kicking into 2011

Trying my best to kick start this year. Been a little preoccupied with other stuff of late, but one of them now has a bigger, online presence: ActionFest

Spent most of the holidays working on that site. Please spread the news of it with Twitter, FaceBook, etc. Currently working on the line-up for the 2011 edition.

Meanwhile, this film's tagline is my anthem for 2011!

a collectors item?

Look what my mom still has! A t-shirt I made of the cover of the 2nd (and last issue) of my HK film zine ASIAN EYE.

An old Christmas card that kicked ass!

Surly I have blogged this in the past, but it is worth pulling out every year. This is a Christmas card I made up several years ago and sent out to friends. I think I did it around 1994-97? Foggy on when it went out, but it was a good one. It has been years since I sent out Christmas cards, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to do that for 2011!

poster a day #25 - The Hunter, the Butterfly and the Crocodile (1976)

I have been neglecting my duties here in the temple and rather than just doing a quick sweep of the temple's floors, I am going to do a little wax on and wax off. While I do that, enjoy more than just a poster, but some photos of some of the rare lobbycards in my collection for this early Chow Yun-Fat flick, The Hunter, the Butterfly and the Crocodile (1976), from the director of one of my fave flicks, Seeding of a Ghost (1983). In fact, it looks like director Richard Yeung Kuen liked Chow so much, he went on to cast him in his 1977 production, Hot Blood.

and speaking of Devil Fetus...

Here is a review from when a print of Devil Fetus ran in Winnipeg in 2008 (click to enlarge):
And I could link to a clip off the DVD, but instead, here is camcorder footage off the screen when it played in at the Sitges Fantastic Fest a few years ago. Beware! Spoilers!

name this movie!

Got some new posters from a trade I did with a collector in Taiwan and one of the fab scores was this oddity, but I have no idea what it is. At first I thought it might be for Devil Fetus, but looking at the characters for Devil Fetus, clearly not a match. Anyone help out here?

Mystery poster

Close-up of the logo of my mystery poster

Poster for Devil Fetus

Wong Tin-lam passes away (1927-2010)

You might not know the name, but if you have seen some of Johnnie To's films in the past 10 years, you just might recognize Wong Tin-lam from his roles in The Mission and Election 1 & 2. Wong was a respected director who made Cantonese cinema in the 1950s and then moved to TV in the 1970s and ended up writing many of TVB's most popular series including Legend of the Condor Heroes. It was in TV that Wong Tin-lam made another great mark on the cultural landscape, as the mentor for the young assistant directors working under him including Johnnie To and Ringo Lam. And of course, his other great contribution to Hong Kong pop culture - he is Wong Jing's dad.

For more info, read the obit over at HKMDB Daily News (for more photos) and at Asian Film Business.

Ringo Lam and Johnnie To with mentor Wong Tin-lam

The cast of Johnnie To's Election in Cannes

Father and Son: Wong Jing and Wong Tin-lam

run baby run: Fatal Termination

I've been absent from blogging, but the other day I was working on archiving my poster/lobbycard collection and came across this gem of a lobbycard that I had to share. It's from Fatal Termination, a film with a WILD stunt scene that I have posted about before. This picture says it ALL. I also scanned a newspaper ad for the film and at the bottom is a YouTube clip of the film for you to experience the mayhem.

Footage from Tsui Hark's Dragon Tiger Gate 3D!

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.

Check it out here!

via Wild Grounds' Twitter account.

La fureur du juste!

JCVD intros EAGLE'S PATH

From Cannes in May, some video I shot of JVCD introducing Eagle's Path, the new film he wrote, produced and directed. Sorry for the crap audio.

TONIGHT! IP MAN 2 at The Toronto Underground Cinema

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.

Tsui Hark + Jet Li in 3-D!

I'm super excited about this news, especially after how much I liked Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Li, Tsui reunite for new Dragon picture

Yup, Dragon Gate Inn 3-D!

Read the full story by our friends over at Film Business Asia.

Oct 22nd - IP MAN 2 plays Toronto!

Stay tuned for details...

Five Fingers of OUI

A review of FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH from the July 1973 issue of oui.

pulp kung fu graffiti

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.'"

Thanks to Hal Kelly for pointing this out to me.

the good ship Mayfair

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!

your ticket to ACTION!

Found stuck in an old film can...

RZA's got the fists

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...?




Behind the scenes amateur doc for Golden Phoenix



Part 2 (has some brief but cool aerial wirework stuff)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepnHQBeEQE

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bIE8SeEMMs

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCEVzQ3EjjQ

Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cLvOharaik

your teeth are in my congee

How I love the Mr. Vampire movies...