Much to see at Sangumburi beyond its enormous and rare type of crater! (Photo-essay)

At the risk of stating the obvious, it's not every day that I get to view a crater.  But on the same day that I hiked up to the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong (and got to see its circa 600 meter crater that's among its recognizable volcanic features as well as the sunrise), I also ended up going to view a second crater: the even larger (with a circumference of over two kilometers) Sangumburi (Crater Mountain)!

A rare kind of geologic phenomenon known as a parasitic marr or low-relief crater, Sangumburi also is famed for having a photogenic expanse of silver grass (aka pampas grass) in the fall.  To be honest, its main attraction for my group (which included two senior citizens) was that its many sights are easily accessible as well as genuinely scenic.  Mind you, we didn't go down into the crater -- but, then, no one is allowed to do so as the sunken space is akin to a natural botanical garden, full of flora and fauna allowed to flourish undisturbed by humans for the most part.  But with so much to see in the area, this restriction really didn't feel like too much of a deprivation. :)
 

The painted ceiling of the "Glorious Phoenix Gate" that one has to pass 

through on the way into and out of Sangumburi park

 I drank water from the Lucky Toad Water Fountain

(and survived to tell the tale!)

Three different routes leading up to the crater rim

 

Take the route on the right and you will find yourself

surrounded at some point by a sea of silver grass

(and with a view of Hallasan in the far distance)!

View of Sangumburi's famed crater

 The side of the crater rim laid out as a 1.2 kilometer-long 

"Korean Fir Trail Healing Course"

 A statue of a deer stands as tribute to the area's wildlife,

and also Hangam, the guardian of Jeju's animals and hunters, 

who is said to reside at Sangumburi

Also within a stone's throw of the crater are ancient graves,

  whose occupants' identities appear to have been lost to time

An oyster-heavy breakfast post-Seongsan Ilchulbong hike

Korean oyster pancake anyone? ;b

Every one of the main dishes on the table had oysters in them! ;D

After completing our pre-dawn hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong to view the sunrise from atop it and our descent a short time later (which took roughly the same amount of time thanks to our stopping a few times to enjoy the scenery and snap photos of it), my friend who had gone on this excursion and I went back to our hotel to collect the rest of our Jeju party and head off for our first real meal of the day (since a cup of coffee and chocolate bar for energy pre-hike really doesn't really count as breakfast!). 

Although there was the temptation to do so (since it too was (already) open for business), we actually didn't head back to the restaurant just a few minutes' walk away from our hotel where we had had our black pork feast the day before.  Rather, we decided to try a neighboring eatery which turned out to be an oyster specialist whose offerings included oyster pancake, oyster rice porridge, a kimchi jigae (stew) with oysters in it and rice on the side, and a tofu soup option that also turned out to come with oysters in it and a serving of rice.

As with any self-respecting Korean restaurant, we were given complimentary banchan (side dishes) that included a couple of different kinds of kimchi and also raw chili peppers.  The former I found went very well with the oyster pancake I ordered as my main option but was so big that I made everyone else on the table also have at least a couple of slices of; the latter I left well alone after having tried one at dinner the day before and found to be on the spicy side -- way too spicy for breakfast to my mind; and this from someone who has happily consumed curry noodles for breakfast in her native Malaysia!

I'm not sure if this is the norm in Korea but the meal we had at the oyster restaurant looked like it was considered perfectly acceptable to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Put another way: the restaurant's menu doesn't seem to vary for different meal times and it appeared to be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and any the hours in between.  And for my part, I would be happy to have had our breakfast that day for lunch or dinner on some other day since I found it to be tasty and satisfyingly filling fare -- the kind that I love to have as a reward for my exertions post-hike! ;b

Still Human is admirably full of humanity (film review)

From left: Crisel Consunji, Oliver Chan Siu Kuen, 

Wong Ting Him and Anthony Wong Chau Sang

Still Human (Hong Kong, 2018)

- Oliver Chan Siu Kuen, director, scriptwriter and editor

- Starring: Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Crisel Consunji, Sam Lee, Cecilia Yip

Back in 2011, a Hong Kong drama revolving around an older woman who had spent much of her life as an amah won many hearts and much critical acclaim.  After watching A Simple Life, a friend of mine told me she had been moved by it but also was moved to wonder if there ever would be a similar cinematic tribute to one of the too often underappreciated foreign domestic workers that have mainly replaced ethnic Chinese ones in many a contemporary Hong Kong household.

