43rd Taiwan Film Awards

Ah-haaaaaa~ Gotcha, yer bastards! Aaron Kwok won Best Actor at the Taiwan Film Awards last night, to the applause of the halls (including a certain number of groupies of my acquaintance. I would have loved to have gone, but could you see me boss giving me the day off to nip over to Taiwan?).

Fert full list of winners, go HERE.

I’m right pressed fer time, so I won’t go into the other winners, not even the other winners fer the film he were in, but I’m pleased everyone got shiny golden horses!

Anyway, he were at the APM in Kwun Tong today, but fer a lot of very long, complicated reasons, I’m not there, I’m going to Lamma. I could explain, but “I think the theological reasoning behind it would bore you”, to quote Father Curtis…

Anyway, if you haven’t heard his latest CD “My Nation”, then give it a bash (skip to track 4 first, it’s fab). So this just means we’re all waiting to watch the film he actually won for int first place – “After This, Our Exile” (“Father and Son” in Chinese). Apparently it opens here November 30th. And not before time.


Tags:
Aaron Kwok ~ After This, Our Exile ~ My Nation ~ HK film ~ 父子 ~ Taiwan ~ Golden Horse Awards ~ Charlie Yeung ~ Patrick Tam ~ 郭富城

Viruses and ‘Phrase of the Week’

I’ve been ill. Had a bloody awful cold, which pretty much floored me Thursday through Sunday. Feeling a tad better now though. It could have been the beer, crisps and Max Beesley on Saturday night, or the Chinese flu help that I’ve had down me neck every hour on the hour since Friday. Suffice to say, feeling a whole lot better.

I hate being ill. Not cos of the usual reasons: feeling like shit, not wanting to get out of bed (no wait, I never want to get out of bed), sneezing, coughing, having a voice like Al Pacino sucking razor blades. No, it’s cos I’m in Hong Kong, and everyone believes that the moment you feel a wee bit unusual (please, no jokes – yet) you must visit the doctor straight away. He’ll give you anti-biotics and you’ll be right as trivets in the time it takes you to get back to work.

And it’s not their fault ~ it’s just that English people don’t go to the doctor until they’re dead. Or at least, my family never have done (and that were before we found out the hard way why you should never trust the local NHS GP to diagnose someone in serious need of effective medical help). And we had to get through SARS a while back an’ all – kinda puts the fear of sneezes into you fer a bit, does that. I do remember students disappearing one by one round about the end of my first Christmas in Hong Kong. Only one student known to me, a school friend of one of my favourite students, actually died. But it certainly scared the rest of us.

Whenever I have a cold, I go through familiar motions:
“Have you been to the doctor yet?”
“No.”
“Why not? Don’t you feel awful?”
“Bloody floored, ta. But he’ll take one look at me and send me packing wi some Paracetamol and instructions to drink more water, sleep more and get adequate rest in future.”
“But he can cure you.”
“Really? So he’s the only man in existence that has (1), managed to persuade the cold virus to stop mutating the moment it’s released on a fresh victim, and (2) found a cure? Wow ~ he should sell his story and the cure to the world! He’d be a millionaire overnight!”
“Sorry, what?”
“You can’t cure a cold. You can only alleviate the symptoms and help speed up your natural recovery.”
“Yes you can, everyone knows that the doctor gives you anti-biotics and –“
“Anti-biotics can’t touch colds.”
“Yes they can! Last year when I was sick, my doctor gave me some, and after a few days I was better!”
“What a coincidence ~ last time I was sick, I stayed in bed for two days, drank gallons of hot tea and read about six novels, and I was much better in a few days, too!”

I hate the arguments and wars. What I hate more is the “just lie and they’ll go away” routine that I always end up doing:
“Have you been to the doctor yet?”
“I will do.”
“Ok.”

Anyway, a while ago (actually, about six months ago) I posted a Phrase of the Week. As I recall, it were “I collect perfect teeth from dead frogs”, from Captain Frederickson (a bally hero, that man!). So onto a new one I’ve been having fun with this week….

