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Tony Leung Chiu Wai is not only one of the best known, but also most respected Asian actors of modern times. He has won awards at film festivals around the world and gained the admiration and respect of his peers, including cinematic legends such as Robert DeNiro (who referred to the actor as the Asian equivalent of Clark Gable) and director Martin Scorsese (who has since gone on to remake one of the actor's most famous films). Usually known in the West simply as Tony Leung, he is not to be confused with fellow thespian Tony Leung Ka Fai, a popular actor in his own right who recently starred in Johnnie To's 2005 triad drama Election. To distinguish the two, Leung has been given the nickname... [read more]
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The sun is shining on the banks of the Han River. It's a beautiful autumn afternoon, and people are enjoying the day with their loved ones. Some play with their dogs, some listen to music, some complain to each other for the umpteenth time despite having gone there to relax. Some, like Park Gang Du, are walking home with their daughters. But this calm is interrupted by something nobody could possibly ever expect: from the river emerges a dark creature, as big as a bus and as fast as a slightly oversized Ferrari. And then comes chaos. This is the kind of experience that can change your life forever, if you actually get away from it healthy enough to talk about it. The Han River is an... [read more]
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Actress. Singer. Model. Miss Hong Kong. Cheng Pei Pei's daughter. After seven years in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, the label most associated with Marsha Yuan may still be the last one, but the American-born 28-year-old actress is slowly finding a path in the industry on her own terms. In person, Marsha Yuan is friendly, straightforward, and quite serious and talkative. The Hong Kong media tends to paint Marsha in a rather lightweight manner, choosing to focus on her looks, body shape, and relationships, but she is actually very dedicated to acting. Then again, contrary to the weight-obsessed perspective of the media, she is also quite slim. Throughout our interview, Marsha showed a... [read more]
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Having starred in several of the biggest and best Hong Kong hits in recent years, including Wilson Yip's SPL: Sha Po Lang and Johnnie To's Election films, Simon Yam is currently enjoying his time in the sun. Although many viewers are only now discovering his suave charms, he has in no way been an overnight success story. The veteran actor is actually one of the hardest working in Hong Kong, having appeared in more than 125 films and 40 television series in a career spanning almost 30 years. During this time, he has played almost every type of role imaginable, from mob bosses to male prostitutes, and has worked with pretty much all of the industry's biggest directors and stars. Known for his... [read more]
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Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was the Kingdom of Korean Dramas. For most of the late 60s, TBC ruled the airwaves, but a little station in Seoul opened its doors in the summer of 1969. Its name was MBC, or Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. The station struggled for the first few years of its existence, with rivals KBS and TBC dominating the ratings war with shows like Lady. Back then, people thought MBC dramas were cheap and uninteresting, but they soon changed their minds. With the combination of two mega hits, Frog Husband and then the first of many Jang Hee Bin, the surging popularity of the station alerted competitors of MBC's arrival. When landmark police procedural The Chief started... [read more]
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Although teen racing drama Initial D and bloody, based-on-a-true-story, cannibal thriller The Untold Story may appear to be two films on opposite ends of the cinematic spectrum, they do have at least one thing in common - both feature Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong Chau Sang in award-winning roles. Similarly, it may be hard to believe, but the noble SP Wong in Infernal Affairs, and Kai San, the disease-carrying serial killer and rapist from Ebola Syndrome, possibly the most loathsome character in film history, are actually played by the same actor, and with the same amount of dedication and style. This contrast in roles can be seen throughout Wong's twenty-year career, which has seen him act... [read more]
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Screaming their hearts out before the start of every game, supporters of the legendary British football team Liverpool always sing Gerry & The Pacemakers' You'll Never Walk Alone to welcome their heroes to the field. That song perfectly describes the career of Chungmuro's former enfant prodige and action kid, Ryoo Seung Wan. With today's brand of maverick auteurs making it seem as if directors are lonely generals commanding an army of invisible faces, those precious personal relationships Ryoo developed for most of his directing career ended up greatly helping him in the long run. Ryoo Seung Wan was born on 1973 in Onyang, a small town in Chungcheong Province. Those were the days when... [read more]
