Sharing a Hong Kong treasure trove (Article)

[DragonClaws]

Quote

And love them he does. An ardent film collector, Geddes recently announced the donation of nearly 400 Hong Kong and Taiwanese films to the University of Toronto.

Compiled since the mid-1990s, the collection includes early work by John Woo, Wong Kar Wai, Ronny Yu Yan-Tai and others. Several of these films are the last known surviving prints and they're now available to scholars and film fans.

 

Sharing a Hong Kong treasure trove - April 2010

Link- https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2010/04/12/sharing_a_hong_kong_treasure_trove.html

[HyperDrive]

Wow. It's just like the Halsted find. I wonder how many theaters around the world are just sitting derelict with troves of films,

[DragonClaws]

14 hours ago, HyperDrive said:

Wow. It's just like the Halsted find. I wonder how many theaters around the world are just sitting derelict with troves of films,

Recall seeing half empty film cans and film just rotting in the old Shaw Brothers studios. When those urban explorers, did that video from their trip round some of the old buildings. Hope it it was just unused film that was left there?. According to the article, many Asian films stayed in Canada, due to the high costs of shipping prints back to Hong Kong etc. I wonder just how many Kung Fu films finnished there global run there?.

 

[DragonClaws]

Here's another older article about Colin Geddes finds from 2004, and how he obtained an 35mm UNCUT print of Master Killer, from a guy in Texas. The very same print, that film director and Martial Ats cinema flag waver, Quentin Taratino was seeking out.

 

Kung Fu Royal-ty - by Matt Kwong

Link- https://theeyeopener.com/2004/03/kung-fu-royal-ty/

 

[kevenzz]

I wonder how much does it cost to buy an old kung fu movie on 35mm... scan it, digitalise it and do some color correction and stuff ?

I'm interested in this but money is most likely the problem.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Depends. The guy that Toby said had Fabulous Protectress had already digitized it. He wanted $1500. Others have said about $500 to $800 is the going price. Some can be cheaper than others.

[DragonClaws]

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

He puts stuff on EBay as well. Looks like he sold a lot of stuff, so only one thing on there now-

https://www.ebay.com/usr/ultra_8

[TheKungFuRobber]

Well, fuck it I'm moving to Canada.

[DragonClaws]

On 22/03/2018 at 10:12 PM, TheKungFuRobber said:

Well, fuck it I'm moving to Canada.

You just need to get yourself an apartment next to some old dis-used Chinese Theatre.

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

If you guys are into getting some of his rare posters, he just put a bunch of stuff up on EBay-

https://www.ebay.com/sch/ultra_8/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Lots of cool stuff. 

 

[Little Deer]

First time I met Colin Geddes was at the Fantasia film festival in Toronto 1998. Colin was the organizer and MC'ed the screenings. I was 18 years old at the time and first in line on the opening day. I was also super early and started talking to Colin about my interest in HK and Kung Fu films.  He told me to go check out Suspect Video after the show. It was the underground indie video store that you could find the Japanese bootleg of Army of Darkness. After the show I went to check it out and sure enough it was a treasure trove of kung fu classics and modern HK action. Every weekend after that was dedicated to catching up on all the films I was only reading about.

[DragonClaws]

Colin Geddes presents The Five Deadly Venoms

Link- https://www.tiff.net/events/colin-geddes-presents-five-deadly-venoms/

 

[reason108]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:48 AM, DragonClaws said:

You just need to get yourself an apartment next to some old dis-used Chinese Theatre.

 

 

You have blown my mind with this photo! I’m guessing this is just a random photo that you found on the net? Do you live here? I used to go to this very theater when I was a kid. This was no Chinese theater and they never played any Kung fu films that I am aware of; just the normal Hollywood fare. Sad to see that building in such sad shape now. Someone once told me that The Beatles played in that theater once when they were on tour but I could never verify that. I loved the burger place that was right next door (located on the left side). Always enjoyed going there and having a burger after the movie. Sadly, they went downhill after the multi-plex (it had 2 screens I think) opened up out at the mall. But, this takes me back to the 70’s. 

 

 

Otherwise, love the thread. Awesome posters and the movies this guy has had access to. Some people have all the luck!

[DragonClaws]

6 hours ago, reason108 said:

You have blown my mind with this photo! I’m guessing this is just a random photo that you found on the net?

It was just a random picture of a run down cinema to me, multiplex cinemas had the same effect in the U.K.

 

 

[reason108]

16 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

It was just a random picture of a run down cinema to me, multiplex cinemas had the same effect in the U.K.

 

 

Yeah, but the odds of it being an actual theater that another forum member actually went to is pretty crazy. There must be millions of run-down theaters in the world you could have picked. Perhaps one of us should play the lottery. Cool though. Though there is no way you could have known it was the exact same theater that I use to go to watch movies, it still made my week.

[DragonClaws]

3 hours ago, reason108 said:

Yeah, but the odds of it being an actual theater that another forum member actually went to is pretty crazy.

Sorry I didnt intend to downplay it, I was just confirming it was a random picture, to me at least.

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Memories of Midnight

Link- https://www.tiff.net/the-review/memories-of-midnight/

 

Colin Geddes(Seated) with Left to Right, Takashi Miike, Tetsuo Takeuchi, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Kazushi Watanabe, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

[DragonClaws]