September sees a refreshing East Asian film festival screened on our doorstep. Firecracker Magazine brings Firecracker Showcase 2005 to London.

40 films, many of them UK Premieres, from eight East Asian countries will be shown in four venues over eleven days.The increased appetite for East Asian film internationally, brought on by the successes of Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Kung Fu Hustle as well as the critical acclaim for movies as diverse as Old Boy, Untold Scandal and Ong-Bak, has also brought on a heightened awareness of East Asian films which are not given UK releases. Firecracker Magazine through their monthly online magazine (www.firecracker-magazine.com) is offering a cogent range of films backed up by reviews and reports from their correspondents based in the region.

A wide range of films from almost every conceivable genre. From thrillers to kung fu epics, from horrors to love stories, documentaries, satires and cult oddities, from some of the hottest brand new movies, to some recent but neglected gems, to older classics, the festival throws open the doors to display the astonishing depth of brilliant filmmaking from across East Asia.

As well as recent films from more established movie hotspots such as Japan, Hong Kong, China and new boy Korea there is a chance to watch dynamic films from Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

No Blood No Tears (Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korea 2002), UK Premiere. One of several dynamite Korean movies in the showcase that to date have unbelievably slipped through the net. The showcase closes with director Ryoo Seung-wan’s brilliant Crying Fist, but don’t miss the first UK outing for his earlier pulp-noir masterpiece that makes Thelma and Louise look like The Golden Girls.

Weds Sept 14, 9:00pm,
Genesis Whitechapel

Nuan
(Huo Jianqi, China 2003) UK Premiere

A visually stunning story of wistful nostalgia following a young man’s return to his rural home after years in Beijing, and the rekindling of an old romance, the wonderful Nuan highlights the talents of ‘Fifth Generation’ filmmaker Huo Jianqi, a contemporary of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, but still relatively unappreciated outside China.

Thu Sept 8, 6:45pm Curzon Mayfair
Thu Sept 15, 4:00pm Genesis Whitechapel

Screenings will take place at the Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair and the Genesis Whitechapel with a series of Firecracker Nite Movies at The Gate in Notting Hill featuring a selection of ‘out-there’ East Asian night movies, screening during both weekends of the Firecracker Showcase.

The Firecracker Classics sidebar, screening at the Curzon, Soho and the Genesis, Whitechapel, brings a special event: The History Man: Special Focus on Im Kwon-taek. Honorary Golden Bear award winner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Firecracker Magazine and the Korean Film Council present a special focus on director Im Kwon-taek, a man with an astonishing 99 films to his name, whose films offer a fascinating, rich and emotional sense of Korean history. The History Man presents three of this extraordinary director’s very best.

Pattaya Maniac
Yuthlert Sippapak
Thailand 2004
UK Premiere

Just your average Thai slacker comedy: unscrupulous gangsters, dreadful karaoke, and misplaced bets on Manchester United.
Fri Sept 9, 7:00pm
Genesis Whitechapel
Thu Sept 15, 9:00pm
Curzon Soho

Opening Night

The UK premiere of Nuan, directed by the multi-award winner and ‘Fifth Generation’ filmmaker from China, Huo Jianqi will open the festival. ‘Fifth Generation’ filmmakers from the Beijing Film Academy include internationally well received Zhang Yimou, director of House of Flying Daggers and Hero. Huo is little known outside China and Japan and this will be the first time Nuan, winner of Best Film and Best Actor at the Tokyo Film Festival, will be screened in the UK; screening at the Curzon Mayfair and Genesis, Whitechapel. Director Huo Jianqi and Producer Mr Dong Fan will be attending the screening. Life Show by Huo Jianqi is also being screened during the festival.

Gangster
(Bade Haji Azmi, Malaysia 2004)
European Premiere
Not NY, not LA, but KL. Three stories woven into one crackerjack movie, as loan sharks, drug-pushers and illegal racing play out on the streets of Kuala Lumpur in a movie that was a sensational box office hit on home soil, now premiering for the first time in Europe.

Fri Sept 16, 9:00pm - Genesis Whitechapel
Sun Sept 18, 6:45pm - Curzon Mayfair

Gagamboy
(Erik Matti, The Philippines 2003)
UK Premiere

How come Marvel Comics never came up with Cockroachman? Someone in the Philippines realised what the world of superheroes had been missing. Here, for the rest of us, is the quite ridiculous answer.
Tues Sept 13, 9:00pm
Genesis Whitechapel. Also screening in Firecracker Nite Movies.

A West Lake Moment
(Yim Ho, China 2005)
UK Premiere

The stars of Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress reunite in a subtly measured and emotionally-involving contemporary love story set in China’s ‘paradise on earth’, Hangzhou as two people who are forced to assess their true feelings after a chance encounter.

Sun Sept 11, 2:00pm -Genesis Whitechapel
Fri Sept 16, 6:30pm - Curzon Mayfair

For full listings of screenings at other venues visit www.firecracker-showcase.com

The Genesis, 93-95 Mile End Road, London E1 4UJ
020 7780 2000, www.genesis-cinema.co.uk