Remember The Last Samurai? That was a 2003 movie in which some doofus white guy becomes a super Jap after the American Civil War. The premise behind a movie like that is typically Hollywood, and based on the assumption that a whole bunch of moist-in-their-panties twenty-something white chicks won't watch an Asian man doing something spectacular, and an equivalent number of teenage white boys of all ages cannot possibly identify with a macho studmuffin doing boffo sh*t who is of another race.
So, Tom Cruise ends up saving the poor little Japanese from themselves and ushering in a golden age of modernization, or some such crap.
The Karate Kid for grown-ups.
Fast forward.
THE GREAT WALL
Quote from Angry Asian Man:
"Directed by Zhang Yimou, and touted as the most expensive Chinese movie of all time, the movie stars a long-haired Matt Damon alongside Chinese superstars like Andy Lau, Luhan and Jing Tian, in a crazy-ass smoke and spears and fire and arrows battle on the Great Wall against fire-breathing dragons."
"you can set a story anywhere in the world, in any era of history, and Hollywood will still somehow find a way for the movie to star a white guy."
[SOURCE: MATT DAMON SAVES CHINA!]
Guys? Hey guys!?! If I really want to see a cheesecake white guy do some splendid sh*t, I'll watch Tarzan, okay?!?
That, or 'Pygmy Island'.
I can think of at least a dozen Cantonese actors who are one hundred times better than Matt Damon. Obviously they're writing this for a white audience that creams all over their seats every time they see Matt Damon, so does he at least take his clothes off?
Apparently this stinker is set to open in February next year.
I can't wait to avoid it like the plague.
Y'all are nuts.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Showing posts with label 香港電影. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 香港電影. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Saturday, March 21, 2015
LET'S GO TO THE MOVIES!
Twice in the last week, Chinese women asked how come I could speak Cantonese. In both cases I explained it was primarily because of movies. Several years ago there were movie theaters in Chinatown, and every week I would go watch the double bill at whichever venue had new releases. I got to see all of the Chou Yunfat (周潤發) gangster movies, as well as Andy Lau (劉德華) and Leslie Cheung (張國榮).
Three great actors, with phenomenal screen presence.
The ideal man, in several different portrayals.
That last part I did not say, though. Sufficient to acknowledge that they were incredible to watch, enormous art and entertainment combined.
I also didn't mention the great actresses, whose radiant on-screen personalities absolutely embodied the feminine hero-type and the model maiden much more than any of the modern Hollywood actresses, many of whom are scandalous slags, most of whom have only two talents.
Great Hong Kong actresses, however... total dynamite.
Cherry Chung, Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui
鍾楚紅、張曼玉、梅艷芳。
If I had to name perfection among non-Chinese womanhood, three examples come to mind: Agent Scully in the X-Files, Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers, and Suzie Derkins from Calvin and Hobbs.
Brilliance, chutzpah, and strong-mindedness.
Seriously.
There haven't been any movie theatres in Chinatown for several years.
The neighborhood has changed over time. There are still movies, but you need to buy a converter for the discs, as whatever is available at reasonable prices with the original crappy subtitles will not play on American machines. Remastered versions with allegedly better subtitles, or even dubbing, are the standard outside of Chinatown.
Watching those isn't the same at all.
I liked the original subtitles.
Unique uses of English.
Very creative.
Nothing conveys the whomp of a Cantonese gangster flic better than snarled HK slang, and nothing expresses what the protagonist means more effectively. Adding surreal English-language subtitles underneath adds to the experience.
Dubbing, as an art form, is only worthwhile in German. The teevee series 'Bonanza', Marlon Brando, and Frank Sinatra, plus the film 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', are so much more sparklesome when the characters speak that language instead of English.
One watches Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro snarl and gibber in the language of Goethe, and the world seems a brighter stranger place.
Dubbing for an American audience dumbs the material down, and when you throw in fake Asian accents and really bad voice-talent, the result is positively putrid. Simplified translations in subtitles, because the average Texan dumb-ass knows nothing of the contexts and cannot construe, makes the whole experience even less enjoyable.
The only possible exceptions: Anime series dubbed in English.
Genuine and realistic speech-patterns.
An educated audience.
KWEILO TO DA MAX!
十分之十鬼佬！
I have to wonder what I sound like in Cantonese. My ex usually cringed when I spoke the language, and most American-born Chinese cannot quite figure out what that weird whitey is saying. Yet there are people who have no problem when I talk; the alternative, obviously, is that they otherwise wouldn't be able to have any conversation with me.
Still, I have no doubt I sound painfully goofy.
Kind of like the white people in Hong Kong movies. The nun in that series of courtroom dramas. The female cop in several comedies.
The brutish blond thug in a couple of gangster tales.
But evenso, it could be far, far worse.
I could speak only Mandarin.
That's totally white.
One woman the other day speculated that my parents must have been Chinese. If that had been so, I would have been a very defective adopted son. Not fluent at all, and very very Honky.
Nice Chinese men don't smoke pipes.
And never have facial hair.
Or speak Dutch.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Three great actors, with phenomenal screen presence.
The ideal man, in several different portrayals.
That last part I did not say, though. Sufficient to acknowledge that they were incredible to watch, enormous art and entertainment combined.
I also didn't mention the great actresses, whose radiant on-screen personalities absolutely embodied the feminine hero-type and the model maiden much more than any of the modern Hollywood actresses, many of whom are scandalous slags, most of whom have only two talents.
Great Hong Kong actresses, however... total dynamite.
Cherry Chung, Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui
鍾楚紅、張曼玉、梅艷芳。
If I had to name perfection among non-Chinese womanhood, three examples come to mind: Agent Scully in the X-Files, Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers, and Suzie Derkins from Calvin and Hobbs.
Brilliance, chutzpah, and strong-mindedness.
Seriously.
There haven't been any movie theatres in Chinatown for several years.
The neighborhood has changed over time. There are still movies, but you need to buy a converter for the discs, as whatever is available at reasonable prices with the original crappy subtitles will not play on American machines. Remastered versions with allegedly better subtitles, or even dubbing, are the standard outside of Chinatown.
Watching those isn't the same at all.
I liked the original subtitles.
Unique uses of English.
Very creative.
Nothing conveys the whomp of a Cantonese gangster flic better than snarled HK slang, and nothing expresses what the protagonist means more effectively. Adding surreal English-language subtitles underneath adds to the experience.
Dubbing, as an art form, is only worthwhile in German. The teevee series 'Bonanza', Marlon Brando, and Frank Sinatra, plus the film 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', are so much more sparklesome when the characters speak that language instead of English.
One watches Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro snarl and gibber in the language of Goethe, and the world seems a brighter stranger place.
Dubbing for an American audience dumbs the material down, and when you throw in fake Asian accents and really bad voice-talent, the result is positively putrid. Simplified translations in subtitles, because the average Texan dumb-ass knows nothing of the contexts and cannot construe, makes the whole experience even less enjoyable.
The only possible exceptions: Anime series dubbed in English.
Genuine and realistic speech-patterns.
An educated audience.
KWEILO TO DA MAX!
十分之十鬼佬！
I have to wonder what I sound like in Cantonese. My ex usually cringed when I spoke the language, and most American-born Chinese cannot quite figure out what that weird whitey is saying. Yet there are people who have no problem when I talk; the alternative, obviously, is that they otherwise wouldn't be able to have any conversation with me.
Still, I have no doubt I sound painfully goofy.
Kind of like the white people in Hong Kong movies. The nun in that series of courtroom dramas. The female cop in several comedies.
The brutish blond thug in a couple of gangster tales.
But evenso, it could be far, far worse.
I could speak only Mandarin.
That's totally white.
One woman the other day speculated that my parents must have been Chinese. If that had been so, I would have been a very defective adopted son. Not fluent at all, and very very Honky.
Nice Chinese men don't smoke pipes.
And never have facial hair.
Or speak Dutch.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Sunday, February 22, 2015
OH BUGGER THE OSCARS!
Normally I completely ignore the Oscars. This time, however, I have a pony in the race. My cousin's brilliant son, as of this writing, has scored big time. So yes, I am paying attention.
Probably won't go see his movie in a theatre, though.
For one thing, absolutely no one to go with.
Actually, that is key.
You see, other than Cantonese movies, which I always enjoyed by myself as a secret perversion, movies aren't really my thing. I like having a warm hand to hold, and someone to talk about the movie with afterward.
While we feast upon a scrumptious dinner.
I don't really like movie theatres in SF. They smell bad, the seats are of very suspect cleanliness, snacks and drinks are pretty darn awful and cost too much, and the ambient noise makes understanding what the characters said problematic. Plus the forward rows ALWAYS have big hair.
The last movie I thoroughly enjoyed by myself was King of Masks. Yep, a tearjerker. Especially when the adorable tyke wails "wo shir ge nü-dze!"
"我是個女子！"
Oy.
Saw that movie over two dozen times. My ex hated it. Even today she still teases me by mimicking the sounds and expressions in that movie.
Fortunately she's never seen most of the Cantonese movies I love, such as pretty much every ultra-violent gangster flick with Chou Yunfat, or any of the films featuring the lovely Cherie Chung. Well, possibly excepting Peking Opera Blues. I think she enjoyed it, I'm not sure. Too much historical detail, even though the script played fast and loose with the facts quite as much as Cherie Chung's character with other people's jewelry.
It's a great cinematic romp if you are Chinese or know recent mainland history. But probably more than a bit baffling if you are American-born Chinese, and not at all fully at home in the language or the culture.
Chou Yunfat was one hell of a handsome devil in the gangster movies, and one seriously wondered why women all over the world weren't stalking him. Plus he had style.
Confession: I also thoroughly enjoyed Anna And The King.
Chou Yunfat opposite Jodie Foster.
Jodie Foster, you will recall, was blazing and brilliant in the Hotel New Hampshire, which was exceedingly kinky, in a witty sort of way.
Bears featured as sexy beasts.
See, that's what all well-rounded movies need. Hot gangsters, brilliant (or brilliantly demented) Cantonese women, sex-fetish-ursines, and a great setting. If you've got all of those, the plot is immaterial. Just tell everyone to be themselves, and wait for the sparks to fly.
That will come naturally.
This, of course, explains why my brilliant first cousin ("cousin-nephew"?) is at the Oscars tonight, whereas I am sitting in front of my computer gibbering pretentiously about film.
Congratulations, dude.
Well-deserved.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Probably won't go see his movie in a theatre, though.
For one thing, absolutely no one to go with.
Actually, that is key.
You see, other than Cantonese movies, which I always enjoyed by myself as a secret perversion, movies aren't really my thing. I like having a warm hand to hold, and someone to talk about the movie with afterward.
While we feast upon a scrumptious dinner.
I don't really like movie theatres in SF. They smell bad, the seats are of very suspect cleanliness, snacks and drinks are pretty darn awful and cost too much, and the ambient noise makes understanding what the characters said problematic. Plus the forward rows ALWAYS have big hair.
The last movie I thoroughly enjoyed by myself was King of Masks. Yep, a tearjerker. Especially when the adorable tyke wails "wo shir ge nü-dze!"
"我是個女子！"
Oy.
Saw that movie over two dozen times. My ex hated it. Even today she still teases me by mimicking the sounds and expressions in that movie.
Fortunately she's never seen most of the Cantonese movies I love, such as pretty much every ultra-violent gangster flick with Chou Yunfat, or any of the films featuring the lovely Cherie Chung. Well, possibly excepting Peking Opera Blues. I think she enjoyed it, I'm not sure. Too much historical detail, even though the script played fast and loose with the facts quite as much as Cherie Chung's character with other people's jewelry.
It's a great cinematic romp if you are Chinese or know recent mainland history. But probably more than a bit baffling if you are American-born Chinese, and not at all fully at home in the language or the culture.
Chou Yunfat was one hell of a handsome devil in the gangster movies, and one seriously wondered why women all over the world weren't stalking him. Plus he had style.
Confession: I also thoroughly enjoyed Anna And The King.
Chou Yunfat opposite Jodie Foster.
Jodie Foster, you will recall, was blazing and brilliant in the Hotel New Hampshire, which was exceedingly kinky, in a witty sort of way.
Bears featured as sexy beasts.
See, that's what all well-rounded movies need. Hot gangsters, brilliant (or brilliantly demented) Cantonese women, sex-fetish-ursines, and a great setting. If you've got all of those, the plot is immaterial. Just tell everyone to be themselves, and wait for the sparks to fly.
That will come naturally.
This, of course, explains why my brilliant first cousin ("cousin-nephew"?) is at the Oscars tonight, whereas I am sitting in front of my computer gibbering pretentiously about film.
Congratulations, dude.
Well-deserved.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
EAT WELL AND SMELL GOOD
Please note: the following is not only a suggestion for an early morning jaunt along the lower level on Hong Kong Island, it is also an illustration (between parentheses) of the Chinese language's difficulty making any sense at all of English-language toponyms.
As well as our problems when we try to translate Chinese.
西遊記 JOURNEY TO THE WEST
['sai yau gei']
It's a two hour stroll at least from the Admiralty in Central to Belcher Street in Kennedy Town (堅彌地城 'gin nei dei seng'; "resolute fulfilled earth town"). But you can also take the double decker tram. Far less time. Never the less walk at least part of the way, as otherwise you will miss some rather interesting stuff.
