Subway Cinema, home of the New York Asian Film Festival, has just announced the full lineup for this year’s festival. An eclectic, sometimes quirky, and always fun lineup of feature length and short films grace the 2008 program, Subway’s seventh in a successful run of annual events. Tons of great new Japanese cinema will be on hand this year, including the world premiere opening film Then Summer Came, the wild wild antics of Sukiyaki Western Django, and many many others.

All the juicy details are available on their site as of today, including links to buy advance tickets. The festival opens on Friday, June 20th, and goes until July 6th . More info and images after the jump.

Sukiyaki Western Django

SUBWAY CINEMA
presents
THE NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2008!!!
June 20 – July 6, 2008
at the IFC Center (June 20 – July 3) and Japan Society (July 3 – July 6)

It’s back like a bad dream! The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) kicks off its seventh edition this summer and we’re exploding with the rich smoky taste of pure Asian movie flavor.

What the heck, right? We figured if we built it, you might come, so this year we’re presenting the biggest NYAFF in human history, showing 43 films and two programs of short films. It’s either the start of something big or we’re going out with a bang!

Then Summer Came

We’re also deeply honored that our opening night film will be the world premiere of THEN SUMMER CAME starring Joe Odagiri and Yoshio Harada. Written and directed by award-winning playwright, producer, screenwriter and actor, Ryo Iwamatsu, it will be released in Japan in mid-July. Director Iwamatsu will be the guest of the New York Asian Film Festival and not only has he acted in dozens of films like ZEBRAMAN and this year’s NYAFF presentation, ADRIFT IN TOKYO, but he is also available for interviews. He will introduce the screening of THEN SUMMER CAME on June 20 and conduct a Q&A afterwards.

Dainipponjin

And this will be the first year the NYAFF has jury duty. Our crack team of jury members include New York Post critic Vincent Musetto, acclaimed author Maitland McDonagh, Time Out New York critic Dave Fear, the exhibitions coordinator and head honcho of the legendary Anthology Film Archives, John Mhiripiri and last but not least, the director of award-winning breakdance documentary, PLANET B-BOY, Benson Lee.

Because there aren’t enough great movies in New York this summer, here’s the list!

World Premiere
THEN SUMMER CAME (Japan, 2008)

International Premieres
ACTION BOYS (Korea, 2008)
THE BUTCHER (Korea, 2008)
CHANBARA BEAUTY (Japan, 2008)
KING NARESUAN 1 (Thailand, 2007)
MOST BEAUTIFUL NIGHT IN THE WORLD (Japan, 2008)
PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS (Korea, 2008)
TAMAMI (aka AKANBO SHOJO) (Japan, 2008)

North American Premieres
*ADRIFT IN TOKYO (Japan, 2007)
ASSEMBLY (China, 2007)
DOG IN A SIDECAR (Japan, 2007)
DORORO (Japan, 2007)
*FINE, TOTALLY FINE (Japan, 2007)
L: CHANGE THE WORLD (Japan, 2007)
LOVE ON SUNDAY (Japan, 2006)
LOVE ON SUNDAY 2: LAST WORDS (Japan, 2007)
LIKE A DRAGON (Japan, 2007)
SASORI (Hong Kong/Japan, 2008)
SHAMO (Hong Kong, 2008)
TOKYO GORE POLICE (Japan, 2008)
THE SHADOW SPIRIT (Japan, 2007)
*UNITED RED ARMY (Japan, 2007)

US Premieres
BODYGUARD 2 (Thailand, 2007)
HAPPINESS (Korea, 2007)
KALA (Indonesia, 2007)
M (Korea, 2007)
*SAD VACATION (Japan, 2007)
THIS WORLD OF OURS (Japan, 2007)

New York Premieres
*ACCURACY OF DEATH (Japan, 2007)
*ALWAYS 2: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET (Japan, 2007)
ARCH ANGELS (Japan, 2006)
BODYGUARD 1 (Thailand, 2004)
*DAINIPPONJIN (Japan, 2007)
KING NARESUAN 2 (Thailand, 2007)
MAD DETECTIVE (Hong Kong, 2007)
THE REBEL (Vietnam, 2007)
SHADOWS IN THE PALACE (Korea, 2007)
SPARROW (Hong Kong, 2008)
*SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (Japan, 2007)
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES (Japan, 2006)
X-CROSS (Japan, 2007)
*YASUKUNI (Japan, 2008)

Not a Premiere But Still a Great Movie
ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET (Japan, 2005)

Short Films!
NYAFF and MSFF: With the generous support of the Korean Cultural Service in New York, we’ll be presenting two programs of Korean short genre films from last year’s Mise-en-Scene’s Short Film Festival (MSFF). This will include what we think is the best Korean film of 2007, A PUPPY, OUR FAMILY, directed by Park Jae-Young, who is scheduled to attend the festival as our guest.

* this indicates that a film is being presented in conjunction with JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film (July 2 – 13 at Japan Society). For more info visit: http://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/japancuts

Complete write-ups, links to buy tickets and the schedule will be up bright and early on Monday, June 9 here: http://www.subwaycinema.com

Official NYAFF 2008 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjUR2fiJ7Kk

About NYAFF:
Launched in 2002, Subway Cinema’s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is America’s leading and most influential showcase for popular Asian cinema. Each year, the Festival selects over 30 feature films, considering only the best, the strangest, and the most entertaining of the recent titles. To date, the Festival presented over 130 films from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, including the works of Park Chan-wook, Patrick Tam, Takashi Miike, Andrew Lau, Feng Xiaogang, Kim Jee-woon, Lee Myung-se, Suzuki Seijun, Johnnie To, Sion Sono, Shinya Tsukamoto, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Kim Ki-duk, Ryu Seung-wan, Xiao Jiang, Shunji Iwai, and many others. NYAFF is a member of the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance (NAFFA).

By NYT