Cinephilia On The Go: Hong Kong Edition Part 1

Before I get to covering the Cinema One Film Festival this week, let's talk about something else for a moment. This last week I've been to Hong Kong on business, but while I was there, instead of going to the usual tourist haunts, I decided to take in a bit of cinema.

Foreign movies in Hong Kong almost always have Chinese and English subtitles, depending on the language of the feature. They take in a lot more foreign films from the mainland, Korea and Japan compared to here in the Philippines, which is a boon to anyone wanting to discover a few new cinematic gems. Sadly, domestic Hong Kong cinema itself hasn't been as prominent as it used to be, and I only noticed a handful of Chinese movies on screen.

Ticket prices range from around 75-100HKD (400-600 php) depending on the type of the movie, and what time of the day you came to watch.

Unlike here in the Philippines, where the vast majority of cinemas operate attached to a mall, Hong Kong has a mix of both mall cineplexes and independent moviehouses. During my visit, I went to one of each.

First, I went to the Broadway Cinematheque in Kowloon. This place is a decent sized cineplex that focuses on showing indie films, film festivals and other arty productions. Unfortunately for me, I just missed several film festivals that had been going on earlier in the month, and my departure was just weeks away from another upcoming film fest with Spanish films. It's a spacious, comfortable cinema with lots of legroom (always a plus - looking at you, Robinson's Galleria) and decent, if not good sound and projection. Inside the cinema house is a book store and several DVD shops, whose selections range the entire gamut of World Cinema, everything from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin to Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish, not to mention several Criterion Collection discs and hard to find items.

(le drool)

The second theater place I went to was The Grand Cinemas, which is part of the Elements Mall in Kowloon. The Elements is a pretty classy mall, and I expected a classy theater. I was right. Even more comfortable seats (the leg room is insane), crisp and bright Sony 4K Digital Cinema (super appropriate for one of the movies I saw on the list,) and Shaw Active Sound, which is this surround sound system where you can hear the deep bass pounding you from every direction. Tickets can be purchased or reserved via kiosks that let you pay via Octopus card.

So what did I watch? Stay tuned for that.