Seven celebrated Hong Kong filmmakers combined to make Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (Film review)

 

As its poster shows, the stars of Septet are its directors!

 

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2020)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Galas program

- Sammo Hung, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yuen Wo-ping, Johnnie To, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, directors

- Starring: Timmy Hung, Francis Ng, Jennifer Yu, Gouw Ian Iskandar, Yuen Wah, Ashley Lam, Simon Yam, Mimi Kung, Cheung Tat Ming, Emotion Cheung, etc.

 

This omnibus offering from seven of Hong Kong's most celebrated directors was the film I most wanted to see at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.  So imagine my disappointment when I initially was unable to get a ticket for it; and then my joy when I was able to get my hands on one after the relaxation of social distancing measures allowed more tickets to go on sale.  

 

Originally conceived by Johnnie To as an octet of short films, it became Septet after John Woo had to bow out of the project (because of his wife's ill health).  One can't help wonder what the "heroic bloodshed" specialist's contribution would have been like.  But, as it stands, this anthology already has its share of surprises along with quality contributions. 

 

Septet begins with Sammo Hung's contribution.  "Exercise" has his son, Timmy Hung, playing his old Cantonese opera school master, Yu Jim-yuen (who Sammo Hung had himself essayed decades ago in Painted Faces).  It's an old, familiar tale that can seem somewhat dated and conservative.  At the same time though, there's no doubting its maker's sincerity, and there's something truly admirable about it and what amounts to the setting out of his personal ethos along with story on screen for people to see.

 

Like Hung's contribution, Ann Hui's also has an educational theme -- but what a world of difference the school and teacher(s) in her nostalgic "Headmaster" are from that of "Exercise".  Set a decade later than the earlier short film, "Headmaster" features educators -- not just the titular headmaster (essayed by Francis Ng) but also a similarly dedicated younger teacher (played by Sire Ma) -- in a more Western style school who see and treat their charges as fellow humans as well as their students.  And it's really touching to see the care they accorded the youth be returned in kind, and much respect too. 

 

Skipping a decade to the 1980s (presumably because John Woo had been assigned the 1970s to cover), we then have Patrick Tam's contribution.  "Tender is the Night" is a tale of first love interrupted by the female of the pair (played by Distinction's Jennifer Yu) being due to emigrate with her parents -- a reminder that this current era is by no means the first which has seen many Hong Kongers decide to leave their homeland in search of a better, safer life elsewhere.  Sadly though, despite its topicality, this story didn't really work for me.  Perhaps because it was a two-hander almost entirely filmed in just one locale, it came across as overly theatrical (and consequently artificial); kind of ironic when, like the rest of Septet, it's the rare contemporary movie shot on 35mm film (rather than the now more usual digital format).

 

In contrast, Yuen Wo-ping's "Homecoming" is my favorite by far of Septet's segments.  Set predominantly in 1997 and also featuring a schoolgirl about to leave Hong Kong, the key relationship in this charming offering though involves that between a granddaughter (played by Ashley Lam, who also sang the sentimental song that plays as the end credits roll) and kung fu practicing grandfather (who comes in the form of Yuen Wah).  She may be a lover of McDonald's burgers and he of traditional Hong Kong food but there is no doubting their affection for each other, which leads to an admirable willingness to accept each other's ways, and even learn a thing or two from the other. 

Like "Homecoming", Johnny To's directorial contribution also begins in the 1990s but it then moves forward into the 21st century.  "Bonanza"'s central characters are a trio of friends seemingly perennially on the lookout to make a quick fortune: be it via the purchasing of convention stocks, shares in new internet companies or apartments in a housing estate forever associated with SARS in the eyes of Hong Kongers.  In some ways, they could be said to represent how many people see Hong Kongers: as obsessed with trying to make money.  At the same time though, their living through multiple boom and bust periods may be what people living in Hong Kong identify more with.

 

The next to last segment of Septet is by the late Ringo Lam.  "Astray" tells the story of a man (played by Simon Yam) who's lived abroad but clearly loves Hong Kong.  Happy to spend his days in his ancestral village in the New Territories, he is liable to get lost when he goes to the city -- one so radically transformed by land reclamation as well as the tearing down of old landmarks.  An unabashed tribute to Hong Kong made even more poignant by it having been the director's final cinematic work, its final lines caused me to choke and tear up -- as surely will be the case with everyone who loves/loved Hong Kong as we do.      

