(OK, so this post is a bit late, and I apologise — I was reminded that I’d forgotten to write about this today, and thought I’d better get to it!)
A couple of months ago several people (thanks, guys and girls!) wrote in on Facebook and via email to let us know that Melbourne’s Chinatown Cinema has reopened and is showing Hong Kong films again! This is tremendous news: several of us were regulars there back in its heyday, and it’s nice to see that the someone’s willing to give it another go. Personally, I’d love to see a specialist cinema like this reappear again in Sydney as well… but I suspect it’s unlikely.
(For a look back at the cinema in its previous incarnation, I invite you to read John’s piece from 2011: Once Upon a Time in Chinatown).
Returning to the present day, the new operators seem to be going great guns: they have an active website, a Facebook page, and there’s a steady stream of recent Chinese films hitting their box office. Here’s hoping that they decide to screen some classics every now and then, too.
If you’re in Melbourne, now’s definitely the right time to wander down to Bourke Street and check it out — and let us know what you think!