DAVID CARRADINE REAL FAN MAIL sent to KUNG-FU HIMSELF

Browsing through eBay tonight finding some real gems, like this one:

DON`T YOU WANT TO KNOW??? Real FAN Mail! READ REAL FAN MAIL! Are you ever curious?? Curious what is in all that fan mail sent to movie and television stars? Well now you can have YOUR OWN peek. You are bidding on 5 0r 6 pieces of authentic fan mail sent to DAVID CARRADINE. KUNG FU himself!!! That`s a lot of mail. You will be amazed at what people put in a fan letter. Sex, passion, rock & roll! Curiouser?? Put in a bid and find out for yourself. This is the REAL stuff! Some of it still unopened.

This can be yours for the "Buy Now" price of only $14.95!

Original Pre Death Hong Kong Bruce Lee Real Photo

"Original Pre Death Hong Kong Bruce Lee Real Photo"

Imagine the bidding price on a "Post Death" photo! From an eBay auction currently on the block. Yours for a "Buy Now" price of $149.99!

fists of f**king - BRUCE SEEX! (NSFW)

Those sexy Blonde Zombies have just posted a number of fumetti covers for the carnal comic, "Bruce Seex: Karateca del Sexo". Here are but two of them. Click here for more puly sexy karate action. And for more sexy fumetti action, always keep a close look at the Groovy Age of Horror. Currently they have been chronicling the adventures of Ratman & Catman.

good news from an old undead friend

After the landlord suddenly and unjustly evicted our pal, The Undead Film Critic, he has been building his blog up from scratch. Just received this invitation from him to announce his "Grand Opening."

While we are currently still remodeling, Undead Cinemas would like to cordially invite you to the grand opening of the Undead Film Critic blog. Please pardon our mess as links and features are still being worked on.

Feel free to bring a guest and tell your friends as Undead Cinemas promises to be THE place for rare and unique poster, pressbooks and lobby cards. Several special appearance have already been lined up for the future, so don't be surprised if an actress or two stops by for a impromptu meet and great, but please keep in mind that given the nature of the films showcased, minors should be left at home. Also, in hopes of further educating our community, reviews of rare and hard to find films will be added on a periodical bases as well as links to purchase such films.

We thank you for your patronage and we'll see you at the movies!
Management.

Just came back from a trip to his blog and we pleased to report that he is back with a plethora of new tasty images from days of cinema past. Including this nutty poster for an old Cathay flic. Check back to his blog every day for fresh images! Redirect your browsers NOW!

PS - Ole Undead also has a secret backroom for his new establishment that has some goodies for mature audiences only that are most certainly NSFW. Knock slowly four times on the door marked "Janitor" and you might be able to get in.

how soon for a bottleg to hit the streets in HK?

I once conducted a little experiment in charting Chinese bootleg DVD ETAs. My office is down the street from Toronto's Chinatown and when Jet Li's FEARLESS got released in China, I began counting the days until I saw it for sale in the vendor stalls that hawk the 4 DVDs for $10. It took just under a week until a copy was for sale. No English subtitles, but the quality was remarkably crisp.

When I was in Hong Kong in March for Filmart and the HKIFF, I got to see the premiere of the Derek Yee directed Jackie Chan film, THE SHINJUKU INCIDENT at the Festival and the following week it got its theatrical release. Well, Fredric Ambroisine stuck around after I left and he took note of when the bootleg hit the streets. Read his observations of the interesting and remarkable pro packaging over at his blog on alivenotdead.com

Udine Far East Film Fest Rocks!

Currently missing the fab Udine Dar East Film Fest in Udine, Italy which started on April 24th and ends on May 2nd. I was lucky enough to attend for around three or four years in a row from 2001, but other travel has conflicted with attending the last few editions. Now in its 11th edition, the fest focuses on trends in Asian cinema and selects films that are missed or ignored by more popular "art" film fests.

''These are the most popular, commercial pictures coming out of Asia right now,'' said festival organizer Sabrina Baracetti, who explained that while Asian films d'auteur enjoy growing popularity at international film festivals, Udine focuses on the films that fill the theaters.


This year they have been screening 56 titles from 9 Far East countries (China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore) and have over 35 guests. This year's retrospective is dedicated to Hong Kong director Ann Hui with over 10 hours of her TV works from the 70’s, never seen in the West before.

Luckily, we have the eyes and ears of Frederic Ambroisine who is there and is documenting EVERYTHING! Fred has provided lots of video for DVD extras and in the future, we will be so very glad that he was there in the moment to capture these events for posterity. Here are some of the recent selections from his blog over on alivenotdead.com, an online community dedicated to helping artists. The complete list of films going on at the fest is here.

ANN HUI TV WORKS IN UDINE: FRUSTRATION
13 TV films directed by Ann Hui between 1976 and 1978, for TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited), ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) and RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) - were presented at the Far East Film Festival from April 25th to April 28th, and now it’s over.

MORE NICK CHEUNG AND DANTE LAM IN UDINE
Yesterday evening, a few hours before the presentation of “The Beast Stalker” (amazing full house screening), Nick Cheung and Dante Lam talked at the Far East Film panel...

FAR EAST FILM 2009: "ONG BAK 2" INTERVIEWS
I Interviewed "Ong Bak 2" director Panna Rittikrai and producer Prachya Pinkaew a few hours ago at the FEFF. They'll talk tomorrow afternoon at a seminar organised by the festival, about Thai action films...

FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL 2009: MORE GUESTS (“THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD” & “THE FORBIDDEN DOOR”)
Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009 8:19AM / News / Asian Cinema
Korean director Kim Jee-woon arrived yesterday (April 28th) at the Far East Film Festival.

