Happenings: New York Korean Film Festival

If you like melodrama, stylized violence or unhappy and/or bittersweet endings that get the tears flowing, you're probably a fan of Korean films--you just might not know it yet. Thanks to the Korea Society, which is headquartered in NYC, there's the New York Korean Film Festival, an annual event that hosta about a dozen feature length dramas and comedies, some short films and panel discussions with Korean film types--a veritable foundation in Korean film for any curious "Seouls." (Sorry, that pun needed out.)

I, for one, am already of the initiated, having much love for movies like Park Chan Wook's vengeance trilogy, most notably "Old Boy" or Kim Ki Duk's zenlike Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring Again or the comical small town cop drama, Memories of Murder; of course, there are also numerous Korean drama series, which are probably Korean melodrama and storytelling at its best.

Which is why I'd been meaning to go to the festival for years now. This year, I finally made it. So far, I've seen Open City (Friday at 9:40 pm) and A Love (yesterday at 6:30) at Cinema Village. (They're also screening films at BAM Cinematek)

In both cases, the theater was surprisingly less than packed. I mean, c'mon people, this is once a year! Couldn't the sundry sponsors and film types and Korea Society people drum up a little more enthusiasm for these screenings? These shows should be sold out! Also, on Friday, there was a delay caused by a projector failure (at least that's what they said) - and the film started late, but not before an out-of-breath, verging on tears Korea Society representative made an apology to the audience. Yesterday, they seemed better organized. Yellow-t-shirt clad festival volunteers were out in force, passing out surveys, programs and raffling away CD's of an LA-based Korean pop band before the screening.

Open City, a film noirish/femme fatale ganster drama, was better than A Love, a love story (what else), which had the old white guy sitting at the end of our row mumbling "I've had enough"and exiting the theater even before the highly predictable, laughably melodramatic ending (and this from someone with a VERY high tolerance for melodrama). I really liked Open City, actually, though my friends, both men and less in touch with their sappy sides, I think, were less enthusiastic.

I, for one, think the Korean Film Festival needs better publicity and a web site budget - how 'bout some trailers, guys? Or a way to buy tix directly from the site? There's so much potential here!

Still I'm glad I went, and if I'm not too lazy, will go again later this week. It's not the Tribeca Film Festival, where every movie you watch is hand-selected to blow your mind, but watching some obscure Korean movie on a weeknight is part of the fun of living in NYC. You accumulate experiences, the more specifically random the better. If you're just doing the same old crap they're doing in suburban middle America, watching the same five movies, shopping at the same mall stores, what's the point of staying in Gotham?

Stuff I've Learned:Why the Sex and the City Movie Made Me Love NYC Again

Last night, Miss Fashion and I saw the Sex and the City movie at the Loews Village 7. It was 5:30 on a Thursday, but the theater was packed, which shows me that no matter what the stodgy old bald critics say, we girls love what we love. And our verdict? We loved it!! Seriously, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think deep thoughts, you'll think superficial thoughts...

As we walked out of the theater, I kept gushing about how surprisingly good it was, how it was now officially one of my most favorite chick flicks--rivaling my love for Bridget Jones' Diary. It was like I'd just had a moment of grace or something. Maybe I had. I'd been in the doldrums for a couple days, but by the time I left the theater, I swear my face muscles were sore, as they say, from all the smiling I did throughout the film.

Why? I don't want to give anything away, and I think it helped that I had low expectations going in, but to begin with, how can you not love the candy-colored, perfectly lit parade of fashion, friendship and fine-ass men that is Sex and the City?

In what other city do women take their fashion so seriously? Yes, you can say it's superficial and materialistic, but the way I look at it, it's wearable art, and when you're confronted by beauty, even if you yourself can't afford it, you have to gives props.

You can't help but imagine yourself living that life. I also appreciate how real they kept things - the girls are married, have kids, are older now, and the movie explores the challenges women face at this phase in their lives. It's like we've grown up--all of us girls. Then again, Sex and the City has always aired the issues, problems, feelings we girls don't like to talk about, except with our best friends. This is a movie that will make you glad for your best girlfriends. I wished mine were all here in NYC with me.

And of course, there's Big, out modern-day prince charming. You know what I'm talking about. (Oh, and the massive eye-candy that is Samantha's next door neighbor in LA--oh my...)

Most importantly, the movie reminded me of how optimistic and excited I was before moving to the City all those years ago. When I was in LA, I used to watch the series and imagine finding love, success, friendship...great fashion in the City. I imagined my life would be exciting, stimulating, that I would grow my wings and really take flight here.

