The latest works by VA Wong Sir and Ah To say so much about the situation in Hong Kong, and "the Far East"

Remember VA Wong Sir and Ah To?  The two talented political cartoonists may have left Hong Kong but they are keeping their eye on what's happening in the city they love and continuing producing works that are say so much about the situation in this part of the world.  And in recent days, both of them have produced illustrations that I think are very much worth sharing with others.  

 

So without further ado, I present to you this from VA Wong Sir (who now is on Twitter as well as Facebook as well as Patreon) which points out that Hong Kong is not (yet) "back to normal" like the Hong Kong government (including the Hong Kong Tourism Board) would like you to believe due to existing pandemic regulations and restrictions (never mind the national security law):

 

And this from Ah To (who has a Twitter account but appears to be more active on Instagram), produced to "celebrate" the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st of this year, which was inspired by -- and updates -- Tse Tsan-tai's "The Situation in the Far East" of July 1898: 

N.B. To appreciate the details of the illustrations, particularly Ah To's, click on the images to view enlarge versions of them!

Another cold and high Covid numbers February day in Hong Kong

One of a number of Covid vaccination centers in Hong Kong (I know 

it says Sport Centre but it's function has been temporarily changed)

After the number fell to 3,629 cases yesterday, Hong Kong had another day of reporting over 6,000 new Covid cases today, with today's 6,063 bringing the total number of cases that the territory's seen thus far up to 46,763.  And the total number of Covid deaths reported today (21) is only exceeded by this past Thursday's in being the highest number recorded to date.  

Also released this afternoon was the information that of all bar six of the first 46 deaths in Hong Kong's fifth Coronavirus wave involved unvaccinated individuals.  Which gets one wondering why the Hong Kong government, even now, doesn't seem to be pushing vaccination all that hard and the media is not disseminating this kind of information more.

 

Speaking of the provision of relevant information about vaccines and the Wuhan coronavirus in general: many people in Hong Kong are finding themselves wishing that the Hong Kong government could emulate Singapore's and produce clearer and more helpful information on official websites and such.  But I suppose this would mean the Hong Kong government getting its priorities straight and, well, what hope is there when, rather than acknowledging that they have played a significant part in causing -- or at least, exacerbating -- this fifth wave, they keep on looking to pin the blame on others, notably foreign domestic workers (the majority of whom hail from the Philippines and Indonesia).   

 

After it transpired that all 17 tickets handed out by the police last Sunday for breaches of the "2 person gathering limit" were to foreign domestic workers (whose monthly salary is about the same as the sum of the fine), Hong Kongers set up a fund to help them which raised over HK$78,000 in a matter of days.  But good news turned into bad after Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong announced that he was "not sure if [the] crowdfunding to help pay [foreign domestic workers'] fines is "trying to help people with good intentions", or maliciously undermining the entire epidemic prevention work" and he was "[s]eeking advice on whether legal action can be taken to stop [the fundraising effors]"; and took a turn for the worse when the spooked fund organizers (which had ended up raising over HK$107,000) decided to stop their fundraising efforts and return all the donations to the donors. 

 

As Antony Dapiran was moved to sarcastically observe: "Surprised they're not saying it undermines national security..."  To which, another member of the Hong Kong Twitterverse replied: "Just wait. Wonder if they will try to take away the funds raised to help those made homeless, too. Wouldn't put it past them."  (Re the homeless in Hong Kong: terrible but true -- some awful people have actually ejected their domestic workers who tested positive for the coronavirus!  And yes, some other Hong Kongers have sought to help these foreign domestic workers now reduced to sleeping outdoors out.) 

 

Speaking of people sleeping outdoors: at least most of the hospital patients reduced to sleeping (or just waiting for treatment, for that matter) outdoors have been moved indoors as of today in Hong Kong.  And about time too, since it's now on the distinctly chilly side -- and will be for the next few days -- as a cold front sweeps in.  Thank goodness for small mercies?  Only, this is Hong Kong and, truly, such a situation should not have come about in the first place!   

 

The opening sentences from a Reuters article today is worth reading and pondering: "Hong Kong until recently had an enviable record battling Covid-19, but as an Omicron wave now overwhelms the city, the steps that saved lives are making life unbearable for many of its 7.4 million people. Like an immune system overreacting and harming the person it is meant to protect, the "dynamic zero-Covid" policies that had crushed the virus in Hong Kong have contributed to current woes, experts say" (my emphasis).  And consider how battered Hong Kongers are when this overreacting and now harmful immune system analogy is one "that also applies to the city’s “national security” policy."

