Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 27 January 2017 - 2 February 2017

Happy Lunar New Year! Is going to India for the holiday a big thing with folks in China this year? It seems like it is from the movies.

• Consider, for instance, that Boston Common is opening both Buddies in India and Kung Fu Yoga this weekend. The former is the directorial debut of Wang Baoqiang, one of China’s biggest stars, who co-starred in Lost on Journey and Lost in Thailand; the latter has Jackie Chan reuniting with writer/director Stanley Tong for the first time in ten years. Both look seriously wacky, and as of Thursday night, some shows of Buddies are already sold out.
  
  If you like your Indian movies without a Chinese interloper,Apple Cinemas Fresh Pond continues the three subtitled films they opened Wednesday: Singam 3, Raees, and Kaabil with Boston Common also picking up the Hrithik Roshan/Yami Gautam blind-couple-romance. They also get Telugu-language film Luckunnodu for the weekend, with Dangal returning on Saturday.
  
  Back at Boston Common, there’s also The King, making the jump from South Korea to North America after just nine days, with Jo In-seong as an ambitious and talented young prosecutor in the 1990s and Jung Woo-sung as “the king” of prosecutors that the rest aspire to be.
• Those Asian films are not the multiplexes’ primary attractions, of course, although the January doldrums seem to be in full effect. The big opening is Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, with director Paul W.S. Anderson and wife Milla Jovovich making their sixth entry in an increasingly insane action-horror-sci-fi series (with the last couple featuring some pretty great visual/3D work). It’s at Apple Fresh Pond (2D only), Jordan’s Furniture (Imax 3D), Boston Common (including Imax), Assembly Row (including Imax), Fenway (including RPX 2D/3D), and Revere (including MX4D and XPlus).
  
  More obvious dumps include A Dog’s Purpose, in which a kid’s dog gets reincarnated several times to new masters before finally reuniting with the same boy, only Dennis Quaid-aged. Seeing the Amblin’ logo in front of that awful trailer is genuinely confusing. It’s at Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, Revere, and the SuperLux. There’s also Gold, with Matthew McConnaughey as a small-time prospector who gets on the trail of a great strike in Indonesia; it’s at Apple Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, and Revere.
  
  Revere also gets Un Padre No Tan Padre, in which an old-school Mexican patriarch gets kicked out of his retirement home and winds up moving in with his son. Revere and Fenway also screen Dirty Dancing on Sunday and Wednesday
  
  Awards expansions and re-expansions include (but may to be limited to): Arrival at Boston Common and Assembly Row; Jackie at Boston Common; Moonlight at the Somerville and Assembly Row; Manchester By the Sea at Assembly Row and Fenway; and Lion at Fenway; and 20th Century Women at the Somerville. A sing-along version of Moana also pops up at the Capitol (weekend matinees only), Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Revere.
• The Brattle Theatre has two threads going this week. The main event is Dead of Winter, a week-long celebration of the cinema of the occult, with panels on Friday and Saturday and a general focus on witchcraft. Films include The Witch (Friday & Saturday), Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions (Friday 35mm), The Love Witch (Saturday), Belladonna of Sadness (Saturday), a Sunday double feature of Bell, Book & Candle & Season of the Witch (35mm), a 35mm pairing of Night of the Demon & Burn Witch, Burn on Tuesday, the combo of The Devil Rides Out & The Devils (the latter on 35mm) Wednesday, and finally a The Holy Mountain (on 35mm)/A Field in England twin bill Sunday.
  
  Amid all that, they’re also showing the full seven-hour version of O.J.: Made in America over the weekend in association with The DocYard, with Part 1 on Saturday afternoon, part 2 on Sunday afternoon, and both repeated Monday afternoon before the conclusion plays Monday night with director Ezra Edelman there for a Q&A.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square keep their schedule the same, although the Coolidge has some special events. The Friday/Saturday midnight in Slap Shot, one of the funniest sports movies ever made, on 35mm. The Science on Screen program Monday night is also on 35mm, with Dr. Catherine Dulac lecturing on the chemistry of love and attraction before the screening of A Fish Called Wanda.
• The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Paz Encina to introduce two of his movies - Paraguayan Hammock (35mm) on Friday evening and Memory Exercises on Saturday. After that, they return to their Jonas Mekas retrospective, with Going Home on 16mm Sunday afternoon, a set of 16mm shorts that evening, and Sleepless Nights Stories on Monday. They also have a free screening of a group of Super 8, 16mm, and video shorts - ”Mirage: The Films of Ana Mendieta” on Thursday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has yet more of their Festival of Films From Iran on Wednesday, including Drought & Lies (Friday/Sunday), A Dragon Arrives (Friday/Sunday), Starless Dreams (Saturday), and Me (Saturday). The February program starts Wednesday, with series featuring Stanley Kubrick (The Killing in 35mm on Wednesday & Thursday) and Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies on Wednesday)
• The ICA has a family film program as part of their “Play Date” on Saturday, and the annual screening of Sundance Film Festival Shorts on Sunday and Thursday.
• The Somerville Theatre has two special screenings this week: On Monday, Birth of a Movement chronicles the early protests against D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, with panel discussion afterward; the entire evening is free to the public. Another documentary, After Spring, plays the next night; it focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis.
• The Regent Theatre has a Gathr screening of Embrace, a documentary on body-shaming, on Monday, as well as a free screening of Screenager with panel discussion on Wednesday
• I missed the Bright Lights series starting up again this past week, but it’s got a couple of notable documentaries playing, as always, for free in the Bright Lights screening room at Emerson’s Paramount Theater. Newtown, focusing on the aftermath of the 2012 school shooting, plays Tuesday and includes discussion with director Kim Snyder. On Thursday, Ana DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated 13th plays; this is likely one of the few chances to see it on the big screen.
• This week’s thing only playing at CinemaSalem is Trespass Against Us, featuring Michael Fassbender as a man seeking to escape the mob led by his father (played by Brendan Gleeson).

Well, lots of Asian films to see this weekend, lots of award-worthy catch-up, and… well, we all know I’m down for Resident Evil 6. I’m not proud.