As promised, in anticipation of the new HK movie, here are some photos from the Storm Warriors exhibit at VivoCity at Harbourfront in Singapore. After making the rather long trip on the MRT (subway to Americans like me) to see the exhibit, I was a little annoyed that the people at the Information Counter had no idea what I was talking about. You would assume that a major Hong Kong star like Ekin Cheng coming to a mall in Singapore would be kind of a big deal, but not only did the young man that I talked to NOT have an earthly clue who or what I was talking about, but he had the nerve to say — when I asked whether his co-worker might know — “She doesn’t know either.”

Ah, so helpful.

Thankfully, I found the exhibit all by myself. It was hidden away in the lobby of the theater. For more information on Ekin Cheng’s visit to Singapore to unveil these props, click here. Sorry about the image quality!

The Display

Cloud’s “Ultimate Superior Sword” (kinda redundant, eh?)

Wind’s Blizzard Saber (Has nothing to do with Dairy Queen)

The Final Countdown

 Since those pics aren’t exactly earth-shattering, I’ve embedded a link to a high quality version of the Storm Warriors Final Theatrical Trailer that was released a little while ago. Enjoy!

 In tribute to James Cameron’s new film, Sanjuro employs Lee Byung-Hun as his Official LoveHKFilm.com Avatar.

Well, I’ve finally made it to Singapore, so it’s time for a blog update. During my stay I’ve already seen the Laughing Gor prequel, TURNING POINT, and I hope to see OVERHEARD eventually as well as the Singaporean film WHERE GOT GHOST? perhaps as early as today. I also finally got the opportunity to watch Pixar’s UP, which is hands-down the best movie of the summer.

With my first Singapore-based update, I’d like to start with a topic that is actually HK-related — Ma Wing Shing’s STORM RIDERS comics. For those of you who live in Hong Kong or some other East Asian country, this post might not be as interesting to you as I hope it is for HK cinema fans in non-Asian countries. Still, I hope you all get a kick out of it!

But first, a preface of sorts. I have — for the longest time — collected toys. I’ve always taken good care of the toys I played with as a kid, and when I became older, I became one of those fanboy geeks who bought cool toys and either a) displayed them on my desk in funny poses or b) kept them sealed in the package in the belief that they might actually be worth something someday. As to the latter hope, I was somewhat successful. On a related note, I recently dug through my closet at my parents’ house, and I have to admit that the sheer amount of unopened Star Wars merchandice I possess is astounding. My hope is that I can secretly pawn this stuff on eBay so my wonderful girlfriend never sees the true extent of my collector mania.

But I digress. The point of this post is to highlight one particulair strain of this deranged mentality – my propensity to collect figures based on Chinese comic books like Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero (aka Zhonghua Ying Hung). Let’s just say that I have a lot of these figures, and on any visit to Hong Kong (sorry Kozo, for constantly playing Virgil to my Dante in my personal descent into HK’s collectible underworld) or Singapore, I will actively search for these things. However, I’m getting a little older and really starting to see the folly of collecting all this stuff (aka: useless clutter). So on this trip abroad, I told myself that I would not go out and seek this stuff, but if it somehow appeared before me while browsing stores, well…

Anyway, when I arrived at my family’s flat in Choa Chu Kang, I was surprised to see this box waiting for me:

I’m not sure you can tell the size from these photos, but it’s a pretty big box. I could tell it was some some kind of official Storm Riders merchandise, and from the size of the package, I was guessing it was a big-ass statue. Luckily, my worries about how I’d bring this back to the US evaporated when I learned that the box simply contained two small figures of Wind and Cloud. Here’s what they look like:

Wind

Cloud

Pretty cool, huh? The only downside is that Wind’s sword and Cloud’s base have pegs with no corresponding holes on the figures themselves, which makes wielding a blade (Wind) or simply standing up correctly (in the case of Cloud) simply impossible. Oh well.

While out shopping later that day, I did pick up this volume of Storm Riders, complete with a crazy holo-foil/chromium(?) cover and a snazzy mousepad:

I bought it at a store called Comics Connection, which has branches in just about every shopping complex in Singapore I’ve visited. I guess small business owners who want to have a comic store of their own have to go the franchise route here (I’m not sure). Each time I’ve visited, however, I’ve noticed that I see less and less Chinese product (aside from the comics themselves) and more and more Japanese manga, toys, and games (most of which is available in the US now). Anyway, despite the burgeoning Japanophilia apparent in these stores, I thought this branch was pretty cool thanks to a familiar figure they had busting out of the wall:

Kinda nifty, but take a closer look at Wind’s hand:

Perhaps Wind is well-aware that this is a vulgar hand gesture.

