THE ORIGINAL HONG KONG MOVIES FAQ Notes: This document was reformatted by Neil Koch (gweilo845@hotmail.com) from Hong Kong Film Net (www.hkfilm.net) for ease of reading September 2005. It was found at: www.funet.fi/pub/culture/tv+film/HongKong/HongKong.FAQ.gz It was previously housed at: http://www.webcomm.com.hk/ryan/hkmovie/info/faq/faq.html but this link seems to be "dead". This document may be reproduced, but please give proper credit. Also, keep in mind that this was written in 1994, so some of the information may be inaccurate and/or out-of-date. I have a more current FAQ on my site at: http://www.hkfilm.net/hkfilmfaq.htm Now let's get on with the show... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This file contains three sections: 1. An introduction to Hong Kong Movies 2. Hong Kong Video Frequently Asked Questions 3. Hong Kong video around the world Everything written by Lars Erik Holmquist (md2holle@mdstud.chalmers.se) except where noted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ An introduction to Hong Kong movies The Hong Kong film-industry makessome of the most fast-paced, spectacular, funny and exciting movies you'll ever see. Many people have preconceptions about Hong Kong movies (or just "foreign" movies in general for that matter), and believe that they are boring, cheap and dumb. Well, cheap they may sometimes be, and dumb - definitely! But boring? Never! Here are some of my favorites, chosen to be accesible to the Hong Kong new-comer. If these movies don't entertain you, you're beyond hope! Hardboiled (1992) The Hong Kong movies that have made the most impact in the western world are the high-charged gangster movies of John Woo, more often than not starring Asian megastar Chow Yun Fat. Hardboiled easily contains more action, explosions, bullets and death-defying stunts than a dozen American movies combined - and that's just in the final forty minutes! It is also a good example of the fast-paced - but for western audiences sometimes confusing - plotting that is typical for HK movies. Other Woo/Chow collaborations you should check out include The Killer, A Better Tomorrow and the light-hearted Once a Thief. A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) Sensual, spooky and silly - this mix of magic and swordsplay is the perfect example of Hong Kong's popular fantasy genre, where people fly more often than walk, and mysterious and beautiful ghosts meddle with human affairs. It was a breakthrough for director and martial-arts choreographer Ching Siu Tung, who went on to direct two sequels (part II was even better, but part III less than impressive) and films like A Terracotta Warrior, Swordsman II and The Raid. Once Upon a Time in China (1991) Perhaps the most important person in the Hong Kong film industry is producer/director Tsui Hark - this time around, he decided to revive the traditional martial arts genre, and especially the sub-genre concerning Chinese folk-hero Wong Fei Hong. Not surprisingly, the market instantly became flooded with imitations, but this is still the best. Set in the late 19:th century it stars Jet Li, a dazzling martial artist from mainland China. Part II is equally impressive, and other Tsui Hark-directed movies you should see are Peking Opera Blues, A Better Tomrrow III and the groundbreaking Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain. As a producer, Tsui Hark and his company The Film Workshop has been involved with a substantial amount of the very best movies from Hong Kong. Fong Sai Yuk (1993) According to legend, when Tsui Hark and Jet Li ended their collaborations, both exclaimed to the other: "Without me, you're nothing!" And both were wrong, of course. Jet Li proves it with this brilliant traditional martial arts movie, that seamlessly brings together comedy and drama in a story of another Chinese folk-hero, Fong Sai Yuk. Also check out the veteran actress Josephine Siao as Sai Yuk's crazy mom! Hard-working Li has since starred in Fong Sai Yuk II, Tai Chi Master (with Michelle Yeoh), Kung Fu Cult Master and The New Legend of Shaolin. Police Story III (1992) No listing of Hong Kong films iscomplete without at least one Jackie Chan-movie - this exceptionally talented actor, martial artist, stuntman and director (and mediocre singer!) is deservedly one of Asias best-loved stars. All his recentmovies have been great for various resaons: the hard-edged drama Crime Story, the silly comic-bookish City Hunter, the spectacular adventure Armour of God II (aka Operation Condor) and the recent Drunken Master II. But I pick this stunning action-comedy because it also marked the comeback of a Hong Kong legend - martial artist and ex-beauty-queen Michelle Yeoh, who proves to be more than Jackie's match in the stunts and kung fu department! Heroic Trio (1993) One of the best things about Hong Kong movies is the great number of strong female characters - unlike Hollywood, Hong Kong filmmakers seem to think female action-heroes are the most natural thing in the world. And why not? Here three of Hong Kong's most talented women - Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh - unite in a kitschy super-hero adventure. The movie is set in a strange art-deco future, where our three heroines fight a baby-stealing supervillain and his head-snatching henchman. This fun and exciting adventure was followed by a bleaker and even better sequel, Excecutioners. Royal Tramp (1992) Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and all the others may be big stars - but if there is one who's bigger, it's young comedian Stephen Chow Sin Che! Much of his comedy relies on wordplay that is lost in the translations, but he is still an excellent physical actor with a charming screen prescence. This parody of Hong Kong fantasy movies is so well-made, the special effects rival the best in the genre - and it's hilarious! Viewing a Chow Sin Che-movie can be frustrating for non-chinese, but when he's got a strong story and good prodcution values it's hard not to be entertained. Other good examples are King of Beggars, Flirting Scholar and the God of Gamblers films. