Square (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

This Photo Hunt entry contains photos taken in Hong Kong and its sister Special Administrative Region of Macau.

The upper photo shows the kind of square table with a permanent Chinese chess board (marked out in ways that divides the playing areas into what looks to be numerous squares) on its top surface that is frequently found in official "sitting out areas" in Hong Kong. (N.B. because Chinese chess is a two person game, there always are two chairs permanently attached close to the table -- it's just that I "cut" the second chair out when moving on for a close-up shot of the table! ;b)

The lower photo is of the Fountain of Luso taken in Macau's Lilau Square. A Portuguese residential quarter developed around that which historically where the main source of natural spring water in Macau was found and which now is situated deep within the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Historic Centre of Macao area.

A (once) popular Portuguese saying went to the effect that "Anyone who drinks from Lilau never forgets Macau". However, each time I've passed by the square, I've never seen anyone, Portuguese or otherwise, deigning to drink the water that still comes out there -- albeit as more than a trickle than healthy looking flow, and from out of the mouth of a metal cherub who may look cute enough but, frankly, not necessarily all that clean!

Romance and Sex -- Hong Kong Cinema-Style!

Love, lust or just doing what comes naturally
butterfly-style!

Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2011)
- Johnnie To, director
- Starring Louis Koo, Gao Yuanyuan, Daniel Wu, Lam Suet

This past weekend, more than a month after the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival began, I finally got to watching one of its two official opening films. One reason I had delayed my viewing of it was that I had been rather put off by its trailer (which had looked like Johnnie To was trying to pin some of his action sensibilities onto the romantic comedy with less than satisfactory results). In addition, some reports and reviews I read of the movie had made it seem as though that the Milkyway Image boss who had, for many years, proudly deigned to pander to the Mainland Chinese market, had finally, sadly given up that particular fight.

In the end, however, curiosity got the better of me -- particularly after I read Stefan S.'s positive comments on this romantic comedy which revolves around a now Hong Kong-based female executive who's originally from Suzhou (Gao Yuanyuan), a handsome local high flyer (Louis Koo) and a talented Canadian-born architect (Daniel Wu). And how glad I am post-viewing this charming offering that I did go ahead and check it out after all -- if nothing else because I finally got to see an English translation of the lyrics of a song I have loved for ages now after first hearing it sung by Faye Wong!

More seriously though: its director may be well known for preferring to make crime dramas over romantic works but the fact of the matter is that when Johnnie To puts even half of his heart into it, he comes up with gems like Needing You... (as opposed to Linger -- which I still can't believe he really directed rather than merely lent his name to). And it's not a bad thing at all when I state that Don't Go Breaking My Heart reminded me quite a bit of the 2000 office romantic comedy starring Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau.

For one thing, this 2011 Johnnie To romantic effort is largely set in the world of offices where people fall in love as well as work. For another, this movie's female protagonist -- like with Sammi Cheng's Needing You... character -- most definitely has some cute personality quirks that many viewers will undoubtedly find endearing. And most strikingly, she finds herself having to choose between two attractive men who both have strong feelings for her.

Ultimately, however, what made me come out of my viewing of the film feeling very satisfied was that Don't Go Break My Heart actually goes along a different path after a stretch which got me worried that the story was going to develop way too similarly to how Needing You... had done. And for the record: yes, I definitely agree with the female protagonist's choice of man to marry.

Also, yes, I do think many a heterosexual female viewer will invariably put herself in the female protagonist's shoes and empathize with the difficulty she has making her important decision -- even if the truth of the matter is that it is only in their dreams and fantasies (or in the movies they watch) that they would get to be wooed by one super attractive man, never mind two, at any point in their lives! ;D

My rating for the film: 7.5

3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy (Hong Kong, 2011)
- Christopher Sun, director
- Starring Hiro Harayama, Leni Lan, Tony Ho, Vonnie Liu

Close to a week ago now, two friends collectively e-mailed invitations to several friends -- male as well as female -- to go and view the Hong Kong movie that's currently the talk of the town. In the end, however, only three of us went this past Monday evening to go take in a screening together of 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy.

Before the over 2 hour movie came to an end, one of the two women who had initiated this excursion had walked out of the screening while the other was so shocked by what she had seen that she felt physically sick and decided she couldn't have dinner after the film after all! And while I didn't have as extreme a reaction to this soft porn work that also has its share of violence as them, I must say that I do really regret having contributed to its box office -- and towards what I fear will be a wave of flicks like it in the near future.

Strange as it may sound, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy actually started out promisingly -- with opening credits that looked admirably artistic as well as made good use of the effects of 3D. But within a few minutes, whatever promise this film with an unexpectedly mean streak held of being aesthetically pleasing quickly disappeared. For even while it does have higher production values than some might expect, there really isn't much beauty in this 3D retelling of a Ming dynasty tale about a lustful learned man who decides he wants a bigger member than his own that already had been made into a Hong Kong film back in 1991 and, indeed, I'd go so far as to say that there is much that is ugly about many of its characters, overall story and so much more.

