416 Matches Found

Kung Fu Stuntmen

A new documentary film revisits the golden age of kung fu stuntmen and action directors in Hong Kong during the 1960s-'80s, exploring their pain and struggles. The documentary is a tribute to kung fu stuntmen. “They risked their lives for stunts,” said kung fu choreographer Yuen Bin. In their heyday, these stuntmen and choreographers presented the best, most creative and most complicated kung fu fight sequences anywhere in the world, creating stunts that looked seemingly impossible.

Kung Fu Stuntmen

7.2 2021
Cinema Hong Kong: Kung Fu

Filmmaker Ian Taylor examines the impressive legacy of Hong Kong cinema -- specifically, how martial arts crossed borders and become an international phenomenon -- with the help of footage and interviews with the stars who made the genre what it is today. Director Lau Ka Leung (who helmed The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) joins in, sharing his thoughts on how certain cinematic technologies have improved martial arts films and expanded their appeal, on the set of Drunken Monkey (2003).

Cinema Hong Kong: Kung Fu

6.8 2003
Jackie Chan: My Stunts

Jackie Chan: My Stunts shows some of the tricks of the trade that Jackie and his stunt team utilize to perform their stunts. This is not an endless gag reel of stunts gone wrong, but an in depth look at how timing and camera placement can make or break a shot. Jackie will show you what is done to enhance fights and protect the stuntmen from getting injured. Of course, if the character you are portraying is wearing shorts and a tank top, you just have to get hurt!

Jackie Chan: My Stunts

7.2 1999
Keep Rolling

One of Hong Kong's most influential filmmakers, Ann Hui, becomes a “star” for the first time in Man Lim-chung's directorial debut. A forerunner of the New Wave, Hui’s tumultuous, forty-year career is an unequivocal testimony to her unyielding dedication to filmmaking, and her expedition into the metamorphic city. This biopic probes into the acclaimed director’s idiosyncratic world, where we witness her rashness and goofiness, as well as her humanistic concerns for the everyday nobodies which make her films so moving.

Keep Rolling

8.0 2020
Nobody's Perfect

Former classmates Alexandra and Alexis may share the same name, but they couldn’t be more different. Alexandra is beautiful, intelligent, rich, and completely insufferable. Self-centered and patronizing, she’s an expert in quick put-downs, nasty name-calling, and brokering gossip into profit. Alexis is a simple-minded, pure-hearted, and hard-working gal who is constantly bullied by her future sister-in-law’s family with whom she stays. Crossing paths again by chance, the two girls don’t want anything to do with each other – until a freak accident causes them to switch bodies!

Nobody's Perfect

4.0 2008
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.

Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

4.9 1998
Boundless

As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.

Boundless

7.5 2013
The Invincible Fighter: The Jackie Chan Story

The setting is Hong Kong and the hero of the film is Jackie Chan. This documentary chronicles the life and entertainment career of the star of Hong Kong action films. Archival photographs and the personal recollections of family and friends paint a portrait of the private life of the film star. Clips from movies, such as Top Fighter and Rush Hour, as well as the television series Jackie Chan's Adventures show the martial artist's prowess and skill. Interviews with Chanand his colleagues give viewers an inside look at how some of the stunts are set up and carried out, as they put the action in action films.

The Invincible Fighter: The Jackie Chan Story

0.0 1996
Perfect Life

Perfect Life, the second feature by Emily Tang (Tang Xiaobai), at first revolves around Li Yueying, a young woman in the cold north-east of China. In a world where no one is waiting for an untrained, inexperienced woman, she knows that in order to fulfil her dreams she will have to resort to her own stubbornness and selfishness. Her father deserted her mother and the money saved by the family is destined for her younger brother's studies. When she stops working for a shop making artificial limbs in order to take a job as a chambermaid, she attracts the attention of a mysterious criminal, Mongol. Then in the editing, the documentary story of Jenny from Hong Kong starts to emerge. She thought she had her life perfectly worked out, but when her marriage breaks down, she also finds herself in financial problems and has to fight for the custody of her children.

Perfect Life

0.0 2009
The Posterist

Mr Yuen Tai-Yung (b. 1941) is a Chinese artist known for his creation of over 200 iconic Hong Kong movie posters - which include many films from the Bruce Lee, Hui Brothers, Stephen Chow, Jacky Chan and Sammo Hung's kung fu and comedy series. This documentary chronicles the director's quest to find the reclusive master and subsequent encounters with the man within a period of 12 months. It captures the life and art of the self-taught genius who single-handedly depicted the look and feel of what can be describe as the Golden Era of Hong Kong Cinema from 1975 to 1992. Western audiences might recognize some familiar faces from the prolific painter's recent works - undeniably breathtaking - such as the portraits of Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson, James Dean, John Lennon, Audrey Hepburn and Anne Hathaway.

The Posterist

7.5 2016
Cinema Hong Kong: The Beauties of the Shaw Studio

Hong Kong cinemas had a wide range of glamorous female stars during the golden age of the 60's and 70's. The series will take the audience on a sentimental journey to the good old days and once again look at the expansive epic costume dramas and huangmei operas in which actresses played both the male and female roles. Rare interviews with Sir Run Run Shaw, stars Ivy Ling Po, Shaw Yin Yin, Tanny Tie Ni and Cheng Pei Pei are also featured.

