From Tung Chung to Mui Wo on foot (Photo-essay)

Every so often, I take the MTR to Tung Chung to do some hiking on Lantau Island.  Usually, I'll then hop on to a bus from there to take me to a trailhead.  But once in a while, I go on a hike which actually begins in Tung Chung town itself (including one that saw my friends and I pass by Tung Chung Battery and other area sights before traipsing all the way to Tai O along a scenic coastal route).    

Upon discovering that the bus service bus to our planned trailhead near Tai Ho Wan was far less frequent than we would like, a friend and I decided to go ahead and walk over there before hiking over the hill to Mui Wo.  Over the course of doing so, we found ourselves tracking through construction and protest sites.  In other words: we saw more than the usual hike sights even while also seeing (enough of) the usual things that make me really enjoy exploring parts of Hong Kong that I don't venture to all that frequently on a beautiful blue sky day! :)

A pro-Tung Chung sentiment painted on a low wall 

near Tung Chung Development Pier :)

Looking north across the water from Lantau to Castle Peak 

and other parts of the southwestern New Territories

I'm not sure if the route we went on was 100 percent legit but we were 

following a trail that other people obviously had already been on!

View from an unnamed pier near Tai Ho Wan that will in the future

include portions of the problem-plagued bridge linking

Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai 

 From the hillside to the south of Tai Ho Wan, one can get

a better idea of how vast the construction taking place near it is

 

Things look considerably greener and more idyllic over to the south 

of the hill that one has to go over in order to get to Mui Wo

 
 The Silvermine Bay waterfall had more water
that afternoon than on my previous visits to the area

 Waterfront view of the blue waters

of Silvermine Bay :)

Fake mermaids, pseudo-models and their admirers at Shek O Headland this afternoon!

The things one sees when out and about in Hong Kong... :b

 

Lang mo and long yau in action this afternoon!

The last time I went to Shek O, my mother (who was visiting Hong Kong at the time) and I got much amusement from watching ultra-formally attired couples posing for wedding photos on Shek O Beach.  And as two friends and I made our way out to Tai Tau Chau earlier today, we spotted a woman in bridal garb and her dolled up husband-to-be getting ready to have some photos taken at the scenic far eastern end of Shek O Headland.   

Whatever antics that couple got up to paled in comparison though to what we beheld taking place on the rocks of Shek O Headland this afternoon.  For, rather hilariously, and possibly inspired by Stephen Chow's Mermaids (this Chinese New Year's biggest cinematic hit), we spied two young women who had dressed up as mermaids -- one in blue, the other in pink, both in costumes that were really bright, shiny and attention-grabbing -- perched close to the shore!  

As we got nearer to the scene, my native Hong Konger friend and I realized that the two females in mermaid costumes were lang mo (AKA pseudo-models) and the men they were posing for were long yau (AKA "salon fans").  As we set about explaining to the third member of our group -- an American woman who moved to Hong Kong just around a year ago -- what we were witnessing, it struck me that what we were telling her sounded pretty weird: i.e., that here in the Big Lychee, there is a particular cultural phenomenon which involves certain photography enthusiasts who have a reputation for being socially awkward and also, well, haam sup (lecherous) to club together to hire a sexy pseudo-model to snap photographs of -- and usually in public spaces rather than, say, a private photo studio!

As on the previous occasions when I've seeen long yau out photographing lang mo, the amateur photographers I spotted in action this afternoon looked to be equipped with some pretty professional-looking (and undoubtedly expensive) camera equipment.  But today was the first time I saw a female out clicking away along with the men.  Considering how the other women in their party were attired: I wonder, is she a fan particularly of mermaids (even fake ones) rather than lang mo, per se? ;b       

New splashes of color and creativity in Sham Shui Po

 This large piece of street art looks like its bursting

out of the walls as well as bursting with color!

A blooming good example of eye-catching street art? ;b

Is this cool work only visible when the store front's shuttered? :O

Sham Shui Po has grown on me.  The first few times I ventured into the district of Kowloon which is among the highest density and lowest income sections of Hong Kong, including to check out an exhibition about the world of sub-divided flats and cage homes held in a tong lau that had been earmarked for demolition, I came away feeling shocked and sad that Asia's World City could be home to such a run-down area; and watching gritty movies set in the area, such as Derek Kwok's The Moss (2008), didn't do much to change my opinion of the place.   

