Jigoku & the Korean Film Festival

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All this week we’ve been looking at classic Asian Action and martial arts screenings that have taken place in London, all in the build up to our own Shaw Brothers Tribute this Monday night. Today for our final entry we’re hitting you with two great events in one. First up it’s the Jigoku All Night Kung Fu event from back in 2002, at the much missed The Other Cinema.

This all-nighter was put on as part of the Weird World Cinema Season, which ran from 23^rd to 31^st May 2002 at The Other Cinema. It’s possible this season was set up to tie in with the Mondo Macabro TV show with ran on Channel 4 around the same time but I can’t be sure about that. I didn’t make it along to the all-nighter, which is a shame, but I always loved their selection of films for the night: Demon Strike, Enter The Fat Dragon, Hells Wind’s Staff and Born Invincible.

But what I did see at the festival was the 1967 Spaghetti Western Bandidos, directed by Massimo Dallamano. Now I say I saw this, but I’ll be honest and say it ranks the worst cinema viewing experience I’ve ever had. The print was the worst condition I’ve ever seen anything in, I don’t mind scratches, splices or a red print, but this had everything in the worst shape I’ve ever seen. The sound was drowned out by a huge hiss, the picture was scratched beyond anything I’ve ever seen before, but the worst part was that The Other Cinema didn’t have the correct anamorphic lense for the projector, so the entire film was screened in the wrong ratio.

10 out of 10 for finding the print and programming it, but there comes a time when you just have to say a print has passed its screen life and retire it. I went out of the screening to ask if they could change the lense, only to find someone else already out there asking the same thing! Still any cinema experience is fun and at least I ended up with a great worst screening experience. I hope the kung fu all-nighter went off better, I do wish I could have made it along to that one. I think the Jigoku event was a one-off, I never saw anything from them again and I’ve never found out who actually put it all together, but it was a great idea and one of those things I’d always wish I watched more at, as long as the prints had been better though.

Now the Korean Film Festival is a very successful season that runs here in London every year, it’s really grown over the years and manages to secure big names stars and a great selection of new Korean films. What we’re going to look at though is one very specific things about it, the fact that for a couple of years all their films used to be FREE ENTRY!

Yes when the festival was at The Prince Charles Cinema they used to let everyone in free, which of course lead a massive turn out, with huge queues stretching all the way back into Leicester Square, all of which made actually getting a very challenging experience. But it was worth, just to see the incredible Taegukgi (aka Brotherhood) on the big screen with a completely packed house! After a couple of years the festival reverted back to regular tickets, but the utterly fantastic idea of having all films playing for free really was a great way to get a real buzz going around the festival, we probably won’t see anyone else doing that again for a really long time!

Firecracker

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Now let’s head back to the mid-2000s and take a look at Firecracker, who for a few years during that time kept the flag flying for Asian films in London with their amazing film festival and free magazine.

Firecracker was pure class from start to finish, from the superbly stylish magazine, packed with Asian film news and reviews, to their impeccably programmed festival, everything was put together to create a coherent and impressive look and feel to their organisation. Run by Erica & Nick, Firecracker launched as an online magazine first and then moved into film screenings with their festival before launching the free physical magazine which was distributed around cinemas in London.

What really made Firecracker so strong though was their great film programing, they weren’t afraid to take chance and screen films and genres that didn’t really get an attention elsewhere. From a retrospective of the Grace Chang film from Cathay studios, to a season covering the Bollywood crime films of director Ram Gopal Varma and dedicated strands looking at cinema from the Philippines and beyond, Firecracker did a great job of championing films that just didn’t pop up at any other festivals.

A far as I can remember the final Firecracker event took place in May 2007, a free double bill of films directed by Bobby Suarez – One Armed Executioner and They Call Her Cleopatra Wong. Sponsored by Tiger Beer it was a great night with a huge turnout and served as a fitting final event for a great organisation.