It happened like this: I were in a lesson wi’ six fourteen-year-olds, and we were talking about future careers and suchlike. It got onto stuff like “do you have questions about the world?” etc, and one smart-arse said that he’d like to meet God and ask him a few very searching questions of his own. I said summat like he’d have a job, seeing I don’t believe He exists, and there were laffter all-round. The student then asked me if I had questions I’d like put to some kind of supreme being. And what “just popped in there”?

“If you were two extraneous wires, where would you want to be connected?”

Bizarre, random, and yes, completely me. And no, I’m not telling you where I heard that said this week. You’ll just have to think.

In other news, saw National Treasure, and have to say it sucked balls. And they weren’t even chocolate salty ones.

Soopytwist.

Tags:
common cold ~ cold remedy ~ SARS ~ anti-biotics ~ Sharpe ~ National Treasure

Irony

Irony is finding some bastard’s turned off the water supply to yer building (so you have to wash yer hair and brush yer teeth in the bottled drinking water you had int fridge) and then getting halfway to work before the heavens open and you get fucking soaked cos you didn’t bring an umbrella.

That were yesterday, in a nutshell.

I banged ont neighbour’s door, asking him why the water were off and, more to the point, why no bugger had warned me. I were just lucky I’d had any water in my fridge at all. He said it were alright cos the building knew.

“Oh, the building knew, did it? The building knew? So why didn’t anyone tell the people that live inside the building?”

Cue the mainland lady from upstairs, shuffling down steps and stopping behind me, lending her voice to the tirade an’ all. Apparently, the building and everyone expect me and her, knew. Then comes a male voice from further up the landing, asking if we were on about water, and if so, did we know what had happened as he had kids to bath and get to school, like.

In the end, I felt entirely vindicated, but still grimy. Had me catlick and went off to work, got rained on coming out of the MTR station, and decided it were the right time to call the landlord.

Anyway, it were back on last night, so I were clever enough to refill all the bottles and put em next to the fridge, this time, not int fridge. They get cold in there.

Then there’s the Remington Steele DVDs. I’ve got region 1 versions (USA, NTSC) cos that’s the only choice you have. I can’t play em in me Mac, cos me Mac’s region-locked (DON’T START! See previous entry on ‘flashing innuendos’ fer details). So imagine my surprise when I find out that they’re soon to be released on region 2 DVDs anyway? Don’t believe me? Well, alright, they’re the French version, but who cares? After all, I live in a country where everything’s in two languages, and sometimes three, and you just learn to focus on the one you want. When yer entire life is in two languages, are you really going to get shirty about the words on the outside of the DVD box?


"Now Laura, this is not what it looks like..."

And talking of Mr Steele, and therefore Pierce Brosnan, I read the reviews of Casino Royale last night and now I really want to see it! But it dunt open in Hong Kong till December 21st, so until then, I’ll just have to not read the spoilers and not read all them mails that people are going to send me way that contain gratuitous Daniel Craig pics. I’ve seen a few making-ofs on the Soundtrack Channel, and I’m sold. *big grin*

Time fer me to go work.

Soopytwist.

Tags:
water ~ MTR ~ Remington Steele ~ DVD ~ James Bond ~ Daniel Craig

Icy Calm, Miss Holt, Icy Calm...

Click the poster fert link...

Tags:
RSI ~ Casablanca

The Prestige

Power were off at work today, so were told to go into work two hours later than usual, when it would magically be restored. Routine maintenance, apparently. “This is it!” I cried, “now’s me chance to see ‘The Prestige’ before it closes!”

I went to the Palace IFC in Central, spent HK$59 on a ticket (members get a discount, dontchaknow), got meself a big bucket o salted popcorn and took me seat int back row. Fab.

