Unique/funny signs (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Ever since I moved to Hong Kong close to a year ago, I've been spotting signs that strike me as unique and/or funny -- sometimes due to the mangling of the English language that I suppose is to be expected of a society that is officially tri-lingual, at other times due to Hong Kong being more of a nanny state than I had hitherto realized that it can be, on some other occasions because of the strange juxtaposition of a sign and another piece of material culture, and on yet other occasions due to Hong Kongers displaying a distinct tendency towards the kawaii that rivals the Japanese.

Although I have been meaning for some time now to put up a whole entire photo-essay made up of pictures of these unique/funny signs, I've yet to do so -- partly because I keep on thinking that my collection of such photos remains far from complete. But this week's Photo Hunt gives me the opportunity to share a sample of the photos I've accumulated of these quintissentially Hong Kong as well as unique and/or funny signs -- and I hope that visitors to this blog will excuse the lateness of this particular post especially because they end up deriving a significant no small amount of interest in, and/or amusement from, its contents. :b

From Wan Chai Gap to Wong Nai Chung Gap (Photo-essay)

A glance at the calendar recently got me realizing that it's been more than a month since I last went hiking while a glance at this blog's back entries got me discovering that it's also been more than a month since I last posted a hiking photo-essay; one whose pictures were taken on my last hike of 2007. So, here in late April 2008, a photo-essay documenting a 2008 hike seems way over due. Hence it being so that I'm finding some down-time in a busy period (of work but also having to move apartments, etc.) to share the following set of photos from a hike I went on with an Australian friend way back on the first day of this past Chinese New Year:-

One of the wonders of Hong Kong is discovering how near
nature and quiet can be from urban spaces like Wan Chai
(to wit, this path is but a few minutes walk down
on the greener, southern side of Wan Chai Gap)

...and again (this time without
even my hike companion in the picture! ;b)

It was Chinese New Year rather than Christmas
but some of the flora we saw on our hike
got us thinking of that end of year day instead ;)

...and again! ;)

Our 7.5 km hike route from Wan Chai Gap to
Wong Nai Chung Gap is just one of many hike possibilities
within the 423 hectare Aberdeen Country Park
that has been called Hong Kong Island's 'back garden'

The Aberdeen Reservoirs (Upper and Lower) are
some of the Aberdeen Country Park's main features

The Aberdeen Reservoirs may not be as beautiful
as the Tai Tam Reservoirs but I still reckon
that they're worth a second look (and picture)

And this especially on a day like our hike's --
which was great for walking in that it was bracingly cool
but not so great for panoramic photography since,
as this shot looking southeast shows,
it was on the misty side! ;S

Thirteen (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

The proverbial 'they' say that a picture says a thousand words but the two pictures -- one a close up of a building address; the other a close-up of a quartet of elevator buttons -- that I took this morning especially for this Thirteen (13) Photo Hunt entry don't say much that's interesting by themselves. But, hopefully, when I explain that over here in Hong Kong, 13 is not considered an unlucky number -- or, at least, much less so than 4, 14 or 24 -- then they might take on more meaning.

For those who don't know, Chinese dialects -- be they Cantonese (the primary language of Hong Kong), Mandarin (which people in America tend to think of as being the only Chinese language there is), Hokkien (my mother tongue), etc. -- are tonal in nature. What this means is that changes in tone make for different words and changes in meanings. In the case of the number 4, when uttered with a different tone, the word for it turns into "die/death", with 14 sounding like "certain death/definitely die" and 24 sounding like "easily die/easy death"!

