The Goldfinger is not a film I value all that much! (Film review)

  

Officially opening later this month but I've already seen it!

 

The Goldfinger (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2023)

- Felix Chong, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, Charlene Choi, Alex Fong Chung Sun

 

Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau reunite in a blockbuster (whose HK$350 million budget makes it one of the most expensive Hong Kong movies ever made) directed by one of the scriptiwriters of Infernal Affairs, the 2002 crime drama they starred in that Martin Scorsese remade into the multi-Oscar winning The Departed.  Glossy looking and beautifully shot by cinematographer Anthony Pun (who also lensed Hong Kong's current all-time box office champ, A Guilty Conscience), this Mainland China-Hong Kong co-production looks to aim to be a major crowd pleaser but I can also see its clearly ambitious makers expecting critical acclaim and have the film be the Federation Of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong's next Best International Feature Oscar nominee. 

 

But like Where the Wind Blows (2022), another big budget period crime drama which stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and was indeed the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong's official Oscar selection last year, The Goldfinger left me cold and feeling it's yet another style over substance offering which won't win over that many Hong Kong viewers (though it could maybe satisfy Mainland Chinese ones).  And, sorry, having the Independent Commission for Corruption (ICAC) as the movie's good guys (rather than the cops) is not going to cut it these days; especially since the ICAC are among the organizations involved in making political arrests these days (along with the Hong Kong Police Force and National Security Bureau)!

Speaking of the police: The Goldfinger begins with police officers rioting(!) and threatening violence against unarmed individuals(!!).  Early on in the film, it also is revealed that Lau Kai-yuen (played by Andy Lau), the ICAC officer in charge of a major investigation against businessman Ching Yat-yin (portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), is a former police officer -- something which might be expected to explain his doggedness in pursuing his prey over a lengthy period of time during which Andy Lau morphs into an older man who, rather disturbingly, resembles Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan!

 

For his part, Tony Leung Chiu Wai remains recognisably himself over the course of proceedings -- but his Ching Yat-yin character does radically change in circumstance and clothing style: from a poor, out-of-work engineer who looks to have been smuggled into Hong Kong by boat to a money-making genius who many were wont to believe had the golden touch and sat atop an international finance empire.  (Cue lots of work for -- and great work -- by such as the film's costume and set designers and art director!)  

 

A note for those who didn't realise: The film's titular character is based on George Tan, the ethnic Hokkien head of the Carrian Group whose fraud case has a large section devoted to it on the official ICAC website.  The following are quotes from it that can serve to outline part of The Goldfinger's plot: 

 

"In 1972, a 37-year-old Singaporean civil engineer arrived in Hong Kong to work as a project manager in a subsidiary company of a land developer. Soon the engineer was the land developer’s ‘hotshot’ and was even given the financial backing to establish a joint enterprise with the developer. Following the stock market slump in 1973, signs of rapid recovery in the Hong Kong property market began to emerge in 1976. The engineer saw a window of opportunity and started to purchase land in the New Territories with the intention of becoming a major property player..."!

 

This same engineer (who some people also had thought was Malaysian) went on to establish the Carrian Group.  In The Goldfinger, the conglomerate in focus is known as the Carmen Group.  In 1980, the Carrian Group acquired a high prestige property in Central called Gammon House.  In The Goldfinger, the Carmen Group acquired a high prestige building in Central known as Golden House.  And so it goes.

 

Watching The Goldfinger and the antics of its money crazy characters (who excessive money also turns them into pretty crazy people in general) can sometimes be akin to viewing -- not so much Crazy Rich Asians as The Wolf of Wall Street!  I know some people can derive some fun from doing so but for me, it can get too sleazy to seriously enjoy.  

 

Something else that I don't enjoy is the elements of the film that smack of casual racism, including casting terrible Caucasian actors to perform alongside a stat-studded and generally pretty capable group of Hong Kong thespians, and having one of them play a Southeast Asian presumably because he (Philip Keung) has darker skin than the average ethnic Chinese Hong Konger.  And then thre's the anti-British swipes that can feel like cheap shots and that I'd expect more from Mainland Chinese sources than contemporary Hong Kong movies. 

