Category Archives: Cinema Screenings

This week in cinemas: ‘The Wind Rises’ (Japan, anime)

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Justin

This week in Aussie cinemas we have the long-awaited new film from famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, Kaze Tachinu). The story follows an aircraft engineer in pre-war Japan, loosely based on Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Zero fighter plane used in WWII, and Miyazaki had said at one point that it would be his final film.

(I believe I’ve read somewhere that he’s since decided not to retire quite so soon — here’s hoping … (read more)

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More King Hu screening in Canberra

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Justin

Hot on the heels of Melbourne Cinémathèque’s screening of King Hu’s classic A Touch of Zen comes three screenings of films by the great director in Canberra, at the National Film and Sound Archive’s Arc Cinema.

The films on display are:

  • Dragon Gate Inn on Sat 8 March: the original film, remade by Tsui Hark twice and one of the classics of Chinese action cinema.
  • A Touch of Zen on Sun 9 March: unarguably King Hu’s most revered film, running
… (read more)
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This week in cinemas: ‘From Vegas to Macau’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Justin

Opening tomorrow, Thursday 6 February, is the fourth installment (depending on how you count!) of Wong Jing’s God of Gamblers film series, starring Chow Yun-fat — the first time he’s returned to the character since 1994. (Chow fans are spoilt for choice right now, what with this film and The Monkey King in cinemas!)

Rounding out the cast are Nicholas Tse, Chapman To and Jing Tian, and it’s in cinemas in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Here’s an absolute … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Monkey King’ (3D, China)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Justin

This week in Aussie cinemas we have a Chinese blockbuster: The Monkey King, a spectacular-looking adaptation of the origin story for everyone’s favourite literary primate, Sun Wukong. The character will be familiar to everyone who grew up watching the Japanese TV series Monkey! on Australian TV, or has encountered the source material (Journey To The West, one of China’s big four classical masterpieces) in any of its hundreds of different adaptations and transformations.

This film tells the … (read more)

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Melbourne Cinémathèque: Opening Night 2014 is ‘A Touch of Zen’

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Justin

Melbourne fans of Chinese cinema, listen up! The folks at ACMI have announced that King Hu’s 1971 classic A Touch of Zen will be the opening film in this season’s Cinémathèque, screening in glorious 35mm.

Zen is a hugely influential film, combining Hu’s mastery of the wuxia genre and typically beautiful cinematography with a sprawling three-hour-plus story and a healthy dose of symbolism. It’s had significant critical acclaim over the years, starting with a Technical Grand Prize at the 1975 … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Personal Tailor’ (China)

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Justin

I’m late on this one! This past Thursday (19 December), the new film from prominent Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (Big Shot’s Funeral, A World Without Thieves, Aftershock) arrived in cinemas, just in time to distract us from Christmas.

This film, Personal Tailor, is a comedy about a service that purports to make fantasies come true — however briefly — for their clients. It’s a sequel of sorts to Feng’s 1997 film Dream Factory, and … (read more)

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Fairytales and Fables at GoMA

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Deni

Ooooh! Relevant to our interests, the Cinematheque at GoMA comes through for Brissie fans again, with several Asian films as part of their just released program, Fairytales and Fables, running from January 10 until March 30.

The more than awesome programme (pretty sure I’ll be doing some extracurricular viewing this time too) includes Kim Jee-Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters, Bong Man-Dae’s Cinderella, Yim Pil-Sung’s Hansel and Gretel, Studio Ghibli’s delightful Ponyo, and Richard … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Firestorm’ (3D, Hong Kong)

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Justin

Opening on 12 December (the same day as its release in China, and a week before its HK release!) in cinemas across Australia is hard-boiled, firepower-heavy Hong Kong police film Firestorm. It’s even being shown in 3D, though it sounds like it’s a post-production conversion rather than something they shot for from the get-go.

The film is the directorial debut for Alan Yuen from his own screenplay, and it stars HK megastar Andy Lau, along with Gordon Lam, Hu … (read more)

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