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hong Kong movies on video and laserdisc: frequently asked questions dated 94-06-20 This is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions concerning Hong Kong films on video and laser disc. Please note that this FAQ is intended to be about getting Hong Kong films on video, and not a general "Hong Kong Movies FAQ" - although that would be very nice to see as well! That's why I won't have any filmographies or other general F.A.Q.:s - except the one about Michelle Yeoh, because I got so sick of answering that one!!! The reason for this is, of course, that I want to limit the size of the FAQ and the work I do on it somewhat. This FAQ is now fully HTML-ised, which means that the best way to read it is with Mosaic or a similar www-browser! The latest version of the FAQ can be found at the Hong Kong movies WWW-page: http://www.mdstud.chalmers.se/hkmovie/ This FAQ is also made available for ftp at ftp.funet.fi pub/culture/tv+film/hongkong where you can also find other Hong Kong movie related files. Thanks to everybody who's helped out with this and previous versions of the FAQ! You know who you are! Send corrections, thanks, additions and flames to: Lars Erik Holmquist md2holle@mdstud.chalmers.se Sections: 1. Frequently asked questions 2. The release path 3. The bluffer's guide to chinese actor's names 4. A look at different versions of some John Woo films 5. Video and laser disc companies 6. Bibliography 1. Frequently asked question Where do I find Hong Kong films on video/laserdisc? The best place to find Hong Kong films is always at local chinese shops. Look around; nomatter where you live, you're almost bound to have a chinese grocerystore somewhere close. And they almost certainly will have movies. You may have to ask around a bit, you may have to go to the store and talk to the owners a few times to gain their confidence - a basic knowledge of actor and movie names in chinese will help tremendously - but don't give up. If you're lucky, they have the movies out on the shelves, in boxes, so you can just go in an pick by the english titles. But more probable is that they have bootleg copies of some kind, with the label only marked in chinese. Then you'll have to be a bit more creative. Find pictures of actors you want to see, try to get the names of actors and movies in chinese (mandarin or cantonese transcripitons; or chinese writing, of course). A shop where I live cuts out the newspaper advertisements for the movies they have and display them, so that I can just point at whatever looks interesting and the staff helps me find it. If you're absolutely, 100% sure that there are no chinese shops where you live, you may have to resort to mail order. There are various companies in the US that sell Hong Kong movies; you can find them in fanzines. A good listing of mail order suppliers can be found in the new Video Watchdog Special Edition; see the bibliography for more info. But beware that firstly, these are quite often illegal copies, and generally of bad quality. You're always better off if you find a chinese shop that rents laserdisc, or original tapes, or even copies from original tapes. Secondly, many of these companies are pretty unstable, since they're basically just a guy with two VCR:s, so it's quite probable that they just keep your money and not send you anything. Always check if a company takes major credit cards, that means that they at least are up to some kind of minimal legal standards; and pay with card if you've got one. Don't just send a cheque to somebody on the basis of an ad, no matter how cheap they are or how many movies they seem to have. But be careful and you'll be OK. One mail-order company that keeps cropping up is: Far East Flix 59-13 68th Ave. Ridgewood, N.Y. 11385 (718)381-6757 phone/fax Mon-Sat 11am-7pm They have a lot of new films (bootlegged off laserdisc or tape) as well as copies of hard-to-find older, english dubbed films (like Shaw Brothers stuff). Prices are about $19. You may also have heard of Video Search of Miami You've probably seen VSoM mentioned in several places; they also publish the Asian Trash Cinema fanzine. They have a lot of Hong Kong movies in their catalogue. But unfortunately, they sell the absolutely WORST copies I have seen of Hong Kong films anywhere. I have watched (or tried to watch) about a dozen VSoM tapes; half were totally unwatchable, the rest were mostly very bad, and only a few were what I'd call acceptable (approaching 2nd-3rd generation copy quality). Prices are about $30 with postage. I strongly recommend that you avoid VSoM, and therefore won't include their address in this FAQ. But what about english subtitles? Most Hong Kong movies on video HAVE english subtitles! That's because English is still an official language in Hong Kong. The only HK video company that doesn't subtitle all their movies is Star Entertainment, and even they seem to get better at it. Almost all tapes manufactured in Taiwan have subtitles. Ditto for Malaysia. Why are original Hong Kong videos and laserdiscs so expensive? An original Hong Kong tape costs approximatelyUS $50, and a laserdisc $100. And since many popular films are split up on two tapes/discs, you'll actually have to pay twice that amount! This is because they are not sold as sell-through, but for rental. Another reason is that for every legal copy sold, there a lot of copies; most shops just buy one tape or disc, and then rent or sell copies from that. This may or may not be legal (some companies actually sell ready-made labels and covers together with the tape) but it makes it necessary for companies to at least get good money for the things they actually sell. Why are many movies split up on two tapes / discs? The discs are often in CAV, so to get a movie to fit they have to be split up. But if this were the only reason, there's