Birds abound at Jeju's Seopjikoji!

Bird among the rocks at Seopjikoji ;b

 

Another bird spotted in the same area!

 

Cormorants on the Jeju coast

Back in the winter of 2013, I went on a World Wildlife Fund tour of the Mai Po Nature Reserve.  At one stop in the tour, our guide pointed to a bunch of rocks in an area where lots of birds had flocked and asked us if we knew why the tops of them were white.  When one person guessed that the white stuff on the rocks was bird shit, our tour guide signalled that the answer was indeed correct with a big laugh.

 

So when I went to Seopjikoji and saw that a number of the rocks in the area (including its landmark candlestick-shaped Sendolbawi) were white topped, I knew that this area would be one where birds abounded.  Still, it was quite the bonus to come across species that were more interesting looking than the ones I had caught sight of while visiting the Jongmo Shrine in Seoul some years back.   

 

Because of their size, the cormorants -- which look similar to ones I've seen in Hong Kong, as opposed to the great cormorants I saw in Inuyama, Japan, just a few months previously -- hanging about on the coast were easy enough to spot.  And a more brightly colored bird made itself easy to spot by posing atop a wooden post close to the path I was walking along!

Less easy to spot though was a small spotted bird that I initially mistook for a small rock!  That mistaken identity may sound unlikely but I think you'll be able to see how I made it when you look at the photo at the top of this blog post! :b

My first hike of 2019! :)

View to the north from the hiking trail

snaking up and down Siu Ma Shan

 

Looking down at the city from Sir Cecil's Ride

 

Three years ago, I spent New Year's Day away from the Big Lychee over in the Netherlands.  Then, in 2017 and again in 2018, I was in Hong Kong on New Year's Day and went hiking on the first day of the year.  But although I once again remained in Hong Kong at the start of this year, it wasn't until earlier today that I went off for my first hike of 2019. 

 

As a matter of fact, I had actually planned to go hiking yesterday, only for the day to see the worst air pollution in months.  Happily, conditions were noticeably better today -- indeed, I'd put much of today's gray visuals gray down to cloudy weather and fog -- and I was able not only able to go up into the hills of Hong Kong Island but enjoy being out among nature -- even while not being all that far away from civilization! -- for a few hours this afternoon.

 

In addition to the air pollution being significantly lower today than yesterday, the temperatures also were on the pleasant side: i.e., low enough to make it so that I wouldn't be sweating like crazy but high enough that I actually consigned my sweatshirt to my backpack for much of the hike.  And something else that made my first hike of this new year a pleasant one was my not encountering all that many people out on the trails today despite it being a Sunday rather than weekday!

 

In recent years, I've actually been disinclined to hike on Hong Kong Island on a Sunday because its trails, particularly those on the northern side of Victoria Peak and also along Dragon's Back, have become more crowded than I would like.  Happily, my decision to take a chance on the Braemar Hill and Siu Ma Shan sections of Tai Tam Country Park paid off, with even the path along Siu Ma Shan that's part of the Wilson Trail having few hikers out on it this afternoon.

 

All in all, today's hike got me realizing how much I really do love hiking in Hong Kong -- even on days when critter spottings are on the rare side! -- and also how it really isn't impossible at all to get away from the madding crowd in the Big Lychee.  So here's resolving to more venturing along Hong Kong's many kilometers worth of hiking trails this year! :)

Scenic sights at Seopjikoji (Photo-essay)

Years ago when two friends -- one of whom lives in Vermont, the other in Tokyo -- and I met up for an Okinawa rendez-vous, we visited spots that were listed in our English language guidebooks like the fantastic Churaumi Aquarium and expansive Ocean Expo Park but also places we only learnt about after arriving in Okinawa from local tourist brochures such as Okinawa Honto's Manzamo.  And on Jeju, we -- this time supplemented by my mother's presence -- did the same and once again found our visiting "strategy" paying dividends.  

