Hong Kong Cinemagic
Encyclopedia
Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual (French
and English
) website
providing a repository for information about Chinese language
films from Hong Kong
, China
and Taiwan
, and the people that created them. The website contains news, interviews, film reviews and a database of people, films and film studios as well as an illustrated glossary of terms. The web magazine has existed in various forms for over a decade. As of March 2009, the database contains over 10,000 films.
The site was designed and is maintainted by Marc Delcambre, Jean-Louis Ogé and Thomas Podvin. The key staff and editors are Stéphane Jaunin, Arnaud Lanuque, Van-Thuan Ly, Philippe Quevillart and David-Olivier Vidouze.
France, it began as a site dedicated to directors Tsui Hark
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
. The site containing photo galleries of casts and crew members focuses on the films of Shaw Brothers Studio
, "gweilo
s" (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 current 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. The database continues to grow and has become akin to resource sites such as IMDb
and HKMDB
. As with those sites, 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.
Hong Kong Cinemagic has been used as a resource for reference and notes by scholars, critics, film institutions such as the Cinémathèque Française
, the French film Archive in Paris, specialised websites and articles in online encyclopaedias including Wikipedia (e.g. Jet Li
) and Answers.com
.
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.
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, feature articles, and reports.
Hong Kong correspondents and editors have interviewed many key figures of the Hong Kong film industry In-depth interviews of actors, directors, and film technicians are available in English and/or in French. Past interviewees have included Johnnie To
, Patrick Tam, Wong Jing
, Anthony Wong
, Eric Tsang
, Peter Chan
, Lawrence Ah Mon
, Gordon Liu
, Ti Lung
, Stanley Kwan
and Chen Kuan Tai
.
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.
One advantage the site offers is the listing of cast and crew members by the names and spellings most recognisable to western audiences, in contrast to HKMDB, which lists people by the names and spellings most recognisable to Chinese audiences. For example, HKCinemagic have a listing for Lau Kar Leung (the Cantonese form), whereas HKMDB's listing is for Liu Chia-Liang (the Mandarin form). Although both sites allow searching for all variations of names, it may be easier for western users to recognise the entries on Hong Kong Cinemagic's site.
Another key difference between HKCinemagic and HKMDB is the former does not require any membership to access the complete database.
All entries, articles and interviews at the site are written by the HKCinemagic editors, collaborators and guest writers. Visitors can propose amendments and forward comments using an error report form accessible via a link in the footer of each page. Restricting the addition of data to an editorial team that specialises in Hong Kong Cinema
means the database typically contains more accurate information in its domain than IMDb
.
Other databases that specialise in Hong Kong Cinema
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
providing a repository for information about Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
films from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, and the people that created them. The website contains news, interviews, film reviews and a database of people, films and film studios as well as an illustrated glossary of terms. The web magazine has existed in various forms for over a decade. As of March 2009, the database contains over 10,000 films.
The site was designed and is maintainted by Marc Delcambre, Jean-Louis Ogé and Thomas Podvin. The key staff and editors are 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 WanadooWanadoo
Wanadoo is the former name of the ISP division of Orange SA, which is a subsidiary of France Télécom. It operated in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon, and Jordan...
France, it began as a site dedicated to directors Tsui Hark
Tsui Hark
Tsui Hark , born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong New Wave film director and producer. He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema .-Early life:...
and Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
. 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
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan...
. The site containing photo galleries of casts and crew members focuses on the films of Shaw Brothers Studio
Shaw Brothers Studio
The Shaw Brothers Studio , owned by Shaw Brothers Ltd., was the foremost and the largest movie production company of Hong Kong movies.From their distribution base in Singapore where they founded parent company Shaw Organization in 1924, and as a strategic development of their movie distribution...
, "gweilo
Gweilo
Gweilo or Gwailo is a common Cantonese slang term for foreigners, and has a long history of racially deprecatory use. If there is some racially deprecatory meaning or it is expressive of hate, it is shown by the addition of the adjective, sei or as a prefix: seigwailo...
s" (foreigners) in the Hong Kong film industry and Category 3
Hong Kong motion picture rating system
The Hong Kong motion picture rating system is a legal system of movie screening and rating. An official government agency issues ratings for any movie that will be shown in Hong Kong movie theatres.-History:...
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 current 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. The database continues to grow and has become akin to resource sites such as IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
and HKMDB
Hong Kong Movie Database
The Hong Kong Movie DataBase is a bilingual website that was created in 1995 by Ryan Law to provide a repository for information about movies originating from Hong Kong and the people that created them....
. As with those sites, 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.