Over the years though, as the nearby likes of Mongkok have become more and more filled with luxury watch and jewellery shops, and other stores that cater more to Mainland Chinese tourists than local residents, I've come to feel that contemporary Sham Shui Po is more like the Mongkok of old, where I would go to hunt for items as varied as cargo pants and Hello Kitty collectibles.  And especially after finding that the area is a foodie delight (if you're partial to such as shrimp roe noodles and cow omasum or liver noodle soup!), this old and traditional neighborhood has become a part of the Big Lychee that I regularly enjoy spending time in.

A few weeks back, further color was added to this increasingly vibrant district -- which I've also come to learn that a number of interesting people (including a film director and a sake company sales rep!) call home -- courtesy of the HK Walls street art project which saw 31 local and foreign artists get creative over 7 days in Sham Shui Po.  I'd been meaning to go earlier to check out the creations but rain put paid to my plans to do so twice before I finally was able to take advantage of a rare relatively dry lull to go and do so. 

After getting to the area, I must admit to initially getting distracting by Sham Shui Po's regular bustle and attractions, and had some difficulty spotting the new artworks -- not least because I didn't immediately realize that they aren't always located at street or regular eye level.  But after fortifying myself with an early dinner (which cost a bargain HK$53 (around US$6.80)!), I was more able to spot and appreciate the creative efforts that actually blend in better with the general look of the place than I had initially thought they would! ;b

Sammo Hung's The Bodyguard shows that appearances can deceive (film review)

The Hong Kong poster for what appears to be

a star-studded, bad ass movie

 

The Bodyguard (Mainland China-Hong Kong, 2016)

- Sammo Hung, director (and action director)

- Starring: Sammo Hung, Andy Lau, Jacqueline Chan, Deng Chao 

 

From the looks of its Hong Kong poster and trailer, Sammo Hung's first directorial outing since 1997's Once Upon a Time in China and America promises to be a star-studded as well as action packed movie.  But while Sammo Hung most certainly is its leading man and Andy Lau (who also co-produced the film) features prominently in the offering too, the likes of Tsui Hark, Yuen Biao and Eddie Peng turn out to have much smaller roles in the movie than the publicity materials would have one think. 

 

Furthermore, although there is quite a bit of hard-hitting action in this Mainland China-Hong Kong co-production which has the same English title as the 1992 Hollywood work which starred Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, not only should fans of the Seven Little Fortunes be aware that Sammo Hung is the only former student of Master Yu Jim Yuen who features in The Bodyguard's fight scenes but even his character spends a significant amount of time in the movie doing nothing more active than strolling about town, fishing at a local river or playing board games with a preteen kid (who's referenced in the film's Chinese title, which translates into English as "My Special Agent Grandpa")!  

 

For while he is amusingly shown in The Bodyguard's opening credits as a Central Security Bureau officer when then US President Richard Nixon made his historic visit to China, Lao (i.e., Old) Ding -- as the titular character is frequently referred to in the film -- is long retired from the force.  Worse, after exiling himself to a small town close to the border with Russia in the wake of a family tragedy, the portly pensioner is now suffering from dementia -- which Sammo Hung the actor (as well as director) looks to have interpreted to mean that his character should have a blank look for much of this movie.

 

For some reason, two females develop an affection for Lao Ding.  The first, his ethnic Korean landlady Miss Park (Li Qinqin), appears to exist mainly for comic purposes.  The second, Cherry (Jacqueline Chan), is the young daughter of loser neighbor Li (Andy Lau) -- and is supposed to be cute and adorable but was, to my mind, so utterly charmless that I frankly found it really annoying that her part was so substantial and salient to the overall story.    

 

After Li lands into major trouble and incurs the wrath of local gangster Choi (Deng Chao) as well as hoodlums on the other side of the border, he not only puts himself in grave danger but his little daughter as well.  When a trio of goons go over and attempt to grab hold of Cherry one evening, Ding proves more than capable of protecting her from harm as well as shows how much he cares for the little girl who's become his surrogate granddaughter.   