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The comic book industry in Hong Kong may not have found as much success as its counterparts in Japan, but it has nevertheless enjoyed a fairly rich history combining Chinese culture and foreign aesthetics. While the look of the comics seem to derive greatly from Japanese manga, the stories themselves are still uniquely Chinese, featuring themes of honor and loyalty and, of course, lots of fighting. With such enormous success over the years, it was no surprise that the Hong Kong film industry would eventually bring comics to the big screen. True to Life? From Feel 100% to Young and Dangerous Hong Kong comic adaptations are more similar to that of Japan than the United States, in that both... [read more]
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Every revolution that brings an era to its end also marks the coming of a new age. When the Supreme Court ruled against the eight major studios' block booking practices in 1948, the studio system and Hollywood's Golden Age came to an end. Another court ruling in Korea, however, paved the way for what would become an unforgettable Golden Age for Korean television. When the government merged TV stations KBS and TBC in the early 80s, leading broadcaster MBC found itself without one of its major rivals for the better part of the decade. Despite the downward spiral in quality caused by the lack of competition, MBC's greatest strength was its Hollywood-style studio system: the channel employed... [read more]
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Ghosts are no strangers to Hong Kong cinema, especially in the horror genre. Horror films often feature supernatural beings such as vampires, zombies, and demons. Occasionally these "ghosts" are actually faked by other characters or generated by the characters' hallucinations. Ghosts, real and pseudo ones, also exist in other genres such as romance, action, and even comedy. Some of them have fierce appearances, while some just look the same as human beings. We find them frightening not because of how they look, but what they represent. As individuals, as members of a society, or as residents of a fast changing city, we all need to repress or abandon certain things in order to progress or... [read more]
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Hou Hsiao Hsien is one of the most important film directors in contemporary Taiwan. Even if his films are not always blockbusters, there is no doubt in his artistic achievements. Peggy Chiao, author of Films: Made in Taiwan, describes Hou as a director whose "unique aesthetic style illustrates a combination of the introspectiveness and maturity of the Eastern style and the Westernized objectivity and alienation." Hou himself summarizes such an aesthetic in one line: "Being close yet so faraway, being faraway yet so close." Spoken in praise of Stanley Kwan, this line also captures Hou's perspective on what film art should be like. Revisiting Hou Hsiao Hsien's Early Works Born in 1947, Hou... [read more]
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Acting is acting, and singing is singing, and most of the time it's best if those who do the former avoid the latter, and vice versa. When Britney Spears made a movie, it was seen as a monstrous joke, one even more funny than the phrase "starring Madonna." If anyone had actually seen Mariah Carey's Glitter, they would no doubt have found it as ludicrous as those unfortunate few whose job it was to see and review it. Generally speaking, the idea that a singer has any business in front of a camera for anything other than a video (or drunken bedroom antics that become a downloadable embarrassment) is antithetical to the American pop audience. Singers sing, actors act; why mess up a good thing?... [read more]
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Japanese pop has been constantly changing in the last two decades. Once an industry swamped with traditional style music, the Japanese pop market has evolved into a variety of genres mainly influenced by the Western pop scene. One of the innovators in the last decade was Utada Hikaru, an artist with a unique voice that has changed the J-pop scene for years to come. Musical by Nature Born on January 19, 1983 in New York City, Hikaru's parents are popular J-pop singer Keiko Fuji and music producer Teruzane Utada. Often tagging along with her parents to the recording studio, Hikaru was exposed to a variety of musical genres at a very young age, making for a melting pot of influence on her... [read more]