Still trying to stand up for one's rights and against injustice even when it's against the odds because it's the right thing to do

Seen in Hong Kong back in November 2019

 

Also from late 2019: Don't say those protestors don't have a point!

 

I went to Yuen Long for the first time in more than two years yesterday.  It used to be that this northwestern New Territories town was a place I liked to go post-hike (because of the good eats to be had there).  But after what happened on the night of July 21st, 2019, there, I've come to associate it with tragedy, violence and police-Triad collusion rather than good things.  

 

Happily, I had a pleasant time yesterday.  I even discovered that there are a good number of yellow shops in the town -- and that many of them have no or few qualms displaying their colors.  In addition, my observation was that the yellow shops are -- like is the case in many neighborhoods, including mine -- better patronized than those which are not.  Indeed, the first yellow eatery I tried to have dinner didn't have a table available and its yellow neighbor only had a place for me because a couple had just paid the bill seconds before I went inside it!

 

So I'm sure that there are many residents in Yuen Long as disappointed as I am -- or maybe more so -- upon learning today that ex-legislative councillor Lam Cheuk-ting and eight other victims of the Yuen Long mob attack of July 21st, 2019, have decided to drop their civil suit against Police Commissioner Chris Tang.  Lest it be thought otherwise, it's not because they've now decided that he's not in the wrong.  Rather, Lam Cheuk-ting explained that the case has become “too expensive” to fight and that resources could be better utilised to help other pro-democracy activists facing prosecution.  

 

In the words of his lawyer, Albert Ho: "“It seems that it would take a very long time for the case to end… we think it is time to stop, in order to save further costs.. The opponent on the other side [i.e., Chris Tang] is not only formidable, but they [the Department of Justice, which is backing him] have unlimited resources. And they are crazy! They would use every method, every possible avenue to try to delay the matter, try to complicate the matter, and to exhaust all our financial resources.”  

 

And I'm sure plenty of Yuen Long residents would have applauded journalist Bao Choy's announcement today that she has filed an appeal against a magistrate’s decision to convict her after she accessed public records to investigate police behaviour during the “7.21” mob attack.  No doubt she will face a costly and lengthy process like that which Lam Cheuk-ting had imagined for the case he had sought to pursue.  But, for now, she has decided to try and fight.  As she explained in a statement: "I have struggled with whether I should be more selfish and let the case and myself go... But, after much reflection, I know that if I give up the pursuit of justice now, I will lose sleep and regret it for the rest of my life."

 

From time to time, I get asked by friends living abroad whether the Hong Kong protests are over.  I tell them that Hong Kong has not seen protests on the streets for some time but this does not mean that the protests are over.  And while, if truth be told, Hong Kongers think the chances of the pro-democracy movement having any success these days are low to non-existent, people still protest to support one another and, also, because they sincerely believe that it is the right thing to do.

 

Take, as an example, what is currently being done to former Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai -- whose courageous actions on June 12th, 2019, few Hong Kongers are going to ever forget.   Currently in detention despite not having been found guilty of any charges (including the sedition that has seen him and dozens of others who took part in the democratic primaries last July been put behind bars ahead of their trial scheduled for later this month), he had sought to attend the funeral of his father that's scheduled for later this week, only to see his request rejected by the government's Correctional Services Department.

 

In a statement issued today, the authorities maintained that it's "too risky" for the long-time moderate politician to be allowed to do so; this not least because "the date, time and location of the funeral have been extensively reported on social media platforms recently, and there were calls on the Internet for showing support at the scene on the day of the funeral."  In other words: Wu Chi-wai has supporters who had wanted to be with him to pay their respects to him and his late father -- and this is something which threatens the authorities.     

 

As journalist Lok Sum-kei observed in a Tweet: "Wu Chi-wai is being held before trial. He has not yet been convicted of a crime. As the only son in his family, he was not allowed to attend his father's funeral. Instead, the govt offers to livestream the funeral via zoom - something Wu said was disrespectful and rejected."  And yes, I can see some people thinking: witnessing the funeral via zoom is better than nothing.  But I, for one, support Wu in rejecting that lame offer and continuing to object to his unjust treatment by the authorities -- because, like in so many other instances, what is offered is unacceptable and makes a mockery of the actual request and situation.   

