So, I’m one of the teeming millions that picked up the new iPad last week, and its amazing screen propelled me into looking for books to read on it. If you’re in the same situation, I hugely recommend picking up the PDF version of David Bordwell’s excellent book Planet Hong Kong — if you haven’t seen the original version, it’s a wonderful overview of HK cinema by film theorist, professor, prodigious blogger and HK cinema fan David Bordwell.
The original (which I’ve had for years) was released in traditional dead-tree form in 2000 and went out of print in 2008 — but in late 2010 he revised the text, added some new chapters, swapped the pictures for glorious colour ones and released a new edition as a PDF e-book, purchasable online.
If you’re interested in a deeper look at Hong Kong’s cinematic history and the films that made it great, Bordwell’s e-book is a steal at US$15.
For more regular writing, his blog is worth a look too — his thoughts on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Bond vs. Chan (looking at different approaches to action scene construction) are nice example entries.