In other Storm Riders-related news, I’m planning on going to see the Wind and Cloud swords on display at Vivo City, so stayed tuned for that. Apparently, Ekin Cheng actually hand-delivered them about a month ago, but unfortunately, I was still in Oklahoma at the time.

So until next time, I’ll leave you with some avatar shenanigans…

I’ll get you for MURDERER and PARA PARA SAKURA!

AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

On some level, I knew this would happen. And by “this” I’m specifically referring to my steadily declining output for this wonderful website. Every time I check the main page for updates, I find the blogroll mocking me on a daily basis, reminding me that I haven’t updated this blog in close to two months. And so, I sincerely apologize to you few, you happy few who actually take the time out of your day to read my stuff. Thanks a million for your support. But I have to tell you, my hiatus from blogging was not without good reason.

To make up for Sanjuro’s two month blogging hiatus, Singapore’s very own Stefanie Sun wishes LoveHKFilm.com readers in the U.S. a belated Happy 4th of July!

For one, I’m in a PhD program. My areas of interest are 20th century American literature, Asian American literature and film, hard-boiled detective fiction, and American film noir. I’m taking my qualifying exam in the fall, so that basically means I’ve been spending the last several months of my life and will be spending the next several months studying my ass off for what I am certain will be the hardest final exam I have ever taken in my life — which, by the way, has a timed written component as well as an oral one in front of a wizened council of elders. In my worst nightmares, I imagine it looks something like this:

 GUILTY!

So to make a long story short, the last few months and the next few months for me means reading a lot of fiction and a lot of critical theory, as well as watching a lot of films that don’t have anything remotely to do with Hong Kong cinema.

When I do have free time, this is what tends to happen. I’m in a happy relationship, so that’s my number one priority. But aside from trying to be a good boyfriend, I — as some of you might remember — am also trying to be a good writer, and so whenever I get a sliver of time to myself, I work on my writing in the hopes that someday I’ll have another story, collection of stories, or novel to submit for publication. I’m actually pretty close to finishing a first draft of some new work, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that everything will turn out for the best.

Anyway, I guess I just wish I could split myself into three people — a movie reviewer, a would-be professor, and a writer of fiction. I guess I’m too ambitious for my own damn good.

Another thing that caused the hiatus is the simple fact that there are too many short-term distractions that I find myself succumbing to — I mean, when you can play Rock Band with friends, read the ever-addictive 20th Century Boys, or watch the latest episode of Supernatural for free, one feels less inclined to blog about one’s silly little opinions on Hong Kong cinema.

On the bright side, I’m going to be taking a short trip to Singapore, which I’m hoping will put me right smack dab in the Asian cinema loop. Last time I went, I saw Jay Chou’s Initial D car on display. Bam! That’s a blog post right there. I’m a little pissed that I won’t get to see/meet unofficial LoveHKFilm.com mascot, Ekin Cheng, as he’s set to kick off a 150-day countdown to the release of Storm Warriors. He’ll be there July 20-21, and unfortunately, I don’t get there ’till late August. Still, when I see the life-sized replicas of the two Wind and Cloud swords at VivoCity, you can bet your ass I’ll take pictures and blog about it. That’s a promise!

 I really wanna see you! I really wanna be with you!

Of course, I will watch any Asian film in Singapore theaters — even Murderer, despite Kevin’s warnings, simply because I think I might get a kick out of seeing that outrageous twist ending that he so graciously spoiled for me and all his Facebook friends. One thing I really love about Singapore theaters is you get the Asian equivalent of Kettle Corn popcorn . Another great thing is that every film has English subtitles. Thanks to that, I’ve gotten to watch everything from Hideo Nakata’s Dark Water to Jay Chou’s Secret during my intermittent trips to the Lion City.

Also, a trip overseas means my Asian DVD collection is sure to expand, despite the fact that I still haven’t completely whittled down my unseen DVD pile just yet. I’ll catch up with Singaporean cinema, which has a small enough movie industry that one could actually watch every film made in the last ten years if one were so inclined. Singapore is also a great place to get affordable Japanese and Korean films and television dramas. Last time, I picked up Nodame Cantabile and Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (review forthcoming!?) for a very small sum. Buying Hong Kong films is a little trickier, though, because sometimes the Singaporean distributors don’t include the original Cantonese track. For instance, my copy of Invisible Target only has a Mandarin dub. So…new DVDs means new blog posts.

I will be drinking a lot of this in Singapore. Admittedly, Coke tastes a bit better, but this is somehow more addictive. I think they may put crack in it. No wonder it’s not available in the United States.

Anyway, I guess I the whole point of this blog post was to say 1) I haven’t abandoned the blog, 2) I’m really sorry for the hiatus, 3) I had my reasons, which I’m sure you’ll understand, and 4) things are looking up.

So, in the words of our illustrious governor, I’ll be back.