Category Archives: Cinema Screenings

This week in cinemas: ‘Monk Comes Down the Mountain’ (China)

Already in Australian cinemas (hat tip to martial arts movie blog Budomate, whose Twitter post I saw) is Chen Kaige’s brand-new period fantasy/comedy/adventure Monk Comes Down the Mountain. This seems to have arrived on our shores last week, which means it came day-and-date with (or just before) the Chinese release.

The film is a period adventure film with a big cast; Variety‘s review describes it as like Chen’s 2005 film The Promise without that film’s kitschiness, definitely … (read more)

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Giveaway: Tickets to ‘Ip Man’ (Melbourne, Dragons from Asia) (Closed)

Following up on our post about Dragons from Asia’s screening of modern HK martial arts classic Ip Man, we’ve got a double pass to give away to a reader in Melbourne.… (read more)

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Melbourne: Dragons from Asia screens ‘Ip Man’

News for Melbourne readers: HC’s own John Snadden dropped me a line to say that he’s helping to organise a screening of Wilson Yip’s 2008 martial arts film Ip Man, starring Donnie Yen as the titular kung fu master.

Hopefully the first of many, it’s being run by Dragons from Asia, who plan to run a regular Asian film series in North Melbourne at the Electron Workshop cinema.

The show begins at 5pm on Sunday 12 July, tickets … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Hollywood Adventures’ (China)

Opening tomorrow June 25 in Aussie cinemas is action-comedy road movie Hollywood Adventures, a US$30M Chinese studio production shot mostly in California, with American talent behind the camera. Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3 through 6) is producing and Timothy Kendall (for whom this looks to be his first feature, though he’s done a lot of shorts/commercials/webseries work) directs.

The film follows the exploits of three Chinese tourists, played by Chinese stars Zhao Wei, Huang Xiaoming and … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘When Marnie Was There’ (Japan)

As presaged in our review the other day, this Thursday 14 May sees the release in Australian cinemas of When Marnie Was There, the latest feature from legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli.

It’s director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s second film (after Arrietty), and it follows the adventures of Anna, a teenage girl sent to convalesce in a rural seaside town over a summer. While there, she strikes up a friendship with a mysterious flaxen-haired girl named Marnie; read my (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Helios’ (Hong Kong)

Last Thursday a new flick from Hong Kong opened in cinemas: Helios, a thriller from director duo Longman Leung and Sunny Luk (who previously directed 2012’s Cold War).

In Helios, we’re not just talking police corruption any more. Chang Chen and Janice Man play criminals in possession of the raw materials for weapons of mass destruction, and the only people who can stop them are a coalition of anti-terrorist forces from HK, China and South Korea. The … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Wolf Warrior’ (China)

lf This week in Australian cinemas a release crept up on me — it’s only thanks to a Facebook update from the fine people at Melbourne’s Chinatown Cinema that I noticed it! (*)

Action stars Wu Jing (SPL, Shaolin) and Scott Adkins (The Expendables 2, many others) star in Wolf Warrior, a Chinese war film that has Wu (who also directs) starring as a Chinese special forces sniper squaring up against a group of … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island’ (South Korea)

This week in Aussie cinemas — and impossible to miss if you caught Gangnam Blues, as they showed the trailer at least twice — is Korean period action-comedy Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island.

Kim Myung-min and Oh Dal-su reprise their roles as the titular detective and his assistant from the 2011 film Detective K: Secret of the Virtuous Widow, this time tasked with solving a case involving counterfeit silver production that threatens the whole Joseon … (read more)

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