still no explanation to why even short movies are split up on tape (many two-tape movies, like Heroic Trio, are under 90 minutes!) So the reason is actually the same as above: to get more money per movie. My copy of this film is 5 minutes shorter than it should be! Is it cut? Not necesarrily. Two copies of the same film may actually be the same, even though they have different running times. Films in the NTSC video format (USA, Japan) run longer than exactly the same movie in PAL (Hong Kong, some of Europe). So , to get the corresponding running times you have to multiply the PAL running time by 25/24 to get the corresponding NTSC time (and also the original time of the movie) - while, if you want to know how long a movie would be in PAL, you have to multiply the NTSC running time by 24/25. Why are there different version of Hong Kong films anyway? Films are cut for many different reasons. The obvious one is censorship: many countries are not as lenient about screen violence as Hong Kong, and therefore sometimes trim movies considerably. Nowadays, films are also sometimes trimmed in Hong Kong, to get them into the Category II. And countries like Malaysia seem to cut for other reasons as well; even on-screen kissing can be offensive in Malaysia, I'm told! Furthermore, films may premiere in one version in a country and then be altered before it reaches the next (this happened with The Killer, which was 135 minutes when it premiered in Taiwan - when it reached Hong Kong several months later, it had been trimmed down to 110 minutes.) The reasons for this are many; often it is done to improve the films pacing. Or distributors may simply want a short film, to squeeze in more showings per day! Many Hong Kong filmsare also edited to suit other "tastes"; so, for instance, do most english dubbed versions of Jackie Chan's film contain less humour and slapstick than the original versions. (Interestingly, Norway seems to be one of the few countries which release complete versions of Jackie Chan's films dubbed into English. Can't think of why.) When the films are released on video or disc, anything can happen. A distriubutor might find the film to long to fit on one tape, and cut it accordingly. Another distributor might get a longer version than the cinema version. And so on. What video systems do they use in Asian countries? Hong Kong - PAL (laser discs are NTSC) Malaysia - PAL Taiwan - NTSC Japan - NTSC What is category I / II / III? Different movie ratings, indicating the level of sex/violence. Category I is suitable for children; category II (the most common) is "family films", which may be quite violent, though there is never any sex. And finally, category III are either extremely violent films, or films with a little (or a lot of) sex. Who is Michelle Khan / Yeoh? Is she the same as Cynthia Khan? (This is the FAQ of FAQ:s, but doesn't really belong here - I'll let it stay until there is another place for it!) Michelle Khan (Yueng Ji King) was the star in three action movies from D&B: In The Line of Duty (aka Royal Warriors) In The Line of Duty II (aka *Super Cops*), co-starring Cynthia Rothrock Magnificent Warriors She was a Malaysian beauty queen who had no previous martial arts experience (true!). She married Dickson Poon, producer at D&B and a very rich man, and quit being in movies; mainly because of the accident risks. Her role in the following In the Line of Duty films was taken by Cynthia Khan (Yueng Lai Ching) - there are atleast four of those. Cynthia Khan is a popular star of recent movies such as Zen of Sword, Blade of Fury etc. but never became the mega-star of almost mythical proportions that Michelle was. However, one day Michelle Khan decided to divorce Poon, change back her name to Michelle Yeung and make a comeback in the movies (confusingly, she is credited as Michelle Yeoh in several places). Her comeback was in Police Story III with Jackie Chan, and since then she's been in films like Butterfly And Sword, Heroic Trio I & II, Project S and Tai Chi Master. She's one of the most popular and highest paid actresses in Hong Kong, and sings the song in the closing credits of Butterfly and Sword. 2. The Release Path The world of Hong Kong video releases is a jungle. It is easy to find half a dozen different releases of a film - bootlegs, illegal cable tv broadcasts, Hong Kong and Taiwanese laserdiscs and tapes, Malaysian and American tapes, and of course the releases aimed at the non-chinese speaking portion of the world: subtitled japanese laserdiscs, english dubbed British, Dutch and Greek releases... Let's take a look at how a Hong Kong movie makes its way around the world: time Cinema Premiere - Illegal Video - Legal Video/Discs (months) "Chinatowns" - USA, Canada, etc. "Camcorder bootlegs" 1 Taiwan Malaysia Hong Kong 3 Bootleg Malaysia copies Taiwan Foreign licenses: Tai Seng (USA) NYUE (USA) 6 Hong Kong Foreign markets 8 Foreign markets: . England, Greece, . Holland... What happens is this: A film is rush-released to chinatowns around the world, where video pirating is big, to get some profits before everybody have seen the film on video already! Then follows Taiwan, Malaysia and other chinese-speaking countries, with Hong Kong being pretty low on the list. This is because video pirating (perhaps surprisingly) is not very big in HK. Meanwhile, the video pirates have been busy. A new film is available on video only days after the premiere. Somebody smuggles a video camera into the cinema and simply films the screen, with the audience present. Very often people can be seen moving around in the cinema, and of course laughter and other reactions are heard. (This can actually be quite fun!) Then come the official video releases in countries like Taiwan and Malaysia and they, again, are pirated to death. In Malaysia a film is usually sneak-previewed a few months before the general release, which of course makes video pirates very happy. Then, trailing far behind, we get the Hong Kong video release. This can be anything from 6 months to a couple of years after the films premiere - it depends on which company has the rights. HK releases are mostly superior to other releases. Very often it seems that the Hong Kong video release coincides with the cinema premiere of a follow-up film; for instance, Heroic Trio was released on video about the same time as Executioners (Heroic Trio II) premiered, and the Swordsman films have followed the same pattern. There are also various licencees in other countries; in North America, there is NYUE enterprises, Tai Seng Marketing and World Video, in Britain TVB have a branch (which mostly sells low-budget films). The licensee gets a video master of some sort - U-Matic, a laser disc or perhaps just a VHS tape - and manufacture copies, covers and labels themselves. Understandably, quality varies! 