Asian Cult Cinema (aka Asian
Trash Cinema), by Tom Weisser
Boulevard Books, N-Y, 1997, 315p, $14, ISBN 1 57297 228 9
The whole Weisser family got involved in this HK cinema bible.
Tom Weisser, a genuine American fan of trash cinema, created in 1991 along with his
Japanese wife, Yuko Mihora Weisser, and his daughter Jessica Weisser, a quarterly magazine
formerly called Asian Trash Cinema, and renamed Asian cult Cinema.
Thanks to his vast experience and useful connections, he wrote in 1997 this book divided
into four parts. The first one is the most substantial (206p). It deals with reviews about
films produced from the New Wave to 1995. However, the choice of films dealt with may be
questionable. For each feature, there is a detailed cast, a plot summary and a review. The
second part is a listing of the most important martial arts movies that belong to the
history of the local cinema. The author takes his time to list all the Bruce Lee clones
and their cheesy flicks, which after being funny is not very interesting. The third part
presents filmographies of a lot of directors. Finally, most of the movies made at this
time with famous Cantonese actors and actresses are listed. A few B&W photos
contribute to a sober lay out. It has to be said that the writer taste is not necessarily
the most common one and his 'American audience reflexes' tend to over-estimate popular and
graphically impressive flicks and to underestimate genre movies or other intimate or
non-exploitation features. This matter and various mistakes unfortunately make this book
an anti-reference, and therefore not a first choice purchase.
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Asian pop Cinema (Bombay to
Tokyo), by Lee Server
Chronicle Book, 1999, 134p, $17 or £12, ISBN 0 8118 2119 6
American writer and scriptwriter Lee Server has travelled all
around Asia in search of eccentricities from the oriental cinema. He created a luxurious
book dealing with the HK action flicks, with the modern cinema and manga from Japan, with
the Korean cinema and with very badly known cinema industries from Philippines, south east
Asia or India. Plus, there are exclusive and fascinating interviews with leading directors
and scriptwriters (John Woo, Tomoaki Hosoyama, Jose Lacaba). This book full of beautiful
colour films stills, posters, behind-the-scene photos is as useful for novices that it is
for experts whiling to own the most recent texts about Asian Pop Cinema.
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At The HK movies, 600 Reviews
from 1988 Till The Handover, by Paul Fonoroff
Ping Ting Lam editor, 1998, 660p, $27.50 or £14.95, ISBN 962 217
641 0
Cinema critic Paul Fonoroff compiled the reviews he wrote for
the paper China South Morning Post between Nov. 1988 and June 1997, that is to stay about
600 reviews! The purpose of publishing such book was to provide an informative reference
resource about the HK cinema from that particular period (i.e. lucky days of the 80's,
fear of the Handover of the 90's). However Fonoroff hasn't reviewed every single classic
movies produced then, even if he reviewed two to three films a week. For instance there is
nothing about the great Once Upon a Time In China. Fonoroff's critics can be very
tough and sometimes he seems blasé as would be a critic used to watch tons of movies I
suppose. But this implies that almost all the features are depreciated and the best ones
are not always distinguished from the lousy ones (Robotrix better than Chungking
Express?). This process can sometimes be frustrating. Reviews were written weekly so
Fonoroff wasn't probably in a position to stand back to appreciate a movie. It has to be
said, however, to his credit that the writer always gives good and bad elements from each
features, which helps the reader to find out which film is suitable to his taste. That
kind of cold attitude toward movie reviewing shows how professional Fonoroff is. He tries
to prove his points and don't write instinctively saying "it's awesome" or
"it's rubbish!". In this respect, this book is to be bought in priority with HK
Babylon.
P.S. you can find new reviews from Paul Fonoroff in the website TotallyHK.com
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The Best Of Eastern Heroes
by Rick Baker & Toby Russell
Eastern
Heroes publications, 1995, 138p, $15 or £7.99, ISBN 189 925 2010
This book compiles the best leading articles from the fourteen Eastern Heroes
magazines. The neat page setting and colour pictures make this book very nice to look at.
As it is a compilation, no apparent consistency governs the order or the choice to include
such and such articles. But we enjoyed the lengthy articles and interviews and do not
hesitate in recommending this book that is maybe hard to find now.
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Cine East: HK Cinema Through
The looking Glass, by Miles Wood
Fab Press, 1998, 160p, £9.95, ISBN 0 9529260 2 4
This book is divided into 12 portraits of HK actors, directors
and producers. For each personality, there is a short biography, a substantial interview
and a selective filmography. The interest here is the choice of people dealt with: some of
them are rarely interviewed and not really known in the West, but still very talented:
Peter Chan, Maggie Cheung, Lau Ching Wan, Andrew Lau, Clara Lau, Gigi Leung, Joe Ma,
Johnnie To, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Yim Ho.
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City On Fire,
by Lisa Odham & Michael Hoover
Verso, 1999, 373p, ISBN 1 85984 203 8
This 12-chapter book is really thorough in the analysis of the
HK cinema. Not a film genre is forgotten and the two first chapters are an introduction
that portrays Hong Kong from a historical, geographical and an economical point of view.