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", and as an indispensable site that “possesses a wealth of articles and interviews (in French and English)".Hong Kong Cinemagic has been used as a resource for reference and notes by scholars, critics, film institutions such as the Cinémathèque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
, the French film Archive in Paris, specialised websites and articles in online encyclopaedias including Wikipedia (e.g. Jet Li
Jet Li
The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce...
) and Answers.com
Answers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
.
Data
Hong Kong Cinemagic contains creditsClosing credits
Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
for cast
Cast member
A cast member is:* An actor who performs in a theatrical production, motion picture, or television program. The actors who perform in the show are collectively referred to as the cast....
and crew
Film crew
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew positions.A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the Actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for...
members, portrait galleries, screenshots and trailers, as well as reviews
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
written in-house and special notes of information on films. Additional information about alternative titles, titles in Chinese and pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, country of origin, genre, release date, box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
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.
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, feature articles, and reports.
Hong Kong correspondents and editors have interviewed many key figures of the Hong Kong film industry In-depth interviews of actors, directors, and film technicians are available in English and/or in French. Past interviewees have included Johnnie To
Johnnie To
Johnnie To Kei-Fung, born 22 April 1955, is a Hong Kong film director and producer. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas...
, Patrick Tam, Wong Jing
Wong Jing
Wong Jing is a Hong Kong film director, producer, actor, presenter, and screenwriter. A prolific filmmaker possessed of strong instincts for crowd-pleasing and publicity, he is often cited as the most consistently successful filmmaker , in commercial terms, in the Hong Kong cinema of the last...
, Anthony Wong
Anthony Wong Chau Sang
Anthony Wong Chau-sang is a Hong Kong Film Award-winning Hong Kong actor, screenwriter and film director. He is regarded as one of the most notable actors in Hong Kong.-Biography:...
, Eric Tsang
Eric Tsang
Eric Tsang Chi-wai , MH is a prolific Hong Kong actor, film director, film producer and television host best known for hosting the Super Trio series on TVB over the course of 10 years.-Biography:Due to his popularity, he is often the MC in events organized by TVB, and is nicknamed "the Prize Master"...
, Peter Chan
Peter Chan
Peter Chan Ho-sun , is a film director and producer.-Life and career:Chan was born in Bangkok to Chinese parents. He spent his teens in and studied in Hong Kong and United States, and he attended film school at UCLA. He returned to Hong Kong in 1983 for a summer internship in the film industry....
, Lawrence Ah Mon
Lawrence Ah Mon
Lawrence Ah Mon or Lawrence Lau Kwok Cheong is a Hong Kong film director. His films are famous for exploring youth problems in Hong Kong, such as Gangs , Spacked Out , Gimme Gimme and City Without Baseball...
, Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
, Ti Lung
Ti Lung
Tommy Tam Fu-Wing, also known as Ti Lung , or Dik Lung, is a Hong Kong actor.-Background:He studied Wing Chun under the martial arts master Chu Wan. In 1969, Ti was found by the Shaw Brothers and cast in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman opposite Jimmy Wang Yu, a role which would launch his career...
, Stanley Kwan
Stanley Kwan
Stanley Kwan is a Hong Kong Second Wave film director and producer.Kwan landed a job at the TVB after receiving a mass communications degree at Hong Kong Baptist College...
and Chen Kuan Tai
Chen Kuan Tai
Chen Kuan-tai is a Chinese martial arts film star. He has primarily appeared in Shaw Brothers productions, and was one of the first solid trained, martial arts stars employed by the company...
.
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.
One advantage the site offers is the listing of cast and crew members by the names and spellings most recognisable to western audiences, in contrast to HKMDB, which lists people by the names and spellings most recognisable to Chinese audiences. For example, HKCinemagic have a listing for Lau Kar Leung (the Cantonese form), whereas HKMDB's listing is for Liu Chia-Liang (the Mandarin form). Although both sites allow searching for all variations of names, it may be easier for western users to recognise the entries on Hong Kong Cinemagic's site.
Another key difference between HKCinemagic and HKMDB is the former does not require any membership to access the complete database.
All entries, articles and interviews at the site are written by the HKCinemagic editors, collaborators and guest writers. Visitors can propose amendments and forward comments using an error report form accessible via a link in the footer of each page. Restricting the addition of data to an editorial team that specialises in Hong Kong Cinema
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan...
means the database typically contains more accurate information in its domain than IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.
External links
- Hong Kong Cinemagic
- Archived versions of Hong Kong Cinemagic at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- HKCinemagic1 – Laurent Henry and Thomas Podvin's original site.
- HKCinemagic2 – Jean-Louis Ogé's original site.
Other databases that specialise in Hong Kong Cinema