Closing the 2013 HKIFF with Closed Curtain

The directors of the HKIFF's Closing Film weren't

present on the night of its screening but 

other filmmakers, including Red Dust's Yim Ho, were

More than a week has passed since the 37th Hong Kong International Film Festival came to an end -- so it's high time I wrapped up my HKIFF reviewing and reportage.  Officially, I only viewed one more HKIFF offering after the two films I viewed on April 1st since I caught Adam Wong's surprisingly excellent The Way We Dance not at the fest but, instead, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society's new Cine Fan repertory program.

So, in total, I ended up viewing 15 films at the HKIFF -- and five other works (Ip Man - The Final Fight, Saving General Yang, The Berlin File, Starlet and The Way We Dance) that screened as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival in other circumstances.  In general, I thought it was a pretty good fest personally for me -- with, interestingly, my favorites of the films I viewed all having been made decades ago... 

Closed Curtain (Iran, 2013) 
- From the Galas program  
- Jafar Panahi and Kamboziya Partovi, directors    
- Starring Kamboziya Partovi, Maryam Moghadam, Jafar Panahi

The official Closing Film of this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival begins by telling the story of an Iranian man who went into hiding with his dog after the keeping of pet dogs was made illegal in his country.  Since I know so little about Iran besides it being very fundamentalist Muslim, I could actually imagine this tale being based on reality -- and, at the very least, know that an Iranian lawmaker has indeed proposed the outlawing of pet dogs in his country.   

So early on in my viewing of this offering from Jafar Panahi (whose This is Not a Film I caught at the HKIFF last year) and Kamboziya Partovi, I treated Closed Curtain as a drama that, even while fictional, had some roots in reality. But as the film goes on, certain events occur that had me wondering how much of the work is actually meant to be fantasy and allegory.  And by the film's end, I found myself feeling that this ultimately is a puzzling work that raises more questions than it gives answers.

At the same time though, there's no denying its illegality as far as the Iranian government is concerned.  And with Jafar Panahi still officially under house arrest, the big question with regards to the work isn't necessarily what it's all supposed to mean but, in fact, how he even managed to make it -- and appear in it to boot! -- at all...

Giving the circumstances surrounding its production, it's hard to look at Closed Curtain as just a film as opposed to an act of personal and political defiance by a filmmaker for whom it seems that it'd be going against his nature to desist from making films.  On a related note: this clearly is a film made by someone who has not lost his abilities to imagine and create -- but there's also a sense of hopelessness and depression emanating from its main maker that can make it pretty hard to watch.

My rating for this film: 6 (in terms of watchability and comprehensibility, sadly) 

A hazy day hike in Pat Sin Leng Country Trail (Photo-essay)

Very early on in my Hong Kong hiking "career", I realized that there are days when the visibility's not too great and, consequently, one should fixate less on trying to see far and more on the interesting things one can see up close when traipsing through the Hong Kong countryside.  Since then, I've also discovered days when the eye sees better and further than one's camera.

On one such day, a hiking buddy and I went on a hike in Pat Sin Leng Country Park that took us from near Bride's Pool northwards to Luk Keng.  On the one hand, we were treated to (views of) pleasant blue skies.  But when we got to the Sir Edward Youde Pavilion, I got to wishing that the view from there was clearer -- and resolving to return there one day on a day with far clearer views and air... ;S

If you look into the distance, you can see haze but

it still was a pleasant enough day for hiking

 Dead but still beautiful -- a butterfly/moth

spotted flat on the ground early on in the hike

 Water and shadows can make for pretty sights

When hiking in northern Hong Kong, one can expect

to come across ruins like these

I still can't resist taking photos of these remnants of 

abandoned villages though as I do find them scenic and interesting

The thick and many tree roots on the trail

also made it so that one did have to look down

a lot as well as look about and around :)

An abandoned stone grinder that I imagine was

used for grinding such as soya beans

Is this some kind of wispy seed I see before me?

To be continued!

