Author Archives: Justin

KOFFIA 2013 Full Program

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Justin

As we foretold a few weeks ago, the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) is coming in just a few short weeks to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They’ve now released their full program, crammed full of Korean film from across the genre spectrum!

Here’s the trailer for this year’s event:

The key dates are:

Brisbane: Aug 14-18, at Event Cinemas Myer Centre.
Sydney: Aug 21-29, at Event Cinemas George Street.
Melbourne: Sep 5-11, at ACMI in Federation … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Tales from the Dark I & II’ (HK)

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Justin

In Australian cinemas this week is a double-bill from Hong Kong, horror anthology film Tales from the Dark and its sequel. Adapted from the horror novels by Lilian Lee (who wrote the novels that became Rouge, Farewell My Concubine, Green Snake and others), the two films comprise six stories from different directors, with a great deal of familiar talent both behind and in front of the camera.

The six directors involved are: Simon Yam, Lee Chi-ngai, Fruit Chan, … (read more)

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‘36th Chamber’ (and its sequel) on iTunes

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Justin

In the early 2000s, Celestial Pictures in HK bought the rights to the Shaw Brothers library of films (more than 760 titles from the ’50s through to the ’90s) and started trickling them out on DVD beginning in 2002, which was about when I was introduced to Asian cinema by HC’s Alison. I caught a couple of them, beginning with King Hu’s wonderful Come Drink With Me — still one of my favourite films — and got hooked, buying a … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘SDU: Sex Duties Unit’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Justin

This week’s Australian cinema releases bring this Cantonese sex comedy from Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung.… (read more)

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Asian Cinema at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2013

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Justin


Hot on the heels of SFF comes Australia’s biggest film fest, the Melbourne International Film Festival. Their full program has just been announced, and as usual there’s a pretty packed slate of Asian cinema, from their regular Accent on Asia strand to special looks at new Arabic and rarely-seen North Korean cinema!

I’ve put together a quick overview of the feature films on show from Asia, since that’s what we’re primarily interested in here at Heroic Cinema. Obviously there are … (read more)

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KOFFIA 2013 is coming

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Justin

With their newsletter drop the other day (you can subscribe on their site), the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) announced the dates and their new look for this year’s festival.

This year, they’re screening in three cities:

  • Brisbane, from Aug 14-18, at Event Cinemas Myer Centre;
  • Sydney, from Aug 21-29, at Event Cinemas George Street;
  • Melbourne, from Sep 5-11, at ACMI in Federation Square.

We’ll have more coverage when the full program is announced, but … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Man of Tai Chi’ (USA/China)

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Justin


Also slated for release in Australian cinemas this Thursday (as well as Blind Detective) is Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves’ very first film as director.… (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Blind Detective’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Justin


Hot on the heels of Drug War, released here just a few months ago, comes some lighter fare from one of our favourite directors, Johnnie To. Blind Detective is a combination crime thriller and rom-com from Hong Kong starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, in their forth film together for To.… (read more)

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