It's probably a good thing then that Tsui Hark's contribution to this omnibus proceeded to considerably lighten the mood.  The zany "Conversation in Depth" is set in a mental institution (and, it seems, in the future).  A mental patient (played by Cheung Tat-ming) is being interviewed by a doctor (played by Emotion Cheung).  Much mirth ensues when the former first insists that he's Ann Hui, then Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, and the latter insists on pointing out that Ann Hui and Maggie Cheung are women while the patient is patently not.  

 

In another room watching the two are two other men (played by Lam Suet and Lawrence Lau).  Suffice to say for now that as the camera pans to show them and, then later, still more other onlookers onto the scene, the audience around me broke out into waves of laughter.  Actually, here's additionally throwing out a caveat that this whimsical final section of Septet really would be most appreciated -- and more likely to be understood? -- by those who are (long time) fans of Hong Kong cinema! :b

 

My rating for this film: 7.5 + 9 + 6 + 10 + 7 + 8.5 + 8 = an averaged out 8.0!  

Time shows that it's by no means time to call time on Patrick Tse Yin and Petrina Fung Bo Bo's acting careers! (Film review)

 

From left to right: Lam Suet, Patrick Tse Yin and 

Gordon Lam Ka-tung at the world premiere of Time

 

Cast and principal producer greeting the audience at their film's

Hong Kong International Film Festival first screening

 

Time (Hong Kong, 2021)

- Screening as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Galas program

- Ricky Ko, director

- Starring: Patrick Tse Yin, Petrina Fung Bo Bo, Lam Suet, Chung Suet-ying

 

Advance warning: how I feel about this 2021 Hong Kong offering is undoubtedly affected by the circumstances in which I viewed it.  It's not every day, after all, that one gets to attend the world premiere of a film; an occasion made all the more special not only by the cast and principal producer being there to greet you pre-screening but also upon your realizing, after the lights came back on post-screening, that its lead actor had been in the auditorium all that time viewing the film with you!

 

Eighty-four-year-old Patrick Tse Yin clearly enjoyed being back in the limelight again and lapped up the audience's enthusiastic applause both before and after the screening.  And on the basis of his performance in debutant director Ricky Ko's Time, his first starring role in years (decades even?) was long overdue.   

The movie opens with a sequence that shows an assassin, his female partner and their driver in action at Yau Ma Tei's Wholesale Fruit Market.  Flash forward to the present and the deadly blade wielder's now working at a cafe handcutting noodles -- too slowly as far as the customers are concerned, so his boss decides to replace the now elderly fellow (played by Patrick Tse Yin) with a noodle-cutting machine!  But just when it looks like a boring, lonely future is all he has to look forward to, his old partner (essayed by Petrina Fung Bo Bo) contacts him and their erstwhile driver (played by Lam Suet) with a proposition that involves their becoming members of the "Elderly Angels" suicide assistance squad!  

Time is described in the Hong Kong International Film Festival booking folder as a "black comedy" but, if truth be told, I laughed less and had my heart warmed far more by this film that manages to both be infused with nostalgia but also, to cite the title of one of its principal songs, "Embrace Youth".  The way it does this is to supplement the welcome reunion of its audience with beloved veteran thespians by adding in storylines that have them interacting with a considerably younger generation of actors and actresses (along with the familiar but by no means ancient likes of Sam Lee).  

 

In the main sub-plot, Patrick Tse's character encounters a troubled schoolgirl (played by Chung Suet-ying) who he comes to develop a grandfather-granddaughter relationship with.  Meanwhile, Petrina Fung Bo Bo's character has a son (played by Sam Lee), daughter-in-law and grandson who she has less happy relationships with than any of them would like.  And Lam Suet's character hammers home the point in his own story arc that, sometimes, people ending up having stronger feelings for -- and more emotionally connected with -- people who are not their blood relatives than their actual kith and kin.

 

When viewed objectively, Time is a small, modest movie.  But its message of comradeship and support of youth is so timely that it takes on a larger meaning for someone like me.  Add to this the sense that this touching cinematic offering may well be its octogenarian lead actor's swansong and I couldn't help but feel really emotional at the end of my viewing of this work.  At the same time, Patrick Tse Yin and the considerably younger (at "just" 66 years of age!) Petrina Fung Bo Bo showed here that they still have so much star power and charisma that I honestly hope that there'll be more films in the future in which they will prominently figure.  And, of course, Lam Suet -- one of those Hong Kong character actors who always adds something to any movie in which appears -- too!    

