For two weeks in New York, Asian Film enthusiasts gather at New York, at both Anthology Film Archives and the ImaginAsian Theatre for the 5th Annual Asian Film Festival. The festival landed 11 films in its inaugural year of 2001. In the following two, the film count swelled to 22. Similar to last year, the number now sits at 30. The producers of this exciting festival have sifted the flour and have once again brought to New York Asia’s newest and brightest. And by staying ahead of the curve, it remains the pulse of what’s going on halfway around the globe.

For Asian Americans they’re glimpses of the past, family, old homes, or heritage. For some it’s just nice to see actors and actresses they can identify with, and hear a film in the tongues they’ve either preserved or long since forgotten. No matter how one winds up getting them home, searching endlessly online for a DVD that will play in a region-less player, or waiting ten years for an American distributor to release it, there’s no better sight than seeing it large and wide at the Cineplex. But more than likely, like anyone else, Asian Americans just want to see good films.

For those without curry or soy sauce running through their veins, the films show where Hollywood is getting their inspiration, their energy and their future direction. Asian cinema should be appreciated in its purest form. So help us, if they’re not rehashing a classic or stretching television nostalgia into two hours of trite trash, Hollywood is raping the Asian horror film.

Instead of the much-deserved reverence for Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa and Kinji Fukasaku the Asian Film Festival looks forward to the names trailblazing a new path for others to follow or diverge from. Park Chan-Wook, Kim Ki-Duk, and Takashi Shimizu have all enjoyed their films premiere at the festival. Ichi the Killer, Hero, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance all played at the Festival still warm from their tour in their native countries before ever having wide distribution in the States.

This year, the festival flavor is Kobe, as in almost half of the films are Japanese. Thirteen films prove the filmmakers from the land of the rising sun run the full gamut. But the hard-to-find, high quality meat could also describe all of the films since there’s no telling when they’ll be seen again in other metropolitan pockets. Bollywood gets its largest showing at the festival with five films and Korea continues to produce highly polished and provocative films. Here is a complete rundown of what this year’s lineup.

CHINA

Peacock (2005) opened the festival at the Brooklyn Museum and if you missed it, you can catch it again Thursday the 22nd. The Chinese love to make marathon movies about struggling in the post-Revolutionary China, but this film is directed by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige’s cinematographer, Gu Changwei, so you know it’s going to be beautiful in every way.

INDIA

If you think Bollywood is full of dramas, musicals and comedies, then you haven’t been paying attention to India’s Martin Scorsese, Ram Gopal Varma. He is celebrated at the festival with four films, two as director, two as producer.

The world premiere of Shiva (2006) is the big budgeted retooling of his college gangland movie, Shiv. RGV makes the film he always wanted to make and chose New York as the place to unveil it in front of an audience for the first time. An earlier crime film by RGV, Company (2002) was decorated with Filmfare Awards, Best Story, Best Actor (Ajay Devgan), Best Actress (Manisha Koirala), and Best Supporting Actor (Vivek Oberoi). Company is the story of the people behind an international crime cartel built on the weak and trampled lives of many.

Varma produced Ek Hasina Thi in 2004 where his longtime actress Urmila Matondkar was thrust into a femme fatale role. Her character is taken advantage of by her hot boyfriend and is sent to prison to become a hardened killing machine. Once a soft and sexy office worker is now a cold-blooded whack-job looking to deliver some comeuppance. Ab Tak Chhappan (2004) is another gun-driven bullet ballet with an above-the-law encounter specialist (cops who work for hitmen for the department), Sadhu, in a game of one-upmanship with his fellow co-workers. Nana Patekar a great Indian actor plays Sadhu, a character derived from the life of Daya Nayak who survived 83 encounters in three years.

Fresh this year is Krrish (2006) a superhero musical. That’s right, I said a superhero musical. Not enough to draw you in? How about Ching Siu-Tung’s (Hero, A Chinese Ghost Story) action choreography? Krrsh takes your typical action affair and twists it into something badass from a clustering of superhero conventions and cosmetics

JAPAN

Japan’s most celebrated film of 2005, Always is the whale of the festival, winning of 13 of Japan’s 14 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. Set in the late 1950’s, Takashi Yamazaki will bring you to your knees in this drama set in the rubble of World War II, where the pain of healing and struggle to rebuild was at its worst. Always is not the only movie based on popular manga, also showing at the other extreme is the silly, anything goes Cromartie High School (2005).

