Half the profits from last year's theatrical release of the PTU restoration was used to keep Johnnie To's Next Wave Film Festival, a significant stepping stone for up and coming filmmakers, alive. Maybe somebody can convince him to restore The Odd One Dies which he owns himself.
Gonna start it later today!
I've watched two of them...
Where can I play the first one?
I do find it kind of weird a big studio like Media Asia or a director like Soi Cheang would cast a Japanese actor in a co-production (even if the first movie was a big hit in Japan) since they'd know how the game is played.
Takuya Kimura has allegedly been dropped from the Twilight of the Warriors / Kowloon Walled City sequel and replaced by Daniel Wu due to ongoing tensions between China and Japan. Talk about a downgrade, man.
Beat King Mammoth and got the Cola Bottle (after six tries) in LIVE A LIVE. Feels good.
The scene could be seen in either a making of featurette or set visit from a variety show, but it's since been lost to time. The scene was cut because the makeup wasn't up to snuff. Tony Leung was actually asked about it in a joint interview with Andy Lau while doing promo for The Goldfinger.
Now the Lunar New Year's in full swing, is this the year the deleted scene from A Chinese Odyssey 2002 where Tony Leung and Faye Wong go full Love on a Diet fat suits from eating and drinking so much while endlessly trying to see each other off is finally unearthed?
Different butterfly lovers movie.
Ideal Lantern Festival movie. That first image is enough to make you lose your mind.
The Love Eterne (1963)
Maybe it's because Hong Kong's film industry is small by comparison, but is there another example of something like this where a film industry is seemingly kept afloat off the massive success of one or two movies a year if that?
Two of this year's New Year movies, Back to the Past and Night King, are now among the top 10 highest grossing Chinese-language films in Hong Kong. It's heartwarming how some movies have rallied local audiences in recent years, but it's not healthy for the industry imo
New translation!
This week I’ve translated the short documentary Ise-Shima, the 1949 directorial debut from the man behind Godzilla, Ishiro Honda!
Enjoy the start of one of the most famous names in movies, the first instance of underwater filming in Japan, and lots of post-war anxieties!
I watched Peking Opera Blues for the first time last night and it’s one of the coolest films I’ve ever seen. Everyone should go and buy Arrow’s new 4K UHD, not just for the film, but the new translation by @dylancheung.bsky.social, which is one of the best I’ve ever seen (and want to discuss).
Night King is genuinely good. An actual turning point for Hong Kong movies about Hong Kong where the film's metaphor for the city remains a metaphor for the whole thing and they don't beat the audience over the head with it. Sammi Cheng underwritten and underused though.
I know someone who moved here from China when they were a teen who found that element of Wolf Warriors 2 extremely upsetting. They eventually moved back to China.
I don't have the relevant cultural baggage for it to affect me specifically, but I always wonder how people from Mainland Chinese who've made a life for themselves overseas for whatever reason feel when the official government line is you are only foreign pawns and traitors.
While I was rolling my eyes, I heard audible gasps from the mostly Chinese audience in my fairly packed session of Zhang Yimou's Scare Out. Ministry of State Security, you've still got it!
Hou Hsiao-hsien, he's just like us.
Hou Hsiao-hsien, he's just like us.
Also, I meant 2000s.
I like when Wong Jing talks about his dad because it's the only time he'll let his guard down and come off as being completely sincere. Also, Johnnie To's Election is his favourite film of the 2010s apparently.
I'd probably take this over The Blade if I had that kind of clout.
Free Too Many Ways to Be No.1 along with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from the Warner Bros. water tower!
Hats off to @dylancheung.bsky.social for doing TWO subtitle tracks for Arrow UK's PEKING OPERA BLUES: A straight forward translation, and a second 'alternate' track, that is cpture the feeling of the dialogue through some clever style choices. Dylan's truly the Alexander O. Smith of HK movies!
It's 2026 and I can go see a Zhang Yimou in 4DX and a Yuen Woo-ping in IMAX. What a world.
Johnnie To's The Fun, the Luck & the Tycoon is also a Christmas movie. Everybody wins!