 

Speaking of pushback against what's unacceptable: The European Union (EU) yesterday suspended efforts to ratify a controversial investment deal with China because of tensions between Brussels and Beijing.  It didn't use the language that Philippines foreign affairs secretary, Teddy Locsin Jr., employed in a Tweet asking China to steer clear off its waters but its message still was clear enough.  And if not, check out this speech by MEP Hannah Neumann about how human rights, and the EU's “solidarity with the Uyghurs and the democratic movement in Hong Kong has to be more important than any potential… economic benefit market access could have.”  (Hear that, New Zealand, and those delusional Hong Kong-based expat business executives who think the press threatens their freedom more than the Hong Kong government, among others?) 

A mainly Hurricane Signal No. 10 day in Hong Kong (courtesy of Severe Typhoon Mangkhut)

Large pools of water where there shouldn't be

Strong winds did this (including decapitate a couple of garden lamps!)

One of a number of objects that looked to have blown out 

of nearby apartments down several floors

Shortly before I decided to call it a day last night, the No. 8 Gale or Storm Signal was raised by the Hong Kong Observatory.  And when I woke up this morning, it was to find that Hurricane Signal No. 10 (the highest typhoon warning signal used by Hong kong) had been raised despite Super Typhoon Mangkhut having been re-designated as "just" a severe typhoon.

A little more than a couple of hours ago, the T10 signal was replaced with the No. 8 Gale or Storm Signal having been hoisted.  But it's actually still pretty windy and plenty rainy out there, and I won't feel safe enough to venture outdoors or take an elevator until the signal drops to at least T3 (this since there were a number of power surges in my building today and I've read reports of people getting stuck in elevators in various parts of the territory in the past 24 hours or so).  

At the risk of sounding like a scaredy cat, I also must admit to not having felt 100 percent safe in my apartment at various points today.  Among other things, I worried that Severe Typhoon Mangkhut would break the glass on at least some of my windows or even blow the windows out entirely since this particular tropical cyclone was being billed as the strongest on record to hit Hong Kong as well as the strongest typhoon this year.  And it really didn't help that this typhoon's winds sounded at times like that of a jet engine and I was given a good idea of its strength when it decapitated at least a couple of lamps in my building complex's podium garden and sent quite a bit of stuff flying out of windows and down from my very building or ones nearby!

Something else I was shocked to observe was how the water in my toilet bowl actually swirled about at times when the T10 signal was in place and also its turning disconcertingly murky rather than staying clear colored!  Still, I am thankful that -- unlike a few of my friends -- I couldn't feel my building swaying about for much of the day (maybe because my apartment is on a lower floor than theirs!)!   

In addition, I am very grateful indeed that I don't live in a low lying area susceptible to flooding and being pounded by scary looking waves (like not only the old waterfront villages of Tai O and Lei Yue Mun but also the modern housing estate of Heng Fa Chuen).  And left even worse off are Macau, where some 20,000 households have been left without electricity by Mangkhut, and the Philippines, where floods and landslides added to the damage caused by Mangkhut and the death toll has already risen to 64 at the time of writing (and possibly could go up quite a bit higher in the next few days).

In view of how dangerous many of us figured or even knew outright that Mangkhut would be, I'm rather shocked that there were people who thought nothing of going out to waterfronts to get some thrills and others who decided that a T10 typhoon was not enough to stop them going for yum cha with family members and/or friends!  In all honesty, until a friend told me she was out having dim sum with her parents this morning, I didn't realize that there were any restaurants that would be open when a signal higher than T8 had been raised!!

For my part, even though I must admit to suffering a bit from cabin fever, I don't regret staying put in my apartment pretty much all day today.  And for the record: I will state that Severe Typhoon Mangkhut really has felt far more powerful -- and scary -- than the two previous T10-strength typhoons (Hato last year, and Vicente in 2012) whose Hong Kong visits I've been around to experience; and it really is a scary thought indeed that, as a result of climate change, the world may soon see hurricanes or typhoons that are even stronger than the category 5 Mangkhut. :(

Ma' Rosa condemns but also solicts empathy and understanding (film review)

Yes, the Hong Kong International Film Festival has been

in existence for more than twice as long as Hong Kong 

has been a Special Administrative Region of China ;b

 

Ma' Rosa (The Philippines, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Auteurs program

- Brillante Mendoza, dir.

- Starring: Jacyln Jose, Julio Diaz, Baron Geisler, Kristofer King, Jomari Angeles

 

In the same venue (The Sky, over in Tai Kok Tsui) and around the same time as I viewed Hissein Habré, A Chadian Tragedy the day before, I saw critically acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Brilliante Mendoza's latest dramatic offering.  This time around, the cinema was packed -- and, forewarned by a friend about the shaky movements of  cinematographer Odyssey Flores' handheld camera, I knew to sit further back from the screen than is usually my wont and consequently felt some pity for those who arrived later and were left with front row seats.

