Welcome!

On June 30, 2000 the Music Palace theatre closed its doors forever. Although the rumour had been circulating for some time, it was still devasting to me. In recent years, I went to the place 2 or 3 times a month. Now I can see Hong Kong movies on VCD and DVD only. I really miss the old MP! ;-( When a film is shown on a cinema screen as intended, it has a quite different efffect from seeing the same film on a tv monitor.

Back when I started this website, it was easy to bang out 400-500 words on the films I saw at the old MP. I was able to share with others films that actually were playing simultaneously in the SAR. These days I'm 6 months or more behind the current releases. Hence my reviews are shorter these days since the MP closed its doors, as so many have covered the films already. After a hiatus from the Hong Kong movie scene in 2002, Happy Fortune Screening will program annual film series with the same eclectic, esoteric flair that helped the Repertory Series gain world reknown from 1997 to 2001.

It was my happy fortune to have my reviews published in Asian Cult Cinema, a quarterly digest that used to be called "Asian Trash Cinema" until that title was deemed politically incorrect . ACC has always been a good source for information on the subject of genre films from Asia. Some of my reviews were originally published in issues #9 thru #13. I hope you enjoy my reviews and, if so, you'll seek out some of the films for your viewing pleasure!