Kennedy Town (堅彌地城) is part of the western district (西環 'sai waan':"west ring"), which also includes Sai Ying Pun (西營盤 "western military basin"), Shek Tong Tsui (石塘嘴 "stone pond beak"), and Belcher Bay (卑路乍灣 'pei lou jaa waan'; "vulgar road previously bay").
A long time ago Shek Tong Tsui was filled with restaurants, music halls, and bordellos (花樓 'faa lou'), of which alas (or perhaps 'fortunately') very little remains. The 1987 film Rouge (胭脂扣 'yin ji kou') with Anita Mui (梅艷芳 'mui yim fong') and Leslie Cheung (張國榮 'cheung gwok wing') was set there.
Like that era, these two stellar movie actors are now also part of the fabled past; both of them left this world in 2003.
That wasn't a good year.
Belcher's Street (卑路乍街 'bei lou ja kaai') is one of the main streets in Kennedy Town. The Kwong Sang Tea Company (established in 1936) used to be at number 24.
[廣生茶行有限公司；香港，堅尼地城，卑路乍街24號。
Current address: 香港西環卑路乍街38號天成工業大厦5/F。
Tea packers and exporters, 成立于1936.]
參茸藥區 HERBAL PRODUCTS DISTRICT
['sam yung yuek keui']
From the Admiralty (金鐘 'kam jung'; "gold bell") take Chater road (遮打道 'je daa dou'; "protect hit r.") to Central (中環 'jung waan'), where it becomes Des Voeux Road (德輔道 'dak fu dou'; "virtue assist r."). Follow Des Voeux to Wing Lok Street (永樂街 'wing lok kaai'; "forever glad s."), which splits off at Wing Wo Street (永和街 'wing wo kaai', "perpetual harmony s." where there are a large number of places selling swallows nest (燕窩 'yin wo'). At the intersection of Morrison Street (摩利臣街 'mo lei san kaai': "rub profitable minister s.") turn left, less than twenty yards to Bonham Strand (文咸街 'man haam kaai'; "literature alltogether s."), take Bonham Strand around the corner left to where Wing Lok continues. At the end of Wing Lok, around the curve of Des Voeux West (德輔道西) at Queen Street, there are hoi mei stores (海味 "sea flavour"; dried ocean products), sharkfin (魚翅 'yü chi') shops, and raw rice (米 'mai') dealers.
Continue along Des Voeux.
There's an incense company of antique provenance on the right hand side, surrounded by herbalists and dried seafood shops. They're a century-old brand (百年老字號 'baak nin lou ji hou'; "hundred year old word mark").
梁永馨香廠 (香港) 有限公司
"Leung's Eternal Fragrance (HK) Co.,Ltd."
['leung wing hing heung chong (heung kong) yau haan gung si']
梁永馨名香
Leung Wing Hing Joss Sticks
101 Des Voeux Road West, ground floor.
香港，德輔道西，101號，地下。
Informational interstice: The complex character 馨 is seldom used in modern speech. Originally it represented a dialect variation on 香 meaning what the nose took note of, later its connotations expanded to include the faintest trace of perfume, a lingering smell that prompts memories, aroma-echoes that make one recollect, and similar shades of meaning. It's a twenty stroke character found in the dictionary under 香 with a score of other characters under that radical. But twenty strokes means that it is harder to write correctly in the same size as your other words, and like many such logoglyphs, merely the great chance of leaving an illegible blob in the column made it fade from use. A pity, because it's very elegant .
Two other words with fragrant meanings are 芬 ('fan'; "fragrance, aromatic substance") and 芳 ('fong'; "fragrant, virtuous, lovely"). Both terms might have applied to the lovely plumes or fresh green boughs offered in the altar vessel which forms the bottom of 豐 ('fung'; "abundant, lush, fertile"), which at nineteen strokes remarkably shows up far more often than 馨。
Perhaps it's just more useful.
熏香品類 INCENSE TYPES:
['fan heung pan leui']
西澳洲檀香 ('sai ou jau taan heung'): West Australia sandal wood
百福塔香正宗柏香2H座 ('baak fuk taap heung jeng-jung baak heung leung-go jungtau jo'): Hundred Lucky Pagoda authentic cypress/cedar two hour coils.
天然老山檀香 ('tin yin lou saan taan heung'): Heavenly ('natural') Old Mountain sandalwood incense.
天然特級老山檀香 ('tin yin tak kap lou saan taan heung'): Heavenly Superior Quality sandalwood incense.
沉香 ('cham heung'): Agar wood incense.
Et autres.
Phone numbers: (852) 2548 2340 / (852) 2547 9277
Fax. :(852) 2559 5634
Internet: www.yp.com.hk/leungwinghing and www.leungwinghing.com.hk
Email: info@leungwinghing.com.hk
You can also get there by double-decker tram. If you don't want to walk a lot on a warm day.
The road bends at Wing Wah Mansion apartment building (永華大廈 'wing waa taai haa'; "eternal China big edifice"). When it goes around the corner further on, follow it to Queens Road West (皇后大道西 'wong hau daai dou sai'), up about thirty yards, turn right onto Belcher Street.
This is a heavily populated neighborhood, and you shouldn't expect too many English signs, despite the overwhelming surfeit of international brandnames and Seven Elevens.
冇乜特別，香脆，味都幾好。
NOTHING SPECIAL, FRAGRANT AND CRISPY, TASTES PRETTY GOOD
['mou ye dak bit, heung cheui, mei dou gei ho']
Convenience stores, small shops, and places where you can eat congee (粥 'juk') or roast duck rice (燒鴨飯 'siu ngaap faan'). Fishballs and dumplings too. The Fresh Fragrance Tea Restaurant (鮮香茶餐廳 'sin heung chaa chanteng') and Fish Ball King & Genuine Teochow Rice-sticks (港仔君豪魚蛋王 -- 正宗潮州粉面 'gong jai gwan hou yü daan wong jeng jung chiu jau fan min'), Kuen Gei Wonton Noodle (權記雲吞麵 "authority notation cloud gulp noodle")
You could also have the stirfried augmented kangkong (炒通菜 'chaau tung choi') and the mixed balls clay pot (什丸煲 'sap yuen pou'), with a nice glass of hot lemon tea (熱檸茶 'yit ning chaa').
Breakfast of champions.
Not expensive.
牛脷酥, 炸兩 ('ngau lei sou'. 'jaa leung') space alien cheap snack: "Cow tongue flaky", an oval semi-sweet fried puff bread (good with congee) and "fry two" (a fried dough stick steamed in a rice noodle sheet, drizzled with soy sauce, hoisin jeung, chive or scallion garnished, cut into chunks you can eat with a toothpick. Sometimes jaa leung is also served with a squirt of ketchup and yellow mustard, which is also good.
茶餐廳 ('chaa chan teng') tea-restaurants: Old-fashioned HK western style breakfast lunch and late afternoon foods. Fried eggs, noodle dishes, chicken soup macaroni with ham. Convenient easy food. Sate beef noodles (沙爹牛肉麵 'saa de ngau yiuk min'). Famous milk-tea (奶茶 'naai chaa') and kai mei bao (雞尾包"chicken arse bun").
Places filled with old geezers.
潮州菜 ('chiu jau choi') Chaozhou food: There are only two real reasons to seek out a Chaozhou style eatery: roast goose, and shellfish. The roast goose is brined before cooking, the shellfish (clams and oysters) are generously apportioned, nicely cooked.
Especially try oyster omelette.
潮州名食 CHAOZHOU'S FAMOUS FOODS:
['chiu jau ming sik']
脆皮糯米釀大腸 ('cheui pei no mai yeung daai cheung'): Crispy skinned glutinous rice ferments pork sausage. Fried a golden brown, then sliced across for chopstickable ease.
蟹粥 ('haai juk'): Crab congee (whole grains, unlike Cantonese style).
墨魚卷 ('mak yü kuen'): Cuttle fish nuggets.
墨魚片 ('mak yu pin'): Cuttle fish slices.
滷水鵝片 ('lou seui ngo pin'): Brine-cured (savoury sauced) goose slices.
豉椒炒蜆 ('si jiu chaau hin'): Bellpepper and black bean clams.
避風塘炒蜆 ('bei fung tong chaau hin'): Typhoon shelter stirfry clams with crispy-fried garlic and chilies.
鵝肝 ('ngo gon'): Goose liver.
香酥芋鴨 ('heung sou wu ngaap'): Taro batter crispy duck.
韭菜炒鹹肉 ('gau choi chaau haam yiuk'): Chives stirfried with Chinese bacon.
胡椒豬肚湯 ('wu jiu chyu tou tong'): Pepper pork stomach soup. Everyone raves about this; I don't.
闊面蠔餅, 炸蠔仔餅 ('fut min hou bing', 'jaa hou-chai bing'): The oyster omelette. Chiu chow style is thicker and denser than Hokkien, more like an egg-batter fritata.
糖醋麵 ('tong chou min'): Sweet and sour ("sugar - vinegar") noodles, panfried to a crispy cake.
魚湯浸豆苗 ('yü tong jam dau miu'): Fish-broth poached pea shoots.
Now that Hong Kong is so densely populated, sandalwood is no longer shipped out from the jetty over in Tsimshatsui, and the raw material for incense is imported from places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. But 'fragrance' (incense) gave the place its name, and it still seems a very apt appellation.
Food. Tea. Commerce.
Warm.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
As well as our problems when we try to translate Chinese.
西遊記 JOURNEY TO THE WEST
['sai yau gei']
It's a two hour stroll at least from the Admiralty in Central to Belcher Street in Kennedy Town (堅彌地城 'gin nei dei seng'; "resolute fulfilled earth town"). But you can also take the double decker tram. Far less time. Never the less walk at least part of the way, as otherwise you will miss some rather interesting stuff.
Kennedy Town (堅彌地城) is part of the western district (西環 'sai waan':"west ring"), which also includes Sai Ying Pun (西營盤 "western military basin"), Shek Tong Tsui (石塘嘴 "stone pond beak"), and Belcher Bay (卑路乍灣 'pei lou jaa waan'; "vulgar road previously bay").
A long time ago Shek Tong Tsui was filled with restaurants, music halls, and bordellos (花樓 'faa lou'), of which alas (or perhaps 'fortunately') very little remains. The 1987 film Rouge (胭脂扣 'yin ji kou') with Anita Mui (梅艷芳 'mui yim fong') and Leslie Cheung (張國榮 'cheung gwok wing') was set there.
Like that era, these two stellar movie actors are now also part of the fabled past; both of them left this world in 2003.
That wasn't a good year.
Belcher's Street (卑路乍街 'bei lou ja kaai') is one of the main streets in Kennedy Town. The Kwong Sang Tea Company (established in 1936) used to be at number 24.
[廣生茶行有限公司；香港，堅尼地城，卑路乍街24號。
Current address: 香港西環卑路乍街38號天成工業大厦5/F。
Tea packers and exporters, 成立于1936.]
參茸藥區 HERBAL PRODUCTS DISTRICT
['sam yung yuek keui']
From the Admiralty (金鐘 'kam jung'; "gold bell") take Chater road (遮打道 'je daa dou'; "protect hit r.") to Central (中環 'jung waan'), where it becomes Des Voeux Road (德輔道 'dak fu dou'; "virtue assist r."). Follow Des Voeux to Wing Lok Street (永樂街 'wing lok kaai'; "forever glad s."), which splits off at Wing Wo Street (永和街 'wing wo kaai', "perpetual harmony s." where there are a large number of places selling swallows nest (燕窩 'yin wo'). At the intersection of Morrison Street (摩利臣街 'mo lei san kaai': "rub profitable minister s.") turn left, less than twenty yards to Bonham Strand (文咸街 'man haam kaai'; "literature alltogether s."), take Bonham Strand around the corner left to where Wing Lok continues. At the end of Wing Lok, around the curve of Des Voeux West (德輔道西) at Queen Street, there are hoi mei stores (海味 "sea flavour"; dried ocean products), sharkfin (魚翅 'yü chi') shops, and raw rice (米 'mai') dealers.
Continue along Des Voeux.
There's an incense company of antique provenance on the right hand side, surrounded by herbalists and dried seafood shops. They're a century-old brand (百年老字號 'baak nin lou ji hou'; "hundred year old word mark").
梁永馨香廠 (香港) 有限公司
"Leung's Eternal Fragrance (HK) Co.,Ltd."
['leung wing hing heung chong (heung kong) yau haan gung si']
梁永馨名香
Leung Wing Hing Joss Sticks
101 Des Voeux Road West, ground floor.
香港，德輔道西，101號，地下。
Informational interstice: The complex character 馨 is seldom used in modern speech. Originally it represented a dialect variation on 香 meaning what the nose took note of, later its connotations expanded to include the faintest trace of perfume, a lingering smell that prompts memories, aroma-echoes that make one recollect, and similar shades of meaning. It's a twenty stroke character found in the dictionary under 香 with a score of other characters under that radical. But twenty strokes means that it is harder to write correctly in the same size as your other words, and like many such logoglyphs, merely the great chance of leaving an illegible blob in the column made it fade from use. A pity, because it's very elegant .
