back to the roots of reason - poster posting #1

One of the intial reasons I started this blog was to share some of the images from my collection of Hong Kong movie posters. Looks like I got waylaid in the kung fu pop culture items that litter the webosphere. Now that I have started another blog to handle the non-kung fu/asian posts, I think I will try to get back to my roots as it were. And remember - once of the fun things about doing a blog is the interactive nature of it, so please leave comments!

Was going through the collection looking for stuff to put up on ebay for auction and found these. Not sure if they are destined for the biddling zone yet. Click on them to see them bigger. Enjoy! More to come!

BUTTERFLY AND SWORD starring Joey Wong! Tony Leung! Michelle Yeoh! Donnie Yen! Elvis Tsui Kam-Kong! Jimmie Lin! (where did he go?)
(Read the review over at KungFuCinema.com)

BLUE JEAN MONSTER starring Amy Yip and Shing Fui-on!
(read the review at Hong Kong Cinema: View From the Brooklyn Bridge)

CRAZY SAFARI starring Lam Ching Ying and Nixau from THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY

(Read the review at KFCC)

xmas fu#4 - who the hell was the "Amazing Kung Fu"?

Last of the yuletide postings. Found this "Special Christmas Extravaganza" wrestling event over at this Liverpool Museum site.

xmas fu#3 - my christmas card

To all readers of my blog - this goes out to you. I made up this Christmas card maybe in 1992? Here is a scan of it. Still pleased by it after all these years...

Wishing you all the best of the season!

xmas fu#2 - Bruce Lee at Santa's Town?

Tourist-type video footage of a Bruce Lee display at Santa's Town in Hong Kong. The mind reels...

wandering around the old Shaw sets...

Found these by chance (when doing my yule fu search) on youtube - clips of a Brit's trip to the Shaw Brothers studio lot circa 1995. Seems like nobody believed him that he went so he uploaded these clips along with his other works and aspirations ('nuff said).

xmas fu#1 - and Eddie Murphy as Bruce Lee...?

In doing a search for "kung fu + christmas" on google images, I found a listing of this episode of Saturday Night Live from December 20th, 1980 where the guest host was David Carradine. They must have been hard up for hosts that year. One of the segments was for a commerical with Carradine playing Caine called "Kung Fu Christmas" with Gilbert Gottfried as the "Master" and Eddie Murphy as Bruce Lee! Very curious... Can't find it on youtube. Scant details here. And this is the biggest pic I could find:

god of royale

Over on HK film fan and noted film guru David Bordwell's blog is an entry stripping down the subject of Casino Royale being a "throwback" with links to three of my faves - FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, THE IPCRESS FILE and THE GOD OF GAMBLERS....

jay chou is fearless

Cause I doubt that this will be on the US dvd... Pop singer Jay Chou was the dullest hero ever in his role as delivery boy/race car driver in INITIAL D, but the video he did for FEARLESS rocks. When I was in HK and FEARLESS was out on DVD, this song was echoing through the streets.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINESE MOVIE THEATERS IN AMERICA

Go check Grady's posting about Chinatown cinemas at Kaiju Shakedown, expecially now that the Four Star in San Francisco has been saved.

“In the early 70’s, after the Vietnam War ended, there was a wave of Vietnamese immigrants who came over to this country and they loved Shaw Brothers stuff -- Ti Lung, Chang Cheh -- and they started opening Chinese cinemas. Every weekend our theaters did great business. There wasn’t much for Chinese to do, back then. There was no Chinese TV, no videos, no karaoke. The only form of entertainment for Chinese were movies. It was so lucrative; we had midnight shows, double features. It was just madness. But those times are gone.”

ccccc

All hail the homogenizing of the North American Moviegoing Experience!

So this is a bit of a cheat, a double posting here and also at Popcorn and Sticky Floors (my other blog), but it relates to both and also was the subject of one of my first posts here. From Grady over at Kaiju Shakedown comes this sad news: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - THE MUSIC PALACE HAS LEFT THE PLANET.