In particular, all four of us really loved our time at Seopjikoji, a narrow peninsula located -- like the far more famous Seongsan Ilchulbong -- on the eastern side of Jeju and are so glad that we found the mention of it in the free guidebook given out by the Jeju Tourism Organization intriguing enough to check it out.  For while it was already really cool that we got to see the haenyeo swimming and diving about in the waters off Seopjikoji, we also then ended up spending a further couple of hours exploring the area that's also home to interesting rock formations, a lighthouse and locations which featured in Korean TV drama All In (which one of our party had viewed before we met up in Jeju)! 

Puppet Ponyo and another of those rock formations

(how come there are so many?!) that resembles a turtle/tortoise

 

View of the Seopjikoji landscape that includes two local landmarks: 

the lighthouse, and the rock formation known as Seondolbawi

 

I wouldn't want to go into the churning sea off Seopjikoji but 

the waters of the rock pools looked enticingly calm as well as clear

 

I think one has to be a bit off the rocker as well as daring

to decide that's a good place to go fishing!

 

View of the surrounding area from the elevated area

of land atop which the lighthouse is located

 

View of Seongsan Ilchulbong and Seongsan town from Seopjikoji

 

A building that I consider to be a blot on the Seopjikoji landscape

which, bizarrely to my mind, happens to house a Zippo Museum!

All told, I way preferred the views of the more 

natural elements of Seopjikoji's landscape

A by-the-numbers look at my 2018 movie viewing year

I viewed a number of movies starring my favorite actress 

in the whole wide world on a big screen in 2018! :)

I also viewed quite a few films at the Hong Kong 

International Film Festival last year :b

Three days ago, I brought my 2018 film viewing to a close after attending a screening of Yuen Wo Ping's Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.  Today, I began my 2019 movie viewing account with a screening of Lee Chang Dong's Burning and already have got a ticket for my second film screening of the new year.  (For those who're wondering, it's for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.)  

So I figure I had better go ahead this evening and take my now annual by-the-numbers look at my past movie viewing year; one which saw my love for movies get rekindled, as evidenced by an increase in the number of films I enjoyed viewing even more so than the increase in the number of films I viewed from the previous year (even while still not quite being at the level of the likes of 2016, 2015, 2014 (over the course of which I viewed 204 films for the first time!), 2013 (during which I viewed 211 feature films for the first time!!), 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and all the way back to 2006 even if one were to include repeat viewings I made, including of that perfect 10 of a film for me that is Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister)...  

0 -- The number of 3D films I viewed last year (Remember when this was supposed to become the norm?!)

2 -- The total number of films from Malaysia (including co-productions) that I viewed last year

4 -- The number of movies starring Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia I viewed in 2018, all of them viewed on a big screen (For the record, they were Cloud of Romance, Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II and Red Dust, and I had viewed all of them before -- in some cases, more than 50 times ;S)

4 too -- The number of animated feature films I viewed last year

6 -- The total number of films from the UK (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

7 -- The total number of feature films directed by a woman that I viewed last year (including three from Hong Kong; and this despite Ann Hui not having made a film in 2018!)

7 as well -- The number of movies I viewed on a plane last year

11-- The number of documentary features I viewed in 2018

16 -- The total number of films from Japan that I viewed for the first time in 2018

19 -- The number of 2018 Hong Kong movies I viewed in 2018

21 -- The total number of different territories whose films I viewed in 2018 (i.e., Afghanistan, Brazil, Canada, Congo, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malaysia, Palestine, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the USA) 

21 too -- The total number of films from the USA (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

22 -- The number of Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018 

22 too -- The total number of films I viewed at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival

29 -- The total number of films I viewed for the first time in 2018 that I'd rate as an 8.5 or above on the brns.com scale (with these being 12 Angry Men (USA, 1957), 89 (UK, 2017), 1987: When the Day Comes (South Korea, 2017), A Beautiful Moment (Hong Kong, 2018), A Story of Chikamatsu (Japan, 1954), A Family Tour (Hong Kong-Taiwan-Malaysia-Singapore, 2018), After Life (Japan, 1998), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Germany, 1972), The Ballad of Narayama (Japan, 1958), Black Panther (USA, 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (UK-USA, 2018), The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful (Taiwan, 2017), The China Hustle (USA, 2017), Coco (USA, 2017), Crazy Rich Asians (USA, 2018), Distinction (Hong Kong, 2018), The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Japan, 1987), Fargo (USA, 1996), In the Heat of the Night (USA, 1967), Into the Fade (Germany, 2017), My Neighbors, The Yamadas (Japan, 1999), Paddington 2 (UK-France-USA, 2017), The Post (USA, 2017), Searching (USA, 2018), The Shape of Water (USA, 2017), Shoplifters (Japan, 2018), The Spy Gone North (South Korea, 2018), Still Human (Hong Kong, 2018), and Struggling (Mainland China, 1932))

53 -- The number of non-Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018

67 -- The number of feature films I viewed for the first time on a big screen last year

75 -- The total number of feature films I viewed for the first time in 2018

1932 -- The original year of release of Struggling, the oldest non-Hong Kong film I viewed last year

1987 -- The original year of release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World!, the oldest Hong Kong film I viewed last year

Hotel Soul Good is good because it's got soul! (Film review)

No nightmare awaits at a screening of  

Hotel Soul Good -- I promise! ;)

 

Hotel Soul Good (Hong Kong, 2018)

- Yan Pak Wing, director and co-scriptwriter (with Yim Ka Yee, Lo Ka Yee and Lee Ho Tin)

- Starring: Chrissie Chau, Louis Cheung, Eric Kot, Maggie Siu, Richard Ng 

 

Before anything else: Yes, my first blog post of 2019 is a review of a film I viewed close to two months ago.  My main reason for doing this is because -- at least at the time of my writing this blog entry -- Hotel Soul Good has a terrible 3.9 out of 10 rating on the International Movie Database (IMDB) website that many film fans refer to when deciding whether to check out a cinematic work or not and I honestly reckon that's not fair on this offering that I must admit to having been inclined to give a miss myself until a good friend told me that it's quite the stealth gem.

Given a Hong Kong cinema release date around the time of the Chung Yeung Festival and also scheduled to still be in theaters over Halloween, Hotel Soul Good is largely set within the premises of a budget hotel whose staff members include a woman who sees ghosts, a spirit medium and three actual ghosts.  Rather than be a horror film though, this is a ghost movie with a heart and soul, whose makers appeared more inclined to tickle the funnybone and touch the heart than scare people witless. 

 

At the beginning of the movie, Hotel Soul Good's main character is an orphan girl turned succesful hotel executive whose hard-driving as well as -driven nature can make her seem like scarier to those around her than any supernatural being!  One fine day though, Katie (Chrissie Chau)'s life is turned upside down by her losing her job, boyfriend and consciousness in quick succession.  At least the last loss was only temporary.  The trouble though is that upon regaining consciousness, Katie discovers that her world is now populated with ghosts as well as fellow live beings, all of whom are equally visible and audible to her!

Fortunately for Katie, the ghosts in Hotel Soul Good turn out to be on the friendly and caring side.    Which is a good thing for her since three of them (played by Eric Kot, Maggie Siu and Richard Ng) attach themselves to her and actually treat her better than she had hitherto treated her fellow humans. For the first time in ages, Katie now has caring companions -- including John (Louis Cheung), a human the ghosts introduce her to -- who dispense important life lessons as well as help her to operate a small hotel that soon becomes a social media sensation thanks to ghostly presences having been detected there by guests!

 

One of a number of admirably local Hong Kong movies released in 2018, Hotel Soul Good can seem like a particular throwback to 1990s Hong Kong cinema in terms of it being unabashedly touchy feely and having few qualms about throwing together certain elements most associated with horror movies (ghosts! underworld guardians! Taoist rituals!) with comedic and dramatic ones. While some people might find these tendencies offputting, I reckon they contribute significantly to the film's charm.

