Premiere:
Films by Miike Takashi and John Woo
May 21 and 25, and June 10, 2011
As part of its “Premiere” series (films with no theatrical release in Austria), the Film Museum is pleased to present two extraordinary works of Japanese and Chinese cinema. Both films have a historical background and are deeply rooted in their respective genre traditions. Miike Takashi's Jûsan-nin no shikaku / 13 Assassins (2010), one the highlights of the last Venice Film Festival, is a remake of Eiichi Kudo’s little-known samurai classic of the same title (1963). Coolly and classically staged, with a serious tone and romantic-nihilistic echoes of The Wild Bunch, Miike tells the story of a group of assassins who improbably join together to murder an evil lord.
Martial arts is also a central element in John Woo's Chi bi / Red Cliff (2008/09), with which the director returned to popular Chinese culture (after an increasingly unsatisfactory Hollywood career) and specifically to the representation of historical events. The most expensive Asian film ever made, the biggest Asian box-office hit of all time: five hours of opulent cinema, based on the legendary "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms," and the battle at the Red Cliffs (Chibi) on the Yangtze River in 208 AD. On June 10, the Film Museum will screen – one time only – John Woo's original version which was only released in Asia. "Seen as intended, Red Cliff is, as many suspected, the director's magnum opus." (J. Hoberman)
