AAVCLUB @ AFS Cinema

*$4 off with code: AAAFF$4

Applicable for additional showtimes of the films listed below as well. Check AFS Cinema schedule for most updated showtimes.

BULLET IN THE HEAD

Directed by John Woo | Hong Kong
1990, 2h 16min, DCP, In Cantonese, Vietnamese, and French with English subtitles.

“Woo’s best and most personal film.”
—Vulture

“​​At his peak, Woo didn’t build set pieces — he emptied armouries, unleashed firestorms.”
—Little White Lies

Oct. 21, 25 | No Chow Yun-fat this time, but Tony Leung Chiu-wai is a pretty good consolation prize as John Woo tells the story of three petty criminals in 1967 who, fleeing a powerful mob boss, go from the frying pan into the fire as they flee to wartime Saigon. Woo considered this his APOCALYPSE NOW, and you’ll see why. New 4K restoration. 

HARD BOILED

Directed by John Woo | Hong Kong
1992, 2h 8min, DCP, In Cantonese with English subtitles.

“Woo’s violence is absolutely over the top, a jamboree of spurting arteries and blown-out kneecaps … creating mosaics of sound and action that leave you feeling exhilarated.”
—Time Magazine

“John Woo, Hong Kong’s master choreographer of cinematic violence, has blasted the action genre onto a whole new level. His shootouts are a ballet; his firebombings are poetry.”
—Newsday

Oct. 28, 30 | Not only an exciting, escapist crime movie but also a textbook of action set-pieces. Chow Yun-fat is back as a cop named Tequila who CAN play the clarinet but CAN’T play by the rules. Tony Leung Chiu-wai is his partner in ultraviolence, an undercover detective who specializes in deep-cover operations. Hong Kong Cinema icon Anthony Wong is here too as the top boss. The film is very, very violent. Like, it will revise your whole definition of what a violent film is. New 4K restoration.

LATE SPRING

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu |Japan
1949, 1h 48min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

“Ozu reveals the hidden depths of ordinary life with a quiet astonishment and observes his characters with an exacting subtlety of expression.”
—The New Yorker

Nov. 1, 2 | In post-war Japan, Noriko, a young professional, lives with her widowed father. To prompt her to marry, he pretends to consider remarriage, hoping it will encourage her to choose a suitor. This screening is paired with Noriko Smiling, film critic, novelist, and essayist Adam Mars-Jones’ ode to Ozu’s “still limber and elusive” classic.

Featuring a post-film discussion and a pop-up shop on Saturday, November 1. Noriko Smiling by Adam Mars-Jones is available for purchase at Alienated Majesty Books, in-person or online.

BYE BYE LOVE

Directed by Isao Fujisawa | Japan
1974, 1h 25min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

“Presciently offers an accomplished representation of queer love and genderfluid identity nailing both ends of the trans experience: the reassuring euphoria when gender identity and presentation align and the thorny, insidious envy of cisgender people.”
—BFMAF

Nov. 4 | FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES meets BONNIE AND CLYDE when a nihilistic drifter crosses paths with an enigmatic, gender-fluid shoplifter. “Pure snot-nosed anti-establishment indie heaven” (The Village Voice), this freewheeling journey through 1970s Japan anticipates “the transgressive New Queer Cinema movies of Gregg Araki and Gus Van Sant” (Metrograph).

Screening with a video introduction by Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell.

LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL

Directed by Akihiro Suzuki | Japan
1999, 1h 1min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

“It’s not straight, gay, queer, bisexual, non-sexual, or porn. LOOKING FOR ANGEL is an anti-heterosexist movie.”
—Akihiro Suzuki

“Recaptures the waywardness of some early New York ‘underground’ films with its mix of sexual uncertainties, memories, regrets, and all-too-fleeting friendships.”
—Tony Rayns

Nov. 7, 8 | Akihiro Suzuki’s LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL begins with the disappearance of a young gay porn actor and unfolds into a haunting, blue-drenched meditation on grief, lust, and memory across Tokyo and Kochi — evading labels with radical, poetic freedom. New restoration.

ANGEL’S EGG

Directed by Mamoru Oshii| Japan
1985, 1h 11min, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles.

