Thoughts triggered by reports that Article 23 will be passed (very) soon

  

Spotted in Hong Kong yesterday

 

Sharing some things I wrote on Twitter late last night after seeing the news that Article 23 would be gazetted today (with typos there hopefully corrected here):

 

Something many people outside of Hong Kong (still) don't seem to realise is that: People went on protest marches because Hong Kong didn't have democracy but they still felt the government would listen to over 500 thousand protest marchers. But when Carrie Lam didn't listen on June 9th and then 16th, 2019... 

 

Put another way: if we had genuine universal suffrage, there probably would not have been those mega protest marches. And what REALLY killed off the will to have those mega marches wasn't the national security law but the feeling/knowledge that the government WILL NOT LISTEN.

 

 Those people lamenting that Hongkongers have lost their courage and don't want to comment (on camera to the BBC, etc.) about Article 23: why should we risk arrest, jail, etc. when we knew/know what we say will just fall on deaf ears?

 

I mean. Think about it: 2 million people out of a population of some 7.5 million went out on the streets on June 16th, 2019. Young, elderly, some pregnant women, people on wheelchairs, etc. And still our message was ignored. And we -- non-violent protestors -- were derided as rioters. How insane is that?!

 

And for those who say 2 million is less than one third of the population: think of the people who couldn't attend that day -- who were working that day, in hospital, who happened to not be in Hong Kong that day, etc. And, also, that the majority of the voters on November 24th, 2019 voted for pro-democracy candidates.

 

And when you look at just 2019 (not even 2020, 2014, every July 1st from 2003, etc.), with protest rallies and marches taking place weekly (with some weeks and days having more than one event): we are talking about A LOT of (committed) people.

 

In sum: there were/are lots of people who wanted democracy, who didn't want Article 23 to be passed, who really f**king love Hong Kong. And that's what keeps us going (and the majority of us here): the knowledge that We. Are. Still. The. Majority. In. Hong. Kong!

 

And for the record: As Anna Kwok (yes, that Anna Kwok), noted: "Article 23 will likely pass next week"; with her Hong Kong Democracy Council noting that "the [Legislative Council's] Bills Committee will host special sessions on Saturday & Sunday to go through every provision of Article 23."

 

Today, I saw someone Tweet that after Article 23 is passed, he will delete his Twitter account.  And, sadly, I think he isn't the only one who will do so.  We saw this happen after China imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong back in 2020 after all -- and what's been described as Hong Kong's own national security law is threatening to be quite a bit harsher and thus scarier.

 

I would be lying if I said that I've not thought about deleting my social media accounts and also this blog.  But I also got to thinking that if the Hong Kong government wanted/wants to go after me, they'd already have copied those of my writings they found/find offensive.  So if I delete this blog or Tweets, etc., it just means "the public" won't be able to read them -- as opposed to the authorities.

 

Consequently, they will stay.  Though for how much longer I will update them... well, let's see how it all goes (or not, as the case could be), shall we?  If nothing else, I learnt a long time ago to: a) never say never; and b) to not try to predict the future -- because so much has happened and can happen, both bad but also good, that we just really couldn't envisage or imagine until it all did! 

Literally as well as metaphorically headache-inducing developments in recent days in Hong Kong

Spotted last Wednesday (and probably already removed

by today but recorded for posterity by my camera) 

As Chairman Mao said,  

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"

For those who were wondering: I'm still here; and I'm still planning to generally blog about Hong Kong.  But I literally have been having headaches for the past few days along with a stiff neck and high blood pressure, for which I've been taking medication (and am apt to blame the stress that has come from China's draconian security law for Hong Kong having come into effect).  So I've been sleeping a lot and not going out nor checking the news as much as has become the norm in the past year or so.  And I figured I might as well take a few days off from blogging too (except to commemorate a beloved character's brthday two days ago). 

The $64,000 question though is how much longer I will be able to do this sort of thing.  In just a few days, so much has happened -- and, sadly, not much of it good.  Among the more major developments have been Nathan Law having fled Hong Kong last week even while his erstwhile Demosisto compatriots, Joshua Law and Agnes Chow, elected to remain in the Big Lychee even while surely fully knowing that they were marked for prosecution.  And so it has come to pass, with their having been charged with inciting others to participate in an "unlawful assembly" outside the police headquarters in Wan Chai on June 21st of last year, and also to participating in that "unauthorised assembly".

