Film News: Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema to Screen ‘The Assassin' & ‘Round Trip Heart’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 30, 2016 - 12:03am

CHICAGO – The Asian Pop-Up Cinema Series, spotlighting a variety of diverse Asian films, concludes its 2016 Fall Season with two films in the next week, ”The Assassin” (Taiwan), on Wednesday, Nov 30th; and ”Round Trip Heart” (Japan), on Sunday, Dec. 4th (Director Yuki Tanada will attend). Click each individual title for more details.

“The Assassin” was a sensation in 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival, and was Taiwan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards for that year. Legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed audiences with a different take on the martial arts film. A young girl is abducted at a young age, and is raised by a nun who trains her in the martial arts. When she returns to her homeland, she becomes an assassin, but her latest assignment is to kill her betrothed husband to be. The Fall Season III concludes with “Round Trip Heart,” a Japanese comedy about a food and drink cart woman and a shoplifter who turns out to be a failed movie producer.

”The Assassin” and “Round Trip Heart” at Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema
Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org

The Asian Pop-Up Cinema series – founded by Chicago film program veteran Sophia Wong Boccio – is a revolving showcase of diverse Asian films, highlighting Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Filipino and Korean offerings with English subtitles. Screenings occur at the AMC River East 21 in downtown Chicago and at the Wilmette Theater in Wilmette, Illinois. For full schedule of the 2016 Fall Season, click here.

The 2016 Fall Season of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema concludes with “The Assassin” on Wednesday, November 30th (7pm), at the AMC River East 21, 322 East Illinois Street in Chicago, and “Round Trip Heart” on Sunday, December 4th (4pm), at the Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Avenue in Wilmette, Illinois. The screening will be attended by director Yuki Tanada, and will be followed by the Closing Night Reception.