Edgar Wright intros J Chan's POLICE STORY at The Bloor Cinema

On April 5th, as part of the fab Wright Stuff series at Toronto's Bloor Cinema, director Edgar Wright presented a 35mm print of Jackie Chan's POLICE STORY followed by the US version of DRUNKEN MASTER 2 aka LEGEND OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER. I had not seen that projected in years, but each time I has seen it previously, it was the Chinatown HK print and was shocked to see this verion with all the Wong Fei Hong theme music stripped out of it. A travesty!

Edgar is currently in town shooting SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel and had been presenting cool flicks on 35mm for the past few Sundays. I was able to add to the experience by including in the evening's show a number of my rare 35mm trailers including FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH, BREAKIN', ZEN KWAN DO STRIKES IN PARIS, and in Shaw-Scope - THE SUPREME SWORDSMAN and RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER!

Here is Edgar's introduction for POLICE STORYcaught from the first row of the cinema. Sorry for the craptastic sound quality. Big thanks to Edgar for being the real deal - a dedicated lover of fantastic film.

colours

LOVE THIS STILL! Found over at the Shaolin Slums.

Testing this mobile posting thang

tee-shirts of fury!

One of my favourite stores in Hong Kong is G.O.D. aka Goods of Design, a place with so much nifty homewares, clothes, books and more that I just want to buy one of everything from the store and fill a shipping container so I can redo my apartment in Toronto. Oh well, just guess I'll have to wait til I become a mogul. Went by there on my first full day in HK and my jaw dropped at these t-shirts of the characters from the early Jademan comics.

I grabbed the package which was on sale and now have a swanky tote bag, key chain, note book and tee!

I had posted some of the grisly covers of these comic before on the blog, but I linked directly to them on another site which has now long gone. Wild wild stuff. And the film with Donnie Yen pales in comparison. I will have to scan some of the pages from the ones I have as the style in late 70s and early 80s is so graphically bold and kinetic, vastly different from the airbrushed style found in the comics today.

(the above images came from: www.usscatastrophe.com)

For more information, check out Siuyi Wong's fabulous reference book, Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Here are some pics of some of the older covers.

just another day in Hong Kong

Nicest Master Killer in Showbiz...

get on the bus

More double decker bus ads in HK including Michelle Yeoh pimping something drinkable. Didn't know she still had street cred in HK.

the streets are alive with Chan

One of the treats of the trip is going to be tomorrow night... the premiere of Derek Yee's SHINJUNKU INCIDENT starring Jackie Chan in what sounds to be a primarily dramatic role. Really loved Yee's ONE NITE IN MONGKOK and was a fan when he was a star at the Shaw Brothers, so really looking forward to this. Also, going to the black tie cocktail before the screening. Okay, now I'm bragging. Can you blame me? Below are some pics of promotions around the Central district of HK and some happy sightseers at Madame Tussauds at the Peak tram station pose with the wax image of Chan.

return to a better tomorrow

I find myself back in Hong Kong after 2 years. Here for the HK Filmart and some of the HKIFF. Only been here a day and already have taken loads of snapshots and gone back to places from previous visits. Here are my posts from the last visit. Get ready for some fun stuff!

the master killer
Johnnie To On Location Photo Exhibit
in the land of kung fu
sitting with the masters: revenge of iMovie...

dream date double triple bills

the case of the missing duck

Great little piece at The Guardian about the history and mystery of the first Hong Kong film ever made, "Stealing a Roast Duck". There is a small debate whether or not that was the first production or was the film, "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife". Reporter Matthew Scott talks to HK film critic Law Kar to try and get to the bottom of it all.

wong fei-hung posters

Big thanks to Carol for pointing this one out to me. I realize that I don't read and talk enough about the great work Jean Lukitsh does with the Electric Shadows blog entries over at Kung Fu Cinema. It's always a source for regualr and in-depth postings. Some recent subjects have been:

The Tai Chi choreography of Yuen Woo-ping, Part 1
Dressed to Kill: The Films of Lily Ho
The Real Deal: Donnie Yen and the Fu Legacy
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam
(That one's a Canadian film! It is my patriotic duty to point that out)
Magic Taoism: 'White Bone Yin Yang Sword, Part 1
The Heroine Yu So-chau

And then there is this AMAZING gallery of posters/handbills for the old Kwan Tak-Hing Wong Fei-hung films. Be sure to check it out. I am only showing two of several images Jean has posted. I would so buy t-shirts of these film titles. Just a simple one colour screen would look so cool. And the translations of some of them are terrific. I'd pay for a ticket right away based on them!

Wong Fei-hung's Three Battles with the Unruly Girl,
How Wong Fei-hung and his Wife Eradicated the Three Rascals
How Wong Fei-hung Vanquished the Bully at the Red Opera Float
Wong Fei-hung's Seven Battles With Fiery Unicorn

match of the century

This is from one of the trade mags at the European Film Market, that just wrapped up in Berlin a few weeks ago. Currently in development. Who knows if this film will ever actually happen. Stallone is attached to direct. The Stallone - Chan project never worked out. Will this?

a year ago the fires raged

Roughly, a year ago, Toronto lost the Queen Street West location of Suspect Video, along with several other businesses. Hard to believe it was a year. Nothings happened with the space. Just rubble and memories.

Here is the post about the original tragedy.

Inside the pink cinema

No, I don't mean that kind of pink cinema, I mean this kind of pink cinema. Pal of Sticky Floors, Jason Gray posted about his experience going to one of the remaining pink cinemas in Tokyo over at his blog. You can also see some of the buildings in their surroundings in this post of his.