I LOVE ROBOTS

Here's a fun retro piece I did last year for a Blu-ray release of the 1988 Hong Kong sci-fi action comedy film I LOVE MARIA (aka ROBOFORCE) starring Sally Yeh, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Tsui Hark. The Hong Kong film industry did not produce many science fiction films, so it's interesting to view the ones they did manage to make on their typically constrained budgets. This one has obvious Japanese anime roots, as well as a nod to the robot "Maria" from Fritz Lang's 1927 German expressionist epic METROPOLIS, but leans heavily into situational comedy. Fun, inventive action scenes give the film the feel of a live-action cartoon.

Gorgeous Sally Yeh's performance as multiple characters, both human and robotic, is phenomenal. Everyone seems like they're just having a fun romp. If you can find the extended Taiwanese version, (running 122 minutes) seek it out for the additional action bits. It's my preferred version.   

Cheers. Until next time.

CHOWING THE SCENERY

No time to reload! These guns only run out of ammo when the moment is most dramatic! 

A year ago I got hired to illustrate a new poster for the Western re-release of John Woo's seminal Hong Kong 1992 action classic, HARD-BOILED, starring Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. A fun project.

I tried to capture a sense of the energetic fun and explosive excitement of what is widely considered the apex of the heroic bloodshed film genre. I felt the original HK poster of Chow holding a toddler in a diaper (come on, THAT'S NO NEWBORN), although now pretty iconic, somewhat undersold the intense, over-the-top gun-fu spectacle audiences were about to experience. So my main priority was to put some excitement into the piece. (Of course most fans by this point have already seen this nearly 35 year old film multiple times so they know. They know.) 

Until next time... Cheers. And STAY FROSTY.

(Wrong movie, I know.)

Wooing the West

 

I caught John Woo's THE KILLER at Washington D.C.s The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in August 1989, (along with a double-bill of his A BETTER TOMORROW films.) And was blasted into the back of the theatre along with the rest of the audience. 

One could argue, that film, starring Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee and Sally Yeh, was more influential, if not more popular, in the United States (and the UK), than with its native Hong Kong audience who perhaps saw it as just another heroic bloodshed picture. It was commercially successful in HK, but I think it did much more to woo (sorry) western audiences and wake up Hollywood to the amazing work of its writer/director. Of course, John Woo eventually did find a new parallel career working on American films as well as Hong Kong productions. Including a 2024 gender-swapped remake. 

Long unavailable in the West due to corporate mergers and licensing issues, now THE KILLER is not only widely available again, but has been remastered from the surviving negative. It looks and sounds stunning in 4K. 

A year ago I was lucky enough to be hired to produce new artwork for the long awaited "resurrection" of this beloved action film. I often pinch myself that this is really happening. In the year 2025. The irony is not lost on me. I'm doing hand drawn artwork (already replaced by AI) for a physical media release (already replaced by streaming) of an old celluloid film (already replaced by digital) of a story (already replaced by a remake). One could argue that the medium of the 90-minute film has itself been replaced in popularity by YouTube or TikToks or whatever. But let's not even go there.

As I've probably said before... this job combines my love of art, marketing and cinema, so I'll happily ride that train to the end of the line doing promotional art for films. 

 Below is the result.     

Alas, there once was a time when I would routinely drive over an hour to another city to see a film, weekly, by myself usually. But now, I haven't even been to a movie theatre in six and a half years. Times change. And people do too. It's so much easier today to see these foreign films, and movies in general, from the relative comfort of my home. And the cost versus quality is about the same. Physical media on a modern television keeps improving, while the theatre-going experience keeps declining. From lengthy commercials to acrophobia-inducing ticket prices. Given the choice, for the same cost I'd rather own it than see it once. If I tire of the film I can always sell it and get my money back. 

But it's true to say that something is lost amid the convenience. It's not just nostalgia for my youth, although there is some of that. (The power of that can't be underestimated.) I think the ritualistic experience of "going to see a film", much like dropping a stylus on a vinyl record, was something greater than just pressing a button from your couch. It's hard to explain, but, ahh, ... that's a whole other conversation. Don't get me started.  

Anyway.... the bullets and bodies keep flying. Next time. Right here.

WAH WAH

No, that's not a sad trombone. It's YUEN WAH! (Birth name Yung Kai-chi.)

It's a quickie piece I did for fun for a magazine cover. The cover boy is Hong Kong actor/stuntman/action choreographer (and, of course, martial artist) Yuen Wah, of the Seven Little Fortunes performing group from the 1960s—which also featured fellow classmates Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. 

One of his early claims to fame was as the body double for Bruce Lee in FIST OF FURY and ENTER THE DRAGON. Bruce could cartwheel, but not back or front flip. Yuen could do both in his sleep. So they stuck a fast friendship and Bruce hired him to work on several fights scenes with Bruce, as well as play small parts in the films. Wah was actually the one doing the acrobatics for Lee's character.  

With AI poised to make our future entertainment, we are not likely to see the causes and conditions arise for performers like Yuen Wah to entertain us again onscreen. So it's important to recognize and appreciate their unique talents, especially while these actors are still around so they can see what they meant to us film fans.

He's still working, but naturally slowing down a wee bit at 75 years old. He's earned it. But thankfully he's still alive and, of course, kicking. Here's to you. Long live Yung Kai-chi. 

Next up.... John Woo's gun-fu classics get a fresh coat of paint.

PEKING OPERA BLISS

A year ago I was honored with the rare opportunity to provide some new original artwork for one of my absolute favorite films, Tsui Hark's 1986 genre-bending masterpeice PEKING OPERA BLUES.

