sometimes it's okay to accept imitations...

The original:

The hand painted poster from Ghana:

a hunting we will go

Took some quick snaps of this poster and lobbycard from my collection. Finally tracked the film down and it didn't quite live up to the sinister hype of the images, but still, quite the title.

chuckle-zilla

From the pages of The New Yorker:

Kagan McLeod poster for RED HEROINE

Check out the sweet poster that Kagan "Infinite Kung Fu" McLeod did for the screening of the silent martial arts film RED HEROINE which screens this Friday in Toronto. More deets can be found on Jeff's posting from earlier this week.

Monkey VS Eagle

Two posters recently spotted on Ebay.

Shawscope is the best scope!

David Bordwell is a film academic who often writes about Asian cinema. You may have heard his audio commentary on the Criterion DVD of Ozu's AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON, read his DVD liner notes for the UK release of Johnnie To's MAD DETECTIVE or one of his many books. He puts up a lot of his writing on his own website/blog, and he recently put up this great piece on Shaw Brothers' use of the anamorphic widescreen format which they dubbed Shawscope. Below is an excerpt. Click the text to read the full piece.

Another Shaw Production: Anamorphic Adventures in Hong Kong
by David Bordwell


What did teenage viewers think when Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) opened with the logo for Shawscope? Could they possibly have shared the frisson felt by baby-boomers who had haunted inner-city theatres thirty years before? Or by viewers who had watched “Kung-Fu Theatre” on 1980s television? Or by fanboys like Tarantino, freeze-framing cropped and trembling VHS tapes? For all those generations, the Shawscope blazon opens onto a world of one-armed swordfighters, beautiful woman warriors, and kung-fu masters with very long white eyebrows. Without denying the peculiar pleasures of these sagas, we can peer behind the logo and study this widescreen format’s place in a broader dynamic. The Shaw mystique arose out of creative innovations of the studio’s personnel, guided by the business policies of an all-powerful producer. We can as well analyze how Shaw directors forged a distinct widescreen aesthetic—one that still, as Tarantino seems to realize, has much to teach us about the ways movies can seize spectators. Hong Kong took tutorials in widescreen from its neighbors, but eventually it could offer lessons, and exhilarating ones, to the world.

Red Heroine in Toronto (Finally!) - Friday, November 13th at the Royal Theatre - 8:00PM

Have you ever seen a silent martial arts film? Until I read about RED HEROINE last year, the thought that such a thing existed hadn't even crossed my mind. Thankfully a group of Portland musicians called Devil Music Ensemble read about RED HEROINE and having toured performing original live scores to silent films before, thought that doing so with the only surviving martial arts film from Shanghai's golden age of silent cinema would be a worthwhile venture.

Even though it was released in 1929, RED HEROINE still hasn't screened in Canada. On Friday, that's going to change when it screens on Friday, November 13th at the Royal Theatre (an old home of Colin's Kung Fu Fridays screenings) as the Centrepiece Presentation of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, co-presented by Ultra8 Pictures and Over the Top Fest. Reel Asian starts on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to the films on Wednesday and Thursday but Friday cannot come soon enough!

You can buy tickets to the screening right here!

Here's the write-up from Reel Asian's program guide:

For one night only! – This year’s centerpiece Red Heroine is a rare screening of the only surviving silent martial arts film of its era, and includes an original live music score influenced by Chinese folk music and cult classic Kung Fu film soundtracks by the Boston band Devil Music Ensemble. This tapestry of ancient martial arts tradition, early-20th-century Asian film and 21st-century music breathes new life into a film treasure that dates back from the earliest boom of wuxia (sword-play) films, long thought to have been lost.

Banned in China after the Cultural Revolution, Red Heroine (Hong Xia) was made at the height of the martial arts craze in Shanghai (1920s–’30s) and is the 6th episode of a 13-part serial. It tells the story of a young woman, Yun Mei (“maiden of the clouds”), who is kidnapped during a military raid that decimated her village and killed her grandmother. Later rescued by a mysterious Taoist hermit, White Monkey, she trains in the mountains for three years, learning the art of hand and sword fighting, along with powerful magic.

Meanwhile, the villagers continue to suffer under the corruption and tyranny of the Western army. Yun Mei, now transformed into a resolute warrior, returns with White Monkey to exact revenge and fight back!

—Jeff Wright (that's me!) and Heather Keung

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Devil Music Ensemble composers/performers Brendon Wood, Jonah Rapino and Tim Nylander utilizes the electric guitar, lap steel, synthesizer, violin, lap steel, vibraphone, erhu (two-string Chinese violin), drums and a variety of Chinese percussion instruments. Red Heroine has toured the Smithsonian Institution, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, and the Portland Museum of Art.

RED HEROINE and Devil Music Ensemble are also playing in Ottawa on the 14th and Montreal on the 15th. Visit DME's site for more info.

my kind of history lessons

new yorker - bride with white hair

Going through a file of clippings I collected years ago and found this great little spot illustration from The New Yorker in their cinema listings. Wonder who has the original artwork for it? Bet Brigitte Lin never knew she made their pages.

Sammo Shames Donnie Yen Into Not Retiring?

Good news! Donnie Yen has been planning his retirement recently but Twitch reported today that he's changed his mind. That his body is wearing down as he gets older, and that he feels less inclined to get bruised and battered about at the end of each film he shoots but that his passion for filmmaking always returns soon after so he's not going to stop anytime soon.

Could seeing Sammo still going strong at nearly 58 (recent heart attack aside) have made him realize that he's still got a lot of ass kicking left in the tank?