 

Often showing the characters' point of view rather than a more detached perspective, Ma' Rosa is a cinematic work whose director as well as cinematographer looks to want to get audience members to thinking "There but for the grace of God go I" over the course of the film.  And yes, its titular protagonist (played by Cannes Film Festival Best Actress awardee Jacyln Jose) may be foul mouthed and, together with her drug-taking husband Jose (Julio Diaz), supply drugs to their neighborhood; yet she also happens to be a hard-working mother doing what she needs to do to provide for her family, who include a college student daughter (Andy Eigenmann) and two sons (Jomari Angeles and Felix Roco), and the sense is that the drug dealing is actually only a side-business for a pair of convenience store owners.

 

Like many a Filipino film I've seen (including previous HKIFF entry On the Job), a grim image is provided of contemporary Filipino society; one where crime and corruption is rife, and it's hard to be as moral as some might expect members of a supposedly heavily Catholic country to be.  It's not just that fellow members of a community are wont to casually curse at, lie to, cheat and betray one another.  Rather, as is shown after Rosa and Jose are arrested by Officer Lopez (Baron Geisler) and his team, those officially charged with defending the law may be the most adept and in the best positions to take advantage of their fellow citizens, and appear to have few qualms for using foul rather than fair means.

 

Presented with unorthodox options to avoid prison time, Rosa and Jose go ahead and do such as rat on their friendly supplier (Kristofer King) and get their children to raise what appears to be a fortune to bribe the cops with.  Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this dark, yet not completely uncompassionate, film is to see what they go through to come by what's not more than HK$7,600 (i.e., US$1,012) when calculated using current exchange rates.  At the same time, it's a good (in more ways than one) indication of the strength of the family unit at the heart of this drama; one whose matriarch appears to have raised to be survivors, at the very least.        

 

Brillante Mendoza has stated that Ma' Rosa and her brood are "a common Filipino family".  By this, I take it to mean that they are representative of Filipino society as a whole rather than that they are in its lower echelons.  The impression I also get is that while Ma' Rosa is a fictional work, there's a reason for its proceedings feeling so realistic.  And when these two elements of this expertly-made film are taken together, it makes for a pretty damning indictment of Filipino society -- and, in all probability, a powerfully accurate one too.        

 

My rating for this film: 8.5

Q&A with River of Exploding Durians' director, scriptwriter and editor Edmund Yeo

Durians hanging safely from a tree -- and in 

little danger of exploding -- in Penang, Malaysia

Some years ago, when I was just a novice blogger, I got to know a young fellow blogger -- and fellow film fan -- who went by the moniker of The Great Swifty on the internet.  While taking in a screening of Days of Turquoise Sky by Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jing at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival, I was startled to see my friend's real name appear in the film credits.  But after I saw it, I figured that it'd be only a matter of time before Edmund Yeo directed his own film.

After his River of Exploding Durians (2014) was announced in the line-up of this year's Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, Edmund contacted me and invited me to a screening of his debut directorial offering (which he also scripted and edited).  After the screening, I admitted to him that I hadn't liked the film.  Nice guy that he is, Edmund didn't seem to take offence -- and even kindly agreed to do a Q&A about this ambitious dramatic exploration of various malaises affecting young Malaysians and their nation, parts of which I'm hereby sharing in this blog entry:-  

YTSL: What are the exploding durians in River of Exploding Durians meant to signify?

Edmund Yeo: Ourselves. Durians are so important to us Malaysians. They are the king of fruits. They also are like us: thorny on the outside, and needing a bit of time to get used to! And here we are, flowing on a river, to an unknown future, about to explode. 

The Chinese title of the film, Liu Lian Wang Fan, is also a wordplay: originally it was 流连忘返, which means nostalgia, but I changed the first two words into "durians" 榴梿忘返 -- so they literally become durians floating about, forgetting how to return. It's pretty much our current condition. 

YTSL: What did you want to accomplish with this film, and did you think you were successful in doing so?

Edmund Yeo: Most of my works are generally very personal and somewhat autobiographical. I had a story I wanted to tell, there were situations in the country that I wanted to depict, there were feelings and memories built up within me that I wanted to share. Therefore I ended up making this film. 

The longer I was away from my country during my adult life (two and a half years in Australia, another five years in Tokyo), the more I found myself curious about its history, and the normal everyday things that I have missed out while growing up. Therefore I made this film to remember things from, yes, a particular stage of my life. 