While we're on the subject of cheapness: I don't think a mega budget Hong Kong movie should be so carelessly made that not only is it way too obvious that scenes supposedly set in an overseas prison actually were shot in Tai Kwun but, also, that exhibit labels in its former prison cells be visible on screen!  Honestly, the more I think of The Goldfinger, the more problems with it I can finger.  I could go on but I think you already get the picture (i.e., I did not like this movie!), and thus will stop! 

 

My rating for this film: 5.0 

The silent majority made its collective voice heard and broke records by staying away from the 2023 District Council "election"!

  

The kind of advertising I wish Hong Kong had less of!

 

Yesterday morning, I was awoken by my phone ringing.  When I answered, I heard an automated message asking me to please go out and vote in the District Council "election".  Or at least, I think I did because I was only half awake and really wanted to just go back to sleep!  Then, later in the day, before a film screening properly got underway, a message (in three languages -- Cantonese, English and Mandarin) was aired asking people to go vote.  You could almost hear as well as smell the desperation of those trying so hard to avoid yesterday's event having a record low turnout!

 

Alas, for those folks, it was all in vain.  Despite the crazy amounts of advertising all over Hong Kong, in the words of CNN's Nectar Gan, "Hong Kongers on Sunday delivered another apparent snub to China’s “patriots only” overhaul of the city’s electoral system, as local polls that barred the opposition from standing drew the lowest turnout in decades."  

 

Over on Twitter, Joel Chan was keeping tabs by the hour of the electoral turnout and very early on, it was evident that the turnout was low for the first national security law-era District Council "election" and on course to not be anywhere near the 71.2% voter turnout of the 2019 truly democratic district council election that had some 2.94 million Hong Kongers casting their votes and saw the pro-democrats win by a landslide.  Heck, by lunchtime, Chan was forecasting that the total votal turnout would not be able to match, never mind exceed, the 30.2% voter turnout of the 2021 Legislative Council "election"!   

 

Actually, a friend of mine had confidently predicted this weeks ago -- based on what she had seen and heard and knew about her fellow Hongkongers!)  And so it came to pass.  With not even the voting time being extended to midnight (due to voter registration system problems!) being able to help much at all!  

 

To put it mildly, the final voter count of 1,193,193 votes and voting percentage of 27.5% looks absolutely pathetic when compared to 2019!  And for the record: the 2023 District Council "election" had the lowest ever voting percentage; lower even than any of the District Council elections held before the Handover as well as being the lowest among those held after!  For whereas in 2019, the "silent majority" that the authorities had assumed was on their side went out and voted for the pro-democrats, this time around, the "silent majority" decided against taking part in what was widely seen as sham elections.  

 

"[F]or context", as the Twitter account known as John deFROG pointed out: "the election yesterday was for 88 seats out of 470 (with 27 for rural committee chairs, and the rest either appointed by govt or elected by small pro-Beijing committees), so the pro Beijing camp already controlled 382 seats before the voting even started."  And not content with cutting the number of elected seats on the District Councils from more than 90 percent down to 20 percent back in May of this year, the authorities also made it so that there was not a single pro-democracy candidate running in the "election".

 

So, although those not following what's been happening in Hong Kong for the past four years may not realize, actually, Hong Kong voters have delivered the same message once again: that we want genuine universal suffrage (which, remember, is one of protestors' "five demands" and the sole "demand" of the Umbrella Movement back in 2014).  

 

And speaking of protestors: three members of the League of Social Democrats, including chairwoman Chan Po-ying, were stopped and arrested yesterday on their way to protest the city’s “patriots-only” District Council "election".  (A measure of the deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong can be seen in their being able to carry out their protest of the Legislative Council "election" just two years ago, in 2021.)  And it's looking like they will be charged -- like another League of Social Democrats member, Koo Sze-chiu, who was arrested on Friday -- with sedition.

 

Others arrested yesterday include a 41-year-old government employee and her husband on suspicion of inciting others to cast invalid votes by commenting on a social media post which urged voters to put three or more ticks on their ballot paper.  A sixth individual, a 51-year-old female clerk, was arrested -- by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), as opposed to the police (national security or otherwise) -- "for allegedly calling on others to write their names and identity card numbers on the ballot papers, which would render the votes invalid."