3. The bluffer's guide to chinese actor's names If you walk into a chinese video shop and ask for "Chinese Ghost Story", or "Jet Li", or "John Woo" films, the only thing you're likely to get is a blank stare. Just about all Hong Kong films have English names, but that doesn't mean that these names have anything to do with the Chinese ones. And what's more, almost all actors and directors have taken english names - which can be quite different from their real names! Mostly, you'll know an actor by a dreamt-up English first name, and the real chinese sur-name. Jet Li, for instance, is actually Li Lian Je - but that's in Mandarin, so to a Cantonese he's actually Lei Lin Git! Not very obvious if you didn't know it! Here is a small guide to some famous actors. This will make your first encounterswith chinese video shops much easier! (Original list by Timo Juhani Rautiala (tra@phoenix.oulu.fi)) English Cantonese Mandarin Actors/actresses: "*Yuen Biao*" "Yuen Biu" "Yuan2 Biao1" "Jackie Chan" "Sing Lung" "Cheng2 Long2" "DoDo / Carol Cheng" "Jeng Yue Ling" "Zheng4 Yu4 Ling1" "Jacky Cheung" "Jeung Hok Yan" "Zhang1 Xue2 You3" "Leslie Cheung" "Jeung Kwok Wing" "Zhang1 Guo2 Rong2" "Maggie Cheung" "Jeung Maan Yuk" "Zhang1 Man4 Yu4" "Stephen Chow" "Chow Sing Chi" "Chow Yun Fat" "Jau Yun Faat" "Zhou1 Run4 Fa1" "Samo Hung" "Hung Kam Bao" "Hong2 Jin1 Bao3" "Wong Jing" "Wong Jing" "Wang2 Jing1" "Cynthia Khan" "Yeung Lai Ching" "Yang2 Li2 Qing1" "Michelle Khan / Yeoh" "Yeung Ji King" "Yang2 Zi3 Qiong2" "Rosamund Kwan" "Gwaan Ji Lam" "Guan1 Zhi1 Lin2" "Andy Lau" "Lau Tuk Wah" "Liu2 De2 Hua1" "Michelle Lee / Reis" "Lei Ga Yan" "Li3 Jia1 Xin1" "Tony Leung" "Leung Ga Fai" "Liang2 Jia1 Hui1" "Tony Leung" "Leung Chiu Wai" "Liang2 Zhao2 Wei3" "Gong Li" "Gung Lei" "Gong3 Li4" "Jet Li" "Lei Lin Git" "L13 Lian2 Jie2" "Brigitte Lin" "Lam Ching Ha" "Lin2 Qing1 Xia2" "Cheung Man" "Jeung Man" "Zhang1 Min3" "Anita Mui" "Mooi Yim Fong" "Mei2 Yan4 Fang1" "Richard Ng" "Ng Mang Tat" "Wu2 Meng4 Da2" "Yuen Wo Ping" "Yuen Woh Ping" "Yuan2 He2Ping2" "Joey Wong" "Wong Jo Yin" "Wang2 Zu3 Xian2" "Simon Yam" "Yam Daat Wa" "Ren2 Da2 Hua1" "Sally Yip Sally Yeh" "Yip Sin Man" "Ye4 Qian4 Wen2" Directors: "Tsui Hark" "Chui Ha" "Xu2 Ke4" "Wong Jin" "Wong Jing" "Wang2 Jing1" "John Woo" "Ng Yu Sum" "Wu2 Yu3 Sen1" 4. A look at different versions of some John Woo films Examinations of John Woo's Hardboiled and The Killer by Eric Tend (eric@hpams0c.ptp.hp.com). HARDBOILED I did notice that HARD-BOILED has at least two versions out. The Cantonese version has a lot more contiguous complete action scenes and the Mandarin version is the same length ... but with different filler scenes inserted to replace other scenes. Subtile differences that I have noticed : Cantonese Version : During the warehouse hit scene, Chow shoots at 2 motorcycles, shoots at Tony, ducks around and uses a car as a shield while the Mad Dog emptys an uzi magazine at him, Chow then tosses the grenade. During the hospital showdown, scenes missing from the Mandarin version : Baddies using hand-held grenade launchers shooting at the poilce outside. The scene where the SWAT team enters the building shows 2 swinging in through an outside window and 2 coming in through the air-conditioning duct. Chow and Tony blast away after entering a room (where a guy gets shot and falls out a window) and Tony does his ground roll under a table to get to a baddie, then the Mad Dog comes in with a grenade launcher rifle, blows the door sending Tony flying, Chow shoots from across the room, Mad Dog throws a grenade at Chow, it explodes - cut to baby rescuing with grenade explosion next room over (nice continuity showing where the battle is, more shooting, Tony gets blasted out of a door, Mad Dog targets Tony as Chow comes flying through a glass window firing at Mad Dog, who turns and ducks through another glass window ... all done in trade- mark Woo slow motion (one of my favorite scenes!). A scene showing Mad Dog pursuing Tony down a corridor shooting through glass windows along the middle (with Tony shooting back over his shoulder), finally ending with the Mad Dog jumping through a dead-end window. After Tony splits off looking for Mad Dog, he enters the room by kicking a medical gerny toward him and firing igniting it (or was it the otherway around?). Different angle of the eyeball entry shot at the end. Mandarin Version During the warehouse hit scene, Chow shoots at 3 motercycles, shoots at Tony, ducks behind a car, and cut to Chow tossing the grenade. During the hospital showdown, scenes missing from the Cantonese version include : More scenes of the police from outside shooting at the baddies. Music from the movie Predator. The scene where the SWAT team enters the build shows only 2 entering through the air-conditioning duct, approaching a room, and finding a cop "saying don't shoot". More scenes of the cops inside fighting bad and getting shot. In the scene leading up to where Tony accidently shoots a cop, Chow and Tony go down another corridor junction shooting away and Tony gets wounded. Also has another slow-mo corridor cross-cross with Chow and Tony trading sides. When Chow goes back