Two other words with fragrant meanings are 芬 ('fan'; "fragrance, aromatic substance") and 芳 ('fong'; "fragrant, virtuous, lovely"). Both terms might have applied to the lovely plumes or fresh green boughs offered in the altar vessel which forms the bottom of 豐 ('fung'; "abundant, lush, fertile"), which at nineteen strokes remarkably shows up far more often than 馨。
Perhaps it's just more useful.
熏香品類 INCENSE TYPES:
['fan heung pan leui']
西澳洲檀香 ('sai ou jau taan heung'): West Australia sandal wood
百福塔香正宗柏香2H座 ('baak fuk taap heung jeng-jung baak heung leung-go jungtau jo'): Hundred Lucky Pagoda authentic cypress/cedar two hour coils.
天然老山檀香 ('tin yin lou saan taan heung'): Heavenly ('natural') Old Mountain sandalwood incense.
天然特級老山檀香 ('tin yin tak kap lou saan taan heung'): Heavenly Superior Quality sandalwood incense.
沉香 ('cham heung'): Agar wood incense.
Et autres.
Phone numbers: (852) 2548 2340 / (852) 2547 9277
Fax. :(852) 2559 5634
Internet: www.yp.com.hk/leungwinghing and www.leungwinghing.com.hk
Email: info@leungwinghing.com.hk
You can also get there by double-decker tram. If you don't want to walk a lot on a warm day.
The road bends at Wing Wah Mansion apartment building (永華大廈 'wing waa taai haa'; "eternal China big edifice"). When it goes around the corner further on, follow it to Queens Road West (皇后大道西 'wong hau daai dou sai'), up about thirty yards, turn right onto Belcher Street.
This is a heavily populated neighborhood, and you shouldn't expect too many English signs, despite the overwhelming surfeit of international brandnames and Seven Elevens.
冇乜特別，香脆，味都幾好。
NOTHING SPECIAL, FRAGRANT AND CRISPY, TASTES PRETTY GOOD
['mou ye dak bit, heung cheui, mei dou gei ho']
Convenience stores, small shops, and places where you can eat congee (粥 'juk') or roast duck rice (燒鴨飯 'siu ngaap faan'). Fishballs and dumplings too. The Fresh Fragrance Tea Restaurant (鮮香茶餐廳 'sin heung chaa chanteng') and Fish Ball King & Genuine Teochow Rice-sticks (港仔君豪魚蛋王 -- 正宗潮州粉面 'gong jai gwan hou yü daan wong jeng jung chiu jau fan min'), Kuen Gei Wonton Noodle (權記雲吞麵 "authority notation cloud gulp noodle")
You could also have the stirfried augmented kangkong (炒通菜 'chaau tung choi') and the mixed balls clay pot (什丸煲 'sap yuen pou'), with a nice glass of hot lemon tea (熱檸茶 'yit ning chaa').
Breakfast of champions.
Not expensive.
牛脷酥, 炸兩 ('ngau lei sou'. 'jaa leung') space alien cheap snack: "Cow tongue flaky", an oval semi-sweet fried puff bread (good with congee) and "fry two" (a fried dough stick steamed in a rice noodle sheet, drizzled with soy sauce, hoisin jeung, chive or scallion garnished, cut into chunks you can eat with a toothpick. Sometimes jaa leung is also served with a squirt of ketchup and yellow mustard, which is also good.
茶餐廳 ('chaa chan teng') tea-restaurants: Old-fashioned HK western style breakfast lunch and late afternoon foods. Fried eggs, noodle dishes, chicken soup macaroni with ham. Convenient easy food. Sate beef noodles (沙爹牛肉麵 'saa de ngau yiuk min'). Famous milk-tea (奶茶 'naai chaa') and kai mei bao (雞尾包"chicken arse bun").
Places filled with old geezers.
潮州菜 ('chiu jau choi') Chaozhou food: There are only two real reasons to seek out a Chaozhou style eatery: roast goose, and shellfish. The roast goose is brined before cooking, the shellfish (clams and oysters) are generously apportioned, nicely cooked.
Especially try oyster omelette.
潮州名食 CHAOZHOU'S FAMOUS FOODS:
['chiu jau ming sik']
脆皮糯米釀大腸 ('cheui pei no mai yeung daai cheung'): Crispy skinned glutinous rice ferments pork sausage. Fried a golden brown, then sliced across for chopstickable ease.
蟹粥 ('haai juk'): Crab congee (whole grains, unlike Cantonese style).
墨魚卷 ('mak yü kuen'): Cuttle fish nuggets.
墨魚片 ('mak yu pin'): Cuttle fish slices.
滷水鵝片 ('lou seui ngo pin'): Brine-cured (savoury sauced) goose slices.
豉椒炒蜆 ('si jiu chaau hin'): Bellpepper and black bean clams.
避風塘炒蜆 ('bei fung tong chaau hin'): Typhoon shelter stirfry clams with crispy-fried garlic and chilies.
鵝肝 ('ngo gon'): Goose liver.
香酥芋鴨 ('heung sou wu ngaap'): Taro batter crispy duck.
韭菜炒鹹肉 ('gau choi chaau haam yiuk'): Chives stirfried with Chinese bacon.
胡椒豬肚湯 ('wu jiu chyu tou tong'): Pepper pork stomach soup. Everyone raves about this; I don't.
闊面蠔餅, 炸蠔仔餅 ('fut min hou bing', 'jaa hou-chai bing'): The oyster omelette. Chiu chow style is thicker and denser than Hokkien, more like an egg-batter fritata.
糖醋麵 ('tong chou min'): Sweet and sour ("sugar - vinegar") noodles, panfried to a crispy cake.
魚湯浸豆苗 ('yü tong jam dau miu'): Fish-broth poached pea shoots.
Now that Hong Kong is so densely populated, sandalwood is no longer shipped out from the jetty over in Tsimshatsui, and the raw material for incense is imported from places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. But 'fragrance' (incense) gave the place its name, and it still seems a very apt appellation.
Food. Tea. Commerce.
Warm.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, March 31, 2014
HONG KONG CINEMA IDEAS ABOUT FEMININITY
During the eighties, many young men in Chinatown formed their images of manhood from the examples set in Hong Kong movies. Whether in gangster films, adventure, romance, or comedies, the multifaceted acting of stars such as Chow Yunfat, Andy Law, Hung Kampo, and others provided role models that showed how one should behave (or misbehave) under a variety of circumstances.
In part, this was because of the heroes' relationships to others, and largely how they interacted with the people around them, which naturally included women.
The women may have been "quieter".
But they were fundamental.
曼玉 FABULOUS JADE -- MAGGIE CHEUNG
If Lau Takwah (Andy Law in the role of Wah, 阿華, 華仔) seems like a cold bastard in 'As Tears Go By' (旺角卡門, from director Wong Karwai 王家衛) because of his no-nonsense violence towards other thugs on behalf of his "younger brother" Fly (烏蠅, played by Jackie Cheung 張學友), he is humanized by his consideration for Ngor (阿娥, played by Maggie Cheung 張曼玉). When things head south for Wah and Fly, due to a confrontation with psychopathic gangleader Tony (Alex Man Chi-leung 萬梓良), it is Ngor who is left emotionally holding the bag. Which, perhaps, is a traditional role for women in many movies.
Maggie Cheung is, from all accounts, a strong woman herself. But she has a softness that allows for a number of roles, and her career has included a number of non-Chinese movies.
Though born in Hong Kong, her family has roots elsewhere.
She's a native-speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese.
Fluent in both French and English.
Educated in Britain.
紫瓊 AMETHYST AND JASPER -- JEE KING
Contrasting enormously with that, almost all performances by Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) show her as one tough cookie, capable of holding her own and them some. If you only knew of her from martial arts movies or police stories, it would be an immense surprise to find out that she was actually a beauty queen; pageant hotties are not known for significant skills, let alone a combination of brains, brawn, and dramatic ability.
When she first started working in the Hong Kong movie industry, she could not speak Cantonese. Her parents native language was Hokkien, and she isn't originally from Hong Kong.
She played the only Bond Woman whom James didn't get to bag.
In that movie, Bond was distinctly second fiddle.
Quite a blow to the British ego.
肥肥 FATTY -- FEIFEI
Completely different than both women mentioned above, actress and television personality Lydia Shum ( 沈殿霞) represented a style of womanhood which was brash, forward, loud, and just about full of dynamite. If she ever played a subservient role, it was only to emerge triumphant after engineering the face-egg of the man in the tale. She is best remembered as a likable harpy in numerous roles; mother, girlfriend, wife, and gossipy neighbor. Not, usually, the actual hero of the tale, but always memorable as the dominant personality.
Like Michelle Yeoh, she wasn't native to Hong Kong.
劉嘉玲 TINKLING GEM -- CARINA LAU
A remarkable woman, who despite a lack of education achieved much. Her acting career includes comedy, romance, gangster films, and over the top fantasies. Perhaps more famous for her fabulous life than her acting; many of her film roles have been supportive.
Probably the quintessence of Hong Kong girl.
Even though hailing from Soochow.
刀馬旦 BLADE & HORSE FEMALE-ROLE
At this point, you will have noted that three of the four actresses above are not, in fact, natives of Hong Kong. Yet they represent as good a cross-section of what a Hong Kong woman is either assumed to be, or imagines herself being. The same holds for the three stars in what may very well be the most representative of Hong Kong movies, which showcases slapstick, derring-do, female heroism, baser instincts, idealism, verve, and high drama: Peking Opera Blues.
The movie is set in early revolutionary times (1913), and features three stellar actresses as the foci of the tale, with the male-roles as more or less foils for the actions of the heroines.
Brigitte Lin as the daring tomboy revolutionary;
Cherie Chung as the greedy ingenue;
Sally Yeh as the dreamer.
All three women, as regular cinema goers can attest, are total dynamite. And there are very few movies in which they have not outshone the male stars. Often strongminded, always memorable, and usually possessed of a stubbornness which triumphs over any amount of adversity.
In some of her most famous roles, Brigitte Lin has combined steaming sexuality with a bloodthirsty fierceness that borders on psychopathic (for instance, in Swordsman II, in which her cross-dressing homicidal eunuchoid performance defies description), whereas Cherie Chung exudes a softer sensuality coupled with independent-mindedness (notable film: 秋天的童話 An Autumn's Tale) ). Sally Yeh, whose acting and singing career spans three decades, often plays the total sex-bombe, yet in her most memorable roles shows both innocence and courage; no one can forget her as the pretty wife in the lighthearted romp Diary of a Big Man (大丈夫日記) in which Chow Yunfat through a series of misunderstandings marries two women and heads towards an inevitable breakdown.
Only Cherie Chung is from Hong Kong, though of Hakka (northern) ancestry rather than Cantonese.
Both Brigitte Lin and Sally Yeh are originally Taiwanese.
After reading about these ladies, the almost inevitable conclusion is that the ideal or typical Hong Kong woman is most likely Joey Wong (王祖賢) from Taiwan, country-girl Chingmy Yau (邱淑貞), or Anita Mui (梅艷芳).
Soft as butter, ultra-feminine, and from somewhere else.
Or brass-balled, determined, and full of beans.
And in any case not a push-over.
Probably loud, too.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
In part, this was because of the heroes' relationships to others, and largely how they interacted with the people around them, which naturally included women.
The women may have been "quieter".
But they were fundamental.
曼玉 FABULOUS JADE -- MAGGIE CHEUNG
If Lau Takwah (Andy Law in the role of Wah, 阿華, 華仔) seems like a cold bastard in 'As Tears Go By' (旺角卡門, from director Wong Karwai 王家衛) because of his no-nonsense violence towards other thugs on behalf of his "younger brother" Fly (烏蠅, played by Jackie Cheung 張學友), he is humanized by his consideration for Ngor (阿娥, played by Maggie Cheung 張曼玉). When things head south for Wah and Fly, due to a confrontation with psychopathic gangleader Tony (Alex Man Chi-leung 萬梓良), it is Ngor who is left emotionally holding the bag. Which, perhaps, is a traditional role for women in many movies.
Maggie Cheung is, from all accounts, a strong woman herself. But she has a softness that allows for a number of roles, and her career has included a number of non-Chinese movies.
Though born in Hong Kong, her family has roots elsewhere.
She's a native-speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese.
Fluent in both French and English.
Educated in Britain.
紫瓊 AMETHYST AND JASPER -- JEE KING
Contrasting enormously with that, almost all performances by Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) show her as one tough cookie, capable of holding her own and them some. If you only knew of her from martial arts movies or police stories, it would be an immense surprise to find out that she was actually a beauty queen; pageant hotties are not known for significant skills, let alone a combination of brains, brawn, and dramatic ability.
When she first started working in the Hong Kong movie industry, she could not speak Cantonese. Her parents native language was Hokkien, and she isn't originally from Hong Kong.
She played the only Bond Woman whom James didn't get to bag.
In that movie, Bond was distinctly second fiddle.
Quite a blow to the British ego.