 

My rating for this film: 8.5

Such a privilege to see Kenji Mizoguchi's The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum on a big screen! (Film review)

  

Hong Kong International Film Festival ambassador's film 

pulled out of the fest?  Never mind, on with the show! 

 

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Japan, 1939)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Shochiku Cinema: 100th Anniversary program

- Kenji Mizoguchi, director

- Starring: Shotaro Hanayagi, Mori Kakuko

 

In 1939, the Second World War began in Europe.  Although Japan did not officially enter that war until December 1941, it already was deep into a militaristic phase, had become embroiled in the Second Sino-Japanese War and nearly caused hostilities to break out between it and Britain in the northern Chinese treaty port of Tientsin (modern day Tianjin).  

 

That same year, Kenji Mizoguchi made The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum.  In Donald Richie's A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, it is reported that the Japanese master filmmaker escaped into history -- by making period dramas like this one centering on a Meiji-period kabuki actor -- to avoid the demands of the troubled past.  But rather than make an escapist work, Mizoguchi -- true to form -- produced a somber tale that mixed tragedy with triumph while highlighting that true love, be it of an art form or another individual, requires major sacrifice.    

 

Among David Bordwell's many observations about Mizoguchi are that "he is easier to admire, even to worship, than to love. His films, though visually sumptuous, can be somber and bleak. Often unremitting tales of suffering, they lack humor (though not irony)."  A viewing of The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum will provide ample proof of this.  

 

Yet, at the same time as I found myself bowled over by Mizoguchi's technique -- including the amazing long takes that are full of so much detail and color (the latter metaphorically speaking, of course, since this 1939 work is a black and white film) -- I also did find myself also getting sucked into the tale of the annointed heir to an illustrious kabuki lineage who required the honesty and devotion of a woman working in his adopted father's household along with hard times in exile to grow and become a truly fine actor and more mature man; and so much so that, in the 142 minutes that I viewed this film, they became real people to me rather than mere characters in an 82-year-old cinematic work set even further back in time. 

 

It has been said that Mizoguchi identified with the women in his films.  Perhaps that's why one can't help but sympathize -- even if maybe not empathize -- with Otoku (played by Kaku Mori), the film's main female character who had the misfortune to be of a lower social standing than the man whose attention she caught and and thus was seen as his downfall by others even while she actually was his inspiration.  

 

This having been said, I can't imagine this drama working as well as it does without its leading man: a stage actor turning in a bravura performance in his film debut.  Shotaro Honayagi was tasked with playing Kikunosuke Onoe, a man who goes from a callow, pampered youth to a seasoned performer able to draw on the experience of years of financial along with psychological hardship -- and he rose to the demanding task.  As an added bonus: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum also features one breathtaking sequence showing him performing on stage that could be one enthralling show by itself.

 

Almost needless to say, this Mizoguchi masterpiece stands the test of time -- like every film I've seen from this filmmaker to date.  It's such a pity that so many of his works have been lost/destroyed and also that many of them are not all that accessible.  So if there's a chance to see them, especially on a big screen (like they were made to be seen), it really is worth making the effort to do so!    

My rating for this film: 9.0

The resumption of lawfare and censorship threats on the first day after the long Easter holidays

At the World Press Photo exhibition in Hong Kong

 

The photo that most caught my eye there -- incorrectly captioned

as a protester being apprehended by the police (the red cross

and saline vials on him identifies him as a first aider to me)

 

If things were the way I'd like for them to be, I'd be blogging about a movie (or more) that I viewed at the currently ongoing Hong Kong International Film Festival.  But on the first day after the long Easter holiday weekend, real life has intruded and there are a number of events I feel a need to make sure are on the record.  More specifically, this morning, I read about an exhibition at Tai Kwun coming under fire from pro-Beijingers and thought about the World Press Photo exhibition which was originally scheduled to be held at Hong Kong Baptist University before being cancelled at the last minute, only to find new hosts, open late last month and be on through to this Saturday (April 10th).   

