Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual (
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
)
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...
providing a repository for information about
Chinese language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...
films from
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
, and the people who 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 maintained 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
Wanadoo
Wanadoo was the Internet service provider division of Orange S.A. It operated in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon and Jordan. It ceased to operate as ...
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, "
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 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. 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.
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, the French film Archive in Paris, and specialised websites.
Data
Hong Kong Cinemagic contains
credits
Credit refers to any form of deferred payment, the granting of a loan and the creation of debt.
Credit may also refer to:
Places
* Credit, Arkansas, a ghost town
* Credit River, a river in Ontario, Canada
* Credit River (Minnesota), a river ...
for
cast
Cast may refer to:
Music
* Cast (band), an English alternative rock band
* Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band
* The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis
* ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William
...
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
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
,
production company, country of origin, genre, release date,
box office
A box office or ticket 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 a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is fre ...
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 Kei-fung (born 22 April 1955) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and film producer. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas. Intensely prolific, To has made films in a variety of genres, though in ...
,
Patrick Tam,
Wong Jing,
Anthony Wong,
Eric Tsang,
Peter Chan,
Lawrence Ah Mon,
Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu (Lau Kar-fai ); born Sin Kam-hei () August 22, 1951) is a Chinese martial arts film actor and martial artist. He played the lead role of San Te in ''The 36th Chamber of Shaolin'' (1978) and its sequels, and later played two roles in Q ...
,
Ti Lung,
Stanley Kwan and
Chen Kuan Tai
Chen Kuan-tai (born 24 September 1945) is a martial artist and Hong Kong martial arts film star.
Background
A former fireman, he won a world's kungfu Championship in 1969. He has primarily appeared in Shaw Brothers productions, and was one of the ...
.
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.
See also
*
Hong Kong Movie Database
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Hong Kong Cinemagic official websiteArchived versions of Hong Kong Cinemagicat the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
HKCinemagic1– Laurent Henry and Thomas Podvin's original site.
– Jean-Louis Ogé's original site.
Chinese film websites
Online film databases
French-language websites
Internet properties established in 1998
French film websites