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A film programme entitled "The Wit and Wisdom of Cinema City", organised by the Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, will screen 28 films made by Cinema City studio in the 1980s at the HKFA Cinema from April to May. An exhibition and four seminars will also be held and a publication called "The Essence of Entertainment: Cinema City's Glory Days" will be published soon.
Cinema City is a rare breed in Hong Kong cinema history, holding an astounding hit streak that began with its inaugural film "Laughing Time" (1980) and continued through to its eighth film "Aces Go Places" (1982) while taking $27 million at the box office. With a diverse filmography of zany humour, wit, intrigue, adventure and the supernatural, Cinema City strived to make every film better than its last. Seven masterminds were responsible for this success, namely Karl Maka, Raymond Wong, Dean Shek, Teddy Robin, Tsui Hark, Nansun Shi and Eric Tsang, and each had a specialty. Under a system that encouraged teamwork in both the scriptwriting and production processes, they constantly inspired each other and injected new ideas to provide quality entertainment for Hong Kong audiences.
While gaining popularity for their Hollywood-esque "spy and police" genre, these creative masterminds also revealed sharp marketing insight, attracting movie-goers during the summer and new year holidays by producing family movies as well as star-studded festive films and romantic comedies. Cinema City produced nearly a hundred films, becoming a cradle for artistic talent in the local entertainment industry during the 1980s.
An opening ceremony for the "The Great Entertainer - The Heyday of Cinema City" exhibition will be held on April 8 at 5.30pm at the HKFA Exhibition Hall, at which some of the creative masterminds of Cinema City will share details of the humble beginnings of their filmmaking careers. The exhibition will run until June 19 with free admission.
The first seminar, "Big Brains Storming within a Tiny Room", will be held on April 9 at 4.30pm at the HKFA Cinema with Karl Maka and Dean Shek and other creative masterminds as speakers. The three other seminars, entitled "'On Fire' Series of Ringo Lam", "When Teddy Meets Wisely" and "Cinema City's Entertainment Formula", will be held on April 16, 23 and 30 at 4.30pm at the same venue, with speakers Law Kar, Teddy Robin and Raymond Wong respectively. All seminars will be conducted in Cantonese with free admission.
Details of the screenings are as follows:
"Aces Go Places" (1982)
April 8 (Friday), 7.30pm
"Aces Go Places II" (1983)
April 9 (Saturday), 2.30pm
"Aces Go Places III - Our Man from Bond Street" (1984)
April 9 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"All the Wrong Clues (... for the Right Solution)" (1981)
April 10 (Sunday), 2.30pm
"Chasing Girls" (1981)
April 10 (Sunday), 5pm
"The Perfect Wife?!" (1983)
April 10 (Sunday), 7.30pm
"City on Fire" (1987)
April 16 (Saturday), 2.30pm
"Prison on Fire" (1987)
April 16 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"Esprit D'amour" (1983)
April 17 (Sunday), 2.30pm
"Laughing Time" (1980)
April 17 (Sunday), 4.30pm
"A Better Tomorrow" (1986)
April 17 (Sunday), 7.30pm
"Merry Christmas" (1984)
April 22 (Friday), 7.30pm
"Once Upon a Rainbow" (1982)
April 23 (Saturday), 2.30pm
"All the Wrong Spies" (1983)
April 23 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"The Legend of Wisely" (1987)
April 24 (Sunday), 2.30pm
"Banana Cop" (1984)
April 24 (Sunday), 4.30pm
"The Occupant" (1984)
April 24 (Sunday), 7.30pm
"The Happy Ghost" (1984)
April 29 (Friday), 7.30pm
"Till Death Do We Scare" (1982)
April 30 (Saturday), 2.30pm
"Eighth Happiness" (1988)
April 30 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"A Family Affair" (1984)
May 6 (Friday), 7.30pm
"Working Class" (1985)
May 7 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"Peking Opera Blues" (1986)
May 8 (Sunday), 2.30pm
"A Chinese Ghost Story" (1987)
May 8 (Sunday), 5pm
"Why Me?" (1985)
May 8 (Sunday), 7.30pm
"All About Ah Long" (1989)
May 13 (Friday), 7.30pm
"The Day, on the Beach" (1983)
May 15 (Sunday), 2pm
"Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?" (1983)
May 15 (Sunday), 5.30pm
"The Day, on the Beach" and "Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?" are in Mandarin, while the other films are in Cantonese. All films have Chinese and English subtitles.
Film tickets priced at $45 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For credit card telephone bookings, please call 2111 5999. For programme enquiries, please call 2739 2139 or 2734 2900 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp/en_US/web/fpo/programmes/2016wwcc/index.html.
Ends/Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Issued at HKT 12:57
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