Film Extremes Hong Kong

Arthur's Review of Film Extremes Hong Kong

This was a bit of a pre-christmas mini fest with just 2 films showing but a good chance to do some shopping too at the various stalls of Hiong Kong movie merchandise set up. Arthur grabbed some nice Hiong Kong film posters (mostkly of the hopping vampire variety) before settling down for the first film, Chinese Ghost Story 3.

Arthur was somewhat disappointed to find that this was shown by a big old video projector from a S-VHS veideo tape that had been copied from a Laserdisc (whilst it all sounds a bit dodgy, such things are perfectky legitimate if you get the film distributors permission first). Arthur has never seen a video projected film before and it wasn;t that good, given that such technology was still in its infacncy in those days - this was a big CRT projector

filling a normal sized cinema screen so tyhe picture was tather dark as well as lacking in definition. Still, Arthur was used to watching rubbish quality pirate videos (usually the only way to see Hong Kong films) so this was just more of the same but on a larger scale. Plus the film was enjoyable too, even if it was really just the same kind of thing when compared to the first 2 films in the series.

The second showing of the day, this time shown as a proper 35mm print, was the Chow Yun Fat film Once a Thief. Arthur would crudely describe it as a

Hong Kong version of Hudson Hawk

, with a team of thieves stealing various historical artefcats and getting caught up with gangsters who also want in on the action. For the most part it was an enjoyable comedy/action romp but the gartuitiously violent gunplay that Chow Yun Fat fans have come to expect only appeared right at the end. Definitely worth seeing.

Arthur will update this space when he finds his notes or writes an all new review