Free art (event) in Fo Tan

Works on display at Wilson Shieh's studio
at this year's Fotanian Open Studios event

One of Chow Chun Fai's movie inspired works on
display in the artist's studio at the same event

It's not glitzy and frequented by beautiful people like the Hong Kong International Art Fair. And instead of taking place in a centrally located landmark venue like the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, it goes on in a Sha Tin suburb originally developed to be a light industrial area.

But when I checked out the Fotanian Open Studios program last year, I saw enough there that was to my liking that despite yesterday being the kind of damp gray day when one is not all that greatly inclined to venture far away from one's living space, I still decided to go out to Fo Tan once more to enjoy some art for free. (For yes, you read right, unlike Art Hong Kong, this decidedly more egalitarian visual arts event has zero ticketing arrangements or admission fees.)

To be sure, some of the works on display in some of the studios that open their doors to the public during this event that is in its 11th year may get one thinking that their creators have more ambition and bravado than actual artistic abilities. But the likes of Wilson Shieh (whose studio is surprisingly small as well as super spick and span) and Chow Chun Fai (whose impressive studio -- equipped with computer, stereo equipment, comfortable looking furniture and filled with books and videos as well as his works -- may well be the ideal thinking, living and working space for creative types!) produce works than really "speak" to me and have me convinced of their possessing genuine artistic merit.

Understandably given that the year that has recently ended was the centenary year of the 1911 Chinese Revolution and also one which saw such as Ai Weiwei incurring the wrath of the Communist Chinese government, both Shieh and Chow had eye-catching works on display in their studios that referenced one or both of these events. Incidentally, for fellow Hong Kong film fans who think that the large-scale work by Chow that I photographed looks familiar, here's pointing out that it's of a scene -- complete with accompanying Chinese and English subtitles -- from Bodyguards and Assassins (the 2009 Teddy Chan political drama-actioner about a motley group of men and one young woman working to protect Sun Yat-sen from imperial Qing assassins getting at the father of modern China on one of his visits to Hong Kong)! ;b

Bling and Tree Branches (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

Talk about a challenge -- or two. This being a Saturday, I'm referring here, of course, the Photo Hunt meme -- specifically, the effort of coming up with a single entry that combines the themes for this week that have been separately thought up by Sandi and Gattina. For, truly, my first thought when seeing them was that they were worlds apart!

An early look through my photo archive yielded nothing, so I felt prompted to actually go out and take new photos especially for this entry. Fortunately, I decided to do so at the right time -- before the Christmas decorations had come down in many parts of Hong Kong, including purveyors of major bling like the ritzy Pacific Place mall (which I only usually go to for its Great Food Hall, whose cheese selection actually is good value as well as wide, and multiplex cinema).

In keeping with its super high end reputation, the festive decorations at Pacific Place mall could actually be described as more understated than at several other shopping malls in other parts of Hong Kong (who really do go to town with their Christmas-themed decorations each year). At the same time, there's still so much shiny ornaments on the trees that it's hard to see any tree branches amidst them all (and, of course, the evergreens' plentiful leaves)-- even though they are in fact there!

More than incidentally, I'd say that Pacific Place -- with its opulent mall, three five star hotels and one "premium luxury" boutique hotel -- is the kind of place that such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board would like people to think is typical of "Asia's World City". The truth of the matter, of course, is that it's not the kind of place that most denizens of the Big Lychee would think to go to -- regularly or irregularly.

Still, for those who are apt to dismiss the place whole sale as not being really Hong Kong, I think there's some irony in that the mall's un-Asian sounding anchor tenant (Harvey Nichols -- whose flagship branch was established in 1813 in London) is actually owned by a Hong Kong tycoon named Dickson Poon -- who may be best known to fans of Hong Kong cinema as the producer behind movies such as Yes Madam and Royal Warriors starring his ex-wife, Michelle Yeoh! ;b

A by-the-numbers look at my 2011 movie viewing year

Oceans was one of a number of movies I viewed

at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival
-- and checked out this past year

Interior view of Penang's E&O Hotel -- which those

who have viewed one of the movies I viewed in
2011 (Road to Dawn) will be familiar!

As the proverbial "they" say, time flies when you're having fun -- to which I'd add "...or when you're busy." In any case, can you believe that it's already 2012? In addition, it's actually now the time of the year for a new edition of a by-the-numbers look at my previous viewing year -- and lest you be new to this blog and not know what I'm referring to: please feel free to go back and check out my by-the-numbers looks at my 2006, 200 7, 2008, 2009 and 2010 moving viewing years! ;b

1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2? -- the number of films I viewed in 2011 from Malaysia (I'm counting here co-production credits for Road to Dawn (Mainland China-Hong Kong-Malaysia-Taiwan, 2007) and a section directed by Ho Yuhang of Quattro Hong Kong 2!)