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Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai founded Milkyway Image in 1996. Their early productions such as Too Many Ways to be No.1, The Longest Nite, and Expect the Unexpected all echo with Hong Kong people's worries over Hong Kong-Mainland relations after the 1997 handover. Some critics also interpret later Milkyway Image films such as PTU, Running on Karma, and Breaking News along the line of post-1997 Hong Kong politics, and actually most film noirs directed or produced by Johnnie To have struck Hong Kong people's over-sensitive political nerve. In Election and its sequel, Johnnie To openly claims that he is trying to explore how the triad society evolved with Hong Kong's post-handover transition. As... [read more]
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Typhoon, the latest effort from Friend director Kwak Kyung Taek, is a telling example of modern commercial Korean cinema. On the one hand, it is an explosive action blockbuster in the Hollywood model, with the highest budget in Korean history and on location filming in Pusan, Thailand, and Russia. On the other, it is a deeply personal and uniquely Korean film, based upon and shot through with the tension resulting from the North/South conflict. Over the last few years, more and more Korean directors have been using the cinematic medium to explore the division of their nation, and to express the often painful and bitter sentiments that it arouses. The division of Korea has its roots in the... [read more]
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Donnie Yen is currently one of the hottest martial arts stars on the planet, having caused a sensation breaking bones in Wilson Yip's SPL: Sha Po Lang, hailed by many as an instant classic and one of the best films to have come out of Hong Kong in many years. This comes on top of roles in Tsui Hark's Seven Swords and Zhang Yimou's Hero, as well as in a number of high profile Hollywood films, clearly marking him as one of the genre's top performers. In addition to acting, Yen has dabbled in almost every aspect of filmmaking, including direction, production, choreography, and even composing soundtracks. This is perhaps not surprising considering Yen's diverse background, which has seen him... [read more]
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Although the Hong Kong film industry has according to many critics been suffering from a crisis of creativity and quality for at least a decade, through these wilderness years one production house has remained a beacon of distinction, namely Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai's Milkyway Image. From humble origins, the company has gone from strength to strength and has now become a recognized brand name which for many guarantees superior entertainment. This critical and commercial success has not only been at home but also abroad, and recent years have seen a number of Milkyway films enjoying praise at prestigious festivals such as Cannes and Venice. Whilst Milkyway made its name through dark,... [read more]
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In the mid 1970s, Hong Kong cinema underwent a significant linguistic shift; new local productions increasingly used the Cantonese dialect as opposed to the Mandarin that had predominated the cinema during much of the 60s and early 1970s. This allowed for a greater display of local idioms, culture, and humor. Nobody is as closely associated with Cantonese humor of the period, and neither does anyone deserve any more credit, than the Hui Brothers. Michael, Sam and Ricky Hui became the leaders of the Cantonese resurgence in Hong Kong in the 1970s and 80s, gaining fame for their work in front of as well as behind the camera and, of course, on the concert stage and in the recording studio. Sam... [read more]
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Uplifting Youth Films Shinobu Yaguchi's latest film Swing Girls is almost identical to his previous hit Waterboys, save for a simple gender switch. It then reminds us of Masayuki Suo's Sumo Do, Sumo Don't and Shall We Dance, and also Itsumichi Isomura's Give it All. All these are uplifting zero-to-hero films centering on a group of young people (with the exception of Shall We Dance's middle-aged protagonist) who learn an unusual skill, in most cases, a sport. Films in this genre all follow the same formula: some know-nothing youngsters need to learn a skill in order to excel in a competition or a show for some weird or even absurd reasons. They then strive for glory and succeed in the end.... [read more]
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"The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences." - Edward W. Said, Orientalism The late scholar Edward W. Said (1935-2003), founder of post-colonial criticism, pointed out in his influential work Orientalism (1978) that since the 17th Century, Western literature and academic studies about "the Orient" were founded upon imagination of the East, constructing it as "the Other." In these discourses, which implied the colonizer's power over the colonized, "the Orient" in fact represented certain characteristics (such as decadence, backwardness, sensuality) repudiated by the West,... [read more]
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