Lest it not be clear: many Hong Kongers support the man who was Hong Kong's youngest ever legislator's decision to leave Hong Kong.  And, frankly, it's a greater shock to me that Agnes Chow decided to plead guilty today to what she was charged with (even while Joshua Law and another ex-Demosisto member, Ivan Lam, opted against doing so).  Is she doing so to see what kind of punishment the courts are planning to mete out to "big name" activists?  It has been mentioned that, up until now, most existing cases of people guilty of similar "crimes" have resulted in fines rather than prison sentences.  Sadly though, I could see the penalty imposed on her being harsher in nature.

Here's the thing: against the odds, there are a good number of Hong Kongers who still are willing to place faith in the law and justice in Hong Kong.  And even while lots of terrible things have been happening, it still can feel like doing Hong Kongers a disservice to completely write off Hong Kong already; this not least since it can feel like the vast majority of people doing so live outside of it and were inordinately slow to wake up to there being serious political repression and injustice taking place here.   Also, it's true enough that, even as late as this past Saturday, there have been legal rulings that have gone in favor of the opposition: e.g., five pro-democracy figures having obtained a temporary court order to prevent police from accessing their phones.           

At the same time though, this now is a Hong Kong where a man who accidentally rode his motorbike into police while flying a flag on July 1st became the first person charged under the new security law (and was denied bail, to boot, for "endangering national security").  In addition, there are fears that he was abused while in custody, resulting in several broken bones and a need to be hospitalized.  But while it was initially thought that Tong Ying-kit would not be able to appear in court today, he did end up doing so, albeit in a wheelchair.    

Sadly, allegations of police maltreatment of detained protestors are no longer a novel thing in Hong Kong.  Ditto bloody attacks on staff at "yellow" restaurants (the latest instance of which occurred this morning).  But what most definitely is something that only has happened since the new security legislation came into effect is public libraries taking out books written by Tonya Chan (who, lest we forget, is a legislative councillor), Joshua Wong and Wan Chin (a localist academic) out of circulation for fear that their contents are in violation of the security law, sparking fears of increased censorship in Hong Kong which only have increased with the Education Bureau ordering schools today to assess their books and immediately remove those that "possibly violate" the new law.

If truth be told, these kind of actions were anticipated by many of us to happen after the security legislation was announced over in Beijing.  But what has taken many people's breaths away is how quickly as well as dramatically things have changed since July and the Beijing-imposed legislation came along.  

Just this evening has come news that Carrie Lam has invoked it to give more powers to the police to do such as enter premises without warrants, intercept communications and request ISPs or internet platforms to remove information posted online.  How soon before major internet censorship kicks in and the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp, Google (including its Blogger platform which I'm using) and Twitter -- which, lest we forget, all currently banned in Mainland China -- will also not be allowed to be used in Hong Kong too?  At this rate, way faster than many of us would like and actually expected too. :(    

Anagomeshi at Miyajimaguchi's iconic Ueno

The thing to eat before getting on the ferry to Miyajima

 

The place to eat it...

Or, if you're hurry, Puppet Ponyo points out,

you can get an anagomeshi bento box from Ueno! ;b

 

Close to 11 years ago now, I was persuaded by two friends to join the blogging ranks.  Ironically, while they long ago stopped updating their blogs in favor of posting on Facebook, I have continued blogging (even while having also finally become a member of the Facebook community a few months ago).

 

Among the reasons for my continuing blogging is that I've continued to get much out of reading other blogs.  As an example: Thanks to Paul's Travel Pics, I've not only felt compelled to go visit the far flung likes of Kanazawa and Luxembourg but also, when there, I've made a point to check out attractions and even pecific eateries which earned high praise from Paul.  And it was Paul's blog which alerted me to the existence of an over 100-year-old eatery located close to the pier at Miyajimaguchi where folks in the know will stop at to get a meal of anagomeshi (conger eel rice bowl) either at the restaurant or "to go" in the form of a boxed lunch.