肥肥 FATTY -- FEIFEI
Completely different than both women mentioned above, actress and television personality Lydia Shum ( 沈殿霞) represented a style of womanhood which was brash, forward, loud, and just about full of dynamite. If she ever played a subservient role, it was only to emerge triumphant after engineering the face-egg of the man in the tale. She is best remembered as a likable harpy in numerous roles; mother, girlfriend, wife, and gossipy neighbor. Not, usually, the actual hero of the tale, but always memorable as the dominant personality.
Like Michelle Yeoh, she wasn't native to Hong Kong.
劉嘉玲 TINKLING GEM -- CARINA LAU
A remarkable woman, who despite a lack of education achieved much. Her acting career includes comedy, romance, gangster films, and over the top fantasies. Perhaps more famous for her fabulous life than her acting; many of her film roles have been supportive.
Probably the quintessence of Hong Kong girl.
Even though hailing from Soochow.
刀馬旦 BLADE & HORSE FEMALE-ROLE
At this point, you will have noted that three of the four actresses above are not, in fact, natives of Hong Kong. Yet they represent as good a cross-section of what a Hong Kong woman is either assumed to be, or imagines herself being. The same holds for the three stars in what may very well be the most representative of Hong Kong movies, which showcases slapstick, derring-do, female heroism, baser instincts, idealism, verve, and high drama: Peking Opera Blues.
The movie is set in early revolutionary times (1913), and features three stellar actresses as the foci of the tale, with the male-roles as more or less foils for the actions of the heroines.
Brigitte Lin as the daring tomboy revolutionary;
Cherie Chung as the greedy ingenue;
Sally Yeh as the dreamer.
All three women, as regular cinema goers can attest, are total dynamite. And there are very few movies in which they have not outshone the male stars. Often strongminded, always memorable, and usually possessed of a stubbornness which triumphs over any amount of adversity.
In some of her most famous roles, Brigitte Lin has combined steaming sexuality with a bloodthirsty fierceness that borders on psychopathic (for instance, in Swordsman II, in which her cross-dressing homicidal eunuchoid performance defies description), whereas Cherie Chung exudes a softer sensuality coupled with independent-mindedness (notable film: 秋天的童話 An Autumn's Tale) ). Sally Yeh, whose acting and singing career spans three decades, often plays the total sex-bombe, yet in her most memorable roles shows both innocence and courage; no one can forget her as the pretty wife in the lighthearted romp Diary of a Big Man (大丈夫日記) in which Chow Yunfat through a series of misunderstandings marries two women and heads towards an inevitable breakdown.
Only Cherie Chung is from Hong Kong, though of Hakka (northern) ancestry rather than Cantonese.
Both Brigitte Lin and Sally Yeh are originally Taiwanese.
After reading about these ladies, the almost inevitable conclusion is that the ideal or typical Hong Kong woman is most likely Joey Wong (王祖賢) from Taiwan, country-girl Chingmy Yau (邱淑貞), or Anita Mui (梅艷芳).
Soft as butter, ultra-feminine, and from somewhere else.
Or brass-balled, determined, and full of beans.
And in any case not a push-over.
Probably loud, too.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
A FRIENDLY-LOOKING MAN
To the best of my knowledge I've only met one celebrity. And the chances are that you have never heard of him. Trust me, he's big.
Deservedly so.
Nearly twenty years ago he was browsing in a bookstore around the corner from my house. Quite likely looking for something light and sprightly to read before bedtime after a long flight.
I believe he was staying at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue at the time, and he may have had performances scheduled at the Masonic Auditorium and in Las Vegas.
I was probably the only person in the store who recognized him. Two movies in which he performed are indelibly imprinted on my mind, namely 'Boat People' (投奔怒海) and 'Heart to Hearts'. The first you've probably heard of, the second is a 1988 comedy of which the Chinese name makes a lot more sense than the English title: 三人世界 (saam yan sai kaai) -- three people world. It's about a mother and daughter, and the man whose presence interferes with their lives.
To be totally honest, I remember that movie as much for the stellar performances of the two women characters as for the fact that he was the male lead.
小鬍鬚
George Lam Chi Cheung (林子祥) has appeared in over three dozen movies in a career that spans thirty five years. But he's far better known for his singing than his acting. At sixty five years old, he's still going strong. Recently he performed in Vegas.
Nah, I ain't gonna embed a video of him singing. He does lighthearted stuff, mostly sensitive and romantic. Not my favourite style of music. What made him remarkable for me was the straightforward quality of the man, which comes through in his acting. His face is expressive.
Which is where his facial hair comes in. It's an instantly recognizable feature, especially as not many Cantonese go for the fuzz about the mouth. Consequently, one of his nicknames is 'siu wu-sou' ("little mustache").
I think that's what he was actually called in a few movies.
I do not know when the picture above was taken. But even today he still looks remarkably boyish and innocent. It's an intelligent face, that could belong to an engineer posted to a test-range in Nevada, or a manager for the Banque de l'Indochine in Swatow or Long Thọ.
If you saw him today, you'd instantly recognize him.
You would think him quite a likable fellow.
He'd make a good assassin.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Deservedly so.
Nearly twenty years ago he was browsing in a bookstore around the corner from my house. Quite likely looking for something light and sprightly to read before bedtime after a long flight.
I believe he was staying at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue at the time, and he may have had performances scheduled at the Masonic Auditorium and in Las Vegas.
I was probably the only person in the store who recognized him. Two movies in which he performed are indelibly imprinted on my mind, namely 'Boat People' (投奔怒海) and 'Heart to Hearts'. The first you've probably heard of, the second is a 1988 comedy of which the Chinese name makes a lot more sense than the English title: 三人世界 (saam yan sai kaai) -- three people world. It's about a mother and daughter, and the man whose presence interferes with their lives.
To be totally honest, I remember that movie as much for the stellar performances of the two women characters as for the fact that he was the male lead.
小鬍鬚
George Lam Chi Cheung (林子祥) has appeared in over three dozen movies in a career that spans thirty five years. But he's far better known for his singing than his acting. At sixty five years old, he's still going strong. Recently he performed in Vegas.
Nah, I ain't gonna embed a video of him singing. He does lighthearted stuff, mostly sensitive and romantic. Not my favourite style of music. What made him remarkable for me was the straightforward quality of the man, which comes through in his acting. His face is expressive.
Which is where his facial hair comes in. It's an instantly recognizable feature, especially as not many Cantonese go for the fuzz about the mouth. Consequently, one of his nicknames is 'siu wu-sou' ("little mustache").
I think that's what he was actually called in a few movies.
I do not know when the picture above was taken. But even today he still looks remarkably boyish and innocent. It's an intelligent face, that could belong to an engineer posted to a test-range in Nevada, or a manager for the Banque de l'Indochine in Swatow or Long Thọ.
If you saw him today, you'd instantly recognize him.
You would think him quite a likable fellow.
He'd make a good assassin.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Saturday, April 13, 2013
SHANGHAI BUND: A PLACE, A TELEVISION SERIES, AND A WAY OF LIFE
Late the other night I dined on Japanese crispy objects made by a company in Thailand (Taokaenoi Food & Marketing Co., Ltd.) and distributed in the United States by a Chinese enterprise whose name cannot be found anywhere on the label.
It is delicious with good nutrients from the sea, best served as snack with your favourite drink: tempura seaweed, spicy flavour. Yumminess in a re-sealable bag, invented by a computer game nerd.
Manufacturing facilities are in Nonthaburi and Pathumthani.
Naturally I washed it down with Jameson's Irish Whiskey. Which is a fine product of the Pernod Ricard Company in France, though founded by a Scotsman in Dublin. After which I smoked an English pipe tobacco produced by a factory in Germany.
Life may not be multicultural, but my habits are.
Though you might say "messed up".
I will blame exposure during my mis-spent youth for some of that.
In the mid-eighties I moved to North Beach, which is next to Chinatown.One of the tunes that seemed to be constantly playing in the background all over Grant Avenue and Stockton Street was the theme song from a popular Hong Kong television series starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), Ray Lui (呂良偉), and Angie Chiu (趙雅芝).
上海灘 - SHANGHAI BUND
In 1920's Shanghai two young men, Hui Man-keung (Chow Yun-fat) and Ting Lik (Ray Lui), become members of a gang headed by Fung King-yiu (played by Lau Dan 劉丹). Both of them have a serious crush on Fung's daughter, Ching-ching (Angie Chiu). For the next twenty five episodes, things go wrong in great style, ending with the death of Hui (Chow) outside a fancy restaurant on his last night in Shanghai.
You can see Hui being killed in this short clip:
As a side note, to me the scene above highlights precisely why smoking should be allowed indoors again; bad things happen when you have to go outside for a fix.
Of course, back in the eighties you didn't need to do so. You could have stayed inside, safe and out of harm's way. Since then, the non-smoking yutzes have obviously wanted us dead.
The series was a smash hit, and propelled Chow Yun-fat (the smoking gentleman in the photo above) to stardom. You may have seen him in any number of gangster flicks made during the eighties, in which he often played a man on the wrong side of the law, but with a strong sense of morality and ethics. What you probably remembered was the gallantry and likability of the character. A rogue and a crook, but an upright man with an admirable style.
The series also helped speed the end of the chip-on-the-shoulder style of entertainment characterized by every single Bruce Lee movie, most of which are only barely watchable, but only if you read Bruce Lee as a clown of monumental proportions, a veritable master of physical comedy.
By the mid-eighties, Hong Kong movies no longer took themselves quite so seriously, and many of the people involved had realized that as important to the genre as giving the viewers roles to identify with was imparting a sense of mood, and images of style. Shanghai in the twenties and thirties, as an exemplifier of both of those things, become a trope. Many of the classiest gangster films from that era (the eighties) are either set there, or recall that time and place in key ways.
Shanghai during the republican period was indeed all that. At that time it was a world city, and a trend-setter. A hotbed of international commerce and intrigue, filled with wheeler-dealers, crooks, secret agents, tycoons, and smugglers, as well as jazz, nightclubs, restaurants, tailors, and beautiful women.
It was the flash and dazzle of the shiny metropolis which the exiles who ended up in Hong Kong after the war missed most of all. The poverty and desperation of the time there was forgotten, the vibrancy and excitement remained. Shanghai was where China grew up.
Writers, intellectuals, and the Chinese entertainment industry had experienced a golden age.
The Shanghainese sense of pride in their city infected all Chinese, and in the fifties, after twenty years of war and chaos, it seemed like nothing like that would ever come again. The Twentieth century had, on the whole, proven rather miserable, and Shanghai by sheer contrast had seemed such a beacon.
[The video clip above is Chou Hsuen (周璇) singing Yeh Shanghai ('Shanghai at night'). One of my favourite songs by her is Moon Over the Street Corner, which can be heard here: 街頭月. Just open it up in a separate tab or window to listen, as the visuals are static. A television documentary about Chou Hsuen is here: 金嗓子.
Probably her most famous song is When Will You Return (何日君再來), recorded in 1937. Teresa Teng sang it in 1979, at which time the communists described it as an obscene pro-Japanese ode, and the Taiwanese government banned it because it could be interpreted as an invitation to the People's Liberation Army.
It's actually a plaintive love ballad.]
For the next two decades, things scarcely improved.
Shanghai had been the stage on which the ideals of revolutionary China had had their fullest play, and the arena where all movements had most memorably come to fruition. Nationalists and Communists, Imperialists and Missionaries, all had plotted, manoeuvred, and manipulated in Shanghai for several decades. When the Communists swept to victory on the mainland in 1949, that ended.
Refugees flocked to Hong Kong, and the British kept a tight lid on them for fear that the revolution would take away their European foothold in the Far-East. The exiles found safety in the Crown Colony, as well as stultifying boredom.
[A parting duet evoking exile, and the promise of return, can be heard here: 叮嚀.
As with the other links, right-click to open in a new window; static visuals again. Recorded by Chou Hsuen and Yan Hwa (嚴華) in 1939, two years before their divorce. It should be mentioned that they had known each other since their very early teens, when both were part of the Moon Song and Dance Society (明月歌舞團樂社), which produced many performers for the Shanghai movie industry who later became famous. They married in 1938, when she was 18 years old and he was 23.]
But their creativity was not routed into propagandistic insanity, as happened elsewhere; Hong Kong was an island of unexciting calm.
The gilded memory of Shanghai grew more glorious as time passed.
In reality, Shanghai had seen exploitation and bloodshed on an operatic scale, engineered by the Japanese, the warlords and bankers, Nationalists and the Communists, the gangsters of the Green Gang (青帮) headed by Big Eared Tu (杜月笙), as well as the British and French authorities in the concessions, and others. But it had also been China's first modern city.
Life had been more fast-paced, and there had been so many more opportunities for everything, including crime.
By the late seventies, the Shanghai of legend was larger than life; all good things, all style, all greatness and grandness, everything worthwhile in Chinese popular culture, had a place in the myth.
The mainland and Taiwan both failed to offer realities that matched.
And Hong Kong was realizing that it, in part, was the primary heir.
Shanghai as it had been was gone. But there was money to be made off the corpse, and lovingly the authors, actors, and directors mined the material.
It was not so much cannibalism as regurgitation of cultural themes which by that time had become instinctive, an inherent part of their make-up and their welt-anschauung.
