The Original Hong Kong Movies Homepage!

Way, way back, I created something called The Hong Kong Movies Homepage. This was before anyone really knew anything about the web, and I had to explain to the readers of the alt.asian-movies newsgroup what the heck a "WWW" was...! After running it a couple of years, I quit doing it and the homepage moved on. The only thing left was the note below. But then one day a selfish sys-admin removed even this last trace! I always felt sad that even this tiny reminder of things past was gone.

But lo and behold! Something called The Internet Archive has been collecting old web pages! Unfortunately, they only started in 1996, and my page was discontinued in June 1996, so I can't find any of the original content. But the "sign-off note" was there! This time, I'll make sure it stays, and perhaps I'll start adding other historical relics from the Internet's murky past... In the meantime, through the web archive you can browse The Original Hong Kong Movies Homepage as it looked in 1996, when it was managed by Timo Kokkonen.

But the city is still on fire! If you want to know everything about Hong Kong movies, just visit Ryan's Hong Kong Movie Database at:

-- Lars Erik Holmquist, April 3, 2002

They say that the Web doesn't run on human years, it runs on Web-years. I don't know exactly how long a Web-year is, but it's definitely much shorter than an ordinary year. It's not really very long ago that I started the Hong Kong Movies Homepage - it was early 1994 - but so much has happened since then, both in terms of the Internet and Hong Kong movies, that it seems like another era. I got to know about the World Wide Web very early (mainly thanks to Jakob Schlyter) and when I'd accumulated some documents and pictures having to do with Hong Kong movies, it seemed only natural to make it avaiable on a Web-site. At this time, the main methods for communication on the Internet were e-mail, newsgroups, and ftp, so I had to spend a lot of time explaining to people what a Web-site was, and how you could access it. (The only browser widely available at the time was NCSA Mosaic, which only ran on Unix systems!)

Now, of course, everybody and their grandmother know what the Internet and the World Wide Web is all about. But the future of Hong kong movies might not be so bright. With the imminent take-over of Hong Kong by China looming, and some of the best film-makers in the world (including John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark) lining up to work with a no-talent like Jean Claude van-bleedin'-Damme just to get a crack at working in Hollyowood, it's certaily easy to be pessimistic. But I would prefer to paint a brighter picture: In the western world, Hong Kong movies are finally getting the recognition they deserve. More Hong Kong movies are released domestically in the US than since the Kung Fu-boom, and other countries are following suit. (Britain has already had a thriving HK fan culture for several years.) Perhaps, these new markets will mean a new surge in quality for Hong Kong-produced movies - but we'll have to wait and see about that.

Anyway, I'm signing off. It's been a fun few years (or several dozen Web-years, whatever!) and I want to thank everybody who contributed to the Homepage during this time. Thanks also to everybody who's sent me a postcard! I'm sorry that I can't answer individually to every one of you, but you can be certain that every card I get is greatly appreciated. I've put all the card's I've received so far on display on the wall of my office, and they are a great reminder of how many Hong Kong movie fans there are all over the world.

If you would like to express your appreciation for the Hong Kong Movies Homepage, why not send me a postcard too! The address is:

Lars Erik Holmquist
Karl Gustavsg. 67
S-411 31 Göteborg
SWEDEN

Keep watching Hong Kong movies!

-- Lars Erik Holmquist, October 13, 1996