Reels From the Rim : The films in Festival Hong Kong, at Glendale’s Regency One, deliver a karate chop to the stereotypical kung fu flick.

GLENDALE —  What a way to toast a new year.

A Chinese New Year accompanied with Chinese films representing some of the best in classic and modern Hong Kong action-comedy thrillers.

It starts today--this second day of the Chinese lunar calendar’s Year of the Dog--as the Pacific Regency One Theatre in Glendale embarks on a two-week run of the Second Annual Festival Hong Kong.

The festival, which received positive reviews and netted nearly $50,000 in ticket sales last year at the Santa Monica 4-Plex and Burbank Media Center’s AMC Theatres, features 14 films dating as far back as 1978 and as recent as 1993.

No longer just stereotypical kung fu flicks, these Hong Kong imports have attracted a growing non-Asian audience in various cities across the country, said Tom Gray, festival brainchild and president of Rim Film Distributors Inc. Gray has made a one-year commitment to show only Asian films in Glendale’s Regency One.

The appeal of the Hong Kong films stems not only from the upgrade in story lines--action mixed with drama, romance, sex and humor--but also from some of the talented actors themselves, considered throwbacks to such handsome and dashing Hollywood characters as Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Gray and critics have said.

Most of the films’ original Chinese titles have been changed for Western distribution, some of them spiced up with allusions to American movies (“Robotrix,” an erotic movie, for instance, from “RoboCop”). English subtitles also have been added, for audiences that may not understand the mainly Cantonese-speaking characters.

“All of these films are now getting a wider acceptance that would not exist 10 years ago,” Gray said. “Really, the Hong Kong films are covering every single genre. . . . We’ve become an alternative to the basic bland Hollywood movie.”

Nick Browne, professor of critical studies at UCLA’s film and television department, has become an Asian film buff himself, and he agrees.

“The Hong Kong cinema, seems to me, has crossed over and has found a general American audience,” Browne said. “It’s gone way beyond a kung fu movie. This is very sophisticated action drama.”

Browne, one of the authors in a recently published book on “New Chinese Cinemas,” particularly lauds the directing of John Woo, whose 1991 hit “Once a Thief” plays Feb. 21-22 and epitomizes the enhanced Hong Kong style of filmmaking.

“Once a Thief” is actually about a trio of international art thieves--Joe (Chow Yun-Fat), Cherie (Cherie Chung) and Jim (Leslie Cheung)--trained to steal valuable paintings for their cruel, selfish master-teacher (Kenneth Tsang Kong).

For an hour and 46 minutes, they laugh, smile, cry and grit their teeth through a series of cunning heists, shootouts and slapstick and romantic interludes, including a hilarious scene in which Joe maneuvers a wheelchair along the ballroom dance floor with the grace of Fred Astaire. All the while, he’s smiling as if he’s disco dancing a la John Travolta.

The film, also surprisingly, opens in Paris, with French dialogue, in the first couple of minutes before the action moves on to the Riviera, Hong Kong and the United States.

“(It’s) cleverly constructed and entertainingly told,” Browne said. “There’s humor and action that goes beyond any Chinese context. It’s something that an American audience can recognize and appreciate right away.”

“Chow Yun-Fat seems to me a kind of a Hong Kong Cary Grant,” he added. “He’s suave, romantic and has a good sense of humor.”

One half of today’s double feature is Kirk Wong’s “Crime Story,” starring Jackie Chan as a Hong Kong police inspector who tries to solve the kidnaping of a businessman, a story based on a real case.

Gray likens Chan, who does his own stunts, to Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

“Jackie Chan is a combination of all the great action stars of America,” he said. “He’s been the No. 1 action star in Japan, for example, in the last seven years.”

Standing outside the Pacific Regency last week, the tall, gray-haired film distributor and producer embodies the spirit of a Chan character, who usually defies the odds and comes out a winner in the end.

Gray first did it when he formed Rim Film in September, 1992, and three months later experimented with the first two-week Festival Hong Kong at Santa Monica’s Nuart, taking in $30,000 in ticket grosses, which he considered successful. He has since moved the film showings to the Santa Monica 4-Plex, where he leases a movie screen that attracts an 85% non-Asian audience.