High Island geological sights

Today's hike destination: the High Island Geo Trail

(near High Island Reservoir's East Dam)

inside the Hong Kong Global Geopark of China

Among the geological sights to be seen there are

hexagonal columns galore

...and s-shaped columns like these

Some time back, three friends and I went on a 15 kilometer hike that took us from Sai Wan Pavilion to Long Ke, then High Island Reservoir and past it to the official start of the Maclehose Trail at Pak Tam Chung. At the East Dam of High Island Reservoir, we saw signs for the High Island Geo Trail that's just a little over 1 kilometer in length.  But at that point in our hike, we were feeling pretty tired, so decided to forego going along that geo trail in favor of focusing on getting to our hike's end some 9 kilometers away still.

However, the geology geek in me resolved to return to check out the High Island Geo Trail at some point in the future -- and this afternoon, that's what a hiking buddy and I did... even though this involved our hiking 9 kilometers from Pak Tam Chung to the High Island Reservoir's East Dam and then back again along the same 9 kilometer long trail!

I'm not sure if my hiking buddy considers the sights that we saw today to be worth the energy expanded and aches accrued.  But I really was pretty happy with what I got to behold today.  After all, it truly isn't every day that one gets to cast one's eyes on spectacular geological sights consisting of volcanic rock in the form of columns, including ones that are hexagonal shaped and that have been bent into s-shapes -- and in Hong Kong to boot!

Oh, and the very sight of High Island Reservoir isn't too shabby either.  The largest reservoir in Hong Kong,  it is quite the engineering wonder -- having been carved out of the sea by damming two ends of a narrow channel between High Island (which then really was an island) and the mainland peninsula of Sai Kung.  And while today's hike really was to check out some cool geological sights, it truly was a boon to have been able to view cool engineering along with "plain" scenic sights for much of the way too! :)

Quirky, and What is peace and tranquility for you? (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

I know full well that some people consider it quirky -- if not downright weird -- on my part to bring Puppet Ponyo along when I go on vacation.  But I have to say that her presence has resulted in some pretty fun photos -- including one of her posing in front of the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura.

A city of many temples and shrines, Kamakura also is home to the Hokokuji, a Zen Buddhist temple established in 1334 and famed for its bamboo grove which both Puppet Ponyo and I found to be a peaceful and tranquil place -- so much so in her case that she felt an urge to lie down on a mossy rock for a bit and contemplate the beauty of it all!

On one side of the bamboo grove, there's a tea house where visitors can sit down and drink some green tea along with the green views.  On the other side are caves dug into the mountainside that house the graves of members of the Ashikaga clan that ruled Japan for a time, including one unfortunate 13-year-old boy who committed ritual suicide at Hokokuji.  

Although some may find it quirky -- even outright disconcerting -- to come across visual reminders of death in the same area where many people find beauty, peace and tranquility, I think there's something very, well, Zen about this.  And if not for the presence Puppet Ponyo, I wouldn't have thought of this Eastern Kamakura temple as being able to link together the very tonally different themes that Sandi and Gattina chose this week for their respective Photo Hunts!

What I viewed at the HKIFF and beyond on April 1st, 2013

Floral tributes aplenty for Leslie Cheung

by the Mandarin Oriental

 A rainbow colored Leslie Cheung-themed stencil

in the underpass near the Mandarin Oriental

On the 10th anniversary of Leslie Cheung's untimely death, I wrote a blog entry about two Hong Kong International Film Festival offerings I had viewed the previous day before heading out for lunch and to view two more HKIFF offerings.  On the way to view the first film that day at City Hall (where, one year earlier, I had viewed He's a Woman, She's a Man), I passed by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to view the floral tributes that I knew would have been put up by the side of the hotel from where the late singer-actor leaped to his death on April Fool's Day, 2003.

After viewing my first film that day, I headed to the Mandarin Oriental -- this time to have some drinks with a friend in the hotel's Captain's Bar.  In the underpass between City Hall and the hotel, I spotted some Leslie Cheung stencils and heard a busker singing Leslie Cheung songs.  Suffice to say that his fans still remember Leslie and mourn his death -- even while they also know that life still does go on.

And now to writing about the two movies I saw this past April 1...

