It's A Beautiful Sunny Day In Hong Kong And I'm Sitting In A Theater Watching A Wong Jing Movie!?! (Plus More Avengers Nonsense)

More of that Avengers hype in a bit. First, some Wong Jing.

Yeah, as I got off the ferry in Central this afternoon, I asked myself why I was sacrificing a lovely Sunday afternoon for Wong Jing? Well, I wasn't, really. It's more a sense of duty. And The Gang of Film are a fun bunch so I always look forward to seeing a film with them.

Especially if the film is at The Grand as that theater can make garbage seem wonderful. Almost.

Well, The Gang of Film -- minus the female members -- gathered and we had an honorary female guest join us today: Valerie Soe from BeyondAsiaphilia.com.

Marrying Mr. Perfect (2012) was not horrible. I actually let a few genuine laughs slip out during the first half. But, the second half was just boring. Chapman To was funny in most of his scenes. And Ronald Cheng tried. But poor Gigi Leung looked half-asleep through most of this flick. She bore the signs of someone who hates her job and is just looking at the clock and waiting for quitting time.

Or in this case, just waiting for Wong Jing to yell "Cut!"

Okay, now about The Avengers (2012).

This shopping arcade in Causeway Bay had a ton of Avengers promo posters and standees up everywhere. I went through the whole building. They even had mini-mobiles hanging from the ceiling.

I ran through crazy scenarios in my mind of how I could sneak in after-hours and kidnap the standee, shove it into the back of a taxi, and get it on the ferry to Lamma; what better decoration for my barren apartment than a life-size Captain America and crew?

In the picture below, it says something about the Twins Pop-Up Store. I went there. Ah Sa and Ah Gil did not pop-up and greet me. It was just a bunch of clothes in a badly-lit room.

Twins + Marvel superheroes = fanboy joy!

I ambled home and got my ferry back to Lamma. As most restaurants in Causeway Bay were crowded, I had dinner at the kebab place here. That's the Turkish lamb pizza and some pickles.

Scenes From A Saturday On Lamma

The weather here in Hong Kong was finally nice today. It seems like it's been gray and cold and drizzly for a good two weeks now.

So it was nice to wear a short-sleeve shirt today.

And my mood was a bit brighter today since I got word from my boss last night that my work visa has been approved. I need to activate it next week and then get my HK ID!

Nothing incredible here in these pictures -- though I did finally see the Lamma library; I just wanted to shoot some shots in the sun today as I ambled out to the ferry to head into the city.

A Few Words On That Time Out HK List of the 100 Greatest Hong Kong Films

I'm reading that issue on Lamma Island only a few hundred yards or so from Chow Yun-Fat's family's home. There's that outdoor restaurant that bears his picture. And a few shop owners here proudly display pictures of the star on their walls.

Now about that list.

The first thing I did when I bought that issue was count what I had seen. After coming up with what was a paltry 48, I felt like a failure.

Surely, all the local people at my job who think it's funny that an American so loves HK cinema probably think that I've seen all 100 of those titles.

Nope.

I felt a lot better when I learned that my number viewed matched the numbers viewed of the bloggers behind The Golden Rock and A Hero Never Dies. Considering that I've still not seen a few big titles on that list -- Beast Cops (1998) and God of Gamlbers (1989), for example -- I wonder how our 48s match up?

While I applaud the compilers for going out of their way to highlight some obscure titles from Hong Kong's rich film history, I also feel like they deserve some criticism too.

Mad Detective (2007) is ranked far too high, for example, as are those Gordon Liu pictures.

And The Magic Blade (1976) should not be on this list. Sorry. All those Cheng Pei-Pei wuxia flicks are far, far more enjoyable and inventive than any of the fun-but-serviceable Ti Lung SB titles from the 1970s.

Still, it's a good list and props to the compilers for picking a romance for the number one slot.

Not going to tell; go buy the magazine.

Holograms - ABC City - Swedish electro-punk?

Like some weird mix of Joy Division and Sham 69 -- yikes! -- Stockholm's Holograms gave me a reason to smile today.

This is great stuff. There's a touch of early Boys Next Door (Nick Cave's pre-Birthday Party band) mixed with most of the stuff that U2 was ripping off when they were recording their pre-Boy tracks.

Holograms are on the hip Captured Tracks label and they are surely a band to follow.

I'm hooked!

Holograms - ABC City by H+ Records

Ann Hui's A Simple Life (2011) with Andy Lau

What a pleasure to actually see a good movie in Hong Kong with the The Gang of Film!

Not only that, but it was perhaps the first time that I'd ever been to the cinema here on a film's opening weekend to find a virtually full house!

Deanie Ip, from Spiritual Love (1987) and many other titles, delivers a really fantastic and naturalistic performance in Ann Hui's A Simple Life (2011).

(I'm using the HKMDB.com date of release despite the fact that the print tonight said 2012; the film played so many festivals last year that it seems appropriate to acknowledge that.)

