Author Archives: Justin

Japanese Film Festival 2013

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Justin

Just a quick update to say that the Japanese Film Festival in Australia has just announced their dates and core program of films for this year, their 17th festival. Twelve films in five cities, plus an abridged travelling program that takes in five more cities!… (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Hardcore Comedy’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Justin

I almost missed this movie’s appearance on our shores! Hong Kong film fans who’ve enjoyed the last few exploitation films to come over here (following the trail blazed by Pang Ho-cheung’s Vulgaria) might be interested in Hardcore Comedy, from first-time HK directors Henri Wong, Chong Siu-wing and Law Yiu-fai.

It’s an omnibus comedy: three stories rolled into one film that looks like it goes for some lowest-common-denominator cheesy silliness… complete with enough nudity, violence and drug use to … (read more)

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Madman bringing Miyazaki’s ‘The Wind Rises’ to cinemas in 2014

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Justin

A press release came in on the wire today from our friends at Madman, announcing their acquisition of The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, Kaze Tachinu), which famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has said will be his final film.

The story follows an aircraft engineer in pre-war Japan, loosely based on Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Zero fighter plane used in WWII. It’s an interesting choice of subject matter for the staunchly pacifist director, who has recently spoken out against … (read more)

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Giveaway: 5-Film Passes to ‘Action, Hong Kong Style’ (Brisbane)

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Justin

Not content with just putting on an amazing program of Hong Kong action classics (see our post and their website), the folks at GOMA have been kind enough to give us three five-film passes to give away to readers for their upcoming Action, Hong Kong Style program.

These will get you into any five screenings on the program; they can be used either by one person to see five different films, or by multiple people seeing the same screening … (read more)

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Action, Hong Kong Style at GOMA (Brisbane, 6 Sep to 8 Nov)

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Justin

If you go to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and you ask it for the earliest version of Heroic Cinema they have on file (Nov 3, 1999), you’ll find that we used to have a tagline on the front page: “Hong Kong movies are the best movies.”

It appears that the amazing people at GOMA in Brisbane agree with us, as they have just announced a huge program called Action, Hong Kong Style, an in-depth retrospective of Hong Kong’s … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Unbeatable’ (HK/China)

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Justin


Hitting (and kicking, and throwing…) Australian cinemas this week is HK/Chinese mixed martial arts film Unbeatable, from director Dante Lam (Beast Cops, Fire of Conscience, The Viral Factor). It’s an action/drama piece set in Macau about three down-and-out characters: a former boxer (Nick Cheung), his younger protege (Eddie Peng) and a single mother (Mei Ting).

The trailers on YouTube overwhelmingly focus on the film’s MMA fight sequences, but this review from HK film experts LoveHKFilm … (read more)

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OzAsia Festival 2013 (Adelaide, 13-29 Sep)

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Justin

Keeping pace with the other Asian cinema events happening in the eastern states is this year’s solid film line-up from the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide, with 21 films showing this year between 13 and 29 September.

You can find a full list on their website, but there are a few screenings in particular I want to highlight:

Drug War (China, 2012), the first Chinese Mainland-shot crime film from HC favourite director Johnnie To, starring Louis Koo, Sun Honglei and … (read more)

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Reel Anime 2013 dates announced

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Justin

The news came in on the wire today that our anime-loving friends at Madman have announced the final dates for this year’s Reel Anime 2013 festival, where they intend to showcase brand-spanking-new anime in theatres across the country.

Screening this year are:

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo — the third feature film in the re-imagining of the much-loved Neon Genesis Evangelion series.

009 RE: Cyborg — an adaptation of influential manga Cyborg 009 helmed by Kenji Kamiyama (who also … (read more)

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