 

Another strong point of Hotel Soul Good as far as I'm concerned is its cast.  None of its members may be A-listers but so many of them are familiar faces who it can seem like a bonus to spot in a supporting role; this not least because the likes of Susan Shaw Yum Yum and Helena Law Lan as well as Maggie Siu, Richard Ng and Eric Kot never seem to waste any of the screen time they are given and often are able to leave deep impressions with just a few minutes, lines or even just one knowing look.

 

My rating for the film: 8

Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy is Max Zhang's show (film review)

Max Zhang with the audience at a screening of

Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy that included Yours Truly :)

 

Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2018)

- Yuen Wo Ping (aka Yuen Woo Ping), director

- Starring: Max Zhang, Dave Bautista, Michelle Yeoh, Liu Yan, Xing Yu, Kevin Cheng, Tony Jaa, Chrissie Chau

 

Back in 1994, Yuen Woo Ping (now more usually credited as Yuen Wo Ping) directed and action directed a charming martial arts movie about the woman that the distinctive Chinese martial art known as wing chun was named after.  Twenty-four years on, the helmer of Wing Chun has helmed another martial arts movie: this one revolving around one of the chief antagonists of 2015's Ip Man 3, a popular film series about the real life wing chun master whose disciples included a certain Bruce Lee.

 

In Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy, Max Zhang reprises his role as Cheung Tin Chi, the ambitious as well as talented fighter who challenged Ip Man to a duel in Ip Man 3.  In the wake of his having been bested by Master Ip, Tin Chi decides to abandon the world of martial arts and become a humble grocery store owner and loving father to his young son.  But as pretty much anyone who's seen a kung fu movie will know, it's well nigh impossible for a martial arts master -- especially a righteous one -- to lead a quiet and violence-free life, however much he wishes to do so.  

 

As the fates would have it, Tin Chi crosses paths one day with two women -- drug addict Nana (Chrissie Chau) and her best friend, Julia (Liu Yan) -- desperately seeking to escape from a bunch of thugs headed by opium den owner Kit (Kevin Cheng).  His immediate 'reward' for rescuing the damsels in distress is to become homeless and jobless after his grocery store cum home were set on fire by Kit's heroin dealer buddy Ma Jing Sheng (Patrick Tam Yiu Man, who also had appeared in Ip Man 3).  

 

Showing that there is some good in the world, Julia decides to repay her debt to Tin Chi by taking him and his son into the home she shares with Nana, asking her bar owner brother Fu (Xing Yu) -- a guy with a tough exterior but also a heart of gold -- to give Tin Chi a job and also declaring that the quintet were now a family.  But while some happiness does come their way in the wake of this alliance, so does trouble and also tragedy; and this particularly after Tin Chi and Fu attract the attention of more heavyweight and formidable figures like the Kwan (Michelle Yeoh), the Triad leader elder sister of Kit and Owen Davidson (Dave Bautista), an American restaurant owner who can come across like an affable teddy bear but is far more like a mean and greedy grizzly in nature.

 

What with Master Z's director and top-billed actor having their strengths in the action department, it should come as no surprise that this movie's fight scenes are its best scenes.  In particular, I was wowed by the physical artistry on show in the duels between Max Zhang and Michelle Yeoh (who, incidentally, was the star of 1994's Wing Chun) -- including the one involving a liquor-filled glass -- most of all and also enjoyed seeing Cheung Tin Chi realizing how wing chun is ideal against a physically bigger and stronger opponent. 

Provided with a far bigger budget than 1994's Wing Chun, this offering co-produced by Donnie Yen (who was the 1994 film's lead actor as well as Ip Man 1, 2 and 3) and Raymond Wong Pak Ming still appears less polished than I would have liked though.  In particular, the make up on some of the actors was noticeably rough, and the script has too many evil foreigners in it for my liking. 