I have to say, predictable it might have been, but the flourish and style were just incredible. I loved the moments where I went “oh shit! That means:” etc, and the wonderful, wonderful cinematography. David Bowie seemed to have quite a strange mix of accents going on, but nowt that hurt the story. Christian “no-one can tell I’m actually Welsh” Bale can be me cheeky wee Cockney ont side anytime he likes, and Huge-Ackman were absolute class. Both of em were accent stars… I shan’t post any spoilers, cos there just might be a few people as haven’t seen it yet. Suffice to say, it were bloody ace and I’ll more’n likely be buying the DVD when it’s out. Michael Caine were fab as usual, and even Scarlet Johanson did a bang-up job (arf arf). Me mate saw it, said it were pants. He said he loved it while he were watching it, but afterwards when he tried to pin down just what he’d seen, he wont really sure. I argued that that were the whole point. It weren’t called ‘here’s how we did it’, ‘plot by numbers’ or ‘the butler dunnit’, it were called ‘The Prestige’ – the third act.

Anyway, apart from still thinking ‘hmm, but then again, how did he…’ I’m pretty sorted, Prestige-wise. All I have to do now is look forward to Casino Royale and The Science of Sleep.


Awwww, ymenyn wouldn’t melt, is it?

LATE EDIT:
If yer watching, you'll notice Hugh Jackman is left-handed. And that's reason enough to call him a superstar, LOL...

Soopytwist.

Tags:
The Prestige ~ Christopher Nolan ~ Memento ~ Christian Bale ~ Hugh Jackman ~ Michael Caine ~ Palace IFC ~ Hong Kong ~ Casino Royale ~ The Science of Sleep

It’s all in me ‘ead…

The two film stills are courtesy of Rising Dragon: Fujiwara Tetsuya

Went out and saw “Deathnote 2: The Last Name” last night. What can I say? More twists and turns that a Dallas season-ender. Granted, no bugger came back from the dead via a shower – in fact, no-one came back from the dead at all. Or did they? Or did they? OR DID THEY? (Ta, Fry and Laurie. Just cannot do that line wiowt wetting meself.)

Ok, basics: Light-O is now bent on killing L, ostensibly to stop the geeky little oik from exposing the real identity of ‘Kira’ (Killer). Or is he? In the meantime, Light-O lulls L into a fall sense of security, getting him to trust him, and even – in a rather garish but breathtaking twist of fate – having L put his very life in Light-O’s hands… Or did he? Or did he? OR DID HE?

Cue the introduction of millions n hundreds of new, important characters, and all manner of side-plots and tiny details suddenly coming into focus to make you realise you’ve been had. Completely. You thought the ‘Ocean’s 11’ remake was full of twists and turns, sneaky snaffoos and downright wool-over-the-eyes cinema? You ain’t seen nothing, mate. This film makes you try and follow so many different ideas so quickly, chopping and changing so bloody fast, it makes yer head spin. Try and follow it all, yes. Try and out-smart or even predict summat, bloody hell no.

And that’s what I love about both this one and number one (‘Deathnote’). You have to think: for two hours yer feverishly trying to work out who’s putting one over on who, and who you want to succeed. I found and dumped allegiances quicker than a Take That fan, I can tell you. While ‘Deathnote’ part one was noticeably less convoluted and more based on the characters themselves, this one downshifted into screaming 7,000rpm territory, relying on good-old-fashioned “will he – won’t he?” ploys and furious one-upmanship that actually came down to survival rather than preening. It was slick, well-acted, and gave the appearance of running on nervous energy, when in fact it was the coolest bit of deductive reasoning and the best use of cause-and-effect (and in fact the best display of downright crafty planning) since ‘Sleuth’ and ‘Death by Murder’ all rolled into one. Imagine Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty on Speed, and you’re half-way there.

The cast is fab, Fujiwara Tetsuya (remember him from ‘Battle Royale’?) is cute as a button even when filled with infinite rage, and Nakamura Shido (yes, Tanaka from the recent Jet Li flick, ‘Fearless’) does an excellent voice for Ryuk, one of the handful of gods of death that we see.