I've spent many hours of my life in old Chinatown cinemas, an insitution that died at the end of the 20th century. With great movies, cheap double bill prices, and strange snack bar food, they were exotic detours where you could feel like a stranger in a strange land and not leave your own city. Now NYC has lost one of North America's last Chinatown movie theatres, the Music Palace. For some fond memories, read Grady's piece over at Subway Cinema:

I'll come clean: I've done shameful things in the Music Palace. I've eaten dinner, breakfast, lunch. Slept all day, dozed off for a few minutes, worked my way through a pack of cigarettes in one sitting, gotten drunk, dug through their trash, smoked dope, taken speed, had sex, argued with a cell phone user, played with a kitty, and had a party. To be fair, the sex and the dinner were both before they started turning on the lights between shows...knowing what I do now I would've held off.

music to fight by

I love trolling through the web looking for postings of old LPs that have been digitized and boy did my eyes pop when I found this! A reissue posting (I actually found it last year) of the soundtrack, complete with dialogue, of Fist of Fury starring Bruce Lee. Pop on the headphones...

friday kung fu fun

Kung Fu Vs Yoga!

lets throw a Shaw Brothers party at Bobby's house!

just imagine! an old 16mm projector. shaw classics... sweet...


from Kung Fu Fandom

posters for sale on ebay Nov 17th

Okay, here where I flog my wares... Below are some lovely posters from my personal collection that I am posting up for auction on eBay. Super rare these are. Please bid and help out my Christmas funds! Free HK film gift with every winning bid! Auctions end on the 24th!

Challenge of the Lady Ninja
$9.99 starting bid (link to auction)

Chivalious Inn
$8.99 starting bid (link to auction)

Hidden Desire
$0.99 starting bid (link to auction)

Hong Kong Film Parade 88 magazine
$1.99 starting bid (link to auction)

I Heart Shih Szu

found on youtube - a loving power rock tribute to Shaw femme fighter Shih Szu

Looting! Robbing! Killing! Raping!

Lolita in Full Bloom

got this info forwarded to me. if in NYC, be sure to check this series out!

TWO WEEKS ONLY!
Lolita in Full Bloom: 1980s Irresistible Heroines
November 10*-19, 2006
Japan Society
New York, NY
Delving into a world where teenage girls command yakuza gangs, travel through time and get trapped in boys' bodies, Lolita in Full Bloom:1980s Irresistible Heroines features five trailblazing films from the 1980s starring female pop stars known in Japan as "idols." Rarely seen in the States, these films are revived for two weeks with new English subtitles, created by the Japan Society especially for this series.

Check out the link to the trailer for 1981's Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (セーラー服と機関銃) and the coverage of the lollipop party for the opening film at Outcast Cinema!

Le gunfight le plus dingue du monde

Been spending time over on my other blog Popcorn and Sticky Floors. Okay, so I do feel like I have been cheating on you, but I thought you were all cool with this open releationship thing. I feel like I am growing and becoming a more well rounded person? What about you? Maybe you should give the other blog a try... but in the meantime, I hope this video that was emailed to me by Kung Fu Fridays Disciple Frederic Ambroisine (who does killer interviews for supplementary materials on French releases of the Shaw Brothers films) will satisfy you. It's from the film POM POM & HOT HOT, always highly recommended to me, but I have never had a chance to see it.

BOO KUNG FU!

Pic from an eBay auction by emovieposter.com
(click to enlarge)

Ad from a posting on DVD Maniacs by Fred Adelman.
I used to get his zine Critical Condition that has now hopped online.

(click to enlarge)

God of Vampires trailer

just found on youtube, a trailer for an upcoming US indie horror/gangster flick:

Shaw Brothers Shockers

Pulled out some of posters from my collection of some seasonal Shaw offerings. Looking forward to the North American DVD release of THE BOXER'S OMEN!

SEX BEYOND THE GRAVE

THE GHOST STORY

THE BOXER'S OMEN

SEEDING OF A GHOST

tis the season...

ahh, the days when the local multi-cultural tv channel would broadcast ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND 2 on Halloween. One of the best end fights in the spooky genre...

