Series Site
BAMPFA welcomes back film collector and former television personality Paul Fonoroff, this time with a program that draws from the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, when the multilingual Fonoroff cohosted a popular TV show on Hong Kong film while also working as a film critic.
Fonoroff’s frequent cameos in Hong Kong films are an inspiration for this series, which features works with one thing in common (Fonoroff!), but it primarily serves as an introduction to the wide range of popular Hong Kong cinema, from martial arts action films (Once Upon a Time in China II) to romantic comedies (Now You See Love, Now You Don’t), glorious tearjerkers (Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye), and screwball comedies (Lawyer Lawyer). Most importantly, this series offers a chance to say hello again to stars like Carol Cheng, Maggie Cheung, Stephen Chow, Chow Yun-fat, and Jet Li, and to rejoice once more in the glorious, crowd-pleasing craftsmanship that was Hong Kong cinema of the time. Fonoroff himself will be on hand to share his behind-the-scenes stories of the making of the films and of the era itself. “Despite my lack of thespian talent, the chance to participate in over twenty motion pictures provided a unique vantage point from which to observe Beijing and Hong Kong movie cultures during pivotal times,” he noted. “Luckily for me, some of the most superstellar blockbusters required a ‘guailo’/‘laowai’ who didn’t need acting talent as long as he could speak the lingo.”
—Jason Sanders, Film Notes Writer