28-01-2017
Action films rarely star women as their main character; women have been ignored by a testosterone driven genre. But China and Hong Kong have always produced martial arts films with women taking the main roles. The Asian Summer Film Festival would like to celebrate this by publishing a book titled Kungfu Girls! Actresses starring in action films from China and Hong Kong. During the festival, there will also be a retrospective section dedicated to these action women.
Actresses such as Moon Lee, Sharon Yeung Pan-Pan, Michelle Yeoh, Kara Hui, Maggie Q, Cheng Pei-Pei, Angela Mao and Mandy Ho have become big stars from Asian action films and have contributed to turn this genre into the most popular of their film industry. Thanks to them, their films have been edited and re-edited internationally.
The FestNits library is growing and will publish its fourth book, an exhaustive compilation of the best female main stars of this genre. It will contain historical contexts, a picture gallery with photos of the most important actresses, interviews and a film guide. A one of a kind film essay; it will be the first book exclusively dedicated to women that appeared in martial arts films from Hong Kong and China. The authors of the book are Domingo López and Jorge Endrino.
The festival organisers are going to invite one of the aforementioned actresses to give her an honorary award to pay homage to all women from action films.