Hong Kong's New Superstar! Jacky!

Been going through an old Cannes market issue of Variety from 1978 (?) and finding some interesteing goodies that I will be scanning and sharing. Click on the picture for a bigger and readable image.

nostalgia

Link to more pics

another obit: Tetsuro Tamba

Again more late news of passings from the ScreenDaily.com's obits, but this one writen by Kung Fu Fridays Disciple Jason Gray (at least one glimmer of hope in this sad occasion)

Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba dies aged 84

Tetsuro Tamba, one of Japan’s most famous and prolific actors, died of pneumonia late September 24 at the age of 84. Born in Tokyo in 1922, Tamba became a translator for allied occupation forces after Japan was defeated in WWII. He made his film debut in 1952, going on to appear in over 300 features and scores of TV dramas.

Tamba was perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967).

Some of his most famous Japanese films included Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai, Shohei Imamura’s Pigs And Battleships, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri And Kwaidan, Kinji Fukasaku’s Black Lizard and Under The Flag Of The Rising Sun, Teruo Ishii’s Abashiri Prison and the original adaptation of Submersion Of Japan. His lead role in TV series G-Men '75 is one of his best known in Japan. He also won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1981’s The Battle Of Port Arthur (203 Kochi), which also starred Toshiro Mifune.

Tamba remained active in the industry, with recent roles in Yoji Yamada’s Oscar-nominated The Twilight Samurai and cult director Takashi Miike’s The Happiness Of The Katakuris and Gozu (Cannes 2003 Directors’ Fortnight).

Jason Gray in Tokyo 26 September 2006

And aside from Happiness of the Katakuris and Gozu, Tamba also starred in Takeshi Miike's Graveyard of Honor (2002), Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002) and Kikoku (2003). For a sad and fitting clip of Tamba from Katakuris watch this.

Happiness of the Katakuris

Happiness of the Katakuris

You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice

The Ceiling at Utsunomiya, 1956

The Water Margin (Hong Kong, Shaw Brothers, 1972)

Goyokin (1969)

Five Man Army - Tamba center along with Peter Graves and Bud Spencer

Trailer for Five Man Army!

Gillo Pontecorvo dies in Rome

Old news and not kung fu related, but I love the film BURN! (based on the misadventures of real life mercenary William Walker who was also the subject of Alex Cox's WALKER) and the Morricone soundtracks for Pontecorvo's work. Watch BATTLE OF ALGIERS to get a better understanding of the occupation situations in the Middle East. You can watch the trailer here.

13 October 2006 12:31 As the inaugural Rome Film Fest is set to get underway tonight, Italy is mourning one of its cinema greats. Gillo Pontecorvo, most famous for directing The Battle Of Algiers, died yesterday in Rome at the age of 86. Pontecorvo’s other films include Kapo, Ogro and Burn (Qeimada) starring Marlon Brando. He worked in journalism and was a resistance fighter in WWII before getting started in a film career in the 1950s. His 1966 classic The Battle Of Algiers is a realistic look at Algeria’s war of independence from France from 1954-1962. Pontecorvo directed and co-wrote the film with Franco Solinas; it won Venice’s Golden Lion and was nominated for three Oscars.

from ScreenDaily.com

and the awards are in!

so the fest ended last weekend, but by the time I came back, adjusted back to NA time... yup. just a whole load of excuses... but here are the Sitges award winners!

