Here's some behind the scenes footage of the filming of Tsui Hark's new Dragon Tiger Gate 3D. The best part of the segment is that there's some assembled footage from the actual film at the end, which looks pretty dang exciting.
Sorry. I know it is late notice and all, BUT if you are in Toronto, come on down to the Toronto Underground Cinema tonight at 9:30pm for an assortment of vintage kung fu coming attractions and then the main feature of IP MAN 2, all on glorious 35mm film! Click here to learn more.
From several different sources including Apartment Therapy and Croatian Times, but the Daily Express seems to have the most complete story, on the discovery of a martial arts novel written on the walls of an abandoned home.
"The story is entirely written in Chinese lettering and also includes illustrations. Unfortunately however, no one knows who wrote the book, or why they did it. But now the story has become a massive online hit after one fan uploaded photographs of the novel on the internet. One excerpt reads: 'I was 17… I have reactions like lightning, hearing like a bat, my vision is like a hawk, and I am as strong as a general.'"
Behold, the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa! 'Twas a Chinatown cinema and is now a cool and fun rep cinema run by the kung fu cinema king of the nation's capital, Lee Demarbe! Check out what they do here!
If you are either a hip-hop/kung fu/horror/Bear Jew/QT fan, you might have read some online buzz about Man With The Iron Fist, the RZA directed and Eli Roth/Quentin Tarantino produced film that is set to shoot in Chna in September.
I recently came across these two "trailers" on YouTube for RZA vs The Golden Phoenix, which looks like RZA's tests for his feature. Further investigation had uncovered these behind the scenes videos with RZA working out shots and sequences with kung fu cinema veterans, including fight choreographer Robert Tai (Chinatown Kid; Crippled Avengers; Five Venoms; Ten Tigers of Kwantung; and The Kid with the Golden Arm) and actor Chi Kuan-Chun (Men from the Monastery;Five Shaolin Masters; Shaolin Martial Arts; Disciples of Shaolin; Shaolin Temple). So the question now is, are these the masters he will be using for Iron Fist...?
I came across some ads in back issues of the International Film Guide that I thought were neat, and scanned them. Excuse the scan quality on a couple of them.
Years ago, I did an interview with Teddy Robin Kwan when he was at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of Temptation of a Monk, the Clara Law film he produced. Before becoming an actor and producer, in the 1960s he was in a popular band called Teddy Robin & The Playboys. During our chat he told of being in a rock band in the 70s that toured Canada and took him to places such as Thunder Bay. Well, a photo has surfaced of that band! Behold:
Found over at Yvonne's blog Webs of Significance, a great roaming camera blog that breaks out of HK's urban confines, comes these pics of a closed cinema in Cheung Chau. It might be familiar to contemporary HK film fans as a location from Riley Yip's Just One Look. I've overlooked that film and now from reading up on it, I need to seek as I am intrigued by how it sounds like a love letter to HK cinema from the 60s/70s plus has some of my favourite actors including Anthony Wong and Eric Kot.
As some of you Kung Fu Fridays regulars will know, I had amassed a decent collection of 35mm prints of Hong Kong feature films over the years, rescuing them from closed Chinatown cinemas and in some cases, from the garbage. In March I donated a number of those prints to the University of Toronto and this Saturday, they are holding a FREE screening of two of the films to celebrate the donation. In between the two films will be a discussion about the films and their directors, plus a dim sum snack will be served! If you want to beat the heat, what better way to do so than by sharing in laughs and chills from two rarely screened Hong Kong films! And again, it's F-R-E-E!
Hoping to see some of the familiar faces from Kung Fu Fridays out for the evening!
Colin
(FREE!) HONG KONG FILM RETROSPECTIVE DOUBLE BILL / ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH Restless Spirits: Ronnie Yu and Ringo Lam's 1980S Ghost Comedies
Saturday May 29 4:00 PM - 10:00 PM Innis Town Hall Innis College at the University of Toronto 2 Sussex Avenue (south of Bloor at St. George)
Colin Geddes will launch his donation of Asian films to U of T with fun and prizes
Schedule 3:30 Doors open 4:00 - Film Screening - ESPIRT D'AMOUR 6:00-7:30 Panel on Hong Kong Films with Bart Testa (Professor of Cinema Studies) and Colin Geddes (International Programmer, TIFF & Ultra 8 Pictures), and moderated by Peter Kuplowsky [Dim sum snack will be provided] 8:00 - Film Screening - THE OCCUPANT
4:00PM - Film Screening
ESPRIT D’AMOUR 1983 / 35MM / Hong Kong / English Subtitle / 98 min Director. Ringo Lam Ling-Tung Cast: Alan Tam Wing-Lun, Joyce Ngai Suk-Kwan, Cecilia Yip Tung, Bill Tung Biu, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, Phillip Chan Yan-Kin
Supernatural romance and shenanigans abound in Esprit D'Amour, a funny and even tragic romance directed by master filmmaker Ringo Lam (City On Fire, Full Contact). Alan Tam is Ming, a mousy insurance agent engaged to spitfire fiancee Ivy (Cecilia Yip). When investigating the death of the young and pretty Siu Yu (Joyce Ni), Ming meets and falls in love with Siu Yu's spectral form. Siu Yu wants her life insurance delivered to her beneficiary (a five year-old boy), and the charmed Ming is only too happy to go along. But falling in love with a ghost is sure to arouse some suspicion, and when the scheming Ivy catches on, Ming's ghost-man love affair may be in jeopardy. Mixing romance, comedy, drama, and a touch of supernatural tragedy, Esprit D'Amour is wildly entertaining and compelling example of Hong Kong cinema entertainment.
THE OCCUPANT 1984 / Hong Kong / English Subtitle / 96 min Director. Ronny Yu Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Sally Yeh, Raymond Wong, Lo Lieh
Five years before their now-classic romantic pairing in The Killer, Sally Yeh and Chow Yun-Fat starred in this 1984 horror-comedy hybrid from director Ronny Yu (The Bride with White Hair, Fearless). Yeh stars as a wide-eyed Canadian college student named Angie, who comes to Hong Kong to do some field research for her study of Chinese superstitions. She gets a bit more than she bargained for when she rents an apartment haunted by the spirit of a spurned singer. As if fending off ghosts wasn't bad enough, Angie also has to deal with the unwanted affections of a sleazy con-man (Raymond Wong, All's Well Ends Well), as well as the sweet-talking detective (Chow) who vows to solve her supernatural case. Chow requires a little otherworldly help of his own after Angie's body is taken over by the ghost, who's hell-bent on reenacting the murder-suicide that ended her life. The Occupant's evenhanded mix of Creepy and Crazy foreshadows Yu's later work on American horror flicks like Bride of Chucky, and although Chow is operating largely in comedic mode, his role as a fearless police detective looks forward to his later heroic bloodshed collaborations with John Woo. But this is Sally Yeh's show, and her wonderful split-personality performance as a naive student of the supernatural possessed by the ghost of a sultry singing chanteuse is what ultimately makes the film a success. (synopsis from www.yesasia.com)
MAIN SPONSOR Asian Institute
SPONSORED BY Ultra 8 Pictures
CO-SPONSORED BY
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada) Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library Cinema Studies Institute