Their interpretation was in truth a version more Hong Kong than Shanghai, just as the gangster movies set in the Hong Kong of that day and age also shaded, gilded, and repainted the facts to fit a tale.
The results were often stellar.
Fantasy is, in the final regard, what art is all about.
The Shanghai of the show had never existed in real life, but was built on a sound stage in Kowloon Tong (九龍塘), Hong Kong. None of the main actors have any connection to Shanghai either. Chow Yun-fat is of Hakka ancestry, born on Lamma Island (南丫島), Ray Lui is Chinese from Vietnam, Danny Lau (Lau Dan) is a native of Shantung, Kent Tong is a Hong Kong native.....
Even the singer who made the series theme song famous (Frances Yip 葉麗儀) is local (and like Chow Yun-fat, of Hakka ancestry).
Only the executive under whose aegis the show was produced can arguably even be called Shanghainese: Run Run Shaw ((邵逸夫) was the son of a textile merchant from Chekiang based in that city. He moved to Singapore when he was nineteen in 1926. He and his brother founded South Sea Film (南洋影片), which later became Shaw Brothers Studio and was headquartered in Hong Kong, in 1930.
When the television series came out in 1980, over a generation had passed since the period portrayed.
What the show represents is a fairy-tale of a different era, one comfortably remote enough that it need not impinge upon the present. Both of the men about whom the stories revolve are in love with the good girl, but only one of them really stands a chance. And although she is the daughter of a gang leader, Ching Ching really does represent an ideal of femininity and Chinese womanhood. She is the one good thing that stands out above all else in the violent and sordid world in which her two suitors by necessity find themselves, and inspires their continuing humanity.
In the tale, successful gangsters and thugs are not always coarse and vulgar, but can indeed represent the same gallantries, idealism, and gentlemanly qualities that Chinese have always aspired to. Circumstance may determine one's station in life, but the person should nevertheless be faithful to what is civilized and worthwhile.
True to the constraints of real life, however, this tale is at times convoluted and messy. After having worked for Fung for several years, Hui (Chow Yun-fat) settles in Hong Kong, later returning to Shanghai. For both the very highest of motives as well as personal vengeance, Hui ends up killing Ching-ching's father, who was co-operating with the Japanese, and whose paid goons had slaughtered Hui's wife and in-laws.
He dies on the night that he was going to leave for France to find Ching-ching, determined to make things right again.
One should always aspire to rectitude, but events may sabotage the attempt. That does not mean that it isn't worth doing, merely that life sometimes really stinks.
Constancy does not necessarily get rewarded.
But it's worth it for its own sake.
Other than casting ideal ethical conduct into a new format, the show also achieved one other remarkable result: anti-heroes who dressed with style and pizzaz, and didn't act like idiots.
These were men that one could emulate, if not in actual life, but in personal behaviour and attitude. Instead of goobers wearing floppy kung-fu pajamas, Hong Kong television and movie screens started showing gangsters and crime-fighters with realistic clothing. The violence and moral questions were still there, but the characters had fleshed-out.
Up till the seventies, Hong Kong cinema had always shown right and wrong simplistically, with few shades of grey. All of sudden (actually, over a period of five or six years) snappy suits and multiple shades of grey became the norm, and the stories more complex and challenging.
Of course, for the juvenile delinquent element black and white was still the most recognizable facet, but they started aspiring to better presentation.
Clothes may not make the man, but they make the man much more.
It's that sense of real people, admirable individuals, rather than strictly two-dimensional epitomes, that made Hong Kong movies during the mid to late eighties worth watching. You might judge the actions reprehensible, but the characters were more complex and understandable in their responses.
And afterwards much of them stayed with you.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
It is delicious with good nutrients from the sea, best served as snack with your favourite drink: tempura seaweed, spicy flavour. Yumminess in a re-sealable bag, invented by a computer game nerd.
Manufacturing facilities are in Nonthaburi and Pathumthani.
Naturally I washed it down with Jameson's Irish Whiskey. Which is a fine product of the Pernod Ricard Company in France, though founded by a Scotsman in Dublin. After which I smoked an English pipe tobacco produced by a factory in Germany.
Life may not be multicultural, but my habits are.
Though you might say "messed up".
I will blame exposure during my mis-spent youth for some of that.
In the mid-eighties I moved to North Beach, which is next to Chinatown.One of the tunes that seemed to be constantly playing in the background all over Grant Avenue and Stockton Street was the theme song from a popular Hong Kong television series starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), Ray Lui (呂良偉), and Angie Chiu (趙雅芝).
上海灘 - SHANGHAI BUND
In 1920's Shanghai two young men, Hui Man-keung (Chow Yun-fat) and Ting Lik (Ray Lui), become members of a gang headed by Fung King-yiu (played by Lau Dan 劉丹). Both of them have a serious crush on Fung's daughter, Ching-ching (Angie Chiu). For the next twenty five episodes, things go wrong in great style, ending with the death of Hui (Chow) outside a fancy restaurant on his last night in Shanghai.
You can see Hui being killed in this short clip:
As a side note, to me the scene above highlights precisely why smoking should be allowed indoors again; bad things happen when you have to go outside for a fix.
The series was a smash hit, and propelled Chow Yun-fat (the smoking gentleman in the photo above) to stardom. You may have seen him in any number of gangster flicks made during the eighties, in which he often played a man on the wrong side of the law, but with a strong sense of morality and ethics. What you probably remembered was the gallantry and likability of the character. A rogue and a crook, but an upright man with an admirable style.
The series also helped speed the end of the chip-on-the-shoulder style of entertainment characterized by every single Bruce Lee movie, most of which are only barely watchable, but only if you read Bruce Lee as a clown of monumental proportions, a veritable master of physical comedy.
By the mid-eighties, Hong Kong movies no longer took themselves quite so seriously, and many of the people involved had realized that as important to the genre as giving the viewers roles to identify with was imparting a sense of mood, and images of style. Shanghai in the twenties and thirties, as an exemplifier of both of those things, become a trope. Many of the classiest gangster films from that era (the eighties) are either set there, or recall that time and place in key ways.
Shanghai during the republican period was indeed all that. At that time it was a world city, and a trend-setter. A hotbed of international commerce and intrigue, filled with wheeler-dealers, crooks, secret agents, tycoons, and smugglers, as well as jazz, nightclubs, restaurants, tailors, and beautiful women.
It was the flash and dazzle of the shiny metropolis which the exiles who ended up in Hong Kong after the war missed most of all. The poverty and desperation of the time there was forgotten, the vibrancy and excitement remained. Shanghai was where China grew up.
Writers, intellectuals, and the Chinese entertainment industry had experienced a golden age.
The Shanghainese sense of pride in their city infected all Chinese, and in the fifties, after twenty years of war and chaos, it seemed like nothing like that would ever come again. The Twentieth century had, on the whole, proven rather miserable, and Shanghai by sheer contrast had seemed such a beacon.
[The video clip above is Chou Hsuen (周璇) singing Yeh Shanghai ('Shanghai at night'). One of my favourite songs by her is Moon Over the Street Corner, which can be heard here: 街頭月. Just open it up in a separate tab or window to listen, as the visuals are static. A television documentary about Chou Hsuen is here: 金嗓子.
Probably her most famous song is When Will You Return (何日君再來), recorded in 1937. Teresa Teng sang it in 1979, at which time the communists described it as an obscene pro-Japanese ode, and the Taiwanese government banned it because it could be interpreted as an invitation to the People's Liberation Army.
It's actually a plaintive love ballad.]
For the next two decades, things scarcely improved.
Shanghai had been the stage on which the ideals of revolutionary China had had their fullest play, and the arena where all movements had most memorably come to fruition. Nationalists and Communists, Imperialists and Missionaries, all had plotted, manoeuvred, and manipulated in Shanghai for several decades. When the Communists swept to victory on the mainland in 1949, that ended.
Refugees flocked to Hong Kong, and the British kept a tight lid on them for fear that the revolution would take away their European foothold in the Far-East. The exiles found safety in the Crown Colony, as well as stultifying boredom.
[A parting duet evoking exile, and the promise of return, can be heard here: 叮嚀.
As with the other links, right-click to open in a new window; static visuals again. Recorded by Chou Hsuen and Yan Hwa (嚴華) in 1939, two years before their divorce. It should be mentioned that they had known each other since their very early teens, when both were part of the Moon Song and Dance Society (明月歌舞團樂社), which produced many performers for the Shanghai movie industry who later became famous. They married in 1938, when she was 18 years old and he was 23.]
But their creativity was not routed into propagandistic insanity, as happened elsewhere; Hong Kong was an island of unexciting calm.
The gilded memory of Shanghai grew more glorious as time passed.
In reality, Shanghai had seen exploitation and bloodshed on an operatic scale, engineered by the Japanese, the warlords and bankers, Nationalists and the Communists, the gangsters of the Green Gang (青帮) headed by Big Eared Tu (杜月笙), as well as the British and French authorities in the concessions, and others. But it had also been China's first modern city.
Life had been more fast-paced, and there had been so many more opportunities for everything, including crime.
By the late seventies, the Shanghai of legend was larger than life; all good things, all style, all greatness and grandness, everything worthwhile in Chinese popular culture, had a place in the myth.
The mainland and Taiwan both failed to offer realities that matched.
And Hong Kong was realizing that it, in part, was the primary heir.
It was not so much cannibalism as regurgitation of cultural themes which by that time had become instinctive, an inherent part of their make-up and their welt-anschauung.
Their interpretation was in truth a version more Hong Kong than Shanghai, just as the gangster movies set in the Hong Kong of that day and age also shaded, gilded, and repainted the facts to fit a tale.
The results were often stellar.
Fantasy is, in the final regard, what art is all about.
Even the singer who made the series theme song famous (Frances Yip 葉麗儀) is local (and like Chow Yun-fat, of Hakka ancestry).
Only the executive under whose aegis the show was produced can arguably even be called Shanghainese: Run Run Shaw ((邵逸夫) was the son of a textile merchant from Chekiang based in that city. He moved to Singapore when he was nineteen in 1926. He and his brother founded South Sea Film (南洋影片), which later became Shaw Brothers Studio and was headquartered in Hong Kong, in 1930.
When the television series came out in 1980, over a generation had passed since the period portrayed.
What the show represents is a fairy-tale of a different era, one comfortably remote enough that it need not impinge upon the present. Both of the men about whom the stories revolve are in love with the good girl, but only one of them really stands a chance. And although she is the daughter of a gang leader, Ching Ching really does represent an ideal of femininity and Chinese womanhood. She is the one good thing that stands out above all else in the violent and sordid world in which her two suitors by necessity find themselves, and inspires their continuing humanity.
In the tale, successful gangsters and thugs are not always coarse and vulgar, but can indeed represent the same gallantries, idealism, and gentlemanly qualities that Chinese have always aspired to. Circumstance may determine one's station in life, but the person should nevertheless be faithful to what is civilized and worthwhile.
True to the constraints of real life, however, this tale is at times convoluted and messy. After having worked for Fung for several years, Hui (Chow Yun-fat) settles in Hong Kong, later returning to Shanghai. For both the very highest of motives as well as personal vengeance, Hui ends up killing Ching-ching's father, who was co-operating with the Japanese, and whose paid goons had slaughtered Hui's wife and in-laws.
He dies on the night that he was going to leave for France to find Ching-ching, determined to make things right again.
One should always aspire to rectitude, but events may sabotage the attempt. That does not mean that it isn't worth doing, merely that life sometimes really stinks.
Constancy does not necessarily get rewarded.
But it's worth it for its own sake.
Other than casting ideal ethical conduct into a new format, the show also achieved one other remarkable result: anti-heroes who dressed with style and pizzaz, and didn't act like idiots.
These were men that one could emulate, if not in actual life, but in personal behaviour and attitude. Instead of goobers wearing floppy kung-fu pajamas, Hong Kong television and movie screens started showing gangsters and crime-fighters with realistic clothing. The violence and moral questions were still there, but the characters had fleshed-out.
Up till the seventies, Hong Kong cinema had always shown right and wrong simplistically, with few shades of grey. All of sudden (actually, over a period of five or six years) snappy suits and multiple shades of grey became the norm, and the stories more complex and challenging.
Of course, for the juvenile delinquent element black and white was still the most recognizable facet, but they started aspiring to better presentation.
Clothes may not make the man, but they make the man much more.
It's that sense of real people, admirable individuals, rather than strictly two-dimensional epitomes, that made Hong Kong movies during the mid to late eighties worth watching. You might judge the actions reprehensible, but the characters were more complex and understandable in their responses.
And afterwards much of them stayed with you.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Thursday, January 10, 2013
IN THE COLD AND SILENCE OF THE NIGHT
It's barely lunch-time, and I'm on my third pipe of the day, smoking Wessex Red Virginia Flake, and drinking strong tea with milk and sugar.
And listening to 張國榮 (Leslie Cheung) and 許冠傑 (Ah-Sam, aka Sam Hui) singing 沉默是金. Leslie Cheung is no longer alive, alas. Some of you may remember him from A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂), which came out in 1987, or from his first major international hit film Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬), produced in 1993.
