Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, was a bilingual (French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The website contained news, interviews, film reviews and a database of people, films and film studios as well as an illustrated glossary of terms.[1] The web magazine existed in various forms for over two decades.[2]As of March 2009,[update] the database contains over 10,000 films. The site was updated for the last time in December 2017.
The site was designed and was maintained by Marc Delcambre, Jean-Louis Ogé and Thomas Podvin. The key staff and editors were Stéphane Jaunin, Arnaud Lanuque, Van-Thuan Ly, Philippe Quevillart and David-Olivier Vidouze.
History
The original HKCinemagic1 site was created in late 1998 by Laurent Henry and Thomas Podvin, and initially hosted on Wanadoo France, it began as a site dedicated to directors Tsui Hark[3] and Wong Kar-wai. As the site expanded with new contributors coming on board and more articles being written, it was transferred to ifrance.com. A database of filmographies, identity photos and biographies was soon put in place by team member Jean-Louis Ogé.
In February 2003, along with editors Arnaud Lanuque, Stéphane Jaunin, Philippe Quevillart and David-Olivier Vidouze, Ogé created HKCinemagic2, an encyclopedia of Hong Kong cinema.[4] The site containing photo galleries of casts and crew members focuses on the films of Shaw Brothers Studio, "gweilos" (foreigners) in the Hong Kong film industry and Category 3 films. The content on the two sites continued to increase and a French forum was installed, initially on Hiwit.com in June 2003. In May 2004, a bilingual French and English board was installed on Invision. As of March 2009, the Invision forum has more than 4,000 registered users.
After Laurent Henry left the project, HKCinemagic1 and HKCinemagic2 were merged, creating the last incarnation of Hong Kong Cinemagic (hkcinemagic.com). The new site was designed by Marc Delcambre, Jean-Louis Ogé and Thomas Podvin and was launched in November 2004. Similar to HKMDB, the database can be searched by film title or by person's name. For the 6 months up to February 2009, the site attracted an average of 17,700 visitors per month from the US alone.[5]
Critical reception
Industry professionals and Hong Kong films fans have referred to HKCinemagic as a "site with unparalleled depth of information on Hong Kong cinema",[6] and as an indispensable site that "possesses a wealth of articles and interviews (in French and English)".[7]
Hong Kong Cinemagic has been used as a resource for reference and notes by scholars,[8][9] critics,[10] film institutions such as the Cinémathèque Française, the French film Archive in Paris,[11] and specialised websites.[12]
Data
Hong Kong Cinemagic contained credits for cast and crew members, portrait galleries, screenshots and trailers, as well as reviews written in-house and special notes of information on films. Additional information about alternative titles, titles in Chinese and pinyin, production company, country of origin, genre, release date, box office gross and languages spoken is included where known. Information about cast and crew members may include gender, birth dates and biographies.
In addition to browsing with the website's own search engines, film can be browsed by date, name and genre, and people can be browsed by name and role. A person's filmography can be displayed by date, genre, and activity and/or by selecting solely Hong Kong productions or productions from all countries. The site also provides information on film companies and studios, the dates companies were founded and by whom, and the films they have released or distributed. A glossary of terms specific to Chinese cinema and Chinese culture is also available.[1]
As of March 2009, there are over 10,000 films and over 17,000 people in the database, as well as information on 1,300 studios. There are 26,500 images and 2,000 trailers and other videos. In addition, the site contains biographies, film reviews, interviews,[13] feature articles,[14] and reports.
In contrast to databases such as HKMDB and IMDb, Hong Kong Cinemagic does not include the names of the characters that actors played in their films. However, the film pages often do include comprehensive image galleries of cast and crew.
Fruit Chan Gor is a Hong Kong filmmaker who is best known for his style of film reflecting the everyday life of Hong Kong people. He is well known for using amateur actors in his films. He became a household name after the success of the 1997 film Made in Hong Kong, which earned many local and international awards.