 

After the train station at Miyajimaguchi was set up in 1897, a fellow by the name of Tanikichi Ueno hit on the idea of making portable meals of grilled slices of the local seawater eel on rice for train passengers.  Over time, he set up a restaurant where people could eat his signature creation.  And these days, many people are willing to wait for hours to get a meal at Ueno -- which has stayed in the family all this time, and whose fourth generation custodian is named Junichi Ueno -- in between getting off the train at Miyajimaguchi and catching the ferry over to Miyajima.   

 

Alerted by Paul (and a Japanese friend who is acquainted with the practice of eating at Ueno as part of a Miyajima excursion) that this iconic eatery can attract quite the crowd, I made a point to go there outside of lunch hour and was rewarded by my mother and I needing to wait for just 10 minutes before we were ushered into this still physically modest-looking establishment's small as well as atmospheric dining area.  And although there were a few other dishes listed on the menu, we zeroed in on the anagomeshi: with my mother opting for a small-sized portion while I decided that I would be fine with the medium-sized one.     

 

Although I've had anago before, it had always been at sushi restaurants -- and consequently just in bite-sized portions as part of a more diversified meal -- until this visit to Ueno.  But since I've eaten my share of unajuu and unadon (freshwater eel on rice) over the years, I figured I've had a good idea of what to expect of Ueno's anagomeshi; only it turns out that I wasn't entirely since this Miyajimaguchi eatery's signature dish doesn't come slathered with sweet soy sauce and has a noticeably smoky flavor whose notes combine with the moderately applied light sweet-salty glaze for a distinctive as well as very pleasant overall taste.                

 

So good was this dish that I actually didn't have much trouble at all emptying the bowl despite it actually being rich tasting and pretty substantial.  And if it hadn't happened to be the case that the restaurant would be closed the next day (Wednesday; when we'd pass through Miyajimaguchi once more, on the way back to Hiroshima), I would have seriously considered stopping by at Ueno for one more bowl of anagomeshi!  

 

Instead, I'm left with just the memory of that one meal at that justifiably popular establishment that put the pieces of anago sushi my mother and I were served at the ryokan we stayed in at Miyajima to shame.  And yes, I've got to deciding that it might be best if I don't eat any other anago for a while since doing so will only get me pining (even more) for that anagomeshi at Ueno! ;S

Not your usual photos taken while riding on the Star Ferry

Water and light combined can make a pretty picture

even without a rainbow in sight ;)

I really do love how the water can look like

it's glittering when light reflects off it :)

Pretty much wherever I go these days, I tend to have a camera in my backpack or an outer pocket of the cargo shorts I like to wear in the summer (rather than the cargo pants I prefer when the temperatures drop).  Believe it or not, this wasn't always so.  In fact, there have been periods of my life -- which I now really do regret -- where there are scant photographic records because I didn't like as well as think to have a camera around. 

Thinking back, I reckon things changed quite a bit with the advent of digital cameras.  And my coming to have a blog also made me more inclined to take more photographs, including of everyday scenes which -- sometimes, upon looking back -- actually are pretty interesting; this because I feel that the likelihood has increased of someone out there enjoying seeing my snaps besides just myself!

Along the way, I've found myself not only taking more photos but also experimenting with such as taking pictures from different and unusual angles as well as a variety of subjects.  Thus it was that, while taking the Star Ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui, I once again couldn't resist snapping some photos during the short but pretty much always enjoyable ride but decided to opt for shots that were less conventional than usual.

For one thing, rather than focus on the views of skyscrapers on the sections of land to the north or south of Victoria Harbour, I opted for shots where the sky met the water instead.  And rather than have the horizon be near the center in the photos, I had it either super high or super low in the picture instead.  And if I may say so myself, I reckon the resulting pictures are pretty cool -- and consequently worth sharing on what I had intended to be a text-light blog post but actually has turned out to still be rather wordy...! ;b     

Q&A with River of Exploding Durians' director, scriptwriter and editor Edmund Yeo

Durians hanging safely from a tree -- and in 

little danger of exploding -- in Penang, Malaysia

Some years ago, when I was just a novice blogger, I got to know a young fellow blogger -- and fellow film fan -- who went by the moniker of The Great Swifty on the internet.  While taking in a screening of Days of Turquoise Sky by Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jing at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival, I was startled to see my friend's real name appear in the film credits.  But after I saw it, I figured that it'd be only a matter of time before Edmund Yeo directed his own film.