Fantasy and action film fans can stop looking with Shinobi (2005), and the epic, The Great Yokai War (2005). Shinobi dazzles imaginative cinematography and clever CGI as two super-human ninja tribes doing battle in feudalistic times. It’s a superhero that’s done correctly and yes, has you wanting more. Great Yokai War flashes forward to the typical post-apocalyptic Tokyo but with Lord of the Rings overtones as a young boy ventures to end the war by retrieving a sword Hattori Hanzo could only have made in his dreams.

Documentary craze has gone global with Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino (2006) but not in its truest sense. Part live-action (specially shot by Masaki Kobayashi) and CGI, Ski Jumping Pairs is more faux and Christopher Guest than PBS. An additional 7-minute short Ski Jumping Pairs: Flying Test (2007) was made to satisfy fans clamoring for “More!” and will be shown attached to longer evening features on Sunday June 18th, and Monday June 19th.

If it’s a slice of minimalist cake you crave, Ryuichi Hiroki follows up his brilliant film, Vibrator with It’s Only Talk (2005), a look at how we rely on others, ruin them, and pick them up. A Stranger of Mine (2005) is another slice exploring the significance of crossing paths through multiple perspectives and consequence. If you want to know the history of the Japanese rock scene, check out the hypnotic Linda, Linda, Linda (2005) featuring Aki Maeda (Battle Royale) Shiori Sekine, and Yu Kashii.

And then there is just the bizarre: Beetle: The Horn King (2005) is Japan’s answer to Nacho Libre. Staying with the wrestling theme, Oh! My Zombie Mermaid (2005) is an odd and over-the-top fascination of professional wrestling, horror, and a disease that transforms the protagonist’s wife into a mermaid. Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005) is an acid-trip through the mind of director, Katsuhito Ishii. Being invaded by aliens has never been so surreal in the form of belly button energy, butthole televisions, Snickers bars and unending dancing. Other Japanese films showing are the epic period piece, Pacchigi! (2004) and Umizaru 2: Test of Trust (2006), a blockbuster sequel to Japan’s Coast Guard thriller.

KOREA

Korea shines in the main opening of the festival Friday night with A Bittersweet Life (2005), an entertaining and brutal stab at the classic revenge story where dog bites back at man. Equally glossy is Kim Dae-Sung’s sophomore effort, Blood Rain (2005), a crime thriller set in 1808. Park Kwang-Hyun proves that Tae Guk Gi isn’t the only box office draw about the Korean War. Welcome to Donmakol (2005) lands soldiers from the North and the South Korea at each other’s throat at the footstep of a village in the mountains unbeknownst to the war. At the same time they discover Dongmakol, an American pilot arrives and all three must work together to survive. Jerry Bruckheimer would be proud.

Watching Beetle: The Horn King may be worth it just to see the added Korean short, Hair (2005), 14 minutes where having chest hair is everything, seriously. Shin Ha-Kyun does everything he can to grow chest hair otherwise life just isn’t worth living. Stop laughing. I’m serious.

Independent filmmaking is rare but alive with Kim Ki-Duk. Song Il-Gong is not far behind, The Magicians (2005), is a reflective reunion of three friends on New Year’s Eve who haven’t seen each other in three years since their mate’s death. Divided by tragedy and brought back together by pain, their friendship survives life’s complexities and triumphs. Song shot The Magicians in one 80-minute uncut take. Feather in the Wind (GIT) (2004) is the second film in the festival shot by Song. Shot miraculously with a small budget, Feather in the Wind is a minute romance in the spirit of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

The midpoint of the festival marks the return of director Lee Myung-Se after a six-year hiatus with Duelist (2005), a romantic film that plays with the form of storytelling. Korean cinema has been steeped in implacable vicious films so it seems fitting that Korean’s chief action and martial arts filmmaker attempt a film that blurs the line between fighting and loving. A measly 10 pages of dialogue are spread through its entirety, but visual cues signal shifts in emotion, thought or mood in this innovative and creative film.

MALAYSIA

The dirt and grit of film noir hits the pavement of Kuala Lumpor in Malaysia’s number one movie of 2005, Gangster. This film tells three inter-weaving stories drug up from the street swill. Despair, prostitution and ruthless assassinations are a smattering of overwhelming problems hand-delivered by the bruisers of Malaysian best criminals.

THAILAND

Thailand is the latest Asian country to enter the horror genre with style and originality. Art of the Devil 2 (2005) resembles nothing from its predecessor and is a blood-rich romp through high school envisioned by the seven filmmakers of the Ronin Team.

Reviews of some of the films will follow throughout the festival. Be sure to check back to share your thoughts, opinions and discussions about the festival. Most films have two screenings. Be sure to check out the full festival schedule for times and location at http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff06calendar.htm.

Put your rice cookers on overdrive and enjoy the festival!