Seven years on, such a movie has indeed been made.  Still Human tells the story of a Filipino nursing graduate who goes to Hong Kong to care for a former construction worker paralyzed from the chest down as a result of an accident at a building site.  Allocated the room previously occupied by her boss's son (Wong Ting Him), who now resides in the US with his mother and stepfather, Evelyn Santos (Crisel Consunji) finds herself living in close quarters with Leung Chong Wing (Anthony Wong Chau Sang) in the small public housing unit that the divorcee calls home.  

 

Initially, Evelyn and Chong Wing have problems even communicating -- because, among other things, she knows no Cantonese and his English language facility is by no means great -- but they manage against the odds to make things work, develop a bond and inspire each other to dream again.  As their relationship becomes more that of valued friends rather than strictly employee-employer, their common humanity is highlighted along with the realization that they are human beings capable of dispensing joy and also experiencing much happiness. 

Although its overall story arc may not surprise, Still Human is fully capable of astonishing; not least by way of showing a number of beliefs that are widely held in its makers' home territory to be fallacious or even outright wrong.  On a related note: in view of its story involving societies whose cultures often make a big deal out of family ties, it's interesting to see people from different backgrounds portrayed as being able to connect, and sometimes be more sympathetic and understanding of one another than their blood relatives.    

 

Like with A Simple Life, Still Human is the kind of movie whose beauty and genius lies in its details and ability to feel so very real.  And like with Ann Hui's film, this admirable offering from debutant director-scriptwriter Oliver Chan Siu Kuen (whose childhood love of Oliver Twist got her to adopt that male first name!) benefits enormously from having two fantastic leads (one of whom appeared to be making her first film appearance here!!) with great chemistry, and whose acting is wonderfully nuanced.

An incredibly intelligent film that delivers a number of important messages and also makes many salient points, it is a work that speaks to the heart as well as wins minds.  Replete with moments that get people laughing out loud, Still Human also will move viewers to tears.  For the record: I'd go so far as to state that the screening I attended of this absolute crowdpleaser elicited the most and loudest sniffles from an audience I've been in since I went and watched The Joy Luck Club some two and half decades ago!  

My rating for the film: 9.5

Ying Liang's A Family Tour is a tour-de-force (film review)

Viewed at the 2018 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

A Family Tour (Hong Kong-Taiwan-Singapore-Malaysia, 2018)

- Ying Liang, director and co-scriptwriter (with Chan Wai)

- Starring: Gong Zhe, Nai An, Pete Teo 

This expertly crafted dramatic offering from a Mainland Chinese filmmaker living in exile in Hong Kong (after this 2012 film, When Night Falls, ran afoul of his home territory's authorities) largely takes place in Taiwan.  Considered a renegade province by Beijing but independently ruled by a democratically-elected government, the territory has figured in films (such as Stan Lai's The Peach Blossom Land and Wang Quanan's Apart Together) which show loved ones torn apart by the Communists coming to power over in Mainland China.  

In Ying Liang's A Family Tour, however, Taiwan is where a family gets to reunite -- albeit for only a  limited time and under less than ideal circumstances.  After filmmaker Yang Shu (Gong Zhe) is honored with an invitation to take part in a film festival in Taipei, she and her husband, Cheung Ka Ming (Pete Teo, who I previously knew primarily as a singer-songwriter), hatch a plan to meet up with her mother -- who she has not seen in the flesh or spoken with for some four years now -- in the Taiwanese capital.    

