Melbourne: Asian Cinema at the MQFF

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Justin

The good people at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival have gotten in touch and let me know that they’ve got a few Asian films on this year’s program, amongst quite a large collection of films from all over the world. The festival starts this week, running from 14-24 March, and here’s what I can see on the program from Asia (with links to their synopses and ticketing info):

Two Weddings and a Funeral
2012, South Korea, directed by Kim Jho … (read more)

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Rurouni Kenshin (2012)

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Posted on March 10, 2013 by Deni
Rurouni Kenshin Madman DVD cover

I hate spoilers. I am a massive spoiler-free zone. I’ve been burned too many times by sexy trailers and the internet rumor mill, where the film itself turned out to be so much less than promised. So what I let myself know about something amounts to the title, maybe who’s in it, and what the poster looks like. It might sound completely illogical, but that’s what I base my omg yay levels on, and when I saw the poster for … (read more)

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QLD news – GCFF and Supanova on again!

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Deni

That’s right; Supanova and the Gold Coast Film Festival are coming in April, and there are some awesome events in the to-do list that South East QLD fans really should try and get to!

Doomsday Book (2012) – fresh from the awesome Toronto After Dark film festival, this Korean sci-fi anthology film is about zombies and self-aware robots and the end of the world, and it sounds so awesome I am already there.

Mamoru Hosada’s Wolf Children – sure it … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Journey to the West’ (China, 3D)

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Justin

Five years after CJ7, Stephen Chow returns to our screens with a new film as writer/co-director, and he’s returning to familiar territory!

Journey to the West: Conquering The Demons is another adaptation/interpretation of Journey To The West, the classical Chinese epic; familiar to all Australians lucky enough to grow up with the much-loved Japanese TV series Monkey. It’s ground Chow has covered before, in Jeff Lau’s two first Chinese Odyssey films — back when I first joined … (read more)

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This Girl is Badass (2011)

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Posted on February 14, 2013 by Justin

Retitled from Jukkalan, after its lead character, to the rather more bombastic This Girl is Badass, this film is omnipresent Thai comedian Petchai Wongkumlao’s (a.k.a Mum Jokmok) seventh movie as director, writer and actor. We don’t get all that much Thai cinema here in Oz, but even casual viewers of the nation’s output — like me — will recognise him as Tony Jaa’s offsider in the modern martial arts classic Ong Bak, open-faced, wide-eyed and occasionally very … (read more)

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SBS: 16 Chinese/HK films on TV over February

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Justin

SBS TWO have scheduled a treat for us over the next month, starting tomorrow: sixteen films spanning modern Chinese film history, from King Hu’s wuxia film for Shaw Brothers Come Drink With Me in the late sixties to Benny Chan’s Shaolin from 2011.

It’s a big plate of crowd-pleasing mostly action films, with a large helping of Jackie Chan and Jet Li films, but that suits us at HC just fine — we’ve seen and loved all of these over … (read more)

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CZ12 (2012)

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Posted on February 2, 2013 by Elizabeth Kerr

As if we needed confirmation that Jackie Chan has been drinking Beijing’s Kool-Aid, the one-two punch of his recent remarks in the Hong Kong media and the ghastly and cynical CZ12 should put any queries to rest. Right before the film was released, Chan started shooting his mouth off about how Hongkongers complain too much and about how they’re just too quick to exercise their right to free speech and protest. He suggested the government look at putting some kind … (read more)

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The Grandmaster (2013)

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Posted on January 31, 2013 by Elizabeth Kerr

A solitary man in a white fedora weaves his way among dozens of nameless fighters as a silver rain cascades down around them. The slick street is illuminated by a single lamp, which casts off an ethereal glow. A blur of fists erupts and the bodies start to fall — elegantly in slow motion. We hear a comment that summarises the martial arts in two words: horizontal and vertical. Whoever remains standing, wins. The solitary man walks into the rain … (read more)

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