After his River of Exploding Durians (2014) was announced in the line-up of this year's Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, Edmund contacted me and invited me to a screening of his debut directorial offering (which he also scripted and edited).  After the screening, I admitted to him that I hadn't liked the film.  Nice guy that he is, Edmund didn't seem to take offence -- and even kindly agreed to do a Q&A about this ambitious dramatic exploration of various malaises affecting young Malaysians and their nation, parts of which I'm hereby sharing in this blog entry:-  

YTSL: What are the exploding durians in River of Exploding Durians meant to signify?

Edmund Yeo: Ourselves. Durians are so important to us Malaysians. They are the king of fruits. They also are like us: thorny on the outside, and needing a bit of time to get used to! And here we are, flowing on a river, to an unknown future, about to explode. 

The Chinese title of the film, Liu Lian Wang Fan, is also a wordplay: originally it was 流连忘返, which means nostalgia, but I changed the first two words into "durians" 榴梿忘返 -- so they literally become durians floating about, forgetting how to return. It's pretty much our current condition. 

YTSL: What did you want to accomplish with this film, and did you think you were successful in doing so?

Edmund Yeo: Most of my works are generally very personal and somewhat autobiographical. I had a story I wanted to tell, there were situations in the country that I wanted to depict, there were feelings and memories built up within me that I wanted to share. Therefore I ended up making this film. 

The longer I was away from my country during my adult life (two and a half years in Australia, another five years in Tokyo), the more I found myself curious about its history, and the normal everyday things that I have missed out while growing up. Therefore I made this film to remember things from, yes, a particular stage of my life. 

There's also our collective memories from the past few years coming into play here. After all, the backstory is loosely based on real-life events (the Lynas rare earth plant controversy). But instead of making this a film with an environmental message, I wanted to examine how these things impact the people, especially those who are at their crossroads of their lives, those who are on the verge of adulthood. 

What was I when I was about to finish secondary school? Apathetic towards politics, interested only in girls, yet finding myself inspired by certain teachers [YTSL's note: like the film's main male character]. In those days, with our education system, our teachers were like gods. The things they did, especially when it's something beyond just teaching something from textbooks, impacted me deeply. 

As for the second part of the question: I'm not so presumptuous to say that I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. In the end, once the film is done, I think I have done the best I could with the resources I had. The rest is up to the audiences. As for myself, once the film is out, I try looking forward to the next one, hoping to make a better work.

YTSL: Who is your target audience for the film? On a related note: has it been (allowed to be) screened in Malaysia?

Edmund Yeo: The film has been screened in Malaysia but I made the film knowing that I wouldn't have much of a chance of getting a wide distribution in the country.  Due to its sensitive content, the depiction of the sociopolitical situation in Malaysia, etc., a few local actresses had to turn down the Teacher Lim role, and I ended up turning to Taiwanese actress Zhu Zhi-Ying to play the role instead. 

So no, in its current form, the film is unlikely to have a wide theatrical release. We had a few mini-screenings organized by some nice folks from an environmental organization recently. Nevertheless, we are still figuring out the best way to distribute this film locally. Perhaps a new cut, or perhaps we'll continue touring on campuses.  

YTSL: The Malaysia depicted in the film feels foreign to me (maybe because of age difference and also because of language).  Are there schools in Malaysia where secondary education is conducted in Mandarin (rather than Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu, like I'm more familiar with)?    

Edmund Yeo: Yes, there are schools like Chong Hwa Independent High School (and other Chinese schools) which are not part of the national school system. The actress Daphne Low was actually from Chong Hwa, along with a few of the student extras. 

I can understand why it seemed foreign to you. I guess that's also one of the interesting things (for me anyway) about making this film. I found myself rediscovering the country. I had a Thai cameraman (Kong Pahurak) and sound recordist, so they brought in a fresh perspective when they were shooting with us.

We worked in a very organic, improvised manner; there were many happy accidents (I like to keep my shoots loose and raw instead of being too controlled), many discoveries. For example, I visited Cameron Highlands for the first time. Also, we found out about the 140-year-old parade that appears at the end of the film from a cast member, and deliberately made adjustments so we could shoot during that particular day. In many ways, I realized how foreign Malaysia had been to me too!