More specifically, early on in the movie, a woman gets described by another character as the perfect female -- perfect in personality as well as physically. Within seconds of this supposedly serious (as opposed to sarcastic or jesting) assertion, this same woman proceeds to throw a major temper tantrum that prompts her to act incredibly cruelly towards a fellow female. And I have to say in all honesty that not only is the actress who played this supposed major beauty not all that great looking, her looks are actually so unremarkable that I don't think I'll be able to recognize her if I see her in another film.

For that matter, I feel the same way about all the women I saw in this offering -- all of whom additionally seemed to look similar to one another. Put another way: none of the actresses in this offering evinced the charisma or had the kind of looks that, say, Chingmy Yau, Carrie Ng, Patricia Ha, Julie Yeh Feng and other memorably sexy sizzlers from past eras of Hong Kong cinema.

On a perhaps related note: none of the women in the 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy ever looked like they were experiencing true sexual ecstacy -- only the men. And for the record: this is something that more than one female viewer has noticed, as I found upon having conversations about the movie with those woman friends I know who have also viewed the work.

Small wonder, then, that the general conclusion of many a female who checked out the movie is that it was, in the words of one gweipo, "by men, with men, for men". Indeed, I personally would go so far to describe this effort as distinctly misogynistic and thus most emphatically not a work that was all that pleasurable to watch or one that would put women "in the mood" (the latter of which I reckon makes for a pretty damning criticism of a soft porn work!!)!

My rating for the film: 3

A hike of two halves (photo-essay)

Close to a year ago, my regular hiking companion and I went on a hike along Smuggler's Ridge and more that I've come to think of as one of the worst I've been on in Hong Kong on account of our encountering a bunch of stupid people in cars doing such as illegally feeding as well as gawking at whole troops of excited wild monkeys during the last leg of the hike through Kam Shan Country Park. But upon looking again at the photos I took over the course of the hike, I got to remembering that the parts of the excursion that had taken us through Shing Mun Country Park and the northern portion of Kam Shan Country Park had actually been enjoyable enough.

More specifically, things only started to get unpleasant shortly after we went south of marker M120 of the Maclehose Trail along a paved road that private cars were driving up (illegally?) along from the entrance to Kam Shan Country Park from Tai Po Road. So, as it turns out, I do have some good photos to positively remember the hike with after all (along with some that made me angry even after all this time :S ). At the same time, here's definitely stating that this is one trail that I don't plan to hike along again any time soon until the situation with illegal feeding of monkeys in the area gets dealt with more satisfactorily by the authorities...

I'm guessing that the shape of this structure
near the hike's start was inspired by
the historical Shing Mun Redoubt in the area

An entrance to the Shing Mun Redoubt that's
really close to the hiking trail

So if you have a torch and a sense of adventure, one
can't help but want to venture into at least part
of the redoubt to have a bit of a look around

Before too long, however, the hiking trail and views to be had
along it will get you wanting to head out into the open
once more (and yes, that is indeed Lion Rock in the distance)

Looking northwards from the southern edge of
Shing Mun Country Park

Monkeys at home in Kam Shan Country Park

Illegal feeding of monkeys and humans gawking
(in the path of a pair of hikers) in Kam Shan Country Park :(

Since this hike is one I remember most vividly for the large number
of monkeys (and annoying people) encountered over the course of,
here's ending this photo-essay with a monkey-grooming photo!

Dressing for a Hong Kong hike

Please click on the photo to enlarge and
take a good look at the fellow in the photo!

For contrast, check out the attire of a sporty female
out on the same trail today! :b

Earlier today, my regular hiking companion and I hiked along Stage 5 of the Hong Kong Trail. As it was a beautiful day (with bright blue skies, good visibility that was enhanced by it having rained yesterday, and weather that was pleasantly dry as well as not too hot), we weren't too surprised to encounter quite a few other people along the trail that began at Wong Nai Chung Gap and officially ended at Quarry Gap (but actually required us to extend our route by a further 3 kilometers in order to get to the nearest public transportation by walking downhill along Mount Parker Road).

This being Hong Kong (and, particularly, Hong Kong Island), we saw many types of hikers that we have become familiar with -- including expat families out for an outing (often with a dog in tow), local retiree couples who keep fit by regularly hiking, younger couples that usually consist of one happy hiker and one not so happy significant other, and super fit individuals who easily run up and down the parts of path that most others alternately huff and puff and warily tread along.

But then came a sight that struck me as quite surreal: a man carrying an umbrella and wearing a long sleeved Oxford shirt along with what at first glance looked like a regular pair of slacks (but turned out to be a bit more sporty than that) -- looking like he would be more at home strolling along a flat street surrounded by buildings than out on in the hilly portion of a country park!

As I asked my regular hiking companion, "Surely he's got more casual clothes than that (which we saw him wearing today)?!" In any case, he seemed to have been faring far better than some other more sportily attired folks we saw out today... though it also tends to be true enough that more than once, we have been able to gauge by the clothes they wear how prepared (or not) quite a few folks are for Hong Kong's hiking trails not always being all that easy to venture on as they are to get to!