1 -- the number of movies I viewed on TV this past year

3 -- the number of movies I viewed on board a plane in 2011

4 -- the number of countries whose films I viewed for the first time in 2011 (i.e., Chad, Congo, Israel and Kenya)

4 too -- the number of animated movies I viewed in 2011

5 -- the number of 3-D movies I viewed in 2011 (i.e., 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstacy (Hong Kong), Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong-Mainland China), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (UK), Pina (Germany) and The Adventures Of Tintin (USA-New Zealand))

5 also -- the number of documentaries I viewed in 2011

6 -- the number of (Chinese -- i.e., Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong films and/or co-productions) films viewed in 2011 that were inspired by/have thematic links with the 1911 Revolution

7 -- the number of movies from Japan I viewed for the first time this past year

11 -- the number of black-and-white movies I viewed in 2011

13 -- the number of movies from the USA I viewed this past year

23 -- the number of films I viewed this past year that were part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival program

23 too -- the total number of 2011 Hong Kong movies I viewed this past year

24 -- the number of movies viewed this past year that I'd rate at 8.5 or higher on the brns.com scale (i.e., 3 Idiots (India, 2009), A Good Man, A Good Day (Japan, 1961), A Simple Life (Hong Kong, 2011), All's Well, Ends Well 2011 (Hong Kong, 2011), Atarnajuat: The Fast Runner (Canada, 2001), Carlos (France, 2010 -- technically a mini-series but viewed at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival!), Dangerous Encounter: First Kind (Hong Kong, 1980), Devils on the Doorstep (Mainland China, 2000), Elite Squad 2 (Brazil, 2010), I Love Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2011), I Saw the Devil (South Korea, 2010), La Dolce Vita (Italy, 1960), Oceans (France-Spain-Switzerland, 2009), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey, 2011), Overheard 2 (Hong Kong, 2011), Pina (Germany, 2011), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Sweden, 2009), The Great Dictator (USA, 1940), The Seventh Heaven (Hong Kong, 1956), The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2011), The White Meadows (Iran, 2009), West is West (UK, 2010), Waltz with Bashir (Israel, 2008) and When the Tenth Month Comes (Vietnam, 1984))

29 -- the number of different countries and territories whose films I viewed in 2011 (i.e., Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chad, Congo, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Mainland China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, UK and USA)

37 -- the number of Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2011

60 -- the number of non-Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2011

97 -- the total number of films I viewed for the first time this past year

1940 -- the year that The Great Dictator, the oldest film I viewed last year, was first released

1950 -- the year that Awful Truth, the oldest Hong Kong movie I viewed in 2011, was first released

So good it's worth hiking on at least twice! (Photo-essay)

Considering that there still are plenty of hiking trails in Hong Kong that I've yet to go on, it might strike some people as a bit weird that I've already chosen to revisit a number of the ones I've been on. In some cases though, I have the ready explanation that I figured that a certain hiking trail's scenery will look quite a bit different at different times of the year. Then there are the hiking trails that I just know would yield greater vistas if the air was less polluted than the first time I went on them.

But as far as the Tai Tan Country Trail is concerned, it's purely and simply because I consider it such a nice trail to go along that I have been happy enough to revisit it with friends who had yet to go on it. How nice can be measured by my first hike having yielded enough pictures for three photo-essays (see here, here and here) -- and I hope that the following photo-essay from the second time around that I went on this Sai Kung West Country Park trail will also make a case for it being worth checking out more than once:-

A few minutes after starting the hike just off
from Pak Tam Road, one comes across
a small but thick bamboo grove

A short time later, the visual field opens up --
and yields scenic views like this one

One days like this, I feel especially certain that
my favorite colors in the world are blue and green

I know that Victoria Harbour has its admirers
but this Sai Kung harbor's visuals rank up there for me too

The trail takes one up hill a bit and then down as well as
from inland out to near the coast and back inland again

Long Harbour (AKA Tai Tan Hoi)'s water traffic may not
rival Victoria Harbour's but I found its boats -- and the
patterns in the water they make -- fascinating all the same

One of those boats we saw looks like it's one
that those who man it spend much of their lives on

Hoi Ha Wan is the second harbor those who hike the
Tai Tan Country Trail get a glimpse of -- and it's near its shores
(and conveniently near a green mini bus terminus!)
that the hike -- and this photo-essay -- comes to an end :)

Tin Shui Wai area attractions

Is that a Grey Heron in the picture?

