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NYAFF XXII Review: In Giddens Ko’s MISS SHAMPOO, Sudsy Romantic Cheese Takes A Little Too Much Off The Top

One of the more promising titles coming out of Taiwan lately brings Vivian Sung and Daniel Hong together for romantic gangster comedy, Miss Shampoo. Going into the film though, you’d be forgiven if you took any of what you’d seen at face value before being nearly upended by one of the most bombastic, self-aware endings to a film of this kind. Indeed, there are some plusses to mind here with Miss Shampoo, but the biggest let-down occurs about midway when any and all progress is brought to a crashing halt in a single moment of unwarranted rancor.

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Check Out What's Happening At NYAFF 2014 This June!

Anyone in the mood for some Asian cinema? Then Lincoln Center is your place to be this summer, host to the usual wide array of films ranging from classic to contemporary projects. A few of them are currently upcoming in certain parts of the globe in one form or another. Hopefully you can attend this event yourself this month and see what all the fuss is about.

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Subway Cinema/NYAFF Presents: OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST 2014!

The movie that cracked the genre in half, 36th Chamber is king of the kung fu films — everyone references it, everyone steals from it, but it still holds up today. LKL’s god-brother, Gordon Liu, plays a kid in Manchu-occupied China who gets his entire family killed by the Manchus because he is an idiot. With nowhere else to go, he flees to the Shaolin Temple, and begs them to train him for revenge. Training involves mastering 35 chambers, each teaching a different discipline, and as he conquers them one-by-one the Buddhist philosophy behind Shaolin kung fu opens his third eye to enlightenment. The training sequence is a stock martial arts movie setpiece, but in the hands of LKL it expands into an hour-long, genius-level, cinematic tone poem on how discipline, focus, commitment, and willpower can save you from yourself.

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