to help with the babies, he goes through some baddies at close range from behind. Chow's cutsey baby scene after taking out 4 guys in the nursery. Different angle of the eyeball entry shot with more flashbacks at the end. There is probably a lot more but these were the standouts. I was able to catch a Cantonese version at the local Chinatown theater. It had some of the bullet entry scenes shortened and the eyeball scene cut. All in all, I think I prefer the Cantonese version over the Mandarin version for its continuity. John Woo needs put together and release a director's cut letterboxed version with all scenes restored !!! THE KILLER - scenes missing from the shorter version There is a complete scene just after Danny meets Jenny for the first time in the lounge bar where Jenny hails a taxi and is assulted by 4 drunks. Danny comes to here aid just like Chow did ... even using a garbage can lid and breaking a bottle over some guy's head. He offers Jenny a ride home, which she accepts, and as they drive off, Chow walks from out of the shadows smoking a cigarette ... he had been watching everthing. When they arrive at Jenny's apartment, she invites Danny in for some tea, they have a conversation and Danny comments that Jenny sings with such emotion ... and she says that she sings for only one man : Jeff. Danny scanss out the window and spots Chow standing outside across the street. When he gets to the street, Chow is gone and he notices a note on his windshield .. which says comething like "thanks for helping Jenny"! now this scene really fits and shows how the two characters begin to bond and begin some sort of trust for one another. Another scene follows Jeff and Jenny back to Sidney's house just after the airport diversion. The scene envolves Jeff and Jenny eating dinner as Sidney returns from leaving the Police station after Danny's partner is ambushed. Most of the other cuts were scene continuity shots : after Chow wastes the 4 baddies at his appartment, they show him leaving as the police arrive. As he gets into his car and speeds off, Danny arrives and sees the car leaving the scene. After Danny carterizes Chow's wound after Sidney's house battle, they show the dark sunglasses assassin tracking them and finding the turnikit and stuff that they left behind. Also the end battle shows the baddies exiting the church using a smoke bomb and slightly more violence where Chow shots a few more baddies and gets shot and bounces off the wall to shoot more baddies. There's probably more, but this is what I noticed switching between the two versions. 5. Video and laser disc companies Great Britain TVB International: Official licensees, who do very good quality duplication. Unfortunately, their films are mostly pretty dull. TVB have a sales office at Shaftesbury Avenue in London, where you can buy their tapes. Their films are also packaged and sold by a company called Film Extremes; be aware that Film Extremes also sell copies of other origin, which are sometimes of poor quality. Film Extremes have a shop at 3a Buck Street (near the Camden Town subway station) in London. Go there and meet Rick Baker, publisher of Eastern Heroes and a great source of knowledge about everything to do with Hong Kong movies! Hong Kong Hong Kong video tapes are professionally duplicated - it just doesn't show sometimes! Often subtitles slide off the screen, and action is lost at the sides of a widescreen movie. But despite these shortcomings, they are usually the best quality you're likely get, at least if you want english subtitles. And fortunately, quality is improving; many companies now letterbox most of their films, for instance. If you want to buy tapes or discs, they are extremely expensive: $100 US is not uncommon - and twice that amount if the movie comes in two parts! Cinema City Cinema City make very video poortransfers or their films - it seems like they just point a camera at the middle of the picture and hope for the best. A lot of action is lost on the sides, and subtitles often disappear from view. Their laser discs, on the other hand, are usually letterboxed, but the picture quality can still be bad, far below USA/Japan standards. They release many good films, such as all John Woo/Chow Yun Fat films, many Tsui Hark productions, etc, but their recent tendency to do censor cuts is very worrying. Mei Ah Video Production Co. Unit 15-28 17/F Metro Center Phase 1 32 Kam Hing Street Kowloon Bay Kowloon Hong Kong tel 754 28 55 fax 799 36 43 Consistently good quality, though no HiFi. Some recent releases have been letterboxed and the subtitles are always readable. Mei Ah release many big films, but also quite a lot of dross and filmed-on-video stuff. Ocean Shores Suite 2103-6 Hang Lung Centre 2 Paterson Street Hong Kong Fax: 8908779 Average quality transfers with simple copy-protection. Ocean Shores seem to release very few interesting films at the moment, mostly low-budget stuff. Star Entertainment The most consistently high-class of the Hong Kong companies - always letterboxed, hi-fi tapes with no copy protection. Most Star releases are without subtitles but a few new releases like "Blade of Fury" and "Raped by an Angel" have subtitles. Let's hope for more! Star handle many of the best films like "Once Upon A Time In China" part I and II and everything with Jackie Chan. Universe Laser & Video Mostly letterboxed, hifi releases of excellent quality. Many tapes are very heavily copy-protected - so bad that it makes even the originals hard to view on some TV:s! They have released some good stuff like Chow Sin Che films and Heroic Trio, but are also the outlet for a lot of mindnumbingly awful Andy Lau comedies. Malaysia The Malaysian tapes are getting better and better - less of poor VHS-toVHS copies, and more that actually seem to be made from professional master tape. But the quality often varies even on two copies of the same film from the same manufacturer! Official tapes are recognized by their Bahasa Malaysian subtitles, and often