There's also our collective memories from the past few years coming into play here. After all, the backstory is loosely based on real-life events (the Lynas rare earth plant controversy). But instead of making this a film with an environmental message, I wanted to examine how these things impact the people, especially those who are at their crossroads of their lives, those who are on the verge of adulthood. 

What was I when I was about to finish secondary school? Apathetic towards politics, interested only in girls, yet finding myself inspired by certain teachers [YTSL's note: like the film's main male character]. In those days, with our education system, our teachers were like gods. The things they did, especially when it's something beyond just teaching something from textbooks, impacted me deeply. 

As for the second part of the question: I'm not so presumptuous to say that I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. In the end, once the film is done, I think I have done the best I could with the resources I had. The rest is up to the audiences. As for myself, once the film is out, I try looking forward to the next one, hoping to make a better work.

YTSL: Who is your target audience for the film? On a related note: has it been (allowed to be) screened in Malaysia?

Edmund Yeo: The film has been screened in Malaysia but I made the film knowing that I wouldn't have much of a chance of getting a wide distribution in the country.  Due to its sensitive content, the depiction of the sociopolitical situation in Malaysia, etc., a few local actresses had to turn down the Teacher Lim role, and I ended up turning to Taiwanese actress Zhu Zhi-Ying to play the role instead. 

So no, in its current form, the film is unlikely to have a wide theatrical release. We had a few mini-screenings organized by some nice folks from an environmental organization recently. Nevertheless, we are still figuring out the best way to distribute this film locally. Perhaps a new cut, or perhaps we'll continue touring on campuses.  

YTSL: The Malaysia depicted in the film feels foreign to me (maybe because of age difference and also because of language).  Are there schools in Malaysia where secondary education is conducted in Mandarin (rather than Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu, like I'm more familiar with)?    

Edmund Yeo: Yes, there are schools like Chong Hwa Independent High School (and other Chinese schools) which are not part of the national school system. The actress Daphne Low was actually from Chong Hwa, along with a few of the student extras. 

I can understand why it seemed foreign to you. I guess that's also one of the interesting things (for me anyway) about making this film. I found myself rediscovering the country. I had a Thai cameraman (Kong Pahurak) and sound recordist, so they brought in a fresh perspective when they were shooting with us.

We worked in a very organic, improvised manner; there were many happy accidents (I like to keep my shoots loose and raw instead of being too controlled), many discoveries. For example, I visited Cameron Highlands for the first time. Also, we found out about the 140-year-old parade that appears at the end of the film from a cast member, and deliberately made adjustments so we could shoot during that particular day. In many ways, I realized how foreign Malaysia had been to me too!

YTSL: Where did you shoot your film and what was your reason for picking the particular locations that you did?  (By the way, for the first couple of scenes near the water, I was mesmerized by how choppy the sea was!)

Edmund Yeo: We traveled to various places in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Johor, Cameron Highlands, the seaside area of Kuala Selangor, the town of Sekinchan, we also went to the waterfalls of Ulu Langat. We shot for 15 days, so it was a pretty insane schedule!

Some places, like Sekinchan and Kuala Selangor, were places I was familiar with because I had done some short films and TV series there. Even two of the films by Woo Ming Jin which I produced, were done in these areas too. I like those places because they're so photogenic. And because we have long established relationships with the locals, they gave us access to their houses, factories and boats, etc. It's great working with them. 

The real-life Lynas event happened in Kuantan and I had considered shooting there too. But at the same time, I think my film is more an artistic representation of the issue instead of a factually accurate documentary. Therefore I didn't want to go to the actual place of the event, I wanted to maintain a certain amount of distance to make this film and tell our story. 

YTSL: Those moments in Asian history that the class presentations were on: are they real and if so, how did you find out about them? (Incidentally, these are the parts of the film that I consider the best.)

Edmund Yeo: Yes, they were real. The film has a lot to do with the suppressed and hidden history of the country, but throughout the time that I was developing the script, I also found out that our neighbouring countries had numerous painful, hidden histories of their own that are mostly forgotten, or rather, external factors prevented these issues from being discussed in the open. The Thammasat Massacre, the death of Liliosa Hilao, and the Karayuki-san.

I cannot remember whether these discoveries were made when I was writing River of Exploding Durians, or some other screenplays before that. Nevertheless, I was haunted by the videos and images I saw of those events and people for the longest time. I wanted to preserve this in my own films, because I think cinema's forever and we remember the world through cinema anyway. So that's probably the least I could do: to create more awareness of these things, to be a bit more conscious of things around us -- history's a cycle, I guess.