Consequently, you will often find people trying to skip those numbers; with the result being that even while there are addresses -- like in my first photo -- that are marked by a 13 on them, it is so -- and now take a second look at the second photo in this entry... -- that some buildings here are officially without a 4th, 14th or 24th floor (even while still having a 13th floor)! And yes, if you're into calculating, what this means is that the 29th floor on the latter building actually is the 26th since 4, 14 and 24 are missing from it... ;b

One more 2008 HKIFF blog entry (4)

Part of the Edward Yang exhibit
on display in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre
during the Hong Kong International Film Festival proper

Yasukuni (Japan-Mainland China, 2007)
- From the Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries programme
- Li Ying, director

This documentary film by Mainland Chinese director Li Ying about Japan's notorious Yasukuni shrine has been both dogged by protests and controversy as well as emerged winner of an award at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). Walking into a screening of the film with this knowledge (since the HKIFF award was announced midway through the fest), I must admit to having had high hopes regarding the quality of the work -- something which meant in part that I thought that it would provide quite a lot of insights and information into a place that many people evidently feel very strongly about.

As it turns out, however, I came away feeling rather disappointed. Frankly, I don't think it's all that well made a film and if not for its very intriguing and majorly emotionally charged subject matter, surely wouldn't have attracted all that much attention and kudos. Alternatively put, the decision to focus on what it does is daring indeed, to be sure, but its treatment actually feels rather lazy and designed to push emotional buttons rather than be thoughtful and enlightening.

Consequently, I feel like an opportunity's been lost here; one that, in the wake of all the controversy this work has engendered, may be damagingly denied to other and/or future filmmakers. At the same time though, will not deny that the film most definitely has got its share of truly emotionally raw and powerful moments -- notably when the relatives of some individuals (including Aboriginal Taiwanese but also pacific Japanese Buddhists) go to Yasukuni to officially petition for the removal of their ancestors' names to be removed from Yasukuni's rolls, only to be met by intransigence on the part of the Shinto shrine's representatives, and also when two protestors who disrupt a major ceremony at Yasukuni are actually attacked by angry Yasukuni Shrine supporters -- one of whom, in the bargain, goes into a disturbingly virulent anti-Chinese tirade upon mistakenly assuming that the protestors are Chinese rather than actually Japanese.

My rating for this film: 6.0

High Noon (Hong Kong, 2008)
- From the Eric Tsang: Filmmaker in Focus programme
- Heiward Mak, director
- Starring Lam Yiu-sing, Sham Ka-kei, Anjo Leung, etc.

With a 23-year-old debutante director at its helm and a cast of unknowns for the most part (with the only person I was familiar with being Anjo Leung, the star of Magic Boy), I'm not sure whether this Hong Kong youth movie will be getting a local theatrical release. If it does, one big reason for it happening will undoubtedly be because it's backed and produced by Eric Tsang, a pretty big wig in the Hong Kong film industry as well as a great character actor and comedian.

One more 2008 Hong Kong movie whose main characters are a septet of disaffected youth as well as the HKSAR chapter of a "Growing Up Trilogy" of films whose other chapters are set and made in Mainland China and Taiwan, that which apparently originally went by the title Winds of September -- The Hong Kong Chapter is one of a growing number of movies I've seen recently that make me feel old -- or, at least, from a completely different generation as well as mindset from the principals in the picture. For while once upon a time, I actually related with the protagonists of Rebel Without a Cause and The Catcher in the Rye, the ironic fact may well be that as I've grown older, I've become less embittered and cynical about life in general!

Consequently, quite a bit of the angst and alienation in this admittedly technically okay work ends up striking me as so, well, unnecessary as well as uncalled for. So much so that it leaves me feeling impatient with the younger generation as they are being represented in contemporary Hong Kong cinema; particularly those among them with quite a bit to be thankful for and look forward to yet seem to find it so much easier to be ungrateful, filled with a sense of hopelessness and exude -- and often act upon -- self-destructive tendencies... :S

My rating for the film: 6.5

In summation: If my HKIFF experiences had ended with these two works as the final films viewed, it would have felt like quite the shame -- given that I did view my share of really good works earlier on. Fortunately, as I've previously mentioned, although the 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival officially drew to a close on April 6, its The One and Only Edward Yang programme (which comprises a complete retrospective of the late Taiwanese auteur's films) continues through to May. So this past Sunday, I was able to have the privilege plus pleasure of catching back-to-back screenings of A Confucian Confusion (1994) and Mahjong (1996), and I further look forward to checking out at least a couple more Edward Yang films in the near future! :)