Nobody's Child (Hong Kong, 1960) 
- From Restored Classics program
- Bu Wancang, dir.
- Starring Josephine Siao Fong Fong, Wang Yin, Butterfly Wu, Chen Yan Yan, Lo Wei

Born in 1947, the star of Nobody's Child, Josephine Siao Fong Fong was nine years old when Leslie Cheung (1956-2003) was born.  And it was when she was just age 11 that she took on the starring role of this Chinese language film adaptation of French novelist Hector Malot's Without Family (aka Nobody's Boy) that changed its protagonist into a female and was finally given a theatrical release in 1960.

The sad story of a girl abandoned in wartime, then lovingly raised by a peasant woman (Chen Yan Yan), only for her husband (Lo Wei - who would go on to direct The Big Boss) to decide to sell off the child a few years later, it also details encounters that the young lass  has with some good-hearted people -- including a street performer (Wang Yin) whose troupe included a clever monkey and three cute dogs, and a lady (Butterfly Wu) who may or may not have been the girl's biological mother.

Melodramatic it may be but Nobody's Child also is surprisingly unconventional -- particularly when it comes to the story's trajectory. Also surprising, especially given the period during which it was made, is how much of the film was shot on location -- and in snowy Hokkaido as well as equally rural areas of Hong Kong.  All in all, it's a gem of a movie -- and it really is great news that a 16mm print of this cinematic offering was digitally restored and new 35mm as well as digital prints created for screening purposes.

My rating for this film: 8.5

A Legend or Was It? (Japan, 1963) 

- From the Keisuke Kinoshita: Four Hidden Gems program

- Keisuke Kinoshita, dir.

- Starring Kikue Mori, Kinuyo Tanako, Go Kato, Shima Iwashima, Tsutomu Matsukawa

In the Japanese film pantheon, Keisuke Kinoshita (1912-1988) is usually placed below acknowledged masters like Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa.  But starting with Twenty-Four Eyes (which I will forever be indebted to Fred Rappaport for introducing me to more than 10 years ago now), I have yet to view a film directed by Kinoshita that I have not liked.

Set during the dying days of the Second World War, A Legend or Was It? is the Kinoshita film I've seen with by far the darkest view of humanity. However, this does not mean that I was unimpressed by this powerful work about the horrific developments that ensue after the daughter of a Tokyo family that had evacuated to rural Hokkaido rejects the marriage proposal of the local headman's son after learning that, over the course of his military service, he had been party to the gang rape of a woman in China.

Devastating and thought-provoking in content, it also is technically impressive -- and creative, including the decision to have its tale unfolding in black and white in between bookends consisting of bucolic scenes shown in color  Also pretty amazing was how lean as well as mean the film was -- in that it managed to depict so much drama despite having a running time of just 83 minutes!  All in all, there were a number of reasons why I found myself exclaiming "Holy shit!" immediately after this tense and taut film came to an end.  In short: the experience of viewing it on a big screen was amazingly intense, and it truly is one amazing work!

My rating for this film: 9.5

Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden redux (Photo-essay)

So what next after hiking up from the lower part of Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden to 546 meter high Kwun Yam Shan and the Kadoorie Brothers' Memorial Pavilion located even higher up?  Well, as the proverbial "they" say, what goes up must come down!

But before my two hiking buddies that day and I began our descent down, we first enjoyed the pavilion's peaceful surroundings and the views to be had from there -- and only then did we go down via a different route from the one we had taken to the upper area of the farm, one that offered up still more interesting sights at this often overlooked gem of a Hong Kong facility and attraction:-

View of Kwun Yam Shan and its surroundings from

the Kadoorie Brothers' Memorial Pavilion 

(that's slightly different from the one I shared here! ;b)

A moon gate and path near the pavilion -- with part of

Tai Mo Shan in the background

Tangerines are among the fruits found on trees

at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

 

 I'm not sure what species of butterfly this is but

it's a beauty, don't you think?

At Signpost Corner, one can find out how far away 

places as diverse as Tahiti, Teheran, Wan Chai 

and the North Pole are from Kadoorie Farm :)

They may be called the Great Falls but they were 

more trickle than genuine waterfall when we visited!

This photo doesn't do justice to how intimidatingly steep

were the steps beyond the "Please Do Not Enter" sign!

