tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32892780002770191222024-03-19T00:36:09.080+08:00WEBS OF SIGNIFICANCEWeaving together various observations and musings -- usually pertaining to aspects of Hong Kong (life) but sometimes beyond.YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.comBlogger3503125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-87146081287421665772024-03-08T23:59:00.006+08:002024-03-09T00:06:25.534+08:00Thoughts triggered by reports that Article 23 will be passed (very) soon Spotted in Hong Kong yesterday Sharing some things I wrote on Twitter late last night after seeing the news that Article 23 would be gazetted today (with typos there hopefully corrected here): Something many people outside of Hong Kong (still) don't seem to realise is that: People went on protest marches because Hong Kong didn't have democracy but they still felt the YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-57422509879122070352024-03-02T23:59:00.006+08:002024-03-03T00:22:32.212+08:00Farewell to David Bordwell, a beloved fan and respected champion of Hong Kong cinema David Bordwell sharing a stage with Karena Lam, Christopher Lambert and Bong Joon Ho at the 2014 Hong Kong International Film Festival Today was one of those days when soon after I had dragged myself out of bed, on account of it being a way colder March day than I'm used to in Hong Kong, I wanted to head back to bed for the rest of the day. For a change, it wasn'tYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-67352691367959973062024-02-23T23:21:00.007+08:002024-02-24T16:53:29.183+08:00"Table for Six 2" was the first film I opted to view in the new year of the dragon! The first Hong Kong movie I viewed in the new year of the dragon! :) Table for Six 2 (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2024)- Sunny Chan, director and scriptwriter- Starring: Stephy Tang, Louis Cheung Kai Chung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min Chen, Peter Chan Charm-man One of my favourite Lunar New Year traditions here in Hong Kong involves going to the cinema to view Chinese New YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-36903658354852462024-02-12T23:34:00.002+08:002024-02-12T23:34:15.535+08:00Enter the new dragon year! "Dragon" installation in a Hong Kong public park! :D Kong hei fatt choi! It's now the third day of the new Year of the Dragon and I feel a need to mark the occasion with a blog post as well as assure people who wondered if I was alive that I indeed still am so. Also, for the time being, I don't have plans to entirely stop blogging... but I might take a break for a bit. YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-19263534991080499592024-02-04T23:59:00.001+08:002024-02-05T00:17:50.763+08:00Thank you to Lionel Messi and his new Hong Kong haters for giving us opportunities to laugh (at the Hong Kong government)! :D Actually, I reckon Messi's no longer welcomed in Hong Kong... :D This has been one of those weeks that has left many Hong Kongers feeling depressed -- for good reason. Certain court verdicts have seriously rankled. (On the same day that the news came of Gregory Wong and co being found guilty of "rioting", the results of a survey made between May and November of last year byYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-56158510117250051172024-02-01T23:59:00.017+08:002024-03-16T14:48:38.714+08:00A guilty verdict in a trial involving actor Gregory Wong gets people thinking that so much, if not everything, is wrong! Still image of Gregory Wong at Admiralty from Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down This has been one of the weeks where so much has happened (including announcements that make people realize that the dreaded Article 23 may be pushed through faster than many of us had hoped) that I lost track of the days and thought for a time yesterday that today was going toYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-72975523607434060832024-01-28T23:59:00.011+08:002024-01-29T00:17:10.456+08:00Debutant director Sasha Chuk tells a very personal story indeed via Fly Me to the Moon (Film review) The principal cast members and producer Stanley Kwan at a post-screening photo session and Q&A Fly Me To the Moon (Hong Kong, 2023)- Sasha Chuk, director-scriptwriter- Starring: Sasha Chuk, Wu Kang-ren, Chloe Hui, Yoyo Tse, Natalie Hsu, Angela Yuen There is an achingly personal feel to this drama by first time feature film director Sasha Chuk who also wrote the YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-22524019057920522312024-01-24T23:59:00.001+08:002024-01-28T22:30:17.125+08:00Cold day anniversaries and political prisoner birthdays Attire appropriate for the cold weather we've been havingin recent days in Hong Kong! The past few days have been unusually cold in Hong Kong. Yes, it's winter -- but it really is not usual for there to be a frost warning in place, like is currently the case, and for