 

The Bodyguard's fight scenes show how good an action actor (and action director) Sammo Hung still is.  But while he's revealed his dramatic chops and overall directing prowess in other films (like Painted Faces and Eight Taels of Gold, in the case of the former, and Pedicab Driver, in the case of the latter), the film veteran largely fails to do so in -- and with -- this movie which, among other things, often comes across as tonally schizophrenic as well as plain uneven in quality.   

 

My rating for this film: 5.5

A reminder of how beautiful Hong Kong can be on a day with bright blue skies and sunshine (Photo-essay)

What with my having spent so much time lately in darkened venues viewing movies at the 2016 Hong Kong International Film Festival and there having been so many foggy and rainy days in the Big Lychee in the past few weeks, I reckon that we need a reminder of what Hong Kong looks like on a day with bright blue skies and sunshine.  So here's offering up a photo-essay featuring snaps I took while exploring Lamma Island one hot but beautifully clear day sometime back that show how colorful this part of the world can be for at least some parts of the year! ;b

View of Yung Shue Wan (village and bay) from the ferry

 

While everyone else walked to the right upon leaving the ferry pier,

my friend and I turned left and suddenly found ourselves

in tranquil as well as green surroundings

 

One of our destinations that afternoon was the tall structure

that is Hong Kong's first commercial-scale wind turbine

 

Even though it didn't seem all that windy that day,

quite a bit of electricity was still being generated by that device

 

View from northern Lamma of the southwestern sections of 

Hong Kong Island, including Wah Fu and Ap Lei Chau

 

Seeing this sign partly obscured by overgrowth, I got the feeling

that not too many people ventured along the trail we were on!

 

Once we got on the northern section of the Lamma Island Family Walk, 

we saw far more folks -- out hiking, and frolicking in the waters off 

Hung Shing Yeh Beach (which, yes, has a big power station close by!)

 

The Far East Cement Company ceased operations in 2001 but 

its cement terminal still dominates the landscape of Sok Kwu Wan,

where we had dinner and then boarded the boat home afterwards :) 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Creepy is too illogical to be arresting (film review)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the director of the final film I viewed

at the 2016 Hong Kong International Film Festival

Creepy (Japan, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Galas program

- Kiyoshi Kurosawa, director and co-scriptwriter (with Chihiro Ikeda)

- Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yuko Takeuchi, Ryoko Fujino

Approximately two weeks after the 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival opened at the Hong Kong Cultural Center with screenings of Chongqing Hot Pot (which I forewent watching) and Trivisa (which I did check out), it officially came to a close with respected auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Creepy, whose Asian premiere I attended over at Sha Tin Town Hall.  

Over the course of that film-filled fortnight, I saw a number of cinematic gems (with Atom Egoyan's Remember topping my list of HKIFF offerings that I got the most out of viewing).  But while it would have been nice to have ended the fest on a high note, its Closing Film sadly turned up to be more of an anticlimactic miss than hit as far as I was concerned.

Creepy begins intriguingly enough, with Koichi (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a police detective with a particular interest in psychopaths, in an interrogation room interviewing one such criminal.  But after the captive contrives to escape and take a hostage, Koichi's subsequent attempts to deal with him turns out so badly that the cop decides to turn in his badge and opt for a safer life as a university lecturer (in criminal psychology) with a house in a quiet suburb with his wife Yasuko (Yuko Takeuchi). 

Encouraged by a department colleague and particularly after a visit by a former police colleague (Masahiro Higashide) seeking his help, Koichi nevertheless soon lets curiosity get the better of him again and becomes involved in the investigation of an unsolved case involving a teenaged girl (Haruna Kawaguchi) whose parents and younger brother disappeared without a trace one day and remain missing six years on.  On the other hand, he appears negligently uninterested in how Yasuko is adapting to their new neighborhood, whose residents appear to be on the unfriendly -- even creepy -- side, and what she gets up to during the many hours she and he appear to spend apart. 

At the post-screening Q&A session, director Kurosawa told the audience via a translator that: "One of my concerns with doing this movie was about the concept, and the idea, and the functioning of the Japanese family, which is going through a lot of changes — and not all of them are for the good. The family is falling apart, and this is something we also wanted to address in this movie"; with the childless Koichi and Yasuko's household coming under focus but also that in the house next door headed by Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa), who both Koichi and Yasuko initially felt bothered by, yet continued interacting with him and doing such as having him and his schoolage daughter Mio (Ryoko Fujino) over for dinner one evening.   