 

Then came a flurry of news of various court cases involving various people associated with the 2019 extradition bill protests.  The first and most shocking pertained to media mogul Jimmy Lai, trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan and former Democratic Party chair Yeung Sum pleading guilty to having taken part in an unauthorised assembly on August 31st, 2019 -- even while insisting that they had done "nothing wrong and history will absolve us".  But even while I agree with their statement, the fact of the matter is that their guilty plea opens them to being imprisoned for up to five years as a result for this one "offence" alone.    

 

A second involved activist Andy Li (one of the 12 Hong Kongers whose attempted flight to Taiwan was intercepted in Mainland Chinese waters back in November and who subsequently spent months behind bars in Shenzhen) who finally was seen in public for the first time in months this afternoon when he made his first court appearance since he was brought back to Hong Kong late last month.  And no, the relief at seeing him sane and in one piece should not detract from the fact that he remains behind bars (having waived his right to be bailed and even to have his right to bail regularly reviewed), has a ridiculous amount of police officers around him on guard against who knows what and is facing charges of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces, conspiracy to assist offenders, and possession of ammunition without a licence. 

 

Today additionally saw the appearance in court of a 15-year-old boy who was shot by a police officer on the night of October 4th, 2019 (i.e., the eve of coming into effect of the Face Covering Regulation which was controversial even before the Wuhan coronavirus made the wearing of masks de rigueur in Hong Kong).  I guess because he's not an adult, he's not been given a prison sentence -- even after having pleaded guilty of "rioting".  Instead, he's been sent to a "training center" -- for how long, the reports have not stated (which is worrying when I think of such as what happened to the teenaged protagonist who ended up being “detained at the Chief Executive’s discretion” in Herman Yau's From the Queen to the Chief Executive (2001)).

 

Something that disturbs me about the last case -- and a number of others -- is that these people have pleaded guilty to "rioting".   A reminder of the "five demands" (not one less) made and chanted by pro-democracy protestors for a good part of 2019:   
1) Withdraw the Extradition Bill (the only demand officially enacted but then...);
2) Revoke the riot claims (originally, this was specifically for the events of June 12th which had seen the police be a greater menace to society than the people who turned up in great numbers at Admiralty that day but it was widely understood to be a claim that protests in Hong Kong should not be considered illegal);
3) Amnesty for arrested protestors;
4) An independent investigation of police conduct; and
5) Genuine Universal Suffrage. 

 

And yes, I realize they all may be looked upon as pipe dreams now for the most part but here's re-stating what they are/were for the record again in any case!  Also, lest there be any doubt that Hong Kongers' faiths in the judiciary is fraying: here's further reporting that former legal functional constituency legislative councillor Dennis Kwok is said to have left Hong Kong with his family for Canada. :S 

Minari shows that the American dream is not limited to native English speakers (Film review)

 

I went to the Hong Kong International Film Festival's screening 

of Minari at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre

 

Minari (U.S.A., 2020)

-- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Cinephile Paradise program

-- Lee Isaac Chung, director and scriptwriter

-- Starring: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Cho, Youn Yuh Jung

 

Two days ago, veteran actress Youn Yuh Jung (who I've previously seen in Hong Kong International Film Festival selections such as The Bachus Lady) made history by becoming the first Korean ever to win the Screen Actors Guild (SAG)'s Best Supporting Actress award.  And there is no doubt that she put in a great performance in Minari as the grandmother who moves from South Korea to Arkansas to reunite with her beloved only daughter and care for her grandkids.

 

Minari's lead actor, Steven Yeun, was also nominated for a SAG award (along with -- like Youn Yuh Jung -- an Oscar).  He didn't win but, actually, far more of a surprise for me was the absence of SAG and Oscar nominations for the film's lead actress, Yeri Han: whose character, I felt, was actually the heart of this beautifully made film.  Though, actually, this deceptively small domestic drama which centers on a family of ethnic Koreans trying to make it in their new American home is one of those with so many important characters and so much heart as well as will tear at it.    

 

In view of two of its major characters being children, it's a tribute to director Lee Isaac Chung how uniformly well-acted this movie is.  Eight-year-old Alan Kim threatens to steal the show at times as the Americanized son who is far less resentful of his father uprooting their family from urban California to the rural south to pursue his dream of owning and operating a farm than his very Korean grandmother for moving in with them -- a situation which requires him to share his bedroom with her.  And while Noel Cho is given fewer chances to shine as the good daughter with maturity beyond her years, she admirably holds her own in a cast that includes at least one acting legend (in Youn Yuh Jung) along with established actors who have achieved stardom in their home countries.

