Category Archives: Articles

When Fortune Smiles: The Life and Times of Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest

Posted on May 5, 2020 by John Snadden
Raymond Chow in 2013

Raymond Chow, a major figure in world cinema, died on 2 November 2018. He was the co-founder and public face of the Hong Kong based Golden Harvest Film Company. From 1970-2003, Golden Harvest produced approximately 600 feature films, and through its theatrical arm distributed nearly as many titles again. From the mid-1980s, Golden Harvest became the most prosperous and prolific movie business in South East Asia, supplanting the once all-powerful Shaw Brothers Studio.

Raymond Chow and … (read more)

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GCFF 2014 on now!

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Deni

With the weather the way it’s been (warm and muggy when not raining) it’s not like you need an excuse to go to the beach, but if you do, the great Gold Coast Film Festival is one of the best. It kicks off tomorrow, and again the GCFF’s partnership with Supanova and their commitment to regional and cult film means that there’s some great Asian cinema to be had!

From China, the most recent rendition of that timeless classic The … (read more)

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Enchanting Shadows: The Films of the Shaw Brothers

Posted on March 14, 2014 by John Snadden

The recent passing of Chinese business tycoon Run Run Shaw was an event well covered by the world’s media. The obituaries for the 106 year old entrepreneur mainly concentrated on his business acumen and life-long philanthropy.

Like many successful industrialists, Run Run Shaw’s public largess would not have been possible without the profits generated by his companies, in particular the Shaw Brothers movie studio.

For more than a twenty year period from the late 1950s, Run Run Shaw helped create … (read more)

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Lau Kar-leung has died

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Justin

As noted in this obituary in the South China Morning Post, martial artist, director and actor Lau Kar-leung (劉家良, Liu Chia-liang) has passed away in Hong Kong at the age of 76.

With him, Hong Kong has lost one of its most iconic and influential action filmmakers, a man who put his own stamp on the way martial arts is choreographed and shot in cinema. His career spanned more than half a century, from 1950’s Brave Lad of Canton through … (read more)

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Once Upon a Time in Chinatown

Posted on January 30, 2011 by John Snadden

It was the end-of-an-era on 26 May 2008 when Melbourne’s Chinatown cinema closed its doors for the final time. For nigh on thirty years, the Chinatown cinema had regularly screened Cantonese language films in central Melbourne. And for just over nineteen of those years, I had been watching and enjoying Hong Kong movies on the big screen.

Sometimes the end of an era is celebrated and sent out on a high, but in the Chinatown’s case the last film was … (read more)

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