have commercial breaks. There are also a lot of black-market tapes; these are ususally uncut and without Malaysian subtitles. Almost all Malaysian tapes have english and chinese subtitles. Solid Gold Video: Very good (but not very subtle!) cover art. Average copy quality, often cut. Speedy Video 29 & 31 Jalan 1/76 Desa Pandan Jalan Kampung Pandan 55100 Kuala Lumpur Speedy have a lot of big name films. Many of their tapes are taped directly from the uncut Hong Kong laserdiscs. Triumph Success Associated Video Distributors SDN BDH No. 338 1st Floor Wisma Sys Jalan Raja Laut 50350 Kuala Lumpur Triumph seem to get their source material from Malaysian cinema version. This means that they are censored. They are also often shortened for other reasons - perhaps to save tape? Kavein Video Avoid these at all costs, says Lou Smogor (paradox@depauw.edu): "They are one of the major tape distributors in Malaysia. They have absolutely the worst transfers of any company I have ever seen. They seem to go out of the way to find the worst reels of all the release prints and assemble them to make a film. It seems to be a point of pride to them that at least 50% of the titles are off screen, and frequently the picture just slides off the screen, leaving, for example, a couple of inches of black at the top." U.S.A. NYUE Enterprises (sometimes tapes are marked Rainbow Video & Audio) 59-13 68th Ave. Ridgewood NY 11385 USA Official seller ofHong Kong films in North East US - quality varies, but has improved. Carries a lot of excellent films (and a lot of others too of course!) NYUE don't sell directly to customers outside the US, but you can get their tapes from various mailorder companies. Tai Seng Marketing 170 South Spruce Avenue Suite 200 South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA tel: (415) 871 - 8118, (800) 888-3836 fax: (415) 871 - 2392 According to Jeff Dove (jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us) "High quality tranfers from films. They sell tapes of movies imported from China. The picture quality isgeneally very good, but sometimes the films with English subtitles (most of them) are hard to read because of light letters on a light background or sentences cut off from lack of letterboxing. Their are 1345 listings in the latest catalog, including many Hong Kong action favorites." "Only the titles in the catalog are in English, with the directors, stars, and prices in Chinese. I haven't called to place an order (I have rented their products in video stores) so I don't have any pricing information. I faxed my address to them and they mailed me their catalog for free." Accepts no credit cards, does not sell outside of USA. Prices: "$50.00 for a tape that is less than six months old, and $39.99 for one that is greater than six months old." World Video & Supply Inc. 150 Executive Park Blvd. Suite 1600 San Francisco, CA 94134 USA Fax: +1-415-468-1381 Many hard-to-find titles like Tsui Harks early cannibal oddity We Are Going To Eat You. 6. Bibliography Books Chris Berry, ed. : Perspectives on Chinese Cinema, British Film Institute 1991, ISBN 0-85170-272-4 Mainly Chinese films, but also some bits about Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong articles are from ca. 1987. John A. Lent : The Asian Film Industry, Christopher Helm Ltd. 1990, ISBN 0-7470-2000-0 Good chapters on virtually every film-producing country in Asia, and the Hong Kong bit is interesting and comparatively up-to-date. Meyers, Harlib, Palmer : From Bruce Lee to the Ninjas - Martial Arts Movies, Citadel Press 1985, ISBN 0-86369-474-8 This book is great if you want to read about the "classic" kung-fu films, but unfortunately it stops short when the fun REALLY begins, ca. 1985. Magazines & Fanzines: Asian Eye 253 College Street #108 Toronto, Ontario Canada M5T 1R5 Only one issue as yet. The first issue covers a lot of "beginners" ground, like John Woo, Tsui Hark and Jackie Chan; I recommend it as a very good starting point if you want to read more about Hong Kong movies. According to the editor: "Asian Eye is published whenever the editor feels motivated. Issues available for $5 (plus CDN$1/ US$2 postage). Make cheques payable to Colin Geddes (US cash preferred). Also available for 'zine trade or barter. Contributions more than welcome (it speeds up the next issues arrival), but drop me a line before you start typing away. Advertising space available for next issue." Asian Trash Cinema P O Box 5367 Kingwood TX 77325 USA Co-edited and funded by Video Search of Miami's Tom Weisser, edited by Craig Ledbetter (who also edits European Trash Cinema). Single issues are $6.00 or 4 for $20.00. I don't really like ATC:s attitude towards Hong Kong films - a mix of ignorance and sensationalism - but the fanzine is getting better, and shouldn't be missed by anyone who's into Hong Kong movies. Just don't believe anything they say about Video Search of Miami! Eastern Heroes PO Box 409 London, SE18 3DW England Rick Baker is probably the biggest Hong Kong movie enthusiast/ entrepeneur in the U. K., and Eastern Heroes is a good info-packed though slightly sloppy fanzine. Apparently Rick is planning to expand the 'zine into a professional magazine, so don't send any subscription money now. Film Extremes PO Box 409 London, SE18 3DW England Published by Ken Miller (of horror fanzine Imaginator, one of the first in Britain to touch on HK movies) and Rick Baker (Eastern Heroes) this is roughly half Hong Kong and half horror/ underground. Published irregularly, I only know of 2 issues. Issue 1 had a big interview with Chow Yun Fat, #2 had Ching Sui-Tung. Hong Kong Film Connection P.O. Box 867225 Plans, TX. 75086-7225 USA Neat little news-letter with lots of info and Chinese signs for all movies reviewed. Among the contributors are several "netters". Hong Kong Film Monthly 601 Van Ness Ave #E3728 SF, CA, 94102 USA subscriptions: $15 for six months Says Jeff Dove (jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us): I just got the free