“We had a lot of skepticism, even in Hong Kong,” he said. “They said it would never play.”

Indeed, the producer who played a role in bringing the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” to the big screen hopes to see Santa Monica’s success duplicated in Glendale--a city of 180,000 that is trying to strengthen its arts and entertainment offerings, as seen in the recent reopening of the Alex Theatre.

Indeed, the Regency One, faced with slumping ticket sales, had shut down at the end of July, 1993. Between August and December, the 600-seat movie house featured commercial hits for the hearing impaired, shown with subtitles, said Bob Baron, theater manager. (That service has since moved to another site, the Pacific Roxy Theatre, 417 1/2 N. Brand Blvd., Baron said.)

Gray saw an opportunity.

“We looked at the demographics of Glendale and surrounding areas,” Gray said. “We thought it was a nice place . . . for us to build a circuit.

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“We’re not catering to an Asian audience. We’re catering to wide masses--people who want to see the best in Asian cinema.”

Said Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian: “I think it would be a plus for the city. Any time that you bring in arts to the city, it’s a plus. Art is something that you don’t (always) need to understand in words.”

“I’m thrilled by it,” said Browne, of UCLA. “It means that it’s not confined to the Chinatown cinemas. It’s going mainstream.”

After the Hong Kong festival ends Feb. 24, Gray plans to continue showing films from various parts of Asia, including Japan, Korea and the Philippines, at the Regency One. He said he is also looking into stretching the Asian film circuit to theaters in Pasadena, Gardena and possibly the San Fernando Valley.

And he insists that American interest in Asian films will not fade like yesterday’s fad.

“We see it as an ongoing venture. . . . We’re going to do a lot of experimenting with films, festivals, retrospectives of some of the great (Asian) directors.

“Our whole goal is to keep it fresh.”

Festival Hong Kong in Glendale

The Second Annual Festival Hong Kong will play at the Pacific Regency One Theatre, 210 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, today through Feb 24. Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 seniors and students, and $4 for matinees (first daily showing only). All showings except the last are double features. For information, call (818) 242-9322.

The festival will feature these films:

Today

“The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk II,” 4:30 and 9:45 p.m.

“Crime Story,” 7:30 p.m.

Saturday

“The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk II,” 12:45, 5:30 and 10:15 p.m.

“Crime Story,” 3 and 7:50 p.m.

Sunday

“Bullet in the Head,” 2 and 7 p.m.

“Security Unlimited,” 4:45 and 9:40 p.m.

Monday

“Bullet in the Head,” 4:45 and 9:30 p.m.

“Security Unlimited,” 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday

“Heroic Trio,” 5:15 and 9:30 p.m.

“Tom, Dick and Hairy,” 7:15 p.m.

Wednesday

“Tom, Dick and Hairy,” 5:30 and 9:45 p.m.

“Heroic Trio,” 7:45 p.m.

Thursday

“Love and Death in Saigon,” 5 and 9:45 p.m.

“Robotrix,” 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 18

“Robotrix,” 5:15 and 10 p.m.

“Love and Death in Saigon,” 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 19

“Drunken Master,” 12:30, 5:15 and 10 p.m.

“Flirting Scholar,” 3 and 7:45 p.m.

Feb. 20.

“Drunken Master,” 2:15 and 7 p.m.

“Flirting Scholar,” 4:45 and 9:30 p.m.

Feb. 21

“Drunken Master,” 2:15 and 7 p.m.

“Once a Thief,” 5:30 and 9:30 p.m.

“Iron Monkey,” 7:35 p.m.

Feb. 22

“Iron Monkey,” 5:15 and 9:30 p.m.

“Once a Thief,” 7:15 p.m.

Feb. 23

“Once a Cop,” 5:30 and 9:45 p.m.

“The Bride With White Hair,” 7:45 p.m.

Feb. 24

“The Bride With White Hair,” 5:30 and 9:30 p.m.

“Once a Cop,” 7:30 p.m.

After the Hong Kong festival, Rim Film Distributors Inc. plans to continue showing exclusively Asian films at the Pacific Regency One.

Call the theater for more information.