Category Archives: Australian News

Detective Dee and Reign of Assassins on Aussie DVD

Fans of titanic Hong Kong directors Tsui Hark and John Woo, rejoice — the most recent film from each director hits both DVD and Blu-ray here in Australia this week!

Pinnacle are releasing Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, an action-magic-mystery-history thingummy as Alan quite accurately puts it, and a good deal of fun. We’ve already talked about it a fair bit here, so I won’t repeat myself — but if you’re a Tsui … (read more)

Posted in Australian News | Comments Off on Detective Dee and Reign of Assassins on Aussie DVD

SFF 2011 Update: ‘33 Postcards’

My SFF rundown the other day contained a pretty serious omission, one that’s particularly of interest given HC’s mission statement — Australian-Chinese co-production 33 Postcards, from director Pauline Chan. Mea maxima culpa, everyone.

33 Postcards is only the second film to be produced under 2010’s co-production treaty between our two countries, after Mario Andreacchio’s The Dragon Pearl. Starring Guy Pearce and Zhu Lin, it’s a drama about a Chinese girl who finally gets the chance to visit … (read more)

Posted in Australian News, Festivals | Tagged , | Comments Off on SFF 2011 Update: ‘33 Postcards’

Asian cinema at the Sydney Film Festival 2011

Sydney people needn’t be too jealous of MIFF-going Victorians this year — our own film festival starts in a couple of days, and has a bunch of films from Asia showing as well.

Here’s a quick roundup of what SFF is serving up this year; as always, check the official program for the real deal in case I’ve made a mistake or the schedule changes.… (read more)

Posted in Australian News, Festivals | Tagged , | Comments Off on Asian cinema at the Sydney Film Festival 2011

Melbourne Cinémathèque screens six Tsui Hark films

You might be forgiven for thinking that Melbourne really does get the lion’s share of Asian cinema programming here in Australia, and this snippet of news from a reader does nothing to dispel this particular feeling!

On Wednesday nights from 18 May to 1 June, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is screening six films from iconic Hong Kong director Tsui Hark as part of the Melbourne Cinémathèque program. Some of these are relative rarities: there are very … (read more)

Posted in Australian News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Melbourne Cinémathèque screens six Tsui Hark films

Free tickets to The Lost Bladesman

(Update: we’re all out of free tickets and DVDs this time — thanks to everyone who got in touch!)

As we’ve already mentioned, the new Chinese period action film The Lost Bladesman (which Tom’s just written about) is screening in cinemas in Australia as of last Thursday. And courtesy of Icon, we have a bunch of free tickets and DVD packs to give away to encourage you to get out and see it… after all, what’s the last … (read more)

Posted in Australian News, Giveaways | Comments Off on Free tickets to The Lost Bladesman

More classic anime on Blu-Ray

It’s likely that most Aussie anime fans will be up on new releases of big titles, but just in case…

Last week, Aussie distributor Madman released three classic anime titles on Blu-Ray:

You can tell from the ratings we’ve given these over the … (read more)

Posted in Australian News | Tagged | Comments Off on More classic anime on Blu-Ray

In Cinemas: Detectives and Bladesmen

As well as China’s The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman, there are a couple of other Asian films hitting cinemas over the next month or so.

Richard at The Reel Bits kindly sent me the heads-up that Korean film Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow is on screens right now, but only at the Reading cinemas in Rhodes and Auburn in NSW. These things always sneak in under my radar. Detective K is a murder mystery with a … (read more)

Posted in Australian News | Comments Off on In Cinemas: Detectives and Bladesmen

GoMA in Brisbane reopens

I’ve been F5ing my browser window religiously since late January in anticipation of GoMA – and by association, the resident Cinematheque – reopening after the floods. Before it all went a little to hell, the Cinematheque programme A New Tomorrow: Visions of the Future in Cinema was featuring some kick ass sci-fi not to be missed, including a decent selection of anime.

Well, I’m pleased to say the gallery has indeed reopened its doors finally, and they’ve gone to great … (read more)

Posted in Australian News | Tagged , | Comments Off on GoMA in Brisbane reopens