Author Archives: Justin

More King Hu screening in Canberra

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Justin

Hot on the heels of Melbourne Cinémathèque’s screening of King Hu’s classic A Touch of Zen comes three screenings of films by the great director in Canberra, at the National Film and Sound Archive’s Arc Cinema.

The films on display are:

  • Dragon Gate Inn on Sat 8 March: the original film, remade by Tsui Hark twice and one of the classics of Chinese action cinema.
  • A Touch of Zen on Sun 9 March: unarguably King Hu’s most revered film, running
… (read more)
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This week in cinemas: ‘From Vegas to Macau’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Justin

Opening tomorrow, Thursday 6 February, is the fourth installment (depending on how you count!) of Wong Jing’s God of Gamblers film series, starring Chow Yun-fat — the first time he’s returned to the character since 1994. (Chow fans are spoilt for choice right now, what with this film and The Monkey King in cinemas!)

Rounding out the cast are Nicholas Tse, Chapman To and Jing Tian, and it’s in cinemas in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Here’s an absolute … (read more)

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Giveaway: Tickets to see ‘The Wind Rises’ in cinemas! (closed)

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Justin

It’s our first competition of the year!

Courtesy of Madman Entertainment, we have five double passes to give away to anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, The Wind Rises, when it hits cinemas on February 27!

Intriguingly, this film is more of a historical piece than usual: it’s a fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Zero aircraft used by the Japanese in World War II. It’s already done extremely well domestically, and it has been nominated for … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Monkey King’ (3D, China)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Justin

This week in Aussie cinemas we have a Chinese blockbuster: The Monkey King, a spectacular-looking adaptation of the origin story for everyone’s favourite literary primate, Sun Wukong. The character will be familiar to everyone who grew up watching the Japanese TV series Monkey! on Australian TV, or has encountered the source material (Journey To The West, one of China’s big four classical masterpieces) in any of its hundreds of different adaptations and transformations.

This film tells the … (read more)

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Melbourne Cinémathèque: Opening Night 2014 is ‘A Touch of Zen’

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Justin

Melbourne fans of Chinese cinema, listen up! The folks at ACMI have announced that King Hu’s 1971 classic A Touch of Zen will be the opening film in this season’s Cinémathèque, screening in glorious 35mm.

Zen is a hugely influential film, combining Hu’s mastery of the wuxia genre and typically beautiful cinematography with a sprawling three-hour-plus story and a healthy dose of symbolism. It’s had significant critical acclaim over the years, starting with a Technical Grand Prize at the 1975 … (read more)

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More Shaws HK Classics on iTunes (and finally easier to find!)

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Justin


Following up on my post from late last year noting that the Celestial releases of the classic Shaw Brothers films from Hong Kong had started appearing on iTunes, I just thought I would note that they have finally organised a way for fans to find all of the Shaws films available there.

According to a recent Facebook update from Celestial, this link should work for all of the countries where they’ve released their films:

http://www.itunes.com/shawbrothers

It’ll open in iTunes on … (read more)

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Run Run Shaw has died

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Justin

On Tuesday 7 January, one of the most important figures in Hong Kong movie history, Sir Run Run Shaw, passed away at home at the age of 107.

Shaw co-founded movie studio Shaw Brothers (in 1958) and television broadcaster TVB (in 1967), both of which have contributed so much to Hong Kong’s cinema and television output over the years. I’ve seen his name flash by in the opening credits of Shaws films for years — the studio he built defined … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Personal Tailor’ (China)

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Justin

I’m late on this one! This past Thursday (19 December), the new film from prominent Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (Big Shot’s Funeral, A World Without Thieves, Aftershock) arrived in cinemas, just in time to distract us from Christmas.

This film, Personal Tailor, is a comedy about a service that purports to make fantasies come true — however briefly — for their clients. It’s a sequel of sorts to Feng’s 1997 film Dream Factory, and … (read more)

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