The mind boggles when seeing this sign... ;b

Two 1976 Hong Kong movies viewed at the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival

The Hong Kong Film Archive was where I took in two 

Hong Kong International Film Festival screenings yesterday

I'm listening to my favorite Leslie Cheung CD as I write this blog entry, fully aware that today is the 10th anniversary of his tragic death. But even while I look forward to viewing another two movies playing as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival this Easter Monday, I also am looking back to yesterday's viewings of two movies at the Hong Kong Film Archive -- and writing about them on this blog entry:-

The Himalayan (Hong Kong, 1976) 

- From The Cinematic Matrix of Golden Harvest program

- Huang Feng, director

- Starring Angela Mao, Chen Sing, Dorian Tan Tao Liang, Kwan Shan, etc.

Described as "an overlooked gem" in the HKIFF program, this 1976 kung fu movie was shot in location in Nepal and Tibet, and purports to highlight the martial art of the Mi School (which, in a prologue, is described as having similarities -- in terms of such as it being associated with a religious order -- as Shaolin kung fu).  And its opening scenes most definitely go out to emphasize the exotic (to the eyes of Hong Kong kungfu filmmakers and fans) as well as scenic settings and cultures of the Himalayas.

 

But before too long, it becomes apparent that The Himalayan's main cast members are all actually Hong Kong movie industry regulars -- though interestingly, the film's language is Mandarin, and  Angela Mao was born in Taiwan, Chen Sing was born in Thailand and Dorian Tan is of ethnic Chinese ancestry but born in South Korea -- and that it's story is a pretty standard kung fu movie one involving a deceitful arch villain, a gullible father looking for a groom for his only daughter and male successor to his empire, and a young woman who turns out to be more formidable than her father had realised.

Its running time of 112 minutes makes The Himalayan lengthier than many other kung fu films -- and if only that time had been put to better use.  Alternatively put: I'd love for its first billed female star to have had more screen time than the man playing the chief villain (Chen Sing).  I'd also prefer for her to be shown fighting more than, say, being put on a wooden board that's set afloat to her intended death!  Of course Angela Mao does eventually get to unleash her kung fu (including a character played by the movie's action director, Sammo Hung).  But boy, did the audience have to wait quite a bit for that to happen!

My rating for this film: 5.5

A Queen's Ransom (Hong Kong, 1976)

- From The Cinematic Matrix of Golden Harvest program

- Ting Shan Hsi, director

- Starring Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby, Tanny Tien Ni, O Chun Hung, Charles Heung, Angela Mao, Dean Shek, Bolo Yeung, etc.

 

Look at the cast list of this Golden Harvest production released in the same year as The Himalayan and you'll get some idea of how bizarre this (then) contemporary actioner is.  And it's not just George Lazenby (and a number of other Western actors) in it but also the very idea that martial arts movie stars like Jimmy Wang Yu and Angela Mao could share the screen with sexpot actress Tanny Tien Ni, comic actor Dean Shek and (in)famous film boss Charles Heung!

 

Add to this a far-fetched as well as complicated storyline involving the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Hong Kong (a real life happening which supplied lots of footage that is surreal in its own way), a plan to assassinate the British monarch, Cambodian refugees (headed by a princess -- played by Angela Mao!) who brought plenty of gold with them to Hong Kong and a Hong Kong police force stretched thin by Queen Elizabeth II's visit along with wave upon waves of refugee arrivals (including Mainland Chinese as well as those from further afield) -- and you've got the makings of... a pretty cheesy but actually pretty fun film to view!

 

Let me be clear: in no way is A Queen's Ransom a good film by any measure -- not least because the majority of its budget looks to have been spent on securing the cast that it has.  But there are some interesting plot twists and some (often inadvertent) guffaw-inducing moments such as a clearly dying man being offered a cigarette and a senior police officer whose love of sugar cubes is so extreme you'd think it'd be fatal!  All in all, I enjoyed this viewing movie quite a bit -- and, to judge from their reactions, so did the rest of the audience for the film yesterday afternoon (although it's also true enough that I could have done without there being so many bare breasts in this movie as there were; something I'd say about all three of the Golden Harvest productions I've viewed at this year's HKIFF, in fact!).

My rating for this film: 7.5 (based on the enjoyment factor rather than a measurement of  actual film quality!)