YTSL: Where did you shoot your film and what was your reason for picking the particular locations that you did?  (By the way, for the first couple of scenes near the water, I was mesmerized by how choppy the sea was!)

Edmund Yeo: We traveled to various places in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Johor, Cameron Highlands, the seaside area of Kuala Selangor, the town of Sekinchan, we also went to the waterfalls of Ulu Langat. We shot for 15 days, so it was a pretty insane schedule!

Some places, like Sekinchan and Kuala Selangor, were places I was familiar with because I had done some short films and TV series there. Even two of the films by Woo Ming Jin which I produced, were done in these areas too. I like those places because they're so photogenic. And because we have long established relationships with the locals, they gave us access to their houses, factories and boats, etc. It's great working with them. 

The real-life Lynas event happened in Kuantan and I had considered shooting there too. But at the same time, I think my film is more an artistic representation of the issue instead of a factually accurate documentary. Therefore I didn't want to go to the actual place of the event, I wanted to maintain a certain amount of distance to make this film and tell our story. 

YTSL: Those moments in Asian history that the class presentations were on: are they real and if so, how did you find out about them? (Incidentally, these are the parts of the film that I consider the best.)

Edmund Yeo: Yes, they were real. The film has a lot to do with the suppressed and hidden history of the country, but throughout the time that I was developing the script, I also found out that our neighbouring countries had numerous painful, hidden histories of their own that are mostly forgotten, or rather, external factors prevented these issues from being discussed in the open. The Thammasat Massacre, the death of Liliosa Hilao, and the Karayuki-san.

I cannot remember whether these discoveries were made when I was writing River of Exploding Durians, or some other screenplays before that. Nevertheless, I was haunted by the videos and images I saw of those events and people for the longest time. I wanted to preserve this in my own films, because I think cinema's forever and we remember the world through cinema anyway. So that's probably the least I could do: to create more awareness of these things, to be a bit more conscious of things around us -- history's a cycle, I guess.

As previously mentioned, I worked in a very improvised manner.  While I choreographed the presentations and the camera movements, I really allowed the student actors and actresses to do their own thing. They brought a lot of things into these presentations which were beyond my expectations. I am grateful for that. 

YTSL: Be honest now: on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (perfect), how would you rate your film?  

Edmund Yeo: Usually I would give myself a 1! But that would diminish the efforts of the rest of the team. 

I put a lot of sweat and blood into my films, and up until its world premiere [at the 2014 Tokyo Film Festival], there was pretty much nothing else in life that would mean more to me than completing the film. After I first saw it on the big screen during the world premiere, I found myself crying (although I was pretending to just wipe sweat off my face 'cos, you know, my actors were sitting next to me)! The crying had nothing to do with the film itself, but more because I was relieved it was finally done and I could move on. It was quite an intense journey that we had taken to get there. 

The film itself, I feel oddly detached towards. I have not seen it in its entirety on the big screen since the world premiere last year. Maybe I got tired of it because I edited it myself too! (laughs) I think once the film is done, it's really out of my hands. However it's received by viewers is up to them. I'm just gonna respect their opinions. I know quite well that with its methodical pacing and unconventional structure, and the uncompromising subject matter, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Just like my previous short films.

River of Exploding Durians will always mean something to me because it's my first feature film. After so many years of doing short films and producing feature films by other directors, the feeling of making my first feature is pretty different. I always loved the journey more than the destination itself. The process, for me, was a thorough joy. Now I just want to make my next film and hope it's better. (smiles) 

YTSL: What's next on the horizon for you?

Edmund Yeo: For the past year I was working on a documentary about the 1949 Malayan Thomas Cup team. The Thomas Cup is the biannual "World Cup" of badminton.  Its first edition was held in 1949. A ragtag Malayan team took a one-month boat journey to the United Kingdom to play, and ended up winning the whole thing!

I'm now in Tokyo, preparing for a Japanese short film starring the actress Fujii Mina and the actor Yuki Kubota. It's a love story of perpetual missed chances. I'm shooting that next week, hopefully it'll be fun.

I'm also helping to produce my partner Woo Ming Jin's next film projects. (We both run a production company called Greenlight Pictures, and had been working together since 2007).