I really would like to criticize the film -- and I can but not without revealing some plot points -- but my criticisms would be rather petty ones: the cameos went from being cute to being vaguely distracting; the shots of real OLD people struggling in the nursing home felt a tiny bit exploitative, and so on.

Forget all that. A Simple Life (2011) is, on further reflection, one of the best films to come out of Hong Kong since Ann Hui's earlier The Way We Are (2008).

Add to that the fact that the film features one of Andy Lau's most understated performances...ever! Who knew he had it in him to tone it down so effectively?

Despite a rather strained attempt at humor by the use of an African immigrant in one scene -- a scene I had to have explained to me, I might add -- the film is remarkably restrained. Apart from some moments of unnecessary soundtrack music, I can't think of too many serious missteps made in the picture.

What's unsaid in the film is that domestic helpers are largely Indonesians and Filipinos here now. The days of a maid "serving" a family for 6 decades like Ip's Ah Tao are probably over.

In that focus on Ah Tao and those of her generation Ann Hui is, obviously, focusing on the plight of HK's older residents, but she's also reminding us of history.

A Simple Life (2011) is almost a reflection on a changing Hong Kong. Not quite, but almost.

As it is, the film is a near-classic.

More importantly, Ann Hui knows how to make a film of sentiment without being sentimental about it. The tone is rarely mawkish here. If not for those violins, I'd say that things were pretty understated.

I feel pretty safe in saying that there won't be many other films coming from Hong Kong in 2012 as good as A Simple Life (2011).

Banana Cop (1984) with Cherie Chung and Teddy Robin

My review should first stress the fact that Cherie Chung is only in about a third of this. She was really the only reason that I watched this.

Banana Cop (1984) is not bad in the way that other Hong Kong films from this era -- and many of Cherie's early films too! -- are bad but it's boring and uninteresting and too long. George Lam plays Inspector Yip, a Chinese police officer in London, who gets involved in a murder in the Chinese community there. Lam -- badly -- tries to make the inspector a sort of grizzled cop -- like an awkward parody of a TV cop show detective. Frankly, he's so obvious in his acting here that he reminded me a tiny bit of Nick Nolte in 48 Hours (1982), to which this film owes an enormous debt in the plot-department.

Somehow, the cop needs the help of Teddy Robin's convict from back in Hong Kong. This is a good excuse to have a few scenes in Hong Kong as Yip goes to get Robin's con out of the clink -- just like Eddie Murphy in that classic American flick.

Sometimes expertly shot, Banana Cop (1984) still suffers from scenes so ridiculous that it's as if we're watching retarded people enact the story. Yip, apparently out of touch with his Chinese roots, eats an apple from an indoor shrine in the police station and the local cops flip out. Now, surely if most white people could figure out that the shrine was obviously something not to be messed with, surely this Chinese guy twice the age of the local cops could too? The only pay-off to this scene is that the white, Brit HK cop is the one who instructs Yip in the error of his ways.

The other scene is when Robin insists on visiting his "wife" -- really a prostitute -- and Lam's Yip waits outside the curtained bed with his hand still handcuffed to the con who's inside getting his rocks off.

Again, this is one of those moments that seems to occur in a lot of Hong Kong films from this era and a viewer is -- I guess -- supposed to overlook the wild improbability of the scene because it has a funny pay-off. Not this viewer. Stuff like that in a film, HK or otherwise, just distracts me so much that I can't really pay much attention to the next scenes in the picture.

So, the two get back to London and begin their pursuit of the thief/murderer. Somehow, the blind Amy (Cherie Chung) ends up in the drama. She really adds nothing as a character except as a victim at the end of the film in a moment of jeopardy.

I have to say that when I watch George Lam I always feel like I'm watching someone's grandfather. So when Grandpa has a love scene with a young and hot British cop, it's a thing of repulsion. Really, who are you trying to kid Mr. Lam?

Add to that that he semi-swaggers through the film like a kid doing an impression of Bogie, and you've got another reason as a viewer to probably avoid Banana Cop (1984).

While I didn't really enjoy the film, I have to say that the ending featured some nicely framed shots in London's Underground. The final sequence, while improbable in one key moment, is not bad and there's the seed of a better film contained in these few moments.

Frankly, this would have been a better film without George Lam and his cop. The story of Teddy Robin's ex-con and Cherie Chung's blind Amy could have made for a poignant romance when set against the backdrop of London. And without that cop, the film would have worked as a heist-gone-wrong-sort of film. Maybe.

If you are a hardcore Cherie Chung or Teddy Robin fan, then maybe Banana Cop (1984) is a film to recommend.

You can buy Banana Cop (1984) on DVD here.

Dim Sum in Kwun Tong

I had dim sum in Kwun Tong -- hey, that almost rhymes in English! -- today.

Or should I say we had dim sum?

Good thing there were plenty of us as it gave us a chance to try a lot of dishes.

(I still don't know the names of many of them. If the menus here had the English versions of the Chinese names next to the entries, it might be easier to pick up.)

This is one of my new favorites. I can never pronounce the name...when I can remember it. But I know it's got carrot in it. Someone please write this down in English for me!