Twist (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Before anything else, my apologies for this Photo Hunt entry being later than usual. And here's going ahead and apologizing in advance for going to be later than usual to visit others this time around (although, once again, I promise that I will do so eventually, even if not in the next 24 hours!). The short story is that there are problems with my apartment, so: a) I've been out apartment hunting for the greater part of today; and b) my building's electricity will be temporarily (i.e., for only a few hours, I trust!) cut tomorrow... :S

Anyways, to the photos -- that hopefully show not only how hilly, green and natural still much of Hong Kong is but, also, how many of the paths on which I hike through the Hong Kong countryside tend to twist and turn. As it turns out, they are all from different hikes in different parts of the territory: with the top-most picture being taken in the New Territories (specifically, the section of Ma On Shan Country Park where I found myself genuinely fearing for my life!); the middle snap having been taken on my walk from Tung Chung to Tai O over on Lantau Island; and bottom shot having been taken in Tai Tam Country Park, near the Tai Tam reservoirs, over here on Hong Kong Island.

All of which serves to remind me that it's been a while since I went hiking in Hong Kong, a state of affairs I hope to remedy after I successfully move apartments within the next few weeks! ;)

Another four films viewed at this year's HKIFF (3)

Q&A session after the screening I attended of
All's Right With The World (see below) -- with, from left to right,
HKIFF Programme Manager Bede Cheng,
documentary film director Cheung King Wai
and the social worker he called upon to share the spotlight

Encounters at the End of the World (USA-Germany, 2007)
- From the Master Class programme
- Werner Herzog, director
- documentary

Yes, I do watch non-Asian movies -- and not just for work either! In this case, it's a documentary film set in Antartica by German master filmmaker Werner Herzog. Antartica. Master filmmaker. I can see people thinking that, invariably, this means that the work is about penguins and is serious in tone. But although penguins do figure in the film, the focus really is more on the people (scientists, support staff, etc.) who have chosen at least part of their lives in the world's coldest as well as southern-most continent. And, again, while portions of this work are serious, sometimes even sad, other parts are really quite humourous indeed.

Shot on high definition video, some of the cinematographer could have been better and there were times when the film felt like it was (screened) out of focus. At other times though, the sheer amazing visuals offered up by Antartica more than made up for this. Also, the commentary and stories told on camera -- by people about themselves but also others, including others of the world's creatures -- truly are compelling indeed.

My rating for the film: 7.5

Candy Rain (Taiwan, 2008)
- From the Young Taiwanese Cinema programme
- Chen Hung-I, director
- Starring Niki Wu, Kao I-Ling, Karena Lam, Sandrine Pinna, Waa, etc.

Touted as "the hipper, female version of Happy Together", Candy Rain is an anthology of four lesbian romances that comes with a killer soundtrack that I most definitely would like to own in the form of a CD. As for the stories tenuously linked together by women in all four of them having mysterious packets of candy delivered to their apartment, one has to say that they are an uneven mix, ranging from forgettable to actually moving.

Fortunately, rather than saving the worst for last, the worst came early in the film. More specifically, the first vignette centering on a small town girl who becomes lovers as well as the room-mate of a friend from home now living in the (relatively) big city of Taipei lacks pace and urgency and generally feels too art-house-y. But after the film segues into the second story (this one about an amusingly fussy cook (Sandrine Pinna) and the older woman (Waa) who she meets on-line and then in person, not only did the mood lighten up but the characters also became more intriguing and involving.

The third story, about Spencer (Niki Wu) and Summer (Kao I-Ling), a happy couple forced to separate when Summer feels obliged by her family to get married and have children, is by far the strongest of Candy Rain's quartet. Genuinely moving and with content that feels substantive, it ends on a very intriguing note indeed. After which director Chen -- who is male, by the way -- looks to have opted for an exaggerated approach to counter-balance the previous realistic drama with a tale of a Ricky (Karena Lam) who calls herself a masochist -- and to prove it, gets herself into relationships in which she gets beaten up by her lovers... especially after they find out that she's been two- or even three-timing them. But when it all seems really cartoony, the mood changes again before the generally interesting work finally comes to an end.