Each chapter content doesn't follow a sequence of historical events, but grows around a
major film, usually characteristic of a particular genre (e.g. A Better Tomorrow
is an example of the Heroic Bloodshed genre). This way to deal with such topics sometimes
leads to confusion for the reader to appreciate the logical course of ideas within
chapters. But City On Fire remains one of the best books on HK Cinema and is
essential for aficionados anyway.
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The Essential Guide To HK
Movies by Rick Baker & Toby Russell
Eastern Heroes publications, 1994, 315p, $26 or £13
Here's one of the first complete guide to the main HK movies.
This bible deals with hundreds of film reviews (from the 70's to 1993), and it is divided
into five categories: Kung Fu, swordplay, modern day action, heroic bloodshed,
erotic/fantasy/horror. Fortunately an alphabetical index makes it very handy to use. The
lay out is really neat as well (a B&W picture for nearly each review), and there is a
complete list of the cast and crew for each film presented. Plot summaries are crystal
clear and the author gave a mark to quickly get an idea on the film quality. The last
pages are dedicated to some 20 pages of good quality B&W photos and to main actors and
directors id pictures. Quality and quantity of the information and the practicality of
such book make it a must to own for those who wants to quickly get answers about the HK
cinema. This book is maybe hard to find now.
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The Essential Guide To Deadly
China Dolls, by Rick Baker & Toby Russell
Eastern Heroes publications, 1996, 258p, £20
This book compiles bios
and filmos of 150 oriental 'femmes fatales' from 60's stars to modern Lolittas. Original
photos help to associate names to faces and vice versa. This guide is divided into main
topics such as 'Queen Boxers' (i.e. female fighters from the 60's ad 70's), 'Sex and Zen
(i.e. erotic icons), 'Blood Sisters' (i.e. Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima), 'The Heroic Trio'
(i.e. Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh). Of course, whenever the actress is very
famous, her dedicated paragraph is more substantial. This book is a definite must not only
for 'voyeurs' but also for aficionados of such deadly ladies. This book is maybe hard to
find now.
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Hollywood East: HK Movies And
The People Who Makes Them, by Stefan Hammond
Contemporary book, 2000, 276p, $14.95, ISBN 0 8092 2581 6
This book is a kind of departure from "Sex and Zen and
A Bullet In The Head" from the same author, and it spans the 1994-1999 period.
Still messy, it gives you practical and historical information and reviews and modern
stars portraits. It deals with the career of Big Cheeses as well, such as Wong Kar Wai,
Jet Li, Jackie Chan and John Woo. The choice of compiling such material seems to be led
more by the international success of such personalities rather than by a consistent
project. Theses are the limitations of that book. It's however very convenient for
aficionados and those who wants current development about what's on and with who in the
former British colony film industry. The good point was to propose insights, full of
anecdotes, from the crazy world of HK stuntmen.
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Hong Kong Action,
by Bey Logan
Titan Books, 1995, 191p, £14.99, ISBN 1 852 865 407
Bey Logan has tried to give us an overview of the HK cinema
through an analysis of 10 topics, and some portraits of symbolic actors and specific genre
made in HK. The lay out is neat and the B&W pictures are very original. However, the
choice of features to illustrate his point can be questionable. Bey Logan, a big Bruce Lee
fan, is the founder and editor of the English magazine Impact. He is also
considered as an authority for HK cinema matters. He made audio commentaries for the
British DVD publisher HK Legend (R2).
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Hong Kong Babylon,
by Frederic Dannen & Barry Long
Miramax Books, 1997, 412p, $18.95, ISBN 0
7868 6267 X
The aim of this book was to propose a selection of HK movies considered as the best of
what was produced since the New Wave period until 1996. After a lengthy (but very
informative) introductory part dealing with portraits and interviews of the greatest HK
personalities, 300 thoroughly selected features are reviewed.
The final part is dedicated to the choice in movies of twelve cinema critics. Such book is
to be considered as a bible for its relevance in film selection.
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Hong-Kong Filmography
1977-1997, by John Charles
McFarland & Company, 360p, ISBN
0786408421
This book deals with 1100 features (yes, 1100!) produced from
1977 to 1997 in HK. Each movie is well detailed: the crew, cast, music composer, subtitles
are clearly listed, plus synopsises and reviews. A rank allows to get straight if the
feature is worthy or not. The index lists all the quoted names and titles, and is then a
very useful tool to quickly get information about any actor or director. However, very few
category 3 flicks are listed. The only drawback, and not the least, is its ridiculous
price that doesn't allow everybody to have access to such great resource material. A
shame!
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Planet Hong Kong, Popular
Cinema & The Art Of Entertainment,
This book displays portraits of the greatest HK figures (e.g.
Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, Wong Jing…) and other issues. This is not an
informative guide to the HK cinema and the approach is neither historical nor purely
descriptive.
This book is divided into fourteen chapters mixing genres and
actors. Topics are a bit presented like in HK Babylon, but film choice is less
well though of. Indeed, this messy chapter classification doesn't help when one looks for
a particular actors, director or genre. Moreover, the original B&W pictures are not
always of good quality. It's not that bad though, since this book explain tons of stuffs
about really rare movies (even sometimes real obscure ones). It even tells you where to
get the features: in the US video rental locations, by mail order and it gives you details
of fanzines and web sites. There are plenty of good ideas as well in order to help you to
purchase movies in Chinatowns giving you film titles in Chinese for instance.