Early on, the interactions between Yasuko and Nishino in particular looked to play on cultural stereotypes involving many Japanese tending to err on the side of politness and not quite knowing how to deal with socially awkward -- or even just plain demanding -- people they encounter.  At some point though, much of the behavior depicted in Creepy crosses from the realm of credibility into improbability and nightmarish delusion; with the result that this supposed psychological thriller went from being atmospheric and suspenseful to bafflingly, irritatingly and disappointingly illogical as far as I was concerned.

At one point during the post-screening Q&A, Creepy's helmer (who also had co-scripted this film adaptation of a prize-winning novel by Yutaka Maekawa) admitted that he himself found it hard to understand how the piece's main villain could affect people's behavior so much but just knew that such individuals did exist in society.  I have to admit to finding this a startling admission on Kurosawa's part -- and think that the director not finding a need to provide explanations for certain key actions in the film weakened it considerably.    

My rating for this film: 5.5

Goodfellas is one Hollywood classic that's aged well (film review)

The certificate of approval for Goodfellas

from the Hong Kong censor board ;)

Goodfellas (USA, 1990)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Restored Classics program

- Martin Scorsese, director and co-scriptwriter (with Nicholas Pileggi)

- Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci

Before the 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival began, I got to noticing that I had a few films with running times that were over 2 hours long in my viewing schedule and worried that viewing them would prove gruelling.  As it turned out though, time seemed to fly by when Doctor Zhivago (with a running time of 200 minutes), Intolerance (black and white as well as 167 minutes long) and Goodfellas (the shortest of the bunch at "only" 146 minutes in length!) played on screen -- with all those movies being ones which I got much enjoyment out of viewing as well as can understand why they are considered classics of cinema.

The film adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi's book by about a real life mobster turned FBI informant, its story (which begins in 1950 and covers decades) is narrated and largely told from the point of view of Henry Hill, a half Irish-, half Italian-American Brooklynite who grew up idolizing the gangsters he saw ruling his neighborhood's roost and realized his dream of becoming one when he was still in his teens.  Played early on by Christopher Serrone but for the bulk of the movie by Ray Liotta, Henry comes across as essentially a good fellow even though he commits crimes for a living, takes drugs and cheats on his wife Karen (Lorraine Braco).  

Early in his courtship of Karen, however, and also when hanging out with his buddies, James Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci), Henry often looked to be enjoying the good life and having a hell of a great time.  Like with the hedonistic protagonist and his buddies of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, the viewer knows that what the self-styled goodfellas are doing is not morally exemplary.  Yet much of it looks like so much fun that, way more than any of the Young and Dangerous movies that were often criticized for being akin to triad recruitment works, I can see Goodfellas making people yearn to experience that high crime life themselves! 

Still, one just knows that those times can't last; and what with these guys actually being pretty hardened gangsters, it really doesn't take much to upset the applecart and not only get tempers fraying but people deciding to go against -- and get rid of -- others in seriously scary ways.  And when Goodfellas takes on a dark tinge is when one gets to truly realizing how mesmerizing to watch the likes of Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci (whose portrayal of short-tempered as well as physically diminuitive Tommy de Vito won him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award) can be.     

Technically polished, with costumes and set designs that really help its period look, Goodfellas doesn't only look good but also sounds good, with its killer soundtrack -- as well as the seamless editing -- helping things to feel like they're moving smoothly.  Almost shut out at the Oscars (with that year's major awards going to Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves), my sense is that this is one of those films that not only stands the test of time but may get better appreciated with each passing year.

On a local Hong Kong note: while waiting in line to get into the screening of the film, I got to chatting with the couple standing behind me.  The man (who's white British) was talking about how he was preparing his Japanese girlfriend for what, to him, was the movie's large amount of gore.  My reaction was, "But it's only Category IIB!"; and therefore really pretty mild when compared to violent Category III crime films from Japan and Hong Kong such as, say, Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer, Billy Tang's Run and Kill and, for that matter, fellow 2016 HKIFF offering The Mobfathers!    

     

My rating for this film: 8.5