My rating for the film: 6.5 overall (but 8.0 for the story of Spencer and Summer)

All's Right with the World (Hong Kong, 2007)
- From the Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries programme
- Cheung King Wai, director
- documentary

In the minds of many people, Hong Kong is a shopper's paradise. But what if you don't have money? And trust me, even in Asia's World City, there really are poor people. Who do what to can, but invariably struggle, to ensure that -- to paraphrase this documentary film's title -- it's alright in their world.

Connecting a diverse group of ethnic Chinese people (some of them Hong Kong born, others of them migrants from elsewhere, including Thailand and Indonesia as well as Mainland China) and their stories by asking them about their happiest Chinese New Year, documentary filmmaker Cheung King Wai goes on to get them to pour their hearts out to the camera and this film's audience in a way that is revelatory but still never exploitative.

Viewing the film and listening to the tales of woe and struggle that are candidly told, I must admit to thinking more than once along the lines of "there but for the grace of God go I". At the same time, if I ever were to find myself in the situation, if only I could be as admirably stoic and able to remain hopeful against all odds like a couple of this film's interview subjects...

My rating for this film: 7.0

I Just Didn't Do It (Japan, 2007)
- From the Auteurs programme
- Masayuki Suo, director
- Starring Ryo Kase, Koji Yakusho, Asaka Seto, Masako Motai

Some twelve years ago now, Masayuki Suo made the sublime Shall We Dance...? (which Hollywood later produced a completely unnecessary and way inferior remake of that, unfortunately, many movie goers have no idea is a remake). Remarkably, when he finally made a film again (in 2007), it was this serious courtroom drama that's sad rather than heartwarming, and pretty condemning about the Japanese legal system which presumes that an accused is guilty rather than innocent and provides very few safeguards for the possibility that someone has been wrongly accused.

In this movie's case, the accused is a young man who stands accused of having groped a schoolgirl on board a crowded train. The first lawyer he sees tells him to plead guilty since the crime only carries a small fine but the young man insists that he is innocent, so why should he say otherwise? A logical query, you might think, until the film proceeds to show you how much he will have to pay in terms of time and psychological distress as well as financially just to plead his case.

Full of details and good acting, this 143 minute film doesn't have a single moment that doesn't feel unnecessary. At the same time, it most definitely is not a feel good work, so those who wish to be guaranteed that there will be light at the end of a long tunnel should give this dramatic offering a pass. And should it not be obvious, no, I don't think this is a film that is going to get remade by Hollywood any time soon -- something that, frankly, I think is a very good thing indeed!

My rating for the film: 8.0

Woman warrior, heavenly queen and more bc magazine article links

Figure in Penang's Hainanese Temple
of a Hokkien mortal turned goddess
worshipped in predominantly Cantonese Hong Kong
and Macau, among other places!

A new issue of bc magazine appeared in selected Hong Kong establishments (e.g., Starbucks outlets, Cosmos Bookstore, Kubrick (the Broadway Cinematheque's bookstore), several bars and restaurants) yesterday but it's only today that it's available on line. And yes, I wrote my share of the articles and other bits in it, and here are links to them:-

i) Woman Warrior -- arts feature on the HK Dance Company's Mulan;

ii) Heavenly Queen -- feature article on Tin Hau (AKA Ma-Chor, Matsu, etc.), goddess of the sea;

iii) A Scottish Tragedy in Hong Kong -- arts feature on a production of Macbeth here in the Fragrant Harbour;

iv) A Taste of Thai -- my second food feature ever!;

v) Review of Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon;

vi) Review of Run Fatboy Run (An English language movie that should not be confused with Sylvia Chang's Run Papa Run!);

vii) Review of Escape from Huang Shi; and

viii) The Editor's Diary for April 10 to 30.

Also, will take the opportunity here to thank Brian for his kind permission in allowing us to make use of his review of Chocolate (and thereby save me a bit of extra work)... :)