Cinema Hong Kong: The Beauties of the Shaw Studio

7.0 2003
Of the Unknown

A short visual meditation, OF THE UNKNOWN is set in Hong Kong where millionaires and the ‘working poor’ live side by side in one of Asia’s wealthiest and most densely populated cities. The film explores how our notions of freedom and happiness are shaped by the place we occupy, both literally and metaphorically, in our society. What is the importance of freedom when one faces a daily struggle for survival? Is it even possible to have dreams, or to dream, if one was never given any opportunities in life? https://vimeo.com/113548756

Of the Unknown

0.0 2014
Dragons of the Orient

For martial arts enthusiasts and fans of Jet Li, Yang Ching, and Wang Chun, this historical filmography about the origins of Chinese martial arts, the legendary Shaolin Monastery, and modern kung fu will prove to be an irresistible treat. The documentary is told through two fictional characters, Instructor Wang and Hong Kong sports reporter Ms. Chin Chin, who chance to meet in a park. Ms. Chin Chin is writing a story about the history of martial arts and so Instructor Wang offers to help. Together they visit the Shaolin Monastery and view a weapons demonstration by the monks.

Dragons of the Orient

6.0 1988
No No Sleep

In 2015, Tsai Ming-Liang was once again invited by the Hong Kong International Film Festival to make the opening short film. This time, he selected Shibuya station in Tokyo as his main filming location and invited the famous Japanese actor Masanobu Ando to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng. They sleep separately at a capsule hotel and cleanse themselves at a public bath. Their fatigued bodies yearn for sleep but restless minds keep them for falling asleep. "No No Sleep" won the Best Director Award at the Taipei Film Festival.

No No Sleep

5.9 2015
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Kung Fu World!!!

A spoof of the "investigative journalism" format of the HK TV show, "The Great Disclosure" (a program similar to "Hard Copy" and "Entertainment Weekly"). The program interweaves silly shenanigans with equally silly segments debunking common legends about Shaolin Temple, Hopping Corpses, the origins of Wing Chun, and the origins of Kung Fu in general. The film also hits on popular Qigong feats such as walking on fire, rolling in glass, breaking a spear with one's throat, and breaking bricks over one's head with a sledge hammer.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Kung Fu World!!!

1.0 2000
Seven Women: Liza Wang

In the last episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976), Lisa (Lisa Wang) suffers from "environmental depression" and those around her treat her like a lunatic. Joyce deploys a creative mix of dialogue and monologue to illustrate Lisa's complicated personality. She might act like any normal obedient daughter around her parents, yet other times she reveals her overly sensitive and suspicious mind as her moods run the gamut from poetic to violent. The villa where Lisa is sent to heal becomes a tumultuous battleground when a young doctor who has his own psychological hang-ups begins treating her and a conflict of egos is ignited.

Seven Women: Liza Wang

0.0 1976
Walker

In 2012, the Hong Kong International Film Festival invited Tsai Ming-Ling to make the opening short film. Having grown up with Hong Kong's popular culture, Tsai Ming-Liang decided to pay homage by making a "Walker" film, contrasting the Walker's slowness with the frenzied pace of Hong Kong's cosmopolitan life. The film ends with a song by Hong Kong actor and singer Samuel Hui, who was Tsai Ming-Liang's idol during his youth. The film was invited to be the closing short film for the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

Walker

6.1 2012
Bruce Lee in G.O.D.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D. is a "docudrama" about the filming of Game of Death. The first 40 minutes of the film is a dramitisation of events before Lee dropped filming for GOD to do Enter the Dragon, with interviews with people associated with the film. The remainder of the movie is an alternate cut of the found Game of Death footage. It uses archive footage from the original film and recreated scenes with stand-ins and the plotline of Bruce's screen notes to bring us what some would call a more complete version of Lee's Game of Death.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D.

2.7 2000
Dare Ya!

“Dare Ya!” explores what has made the members of Hong Kong’s most controversial band, LMF (LazyMuthaFuckaz), the new “voice of Hong Kong youth”. Their music may raise eyebrows with the older generation, but to their hardcore fan base, LMF’s point of view is their “voice” and their music is the heartbeat–and their hopes, dreams, nightmares, concerns, problems, and solutions for their future. As the title of this raw, different, relevant, and timely film suggests, “Dare Ya!” is a challenge to Hong Kong to take a good look at itself, warts and all, because only by facing up to our flaws can we become the “World City” that we aspire to. “Dare Ya!” is not just a documentary about the exploits and growth of ten ordinary young men from the Estates who just happen to be members of a rap band, but a wake-up call for Hong Kong.

Dare Ya!

5.0 2002
Chinese Portrait

Shot over the course of ten years on both film and video, the film consists of a series of carefully composed tableaux of people and environments. Pedestrians shuffle across a bustling Beijing street, steelworkers linger outside a deserted factory, tourists laugh and scamper across a crowded beach, worshippers kneel to pray in a remote village. With a painterly eye for composition, Wang captures China as he sees it, calling to a temporary halt a land in a constant state of change.

Chinese Portrait

6.9 2018