 

Also exemplary is Lee Isaac Chung's bilingual script, which shows how the American dream is not limited to native English speakers.  There's so much authencity to the tale that it's no big surprise to learn that its's more or less autobiographical -- and because there obviously is so much emotion invested in them, the characters in the film (including the eccentric Arkansas native played by Will Patton) feel so very real and become people you will care for.   

               

About the one major gripe I have with Minari is that its trailer contains a major spoiler (specifically, a dramatic scene that takes place late in the movie).  Unfortunately, because I saw it before I went into the HKIFF screening of the film, I spent a good part of over an hour feeling tense and waiting for that part of the story to unfold.  So if you're reading this review before you have watched the trailer as well as the film, do yourself a favor and steer clear of doing so (the trailer, I mean; not the feature length work itself)!

 

My rating for the film: 8.0   

My 2021 Hong Kong International Film Festival viewing got going with 1985 Hong Kong movie, Women! (Film review)

  

Yes, the Hong Kong International Film Festival is indeed

taking place this year -- albeit with a smaller program than usual

 

Women (Hong Kong, 1985)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Stanley Kwan, Filmmaker in Focus program

- Stanley Kwan, director

- Starring: Cora Miao, Chow Yun-fat, Cherie Chung, Elaine Jin

 

Sometimes miracles do happen.  Despite a pandemic still raging and Hong Kong continuing to be afflicted with more than its fair share of political trouble (that's even spilt over into the film world and the fest itself), the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is indeed taking place this year.  I'm making no promises that I'll end up doing it -- since certain things may crop up over the next couple of weeks or so that I think will be more important to cover -- but I'm currently aiming to write about every one of the cinematic offerings I'll be viewing for the first time over the course of the fest.

 

Rather than begin my HKIFF-ing with a world or, at least, international premiering movie (like was the case back in, say, 2019, 2018 and 2017), I opted this year to watch the feature film debut of this year's Filmmaker in Focus.  Stanley Kwan's Women had its original theatrical release back in 1985 and there is no doubt that parts of it can come across as dated-- not least that decade's clothing and hairstyles that really have not aged well at all!  There also are some scenes in which the actors and actresses are arranged in an overly-stagey manner that I could not imagine seeing in a later Stanley Kwan movie (e.g., 2019 HKIFF offering, First Night Nerves).    

 

At the same time though, for better or worse, the story of the main character in Women is one that I could still see playing out in Hong Kong today.  After eight years of marriage to the rakish Derek (Chow Yun-fat, looking so young and handsome), put upon Po-yee (Cora Miao) discovers that he's been having an affair with another woman (Cherie Chung) and demands a divorce from him.  Taking her young son Dang-dang (Leung Ho-leung) with her, she moves in with her mother (Lee Ngan).  

 

Readjusting to life as a unattached woman, she finds commiseration and camaraderie in the "forever happy single women’s club" led by her friend Lin-lin (Elaine Jin).  However, as Po-yee soon finds out, the spinster's club's name is a misnomer -- since the majority of its "members" don't seem that happy to be single and are on the hunt for partners.  And even while she's not actively looking, her friends try to find her a new man, only to see the most promising one fail after she bumps into Derek and his free spirit of a lover -- who turns out to be very much the opposite of her in character; something which frustrates and infuriates Po-yee all the more. 

At one level, the view presented in Women appears to be that a woman is happiest when partnered.  The implication also seems to be that, while men are expected to do the "chasing", women are expected to cater more to the men once they enter into a relationship.  But Stanley Kwan's treatment of the main relationships in the film appears more questioning than accepting of these norms.  In so doing, he made this late era Shaw Brother production into a more forward looking work than it appeared to be the case at first glance.

 

In a foreshadowing of what was to come later in his career, Kwan also infuses Women with a broader outlook by including characters who are homosexual and bi-sexual.  For added measure and spice, he also threw in a discussion that suggests that an older woman-younger man partnership might work better than the more conventional older man-younger woman pairing -- pretty revolutionary for 1980s Hong Kong, I'd imagine!      

Speaking of revolutionary, the following lines are exchanged at one point in Women: 

"I have good news." 

"What -- Hong Kong's not going back to China?"!

I guess it's a sign that people here still retain their sense of humor that this exchange brought upon the loudest laughter of the evening.  More than incidentally, there's more than one reference to 1997 in this 1985 movie.  So much for Hong Kongers being apolitical prior to 2019 or even 2014!