As previously mentioned, I worked in a very improvised manner.  While I choreographed the presentations and the camera movements, I really allowed the student actors and actresses to do their own thing. They brought a lot of things into these presentations which were beyond my expectations. I am grateful for that. 

YTSL: Be honest now: on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (perfect), how would you rate your film?  

Edmund Yeo: Usually I would give myself a 1! But that would diminish the efforts of the rest of the team. 

I put a lot of sweat and blood into my films, and up until its world premiere [at the 2014 Tokyo Film Festival], there was pretty much nothing else in life that would mean more to me than completing the film. After I first saw it on the big screen during the world premiere, I found myself crying (although I was pretending to just wipe sweat off my face 'cos, you know, my actors were sitting next to me)! The crying had nothing to do with the film itself, but more because I was relieved it was finally done and I could move on. It was quite an intense journey that we had taken to get there. 

The film itself, I feel oddly detached towards. I have not seen it in its entirety on the big screen since the world premiere last year. Maybe I got tired of it because I edited it myself too! (laughs) I think once the film is done, it's really out of my hands. However it's received by viewers is up to them. I'm just gonna respect their opinions. I know quite well that with its methodical pacing and unconventional structure, and the uncompromising subject matter, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Just like my previous short films.

River of Exploding Durians will always mean something to me because it's my first feature film. After so many years of doing short films and producing feature films by other directors, the feeling of making my first feature is pretty different. I always loved the journey more than the destination itself. The process, for me, was a thorough joy. Now I just want to make my next film and hope it's better. (smiles) 

YTSL: What's next on the horizon for you?

Edmund Yeo: For the past year I was working on a documentary about the 1949 Malayan Thomas Cup team. The Thomas Cup is the biannual "World Cup" of badminton.  Its first edition was held in 1949. A ragtag Malayan team took a one-month boat journey to the United Kingdom to play, and ended up winning the whole thing!

I'm now in Tokyo, preparing for a Japanese short film starring the actress Fujii Mina and the actor Yuki Kubota. It's a love story of perpetual missed chances. I'm shooting that next week, hopefully it'll be fun.

I'm also helping to produce my partner Woo Ming Jin's next film projects. (We both run a production company called Greenlight Pictures, and had been working together since 2007).

I've also been writing the follow up to River of Exploding Durians. It's a story that spans a century, following four generations of a family. I think it'll be set in Japan and Malaysia. Some characters from River of Exploding Durians will appear in it, because we have different stories to tell during different stages of our lives. (smiles once more)

***

A big thank you to Edmund for answering my questions in such a detailed and interesting way.  I wish him the best in his filmmaking career -- and do hope that I will like his next feature film, and the ones after that. :)

About Elly and On the Job at the 2014 HKIFF (film reviews)

On the Job's stars Jose Torre (left) and Piolo Pascual

at the screening of their film on the HKIFF's Philippines Day

In the audience, along with lots of excited Filipina women,

was French actress Catherine Deneuve :)

About Elly (Iran, 2009)
- From the Asghar Farhadi: 6 Moral Tales program
- Asghar Farhadi, director
- Starring: Golshifteh Farahani, Mani Haghighi, Merila Zarei, Rana Azadivar, Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Taraneh Alidousti

Among my most strongest memories of the 2009 Hong Kong International Film Festival was my meeting my favorite Malaysian director, Yasmin Ahmad (it sadly transpired, just a few months before her premature passing) -- and film expert (and fellow blogger!) David Bordwell raving about how great About Elly was. Although he had seen it at Filmart, it also did play at the HKIFF that year -- but it wasn't until this year, when it was included once again in the festival programme, that I finally got to view this 20009 Asghar Farhadi film.

A look at the assembled audience gave me a pretty good idea of how much of a film buff favorite this drama is.  More specifically, I spotted at least three film scholars and a couple of festival programmers in the audience -- one of whom was none other than the professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, happily checking out this Iranian work at least one more time!

As with Closed Curtain, the last Iranian film I viewed at the HKIFF, the great bulk of About Elly takes place at a house located near the sea.  But unlike with the official closing film of the 2013 fest, the group of people that Farhadi's 2009 film revolves around went to that seaside location for a fun holiday rather than to escape the attention of the authorities.

While there are ways in which the people in the party are discernibly Iranian, they also resemble middle and upper-middle class urbanites in many other societies and countries in the world.  Consisting of family units for the most part (except for recently divorced German resident Ahmad and single female teacher Elly), they like to hang out and joke with each other, eat good food, play volleyball and generally enjoy being by the seaside.

