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As many of you know or not know, we've decided to start doing free screenings in the backroom. We're announcing the first showing. Thursday Feb. 23 at 7PM we are showing the new Indian film ZINDA.


If you don't already know, ZINDA is a ridiculous Indian remake/rip-off of OLDBOY, and is almost shot for shot the same, except for some added touches like random samurai sword fights. I'm not kidding. Director Sanjay Gupta holds his position as the rip-off master of Indian cinema (the second half of his film KAANTE is an almost shot for shot remake of RESERVIOR DOGS) while star Sanjay Dutt attempts to take on Choi Min-Shik's character without having any of his acting ability, but to be fair he does retains the bad hair. The poor guy even loses his breath during the hammer fight sequence. Awesome. This isn't supposed to be a comedy, but for all of us who have seen OLDBOY it will be one. This should be a riot!
The screening is free, but please try to RSVP me at mel@meltcomics.com because I don't really know how much room we have back there. Bring some snacks if you want and a folding chair wouldn't be bad either just to make sure we have enough. If we get a good response we'll be doing it more often for sure.

By the way, our next screening is going to be on March 9th, and is the 1960 Japanese horror classic JIGOKU (aka HELL), which right now is only available as a Region 2 Japanese DVD, so not a lot of people have seen it yet, which is a shame. JIGOKU tells the story of a young man surrounded by evil friends and family who unwittingly triggers a string of murders. Tragedy after tragedy erupts with him standing by helpless and we end the last third of the film with all the protagonists dead and in Hell, where we witness the suffering in the afterlife of those who sinned on Earth, with our "hero" trying to lead his wife and child to Heaven. Director Nobuo Nakagawa brings traditional Japanese visions of Hell to eye-popping, widescreen life, complete with lurid saturated colors and fantastic sets, but well before the descent to the underworld, the film’s unusual compositions and jagged editing create an unsettling sense of the grotesque. It is a stunning classic film.