there to be as much frost up Tai Mo Shan as was captured in photos yesterday! So I feel entirely YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-68619907214310036332024-01-21T23:59:00.006+08:002024-01-22T00:14:19.145+08:00A strange week for me, and quite the rubbish week for Hong Kong! A reminder (from a member of the Yellow Economic Circle) that self care is important This has been a bit of a strange week for me. One evening saw me so very upset by something I read that I could feel my blood pressure rising, my actually feeling hot in the head and my hands literally shaking. Another saw me feeling reflective and depressed post viewing a film YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-19538855232103586612024-01-14T23:35:00.002+08:002024-01-14T23:35:30.076+08:00The 500 (actually "just" 499 now!) Rakans of Morioka's Ho-onji (Photo-essay)Did you know that Morioka's on the New York Times' "52 Places To Go in 2023" list? I only learnt about it after making my hotel bookings for my October 2023 Japan trip -- and was actually a little horrified to hear this as I feared that this would mean that the prefectural capital of Iwate would be swarming with tourists. But the only time I saw noticeably non-Japanese tourists in the cityYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-1846018236707469162024-01-11T23:59:00.005+08:002024-01-12T00:33:24.620+08:00Of "seditious" t-shirts and flags, and relatives "under suspicion" in Hong Kong Not everyone who has a boarding pass for a plane at Hong KongInternational Airport is allowed to board the plane... :S The past 48 hours or so has seen, first, the parents and two sisters of Simon Cheng taken in for questioning by the Hong Kong police and then also the mother of Frances Hui. Simon Cheng and Frances Hui are exiled Hong Kongers accused of breaking the YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-23354650848590435832024-01-09T23:59:00.010+08:002024-01-10T00:10:38.569+08:00Eating jajamen and gyutan in Morioka! What I ate at my first meal in Morioka What I had for my final meal in Morioka In my previous blog entry, I wrote about having had Akita jidori in Kakunodate and possibly also Morioka. While in the capital city of Iwate Prefecture, I also had a dish that's associated with it -- and food associated with the capital city of the neighboring prefecture of Miyagi! &YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-64314335379591298952024-01-07T23:59:00.002+08:002024-01-08T00:30:13.223+08:00Eating jidori in both Kakunodate and Morioka! Oyakodon lunch set in Kakunodate Bonjiri -- my favorite yakitori cut -- in Morioka A friend and I were talking about dining strategies while in Japan. He and his wife appear to be fans of Tabelog and target restaurants that have high scores on that crowd-sourced restaurant rating site. I told him that I tend to be far more casual in how I decide where to eat YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-44819064501227712322024-01-05T23:59:00.001+08:002024-01-06T00:19:07.733+08:00Jimmy Lai's national security law trial dominates the Hong Kong news on the first week of the new yearNever not feel shocked at seeing Jimmy Lai pictured in chains on the front pages of his own newspaper -- this from back in May 2021, when Apple Daily still existed Jimmy Lai's national security law trial has finally got going in earnest this week. On the first working day of 2024, the former media mogul formally "pleaded not guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-52091576126675701882024-01-02T23:36:00.002+08:002024-01-03T02:03:35.841+08:00Just two days into 2024 and I already worry that it won't be a happy new year!I like the color of these flowers I spotted on a hikeyesterday (New Year's Day, 2024) It's just the second day of the new year and I don't want to be a kill joy but I worry that 2024 may be worse than 2023. Some portends that are not good: the killing of Palestinian civilians continuing on New Year's Day; ditto the war in Ukraine caused by Russia's invasion in February 2022; ditto theYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-82725690869172444302023-12-29T23:59:00.009+08:002023-12-30T00:50:59.820+08:00The kind of week that makes one pessimistic about Hong Kong's prospects, however personally resilient one endeavors to be Lest we forget: it's currently a holiday season! Earlier this week, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) released the results of its 2023 review and 2024 forecast survey. Earlier in the month, PORI had interviewed 501 Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above, asking them to evaluate whether they felt satisfied about
