How did you get into Asian cinema?

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 28 Oct 2005, 18:26

As per title really.

I got into Asian cinema through mainstream movies. I watched the Matrix, followed by Drive before going through HKL's catalogue of DVDs. I think my first HKL film was Iron Monkey?

I reckon I must've been around 16-17 when I got into HK cinema. I was around 19 when I started to explore general Asian movies... I'm now always on the lookout for top titles from around the world.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 28 Oct 2005, 19:22

I watched Hard Boiled in 1994 while at college and was amazed! then saw The Killer and that was even better, then I started buying everything asian, even the crap sadly

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Oct 2005, 19:37

"Enter the Dragon" when I was younger but I wasn't a big fan.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" really got me hooked. I was blown away.

"Once Upon a Time in China" was my first HKL. I was trying to find something similar to CTHD.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Oct 2005, 20:23

I watched Rush Hour 1 in 1998 and thought that this "Jackie Chan" guy had a lot of potential.

Two years later I bought Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master on a hunch.

From Drunken Master to Yuen Woo-Ping, from Woo-Ping to Jet Li and Sammo Hung, from Jet Li to Tsui Hark, from Tsui Hark to Tony Leung, etc...

That's how I ended up with 500+ asian dvds in my collection.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 28 Oct 2005, 20:45

I lived next door to chinese people. Came in and they showed me a martial arts flick that had just came out. i was already into martial arts flicks and stuff, but I was still at Bruce Lee/van Damme level... so I watched the flick and it was fucking amazing. later I found out it was Jet Li's Fist of Legend. it just blew me away.
Also saw Iron Monkey and a couple of others. Also, i rented Hard-Boiled, loved that, then started buying videos. Bought A Better Tomorrow, Saw leslie Cheung in it and thought he was great, bought Days of Being Wild, the rest is history.
In those early years I even bought all those really bad Jackie Chan, dubbed and pan and scan flicks...

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 28 Oct 2005, 21:36

Damn, I'm like the elder statesman here!!

Enter the Dragon, 1990 TV screening.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 28 Oct 2005, 23:57

Yup total veteran Asian cinema enthusiast.

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 29 Oct 2005, 01:41

Well I've been a Godzilla fan since I was 10 and my major interest began at 14 when Channel 4 screened Game Of Death - incidentally, they showed the HK print so the Chi Hon-tsoi fight was missing and the nunchuck scene had gone thanks to BBFC guidelines so there was only ONE genuine Bruce Lee scene!

memetic · Post by **memetic** » 29 Oct 2005, 02:35

I was pretty much into "world cinema" in general and had seen Hard Boiled and other Hong Kong action films, but it wasn't until I saw "Days of Being Wild" at the cinema that I got hooked - realising there was something more out of HK other than action films. So I went and picked out another title at random to watch on DVD - turned out to be Wilson Yip's "Juliet In Love" and thought this stuff seemed pretty good. After seeing "Chungking Express" I was pretty hooked by then.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Oct 2005, 14:30

Markgway wrote:Damn, I'm like the elder statesman here!!

Enter the Dragon, 1990 TV screening.

Well not really

I guess it depends on when you really got seriously into them. I had seen Enter the Dragon when I was a child, same goes for many other asian film, but didnt seem to hit me till I was old enuff to buy vids when I was 17ish as hey you dont have cash as a kid unless your ritch

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 29 Oct 2005, 14:56

Dunno when I saw my first Asian film

I started off in the late 90's (1997-ish) getting videos of JC and Bruce Lee flicks like Big Boss and Game of Death (unfortunately only the dubbed, cut versions were available then) - then Channel 4 showed Fist of Fury subtitled and I was blown away.
Then I found a VHS with all the nanchuku Bruce footage and was blown away again

The first Chinese Jackie Chan film I saw was Police Story 2, in its 1999 UK screening on Channel 4.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 29 Oct 2005, 15:24

romerojpg wrote:[Well not really
I guess it depends on when you really got seriously into them.

Enter the Dragon, 1990. Same answer. 8)

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 31 Oct 2005, 08:35

Shaw Brothers movies in the seventees/eightees and then later JC and Bruce Lee etc etc

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 31 Oct 2005, 12:26

Woah, we have a true fan right here.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 31 Oct 2005, 18:11

Late night Channel 4 viewings of the Jackie Chan movies. 1990 or so. Started collecting VCD's and old VHS's round about 97/98 after videoing Enter The Dragon, Fong Sai Yuk 1 and 2, and the Jackie film I watched to death back then, Project A II off the TV. Started with Bruce and Jackie, then followed Jet. Got Bey Logan's excellent HK Action Cinema book and read that over and over. Next my Brother bought me Winners and Sinners (I'd seen on TV years before)...SAMMO!!!!