preview issue of this new fanzine. It covers what's showing in the SF area, but also has other articles. This issue had a review of The New Legend of Shaolin and an article on the 1994 HK International Film Festival in SF. It's a low-tech monthly, but the writing is good and the spirit is right. They say future issues will be larger, and the July issue will be the Jackie Chan special. Impact M.A.I. Publications Revenue Chambers St. Peter's Street Huddersfield HD1 1EL England This English magazine coversall sorts of action movies; mostly Schwarzenegger/Segal/van Damme stuff,but there is also a 2-3 page column called China Beat with the latestnews about Hong Kong movies. They have also had several specials on people like Jackie Chan, Mihelle Yeoh, *Yuen Biao*, John Woo etc. Subscriptions are £21.50 UK, £24 Europe surface, £36 Europe air, £45 World-wide, for 12 issues. Oriental Cinema Distributed by: Draculina Publishing P O Box 696 Centralia, IL 62801 USA Damon Foster's fanzine is probably the oldest running fanzine focusing on Asian films; it started as a Godzilla 'zine before most of us were born (or entered a chinesevideo shop, at any rate!) Still very enthusiastic and nicely chaotic, it's well worth getting. Single issues are $ 2.75. Video Watchdog P.O.Box 5283 Cincinatti, OH 45205-0283 USA tel: (513) 471 - 8989 This professional-looking fanzine has an excellent 2-3 page column on Asian video releases each issue. Even though I would wish for more pages, the info is always firstclass. Most major movies get a mention, with details on running times, different labels etc. The new yearly Video Watchdog Special Edition contains a long and useful list of video sources, including several for Asian films. Also has contributors' picks for 1993's best releases, which include quite a lot of Hong Kong films. 6-issue subscriptions are $24 (bulk) and $35 (1st) inside the USA, $33 (surface) and $45 (air) outside. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hong Kong movies around the world This is a listing of places where you can find Hong Kong films on video and laser disc, for sale or for rental. You'll also find listings of movie theaters and other local Hong Kong Movie-related information. If your city, state, or country is not listed, please don't hesitate to write to me and describe the situation where you live. This listing is as yet very rudimentary, and I'm counting on you to fill in the blanks! That is, as long as I don't have enough money to go around the world and find out for myself... -- Lars Erik Holmquist (md2holle@mdstud.chalmers.se) Sections: Australia by Ian Parkin (iap@scammell.ecos.tne.oz.au) Sweden by Lars Erik Holmquist (md2holle@mdstud.chalmers.se) USA Houston by Brad Daniels (daniels@biles.com) Los Angeles Washington, DC Australia Where do I findHK films on video/laserdisc to rent? Melbourne has a chinatown :-) As well as the shops within the chinatown area in the city there are also several 'out of city' areas where chinese shops are found. In the belowlist I will be a bit biased towards Laserdiscs, as this is my 'medium' of choice. All video tapes are likely to be PAL and the LD's are likely to be NTSC. Central City Xanadu ( LD rental - Both HK & other ) 190Russell Street, Cnr Little Bourke Street Victoria 3000 Tel : (03) 639 1976 Fax : (03) 639 1975 ( A good selection of new HK films. They tend to sell some of the stock as it gets older. They have a selection of non-HK films, but these titles tend not to be as recent as other shops.) Anh Thanh Video ( LD & Video - HK only ) Shop 29, Midcity Arcade 200, Bourke Street Victoria 3000 ( Just moved from it's old location on Lonsdale Street. A fair selection of older LD's. A wide selection of videos. ) Richmond Anh Thanh Video ( LD & Video - HK only ) 194 Victoria Street Richmond Victoria 3121 Tel : (03) 428 2479 ( Large selection of videos, smallish selection of LD's ) Box Hill Laser World ( LD rental - Both HK & Other ) Shop 7, 938-940 Whitehorse Road Box Hill Victoria 3128 Tel : (03) 899 6692 Fax : (03) 899 6692 ( A wide selection of HK films. A lot of older titles - some bought from Xanadu - including a lot of early John Woo/Chow Yun Fat titles. Also stocks a lot of new titles, both HK & other. A small but recent collection of non-HK titles. ) Musique Mad 1st Floor, 934 Whitehorse Road Box Hill Victoria 3128 Tel : (03) 899 8288 Fax : (03) 899 8388 ( Again a wide selection of HK titles, with a lot of older titles. A fairly wide selection of non-HK titles. ) Anh Thanh Video ( LD & Video - HK only ) 13-15 Carrington Street Box Hill Victoria 3128 Tel : (03) 899 6992 ( Large selection of videos, smallish selection of LD's ) Flemington Anh Thanh Video ( LD & Video - HK only ) 329 Racecourse Road Flemington Victoria 3031 Tel : (03) 376 5615 ( Large selection of videos ) Springvale Anh Thanh Video ( LD & Video - HK only ) 4 Buckingham Avenue Springvale Victoria 3171 Tel : (03) 547 1717 ( Large selection of videos ) General Comments on Renting LD's Generally all sources have a similar pricing structure : A$ 35 membership per year; A$ 100 refundable deposit per disc ( you can usually put down a maximum of A$ 200 on your credit card and still hire 5 discs :-), the credit card slip will not be cashed as long as the disc is returned and not damaged ); A$7 per disc rented ( some sources have a credit scheme where you can pay in advance and get cheaper rental charges ); the rental period is usually 1 day for a new title and several days for older titles; disc rental is per disc *not* per title ( i.e. 