Dusty (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Talk about showing two different sides of Hong Kong in a single blog entry but this week's Photo Hunt theme has given me the opportunity to do precisely that! In that here's offering up two photos of Hong Kong featuring a dusty dirt trail in Ma On Shan Country Park and a dusty mega-construction site right in urban Hong Kong.

More re the first photo: Hong Kong gets a considerable amount of rainfall in a year (with its driest area getting 1,300 milimeters (approximately 51 inches) and its wettest area more than 3,000 milimeters (approximately 118 inches) of rain over a year) but what can be even more striking is that some 80% of the rain falls over just 5 months of a calendar year (between May and September). Consequently, fall and winter regularly offer up several optimal hiking weather days in terms of their being dry as well as cool. (I'm actually personally okay hiking on hot days with temperatures in the high 30s on the Celsius and Centigrade temperature scales but I draw the line at going hiking on rainy days.)

Re the second photo: One of the more striking things about the Big Lychee for visitors is how much construction is going on in the city at any one time. On a related note, very little of this construction is taking place on "pristine" sites. Rather, older buildings get torn down and newer buildings -- that are invariably bigger and taller -- get built in their place or, as is the case in the photo that actually dates back to 2009 (so the scene's quite different there now), land gets reclaimed from bodies of water such as Victoria Harbour and built on.

The result of all this construction, reclamation and destruction is that the physical landscape of Asia's World City is noticeably ever changing -- with quite a few places I counted as landmarks in previous years now being no more... including the more conveniently located Star Ferry Terminal in Central that I used on many visits to Hong Kong and Queen's Pier, both of which used to stand within the area covered by the above dusty construction site photo.

Only connect...!

One of the more old fashioned looking utility poles
I've seen while out hiking in Hong Kong

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted..." Thus goes one of the more famous passages in E. M. Forster's Howard's End, a book I was introduced at boarding school in England and quickly went on to love.

And "only connect" was my wish and cry for the past twenty-two hours or so in between my home computer modem went kaput and it finally getting replaced by another by my internet service provider a few minutes ago!

Although I do remember having lived life without e-mails and the world wide web, the fact of the matter is that for around a decade and a half now, they have become such important, integral parts of my life -- my means to stay connected with family members and friends, many of whom live in different parts of the world, and thousands of kilometers and miles away from me. And then there are the friends I've made via the internet (through reading their writings and/or viewing the pictures they create and share on various websites and blogs) -- many of whom I've yet to meet up face to face with but feel like I know pretty well despite this being the case...

Some years back when I was living in Philadelphia, I had a house-mate who would scoff at what he called my "cyberfriends" (as opposed to what he looked upon as "real" -- and an online buddy described as "meatspace" -- friends). So it's rather ironic that I've ended up continuing to keep in touch with more of the "cyberfriends" than my "meatspace" friends from that era -- and that my housemate is one of those then members of my "meatspace" circle who I quickly lost touch with once I left the U.S.A.

On a more positive note: I love how the internet really does make me feel more connected to humanity as a whole as well as broaden and/or deepen my knowledge of lots of different elements and parts of our world. On a personal note, I am really grateful for the experiences I regularly have such as communicating via e-mail with an American friend who I met via an online Asian film forum about possibly meeting up again in the future in Japan or with my mother about an English football team whose fortunes we follow from afar by doing such as reading onlines match reports and analyses along with watching 'live' on satellite or cable TV; experiences that were really not part of the realm of possibilities just a scant couple of decades or more ago!

In any case, apologies if this all sounds like babble -- but I'm just so happy as well as relieved that I'm able to connect to the internet again (and in my leisure time rather than just at and for work)!!! :)))

Postscript: Of course, getting visitors to -- and comments -- on my blog help me to feel connected to the rest of the world. So thanks to those who check out this blog, particularly those who visit regularly... and do please comment (more) on my entries! :b

From Violet Hill down to Stanley via the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path

After going over Violet Hill from Wong Nai Chung Gap, my regular hiking companion and I went down it to Tsin Shui Wan Au (AKA Repulse Bay Gap). At that intersection, we found ourselves with various trail options including one that would take us down to Stanley via The Twins and another that leads eastwards to Tai Tam Road via the edge of a couple of the Tai Tam Reservoirs.

The one we went for took us towards Stanley via a far gentler trail than that which goes over The Twins. Part of the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path whose northern section skirts the edge of Violet Hill, it also largely runs parallel to a catchwater before descending towards -- and offering great views of before ending near -- southern Hong Kong Island's largest town:-

On the way down to Repulse Bay Gap from Violet Hill,
one is treated to this view of The Twins

In this part of Hong Kong, there clearly is
far more greenery than humanity! :b

Further along our hike, tall buildings become visible
once more (even while still being far away)

Especially along the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path part of the hike,
many butterflies flew by us but only this one deigned to
come close and stay still enough to be nicely photographed

Private boats and a mansion by the sea belonging
to some people living the high life in Hong Kong!

Then there's me who can get happy enough upon managing
to spot and photograph such as this beautiful dragonfly! ;b

I wonder how many people traveling on that road know and
think to look up at the hikers looking down at their vehicles!

A wonderful view near hike's end -- wonderful, that is,
if one can overlook the band of smog visible in the distance! :S