In a perfect world, Yang Shu's mother, Chen Xiaolin (Nai An), would have gone to Taipei to view her daughter's film.  However, Yang Shu incurred the wrath of her country's authorities by making that particular work which now was going to be screened in Taipei and had to leave her native Sichuan -- where her widowed mother continues to reside -- and move to Hong Kong, the birthplace of her husband, and now also their young son (Tham Xin Yue).  

Bidding to get together away from the prying eyes and ears of the Communist Chinese authorities (whose influence on Hong Kong, it is noted, has been noticeably increasing), Ka Ming books Xiaolin on a group sightseeing tour and arranges for himself, Yang Shu and their son to unofficially tag along on a taxi and meet the older woman in publicly accessible tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants.  Things gets further complicated -- and stress levels significantly increased -- early on after Yang Shu realizes that her mother is significantly less healthy than she was when they last were together and, also, that the authorities had paid the older woman at least one disturbing visit in the intervening years.

There's no hiding how sad the story told by A Family Tour is -- and one's heart threatens to break even more upon realizing that it is rooted in fact, personal and semi-autobiographical.  At the same time though, because the mother and husband of the filmmaker in this touching offering come across as truly loving and caring, one comes to see the circumstances that the family in focus as tragic but not the individuals concerned and their lives.  

The first film made by Ying Liang as an exiled filmmaker, A Family Tour represents an admirable act of resistance.  A cinematic tour-de-force, this poignant offering shows the sacrifices that some people need to make in order to do and continue doing what they think is right, and also for their loved ones -- some of whom they may end up having to live far apart from but will always be in their hearts.   

My rating for this film: 9.0

Seongsan Illchulbong's volcanic landscape inspires flights of fancy

The kind of landscape that looks alive to me

Can you see what looks like a monster 

peeking out of the bushes? ;)

 

From this angle, Seongsan Ilchulbong 

looks well majestic as well as nigh unclimbable!

After spending an enjoyable time at the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak), the friend I had made the predawn hike up the peak with and I made our way down it along a different trail from that which we had taken to go up it.  In part because it was a more winding trail (that covered more distance), our descent took more time than our accent.  Then there was the fact that post sunrise, we could see more -- and ended up stopping from time to time to admire the views and volcanic landscape, and take photos of them.

For some time now, I've found volcanoes and volcanic landscapes fascinating, both geologically (I took a couple of geology courses as an undergraduate) but also purely on an aesthetic level; not least because volcanic areas feel alive to me.  To be sure, the sense that the actual rocks and other geological features are alive is particularly strong in the obviously active volcanic areas (such as Japan's Mount Aso and Owakudani valley).  But Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong also has the kind of landscapes that feel like they could spring to life -- in terms of the rock formations getting me thinking of monstrous creatures and such!   

Over the course of hiking in Hong Kong, I've come across many fancifully named rocks and rock formations in places like Po Toi and Cheung Chau.  To my mind, the volcanic landscape of Seongsan Illchulbong is well capable of inspiring similar flights of fancy.  

As it is, seongsan denotes a mountain shaped like a castle (or fortress) in Korean (while ilchulbong refers to a peak from where beautiful sunrises can be viewed).  Furthermore, the ring of 99 sharp rocks atop the rim of its crater -- that's some 600 meters in diameter and 90 meters in height -- has been likened to a giant crown.  And I'd go further still and state that there were angular sections of rock in the area that called to mind birds of prey about to pounce as well as at least one pair of holes high up on a rock wall that looked like they could be the eyes of a watchful stone monster or god looking down on the people hiking on the trail below!  

Even those without much of an imagination should be able to admire the spectacular sights that this UNESCO World Heritage-listed site presents from a number of different angles and vantage points.  And even while I wasn't able to view Seongsan Illchulbong from the air, I still would say that I managed to get views "in the flesh" of this justly famous Jeju landmark that rival those of many beautiful photos taken of it.

