Big names get the attention but it's worth looking at Hong Kong too!

Even amidst the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic,

life's a beach for some, it seems!

 The sense one gets when in Repulse Bay is that

the (super) rich are different... 

Outside the Hong Kong Country Club though is a reminder

that the Wuhan coronavirus strikes the rich too

Before this week, Hong Kong had a grand total of two recorded deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus.  But just four days after news came of the territory's third fatality from this deadly disease has come that of Hong Kong's fourth death from the coronavirus that now has spread to over 131 countries (with the East African countries of Ethiopia and Kenya being among those reporting their first confirmed cases of infection today).

The city's confirmed number of Wuhan coronavirus infections also rose by three today to 134, with a 16-month-old baby being among the latest cases.  (So, no, that which really is a more severe disease than the flu doesn't just infect elderly people though people over 50 years of age do appear to be at higher risk than younger ones.)  

Another noteworthy, and disturbing, finding about Hong Kong's three latest cases is that they all were found to be infected on their return to Hong Kong from visits to Europe -- as were the toddler's parents (whose infections were confirmed in the past two days and who appeared, as with their child, to have been infected by a fellow passenger on their flight back from London).  Put another way: it looks like Hong Kong has experienced the "reverse infections" from another continent that China has voiced fears of happening to it now that the coronavirus looks to be spreading much faster in the West than Asia.

Interestingly, as the coronavirus has spread outside of East and Southeast Asia, it has infected the kind of people who many would have thought would be less susceptible to fall victim to serious fast-spreading diseases.  Iran's vice president and two ministers have been infected by the Wuhan coronavirus.  So have a number of Western government officials (including Britain's health minister and Australia's home minister).  

Probably the biggest "name" thus far to have tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus is Hollywood actor Tom Hanks.  On the same day (yesterday) that he and his wife, singer-actress Rita Wilson, made public their having been infected, two NBA players -- including the idiot who tried to make fun of the global pandemic by touching every single microphone and recorder in the media room he gave an interview just this Monday -- were also announced as having tested positive for the coronavirus, and the basketball league they play[ed] in announced the suspension of its season.     

Today, it was the turn of the English Premier League to announce its suspension -- tentatively "just" until next month -- after news came that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea player Callum Hudson-Odoi had tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus, with a number of other players currently undergoing tests as well.  Oh, and the Canadian prime minister's wife also has been infected by this coronavirus, with her spouse probably being the first head of government to be obliged to work from home and self-isolating as a result of this coronavirus!

Maybe the news of these personalities testing positive for the Wuhan coronavirus will get people realizing that "anyone" (i.e., not just Asians or those of Asian ancestry) can come down with it. Maybe not.  Perhaps it will get some people finally realizing that the Wuhan coronavirus is a serious deal.  Perhaps not. 

Something that is being really clear to me in recent days is how much of the world outside of East Asia appears to not have been paying that much serious attention to what has been happening in this part of the world since as early as November last year and was known to be taking place in Mainland China by certain members of the medical community by late December (despite the Communist Chinese authorities trying to suppress information about it for weeks).  Belatedly though, articles have appeared in various Western media essentially urging people and administrations in the West to learn from the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan about how to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.  

To be sure though, as can be seen from the additional fatality and cases of infection announced today, Hong Kong is not out of the woods yet -- and most certainly cannot afford to be complacent.  Still, I do believe that Hong Kongers -- even if not their government -- have been far more "clued in" as to what's been happening, and for a while, and, frankly.  Consequently, they managed to dodge a big bullet early on and, hopefully, will be able to do so for as long as is needed -- which, sadly, is looking like it will be for many more months, especially if idiots continue doing what they have been doing to help its spread.

Two documentaries that benefit from being viewed on a big screen (Film reviews)

Most, if not all, movies benefit from being viewed on a big screen 

Into the Inferno (UK-Germany-Canada, 2016)

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program

- Werner Herzog (who also scripted) and Clive Oppenheimer, co-directors 

It may have been made for Netflix, whose customers stream the movies they watch onto computer and smartphone screens or watch them on TV screens courtesy of DVDs, but Into the Inferno really is one of those documentaries that really is best viewed on a big theater screen.  An ambitious, sprawling work which transports its audience to far flung places with landscapes that can look incredibly unearthly, it also has truly incredible footage that not only shows the power of volcanoes but also how mesmerizingly as well as frighteningly beautiful lava can look when it churns about, erupts and/or flows out to envelope whole landscapes.

Peter Zeitlinger's cinematographer makes sure that Into the Inferno is no run of the mill documentary but what really makes certain of this is the distinctive imprint that director Werner Herzog (who also scripted this effort) leaves on it.  And while the German auteur may have given Professor Clive Oppenheimer a co-directing credit and had the Cambridge University volcanologist be the main man in front of the camera, the fact that this work takes pains to explore the spiritual side of volcanoes rather than just their scientific aspects is something that comes from Herzog steering the production towards subject matter that truly interests him.

Over the course of the film, Herzog and Oppenheimer -- who met in Antarctica, when Herzog was filming his Encounters at the End of the World (2007) -- journey to the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific, Indonesia (the country with the most volcanoes in the world), Iceland, Ethiopia and North Korea (home to an active volcano that all Koreans consider sacred).  In addition to getting up close with some really spectacular volcanoes and related physical features (such as caldera lakes), they also interact with a diverse group of individuals, including members of a cargo cult, outwardly super-patriotic North Koreans (who often act like they too belong to a cult), and paleoanthropologist Tim White and his dedicated crew as well as volcanologists from various countries.