I miss Leslie Cheung.
He was a very fine actor, a great pop-singer, and a beautiful young man.
Yes, I suppose also in that way, but being neither gay nor female, that was never the aspect that appealed to me.
One of the main characteristics about Hong Kong movie stars is that they are always character actors. In whatever movie they are in, to a large extent they channel themselves rather than creeping into the skin of the person portrayed. The reason for this is that most HK movie scripts call for set roles -- the goon, the romantic scholarly type, the wise older man, or the loudmouthed married woman, the innocent good girl, the tough-as-nails female gangster -- which many of the actors have already played in other movies. They were chosen for the role because they do it well, and in almost all cases they do it so well because it's the alter-ego they could be in a fantasy world. To put it differently, they excel at portraying personalities which to a large extent they already are, doing things that would be utterly natural for that avatar in the circumstances of that movie.
Leslie Cheung was the kind of young man whom you could not help but love.
If you were a heterosexual man in the audience, it is quite likely that while watching the movie you would want yourself to be him.
Or have a friend exactly like him.
If you were a young woman watching the film there's really no telling what you would want. I could guess, but I'm SO not going there.
I don't know why I decided to hunt up Leslie on youtube. At four o'clock in the morning I woke up and turned on the computer, and somehow I ended up watching him and Sam Hui on stage singing.
It's a lovely song.
沉默是金
[Song starts at 3:45]
[Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFKio63Dns.]
夜風凜凜獨回望舊事前塵
是以往的我充滿怒憤
誣告與指責積壓著滿肚氣不憤
對謠言反應甚為著緊。
Ye fung lam lam, duk-wui mong gau-si chin-chan,
Si yi-wong dik ngoh chung-mun nou-fan;
Mou-gou yiu ji-jaak, zik-ngaat jeuk muntou hei pat fan,
Dui yiu-yin faanying sam-wai jeuk-gan.
受了教訓得了書經的指引
現已看得透不再自困
但覺有分數
不再像以往那般笨
抹淚痕輕快笑著行。
Sou-liu gaau fan, dak-liu syu-king dik ji-yan,
Yin-yi hon-dak tau pat-joi ji kwan,
Dan gwok yau fan-sou,
Pat-joi jeung yi-wong na bun-ban,
Mut leui han hing faai siu jeuk hang.
冥冥中都早注定你富或貧
是錯永不對真永是真
任你怎說安守我本份
始終相信沉默是金。
Mingming jung-dou jou jyu-deng nei fuk waak pan,
Si cho wing pat dui chan wing si chan;
Yam nei cham suet ngon sau ngoh bun-fan,
Chi-jung seung-sun cham-mak si gam.
是非有公理慎言莫冒犯別人
遇上冷風雨休太認真
自信滿心裡休理會諷刺與質問
笑罵由人灑脫地做人。
Si-fei yau gung-lei san-yin mok mou faan bit yan,
Yiu seung laang fung yiu yau taai ying-chan;
Ji-sun mun samleui, yau lei wui fung-chi yiu jat-man,
Siu maa yau yan, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
少年人灑脫地做人
繼續行灑脫地做人。
Siu-nin yan, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
Gai-juk hang, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
It is a very Chinese song.
Condensed paraphrasis: 'In the cold and silence of the night I look back on old matters and previous slights, and I am filled with resentment; I am angry and feel that I have been wrongly blamed. But the classics instruct me to not let the past chain me down, so I forgive and I quickly wipe away my tears. Whether you are rich or poor, wrongs are never real, and fundamentally, silence is golden. I rely on you to keep me grounded, and to help me see the humour in things. Let's not take it all too seriously, and get on with living.'
NOTE: The clip is from Sam Hui's farewell concert over two decades ago.
Allegedly he retired. But his many performances since then strongly suggest that retirement is an active state. Exceedingly so.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
And listening to 張國榮 (Leslie Cheung) and 許冠傑 (Ah-Sam, aka Sam Hui) singing 沉默是金. Leslie Cheung is no longer alive, alas. Some of you may remember him from A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂), which came out in 1987, or from his first major international hit film Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬), produced in 1993.
I miss Leslie Cheung.
He was a very fine actor, a great pop-singer, and a beautiful young man.
Yes, I suppose also in that way, but being neither gay nor female, that was never the aspect that appealed to me.
One of the main characteristics about Hong Kong movie stars is that they are always character actors. In whatever movie they are in, to a large extent they channel themselves rather than creeping into the skin of the person portrayed. The reason for this is that most HK movie scripts call for set roles -- the goon, the romantic scholarly type, the wise older man, or the loudmouthed married woman, the innocent good girl, the tough-as-nails female gangster -- which many of the actors have already played in other movies. They were chosen for the role because they do it well, and in almost all cases they do it so well because it's the alter-ego they could be in a fantasy world. To put it differently, they excel at portraying personalities which to a large extent they already are, doing things that would be utterly natural for that avatar in the circumstances of that movie.
Leslie Cheung was the kind of young man whom you could not help but love.
If you were a heterosexual man in the audience, it is quite likely that while watching the movie you would want yourself to be him.
Or have a friend exactly like him.
If you were a young woman watching the film there's really no telling what you would want. I could guess, but I'm SO not going there.
I don't know why I decided to hunt up Leslie on youtube. At four o'clock in the morning I woke up and turned on the computer, and somehow I ended up watching him and Sam Hui on stage singing.
It's a lovely song.
沉默是金
[Song starts at 3:45]
[Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFKio63Dns.]
夜風凜凜獨回望舊事前塵
是以往的我充滿怒憤
誣告與指責積壓著滿肚氣不憤
對謠言反應甚為著緊。
Ye fung lam lam, duk-wui mong gau-si chin-chan,
Si yi-wong dik ngoh chung-mun nou-fan;
Mou-gou yiu ji-jaak, zik-ngaat jeuk muntou hei pat fan,
Dui yiu-yin faanying sam-wai jeuk-gan.
受了教訓得了書經的指引
現已看得透不再自困
但覺有分數
不再像以往那般笨
抹淚痕輕快笑著行。
Sou-liu gaau fan, dak-liu syu-king dik ji-yan,
Yin-yi hon-dak tau pat-joi ji kwan,
Dan gwok yau fan-sou,
Pat-joi jeung yi-wong na bun-ban,
Mut leui han hing faai siu jeuk hang.
冥冥中都早注定你富或貧
是錯永不對真永是真
任你怎說安守我本份
始終相信沉默是金。
Mingming jung-dou jou jyu-deng nei fuk waak pan,
Si cho wing pat dui chan wing si chan;
Yam nei cham suet ngon sau ngoh bun-fan,
Chi-jung seung-sun cham-mak si gam.
是非有公理慎言莫冒犯別人
遇上冷風雨休太認真
自信滿心裡休理會諷刺與質問
笑罵由人灑脫地做人。
Si-fei yau gung-lei san-yin mok mou faan bit yan,
Yiu seung laang fung yiu yau taai ying-chan;
Ji-sun mun samleui, yau lei wui fung-chi yiu jat-man,
Siu maa yau yan, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
少年人灑脫地做人
繼續行灑脫地做人。
Siu-nin yan, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
Gai-juk hang, saa-tuet-dei jou yan.
It is a very Chinese song.
Condensed paraphrasis: 'In the cold and silence of the night I look back on old matters and previous slights, and I am filled with resentment; I am angry and feel that I have been wrongly blamed. But the classics instruct me to not let the past chain me down, so I forgive and I quickly wipe away my tears. Whether you are rich or poor, wrongs are never real, and fundamentally, silence is golden. I rely on you to keep me grounded, and to help me see the humour in things. Let's not take it all too seriously, and get on with living.'
NOTE: The clip is from Sam Hui's farewell concert over two decades ago.
Allegedly he retired. But his many performances since then strongly suggest that retirement is an active state. Exceedingly so.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, July 25, 2011
A BETTER TOMORROW 2 (英雄本色 2): REAL HEROES HAVE FLAWS, NOT SUPER POWERS
One of the all-time great entertainment experiences is seeing over-the-top acting, humongous-ego histrionics, and operatic mega-violence at a movie theatre.
So you can probably well-imagine that half the audience at the 金都戲院 wet their panties when seeing the 1987 action adventure A Better Tomorrow 2.
After it was over, we went into the night time air and headed up Columbus back to Broadway. We were not the equals of the tough guys in the movie, but we never-the-less felt inspired and alive.
英雄本色 2
Honour, revenge, and all the finest Cantonese values.
Nearly one hundred people get shot in a climactic gun battle the main point of which might well be gallantry, but by then you are already so foaming at the mouth from the sheer excitement of this rock-em sock-em gangster opera that you probably didn't notice.
Directed by John Woo (吴宇森).
Produced by Tsui Hark (徐克).
Starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發) as Ken, Dean Shek Tien (石天) as Lung si, Ti Lung (狄龍) as Sung Tse-ho, and Leslie Cheung (張國榮) as his brother Sung Tse-kit.
Rice is my family
The scene in which Chow Yun-Fat proves that he's as mean-crazy a New Yorker as they come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0fW-SY7eY&feature=related
"You don't like my rice? You don't like my rice?!? Eat the rice!"
A Better Tomorrow II - Hotel Shootout
Ken and Lung shoot their way out of a residential hotel.
"There's only one way out. I want you to fight by my side. If we don't fight... ... we'll both die here. If we win, we'll start all over again."
[Update 03/10/2012: the original clip disappeared from youtube, so you'll have to watch Chow Yun-fat speaking German. Yeah, I know, weird. Imagine John Wayne and the Cartwrights in German. "zo, boss, wir gehen zerug nach ranch, ja?" "Ja, also denn." " Es iz doch affengeil." "Mensch!"]
It's not surprising that this became a cult film. But it's a bit disturbing that most of its non-Chinese fans do not grasp the ethical warp and woof of Cantonese Gangster movies in general, and this film in particular.
An article well worth reading on this subject is here:
http://www.mediacircus.net/johnwoo.html
"The Films of John Woo and the Art of Heroic Bloodshed"
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly: LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
So you can probably well-imagine that half the audience at the 金都戲院 wet their panties when seeing the 1987 action adventure A Better Tomorrow 2.
After it was over, we went into the night time air and headed up Columbus back to Broadway. We were not the equals of the tough guys in the movie, but we never-the-less felt inspired and alive.
英雄本色 2
Honour, revenge, and all the finest Cantonese values.
Nearly one hundred people get shot in a climactic gun battle the main point of which might well be gallantry, but by then you are already so foaming at the mouth from the sheer excitement of this rock-em sock-em gangster opera that you probably didn't notice.
Directed by John Woo (吴宇森).
Produced by Tsui Hark (徐克).
Starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發) as Ken, Dean Shek Tien (石天) as Lung si, Ti Lung (狄龍) as Sung Tse-ho, and Leslie Cheung (張國榮) as his brother Sung Tse-kit.
Rice is my family
The scene in which Chow Yun-Fat proves that he's as mean-crazy a New Yorker as they come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0fW-SY7eY&feature=related
"You don't like my rice? You don't like my rice?!? Eat the rice!"
A Better Tomorrow II - Hotel Shootout
Ken and Lung shoot their way out of a residential hotel.
"There's only one way out. I want you to fight by my side. If we don't fight... ... we'll both die here. If we win, we'll start all over again."
[Update 03/10/2012: the original clip disappeared from youtube, so you'll have to watch Chow Yun-fat speaking German. Yeah, I know, weird. Imagine John Wayne and the Cartwrights in German. "zo, boss, wir gehen zerug nach ranch, ja?" "Ja, also denn." " Es iz doch affengeil." "Mensch!"]
It's not surprising that this became a cult film. But it's a bit disturbing that most of its non-Chinese fans do not grasp the ethical warp and woof of Cantonese Gangster movies in general, and this film in particular.
An article well worth reading on this subject is here:
http://www.mediacircus.net/johnwoo.html
"The Films of John Woo and the Art of Heroic Bloodshed"
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly: LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Sunday, July 03, 2011
CHERIE CHUNG CHOR-HUNG (鍾楚紅): SMOKING!
Below is a clip of one of the most splendid scenes with Cherie Chung (鍾楚紅) ever!
It's from Patrick Tam (譚家明)'s movie 'Cherie' (雪兒) made in 1984.
The actor with whom she is paired in this scene is Tony Leung Ka-fai (梁家輝).
No, this scene is probably not entirely suitable for work.
鍾楚紅 梁家輝 後生時
Youthful chemistry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqEvnZO_Jg&feature=related
If that made you view the panty paradigm from a whole new angle, you really ought to see her in the 1987 Puma Jeans commercial.
She is still the same as she was then. Quite adorable, utterly charming. Part of it is the way she talks and how she behaves - it's a personality thing.
Cherie Chung, born February 16, 1960, has made over fifty movies in a career that would have been much longer had she not decided to quit the industry in 1991.
In the clip above, you can see precisely what made her a stellar bomb to every romance deprived young man in a Cantonese movie theatre. What you do NOT see is the vulnerability that gave each role a luster and made her memorable, long after she stopped acting.
Tony Leung Ka-fai (b. February 1, 1958), who started making moves in 1983, has made over a hundred movies. He was memorable in 'Prison of Fire' with Chow Yun-fat, among many other movies.
