Asian Interest from Royal Books, Inc.

New York: Richard K. Fox, 1905. First Edition. First Edition. Scarce. A manual detailing the philosophy and techniques of the Japanese martial art of jiu jitsu, contemporary to its introduction to the United States. Photo-illustrated throughout. Very Good in illustrated wrappers, staple bound. Owner stamp to the front wrapper. Wrappers soiled, with the front wrapper… Read more

Santa Monica, CA: Shepherd / Walter F. Parkes, 1984. Shooting script for the 1985 film, with rainbow revisions. A wealthy, womanizing playboy joins a Peace Corps mission to Thailand accompanied by a crew of all-American gomers as a last-minute escape from his gambling debts. The second unconventional buddy film for Tom Hanks and John Candy, following Ron Howard's… Read more

Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers / Concord Productions, 1973. Original lobby card for the 1973 US and Hong Kong co-film from original Hong Kong distributor Golden Harvest. Scarce. Perhaps the greatest and most influential martial arts film of all time, and the first produced by a Hollywood studio, which brought the genre to a wide international audience, changed… Read more

Hong Kong: Golden Harvest, 1972. Vintage lobby card for the 1972 film. "Fists pf Fury" was mistakenly released as "The Chinese Connection" in the US, while the 1971 film "The Big Boss" was released as "Fists of Fury" instead of "The Chinese Connection" as intended. Basis for three sequels, with Jackie Chan replacing Bruce Lee, and a… Read more

Hong Kong: Kwong Ming Film, 1972. Vintage double-sided flyer for the 1972 film. With an English language synopsis on one side. In early 20th century China, a worker accidentally kills his boss in a fight. He flees to Thailand with his friends, where they are forced to fight in an underground fighting ring. 14 x… Read more

Hong Kong: Golden Harvest / Concord Productions, 1972. Collection of three vintage lobby cards for the 1972 film, likely for an international release. The first film produced by Bruce Lee's Concord Productions studio, as well as Lee's screenwriting and directorial debuts, and the film debut of Chuck Norris, who battles Lee in an iconic fight scene at… Read more

Hong Kong: Cathay Studios / Cheung Ming Film / Golden Harvest, 1972. Vintage double-sided flyer for the 1972 film. With an English language synopsis on one side. After his martial arts school is destroyed by a rival and he loses his arm, a young man must learn to fight one handed in order to seek vengeance. Followed… Read more

Hong Kong: Huaqiao Film, 1973. Vintage lobby card for the circa 1970s re-release of the 1957 film, after star Bruce Lee's rise to prominence in Hong Kong cinema. Based on the 1934 play "Thunderstorm" by Cao Yu, about the psychological damage a wealthy and corrupt businessman inflicts on his family. A landmark of Chinese theatre and a… Read more

Hong Kong: Golden Harvest, 1971. Vintage program for the 1971 film, with a one page English language synopsis of the film, and rest of the text in Chinese. Photo-illustrated throughout in both color and black-and-white. Bruce Lee's first major film role, which instantly rocketed him to stardom throughout Southeast Asia, and one where he was originally to… Read more

Hong Kong: Hong Hwa Film, 1971. Vintage double-sided flyer for the 1972 film. With an English language synopsis on one side. A young girl finds an injured warrior, who is being hunted by seven devils. He begins training her in a secret form of "evil karate," and once she grows up, they set out to defeat the… Read more

Taiwan: Hua Hsia Film, 1972. Vintage double-sided flyer for Hong Kong release of the 1972 Taiwanese film, here under the title "Deadly Fists". With an English language synopsis on one side. A young woman is sent by her father to discover the secret of a martial artist's fighting style, but falls in love with him instead. Meanwhile,… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1972. Draft script for the 1972 play, which premiered at Mainstage Theatre in New York. Laid in with the script is a single-page Xerographically duplicated newspaper review of the play. With a single holograph ink annotation to the title page. The plight of a Japanese-American woman and her family in 1942 as they face internment… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1975. Draft script for an unproduced musical. With holograph ink and pencil annotations to the title page and cast leaf noting the names of prospective actors for each role, including Diana Ross and Jack Gilford. Loosely based on the ninth century Japanese folk tale "Taketori Monogatari" ("the tale of the bamboo cutter"), the story of a… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1981. Treatment script for an unproduced film. After the independence of India from England and the dividing of the nation into both modern India and Pakistan, a farmer and Sikh is working when a Muslim woman throws herself at his feet. Upon seeing the man who owns her, the farmer realizes he must purchase… Read more

Universal City: Universal International Pictures, 1963. Revised First Draft script for an unproduced film. An early draft of a planned remake of the 1935 film-which was in turn based on the 1925 lost silent film-with the setting moved from World War I to the Korean War. Gerald and Alan are rivals in love for Kitty, their mutual… Read more

Los Angeles: APJAC Productions, 1969. First Draft script for the 1969 film. With a single notation in holograph ink to the title page. Based on the spy novel by Jay Richard Kennedy. An American scientist is roped into a scheme to obtain a groundbreaking agricultural enzyme from Communist China-unaware that an explosive has been implanted in his brain,… Read more

Unknown: Unknown, 1968. Draft script for the 1968 film. A stark black comedy about a man sentenced to death who mistakenly survives his hanging, leading to a two-hour debate among his executioners over how best to handle the situation. Loosely based on a 1958 crime and execution, and a rare (for its time) discussion of the discrimination… Read more

Hollywood: Paramount Pictures, 1932. Draft script for an unproduced film. With holograph pencil annotations to the front wrapper. Based on the 1898 story by John Luther Long. An early screenplay by American playwright Zoe Akins, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1935 for her adaptation of Edith Wharton's "The Old Maid." An American naval officer purchases,… Read more

Hollywood: Hal Wallis Productions / Paramount Pictures, 1962. Vintage photograph of director John Sturges and actors Laurence Harvey, Gary Merrill and Michael Wilding on the set of the 1962 film. Mimeo snipe affixed to the verso. Based on Ronald Kirkbride's 1959 novel (also a 1960 paperback published by Monarch, an early sleaze publishing house). A Eurasian… Read more

Paris: Cinedis, 1961. Collection of 18 original single weight press photographs from a gala surrounding the 1961 French-Italian-West German-Japanese film. Most of the photos represent actress Kishi, here as "Kiski," in kimono, and director Ciampi, on-stage behind a microphone and signing autographs, presumably at the French premiere. Several photographs are rubber-stamped on the versos, crediting photographer Jungmann or Andre,… Read more