I've also been writing the follow up to River of Exploding Durians. It's a story that spans a century, following four generations of a family. I think it'll be set in Japan and Malaysia. Some characters from River of Exploding Durians will appear in it, because we have different stories to tell during different stages of our lives. (smiles once more)

***

A big thank you to Edmund for answering my questions in such a detailed and interesting way.  I wish him the best in his filmmaking career -- and do hope that I will like his next feature film, and the ones after that. :)

On the night of a "blood moon" lunar eclipse*

A view of tonight's moon and the People's Liberation Army's  

Hong Kong Building over at Tamar

A sign spotted at Admiralty earlier this evening

that echoes my sentiments

And if you still want more commentary, go here to check out my friend's latest blog entry over at The Fragrant Harbour! :)

*And if you want to know more about the lunar eclipse, go here!

Model and Show some circles (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

When I visited Macau's Mandarin's House a few years back, I got pretty snap happy -- but when it came to blogging about it, I ended up writing quite a bit more than putting up pictures to share.  But thanks to Sandi's and Gattina's choices of Photo Hunts for this week, I can share a few more of the photos I took that day of the historic site that I consider a model of heritage conservation -- all of which feature a circle or more in them!

The top-most photo was taken through a fence in the grounds through whose circular, round holes one could get glimpses of sections of the property that was not (yet) open to the public -- presumably because they are still undergoing restoration or conservation.  The middle photo shows a moon gate in the main passage way of the Mandarin's House -- with some more of the complex being visible at the back along with some neighboring low-rise apartment buildings.

The last photo is of small-scale models of the Mandarin's House and its surroundings.  (Look closely -- it may help to click to enlarge the image -- and you'll see the moon gate!) Displayed inside a glass case, it was difficult -- nay, impossible! -- to take photos of them without the spotlights installed in the room getting reflected in the pictures.  So normally, I'd consider it a "failed" photo but did it come in handy this week since it allows me to show some circles -- and in a photo of models to boot! ;b

Questions for other bloggers using Blogger (Urgent!)

Is anyone else having problems seeing the menu page and/or having some (but not all) photographs cease to be visible on their blog?  If so, please let me know.  (I'm wondering if mine is the only one affected -- and for the record, I've been noticing these bugs only in the past 48 hours or so.  Also, I'm using Mozilla Firefox, if it makes any difference.)  Also, if anyone has any solutions to these problems, PLEASE let me know.

Thank you

Responding to a reader's query about Christmas Rose :)

From left to right: Xia Yu, Charlie Young (aka Charlie Yeung),

Aaron Kwok, Kwai Lun Mei and Chang Chen

The same people -- and more -- appear on a big screen

at the same event and venue

The occasion: the gala premiere of Charlie Young's

first film as a director and scriptwriter, Christmas Rose

On the comments thread over on the Tuesday, May 14, entry on this blog, a fairly faithful -- teehee! -- follower of this blog, Samson, wrote: "Nice Pics, YTSL! Now onto a topic totally unrelated to this post (sorry): your score for Christmas Rose went up from 3 to 7 on re-watching. Was it a new cut that you got to see, or did you really like it a lot more on 2nd viewing?"

The following is my response to his comments about the film by Charlie Young that stars Aaron Kwok as a prosecutor in a court case involving a respected doctor (portrayed by Chang Chen) being accused by a wheelchair-bound patient (essayed by Kwai Lun Mei) of having raped her:-

Firstly, Samson, thank you for paying attention to the "Most recently viewed movies" section of this blog.  And here's confirming that I did originally rate Christmas Rose much more lowly than I now do.  Also, that I did watch two different cuts of the film.

More specifically, as I only learnt yesterday afternoon, it turns out that I had seen the first cut of the film the first time that I viewed it.  It's not just that it was not fully finished -- with that version of the film most noticeably not having any background sound and mood-affecting music in it -- but, as I discovered yesterday evening, the film subsequently had been re-edited in such a way that it was shorter, seemed faster paced and had a more "commercial" (as opposed to art house) movie rhythm and feel to it, and had the order of a few scenes changed around!