 

On the subject of spoilt votes: It's turned out that 22,045 of the votes cast yesterday were declared invalid.  Was this primarily the result of a "spoilt votes" campaign or human error, particularly on the part of elderly and/or less-educated voters who are prone to this?  We will never know.  But what's known is that it's close to double the number of spoiled votes in 2019 (which was 12,097).   Finally, one election statistic that's higher in 2023 than 2019! 

An out-of-season visit to Akita Prefecture's Tazawako (Photo-essay)

With a depth of 423 metres (1,388 ft), Tazawako (Lake Tazawa) is Japan's deepest lake. A caldera lake that's not had much development around it (which makes it pretty rural -- and pretty, period!), it's nonetheless reachable by public transportation; albeit with the catch that service there is not super frequent; so timing is of the essence to get there (and out of there)!

Also, if you go to Tazawako out of season (i.e., not in the summer months), there's really not too much that's open or to do there.  That is, if one is not on an organized tour, one can either go on a sightseeing boat that goes around the lake (which runs only once every 2 hours!) or rent a bicycle to ride around the lake.  And while the latter could be a nice option in fine weather, the former's really the one thing to do there on a day where rain was predicted!

 

Thus it was that after we go to the lake shore, all but one of the bus passengers who disembarked at the Tawazako stop ran up to a nearby hut where a woman was selling tickets for a sightseeing boat ride around the lake. Seconds after I got on, the boat took off -- leaving just one person on the shore, looking perplexed at what had happened. As it so happens, that person was the one non-Asian passenger on the bus I had been on.  Unlike the rest of us -- who numbered less than a dozen -- it seemed he hadn't got the complete memo about the place; something which I hope readers of this blog post now will make sure to do prior to going to a locale that's far more off the beaten track than even I had realized before venturing there! :D

 

 
Puppet Ponyo and the ONE Tazawako sightseeing boat in operation 

the morning I was there (Also, this is a post-trip pic as I was 

too much in a hurry to get on the boat to take a pre-trip pic!)

 

The view encompassing the now distant shore that I had 

boarded the  sightseeing boat seconds after getting on it!

 

The water at the Goza no Ishi Jinja side of Tazawako

was an incredibly bright, almost unnatural blue!

 

At the western end of Tazawako, what first caught my eye 

was the tree on the side of the lake with red leaves on it...

 

But, actually, what this section of Tazawako is famous for is 

the golden statue of Tatsuko, a local beauty who, legend has it, 

got cursed and turned into a dragon after drinking water from the lake! 

 

Imagine how this was look during the height of koyo season...

 

Still, it's not like I didn't see much beauty on my visit to Tazawako! :)
 

Au revoir, Tazawako, its swan boats and all. (And yes, 

there really not being that many other people around when

I was there made the experience feel all the more precious!) :)

Thinking of those who really f**king love Hong Kong but aren't in Hong Kong while up on Mount Butler today

  

So I went up Mount Butler today...

 

...and got positive proof once again 

that Hong Kong is really beautiful

 

I sincerely hope that those folks who really

 f**king love Hong Kong but can't be here today 

will be able to return some day

Hong Kong back in the limelight -- thanks to announcements by Agnes Chow and the Hong Kong government, and other farcical actions by the authorities that are hard to ignore

View from a plane on one of the 

Hong Kong International Airport runway

 

In recent weeks/months, my Twitter Timeline has had a far larger percentage of Tweets about Israel and Palestine than I ever could have imagined would be the case before October 7th; this not least since most of the people I know do not live in either of those territories -- and, if truth be told, not that many of them are Jews or Muslim either. 

 

Over the past 48 hours or so, however, the attention of many of those I Follow on that social media platform has turned back to Hong Kong; thanks in no small part to activist Agnes Chow breaking the news (on Sunday, her 27th birthday) that she is no longer in Hong Kong (English translation of her Chinese language post on Instagram here) and is unlikely to return to her home city, and the Hong Kong government Streisand effecting the hell out of her decision by issuing angry and frankly quite bizarre statements about her.