In the hands of lesser (or plain different) filmmakers, the different sections of Into the Inferno wouldn't feel like they could all fit into a single work.  However, Herzog successfully weaves them into a pretty fascinating exploration of the passionate -- often to the point of obsessiveness -- human quest for meaning, all of which involve volcanoes in one way or another.  

My rating for the film: 8.0

Makala (France, 2017)

- Part of the HKIFF's Global Vision program

- Emmanuel Gras, director, scriptwriter and cinematographer

- With: Kabwita Kasongo, Lydie Kasongo

One of the sights that invariably strikes visitors to the African continent is of people -- men, women and children -- forced to walk far distances because they don't have money for public transportation, let alone a car or even motorcycle of their own.  Adding to the misery is that many of these people are effectively their own beasts of burden, carrying all manner of things on their heads as well as in their arms and on their backs.    

Even when the subject of Makala (charcoal in Kiswahili, the native language of its protagonist), a Congolese charcoal maker and seller by the name of Kabwita Kasongo, has use of a bicycle, it's to load with many heavy bags of charcoal and then push into town rather than actually ride.  Observing the massive effort this takes, one can't help but feel for him.  Knowing that considerable effort also is required beforehand to do such as cut down the trees whose wood then gets turned into charcoal gets one concluding that his is a life that so many of us would not be able to lead and endure for long at all.

While much of this affecting film is taken up documenting mundane activities, there are elements in it which can disturb despite being depicted in a matter of fact way rather than sensationalist manner.  One example is rat being part of the diet of the protagonist and his family.  Actually more upsetting though is how it can seem that the closer he gets to town (and supposed "civilization"), the more unpleasant Kabwita's encounters with his fellow humans get.  In addition, there are scenes in this documentary that get me questioning why he has so much faith in God when there seems to be so much inequality and suffering in this world.

Rather than look upon him merely as an unlucky wretch condemned to a Sisyphean existence, however, I came away from my viewing of Emmanuel Gras' documentary thinking that Kabwita Kasongo is one of those heroic as well as admirable individuals who, somehow, against the odds, manages to not only eke out an honest living but also provide for his wife Lydie and their children, and continue to dream of, and plan for, a better future for them all.  And it is my sincere hope that he's been amply rewarded for agreeing to appear -- nay, star -- in this work which has gone on to garner a number of accolades, including the Critics' Week Grand Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

My rating for this film: 7.0

Black Code should be a "must watch" for anyone who values freedom and the internet (film review)

Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier (with an HKIFF 

interpreter by his side) at his film's Q&A session

Black Code (Canada, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program

- Nicholas de Pencier, director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer  

After many years of resisting the impulse to do so, I finally joined the Facebook community a few weeks ago.  In so doing, I've been witness to how people can seem willing to reveal so much about themselves via the posts they put up, share and like on that social media platform; many of which tend to be on the light-hearted side but some of which are also are seriously political in nature.

How many Facebook users, I wonder, really do realize and care that they are leaving a super detail-filled information trail out on the internet for such as various government agencies to see?  And can they envision that even seemingly innocous comments could land one in big trouble and result in one getting tortured and forced to flee one's homeland?

To be sure, the Facebook user in question who recounted his having undergone precisely that experience in the disturbingly thought-provoking Black Code is Syrian (rather than, say, American, Japanese or living in some other country whose citizenry tend to trust their government).  And it's also true that the vast majority of cases that Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier has chosen to focus on in his work are Third World ones.  

But, as the cinematographer turned documentary director sought to make clear in a Q&A session after the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of his film that I attended: he's by no means intending to say that the Chinese, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Syrian, Brazilian and other national governments shown monitoring the moves of their citizens in his documentary are the only ones out there engaging in internet surveillance along with censorship and cyber espionage.  (Also, he pointed out, it's not like he's unaware of companies also engaging in activities that threaten free speech and privacy on the internet; instead, it's just that the subject is so vast that it's worthy of a whole different film.)

Inspired by Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, a book by University of Toronto political science professor Ron Diebert, whose Citizen Lab has been examining government actions designed to disrupt and/or control the internet for more than a decade, Nicholas de Pencier travelled the world to chronicle diverse examples of state surveillance, political activism and citizen journalism to show how governments seek to crush political dissent but individual citizens also are seeking to fight back. 

Certain segments of his powerful documentary are disturbing and horrifying, with real deaths being shown on film and also being shown having been preceded by violent threats and other inflammatory comments against the eventual deceased posted online.  And there are points when watching Black Code that one might feel tempted to just give up on the whole internet thang and get out of cyberspace.  

Probably realizing how his often alarming work would make many thinking people feel, Nicholas de Pencier consequently also goes out of his way to not only emphasize how brave many of the people (political activists, content providers, journalists, etc.) who feature in his documentary are but, also, that there are indeed netizens out there who have managed to strike blows for free speech, freedom, justice and a whole plethora of human rights.  

Something else that Black Code makes clear is that there really are some benefits to our world being increasingly interconnected, by the internet and otherwise.  For example, Brazilian citizen journalists can better do their job using an app that previously was only popular in Japan.  And here in Hong Kong, people watching a documentary by a Canadian filmmaker can see parallels, say, not only between what the Mainland Chinese government is trying to do in Tibet and Hong Kong but also people protesting political injustice and economic inequality in Brazil and participants in -- and those who continue to be sympathetic to -- the Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement.  

My rating for this film: 8.5