Initially, it seems like the main dramatic development in the film will merely concern the efforts of one woman to match-make Ahmad and Elly.  But after a series of events which culminate in the realization that Elly's gone missing, the story becomes about the subsequent search for Elly, and related events pertaining to the young woman who, it's realized, the group doesn't know all that much about after all, besides her first name, her occupation, her having a mother (whose health she worries about) and her not wanting to spend more than one night away from home.

Along with discoveries, also comes speculations and a series of lies that got me thinking of Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott's famous "O, what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive"!  As the story unfolds, one can get exasperated by the behavior of various people even while also actually being able to see why they would behave the way they did.  

This aspect of the film -- and, also, that no one in the work is either a completely blameless angel or hurtful devil --  is something that those who have viewed Farhadi's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-winning A Separation (2011) will recognize as among the filmmaker's trademarks.  It also is what I find very refreshing to come across in a world often dominated by Hollywood blockbusters which just aren't complete without one super good guy and mega bad guy along with big explosions and lots of special effects.

My rating for this film: 8.0
 
On the Job (The Philippines, 2013)
- From The Glories of Filipino Cinema program
- Erik Matti, director
- Starring: Joel Torre, Gerald Anderson, Piolo Pascual and Joey Marquez

More proof that Eugene Domingo is a class act: after the screening of Barber's Tales that I attended, I got a chance to take the Filipina actress' photo and exchange a few words with her.  In response to my telling her how much I had enjoyed the film and thanking her for having helped made it as good as it is, she said thank you -- and then recommended On the Job as another Filipino film to watch at this year's HKIFF (and not another film showing at the HKIFF that she also starred in -- Kimmy Dora: Ang Kiyemeng Prequel!)

The presence not only of its stars but also Eugene Domingo, other Filipino cinema luminaries, Catherine Deneuve and HKIFF Society executive director Roger Garcia at the screening of this crime drama that had its world premiere last year at Cannes confirmed that it was seen as a special film.  Also notable was that its screening at the fest was preceded by a short film, Heart of Storm, showing the devastating impact of Typhoon Yolanda (AKA Typhoon Haiyan) on the sections of the Philippines that it struck, that left me teary-eyed.

If anyone was looking to On the Job to lift their spirits after that, they were very much mistaken that that'd be the case -- for Erik Matti's crime drama is set in a contemporary Philippines that's so corrupt that convicts like steely Mario (Joel Torre) and his raw protege Daniel (Gerald Anderson) are not only able to leave and re-enter prisons with the cooperation of corrupt guards but do so to carry out killings for which they'll be financially compensated!

For much of the movie, it looks like there are only two people in the whole country who have proven incorruptible -- handsome NBI agent (Piolo Pascual really has movie star looks!) and cynical policeman Acosta (Joey Marquez).  But rather than be natural allies, the two men bicker and sometimes get in the way of each other's rival investigations because they distrust each other as a result of their different social and professional backgrounds and statuses.

Unexpectedly, the good guys -- including the good-looking one -- actually are not the focus of this film.  Rather, it's the convicted hit men whose lives and networks are given ample coverage.  The result is a fascinating look at an ugly underbelly of a society that comes across as containing a lot of truth as well as fiction in its depiction.

On the Job's portrait painted of the Phillipines is one that most definitely does not made good.  Indeed, it actually exceeds the ills, woes and faults of a country that I've long been told has its beauty spots but also way too many corrupt bad men (and women).  On the other hand, it's a real credit to the Filipino film industry on account of it being a very watchable movie -- and my experience of viewing this and Barber's Tales at this year's HKIFF has definitely made me more open to checking out more films from that part of the world in the future.

My rating for this film: 8.0

Watermark and Barber's Tales (with Eugene Domingo) at the 2014 HKIFF (film reviews)

Filipina actress Eugene Domingo graciously poses for me

after a HKIFF screening of Barber's Tales

Barber's Tales star Eugene Domingo standing next to French actress

Catherine Deneuve for a ceremony held in conjunction with the screening 

of Filipino film On the Job on Philippines Day at the HKIFF

Watermark (Canada, 2013)

- From the Reality Bites program

- Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky, directors

Three years ago at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (i.e., HKIFF for short), I saw a wonderful documentary that I was so very glad to have seen on the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's super big screen. Oceans was a work that's both thought-provoking as well as absolutely astounding visually -- and it really did feel like a privilege to have been able to come across a rare screening of it here in Hong Kong.