OFICIAL FANTÀSTIC
JURY: Monte Hellman, Leticia Dolera, Carlos Losilla, Pilar Pedraza, Tom Schiller

Best Short Film: A FOR(R)EST IN THE DES(S)ERT, by Luiso Berdejo
HANDYMAN, by Simon Rumley

Best Production Design: Are Sjaastad, for THE BOTHERSOME MAN

Best Make Up FX: Jang Jin, for TIME

Best Special Effects: Jang Heui-cheol, for THE HOST

Best Original Soundtrack: East, for TZAMETI (13)

Best Cinematography: Jonathan Sela, for GRIMM LOVE

Best Script: Sam Hamm, for HOMECOMING (Masters of Horror)

Best Actress: Sandra Hüller, for REQUIEM

Best Actor:Thomas Krestchmann, for GRIMM LOVE
Thomas Huber, for GRIMM LOVE

Best Director: Martin Weisz, for GRIMM LOVE

Special Jury Award: HOMECOMING (Masters of Horror), by Joe Dante

Best Motion Picture: REQUIEM, by Hans-Christian Schmid

Hans-Christian Schmid accepts his award for REQUIEM

CARNET JOVE JURY
Gerard Casau Vaz, Blanca Esteva Ballús, Stefan Ivanic, Zouhair El Hairan, Beatriz Martínez Gómez

FANTÀSTIC
EXILED, by Johnnie To

Special Mention to CIGARETTE BURNS (Masters of Horror), by John Carpenter.

MIDNIGHT X-TREME
WHAT IS IT?, by Crispin Glover

Special Mention TO BEHIND THE MASK: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Scott Glosserman’s feature film for his skills in showing how to create a “slasher” movie milestone.

SEAT AWARD - NOVES VISIONS
JURY: John Fallon, Carlos Martin Ferrera, Frédéric Temps

EDMOND, by Stuart Gordon

Special Mention to THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, by Simon Rumley.

Nova Autoria Award (Sponsored by l’SGAE)

Best direction
Jorge Tur Moltó (UAB), for DE FUNCIÓN

Best script
David Jiménez, Rubén Molina, Albert Solà and Joseph Lluïs Marín (EMAV), for BOWMAN

Best original music
Roger Padilla (ESCAC), for NO QUIERO LA NOCHE

ORIENT EXPRESS - CASA ÀSIA
JURY Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Enrique Garcelán, Amaia Torrecilla
THE HOST, by Bong Joon-ho

ANIMA’T – Gertie Award
JURY: Juan Giménez, Ken Niimura, Sandra Salvador

Best Animated Film
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, by Mamoru Hosoda

Best Animated Short film
DREAMS AND DESIRES-FAMILY TIES, by Joanna Quinn

Special Mention to THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, of Kihachiro Kawamoto, for his excellent technique and his real skill in the difficult art of puppet animation.

BRIGADOON
JURY: Jose Espinosa, Paul Naschy, Carles Muñoz Miralles

Best short film
TIGHT, by Sergio Vizcaíno

SILVER MÉLIÈS
JURY Adrián Guerra, Antonio José Navarro, Mireia Ros

Silver Méliès for Best European Motion Picture
PRINCESS, by Anders Morgenthaler

Silver Méliès Award for Best Europea Short Film
DOODLE, by Sam Rogers

OTHER AWARDS

Audience Award for Best Motion Picture (Sponsored by El Periódico)
LA CIENCIA DEL SUEÑO, by Michel Gondry.

Jose Luis Guarner Critic Award
JURY: Marta Monedero, Desirée de Fez, Pedro Adrián Zuloaga
REQUIEM, by Hans-Christian Schmid

Citizen Kane Award to an up-and-coming director
Rian Johnson, for BRICK

post and run...

More photos of Sitges..

One of the old posters for the Fest, whcih this year is celebrating it's 39th edition

Some of the past guests of the Festival

A 1am screening of the new print of HOLY MOUNTAIN. Quite a trip sitting on the third balcony, drinking and smoking as Jodorowsky's vision unfolded before us.

The real masters of horror?

Top L-R: Richard Stanley, Karim Hussain, Simon Rumley, Mitch Davis,
Doug Buck, JT Petty
Below: Me and Nacho Cerda

Richard Stanley, director of HARDWARE and DUST DEVIL presenting his short film SEA OF PERDITION

Anthony Wong, Hong Kong Superstar!
(HARDBOILED, FULL CONTACT, UNTOLD STORY, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, EBOLA SYNDROME, EXILED, THE MISSION, and many, many more!)

A motely group of fantastic film fools in the wee hours of the morning