Suffice to say that I think that the film's editor did a very good job indeed -- and that the final, finished version of the film does its director-scriptwriter as well as the rest of its crew and cast proud.  All in all, I now think that Christmas Rose makes for a very respectable directorial and scriptwriting debut from a woman I've long liked as an actress, and now -- after having recently had the privilege to meet her -- look upon as a really sweet, charming lady who I have much admiration for. :)

Spooky and On a Shelf (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

While out hiking in Hong Kong, one regularly passes by a grave (or more) and sometimes even through a cemetery.  But strange as it may seem, I generally don't find the final resting places of the dead that I come across in the Big Lychee to be all that spooky.  (Thinking about it, I reckon it's because they and their surroundings often are so clean!)

So I decided that for my entry for Sandi's Photo Hunt this week, it'd be better for me to go create my own "spooky" -- and, of course, all the better if I could come up with efforts that were also suitable for Gattina's different Photo Hunt theme. And with the help of reflections along with antique sculptures on display by the window of a shop on Hollywood Road (a Hong Kong public passage whose construction predates the establishment of the Hollywood district of Los Angeles!), I do believe that I came up with a couple of nifty spooky pics -- far spookier looking, in fact, that any of the Halloween-themed items on sale at a number of stalls on nearby Pottinger Street.

But guess what one of my photos of the displays of such as fuzzy black spider toys, "severed limbs" and "skulls" with eye-catching eyes has that my more creative shots lack?  Why, items on a shelf as well as in plastic trays and cardboard boxes, of course!  So dual Photo Hunt missions accomplished -- which is a relief because I did wonder for a while if this was the week when I'd finally feel obliged to choose between taking part in one and not the other... :O

Vegetarian favorites at Yardbird

The famous KFC at Yardbird

The less heralded but still plenty delicious -- as well as 

super filling -- rice topped with chicken skin and peas, 

and with an onsen egg mixed into it all

My favorite dish by far at the popular 

Sheung Wan eatery -- sweet corn tempura!

Earlier today, a friend and I were discussing what governs our decisions with regards to such as where we want to travel.  I think she was somewhat surprised when I told her that there have been places I've felt compelled to visit after reading about them (be it in a newspaper, magazine or book, or on a website or blog) or seen them in a movie.  (For example, I'd credit a Time magazine article about the Cheong Gye Cheon stream with making me want to go to Seoul to walk along its banks and it was only after having viewed Fatih Akin's In July that I got a strong urge to visit Istanbul (and its suburb of Ortakoy in particular.)

Last night, that same friend and I enjoyed our second dinner at Yardbird, a trendy specialist yakitori eatery owned and operated by New Yorker Matt Abergel. (She wrote about our first dinner there here.)  Funnily enough, I'm not sure if I told her but the two things that made me really want to check out that eatery just happened to be: its inclusion in a blog entry about Hong Kong's best Japanese restaurants over at Tom Eats Jen Cooks; and my discovering Yardbird serves sweet corn tempura -- something I've longed to eat after seeing it being consumed with relish in Hirokazu Kore-eda's touching Still Walking.

Something else that I found somewhat amusing is how despite its being billed and viewed as a yakitori joint for the most part, my three favorite dishes at Yardbird actually do not have any chicken in them.  To be sure, their chicken oysters skewers are definitely worth trying and I also would recommend the rice with chicken skin along with peas and an onsen egg, particularly if you're looking for something truly substantial on the restaurant's menu.

However, I easily could forgo both those chicken concoctions -- or, for that matter, all of Yardbird's other chicken offerings -- in favor of its delicious Korean Fried Cauliflower (i.e., cauliflower encased in batter that's glazed with a sweet and spicy sauce, on which sesame seeds are sprinkled), tasty stir-fried brussels sprouts garnished with garlic chips and -- this especially! -- addictive balls of sweet corn tempura.

One of the reasons, my friend and I wanted to return to Yardstick for a second round of eats in a month was that on our first visit, the waitstaff had forgotten to serve us the dish of Korean Fried Cauliflower that we had ordered (but fortunately were not billed for either).  After finally sampling the KFC last night, I can definitely understand why it has its fans.  But for my part, the sweet corn tempura -- which I've never seen on the menu in any other restaurant I've visited to date -- is the special dish of this Sheung Wan eatery that's pricier than I would like (especially if looked upon as a "yakitori joint") but still definitely can see myself dining at again in the future.  :b