Thanks to everyone for joining us at Films at the Gate 2010.

See you next year.

Tonight’s film CHILDREN OF INVENTION was filmed, in part, in Boston’s Chinatown. It tells the story of two young children living illegally in a model apartment outside Boston are left to fend for themselves when their hardworking mother disappears. The film made its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, played over 45 film festivals, won 16 festival awards incuding 7 Grand Jury or Best Narrative Feature prizes, and was released theatrically in 8 cities in 2010. Children of Invention web site.

Tomorrow is our final night. Join us for CHILDREN OF INVENTION (2009), the first English-language film ever shown at Films at the Gate. The independent film was shot, in part, on the streets of Boston’s Chinatown, which is where you’ll find us watching it Sunday night at 8PM.

That’s because we asked several local groups, who normally conduct their classes behind closed doors, to come down and do their work on the lot, so passersby and film-goers can see some of what goes on behind the scenes in Chinatown. Although we’re not able to offer these classes to the public, you can stop by, sit down, and watch the “show” every night. Thanks to the Wah Lum Kung Fu Athletic Association, Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association and Gund Kwok Asian Women Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe, for participating in this experiment. By coming outside, these groups are showing their support for the event, the neighborhood, and the way we come together on a vacant lot to watch movies and experience the city together.

Please join us and show your support for the same. Tonight we’ll be in the Chinatown Park, just north of the vacant lot on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. Come watch a Tai Chi demonstration from approximately 7:15 PM to 7:45PM led by members of Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association followed by HAVOC IN HEAVEN (1961) at 8:00PM.

See you tomorrow night on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, just next door to the lot.

Drunken Master (1978): Yuen Siu-tin (left) & Jackie Chan

This evening, Films at the Gate will feature a classic and one of the best: Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER (1978). Check out the full schedule of films here, or read on as Films at the Gate Curator Jean Lukitsh introduces the real drunken master behind tonight’s film:

Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER (1978) is one of the best-loved kung fu comedies of all time. The story is very loosely based on the oral traditions of the Hung Gar school about a famous kung fu expert named Wong Fei-hung. The real Wong Fei-hung died in 1924, but his exploits have been inspired dozens of films. For DRUNKEN MASTER, Jackie Chan and his director, Yuen Woo-ping, decided to have a little fun with the legendary hero. They re-imagined Wong Fei-hung as a naughty teen whose high spirits and lack of restraint exasperates the adults around him. The joke was appreciated by Hong Kong audiences used to seeing Wong portrayed as an austere patriot.

Thundering Red Rose (1963): Yuen Siu-tin at left.

For Chan’s comic foil in the film, Yuen Woo-ping (best known for choreographing KILL BILL, the MATRIX films, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) called in his own father, a veteran kung fu actor. Yuen Siu-tin (also known as Yuan Xiaotian) had been working in films since the late 1920s. His career started in Shanghai, the first Chinese film capitol, when he was hired to choreograph and stunt perform in a series of swordplay films by the pioneer action filmmaker Ren Pengnian (Yam Pang-nin). Ren’s wife, the martial arts actress Wu Lizhu, was the star of the films. Ren and Wu emigrated to Hong Kong shortly before World War II, and Yuen Siu-tin followed them after the war. Soon all three were working together again in the local film industry.

Yuen Siu-tin became one of Hong Kong’s top kung fu movie choreographers, joining an elite group called the “Dragon Tiger Masters.” He worked on dozens of martial arts and action films from the late 1940s through the 1960s. His sons, including Woo-ping, followed him into the profession. For DRUNKEN MASTER, Yuen Siu-tin stepped into a rare leading role. He plays the disreputable Beggar So, an unconventional kung fu master who whips Jackie’s bad boy into shape. Despite being over forty years older than Chan, Yuen Siu-tin is a worthy adversary. His comic timing and adroit way with the action choreography (he’s sometimes stunt-doubled by his son Brandy Yuen) contributed greatly to the success of the film. Yuen went on to reprise the Drunken Master role in at least a half dozen other films before his death in 1980.

ALL THE PEOPLE OF ONE MIND (1948), directed by Ren Pengnian, starring Wu Lizhu, and with Yuen Siu-tin playing a Japanese soldier.

Thanks for coming down and transforming a vacant lot into a movie theater.  Friday is Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. Let’s do it again.

