metrograph

THE HOUSEMAID Review: Kim Ki-Young’s Debut Message Allegory Deals In Sex, Lies, Tragedy, And Moral Quandry

My early summer dive into the work of late auteur Kim Ki-young continues with a look at The Housemaid. The 1960 thriller was Kim’s debut, restored nearly half a century later for posterity, and is one of two Kim titles screening between now and July at the Metrograph in New York City. The Housemaid preambles its scintillating tale with a discussion over a man’s affair with a housemaid as reported in a newspaper. The conversation then pans over to a game of Cat’s Cadle between the Kims’ children Ae-soon (Lee Yoo-ri), and Chang-soon (Ahn Sung-ki) as the opening credits role. I instantly caught onto that little bit of optical foreshadowing which goes well in hand with composer Han Sang-gi’s score, which instantly gave me an idea of what to expect after going into this film without seeing any prior footage or reading up. Kim definitely piles up on this aspect […]

Hey New York City! Get Metrograph Tickets For ICHI THE KILLER In 4K Restoration Now!

Lee B. Golden III

Get ready to embrace the craziness once more in a complete 4K restoration of Miike Takashi’s cult manga adaptation, Ichi The Killer. Tickets are available for the film’s opening this Friday and over the weekend at the Metrograph in New York City courtesy of Well Go USA who are also readying a wider release thereafter. Searching for his missing boss and a lot of missing money through the channels of the seedy underworld, Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer, more than meets his match in the form of the mysterious Ichi (Nao Ohmori), a shy, sexually-repressed lad who, when enraged, becomes a virtuoso of creative slaughter. Miike’s manic manga adaptation was a phenomenon, appalling audiences around the world, and may never be topped for the sheer variety of ways that it presents to pulverize the human body. Asano Tadanobu and Omori Nao lead the cast for the controversial cult […]

ICHI THE KILLER, Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, 2001, ©Media Blasters

ICHI THE KILLER Gets A Digitally Restored 4K Bloodbath From Well Go USA Starting This November

Lee B. Golden III

It was back in May ahead of the Cannes Film Festival that news broke of a forthcoming remastering and re-release of film auteur Miike Takashi’s manga adaptation hit, Ichi the Killer. The controversial ultra-violent crime horror scored a cult following after its 2001 and having only been shot on Betacam and only coverted 35mm film at the time, new technology now deems it possible for a more crisp and pristine finish. Restoration of the film was handled by L’Immagine Rittrovata Asia, the Hong Kong offices of Davide Pozzi’s Bologna, Italy-based film restoration lab which opened to a lucrative streak of restoring Asian film in the wake of bolstering online video demand. Since then, the long-awaited announcement of its acquisition news was made over the weekend with word that Well Go USA have officially acquired distribution rights to the new 4K restoration now dubbed Ichi The Killer: The Digitally Restored Director’s. […]

Hey New Yorkers! Celebrate ‘Wonder Women of the Martial Arts’ At The 7th Old School Kung Fu Fest Starting Next Friday!

Lee B. Golden III

Back for a seventh run, the Old School Kung Fu Fest is kicking off its three-day event on August 18 hailing its latest theme, Wonder Women of the Martial Arts. Tickets are available for the event courtesy of Subway Cinema and the Metrograph in New York City, so if you’re a resident or just visiting from out of town and in need of some kung fu fun on the big screen, you’re more than welcome to endulge! It’s the seventh edition of Subway Cinema’s Old School Kung Fu Fest, a perennially wild weekend of incredible classic martial arts and action movies, and for this lucky year we’ve got something extra special: “Wonder Women of the Martial Arts,” featuring some of the fiercest female warriors to ever grace kung fu cinema, a wellspring of tough gals. Female empowerment has never been this thrillingly cathartic, so come cheer along stalwart chop-socky heroines […]

Check Out The Trailer For The 6th OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST At NYC’s Metrograph!

Lee B. Golden III

Live in New York City? Love cult Asian action classics? Got some free time on your hands in the next few weeks? Then consider yourself properly met in the criteria for the forthcoming 6th Old School Kung Fu Fest which is being held from April 8 through 10, and with a plurality of amazing titles from the Golden Harvest library you’re more than welcome to catching on the big screen at the Metrograph in New York City come showtime! Subway Cinema, the crew behind the legendary New York Asian Film Festival (now in its 15th year), is teaming up with Metrograph to unleash the 6th edition of the annual Old School Kung Fu Fest (OSKFF), which celebrates the rarest, wildest, and most incredible martial arts and action cinema from the sixties to the nineties. Declared “an intensely amazing event” (Badass Digest) and a “kick-ass fest” (Time Out New York), this […]

Subway Cinema Lines Up Its Titles For The 6th OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST

Lee B. Golden III

Subway Cinema is returning for the 6th Old School Kung Fu Fest next month, and they’ll be hosting it this time at the Metrograph here in New York City. Tickets are now on sale for the three-day event so check out the line-up listed below and then head over to the official website of the Metrograph for purchasing info and other awesome details about the venue. 6th OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST Action Classics from Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest studio April 8-10, 2016, at Metrograph! Subway Cinema, the crew behind the legendary New York Asian Film Festival (celebrating its 15th anniversary!) is teaming up with Metrograph to unleash the 6th OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST – a barrage of the rarest, wildest, and most incredible martial arts and action movies from the 60’s through the 90’s. This year we’re focusing on Golden Harvest, the studio that became Hong Kong’s leading […]