 

It's weird enough that the first of them (see here) looked to have deliberately left out her name, preferring to refer to her as "the woman" -- as though they had been scorned by her.  But the second of them (see here) is so apoplectic in tone that the BBC's China Correspondent was prompted to Tweet the following about it: "Have a look at the adjectives and adverbs in this statement from the Hong Kong government. If the intended effect was to persuade readers that a dissident should return to the city the actual result makes it sound like a place from where sane people should flee"!

 

In addition, there are other things going on in this part of the world that spark dismay and comment from people who care for Hong Kong.  For example, Sunday also saw some members of the League of Social Democrats, one of Hong Kong's few remaining pro-democracy political parties, and their friends getting stopped and searched by the police while out hiking!  As per a Hong Kong Free Press report: "According to the group, around 20 uniform and plainclothes police officers stopped the individuals at around 2.30 pm and accused them of breaching the Beijing-imposed security law. They were searched and their belongings were inspected, with the entire process lasting around two hours".

 

Even more concerning and horrifying was the news today that "a Hong Kong protester shot by police in 2019 has been featured in a police-promoted television special showing remorse over his frontline participation in the unrest that year".  As the Washington Post's Shibani Mahtani was prompted to Tweet: "Tsang Chi-kin was shot, tried to seek asylum and protection from the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong, spent two years hiding in safe houses and transported from place to place in boxes, was sentenced to nearly four years -- as if that wasn't enough, now he's "confessing" on TV" -- and make no mistake, it's easy to see that this was a forced confession; something that says much worse about the regime directing the "confessions" than the person forced into doing the "confessing".

 

Some additional context provided by Mahtani: "Tsang was only 18 in 2019, one of the hundreds of thousands of anonymous masked protesters until he was shot. Hard to comprehend how the trajectory of so many lives where changed in that year; the line between victim and perpetrator so intentionally blurred by authorities now."

 

And then we had a report of the closing arguments made for the marathon trial of the Hong Kong 47 (the 47 people charged with breaking the national security law China imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020, by organising and/or taking part in electoral primaries for the democratic camp in July of that year, ahead of the Legislative Council election then scheduled to also take place in 2020 but which were subsequently postponed to December 2021).   

 

Arrested on February 28th, 2021, and the majority of the 47 denied bail and held behind bars since then, their trial only finally began some two years later in February 2023. And it was only yesterday, December 4th, 2023, that closing submissions were made. How slowly the wheels of justice can seem to move these days in Hong Kong!

 

Among the more interesting statements made by lawyers for the defence yesterday are the following: "Prosecutors must have proven that Hong Kong pro-democracy figures at the centre of a landmark national security trial had used violence and intended to subvert state power if they are to be found guilty".  

 

There's also this from Trevor Beel, the counsel for journalist turned political activist turned political prisoner Gwyneth Ho: “This charge of conspiracy is like no other charge that has come before the courts... Everything was conducted openly for the simple reason that nobody knew what they were doing was illegal.”

 

All of which makes the proceedings of this trial all the more farcical. Except it's no joke when I tell you that this trial is jury-less and, instead, the innocence or guilt of the "Hong Kong 47", as they have become known, will be decided by three judges from the pool of those eligible to preside over national security trials and handpicked by the government. :(

Enjoying views of the sunrise from my hotel room in Morioka (Photo-essay)

I'm not a morning person -- but I woke up early enough to see the sunrise on my first morning in Morioka.  To get an idea of how rare an occurence this is: the last time before this that I saw a sunrise was from the top of Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong back in late 2018!  Also, as far as I can recall, I have never seen a sunrise in Hong Kong!

The reason I got to see the sunrise in Morioka was because I had planned an early start to my day of sightseeing -- due to the weather forecast, which is amazingly accurate in Japan, being for it to rain in the afternoon (but not the morning) and my plan for the day involved going out on a lake -- Japan's deepest, in fact!  More on that lake later. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful sunrise views that I managed to catch without having to leave my hotel room!

 

Not at all a bad sight to wake up to and 

get to view from one's hotel room, huh? :)

 

Another part of the same sky that was less bright

 

Meanwhile, another section of the sky was in between 

in brightness between the two previously highlighted!