Carrie says in the movie, 20-something girls move to New York to find the two L's: Love and Labels (fashion, that is)--which is a clever line, but somehow struck a chord with me. I did find my love in NYC, so at least I got that right. And I guess I found my labels too, to a degree, because when I was watching the movie last night, I could identify so many more "insider NY" things than before--like the fashions, the restaurants, the characters, the looking for a perfect condo. This time, it felt like a movie about my city, not just a city I wanted to be part of. And I'd never felt that way before.

Samantha actually lives in LA for most of the film, and I was thinking about how much I do still love LA--the house she lives in on the beach is what my dream home would look like. But the character arc that she goes through reminded me that in NY, even though the city has kicked my ass many times, I'm probably a stronger, more dynamic person and in some ways, more my true self than I would be anywhere else. It's a straightforward city, like a true New Yorker. It tells you what you have to do in order to achieve your dreams. Those who can't ante up can leave, I guess, but then you'll never know who you could have been.

For the time being, I'm still basking in the glow of the movie and dreaming of the day when I can have Carrie's 5th Avenue closet...fully stocked, of course.

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival - Part 2

I watched my second film at the Tribeca Film Festival today--"Sita Sings the Blues." A gorgeous, smart, layered, romantic, tragic, funny modern animated version of the Indian legend of Rama and Sita and their complicated romance (at least from Sita's POV).

The filmmaker, Nina Paley, is one of those humble artistic geniuses that you love and envy all at once. She's a one woman production team, and it took her 5 years to do this film with multiple animation styles from comic strip to Mughal art to cut out animation to shadow puppetry. When Sita "sings" the blues, we are actually hearing little-known blues singer Annette Henshaw's 1920's recordings. The music is just lovely and I wish I could buy the soundtrack. Hell, I wish I could buy the entire movie.

It was a Friday matinée and much more crowded than yesterday when the theater was half filled with elderly couples, elderly mothers with their film geek sons, and loners with their backpacks. Today's film was shown in a much larger theater and filled almost seat for seat with a great cross-section of people (Indians were well-represented, of course) at 3 pm.

Nina Paley and her cast and crew graciously answered questions afterwards. "The Internet's been good to me," she said at one point. Paley helped fund the project from anonymous donations from people who read her blog.The film does not yet have distribution, and apparently people always ask Nina if she plans to show the movie in India, but it's a tricky thing b/c Hindu's might be offended by the portrayal of the god Rama.

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival - Part 1

I'm a day late with this post, but my love and enthusiasm for Eduoardo Coutinho's "Playing (Jogo de Cena)" is unabated. I know it's a cliche, but the film did make me both laugh and cry, and I think that's a difficult thing for a film to do. More importantly, the film is so deeply human, and you walk away feeling more connected the beauty of the prosaic, especially in your own life.

You sit there and listen to a series of real women tell Coutinho their stories of love, losing children, unwanted pregnancies, bad marriages, complicated relationships with their children, the pursuit of their dreams, and you are reminded of what amazing stories every human being has. But then, the director challenges you even more by editing in footage of actresses "mimicking"(though that word suggests parody, and these actresses actually stay brutally faithful to the real woman she's playing) the same words the real women used in a kind of "staging" of the real woman's interview, and because sometimes Coutinho has the actress telling the story first, and then the real woman, and sometimes vice versa, it's a strange effect - very often it's sometimes impossible to tell who's the real woman and who's the actress.

What's the point, you ask? For me, I think it was a reminder of how real life can have the magic of fiction and how fiction can carry the weight of reality, a thread of humanity--either way, we're moved. I'm grateful for the Tribeca Film Festival for bringing films like this into my life.

One other thing: before the screening, I loved watching the clever, beautiful, striking animations done by the School of Visual Arts students (see photo).

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday--yet another example of a New York institution I've consistently avoided. I guess I always figured I wouldn't be able to get tix to the good stuff and would be stuck watching some lame movie, just to be able to say I went. And the film guide, with it's mucho offerings always scared me a bit.

But, today, inspired by a couple true blue film buff friends, I finally managed to wade through the hundreds of films in the Festival's Film Guide and found that tix were still available to a number of interesting movies...well, weekday matinee tix, at least.

So I'm going to watch "Playing (Jogo de Cena)," a documentary by Brazillian filmmaker that plays with the question of what's true and what's fiction by interspersing interviews with real life women with actresses "playing" these women.

I'm also watching "Sita Sings the Blues," an animated version of the Indian legend, Ramayana, interlaced with a modern love-on-the-rocks tale. It's by comic strip artist, Nina Paley. Isn't the animation fun?