Fourth of August

Dear Mr. Net,

Greetings.

Would like to continue reporting on what I've accomplished this week.

Monday, 14th August, 2006

Met my pastor Paul at 9:45 am in Yau Ma Tei MTR station. We went to visit Mrs. Leung and her son Mr. Leung, who, literally, live under an overpass near the Eaton Hotel on Nathan Road. We had a nice chat with them.

Around 11:30 am, Paul and I had lunch in Jordan. We had a nice chat as well. He talked about his college days in the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, how he and other Asian students financed their education by working various odd jobs like selling Asian grocery in the basement, cutting down Christmas trees, subletting rooms of his house, giving his classmates tutorials, course notes, and tips on exam questions, and even selling original Chinese paintings he created in an arts fair. How fun. Afterwards, we talked while we walked to the Star House in Tsim Sha Tsui. He talked a little bit about how he stopped doing business, started working at church, and eventually decided to become a pastor.

That evening I went to two HKIFF Summer Pops screenings at the Hong Kong Arts Centre's Agnes b. CINEMA!

7:00 pm

Monday (Japan/2000/Col/100 mins)
Dir: SABU

"It all begins with an exploding corpse in a solemn funeral. A young man wakes up in a hotel room suffering from amnesia. As he searches his memory banks, he remembers a nightclub, lots of killing and cops giving chase. When he opens the curtain, the hotel is indeed surrounded by cops... Sabu animates Monday with quiet madness, creating hilariously absurd situations and visually accentuating them with awkward orchestrations of his characters. Nobody packs so much explosive surprises in a dark comedy."

9:00 pm

Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani? (Japan/2005/Col/107 mins)
Dir: Aoyama Shinji

"Japanese director Aoyama Shinji's Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?, which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2005, is a film, as the director expresses it, about the "dark winter" of human life. Set in the not-too-distant year of 2015. Its narrative revolves around an aggressive viral infection that causes its hosts to commit a final and desperate act of suicide. With a characteristic Japanese touch, nature plays a pivotal role in Aoyama's films. It is perhaps the only force retarding humankind's eventual demise, even if it can only hold the end at bay for a short while."

Tuesday, 15th August, 2006

Met Gillian at her father's Chinese restaurant, the Coral Seafood Restaurant, in Sai Wan. I wanted to do some observations for Thursday's film-shoot, since I would be playing a restaurant owner. I had the honour to meet Gillian's dad, his friends, and his colleagues, including the most courteous manager I've ever met and the gentlemanly head chef. The vivacious group were eating and drinking, kicking back and enjoying their hotpot dinner, at their own round table, as if they were a bunch of ancient Chinese swordsmen, heroes, and kung fu masters with each of them possessing a distinctive personality.

Later I stayed at Gillian's place watching DVDs till six in the morning, I think.

Wednesday, 16th August, 2006

Gillian and I watched her performance in the play "Under the Banyan Tree" and a musical called "Rats." We also watched "Bruce Almighty" (starring Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Morgan Freeman). Then we slept for a few hours till noon. We woke up and went to APA, as we had an Orientation Camp meeting that afternoon from 2 to 4. Afterwards I went back home to get the DV camcorder and came back to APA to return it to Octavius. Ran into Birdy in the drama school's common room, and we left together. She went to get herself a pair of pants, and I went to the Deluxe Sandwich Express near the Southorn Playground to get myself a nice'n delicious egg salad sub and a freshly-made apple juice. What a meal!

Then we took the bus 104 to the Polytechnic University in Hung Hom where Birdy had a rehearsal for a play for the Hong Kong Drama Festival. Ah Kwun's in it, too. Around eleven Ah Kwun, Birdy, and I went to East Tsim Sha Tsui. We had our supper and went to the 11:50 screening of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at the Chinachem cinema on Mody Road. I was so impressed by the size of the theatre and the screen. They even had curtain across the front of the screen, an oddity in cinemas nowadays, which I absolutely adored. They even had screenings at 1:30 and 3:30 in the morning. Can you believe that?

"Pirates" was a 150-minute long entertaining blockbuster. Noisy. Lots of drumming (a Caribbean necessity perhaps). Quite a number of funny bits. I liked the swinging bony cageball. And the fruity Johnny Depp kebab. Didn't know that the squidhead Davy Jones was played by the wonderful Bill Nighy. Depp's a cutey as usual.

Signing off for now.

Yours sincerely,
B. H.