Never looked back

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 31 Oct 2005, 19:50

Must be when I bought Big Boss a few years ago....

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 31 Oct 2005, 20:36

For me it was Enter The Dragon when I was about 7 years old, so way back in 1991...

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 01 Nov 2005, 10:07

My first touch with HK films was back in the 80s when they released lots of Jackie Chan movies on VHS (remember those?

) ... As for my "true" fascination with Asian movies I blame two people... Jean Claude Van Damme (I know I know)... and... John Woo.

Come 1993 I watched "Hard Target" back to back twice, and slackjawed ran straight downtown, plopped down €200 for the Criterion CAV "The Killer" and never looked back!

Since then I really can't crack down on JCVD as much...

After all, he's the reason I picked up that specific movie. The fun thing was when I started buying older Jackie Chan DVDs and began realizing I'd seen lots of them without remembering any titles... (movies over here regularly get new or translated titles that often have little to do with the original titles...)

PS: There are a lot of you kids in here eh?!

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 01 Nov 2005, 11:25

and slackjawed ran straight downtown, plopped down €200 for the Criterion CAV "The Killer" and never looked back!

You wouldn't be interested in my minty Criterion DVD of Hard-Boiled would you???

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 02 Nov 2005, 09:58

Is it any more minty than the one I have?

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 02 Nov 2005, 12:16

when I were a lad me grandpa used to make me watch loads of old action flicks that were in cantonese or mandarin and subtitled thathe had recorded from late night/early morning tv. He used to teach both Cantonese and Mandarin in the Air Force you see, based in hong kong and singapore mostly.

from there i got into me manga, then anime in general whilst at the same time gaining a growing appreciation of foreign cinema (french films late at night were sooo good as a teenager

).

Then I found this place and dddhouse and my enthusiasm exploded!!

m.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 06 Nov 2005, 01:39

I liked watching Jackie Chan movies whenever they were on TV/playing at the cinema. Saw the first 8 episodes Evangelion on VHS and Ghost in the Shell on DVD in 2001, then I caught the anime bug. Saw CTHD when it was first released on DVD and didn't think much of it. Saw it again on TV in 2003 and thought that the film was amazing.

I didn't get seriously get into Asian cinema until I blind-bought the IVL boxsets of A Better Tomorrow trilogy and The Killer/Bullet in the Head in Dec 2004 (to see what everyone was raving about in regards to John Woo's HK films), thought the action was fucking amazing. Soon after that I imported all the decent UK releases of Woo's films. My interest has really taken off from there.

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 13 Nov 2005, 16:42

My first exposure to asian cinema was possibly when I was around six or seven years of age. It was around 1986 when Maggie Thatcher was the PM and the time of yuppie excess and dodgy pop songs. I was just getting into watching this wonderful invention known as television when my father popped a VHS into the new VCR he had just bought. I sat on the sofa with eager anticipation. A few moments later, a crackly, snowy logo appeared on the screen. It was the legendary Shaw Bros logo and the film was a bootleg copy of Liu Chia Liang's My Young Auntie. After the film ended, I was left exhilarated at this feast of martial arts that went before my eyes, and the rest is history.

wolf.xl · Post by **wolf.xl** » 23 Nov 2005, 23:40

I got into asian cinema mainly because of martial arts. When I was a younglin I watched anything with martial arts. I had grown up on 80's/70's martial arts action flicks (thanks mainly to my older brother) such as Enter the Dragon and American Ninja and The Last Dragon and of course Monkey tv series. When I was old enough I rented out all of Van Dams and Bruce Lees back catalogue and taped all the great fight scenes onto VHS to re-watch over and over.

Then Channel 4 had a Jet Li season which totally blowed me away. BBC two had Laputa, Akira and Sanjuro which opened my eyes to anime and Japanese cinema. During the 90's my only access to asian cinema was what BBC and channel 4 would ocassionaly screen.

It was only the arrival of the internet, DVDs and me turinin 18 (so I could get a credit card) that allowed to really indulge in asian cinema. Thanks to forums such as BnB I discovered korean cinema and heard about titles that I would have missed.

Lately I've found asian cinema has become rather bland with only the occasional good film. The stories and originality that made asian cinema great seems to be fading (well in my eyes) either that or I've become to old and set in my ways. Having said that I still watch alot of anime 8)