Filmgoers in New York and Los Angeles got a big-screen look at Columbus on Friday with limited release of the movie “Columbus.”
The film, starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, was shot in Columbus last summer by director Kogonada. It was filmed July 31 to Aug. 20 at 16 architecturally significant sites, including First Christian Church, the Miller House and Columbus City Hall.
“I feel like I waited my whole life for this movie,” Cho told GQ magazine about the “Columbus” movie. “Maybe I had forgotten that impulse (that) drew me to movies in the first place. (Kogonada) is such an artist, and he made me feel like an artist.”
In the GQ interview, Cho said the “Columbus” movie reminds him “in spirit” of films he saw at the revival movie house when he was a student at Berkeley — films like “400 Blows,” the “Up” series, and “La Belle Noiseuse,” which he credits with sparking his love of cinema as an art form.
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Cho said he discussed personally influential films with Kogonada and found, in the director, a kind of brother.
“Sometimes you expect a kinship based upon what the world would see as common qualities — ‘you’re both Korean men, you’re in the same business’ — but we had this kinship based on love of movies,” Cho told GQ. “I would follow this guy to the ends of the earth. I want to be part of every line of poetry he writes.”
“Columbus,” a feature-length independent film, will open locally Sept. 1 at YES Cinema.
Preliminary plans for the local premiere call for Kogonada to attend one of the first-day showings in Columbus.
Tickets for the Sept. 1 showings in Columbus went on sale July 10, and the 8:01 p.m. show sold out in a matter of hours. A second showing, 5:30 p.m., nearly sold out on the first day. As of Friday, three opening-day shows — 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. — had sold out at YES Cinema.
First-day tickets remain, however, for shows at 12:30 p.m, 1:30 p.m., 3:01 p.m., 4:01 p.m. and 9:01 p.m.
The film debuted at several film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 22 in Park City, Utah, and was nominated for four others around the globe. The film won best feature film at the Valletta Film Festival in Malta, and Richardson earned the award for best actress at that festival.
The movie focuses on a 19-year-old Columbus resident (played by Richardson) trying to decide whether to leave home and pursue her dreams as she cares for her mother, a recovering addict. She strikes up a friendship with a 29-year-old man (played by Cho) visiting the city from Korea to be with his suddenly dying architect father — a man who came to town on a getaway to study the city’s internationally noted buildings.
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Tickets for three first-day showings of “Columbus” at YES Cinema have sold out — 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. First-day tickets remain, however, for Sept. 1 shows at 12:30 p.m, 1:30 p.m., 3:01 p.m., 4:01 p.m. and 9:01 p.m.
“Columbus” movie tickets remain for all eight local showings during Labor Day Weekend from Saturday, Sept. 2 through Monday, Sept. 4.
YES Cinema ticket can be ordered online at yescinema.org/
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Read the full GQ interview with “Columbus” star John Cho. Visit gq.com/story/john-cho-columbus-interview
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