Other birds spotted at the Hong Kong Wetland Park
earlier today included ducks galore and also a number
of what looks to me like Great Cormorants! :)

For many Hong Kong residents, Tin Shui Wai has a reputation as the City of Sadness. And even though there's at least one movie (Ann Hui's The Way We Are -- which I included in my 100 must-see Hong Kong films list) that shows that life in that corner of the Big Lychee isn't all bad, the majority of cinematic works I've viewed that take place in this new town out in northwestern Hong Kong -- including Ann Hui's Night and Fog but, also, Lawrence Lau's Besieged City -- paint pictures that make it so that you'd never want to go near it.

So it may surprise many people to learn that I've been to the area a few times for leisure purposes and had good experiences each time that I've visited. And so much so that on the last two occasions that I've gone to that area, it's been while on a day out with visitors to Hong Kong.

To be sure though, I have yet to actually spend all that much time in the new town itself. Instead, the first time I visited the area (and I'll point out that this was before I actually was aware of Tin Shui Wai's negative reputation as I was still rather new to Hong Kong then), it was to go along the Ping Shan Heritage Trail (one end of which is located very close to Tin Shui Wai's MTR station). And the most recent three visits to the area have been to the Hong Kong Wetland Park whose attractions include chances to catch sight of a fair number of wild birds that are attracted to the ponds neighboring the park and the Mai Po Marshes Nature Reserve.

Although the Hong Kong Wetland Park has attracted its share of criticism, I honestly feel that the authorities could have done much worse than create this space and facility that people who, for whatever reason, have yet and/or are unable to venture out to the more authentically natural parts of Hong Kong can enjoy. In addition, I have this park to thank for some of my better Hong Kong bird photos -- ones where, even without the help of thousands of dollars worth of zoom lenses, the wild birds in the photos actually are larger than mere specks whose details are next to impossible to make out!

Thus it was that I chose to take my parents and a family friend out there for a few hours this new year's day -- and although I fear that my parents got way more tired from walking about the park than I had anticipated (not least because the walkways, paths and trails in the park are on pretty flat land), I trust that they did generally enjoy their visit to this part of Asia's World City where few tourists (think to) venture! :b

Gather and Drinks (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

For those participants in Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunts (as well as general visitors to this blog) who have yet to do so, meet Ponyo -- specifically, my Stress Ponyo and Puppet Ponyo! :)

Unlike the somewhat shy third Ponyo plush I have (who is known as either Pirate Ponyo (because she's actually a not officially authorized plushie bought for just HK$20 here in Hong Kong) or Muse Ponyo (because she helps me to write long articles)), Stress Ponyo and Puppet Ponyo are social personalities who enjoy going out and doing such as making appearances at gatherings, including those where people have their share of drinks.

Since Stress Ponyo usually attends these gatherings after a day at the office, she tends to favor Vodka Martinis (although she has checked out her share of beers in her time too). Puppet Ponyo, on the other hand, usually sticks to beer as she appears more in vacation situations. (For example, the hair-raising middle photo of her -- maybe she was shocked by how big were the size of the mugs of beer we were served... -- was taken on our Japanese vacation this year. Also check out Puppet Ponyo sampling some kolsch when she, a German friend and I visited Cologne last year!)

And while I usually avoid showing close-up photos of my friends, the two in the third photo with Puppet Ponyo are well known in Asian film circles, so don't think they'll mind having their faces shown on this blog. For the record: the photo of Puppet Ponyo with Fredric Ambroisine and King Wei Chu was taken at a fun evening out during this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival -- and helps provide evidence of what I often tell disbelieving people: that the fest -- at least for the likes of me -- doesn't just involve sitting in the dark viewing films but, also, meeting up with fellow film fan(atic)s, including quite a few who have flown into Hong Kong from other continents as well as other parts of Asia. :)

My alternative 100 "must see" Hong Kong movies list

The Hong Kong movie that is my favorite movie

in the whole wide world

Last week, after I posted the Hong Kong Film Archive's 100 "must-see" Hong Kong movies list, I was encouraged by a number of friends and readers to write up my own 100 "must see" Hong Kong movies list. Although I am no where claiming to have the kind of authority that the six experts behind the Hong Kong Film Archive's list, I figure it won't hurt -- and might get (more) discussion going about the movies that many of us love -- to do just that.