Forget about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. In Asia, the biggest star to come out of Boston is Donnie Yen. IP MAN (2008) and BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (2009) are not only blockbusters, they took “Best Film” awards in Hong Kong for the past two years. This year, IP MAN 2 even beat IRON MAN 2 at the box office in China. The Hollywood Reporter profiled him this month in recognition of the fact that, after over two decades of genre work, Donnie Yen is now a bona fide leading man.

Donnie Yen, Boston Common, late 1970's. Photo provided by Klysler Yen and Pat Lybarger.

Yen moved to Boston from Hong Kong in 1974 with his parents. His father, Klysler Yen, is the editor of the Boston edition of Sing Tao newspaper. His mother, Bow Sim Mark, has taught tai chi and related Chinese martial arts in Boston for the past thirty five years. Master Mark trained in modern competition wushu as a teen, and then studied for ten years with one of Guangzhou’s best-known tai chi experts, Master Fu Wing-fei. Donnie grew up in Newton, where his family settled, and in Chinatown, where his mother had a school on Harrison Ave. He hung out, like the other Chinatown kids, at the movie theaters, especially the Star and Pagoda, which were on the fringes of the old Combat Zone. That was where they could sometimes see fights that weren’t on the screen, and maybe even jump in.

Donnie only lived in Boston for about six or seven years, but they were a formative time for him. He was a teenager here. He learned to breakdance and he learned to box. He competed at kung fu tournaments, and he tested himself in other ways. Then he went off to Beijing to train with the wushu team there, and next turned up in Hong Kong working as a stunt man on Yuen Wo-ping’s films. If you want to know what happened after that, check his entry on imdb.com. Nobody can say the guy hasn’t paid his dues. –Jean Lukitsh.

The Boston Globe interviewed curator Jean Lukitsh about this year’s films in an article running tomorrow. Get all the event details and schedule here.

See you soon on the lot.

• Walking Tours depart every night from the Chinatown Gate at 6:00PM (45 min, THU-SUN 8/26-29) . Led by youth from the Asian Community Development Corporation, you’ll get an in-depth look at Chinatown and its transformations over time, and you’ll be connected to dynamic community workers who are working to preserve and revitalize this unique community. Details here.
• Thursday’s film (8/26) will be preceded by a lion dance at 7:45PM by Gund Kwok, the only Asian Women Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe in the United States.
• Friday’s film (8/27) will be preceded by a lion dance, a demonstration class, and a Kung Fu demonstration from approximately 7:15 PM to 7:45PM by the Wah Lum Kung Fu Athletic Association.
• Saturday’s film (8/28) will be preceded by a Tai Chi demonstration from approximately 7:15 PM to 7:45PM led by members of Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association.

As always, we hope you’ll choose to eat in the neighborhood and support local businesses. Take out is welcome at the films.

In 2010, we’re taking a stroll up the Greenway. On Saturday (8/28) and Sunday (8/29) nights, we’ll move Films at the Gate to Chinatown Park, just on the other side of the Chinatown Gate from our traditional location. We’re grateful to the Greenway Conservancy for working with us to make this possible.

Come down and enjoy the show (and the beautiful park).

PRINCESS IRON FAN (1940)

Wan Laiming and his brothers had been experimenting with flip books and zoetrope animations on their own before creating the 1922 short for the Commercial Press. Their original style of film animation is unknown, but by 1926 the brothers were working at the Great Wall Film Company, where they produced the 10 minute long UPROAR IN THE STUDIO. Modeled on Max Fleischer’s OUT OF THE INKWELL, the short combined live action film of an artist with animation of the drawing he is working on. The artist was played by Wan Guchan.

HAVOC IN HEAVEN (1961)

In 1935, the Wan brothers made China’s first sound cartoon, THE CAMEL’S DANCE, for the Mingxing studio. As the political situation in China became more dire, the brothers supported the war effort by turning out patriotic cartoons. Despite the worsening situation, and inspired by the Disney film SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, Wan Laiming pursued his dream of developing a uniquely Chinese approach to animation, one that would draw on traditional stories, using traditional art and music. Working under severe budget constraints and Japanese occupation, the Wan brothers managed to complete China’s first feature-length animation in 1940, the black-and-white PRINCESS IRON FAN, based on an episode of the Monkey King saga, “Journey to the West.” PRINCESS IRON FAN was a popular success, and was even shown in Japan during the war, where it was a major inspiration for a young Tezuka Osamu, creator of “Astro Boy.”  – Jean Lukitsh

HAVOC IN HEAVEN (1961)

Update: Schedule of films is now up.

Thanks to everyone for joining us at Films at the Gate 2009.

See you next year.