Nov. 19, 21, 24 | Two lost souls — a boy with a gun and a young girl guarding a large, precious egg — roam the ghostly ruins of an underwater city haunted by shadows. A legendary collaboration between illustrator Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D) and director Mamoru Oshii (GHOST IN THE SHELL), newly restored and available in cinemas nationwide for the first time.

MISTRESS DISPELLER

Directed by Elizabeth Lo |China/USA
2024, 1h 34min, DCP, In Mandarin and English with English subtitles.

“The ultimate ‘How’d they shoot that?’ film.”
— POV Magazine

Nov. 29, 30, Dec. 3 | Filmmaker Elizabeth Lo pulls back the sheets on the clandestine world of cheaters in her Venice Film Festival award-winning documentary, which follows a woman in China who hires a professional to go undercover, confronting her husband’s betrayal in a last-ditch effort to salvage their relationship and save their marriage.

A CHINESE GHOST STORY

Directed by Ching Siu-tung | Hong Kong
1987, 1h 38min, DCP, In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Dec. 5, 6 | Imagine a joke-a-minute Hong Kong swordplay comedy wrapped in a frenetic ’80s horror movie with a credible love story along for the ride. Can’t be done, right? Wrong. One of the most crowd-pleasing popular entertainment films of the golden age of Hong Kong Cinema. Produced by the great Tsui Hark.

A CHINESE GHOST STORY II

Directed by Ching Siu-tung | Hong Kong
1990, 1h 44min, DCP, In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Dec. 6, 10 | Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong are back in a film that pushes the tone and pace of the first film into an even higher level with more scares, more special effects, and even more fun. You don’t need to watch part one to enjoy this one.

A CHINESE GHOST STORY III

Directed by Ching Siu-tung | Hong Kong
1991, 1h 44min, DCP, In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Dec. 7, 14 | One hundred years after the events of the first two films, the spirit of evil has returned to life, and a different protagonist (Tony Leung Chiu-wai!) must contend with the seductive evil that will not die. The fun continues, and if you haven’t seen the first two, don’t worry — you’ll catch up.

Ju Dou

Directed by Zhang Yimou | China/Japan
1990, 1h 35min, DCP, In Mandarin with English subtitles.

“Delirious melodrama, Chinese style. JU DOU is a juicy and stylish potboiler that keeps the pilots turned on full blast.”
—The Austin Chronicle

“Critic’s Pick! JU DOU is an intellectually and artistically brave film.”
—The New York Times

“Viewable as an allegory for the old and new guard in China, a strong statement on pre-revolution socio-politics, or simply as a tale of doomed romance, this film is bold, beautiful and breathtakingly brilliant …”
—Eye For Film

Dec. 13, 15, 17 | Gong Li is JU DOU, a young woman trapped in an oppressive, impotent marriage to the owner of a dye mill in rural China. Seeking an escape, she begins a passionate affair with her husband’s nephew, leading to the birth of a son, raised as the heir of her sadistic husband. A landmark of Chinese cinema from Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS). Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on Monday, December 15.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE

Directed by Nagisa Oshima | Japan/UK
1983, 2h 3min, DCP, In English and Japanese with English subtitles.

Screening in 35mm on Tuesday, December 23, with an encore DCP presentation on Thursday, December 25.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE plays even better today. Bowie is superb, as is Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose evocative soundtrack is one of the best ever to grace a motion picture. It’s time for you to discover Ôshima.”
—The Guardian

Dec. 23, 25 | In this narrative departure from cinematic provocateur Nagisa Ôshima’s earlier works, he tells the story of four men in a Japanese POW camp during World War II. David Bowie stars as a recalcitrant prisoner whose experiences in the camp trigger memories of earlier guilt. In 35mm.

Yi Yi

Directed by Edward Yang | Taiwan/Japan
2000, 2h 53min, DCP, In Mandarin, Min Nan, Hokkien, Japanese, and French with English subtitles.

Dec. 26, 28, 31 | The final film by Taiwanese master Edward Yang (A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, TAIPEI STORY). This is a story of love and familial connections between a father, his teenage daughter, and his young son over the course of a few months. Yang’s extraordinary gift for cinema and sensitive approach to love and connection elevate it into a great work of the screen.