Chinese Cinema Page: links I use (and like)

(updated May 13, 2000)

Rather than attempting anything like a comprehensive listing of links relevant to Chinese-language cinema, I've just noted below the websites that I find myself always going back to, sites (and writers) without which/without whom I would not have been able to construct anything like this website.

  • Chinese language cinema online databases (I use these all the time: without them, the articles on this site would not have been possible)

    • Lu Pin's Chinese Movie Database

      is the most comprehensive, bilingual (English and Chinese) online database for Chinese language cinema: it covers mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese cinema. Search in Chinese (Chinese decoding software required) or in English
    • The Hong Kong MovieBase (in English and Chinese) is a rich source of all kinds of information on Hong Kong cinema: search the database here

      or browse the table of contents.

  • Chinese cinemas: reviews, essays, information, bibliographies
    • The Hong Kong Film Critics Society

      has authoritative, if brief, reviews of (almost) current films, and an archive back to 1995

    • An extensive, superb, and quite up-to-date bibliography of materials on Chinese film (electronic, print media, journals...) by Kirk Denton (maintained in conjunction with the journal Modern Chinese Literature) 


    • Sun Shao-yi maintains (and USC hosts) Asian Film Connections, a rich and growing site on the cinemas of mainland China and Taiwan (as well as Korea, Japan, and India). Features include multilingual materieals (click on Chinese, Japanese, or Korean versions) full text of selected articles from Cinemaya, teaching materials, and detailed information on featured films and directors (and a beatiful design sense).

    • City of Sadness, by Yeh Yueh-yu and Abe Mark Nornes, is quite simply the richest web site I've seen on a single film (Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 masterpiece), from Cinemaspace, the film studies programme at UC Berkeley

    • Virtual China used to feature a constantly updated series of timely articles on contemporary Chinese culture, featuring cinema, books, visual arts: its archives are still useful.

  • On-line discussion
    • the Asian Cinema Discussion board (at Mobius' Home Video Forum) fulfills a need that alt.asian-movies abandoned long ago: well-written, collegial, lively, interesting (and moderated) discussion of East Asian cinema online

  • Local news and reviews (Hong Kong / Toronto)
    • Lisa Roosen-Runge writes in Exhibit L on Chinese and other movies we've seen in Toronto, and suggests where to eat good noodles before/after the movie. (newly updated)

    • Another Hong Kong Movie Page is home to HKer Tim Youngs' consistently witty, opinionated, enthusiastic, and comprehensive reviews of new movies from Hong Kong

    • Do you need HK entertainment news, sordid artiste gossip, and lovely pictures, all translated into English? Two internet heroes labour daily for your pleasure. See:

  • Where to find films online

    • The Shaw Brothers' catalogue is gradually being released on sumptuously restored DVDs (region 3), complete with English subtitles, by Celestial Pictures.

    • If you are looking for videos/ LDs/ VCDs/ DVDs/ reels of Chinese movies, I know very little (really!) about distribution or availability, but you could take a look at Lars Eric Holmquist's original Hong Kong Videos FAQ, which has quite an extensive list of video sources

    • for mainland and Hong Kong films, see if Cheng & Tsui or Nanhai or Yesasia or Tai Seng carry them

    • for Taiwanese films, good luck (let me know what you can find!)


    back to the index...


    Shelly Kraicer 
    email the website editor
    all content © 1996-2002 Shelly Kraicer  

    		•