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Skyline of Lhasa, Tibet, taken from a rooftop restaurant, with Potala Palace in the distance.

Stories

A visual feed of our filmmaking adventures.

Check out the latest news, musings and behind the scenes highlights from the people driving our work. Unless otherwise credited, all photos are by Jack Woon.

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Let's Settle This On The Big Screen!

By Jack Woon,

I'm very proud to announce that our little kung fu rom com crowd-pleaser Let's Settle This! is premiering on the big screen at the top genre film festivals in the world.

Modern romance, kung fu and diasporic Chinese identity collide in this short film when two kung fu masters meet via a dating app. Then there's the matter of settling the bill - and an ancient blood feud!

Check out the teaser trailer:

Let's Settle This! - official trailer.

Where to Watch?

The world premiere was at Bucheon International Film Festival as part of the XL Shorts programme earlier this month, but there are still chances to catch it in the theatre:

Monday 28th July, Montréal

Next up I'm heading to Fantasia Festival in Montréal to soak in the reactions from an audience on the other side of the world. The short will be screening ahead of South Korean superhero film, Hi-Five, at Auditorium des diplômés de la SGWU (Théâtre Hall). It's a guaranteed great night out.

Sunday 3rd August, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Then we're bringing it home to Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival in Auckland. It's a huge honour to be a finalist in Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Best Shorts alongside so many exceptional talents. Grab your tickets here and celebrate with me and the cast and crew!

Saturday 16th August, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

If you're in Wellington, tickets are also selling fast for the screening. Come say hi to Wilson Sze, who stars as our ass-kicking romantic lead!

Jack smiles while having a break on the set of 'Let's Settle This!' - Photo: Julie Zhu

Jack has a break on the lovingly crafted set of Let's Settle This! - Photo: Julie Zhu

A Quick Personal Note

Making this film has been the highest point so far of my 20-year journey as a filmmaker. There are too many people to thank and too many beautiful behind-the-scenes stories to share in this short bulletin, so I'll save it for later.

But for now, thank you to the New Zealand Film Commission and my film-family, Abba-Rose and Stallone, for giving life to this joyous movie.

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Complete Site Rebirth

By Jack Woon,
Aerial view of Auckland City at sunrise, shot by Unko Films

Auckland City at sunrise, shot from our DJI Inspire 3 drone.

A few years in the making - welcome to the rebirth of this site!

I originally built unkofilms.com on the open-source CMS Drupal 7 more than a decade ago. It was an exercise in keeping up with the latest web standards and technologies, which changed so quickly that by the time I launched the site, many components were already obsolete!

In between my actual day job as a filmmaker, I chipped away at leapfrogging versions and redesigning everything to what you see right now - based on Drupal 11 and Bootstrap 5.3.

Things are still under construction. For now you'll get redirected to this Stories page while I design a proper About/Services page and there's two years' worth of projects and achievements to update, but I'm very proud to hit the launch button.

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A wild Wellington seaside banquet in Sik Fan Lah! Photo: Gwen Lin

A wild Wellington seaside banquet in Sik Fan Lah! - Photo: Gwen Lin

It's been about a year since I last posted - this is the reason why...

Watch the trailer for Sik Fan Lah! - episodes drop weekly on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+ starting 10am Sunday February 12th.

When it’s time to eat, we say SIK FAN LAH! Come with us on a culinary adventure across Aotearoa New Zealand, uncovering hilarious and hearty stories of modern Kiwi-Chinese life through our universal love for food.

In each of the six action-packed episodes, a different Kiwi-Chinese host journeys into the far corners of our country to chase new takes on classic dishes and the secret recipes only true insiders know. Don’t expect it to be easy - they’ll need to hack at cabbages, fend off horrifying cicadas, cross steaming mud pools and pummel mooncakes into submission if they’re to get a real feed.

But the spiciest part is mixed in between bouts of laughter and hungry mouthfuls, when our friends and family share intimate tales of being Chinese in the place we call home.

Whether it’s Palmy’s 65 kilogram whole roast pig, claypot chicken rice cooked in the Otago goldfields, or geothermal Chinese pāua from Rotorua – there’s plenty to munch on!

Made with the support of NZ On Air.

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