Making musical associations while atop Seongsan Ilchulbong (and elsewhere)

Puppet Ponyo atop Seongsan Ilchulbong

 

Early morning view from the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong

 

Looking out towards the actually much higher  

Hallasan from atop Seongsan Ilchulbong

  

If anyone were to ask me, I would not describe myself as a particularly musical person.  Yes, I took piano lessons for several years as a child (like many Asian children are made to do).  And yes, I also learnt to play the recorder and pianica at school, and actually was in the school choir and orchestra back in primary school.  But I didn't have the musical passion that I've seen a number of other people have and, unusually for an Asian, have never ever been out to a karaoke bar (even while I have been to plenty of bars where the primary activities are drinking alcohol and chatting)!

 

At the same time though, I can't deny my liking to sing in the shower and sometimes even while out hiking in the countryside by myself or strolling about on a street.  And there really are celebratory and/or happy moments when a particular song will suddenly pop into my head and I may give into an impulse to sing it out aloud! 

 

On a visit to England's Lake District many years ago, I was moved to sing the theme song from The Sound of Music after hiking up a hill and coming across the kind of scenic vistas that got me thinking of the ones that saw Julie Andrews (as Maria von Trapp) burst out in song in my favorite movie when I was younger than sixteen going on seventeen.  And after hiking up Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong and seeing the sunrise from atop it, a part of me wanted to burst out in song while up there too.

 

But whereas I had felt free to sing out loud on that hill in the Lake District because there was just one other person up there at the time (and she happened to be my cousin, who happily sang along after I got going!), there were too many people atop Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka Sunrise Peak) at the same time as me for my comfort!  So I contented myself with drinking in the beautiful views from atop the 180-meter-high volcanic cone, taking snaps of Puppet Ponyo posing atop it, and periodically humming sections of Cat Stevens' Morning Has Broken and The Carpenters' Top of the World under my breath.

 

Incidentally, besides being places that have made me want to burst into song, the Lake District and Seongsan Ilchulbong also both happen to be UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites -- of which I count myself fortunate to have visited 75 (in 23 different countries) to date.  And so too is Salzburg, which I will forever associate with The Sound of Music, and where I also was moved to sing songs from that movie when I spent time in that fair city! ;b  

Predawn hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong to see the sun rise from its peak! (Photo-essay)

The majority of visitors to Jeju spend a night (or more) at Seogwipo, over on the southern side of the island.  My party of four didn't do so and, instead, spent two of our three nights in Jeju over to the east in Seongsan, a small town with one very big tourist draw in the form of Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka Sunrise Peak), a tuff cone which rose out of the sea as a result of hydrovolcanic eruptions that occured some five thousand years ago.

On account of it being located on the far eastern edge of Jeju, Seongsan Ilchulbong has the earliest sunset on the island and it's become very much the thing to go see the sun rise from atop this UNESCO World Heritage-listed site's 182-meter-high peak.  So the day after we had an early dinner and a far earlier bed time than we usually do, one of my friends and I got up and went for a predawn hike up Seongsan Ilchubong that we were able to accomplish in far less time (some 20 minutes!) than I had anticipated, with plenty of time to find a prime viewing spot from which to view what turned out to be a truly stunning sunrise... :)

It was still pretty dark when we approached and 

began our ascent of Seongsan Ilchulbong

The path up was clear enough though

thanks to there being lights showing the way

I really was amazed by how far up we got in so short a time!

The horizon was orange-tinged but the moon was still visible 

and far up in the sky when we picked our sunrise viewing spots

 Here comes the sun, looking as though 

it's rising out of the grayish-blue sea!

That's the sun, not the moon! :O

The sun looked to me like it was causing 

portions of the horizon to melt!

A sunrise that truly was worth the effort to see -- and this 

from someone who is far more of a night owl than early bird! :b