 

As it got brighter, the buildings ceased to be

silhouettes and became more visible

 

Spider looking like it's floating in the sky ;b

 

The section of sky looking like it was ablaze...

 

A question for those who read this: can you

tell that this is a sunrise, not a sunset?

 

Last photo before I stopped gawping at the sunrise

and went to get ready for that day's excursion :)

In Broad Daylight shines a light on investigative journalists along with the dark sides of society they seek to bring to light (Film review)

In Broad Daylight's lead actress Jennifer Yu talks to the audience

at its world premiere while co-star David Chiang looks on

 

Some other members of the film's cast were present too

(along with its director and producer -- not pictured!)
 

In Broad Daylight (Hong Kong, 2023)

- Lawrence Kan, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Jennifer Yu, David Chiang, Bowie Lam, Woo Fung, Rachel Leung, Peter Chan Charm-man, Hennick Chou 

 

Thanks to political censorship of Hong Kong films now being a thing and it being likely that political pressure can lead to the cancellation of film screenings, I found myself wondering when reading its Hong Kong Asian Film Festival program synopsis if In Broad Daylight would actually see the light of the day (figuratively speaking).  

 

This was not least because its main character is an investigative reporter named Kay (portrayed by Jennifer Yu) -- like, say, Gwyneth Ho (currently in prison) or Bao Choy (who was found guilty of improper searches of an online car licence plate database while conducting an investigation aimed at identifying some of the perpetrators of the 2019 Yuen Long attacks that Gwyneth Ho had live streamed before the court decision was overturned by the Court of Final Appeal).

 

Granted that In Broad Daylight is not overtly political: with its story of Kay deciding to investigate a care home for the elderly and disabled (run by Bowie Lam's character) whose staff are suspected of abusing its residents (who include individuals essayed by Woo Fung, Rachel Leung, Peter Chan Charm-man and Hennick Chou) being one that Hong Kongers from both sides of the political spectrum would be united in being concerned about.  (Also, the makers of this film have set it before 2019; when socio-political divides really became wide and cemented in Hong Kong.) 

 

Nonetheless, when reading the following line about it, I did worry that -- in these hyper sensitive times -- In Broad Daylight would be pulled from the film festival despite being announced as one of its opening films (like had happened to When the Wind Blows ahead of the 2021 Hong Kong International Film Festival): "A stunning and provocative drama exposing what happens when the systems we trust fail us, this is an especially important film in an era when journalists are smeared as troublemakers."       

 

Happily, however, my fears proved to be groundless -- and In Broad Daylight is now also enjoying a very successful run in local cinemas.  Deservedly so, to my mind, as Lawrence Kan's sophomore directorial feature is a well crafted, sensitive and humane film: which benefits enormously from not only having a compelling, topical tale to tell but, also, a multi-generational cast that includes Hong Kong cinema legends like David Chiang (who kung fu movie enthusiasts will forever associate with his Shaw Brothers output) along with some of the best talents of the current, new generation, including Jennifer Yu.

 

A number of Hong Kong movie fans will feel shocked when they first behold Chiang in In Broad Daylight because he plays one of the care home's elderly residents; and this all the more so since he appears to have less of his faculties intact than his roommate (played by Woo Fung).  Both of the men blossom though after Kay enters into their lives -- and it is one of the pleasures of this often emotionally devastating movie to see the care that David Chiang and Jennifer Yu's characters have for each other, and the chemistry between the two thespians that makes their relationship feel natural and real.

 

As for the other cast members: It is a credit to those tasked with playing less likeable characters that they are so successful in inhabiting them!  Baby Bo Pui-yu, in particular, was revelatory in how scary she was able to make her care home staffer character!  And Rachel Leung and Hennick Chou made me shed genuine tears as I ended up caring very much for the care home residents they played in this movie which is not the easiest of watches but I nonetheless would recommend that people check out; this not least because I think works like this are very deserving of people's support and, also, that In Broad Daylight really is a tribute to the kind of investigative journalists that have made Hong Kong proud over the years, and still do.

 

My rating for this film: 8.5