In compiling the list on this entry, I was helped by my having kept records through the years of the more than 1,000 Hong Kong movies I've now seen. For the record, the oldest Hong Kong movie I've viewed to date is 1941's Roar of the People. However, I've not yet checked out a single Hong Kong film made in the years 1942 to 1947 -- and for those who are wondering, Sorrows of the Forbidden City (i.e., the first film on my list which is ordered by year and then, if one year has more than one entry, sub-ordered alphabetically) is indeed the second oldest Hong Kong cinematic work that I've viewed thus far.

Something else I think worth pointing out is that just 28 out of the slightly more than 60 films on the Hong Kong Film Archive's list that I've viewed have made it to the list I've made. For the interest of this blog's readers, I've bolded those 28 titles that appear on both the Hong Kong Film Archive's and my lists.

With regards to the remaining 72 titles that appear on my list but not the Hong Kong Film Archive's: I think that they cover a wider range of genres than the Hong Kong Film Archive's 100 choices put together -- and include a larger number of Category III rated films! Also noticeable is that while those responsible for the other list appear to consider the 1950s to be the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, my favorite decade of Hong Kong cinema really was the 1990s (with the 1980s also pretty high up there in my estimation).

Perhaps the biggest difference is that whereas the Hong Kong Film Archive's list stopped in 1999, my list goes up to 2010 -- and no, it's actually not that 2011 has not seen any worthy films but because I am planning to come up with a 2011-specific list in the first month of 2012! In the meantime, please check out the list below and feel free to let me know what you think, how many of these films you've viewed and what your own list of 101 "must see" Hong Kong movies would look like! :b

Sorrows of the Forbidden City (1948)
Festival Moon (1953)
Our Sister Hedy (1957)
Let's Be Happy (1959)
The Wild, Wild Rose (1960)
Lady General Hua Mulan (1963)
Sister Long Legs (1966)
Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967)
The Arch (1970)
A Touch of Zen (1971)

The Big Boss (1971)
14 Amazons (1972)
The Valiant Ones (1975)
Mud Child (1976)
The Magic Blade (1976)
The Private Eyes (1976)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
Heroes of the East (AKA Shaolin vs Ninja) (1979)
Raining in the Mountain (1979)
Dangerous Encounter: First Kind (1980)

Nomad (1982)
Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)
Long Arm of the Law (1984)
Shanghai Blues (1984)
Mr Vampire (1985)
Police Story (1985)
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Peking Opera Blues (1986)
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
City on Fire (1987)

Project A 2 (1987)
Royal Warriors (1987)
Chicken and Duck Talk (1988)
Her Vengeance (1988)
On the Run (1988)
Painted Faces (1988)
Pedicab Driver (1988)
School on Fire (1988)
Women's Prison (1988)
Bullet in the Head (1990)

Queen of Temple Street (1990)
Red Dust (1990)
Once Upon a Time in China I (1991)
To Be Number One (1991)
Dragon Inn (1992)
Girls without Tomorrow (1992)
Naked Killer (1992)
Police Story III: Supercop (1992)
Swordsman II (1992)
The Story of Ricky (1992)

C'est la Vie, Mon Cherie (1993)
Fong Sai Yuk (1993)
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father (1993)
The Bride with White Hair (1993)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Chungking Express (1994)
Drunken Master II (1994)
He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994)
The Lovers (1994)
Wing Chun (1994)

A Chinese Odyssey Part 2: Cinderella (1995)
Fist of Legend (1995)
The Blade (1995)
The Chinese Feast (1995)
Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
Forbidden City Cop (1996)
Hu-Du-Men (1996)
Lost and Found (1996)
Young and Dangerous 3 (1996)
Happy Together (1997)

Full Alert (1997)
Made in Hong Kong (1997)
Too Many Ways to Be Number One (1997)
A Hero Never Dies (1998)
Hold You Tight (1998)
The Mission (1999)
The Mistress (1999)
Tempting Heart (1999)
Where a Good Man Goes (1999)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Needing You... (2000)
From the Queen to the Chief Executive (2001)
My Life as McDull (2001)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
July Rhapsody (2002)
Just One Look (2002)
Running on Karma (2003)
Dumplings: Three... Extremes (2004)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Crazy 'n the City (2005)

Election (2005)
Exiled (2006)
Hooked On You (2007)
Lust, Caution (2007)
Beast Stalker (2008)
The Way We Are (2008)
Ip Man (2008)
Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)
KJ (2009)
The Stool Pigeon (2010)