My love for this movie, which I have exhaustingly chronicled here, has not waned over the decades. So I was thrilled for the priveldge to be involved with the much anticipated and long overdue restoration and revitalization of the film on 4K and Blu-ray.

Given my normal "4-day turnaround" (I typically only have a few days to complete each peice) I usually spend most of the first day watching the film a couple times (I know, hard work) and jotting down some layout ideas. It can be challenging to distill the essense of the movie into a single frame that is at least somewhat representative of the 2-hour experience. I attempted to capture and convey the vibrant energy, colorful pageantry, and vivid characters that Hark and his talented team crafted. 

Asked to do it again I would probably do something quite different, but this is the first design that came out. And I used my full alotted time. I don't enjoy the luxury of test studies. Everything is the "first take", and move on. 

Were the film's matte paintings seemless? Not entirely.

Did they re-use the same (only slightly redressed) street set? Yep. If you looked closely.

Are the general's luscious sideburns and ridiculous eyebrows over-the-top? Absolutely! And I wouldn't have my archetypal Chinese movie villians any other way.

Did that spoil any of the cine-magic? Heck no!  

Hark's (along with Poon Han Sang, his director of photography) were successfully able to cinematically realize a fully immersive fictional world with limited resources through the use of frugal blocking and constructing only what was needed for the camera to see. Two or three-walled rooms accomplished the illusion. The result is a gauzy, romanticised 1913 China. Where the characters are not overpowered by expansive ornate sets, but rather they are constantly the focus of attention. And with gorgeous stars like Sally Yeh, Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung and Mark Cheng, why would you look anywhere else?

The film spools out at a breathless pace with plots and subplots piling up like a jenga tower. Each one interlocking, building higher and higher to its inevitable thrilling conclusion.

For this US release, by SHOUT FACTORY, I also contributed an extensive image gallery in addition to my menu artwork.

Because of the later deadline for the UK release, by ARROW, I was able to add even more content to the image gallery. 

And for the Australian IMPRINT release, I had even more time, so that image gallery is the largest of the three. They also commissioned me to write a 2500 word essay on the film's production and legacy. And I also produced a 20 minute featurette on the film's marketing materials and other collectible memorabilia.

My hope is that Tsui Hark's masterpiece can now find a home in the hearts of a whole new generation of cinema fans. And the work can have the longevity any work of art deserves.   

Next up... Bruce Lee's body double finally gets the spotlight.

Patchwork Memories

The design brief for this project was an outer slipcase box, two double-sided inlays, disc art and booklet designs for a ten-film compilation from the extrememly prolific Shaw Brothers filmmaker CHANG CHEH. Oh, and come up with a title for it. 

As is typical of my working method, my first intention is to for the outer packaging to reflect the tone and feeling of it's contents. And to me, this patchwork collection of pathwork films reminded me of my early days rummaging around the dusty old shelves of Chinese video rental shops in somewhat seedy parts of town. As I've chronicled previously, this lead me to spend so much time in one particular shop in suburban Maryland, VIDEO CITY, that I eventually married the owner. Now our store is long gone, but the wife (and hundreds of VHS tapes I couldn't part with) remain. 

But something about this Chang Cheh collection triggered a memory from the old video store. My wife would constantly get new Hong Kong movie posters with every shipment of tapes. She'd put up some new ones, and take down soem old ones. And what did she do with the old posters? Well, grab a seat HK movie collectors and take a deep breath... she would CUT THEM UP INTO LITTLE SQUARES and use the reverse blank side as scrap notepaper on the counter for customers to use to scribble on when communicating in Mandarin, Cantonese or even broken English. As a matter of fact I still have some cherished "squares" of a ROBOTRIX poster somewhere. I eventually stopped her from doing that for the most part, and bought her a notepad. But these discarded, faded and torn old poster scraps somehow informed my visual approach to this package. The movies are old so. The package should remind buyers of the excitement we felt digging through those forgotten shelves discovering an old movie that you'd never seen, featuring a faded photo of one of your Martial Arts heroes. Our hearts beat like finding lost gold. So, from the distressed background to the photo collage to the "carved colossus" title treatment. Even the tarnished copper metal corners which are taken from an old Chinese jewlery box I own. It's all meant to evoke those old patchwork memories for fans of these films. While still presenting them with a clarity that was impossible outside a theater. We are living in a golden age for physical media collectors. But for how much longer is anyone's guess.

FURIOUS SWORDS AND FANTASTIC WARRIORS: THE HEROIC CINEMA OF CHANG CHEH.             

The two inlays are designed to be placed side by side making a diptych. 

The turquoise tone was a color I haven't used much in my designs lately and it made me think "old". I felt this was the appropriate time for its return. The circular stickers are the type of thing my wife would apply to the tapes to indicate if it has Mando or Canto dialogue, so I wanted to include an homage. 

And my book cover design also has that "UV-damaged from months in an old shop window" appeal... and is more than ready for my wife to rip into small pieces. (Damn it honey, that was Jackie Chan!) 

Next time.... I revisit my old favorite film. Can you guess?

Let Them BASH

Another 1970s Hong Kong basher, this time SHAOLIN BOXERS starring journeyman actor James Tien, gets restored for Blu-ray. As a fan of Jackie Chan's golden age films, it was nice to spot Mars in a small early role. He would later go on to have more prominent parts in many Chan classics, as well as doubling Jackie for certain shots. 

My artwork takes its cue from the original HK poster, included on the inlay sleeve, which also prominently features green tones.  

The booklet cover, featuring the martial arts tournament trophy seen in the film, repeats the visual style I've used for a series of similar films.

Hang in there folks.