'Cageman' is on two discs ); LD's usually have a cantonese and a mandarin soundtrack; LD's are not always subtitled, this is sometimes not immediately obvious from the LD sleeve as subtitles LD's are not always marked as such, and most LD sleeves have some English writing on them. Videos If the source rents both LD's and videos you can usually get the video membership thrown in for free if you join for the LD's. Where Can I buy/import HK films on LD? Try the rental sources mentioned above, most claim to be able to import from HK, the US and Japan. Other sources are listed below : Hollywood & Vine Lennox Street Richmond Victoria 3121 Tel : (03) 427 7933 ( Shop is run by self-confessed John Woo/Chow Yun Fat fans. Also sells HK film posters. May import via AudioVision. Will also import video tapes to order. ) Audio Vision 401 Glenhuntly Road Elsternwick Victoria Tel : (03) 532 8500 ( Some people have complained about AudioVision not refunding money if the requested title is not available, they prefer to give credit against another title. I have not used them, so cannot comment ). Laserland 883 High Street Thornbury Victoria 3071 Tel : (03) 416 9133 As ever, trying to import from Japan can be problematic if you do not speak Japanese, the following claim to me able to import *certain* titles from Japan: Hobby Japan Shop 14 Midcity Arcade 200 Bourke Street Victoria 3000 Tel : (03) 639 1219 Fax : (03) 639 1219 The Release Path When I flew to Australia, February 94, I flew via Hong Kong. I noticed that several of the titles being shown in HK were also being shown in the Melbourne chinatown. The two titles I noted were 'Treasure Hunt' ( the monk film that Chow Yun Fat mentioned in The Scala tape I transcribed ) and 'Girls Unbuttoned'. From this I would say that the Melbourne chinatown gets titles soon after their release in HK. Laserdisc and video titles seem to appear to be available as soon as they are legally available. I know nothing about the bootleg/pirate sources of films. Most of the videos are dubbed from an original master, this is obvious as they often do not have an 'official' label, more often than not it is a handwritten one. Very few HK titles get local releases on video. Hardboiled has been released on rental video, for about 4 weeks now, but I have not yet seen a copy. HK films other than on LD or video Cinemas Apart from the cinemas in and around chinatown there are a few independent cinemas that regularly show HK films - usually subtitled cantonese prints. Chinatown & City Capitol Cinema 113 Swanston Street Vivtoria Tel : (03) 650 4756 Chinatown Cinema 189 Lonsdale Street Victoria Tel : (03) 662 3465 Other : Valhalla 89 High Street Northcote Victoria Tel : (03) 482 2001 Panorama Theatre 145 Brunswick Street Fitzroy Victoria Tel : (03) 417 2298 ( Most/all presentations are from LD ) Television Melbourne, and I believe the rest of Australia, has a multi-cultural TV channel called SBS that occassionaly shows HK films. Sweden Sweden does not have any Chinatowns as such; but all larger cities have a couple of Chinese restaurants and at least one Chinese grocery store. Göteborg Göteborg has a long tradition of trading with Asia, and a lot of Chinese immigrants live here. There are about half a dozen Chinese grocery stores. China Trading S. Allegatan 2 B 402 32 Göteborg tel: 031 - 13 10 49 (Bootleg tapes - mostly "camcorder bootlegs" of the very worst kind - but they are fast; often get new movies only a few weeks after the world premiere. They also have a wide selection of TV shows from TVB. Tape rentals are 20 SEK. Also have laserdiscs; membership fee is 500 SEK.) Hung Fat Trading Östra Hamngatan 17 Göteborg tel: (New shop, imports original tapes from Hong Kong. Good selection of recent stuff. Rentals are 20 SEK per tape, which means that most movies cost 40 SEK. The only problem is that new movies are so popular, they are usually out of the shop for months at a time.) Orient Boden Kungsgatan 17 Göteborg tel: 031 - 11 93 55 (The first shop in Göteborg to carry original Hong Kong tapes. They have a back-log of over 1000 tapes, but are weak on recent stuff; all of their newer tapes are bootlegs. Rentals are 25 SEK per tape.) Udda Ting Andra Långgatan 13 tel: 031 - 24 39 10 (Udda Ting imports odd movies from all over the world - and this includes quite a lot of Hong Kong movies. Has a fair selection of Malaysian tapes, often available a couple of months before the same movie is released in Hong Kong. Also has some NYUE tapes, and an unhealthily large collection of tapes from Video Search of Miami. Tapes cost about 200 SEK.) Stockholm Lisa's Video Klara Norra Kyrkogata 32 111 22 Stockholm (A large selection of original HK tapes, both recent and older movies.) USA Houston Houston Video stores Dynasty Video/Dynasty Mall (on the outside) Bellaire at Corporate Membership $100 for 50 rentals, or $3/rental Excellent selection including older films and TVB series. Cantonese only. World Books and Video (?) Dynasty Mall (on the inside) Bellaire at Corporate Membership $100 for 90 rentals, or $2/rental Decent selection of recent titles in Cantonese and Mandarin. Lots of Peking Opera titles. DiHo Market Bellaire There is a video store with no English name I could find. It's on the east side of the strip center. Mandarin only. Membership $50 for 50 rentals, or $2/rental w/$10 deposit. Cash only, probably pirate tapes. Houston theaters Sun Sing Theatre DiHo Square Bellaire This theatre is hidden back in the corner of DiHo Square (not DiHo Market - it's the westernmost of the two). There's a small green sign giving the name of the theater at the bottom of the signpost for DiHo square. Price is around $6 for a double feature. Los Angeles Video Stores Vidiots 302 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica CA 90405 (310)392-8508 It's across from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Open 7 days a week Sun - thurs 11:00am - 11:00 pm Fri & Sat 11:00am - midnight A good selection of Hong Kong action movies (they have a shelf set aside for them), including John Woo / Chow-Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and others. (Gideon Reich, gidreich@kaiwan.com) Washington, DC Video Stores Video vault Alexandria Has an OK but not very extensive selection of Hong Kong video. There is also supposed to be a store in Chinatown (G Street, I think) that is exclusively Hong Kong video; never been there myself, however. (JonQuest, jonquest@aol.com)