He is hard to type-cast, as he has played the gamut of roles. His most recent movie, as of this writing, is a typical happy comedy made for the Holiday season (that being Chinese New Year).
Sheer dynamite in a tuxedo.
[MOVIE: CHERIE - at the Internet Movie Database: 雪兒]
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
It's from Patrick Tam (譚家明)'s movie 'Cherie' (雪兒) made in 1984.
The actor with whom she is paired in this scene is Tony Leung Ka-fai (梁家輝).
No, this scene is probably not entirely suitable for work.
鍾楚紅 梁家輝 後生時
Youthful chemistry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqEvnZO_Jg&feature=related
If that made you view the panty paradigm from a whole new angle, you really ought to see her in the 1987 Puma Jeans commercial.
She is still the same as she was then. Quite adorable, utterly charming. Part of it is the way she talks and how she behaves - it's a personality thing.
Cherie Chung, born February 16, 1960, has made over fifty movies in a career that would have been much longer had she not decided to quit the industry in 1991.
In the clip above, you can see precisely what made her a stellar bomb to every romance deprived young man in a Cantonese movie theatre. What you do NOT see is the vulnerability that gave each role a luster and made her memorable, long after she stopped acting.
Tony Leung Ka-fai (b. February 1, 1958), who started making moves in 1983, has made over a hundred movies. He was memorable in 'Prison of Fire' with Chow Yun-fat, among many other movies.
He is hard to type-cast, as he has played the gamut of roles. His most recent movie, as of this writing, is a typical happy comedy made for the Holiday season (that being Chinese New Year).
Sheer dynamite in a tuxedo.
[MOVIE: CHERIE - at the Internet Movie Database: 雪兒]
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Sunday, May 08, 2011
TOTAL VIOLENT AMBIANCE - 古惑仔
One of the typical Cantonese terms that you may have heard is gu wak chai (古惑仔) - "anciently confused youngster".
What it means is hooligan or thug, a teenage ruffian, who will likely come to a bad end.
Probably a juvenile delinquent, and a poor student in school. But one with connections to a gang.
Some are dead by sixteen, others become serious criminals.
Yet others go into marketing, religion, or blogging.
香港電影 HEUNG KONG DIEN YING
Except for those last three careers, the subculture is well represented in Hong Kong gangster movies. Many of which are either a complete rock'em sock'em blast of operatic gore and ultra-violence - the oeuvre of Hong Kong director John Woo (吳宇森 Ng Yu-sam) - OR explore deeper themes of honour, trust, friendship, ethical behaviour, gallantry, etcetera (also frequently seen in the oeuvre of mr. Woo).
A key element underlying the genre is 'yi-hei' (義氣): loyalty to and self-sacrifice for one's friends and sworn brothers.
One can often tell who the bad guy is by their lack of that characteristic on-screen. They are flawed, they lack nobility, and worst of all their actions betray a vileness of spirit.
It shows some epic misbehavior, but this clip is relatively safe.
流氓學校
This is why you're all little monsters! Improper rubbish!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S5kjisq3NYg
The following clip should only be watched by anthropologists, linguists, and mature audiences.
It might prove a wee bit traumatic for sensitive people.
學校風雲
Ten minutes of rumbling in a nightclub, chase scenes, cleavers, and violent death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_loqsYtHKw&feature=related
That last scene was the ending of the movie 'Hok Hau Fung Wan (學校風雲) - School on Fire (produced in 1988).
[Director: 林嶺東 Ringo Lam (Lam Ling-tung). Bad-ass: 張耀揚 Roy Cheung (Cheung Yiu-yeung). Good girl: 袁潔瑩 Fennie Yuen (Yuen Git-ying).]
The movie narratively details the changing personalities of a bunch of high-school punks as some get further involved in organized crime, others for various reasons have second thoughts. Along the way, some people die, some girls are brutalized.
Roy Cheung is the 'older brother' heading the youth-branch of a larger gang, and runs roughshod over their tender spirits. He epitomizes the flawed character who lacks 義氣 and consequently it is most welcome when in the last minute of the movie he gets what's coming.
You will cheer when his already dying body goes over the edge and plunges to the sharp iron fence spikes below.
Saw the movie at the Pagoda Palace Theatre on Columbus Street several years ago. Even the young hoodlums who customarily hung out there seemed chastened after the movie was over.
It was probably his lack of gallantry, more than the horrific scenes, that quieted them. Older Brother Smart was a right bastard, cruel, vicious, vindictive, and entirely devoid of any 義氣 whatsoever.
Having grown up on both sword-hero (劍俠 kiem hap) and triad (黑社會 hak sei wui) movies, the social environments of which are collectively known as Gong Wu (江湖 rivers and lakes), the various local 古惑仔 aspired to at least a modicum of gallantry.
Right behaviour, even if one is on the wrong side of the law, is an important element in the Cantonese weltanschauung.
做好漢子 TSO HOU-HON JI
What might seem a didactic imposition in a Hollywood flick, and would be crudely overdone besides in the hands of English-speakers, was often a necessary element of the Hong Kong movie - audiences felt cheated if the heroes and heroines did not demonstrate how a person should act.
No matter the situation, some values are universal.
Adhering to a code of conduct proves that one is part of the human family.
And only those who truly grasp what loyalty, gallantry, and decency mean can epitomize right behaviour.
All men are brothers. Those who do not act accordingly put themselves beyond consideration.
後記 AFTERWORD
For a truly classic rendition of the right bastard without a shred of 義氣, you really should watch the movie Gaam Yuk Fung Wan (監獄風雲) - Prison on Fire (1987), also directed by Ringo Lam, with Roy Cheung as the vicious prison officer. This is the movie that established Roy Cheung's reputation as an able enactor of the evil psychopath role. When one of the prisoners, played by Chou Yun-fat (周潤發) bit off his ear, the audience roared their appreciation. The sob deserved it!
我叫你做食屎狗!
Ngoh kieu nei tso sik si gau ('I'm calling you a shit-eating dog').
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BiYrcOv98Co
Prison on fire is worth watching also because the actions of Ah-Ching (Chow Yun-fat) perfectly epitomize the instinctive gallantry so admired by the Cantonese.
He may be a lower-class shlub, but he's got the right stuff - a sense of decency.
義氣
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
What it means is hooligan or thug, a teenage ruffian, who will likely come to a bad end.
Probably a juvenile delinquent, and a poor student in school. But one with connections to a gang.
Some are dead by sixteen, others become serious criminals.
Yet others go into marketing, religion, or blogging.
香港電影 HEUNG KONG DIEN YING
Except for those last three careers, the subculture is well represented in Hong Kong gangster movies. Many of which are either a complete rock'em sock'em blast of operatic gore and ultra-violence - the oeuvre of Hong Kong director John Woo (吳宇森 Ng Yu-sam) - OR explore deeper themes of honour, trust, friendship, ethical behaviour, gallantry, etcetera (also frequently seen in the oeuvre of mr. Woo).
A key element underlying the genre is 'yi-hei' (義氣): loyalty to and self-sacrifice for one's friends and sworn brothers.
One can often tell who the bad guy is by their lack of that characteristic on-screen. They are flawed, they lack nobility, and worst of all their actions betray a vileness of spirit.
It shows some epic misbehavior, but this clip is relatively safe.
流氓學校
This is why you're all little monsters! Improper rubbish!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S5kjisq3NYg
The following clip should only be watched by anthropologists, linguists, and mature audiences.
It might prove a wee bit traumatic for sensitive people.
學校風雲
Ten minutes of rumbling in a nightclub, chase scenes, cleavers, and violent death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_loqsYtHKw&feature=related
That last scene was the ending of the movie 'Hok Hau Fung Wan (學校風雲) - School on Fire (produced in 1988).
[Director: 林嶺東 Ringo Lam (Lam Ling-tung). Bad-ass: 張耀揚 Roy Cheung (Cheung Yiu-yeung). Good girl: 袁潔瑩 Fennie Yuen (Yuen Git-ying).]
The movie narratively details the changing personalities of a bunch of high-school punks as some get further involved in organized crime, others for various reasons have second thoughts. Along the way, some people die, some girls are brutalized.
Roy Cheung is the 'older brother' heading the youth-branch of a larger gang, and runs roughshod over their tender spirits. He epitomizes the flawed character who lacks 義氣 and consequently it is most welcome when in the last minute of the movie he gets what's coming.
You will cheer when his already dying body goes over the edge and plunges to the sharp iron fence spikes below.
Saw the movie at the Pagoda Palace Theatre on Columbus Street several years ago. Even the young hoodlums who customarily hung out there seemed chastened after the movie was over.
It was probably his lack of gallantry, more than the horrific scenes, that quieted them. Older Brother Smart was a right bastard, cruel, vicious, vindictive, and entirely devoid of any 義氣 whatsoever.
Having grown up on both sword-hero (劍俠 kiem hap) and triad (黑社會 hak sei wui) movies, the social environments of which are collectively known as Gong Wu (江湖 rivers and lakes), the various local 古惑仔 aspired to at least a modicum of gallantry.
Right behaviour, even if one is on the wrong side of the law, is an important element in the Cantonese weltanschauung.
做好漢子 TSO HOU-HON JI
What might seem a didactic imposition in a Hollywood flick, and would be crudely overdone besides in the hands of English-speakers, was often a necessary element of the Hong Kong movie - audiences felt cheated if the heroes and heroines did not demonstrate how a person should act.
No matter the situation, some values are universal.
Adhering to a code of conduct proves that one is part of the human family.
And only those who truly grasp what loyalty, gallantry, and decency mean can epitomize right behaviour.
All men are brothers. Those who do not act accordingly put themselves beyond consideration.
後記 AFTERWORD
For a truly classic rendition of the right bastard without a shred of 義氣, you really should watch the movie Gaam Yuk Fung Wan (監獄風雲) - Prison on Fire (1987), also directed by Ringo Lam, with Roy Cheung as the vicious prison officer. This is the movie that established Roy Cheung's reputation as an able enactor of the evil psychopath role. When one of the prisoners, played by Chou Yun-fat (周潤發) bit off his ear, the audience roared their appreciation. The sob deserved it!
我叫你做食屎狗!
Ngoh kieu nei tso sik si gau ('I'm calling you a shit-eating dog').
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BiYrcOv98Co
Prison on fire is worth watching also because the actions of Ah-Ching (Chow Yun-fat) perfectly epitomize the instinctive gallantry so admired by the Cantonese.
He may be a lower-class shlub, but he's got the right stuff - a sense of decency.
義氣
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, March 07, 2011
MASTER HUNG, PLAYING MASTER HUNG
One of the Hong Kong movie actors who is always fun to watch is Hung Kampo (洪金寶), also known as Sammo Hung, and 大哥大.
[The name Sammo comes from 三毛, a character in a Chinese comic strip. 大哥大 ("taai-go taai") means oldest of the brothers, and derives from his early work in kungfu movies.]
Hung Kampo is an unlikely martial arts actor, in that he veers towards the rotund.
His involvement in this field was primarily due to his Peking Opera training, particularly the choreography of movements on stage in martial operas. After working as a stuntman for a few years during his teens, he went to Korea and actually studied kungfu.
Since then, following in the footsteps of his grandmother (Chin Tsi-Ang 錢似鶯), he has further developed his craft and honed his quite considerable skill.
[Chin Tsi-Ang (錢似鶯): the first female movie martial artist, sixteen years old in her first movie role in 1925, aged 90 in her last, made in 2000. She died in 2007.]
He is probably the fastest fat man you'll ever see. One of his best roles, though least lauded, was in the short-lived American television series 'Martial Law'. In one early scene he proved his artistry by deftly, elegantly, wittily, beating the crap out of someone with a chalk-board eraser. Clouds of white dust everywhere!
The most recent Hung Kampo movie I've watched is Ip Man 2.
It isn't his movie, but he is one of the primary actors in it.
I suspect that it would have been a more fully developed tale had he written it, or directed it.
葉問2: 宗師傳奇 IP MAN 2
Master Yip (Ip Man, played by Donnie Yen 甄子丹) has fled from the mainland to Hong Kong, where he continues to teach Wing Chun martial arts (詠春) under straightened circumstances. Conflict with other martial arts schools provides plenty of opportunity for superlative fight scenes, one of which involves what can only be described as stellar upside down stool ballet with a rickety table - both Donnie Yen and Hung Kampo prove their superlative physical grace at this point in the movie. Hung Kampo plays master Hung Chun-nam (洪震南).
After this fight scene, master Hung and master Yip become friends of sorts.
For some reason, the final part of the movie starts with a highlighting of corruption in the ranks of the Hong Kong police force as spearheaded by a real sob Britisher (police superintendent Wallace, acted with degenerate verve by Charles Mayer), which comes to a head in a match with a truly sadistic crassly vulgar boxing champ, well played by Darren Shalavi.
Master Hung is killed in the first match with Taylor (Shalavi), and subsequently avenged by master Yip who succeeds in beating the poxy bastard to a pulp. Cheers, huzzah!
Police superintendent Wallace is arrested for corruption and led off in handcuffs.