Getting Used To Lamma (Cue Zep's "The Rain Song" Now)

I'm not an outdoors person by any means. I consider camping equivalent to torture. I need electricity, and internet access, and hot running water.

However, that's about it. I can get by with a lot less as long as those essentials are there which means that Lamma is turning out to be a good place for me.

It's so quiet here that I woke up early due to the plastic thump of a soap-holder coming upstuck from above my sink and falling across the bathroom. The suction cups failed.

It rained this morning and when I go out today it will be the first day where I've had to deal with muddy ground. That shouldn't be an issue once I get to the main paths to the pier.

I know a lot of people probably resent me now -- quit my job, came to Hong Kong, found a job quickly, and found a nice place like this -- so be it. They can resent me all they want.

Taking risks was never my strength before and so I got lucky, or fortunate, or blessed if you want to believe that sort of thing.

If it makes you haters feel any better, it's been a tough transition in some ways. But, I'm reasonably happy here.

No place is perfect, and there are minor annoyances here too, but at least that ferry ride in the morning makes me more mellow when I deal with the hordes on the MTR.

And in the evening it decompresses me so that I am totally mellow by the time I reach home -- no more walking in angry after driving on the D.C. Beltway for 2 hours!

No one knows the future but I feel a bit more optimistic about it here.

This blog post's title is in reference to this video. I left it soundtrack-free but, of course, I went inside and played "The Rain Song" by Led Zeppelin as I watched the rain drip on my balcony railing...

My Commute Will Now Involve Lamma Island

Has Hong Kong really become so comfortable to me that I failed to blog about my move to Lamma Island until now?

Judging by the reactions of my friends back home, it seems like a pretty momentous move.

(Or maybe they're just jealous of the views, like that one above?)

Yeah, for the same price as my serviced apartment in Causeway Bay -- my 9 foot-by-9 foot serviced apartment! -- I got an apartment here in a small building. This place has 2 bathrooms, 2 small extra bedrooms, a big front room with a balcony, a kitchen, and a master bedroom with another bathroom.

I have gone into the office of my future employers a few times to get a feel for the sort of commute I'll have when I start working. Needless to say, it will be longer and I'll be a prisoner of the ferry schedule.

That said, the ferry ride is so relaxing, and the quiet of Lamma so inviting, that it's hard to imagine getting entirely sick of this place.

Hopefully, in the summertime, I can leave here early enough, and get home late enough, to avoid the oppressive Hong Kong heat.

My walk home now involves passing through a restaurant I used to visit as a tourist, and which Anthony Bourdain recently hit in his new show "The Layover"...

Happy 101st Birthday Jean Harlow

It's funny that I'm never attracted to blondes in real life.

You'd think that my nearly 40-year crush on Jean Harlow would have made me partial to them.

But, it was never about the hair color. It was about the attitude.

My grandfather was the one who got me hooked on the films of the 1930s. He talked about a lot of different stars and educated me via WTTG-Channel 5 in D.C. which was a pretty reliable source for reruns of classic titles -- especially on weekend nights and Sunday afternoons.

I would watch old movies all night on Friday and Saturday nights at my biological father's apartment, then spend Sunday afternoon watching old movies at my grandparents' house.

(No, I didn't play outside very much!)

And, while I can recall loads of Jimmy Cagney, and Bogie, and Astaire-and-Rogers titles flickering on the TV sets back then, I latched onto Jean.

I suppose that there was some passing resemblance to Fay Wray in King Kong (1933) -- word is that Jean was up for the part of Ann Darrow, but I'm not too sure about the veracity of that tale -- and, as a Kong junkie in a pre-Star Wars (1977) era, I was downright obsessed with Fay Wray as a kid. So maybe Jean reminded me a tiny bit of the gal with the blonde hair screaming in Kong's paw?

Anyway, whatever the reason, I think it was Dinner at Eight (1933) that did it for me.

And then a viewing of Bombshell (1933) when I was about 11 or 12 sealed the deal.

I was hooked on Jean Harlow.

Eventually, I saw most of her films on cable, VHS, or DVD, and I could find moments of joy in even not-quite-great titles, like Reckless (1935).

As I've probably said before, it was her attitude that captivated me. Yes, she was clearly sexual in an open way -- which explains the effect she had on me when I was 12! -- but it wasn't just that. She was no dumb blonde like Chrissy on "Three's Company" or Marilyn Monroe; Jean was smart, sharp, and sarcastic.

There was an edge to her, but underneath that sometimes uncultured or rough exterior there was a good girl. At least in her films, after the Production Code took effect in Hollywood, it was probably essential that she not just be this wild sexual creature; she had to learn her lesson, or go straight in her films.

But in real life, there was quite a bit of similarity to the on-screen gal. Apparently, she was, at heart, quite down-to-earth, unaffected, and full of life. She loved William Powell and he loved her. And she, clearly, ached for a normal life.

For all those reasons, for her skills in multiple genres, and for her ability to fully dominate a screen through looks-and-attitude -- that whole bad girl gone good-bit -- Jean Harlow remains my favorite actress of all time.