While I know that lightning doesn't strike twice, I've since kept a look out for offerings in the HKIFF programming that might yield a memorable viewing experience like Oceans did -- and this time around, Watermark looked like a prime candidate to do so. Seeing that it's a  documentary work on how water physically leaves an impact on the Earth, I had an inkling that it would feature some memorable visuals.  In addition, thanks to the Sundaram Tagore Gallery (which has a branch in Hong Kong), I am familiar with the impressive artworks of co-director Edward Burtynsky. 

Sure enough, Watermark possesses some amazing visual scenes of landscapes and engineering creations that are not only well nigh on astounding but look like they come from the realm of science fiction or some other planet other than ours.  I think here particularly of the views of the agricultural land atop the Ogallala Aquifer, the China's arch-shaped Xilodu Dam (the largest structure its kind in the world) and also the ancient stepwells of South Asia.

But if truth be told, Watermark left me feeling thirsty for more information about what it shows me visually.  Billed as "10 countries, 20 stories -- one epic journey", it would have benefited from having more depth rather than just width -- for however clichéd as it may sound, it really is true that I would like some intellectual substance along with pretty, even if pretty impressive, pictures.

My rating for this film: 7.0

Barber's Tales (The Philippines, 2013)

- From The Glories of Filipino Cinema program

- Jun Robles Lana, director

- Starring Eugene Domingo, Gladys Reyes, Nicco Manalo, Eddie Garcia, Iza Calzado, Shamane Buencamino, Nonie Buencamino

Before anything else, thank you Li Cheuk To - for including this film among your recommendations for this year's HKIFF. If he hadn't done so, I wouldn't have given this
Ferdinand Marcos era drama about a modest woman who, after her husband's premature death, decides to take over as a small town's barber -- and also find herself interacting both with anti-Marcos regime rebels and the corrupt as well as powerful local mayor and his emotionally needy, physically abused wife.

 

My gratitude goes too to the film's leading lady, Eugene Domingo, for not only making appearances before and after the HKIFF screening of Barber's Tales last Friday but also for sitting and watching the movie (from start to end for only the third time, she told me) with the audience, and graciously and patiently posing for photographs with and taken by her fans (including this new one -- post viewing this film -- in me)!  Her presence at the screening was a lovely icing on an already very enjoyable cake of a movie with a big heart and substantial soul.

Barber's Tales actually started unpromisingly since the subject of its early focus, town barber Jose, was one of those good-looking men whose behavior is less attractive than their looks and his wife Marilou appeared to be a passive doormat who had long accepted her not particularly pleasant lot in life.  But things perked up considerably cinematically after Jose suddenly dies after a night on the town and Marilou blossoms from wallflower to a complex and humane character.

Of course this is not to say that Marilou suddenly finds it all to be easygoing after she becomes a widow.  Suddenly having to think and make decisions for herself, she also has to combat the kind of sexism that is the expected norm for the place and time.  Even more dramatically, she finds herself making certain discoveries that leads to a harsh political awakening and then a realization that it's impossible to be neutral even though she finds herself being sympathetic to certain individuals on different sides of the political equation.

Where Marilou is fortunate is that she has true friends and allies.  In addition, she happens to be blessed with a heart that's big enough to not be envious of -- and instead worry and care about -- another woman (the mayor's wife, Cecilia) who, on the surface, would seem to be in a much more fortunate position than herself.

Technically, Barber's Tales is no great shakes -- and it's pretty obvious that its production budget was on the modest side.  But June Robles Lana's direction is sure indeed and the cast acquits itself well in some cases and immensely well in others.  In particular, Gladys Reyes is a lively spark as Susan, Marilou's regularly pregnant friend who one day comes up with a particularly innovative method from stopping her husband from wanting to have sex with her (and consequently make her pregnant once more), Eddie Garcia convinces as the kind of beloved kindly priest the Catholic church would do well to have more of, and Iza Calzado makes Cecilia more three dimensional than lesser actresses would be able to do.

In addition, there's little doubt that Eugene Domingo is not only the film's anchor but also its strongest suit.  More than incidentally, seeing the actress in real life was quite the revelation because she obviously is considerably different in status and personality than her Barber's Tales character.  

Even more astounding was how much younger she appears to be than Marilou.  And while it's no small feat for an actress to appear glamorous and there is indeed some skill involved for many people to appear younger than her age, my own sense is that it's rarer for an actress to de-glamorize and not only appear dowdy but actually physically and psychologically older -- hence my finding this film's star's portrayal to have been quite the admirable revelation!

My rating for this film: 8.5