doing their raw hong kong modern comedy-action with Jackie Chan in films such as Project A, Wheels on meals, & Winners and Sinners! Adam Cheng is worthy of the lead swordsman role with his peking opera background and proficiency with the double edge sword! Cheng is a legend in the Hong Kong film industry with an extensive filmography to prove it as well as being known for his wu xia soap opera dramas on the Hong Kong TVB channel! Did I also tell you that Adam Cheng is a very popular canto-pop singer as well?! Despite the crazy story of Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain, this is a must see chinese fantasy film if you consider yourself a fan & historian of the genre! This movie showed that you can add new school technology to enhance the story telling process! Check out our video coverage of the Q&A session below with Tsui Hark & Grady Hendrix after the screening of ZU: Warriors from Magic Mountain!
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