the city’s development in the past year andYTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-51515082241467747492023-12-26T23:41:00.001+08:002023-12-26T23:41:22.575+08:00Time Still Turns the Pages is an emotionally devastating work with stories that many Hong Kongers can relate to (Film review)Poster for this Hong Kong drama that had5 Golden Horse nominations Time Still Turns the Pages (Hong Kong, 2023)- Nick Cheuk, director and scriptwriter- Starring: Lo Chun-yip, Sean Wong, Ronald Cheng, Rosa Maria Velasco Like In Broad Daylight, this dramatic offering from debutant director Nick Cheuk (who also is its scriptwriter) was one of the opening films of this year's Hong Kong YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-88614464554326550932023-12-24T20:09:00.000+08:002023-12-24T20:09:07.446+08:00Seasonal Photo of the Day :) One of the cooler Christmas decorations I've seen in Hong Kong this year :)YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-91845446806256690162023-12-22T22:43:00.001+08:002023-12-22T22:43:06.131+08:00Thinking about Hong Kong's political prisoners, and Glory to Hong Kong, on Midwinter SolsticeSesame-filled glutinous rice balls in ginger sauce -- a dishI ate last night but can imagine many people opting to eat tonight :) It's the Winter (or Midwinter) Solstice today -- and many people are celebrating it with family and loved ones; with some shops closing earlier than usual to allow staff to do so and some restaurants not offering dinner service to enable their staff to have the YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-73415120504958507592023-12-20T23:07:00.001+08:002023-12-20T23:07:20.747+08:00Rain couldn't spoil my visit to Kakunodate! (Photo-essay)This week started badly, with my having nightmares two nights in a row -- the result of worrying about bad things happening in Hong Kong. Last night though, I had a nice dream involving my being in Japan eating sushi. I figure the dream was set in Japan in part because I finally got to viewing Hayao Miyazaki's magically evocative The Boy and the Heron yesterday -- and, also, because YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-59888106515442838032023-12-18T23:24:00.003+08:002023-12-18T23:25:57.572+08:00Spotlight on Hong Kong, the national security law trial of Jimmy Lai, and prosecution witness Andy Li Winter is -- and gray days are -- here in Hong Kong This past Saturday, the temperatures dropped quite a bit and there's now a distinct chill in the air. Still, it wasn't the cold air that made me shiver this morning but, rather, what I read in a piece by Shibani Mahtani for the Washington Post about what happened to Andy Li, a pro-democracy activist who's scheduled to be a key YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-45669041662952561872023-12-15T23:33:00.001+08:002023-12-15T23:33:21.849+08:00Five more Hong Kongers have HK$1 million bounties put on their head Hong Kong in 2023 is a Hong Kong where Chinese Communist Partyas well as People's Republic of China flags can be seen flying (*though the former far less often than the latter still) And then there were 13. By this, I'm referring to the fact that yesterday evening saw Hong Kong’s national security police announcing that they had arrest warrants for five more overseas YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-8905478778057457722023-12-14T17:48:00.003+08:002023-12-14T17:53:39.975+08:00The Goldfinger is not a film I value all that much! (Film review) Officially opening later this month but I've already seen it! The Goldfinger (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2023)- Felix Chong, director and scriptwriter- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, Charlene Choi, Alex Fong Chung Sun Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau reunite in a blockbuster (whose HK$350 million budget makes it one of the most expensive Hong Kong movies YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-74014657603089339112023-12-11T23:59:00.004+08:002023-12-12T00:42:00.009+08:00The silent majority made its collective voice heard and broke records by staying away from the 2023 District Council "election"! The kind of advertising I wish Hong Kong had less of! Yesterday morning, I was awoken by my phone ringing. When I answered, I heard an automated message asking me to please go out and vote in the District Council "election". Or at least, I think I did because I was only half awake and really wanted to just go back to sleep! Then, later in the day, before a film YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289278000277019122.post-69512350053417689422023-12-09T23:59:00.005+08:002023-12-10T00:23:31.407+08:00An out-of-season visit to Akita Prefecture's Tazawako (Photo-essay)With a depth of 423 metres (1,388 ft), Tazawako (Lake Tazawa) is Japan's deepest lake. A caldera lake that's not had much development around it (which makes it pretty rural -- and pretty, period!), it's nonetheless reachable by public transportation; albeit with the catch that service there is not super frequent; so timing is of the essence to get there (and out of there)! Also, if you go to YTSLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09930487923185001591noreply@blogger.com2