The film studio that inspired countless playground kung fu fests in Hawai'i gets some serious attention in an unlikely place this month, when the Honolulu Academy of Arts hosts Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film, Part II, a retrospective of seminal martial arts films by the legendary Shaw Brothers studio. The retrospective runs from Thursday through April 16 at the academy's Doris Duke Theatre.

Decades before Quentin Tarantino paid homage to Shaw Brothers in his "Kill Bill" films, local audiences ate up the thrilling, campy film fare in local theaters and on the old late-night "Kung Fu Theater" on TV. Many of the films in the retrospective, a traveling program organized by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, have been out of circulation and unseen on the big screen for more than 20 years, according to the academy.

The lineup includes classics like "The Boxer from Shantung," "The Five Venoms," "Legendary Weapons of China" and others.

"This will be interesting, particularly after 'Kung Fu Hustle' was so popular," said academy programmer Konrad Ng. "Audiences will be able to see where that film took its aesthetic from."

HEADING 'DOWN'

The "Meet the Cast of Flight 29 Down" contest, sponsored by Hawaii Film Partners and The Honolulu Advertiser, found a deserving winner in Zaida Marston.

Marston, a junior at Kamehameha Schools, has seen every episode of "Flight 29 Down" — usually more than once. No surprise, then, that she nailed all three questions on the entry quiz, or that she was "totally excited" when she found out that she won.

Marston and three friends visited the set of the hit show — greeted by a giant "Welcome Zaida" sign the crew whipped up — a day before production for the second season wrapped up. She spent the day behind the scenes, getting a crash course in TV production from second assistant director Bernie Axelrod and hanging out with the cast between takes.

"They had no idea how cut up the whole process is," said Rann Watumull, co-founder of Hawaii Film Partners, which co-produces the show with creators Stan Rogow and DJ MacHale.

Marston was also witness to a rare accident on the set when Corbin Bleu caught fellow actor Jeremy James Kissner with an inadvertent elbow during a fight scene. Kissner was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Watumull was happily relieved that the show, filmed entirely in Mokule'ia, was able to finish on schedule despite the heavy rains that have battered the island in recent weeks.

"It was a miracle," Watumull said. "Of course, now that we're done, the entire set is flooded."

HAPPY TRAILERS TO YOU

The 2005 Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival has long passed, but the trailer for it lives on.

Director James Sereno will take the cinematic promotional piece to Champaign, Ill., this month for Roger Ebert's eighth annual Overlooked Film Festival.

The famed film critic saw the trailer while visiting HIFF last October and promptly proclaimed it the best he'd seen.

Apple Computers also will feature the HIFF trailer at its booth at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, billed as the world's largest electronic media show, this month in Las Vegas. Apple selected the trailer for its revolutionary use of Apple technology. Post-production on the trailer was done completely on MacIntosh computers at Steve Szabo's Digital Edge Hawaii.

ON THE DOWNLOAD

You don't need season tickets to catch the latest episode of "Lost" on ABC each week, but you can purchase a season pass that allows you to keep each episode in perpetuity and watch it on your iPod at your convenience.

ABC is making "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" available at Apple's iTunes by subscription. Single episodes have been available through iTunes since the fall. For $34.99 per season, iPod owners can download all previously broadcast episodes from the current season. Future episodes are placed in the viewer's download queue the day after they are aired. For hard-core fans: A "Lost" soundtrack composed by Michael Giacchino was released March 21 on the Varese Sarabande label.

OMAR AND ANDREWS

"Lost" star Naveen Andrews plays Menerith in ABC's two-part miniseries "The Ten Commandments," airing April 10 and 11. It was shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco. The cast includes Dougray Scott as Moses and Omar Sharif as Jethro.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.