It's an entertaining and well-done bit of martial-arts fluff, more or less based on real events in the life of master Ip Man, who later ended up teaching Bruce Lee.
A very elegant and stylish film, with great performances. And also a wonderful window into the Hong Kong martial-arts environment in the early fifties, with splendid old-timey scenes and sets.
But still, the movie was somewhat disappointing. Much of the story is predictable, some of the characters are too one-dimensional to really grip, and the women have no real personalities, serving merely as props or backdrops - nice women who defer to their men, and support them in the crazy sh*t that they do.
Only one of the women comes across as in any way interesting: mrs. Jin, wife of former bandit now martial artist Jin Shanzhao, friend of master Hung. She has about three minutes of screen time.
After Yip, Jin, and a martial arts student get arrested, she comes to bail out her husband, and gives him a piece of her mind. He then wheedles her into forking over more money they can ill afford to get master Yip out too.
A strong-minded woman. A tough woman. A ferocious bitch with just eppes tons of personality.
Remarkably, I cannot remember her face at all, and I have no clue who played the role.
But good heavens, that really would be someone worth knowing.
The kind of woman who can hold her own.
And then some.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
[The name Sammo comes from 三毛, a character in a Chinese comic strip. 大哥大 ("taai-go taai") means oldest of the brothers, and derives from his early work in kungfu movies.]
Hung Kampo is an unlikely martial arts actor, in that he veers towards the rotund.
His involvement in this field was primarily due to his Peking Opera training, particularly the choreography of movements on stage in martial operas. After working as a stuntman for a few years during his teens, he went to Korea and actually studied kungfu.
Since then, following in the footsteps of his grandmother (Chin Tsi-Ang 錢似鶯), he has further developed his craft and honed his quite considerable skill.
[Chin Tsi-Ang (錢似鶯): the first female movie martial artist, sixteen years old in her first movie role in 1925, aged 90 in her last, made in 2000. She died in 2007.]
He is probably the fastest fat man you'll ever see. One of his best roles, though least lauded, was in the short-lived American television series 'Martial Law'. In one early scene he proved his artistry by deftly, elegantly, wittily, beating the crap out of someone with a chalk-board eraser. Clouds of white dust everywhere!
The most recent Hung Kampo movie I've watched is Ip Man 2.
It isn't his movie, but he is one of the primary actors in it.
I suspect that it would have been a more fully developed tale had he written it, or directed it.
葉問2: 宗師傳奇 IP MAN 2
Master Yip (Ip Man, played by Donnie Yen 甄子丹) has fled from the mainland to Hong Kong, where he continues to teach Wing Chun martial arts (詠春) under straightened circumstances. Conflict with other martial arts schools provides plenty of opportunity for superlative fight scenes, one of which involves what can only be described as stellar upside down stool ballet with a rickety table - both Donnie Yen and Hung Kampo prove their superlative physical grace at this point in the movie. Hung Kampo plays master Hung Chun-nam (洪震南).
After this fight scene, master Hung and master Yip become friends of sorts.
For some reason, the final part of the movie starts with a highlighting of corruption in the ranks of the Hong Kong police force as spearheaded by a real sob Britisher (police superintendent Wallace, acted with degenerate verve by Charles Mayer), which comes to a head in a match with a truly sadistic crassly vulgar boxing champ, well played by Darren Shalavi.
Master Hung is killed in the first match with Taylor (Shalavi), and subsequently avenged by master Yip who succeeds in beating the poxy bastard to a pulp. Cheers, huzzah!
Police superintendent Wallace is arrested for corruption and led off in handcuffs.
It's an entertaining and well-done bit of martial-arts fluff, more or less based on real events in the life of master Ip Man, who later ended up teaching Bruce Lee.
A very elegant and stylish film, with great performances. And also a wonderful window into the Hong Kong martial-arts environment in the early fifties, with splendid old-timey scenes and sets.
But still, the movie was somewhat disappointing. Much of the story is predictable, some of the characters are too one-dimensional to really grip, and the women have no real personalities, serving merely as props or backdrops - nice women who defer to their men, and support them in the crazy sh*t that they do.
Only one of the women comes across as in any way interesting: mrs. Jin, wife of former bandit now martial artist Jin Shanzhao, friend of master Hung. She has about three minutes of screen time.
After Yip, Jin, and a martial arts student get arrested, she comes to bail out her husband, and gives him a piece of her mind. He then wheedles her into forking over more money they can ill afford to get master Yip out too.
A strong-minded woman. A tough woman. A ferocious bitch with just eppes tons of personality.
Remarkably, I cannot remember her face at all, and I have no clue who played the role.
But good heavens, that really would be someone worth knowing.
The kind of woman who can hold her own.
And then some.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Sunday, January 09, 2011
PRISON ON FIRE SONG
The movie 'Prison on Fire' with Chow Yun-fat isn't the greatest movie in the world. But it's a pretty darn good movie, and as excellent a representative of mr. Chow's oeuvre as any.
That alone should make it worth borrowing from the local library.
[Prison on Fire: (gaam yuk fung wan 監獄風雲) made in 1987, directed by Ringo Lam. The movie features three stellar performances: Chou Yun-fat as Ching, the inmate of rather common antecedents, who befriends Yiu, played by Tony Leung Ka-fai, both of them versus Roy Cheung as the sadistic prison guard. It's a buddy flick, but one that speaks to the Cantonese welt-anshauung, and especially the sense of loyalty to ones friends in the hardest of times. In one sense, it's about chivalry - being gallant and righteous from the very fabric of one's character. In quite another sense, it's also about biting the ear off of a sadistic prison guard.
So there's something satisfying there for everyone.
Ringo Lam: 林嶺東 born 1955, director of many exciting action movies, many of which have an undercurrent of elements familiar to any aficionado of Cantonese operas and Gong-wu (江湖) novels. Chow Yun-fat: 周潤發 born 1955, Hong Kong actor of Hakka origin. If you haven't heard of him, you may have been living in a cave for the past twenty years. Tony Leung Ka-fei: 梁家輝 also known as 'big Tony', to distinguish him from someone else. Very good in roles that require a polished or scholarly image. Voted 'man you would really like to see in a tuxedo' by this blog. Roy Cheung: 張耀揚 often cast as a villain or sadist, partly due to his psychotic performance in Prison of Fire. Can be described as intense, even obsessed, in many of his roles.]
FRIENDSHIP'S GLOW
But what really anchors the movie in the viewers mind is the song 'yau-yi ji gwong' (友誼之光).
In this link, scenes from the movie are the background to the recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmcXSrgIkFw
The brassy female whose voice starts singing the song as counter point at the fifty second mark is Maria Cordero - also known as 'Fat Momma Maria' (肥媽瑪俐亞) - the Macanese songwriter and singer who wrote the lyrics.
Sut yau man lei san, gak-jo leung tei yiew;
Pat seui kien-min, sam-tsong ya chi-hiew;
Yau-yi goi pat liew!
For a cool video with the lyrics superimposed, so that you can sing along, see this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpM21PR5Jfc&feature=related
No, I don't know why this video shows famous European sights (including Keukenhof and the Arc de Triomf). The visuals are entirely baffling, and decontextual. That's common with karaoke numbers, but more often than not they'll feature some almond-eyed cutie-pie ambling along a tropical beach, with birds, water, palm trees, and icecream shakes.
Or something equally inane and stirring.
人生於世上有幾个知己
Yan-sang yu sai seung, yau gei ko chi kei ?
多少友誼能長存
To-sieu yau-yi nang cheung-chyun?
今日别離共你雙雙两握手
Kam-yat bit-lei gung ney seung-seung leung ak sau,
友誼常在你我心里
Yau-yi seung tsoi ney ngoh sam leui!
In the span of a life how much mutual recognition? How many friendships will long survive? Part today warmly shaking hands, With friendship that remains strong within both of us.
今天且要暫别
Kam-tien che yiu jaam-biet,
他朝也定能聚首
Ta-chiew ya deng nang jeui-sau;
縱使不能會面
Jung-si pat nang woei-min,
始終也是朋友
Chi-chung ya si pang-yau.
Today we mark this moment, Another time we shall meet once more; If we're never again face-to-face, From beginning to end we'll stay friends.
說有萬里山 隔阻兩地遙
Sut yau man lei san, gak-jo leung tei yiew;
不需見面 心中也知曉
Pat seui kien-min, sam-tsong ya chi-hiew;
友誼改不了
Yau-yi goi pat liew.
Myriad mountains, and obstacles beyond measure; No need to actually meet, the heart still deeply knows; this a bond which shall indeed not change.
Like all song lyrics, the cohesion it has in its own language is lost in translation. Forgive me for not being adequate to the task, I cannot do it justice.
Go ahead and watch the movie. Let yourself sink into a Cantonese-hued world for a while, in which universal values will resonate in slightly less familiar ways than you know.
Friendships made in adverse times are annealed by hardship, made stronger by the flames.
NOTE: Previously I have mentioned this song in relation to some other matters - that post provides more framework in which to comprehend it.
This post:http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2010/05/kiss-me-you-rebel.html
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
That alone should make it worth borrowing from the local library.
[Prison on Fire: (gaam yuk fung wan 監獄風雲) made in 1987, directed by Ringo Lam. The movie features three stellar performances: Chou Yun-fat as Ching, the inmate of rather common antecedents, who befriends Yiu, played by Tony Leung Ka-fai, both of them versus Roy Cheung as the sadistic prison guard. It's a buddy flick, but one that speaks to the Cantonese welt-anshauung, and especially the sense of loyalty to ones friends in the hardest of times. In one sense, it's about chivalry - being gallant and righteous from the very fabric of one's character. In quite another sense, it's also about biting the ear off of a sadistic prison guard.
So there's something satisfying there for everyone.
Ringo Lam: 林嶺東 born 1955, director of many exciting action movies, many of which have an undercurrent of elements familiar to any aficionado of Cantonese operas and Gong-wu (江湖) novels. Chow Yun-fat: 周潤發 born 1955, Hong Kong actor of Hakka origin. If you haven't heard of him, you may have been living in a cave for the past twenty years. Tony Leung Ka-fei: 梁家輝 also known as 'big Tony', to distinguish him from someone else. Very good in roles that require a polished or scholarly image. Voted 'man you would really like to see in a tuxedo' by this blog. Roy Cheung: 張耀揚 often cast as a villain or sadist, partly due to his psychotic performance in Prison of Fire. Can be described as intense, even obsessed, in many of his roles.]
FRIENDSHIP'S GLOW
But what really anchors the movie in the viewers mind is the song 'yau-yi ji gwong' (友誼之光).
In this link, scenes from the movie are the background to the recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmcXSrgIkFw
The brassy female whose voice starts singing the song as counter point at the fifty second mark is Maria Cordero - also known as 'Fat Momma Maria' (肥媽瑪俐亞) - the Macanese songwriter and singer who wrote the lyrics.
Sut yau man lei san, gak-jo leung tei yiew;
Pat seui kien-min, sam-tsong ya chi-hiew;
Yau-yi goi pat liew!
For a cool video with the lyrics superimposed, so that you can sing along, see this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpM21PR5Jfc&feature=related
No, I don't know why this video shows famous European sights (including Keukenhof and the Arc de Triomf). The visuals are entirely baffling, and decontextual. That's common with karaoke numbers, but more often than not they'll feature some almond-eyed cutie-pie ambling along a tropical beach, with birds, water, palm trees, and icecream shakes.
Or something equally inane and stirring.
人生於世上有幾个知己
Yan-sang yu sai seung, yau gei ko chi kei ?
多少友誼能長存
To-sieu yau-yi nang cheung-chyun?
今日别離共你雙雙两握手
Kam-yat bit-lei gung ney seung-seung leung ak sau,
友誼常在你我心里
Yau-yi seung tsoi ney ngoh sam leui!
In the span of a life how much mutual recognition? How many friendships will long survive? Part today warmly shaking hands, With friendship that remains strong within both of us.
今天且要暫别
Kam-tien che yiu jaam-biet,
他朝也定能聚首
Ta-chiew ya deng nang jeui-sau;
縱使不能會面
Jung-si pat nang woei-min,
始終也是朋友
Chi-chung ya si pang-yau.
Today we mark this moment, Another time we shall meet once more; If we're never again face-to-face, From beginning to end we'll stay friends.
說有萬里山 隔阻兩地遙
Sut yau man lei san, gak-jo leung tei yiew;
不需見面 心中也知曉
Pat seui kien-min, sam-tsong ya chi-hiew;
友誼改不了
Yau-yi goi pat liew.
Myriad mountains, and obstacles beyond measure; No need to actually meet, the heart still deeply knows; this a bond which shall indeed not change.
Like all song lyrics, the cohesion it has in its own language is lost in translation. Forgive me for not being adequate to the task, I cannot do it justice.
Go ahead and watch the movie. Let yourself sink into a Cantonese-hued world for a while, in which universal values will resonate in slightly less familiar ways than you know.
Friendships made in adverse times are annealed by hardship, made stronger by the flames.
NOTE: Previously I have mentioned this song in relation to some other matters - that post provides more framework in which to comprehend it.
This post:http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2010/05/kiss-me-you-rebel.html
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