csaThe New York Asian Film Festival is hitting this week, and running through July 2nd. I’ve seen a couple of the films already, and I’ll be bringing you some reviews (especially of the excellent Three… Extremes, which has short films from the likes of Takashi Miike and Park Chan Wook!) in the days ahead.

In the meantime – buy your tickets now. Last year’s Festival was half the size of this one and they sold out all but five screenings. There are some big films this year, including Godzilla: Final War and R-Point, the smash Korean horror film.  Advanced tickets are available at www.subwaycinema.com or call Smarttix at (212) 868-4444. Here’s some info from the press release:

The New York Asian Film Festival is hosting the North American premieres of Suzuki Seijun’s PRINCESS RACCOON (the musical with Zhang Ziyi) CRYING FIST (starring OLDBOY’s Choi Min-Shik)
MARATHON (this year’s Korean box office smash) MIND GAME (the insane Japanese animated film from the folks who drew STEAMBOY)

We’ve also got the final GODZILLA movie (GODZILLA FINAL WARS), the GIGANTOR movie (TETSUJIN-28), THREE…EXTREMES (with Bai Ling, and directed by Takashi Miike), Kim Ki-Duk’s 2004 film SAMARITAN GIRL, the new movie from the director of JU-ON and THE GRUDGE (MAREBITO) and more!

The festival will take place at the Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue, @ Second Street)
And at The ImaginAsian Theater (239 E59th St, between Second and Third Avenues)

For the full list of films, go to http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff05films.htm

The New York Asian Film Festival is running from June 17 to July 2nd. Definitely take some time to check out these movies.