Anthony Wong Chau-sang is a Hong Kong film actor and singer, known for his intense portrayals of often-amoral characters. He has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor three times for The Untold Story (1993), Beast Cops (1998) and Still Human (2018), and won Taiwan's Golden Horse Award for Best Actor for The Sunny Side of the Street (2022). He is the first Hong Kong actor to have won Best Actor awards in films, stage theatre and TV. His notable international credits include his roles as Triad gangster Johnny Wong in Hard Boiled (1992), police Superintendent Wong Chi-shing Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002-03) and General Yang in the Hollywood film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008).
Wong Yat-cheong, known professionally as Wong Jing, is a Hong Kong filmmaker and actor. A prolific filmmaker with strong instincts for crowd-pleasing and publicity, he played a prominent role in Hong Kong cinema during the 1990s.
Clara Law Cheuk-yiu is a Hong Kong Second Wave film director who moved to Australia with her partner and fellow filmmaker Eddie Fong. She is known for such films as Floating Life and Autumn Moon.
Athena Chu is a Hong Kong actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Zixia Fairy in A Chinese Odyssey (1995).
Collin Chou, sometimes credited as Ngai Sing, is a Taiwanese actor and martial artist.
Sharla Cheung Man is a Hong Kong actress and film producer.
JCE Movies Limited is a film distribution and production company based in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It was founded in 2004 and is a division of Emperor Motion Picture Group, which is part of the Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG).
Nansun Shi is a Hong Kong film producer and executive, known for her long-time partnership with director Tsui Hark.
Nicholas Cheung Ka-fai is a Hong Kong actor, singer and director. He first gained recognition for his roles in The Conman (1998) and The Tricky Master (1999). He went on to star in the films Beast Stalker (2008), The Stool Pigeon (2010), Nightfall (2012), Unbeatable (2013), The White Storm (2013), Helios (2015), Keeper of Darkness (2015), Line Walker (2016), and Bodies at Rest (2019). For his performances in Beast Stalker and Unbeatable, Cheung was awarded the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.
Jeffrey Falcon is an American martial artist, actor and filmmaker. A member of the US Wushu team, Falcon began his career in Hong Kong action cinema, before returning to the United States to write and star in the cult classic film Six-String Samurai.
Wong Chun-chun is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, actress and producer. She is known for her female-centric films which include Women's Private Parts (2000), Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat (2003) and The Stolen Years (2013). Wong was awarded the "Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons" by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 2002, and "Young Achiever of the Year" in the Women of Influence award by United States Chamber of Commerce in 2007.
Hollywood Hong Kong is a 2001 Hong Kong film directed by Fruit Chan, with screenplay written by Kei To Lam. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice International Film Festival. It is the second instalment of his "Prostitute trilogy" which Chan directed from 2000–02. The other two movies in the trilogy are Durian Durian (2000) and Three Husbands (2018).
Esprit d'amour is a 1983 Hong Kong supernatural romance film directed by Ringo Lam and starring Alan Tam, Shu-Chun Ni and Cecilia Yip. Shot in modern-day Hong Kong, the film centres on protagonist Koo Chi-Ming, a hapless insurance investigator who while investigating the death of a young woman begins being haunted by her spirit.
Claustrophobia is a 2008 Hong Kong romantic drama film written and directed by Ivy Ho in her directorial debut, and starring Karena Lam and Ekin Cheng.
Mary Jean Reimer, also known as Yung Jing-Jing, is a Hong Kong solicitor and actress. She has American-Chinese-Vietnamese ancestry.
Man-lei Wong was a Chinese actress from Hong Kong. Wong was credited with over 300 films. Wong had a star at Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.
Wong-Nui Fung (1925–1992) was a former Chinese actress and Cantonese opera singer from Hong Kong. Fung is credited with over 250 films.
Rave Fever, also known as X'Mas Rave Fever or X-Mas Rave Fever) is a 1999 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Alan Mak starring Cantopop composer Mark Lui, who was also responsible for much of the film's music. It is a Christmas film that was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 23 December 1999 for the Christmas season.
↑ "HK Stuntman Bruce Law Interview". News article (Happenings section). Wu-Jing.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2009-04-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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