My rating for this film: 8.0

Looking back at an April 1st that was no laughing matter as far as Hong Kong's concerned

What compels people to stand shoulder to shoulder with others

for hours in the rain on a packed street?  Those who were 

out there on August 18th, 2019, will be able to tell you

 

And, in all honesty, my personal observations and experience involved 

people spending far more time standing than walking in the rain that day!

 

For those Hong Kongers who thought that the past month was bad (and ended on a particularly bad note) and hoped that this new month would be better: I hate to say it but my sense is that you'd an April Fool if you honestly believe that this will be the case.  For yesterday brought more misery for Hong Kong -- this time by way of the conviction of seven of its veteran political activists for organizing and/or participating in an unauthorized protest march  back on August 18th, 2019, that attracted some 1.7 million participants.   

If truth be told, their being found guilty was not much in doubt since their trial began some four weeks ago -- on account of the record of the judge assigned to the case with regards to cases involving extradition bill protestors, her being a designated national judge, and what the legal system in Hong Kong has become. And this all the more so after district judge Amanda Woodcock refused to admit a report prepared by British policing expert Clifford Stott early on during the proceedings.  

 

What remains to be determined though is their sentence: which can go up to a maximum of five years according to some reports (and ten years according to others). Either way, they are really absurd in light of the "crimes" they have been found guilty of committing.  And this particularly when you take into account the caliber and character of the people convicted, and the fact that they are all senior citizens.

 

For the record: veteran lawyer and former politicians Martin Lee Chu-ming, Margaret Ng and Albert Ho are aged 82, 73 and 69 years of age respectively; Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee is 73 years old; former legislative councillors Cyd Ho Sau-lan and "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung are aged 66 and 64 respectively; while trade unionist is Lee Cheuk-yan another 64 year old.  Thus it is that if the eldest of them, Martin Lee, is given the full sentence, he could be as old as 92 years when he is eventually is released from prison.  And then consider that the likes of Jimmy Lai, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and Lee Cheuk-yan are facing multiple charges pertaining to the protests and more.

 

A sliver of a silver lining was that bail was granted -- despite the prosecution's opposition -- for those not already behind bars on other charges.  They thus are free until the day of their sentencing: April 16th; which is just 14 days away now.

 

In the precious time that they have left before then, I wonder how much time they'll have and/or devote to looking back at that fateful day which saw some 20 percent of Hong Kong's total population turn up to be counted and discover that, in the words of history professor Jeppe Mulich, "if you try to fit a fifth of the city into Victoria Park, they fill up the streets all the way through Wan Chai."  Whatever amount of time they spend on looking back at that day, I hope it's not with bitterness.  

 

To be sure, there can't be any satisfaction to their facing prison sentences for 1.7 million people essentially offering Carrie Lam a peace offering.  At the same time, I think I speak for a multitude of people when I say that I saw and experienced much that made me proud of Hong Kong that day -- and the memory of that day is one that actually gives me much more faith in Hong Kong than would otherwise be the case in these undoubtedly terrible times for the city.

 

On a not unrelated note: she may be decades younger but their comrade in arms, Gwyneth Ho, is another person who I consider to have brought out, exemplify and inspire the best of Hong Kong.  Earlier this week, Quartz ran a profile/appreciation piece on the 30-year-old journalist turned activist who is currently behind bars, denied bail before her scheduled late May trial (along with 46 others) for having organized or participated in August's democratic elections.  The entire piece really is worth reading but, for today, I want to share the following two paragraphs of it:-

“One thing Gwyneth taught me is that it’s not the consequence of the action that defines the action…Anything looks futile if you look at it that way,” said the friend who wished to remain anonymous.

“There isn’t an action where if you do that thing, you suddenly overthrow the CCP, or there’s democracy in Hong Kong. It’s the action itself that defines the action: the sheer experience and the sheer memories of different individuals making their own decisions and sacrifices is reinforcing the community.”

Following from this, the piece's author, Mary Hui, has shared about a recent letter from prison Gwyneth Ho wrote that had her musing: "How does a community evolve from being bound by shared memories, a theoretical idea, to deepen into a functioning system?" Continuing in Twitter speak, Hui reports that Ho has "urged HKers to redouble efforts to build ties & reinforce the public sphere."  In other words: Hong Kongers, persist!