Kung Fu ruled at the Stoke Newington Astra

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Today we’re looking way back into London’s celluloid past to shine a light on another unsung hero of exploitation exhibition: Stoke Newington’s Astra cinema. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I was reading the cinema listings in a handful of vintage 1970s issues of Time Out.

The cinema landscape of London was a very different beast back in the 1970s, there were only 3 TV channels, no video players and the internet as we know it decades away, so consequently the city was overflowing with the cinemas! Which meant that there was plenty of room for a screen that specialised in martial arts double bills, yes that’s what the Stoke Newington Astra did, or at least did most of the time.

What I didn’t realise, until I started digging online for more info, was that the Astra was actually this place:

The Astra in its Kung Fu double bill days (1970s)

Which I’ve walked past so many times, but had no idea it used to be a cinema, let alone that is used to show classic kung fu films back in the 1970s. Today it’s the Aziziye Mosque, with the front section functions as a community store.

I’d always assumed the design was part of the Mosque, but the cinema was actually built in that style when it opened all the way back in 1913. Over the decades it went through different hands and many refurbishments, but always keeping its distinctive exterior. Where it becomes really interesting for us is when became the Astra in 1974 and started playing the kung fu and cult film double bills. Here’s a look at the three killer double-bill Time Out listings that we’ve been able to find for the Astra:

November 1975

November 1977

March 1978

It blows my mind to think that you could have caught these classic films on a big screen in Stoke Newington back in the 70s! Sadly the Astra closed in 1983, but the building is still there and it’s great that the very unique exterior has survived all those decades. We hope this short feature has helped to shine a light onto the Astra and helps to preserve just a little bit more of London’s cult cinematic history.

Eastern Heroes

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Yesterday we took a look at Jet Li’s London appearance from all the way back in 1996, now today we’ll take a look at the people that put that amazing day together: Eastern Heroes. It’s a thing that’s often said, about how the internet has changed everything in the last decade, and it’s very true. Right now you can pretty much find out anything you want about a film straight away, you can watch it digitally, buy a DVD, read about it being filmed, find out who’s been cast in it and more with just a few keystrokes. But back in the 1990s? Forget it!

And that’s why Eastern Heroes were so important to films back then; they were like a one-stop organisation to get everything you needed about Asian action cinema. Now this feature is by no way a history of them, I really don’t know enough, but what I want to do here is try to highlight how great they were at bringing that world of amazing cinema to life during those pre-internet days.

Firstly you had these amazing series of screening which ran at The Scala from the late 1980s through until the cinemas sad closure in 1993, in fact the final screening there was the Eastern Heroes Chow Yun Fat weekend, which saw the great man himself grace the cinemas stage for two amazing days of films. You can see the event programme and videos from the weekend here:

Here’s a great example of the sort of screenings that they’d regularly organise at The Scala:

Then you had their long running magazine which filled you in on recent Asian cinema releases, let you know what was coming up and had great interviews with actors and directors that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. I only have a few of their magazines left, but taking another browse through them now really brings back how much of an eye opener they were at the time.

Then there’s also the two Eastern Heroes stores which were a great focus point for film fans back then. The first store opened up in Camden and was followed by a second store located right in Chinatown on Shaftsbury Avenue. Both were stocked wall-to-wall with VHS, VCDS, Laserdiscs, magazines, posters and much more. The stores were really great and were an essential stop for any film fans in London. Here’s a great video which takes you inside the Chinatown store, along with a selection of store adverts:

But as we always say, nothing lasts forever, times changed and eventually Eastern Heroes closed down operations at some point in the late 1990s. But we’re happy to report that recently Eastern Heroes have re-launched, with Rick Baker still in charge, there are plans afoot to launch a new magazine, they also put on a recent screening in Chinatown, showing two brand new martial arts documentaries. So it’s great to have them back and let’s hope 2014 sees Eastern Heroes go from strength to strength. Thanks for all the great times from us at The Duke!

Find out more about the relaunched Eastern Heroes right here!