I have to warn anyone that feels the need to watch this right now, due to what I’ve said: if you don’t buy into the whole ‘there’s a god of death flapping about behind me, except only those who’ve touched the Deathnote can see him’ thing, then don’t bother. The gods that stroll about as they please (pretty much like Xena’s Greek gods, except for the aforementioned being-invisible detail) are the cutting edge of coolness for me ~ but I’m betting a lot of people (Granny W?) will look at it and just go: “you’ve got to be joking me”. No, they’re not ‘creepy’, unless you call a ten-foot tall Goth-type chain-wearing skeletal character wearing an evil Joker-style grin creepy. It looks like CGI, cos that’s what it is. Don’t expect ‘Jurassic Park’ SFX here, it’s in it fert plot, not to win Oscars fer the SFX department bods. That said, they do look like walking cartoons, fab recreations of comic book characters, and that scores points wi me, I'm afraid. They're not supposed to be of this world, so why make them look like real people? Anyway, the scary thing is finding this one, lone human who thinks he can outsmart everyone – including gods of death – and manipulate everyone to do his bidding. But has he lost sight of what he was doing it for int first place? And who said it was ok to summarily put down criminals anyway?

Fabbest of the fab, this film is going to keep me thinking and calling me Japanese mate, with whom I saw it last night, fer weeks. I can see I’m going to have to sit down and crack open them comic books I’ve got, to re-read the plot and make sure I understood everything.

Oh, wait. I’m off to see ‘The Prestige’ later today. Oh, the pressures of squeezing two films into a weekend that’s officially only 36 hours long…

Peach and lube!

Tags:
Deathnote ~ Deathnote 2 ~ Fujiwara Tetsuya ~ Battle Royale ~ Stephen Fry ~ Hugh Laurie ~ Sherlock Holmes ~ Jet Li ~ Fearless ~ Xena ~ Sleuth ~ Asian Cinema ~ Hong Kong

iPods and Deathnotes and Depps, oh my

To the tune of ‘La Cucaracha’: “me iPod Nano, me iPod Nano, la la la la la la la laaa, it’s blue and fa-ab, bright blue and fa-ab, la la la la la la laaaa…”

Yeah, went fer a new iPod. Me Shuffle were getting a bit boring, and one year of not actually being able to see any song details leaves you ignorant of everything. “Ooh, I like that song ~ but what’s it called? Bugger…”
So I went out and got meself a new iPod Nano, the 4GB spangly blue one, and yay, it is fab. I were loading and playing all last night ~ the wheely thing is bloody marvellous. And it dunt care what language yer music is in either, so balls to yer old Sony MD recorders that have kitten fits if it’s not one of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Not that I have one. Well, alright, I do. Up until a year ago (the advent of the Shuffle), I used it religiously. Now it’s been consigned to the bedside shelf as a provider of night music. Really should think about getting shot of it, spose…

Still haven’t seen ‘The Prestige’ yet. And now there’s the local gay film festival on, and I want to see the Cillian Murphy film, ‘Breakfast on Pluto’. Sounds very engaging. And I still haven’t seen ‘Tales From Earthsea’, anime fer grown-ups. Better get a shift on, or they’ll be gone again. AND ‘Deathnote: The Last Name’ opens tonight. Bloody hell, how am I going to keep up? And ‘Libertine’ the mysteriously sneaked-out flick wi Johnny Depp. Wonder how that escaped the limelight, seeing as who it’s got in it…

Films I have seen this week: ‘Evil Dead 2’, seeing as how it were Hallowe’en last week, ‘To Catch a Thief’ (to pacify my inner Remington Steele), ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (for the third time), and were even subjected to the first fifteen minutes of the re-make of ‘The Pink Panther’. You all know me feelings fer Steve Martin, so I won’t go into it again. Suffice to say, I were less than impressed and just could not suffer meself to smile once. I did develop a slight eye-twitch, but I think that were down to me imagining me hands wrapping round Mr Martin’s neck. Insufferable twat.

That’ll do. I’m off to work… Soopytwist.

Tags:
iPod Nano ~ iPod Shuffle ~ Sony ~ The Prestige ~ Cillian Murphy ~ Earthsea ~ Libertine ~ Johnny Depp ~ Evil Dead ~ To Catch A Thief ~ Steve Martin ~ Deathnote