The Glory Days of Hong Kong Exhibition

Hong Kong movies were exploding in the late 80's and early 90's, and Melbourne was a great place to be if you wanted to catch some of the debris.

The two key exhibitors, the Chinatown Cinema (run by Joe Siu Internationalrun by Joe Su International), and the Capitol Cinema (run by the late Raymond Wu), were screening close to a dozen new releases a month. Yes, folks, a month!

Unfortunately, they didn't market their wares in English language newspapers because they had no confidence in the English speaking market, but you could find their flyers floating around inside and outside their cinemas.

Somehow, I managed to see about four Chinese films a week back then; the main shows were always double featured with something just as interesting or rare (I caught up on stuff I'd missed from the 70's and early 80's this way). I was directing TV commercials then, so I must have driven straight from the location or edit suite to catch the later shows. I doubt I got much sleep.

I haven't seen Satin and Steel since it's '94 release, but I remember it having some good stunt work and a very sexy leading lady (Jade Leung of 'Black Cat' fame).

A new Woo and I was there on the first night, of course, with my brother. I walked away a little disappointed with its uneven tone, but, hey, it was a Woo film, and the man was hotter than hot in those days.

I'm not a big fan of Taxi Hunter now and I wasn't a fan of the film when I saw it at the Chinatown in '94, either. Admittedly, I was expecting something quite hardcore, but it didn't deliver the exploitation elements I craved and it faltered as drama, too.

Wong, however, was good. Still is. Always was.

This was one of the few monthly calendars that the Chinatown Cinema released.

A scan of the titles that were playing is proof that it was an absolute golden era for the Hong Kong film fan. I mean, seriously, take a decent gander (click on image to enlarge) at this mouth-watering line-up.

Naked Killer and Doctor Lamb were doubled up for maximum enjoyment. They've got Bullet in the Head, Erotic Ghost Story, and the relatively obscure Day Without Policeman (sic), an uncut version, playing on the same day. Who'd ever leave the fucking theater?

Further down you've got Swordman II, Peking Opera Blues, and the classic Snake in the Eagle's Shadow.

If you'd never seen a Hong Kong movie, this would have been the best opportunity to get seriously started.

Oh, yeah, Laboratory of the Devil, the unofficial "sequel" to Men Behind The Sun, was back for a second look, too. I clearly recall pestering the Chinatown manager for their only one-sheet of Laboratory. He finally gave it to me on the last night of a short season.

Because I was an obsessed nut, I was there for Simon Yam (as a gigolo) in Hong Kong Gigolo. After seeing him for the first time in Bullet in the Head, I was up for any rubbish he was in. This had lots of nudity, but was slow and moronic.

Playing a gigolo also was Alex Man, a Hong Kong actor I never liked. He was in a shitload of movies in the 80's and 90's, but I could never figure out what his appeal was. He didn't fight well, he didn't do action like Chow or Jackie did, and he was kinda unattractive. Actually, he did do some action stuff in the early 80's, but he was never too impressive.

And speak of the devil, here he is again in the bloody silly Crocodile Hunter, an '89 pile of crap.

Sure I saw it. I saw anything with rice and chopsticks back then.

Finally my beloved A Fishy Story (Bu Tuo Wa De Ren; '89), a mostly forgotten masterpiece that was produced by Jackie Chan's company.

It has nothing in common with Jackie except that it was distributed by Golden Harvest.

One of my Top 10 Hong Kong films of all time, it is unbelievably beautiful and directed with enormous skill and feeling by actor Antony Chan.

The director of photography, Peter Pau, went on to shoot a number of Hollywood movies, but nothing he's done since is as ravishing and amazing as this.

I'd like to stick my head out here and say that if someone of substance at Criterion saw this movie, they probably begin negotiations to restore it and release it on Blu-ray. It's that stunning.

I didn't see it for the first time in Melbourne. I saw it in Sydney with old friend and fellow Hong Kong-a-phile Tony Egan. Both of us were blown away by it.

I returned to Melbourne seven days later saw it five times in one week.

Naturally, because the film is so goddamned fucking amazing, it flopped in Hong Kong and did little business at global the Chinatown venues. I don't think the Chinese knew how to market something that was closer to a Carey Grant Hollywood love story (with politics!) than anything remotely like what they'd distributed before (Song of the Exile excepted).

I hope it is given the recognition it deserves one day.

Melbourne's Golden Age of Hong Kong Movie Ads 2

John Woo's Once A Thief ('96) did three weeks at Melbourne's Chinatown Cinema.

I got into its more light-hearted tone, even though I prefer Woo's heavier pics like Bullet in the Head and Just Heroes.

Nonsensical sequel -- not that the original made a terrible lot of sense! Still, the original was far more erotic.

The excellent Queen of Temple Street ('90), a serious-minded look at prostitution in Hong Kong, did zero business in Melbourne.

Armor of God 2 - Operation Condor ('91) was notorious for going way over budget.

I walked out of the cinema extremely bored and disappointed. While overshooting and overspending, director Chan (Jackie) lost sight of plot, pacing, and logic. Even the action was a letdown.

Wong Kar Wai's second feature, Days of Being Wild ('90), bored me to tears. As Tears Go By ('88) was his first effort. I didn't like that, either.

Sibelle Hu and Moon Lee visited the Chinatown for the premier Melbourne screening of Bury Me High ('91), a very ambitious, inconsistent actioner. They were very friendly and eager to answer the craziest audience questions such as "What are your favorite stockings?" and (to Moon): "Do you have a boyfriend, and do you kick him during arguments?"

"I'm too busy for boys," was Moon's answer.

Shot by Peter Pau (A Fishy Story, The Killer, Bride of Chucky, The Bride With White Hair), the film is set in an imaginery country where Vietnamese is often spoken and seen.

Dreary sequel.

Caught Between A Killer And A Bullet

Between The Killer ('89) and Bullet in the Head ('90), John Woo co-directed (with Wu Ma) Just Heroes, easily his most underrated film.

A bloody, romantic actioner with a dense plot, it was made by a bunch of ex-Shaw luminaries such as David Chiang, Danny Lee, Phillip Ko, Lieh Lo, Ti Lung and Kuan Tai Chen; it was intended as a retirement fund for the great Chang Cheh, mentor to Woo and many others.

Legend has it that the elderly director took the takings and used them to finance another film.

Great directors never retire.

Personally, I think the film is exceptional, and it has one of the equal greatest musical scores ever written for a Hong Kong film; the other is Richard Yuen's score for A Fishy Story, an exquisitely beautiful romance.
The action sequences are of a smaller scale than, say, Hard-Boiled

...or Bullet in the Head (my favorite Woo film)

...but they are beautifully choreographed and unusually brutal.

The film's romantic subplot has a powerful impact on the viewer and is definitely not filler.

The original theatrical print was cut.

A shot of Chiang sliding across a factory floor and shooting a gunman at point blank range in the chest was excised. So were some additional dramatic sequences and a number of gory close-ups of the death of Shing Fui-On.

Happily, these censored sections are re-instated in the stunning French DVD from Christopher Gans' releasing company, HK Video (w**.metrofilms.com).

The film is buried inside the French DVD casing of Woo's Once A Thief (Les Associes); it has no English subtitles.