Sammo versus Donnie in Wilson Yip's IP MAN 2:


Retirement news via Twitch
IP MAN 2 pics via Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver (there are more, so check them out)

Blood Brothers

Recently I was at the Asian studies library at U of T and found a book
chock full of pics of old HK film folks. It's a reference library, so
I want to return with my digital camera and get some decent shots of
them to post, but in the meantime, here is one I took with my phone of
a very young John Woo with his mentor Chang Cheh. The book was in
Chinese, but I will get a translation of the title of it.

VHS memories

Back when I was madly watching every Hong Kong film I could get my hands on and scribbling reviews for my zine, Asian Eye, I would trek out to Chinatown East and rent VHS tapes from China Book Store. The back of the store was crammed full of video boxes and in the years that I went, I only ran into other gweilos once. And sure enough, one of them had a copy of my zine jammed in their back pocket. I slowly stopped going as the HK industry started into its decline and VCDs/DVDs took over as the way to stay abreast of the scene.

Last spring as my girlfriend and I were biking through that area, I decided to show her one of the sources for my fountain of my HK knowledge. Luckily my obsessive hobbies are an amusement to her. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with what I saw when we stepped into the shop - all the VHS long since gone. Bums me out because they had so many that have not been released onto DVD. What did remain of their stock was being sold - $2 for a bag of 8 tapes! We grabbed a much and went through them as some of the tapes had no English on them. 60% were duds (educational or business or dull mainland stuff with no subs), but did score the following: Ronny Yu's China White, the sleazy Red to Kill, Dennis Yu's The Beasts, the Sammo Hung produced sci-fi film Final Test and others. Only just stated to pop them into the VCR now that I have some time and delighting in the mucked up tracking and finding wild trailers packed at the end of the feature. Enjoy thinking back to when I first stumbled upon these images and how fresh and exciting they were. Pardon me while I wallow in nostalgia for a bit... wait a minute - guess that is all I ever do on this blog!

coming soon...

Working on a post about my print collection and to tide you over til I post it, some snapshots from the stacks of reels

Crab Cannery Ship: The Novel

The writer/director of MONDAY, UNLUCKY MONKEY, and POSTMAN BLUES; Sabu's new film KANISKOSEN recently screened at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Ryuhei Matsuda of TABOO, BLUE SPRING and NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE, and the Auteurs Daily wrote an article about it. Included in the article is a link to a PDF file of the novel that KANISKOSEN is based on. Can you read Japanese? If you can... Well then enjoy what I can't.

There's also a manga (pictured) based on the novel that is very popular and could be worth seeking out depending on how big a Sabu/manga/cannery ship fan you are.

KANISKOSEN: THE NOVEL

Lost Hong Kong Kaiju

I pulled these images off a forum ages ago and have been meaning to post it here. Love to track this one down, but I fear it is lost, lost, lost. A giant General Kwan (The God of War but also considered the God of Wealth) defending Hong Kong from giant alien invaders! How awesome is that?! Time for Tsui Hark to produce a remake! Any leads on the translation of the title? The final image is of an assortment of newpaper ads for other HK releases of kaiju films including Inframan and the Hanuman meets Ultraman film as previously posted.

Big Apple Bloodbath

Working on archiving the HK poster collection with M.M. Subarashii who can snap translate titles when I raise one eyebrow as I unfold one of these masterpieces and she claims that, "The Chinese title of 'New York Chinatown' is actually 'Bloodbath in Chinatown'. More HK film titles lost in translation fun." Love the sardine can inset in the alternative version.

Hanuman VERSUS The World!

In poking around on the web to learn more about Hanuman and the 7 Ultramen (the above poster), found this review over on Teleport City and then on the author's blog, Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill!, a five part article on Sompote Saengduenchai, aka Sompote Sands, the Thai version of Eiji Tsubaraya! Can't believe it too me that long to find this blog! These are really kooky flicks. I picked up a VCD of one in Bangkok and wish I could have seen these in the cinema in Thailand when they came up to see the little kids going nuts over seeing Hanuman team up with Ultraman and gang!

Thai-style Kaiju: The films of Sompote Sands Part I

Thai-style Kaiju: The films of Sompote Sands Part II

Thai-style Kaiju: The films of Sompote Sands Part III

Thai-style Kaiju: The films of Sompote Sands Part V

Thai-style Kaiju: The films of Sompote Sands Part IV

Green in B&W and Kanji: The Hulk manga

When ever my dear friend and Toronto/CDN ex-pat Jason Gray comes to visit from Japan, he brings me the latest issues of Eiga HiHO Magazine, the "Action, Sci-Fi, Horror, Chicks and Rock & Roll! Movie Magazine for Guys". Filled with articles on obscure Japanese films (in Japanese, of course!) and full of wacky stills, there is always something for the film fan to learn just by flipping through the pages.

In the May 09 issue is this little pop cult nugget: the 1970 manga adaptation of The Hulk published in Weekly Bokura Magazine and written by Kazuo Koike of Lone Wolf and Cub fame. Love to get a copy of the whole manga. Looks like the Hulk is more of a sympathetic character than when originally introduced by Marvel as a thoughtless rampaging monster in the 60s. Look at those streaming tears! Now if only there was a Japanese TV series like there was for Spidey!

back to performing

Took a lengthy break to go off on an exotic and dangerous mission, but ready to get back to blogging!

Enter the Cardiac Ward, Fat Dragon

Colin just tweeted about this and I figured it was worth a blog post.

Earlier in the month, Sammo Hung felt unwell while working on IP MAN 2 and was admitted to a hospital for heart surgery. The surgery was a success and Sammo's since returned to work. His weight however remains a serious health issue which he'll hopefully get straight to work on getting under control since he's only 57.

Now let's enjoy a clip of Sammo doing his best Bruce Lee impression in ENTER THE FAT DRAGON:


Source: channelnewsasia.com