 

Given the circumstances, I thought that Dave Bautista was able to acquit himself well in the movie.  However, I felt that Tony Jaa was ill-served both by having a smaller part in the proceedings than should have been the case and the wirework used in his main fight sequence being too obvious (and, given, his athletic prowess, unnecessary?).  All in all, it says quite a bit when non-action actors and actresses like Liu Yan, Xing Yu, Chrissie Chau and Philip Keung (the last playing a cop whose efforts to uphold the law are often frustrated by his corrupt superior) were able to have their characters make a stronger impression in Master Z than the Thai action star's.  

 

I have to be honest: Michelle Yeoh is someone else I would have loved to see more of than I did in Master Z.  Still, I think that the film managed to showcase both her dramatic and action abilities.  Ultimately though, there's little question that this movie is Max Zhang's show; and I am watching with interest to see if it succeeds in making him the major star that the earlier likes of Vincent Zhao (aka Chiu Man Cheuk) and Yu Rongguang tried but never got to be.

My rating for the film: 7.5

Comparative thoughts in the wake of my final beach clean-up of 2018

The sight that greeted my beach clean-up crew at Cheung Chau's  

Tung Wan Tsai (Coral Beach) this morning

 

How a portion of the beach looked in September 2017 :(

 

 How roughly that same portion of the beach looked

post beach clean-up today! :)

Earlier today, I took part in my final beach clean-up of 2018 at Cheung Chau's Tung Wan Tsai (Coral Beach).  As has come to be usual, the beach clean-up crew consisted of both first-time beach clean-up participants and visitors to Tung Wan Tsai along with those who now are very familiar with the drill and situation at the beach in northeast Cheung Chau.

I found the different reactions to what we saw as we approached the beach (by way of a hike that takes around 45 minutes in hot weather but only took half an hour or so today, during which temperatures ranged from around 12 to 16 degrees Celsius) pretty illuminating.  More specifically, the regulars among us got to remarking how much cleaner Tung Wan Tsai looked compared to the last couple of times that we had seen it -- which makes sense since this past month, no typhoon visited Hong Kong (like was the case two months ago) and it wasn't even all that rainy (after the rain is when one regularly sees the waters of Hong Kong at their most debris filled) -- whereas the first time visitors to the beach were horrified by how much trash was strewn about on it!

 

One reason for the first timers' shock is that there really is quite a lot of trash on Tung Wan Tsai thanks to this beach having the misfortune of having currents wash ashore garbage from not only other parts of Hong Kong but also Mainland China (we find quite a bit of stuff with simplified Chinese and Mainland Chinese phone numbers on their labels) and Macau (for the record: today was the first time I found empty drinks packets and such bearing "packaged in Macau" labels).  It also can be true enough that, as one woman expressed today, no environmentalist video she saw or news article she read was able to prepare her for the reality of how much trash can be found on a single beach in her home territory.

 

I definitely remember how horrified I was the first time I went to Tung Wan Tsai to work on cleaning up the beach.  Indeed, so aghast was I at how things looked there that I couldn't bring myself to take any photographs at the beach the first two times that I took part in a beach clean-up there -- and, instead, only felt comfortable taking photos of another cleaner beach in Cheung Chau that my group had gone to do a beach clean-up at in between my first and second Tung Wan Tsai beach clean-up sessions!

 

Considering that the tides deliver trash daily (and often right when we are conducting beach clean-ups) to the beach, our beach clean-up efforts can seem positively Sisyphean.  At the same time though, I look at photos of Tung Wan Tsai in September 2017, when I returned to work on it (after having taken part in beach clean-ups elsewhere in Hong Kong, including Chi Ma Wan and Lamma), and today and really can see quite a bit of improvement in the overall state of the place, especially at the end of today's beach clean-up.  Consequently, I feel like I've got evidence to prove that we actually are making a difference against the odds! :)