Hong Kong Covered Walkways (another film haiku about Hong Kong)

Maybe it's the air pollution. Maybe it's the unforgiving summer heat. Maybe it's the lack of land. Maybe it's just a ploy to ferry people from one mall to the next. Maybe it's all these things or none of these thing...

For whatever reason, Hong Kong has many covered walkways and other footpaths that connect one building to the next.

I'm ambivalent about such walkways. On the one hand, it's nice to be able to walk about. On the other, these walkways are a bit artificial and far removed from actual city life. Walking on them is just not the same as walking through a real neighborhood.

Whatever the case, as an experiment, I set out to see just how far I could get using Hong Kong covered walkways without touching real ground. The walk, which I did on a Monday afternoon just before peak lunch hour, took just under 20 minutes at a rather brisk pace and took me from Western Market in Sheung Wan to the Battery Path in Central.

I think the total distance was about 1.5 miles, but I'm sure that had I gone into the main part of IFC mall, I could have walked around for hours, or maybe even days...

Who needs the Lantau Trail?


A word of caution. The camera shakes a lot, so those of you with sensitive constitutions, please remember your Dramamine.

The accompanying music is The Cure. The idea for the video came from So Jene.

Enjoy!



Here is my itinerary:

START: Western Market...
through Shun Tak Center
then on covered Walkway to...
IFC Mall...
Central Walkway past Exchange Square
then into Chater House
and Alexandra House
and Prince Building
and Standard and Chartered Building
Finally, come out on to Battery Path. FINISH

Not Applepicking in Hong Kong

Sorry about the "Not... in Hong Kong" title.

I just couldn't resist.



Anyway, here is a short film that I edited over the weekend using footage I shot of my parents some years ago. I had the footage on Hi8, paid to have it transferred to a DVD that my computer, it turns out couldn't read. Had to search the web for a program to convert that DVD to a format that my computer could read (hence the strange white line across the screen.)

I shot it originally on a PXL-2000, aka Pixelvision, which is a toy video camera that Fisher Price made back in the 1980s. I think the original retail price in the U.S. was $99 and it used audio cassettes to record video and audio.

That camera has since spurred its own filmmaking aesthetic, in which filmmakers use it to make an anti-slick, anti-corporate statement. I think a guy even shot a feature on it, but I'm not sure about the distribution.

Filmmakers have described shooting in Pixelvision as akin to sketching while shooting with film or higher resolution video as drawing or painting.

I wasn't really making a statement or sketching. I was just curious about what Pixelvision was all about and managed to borrow the camera for a weekend from Doug Ing, an indie filmmaker who was doing a MFA at the time at City College.

It does produce an image (b&w and very low resolution) that's like nothing else.

Anyway, October makes me think more and more about my parents, as we did go applepicking with them every October. I'm not even a big fan of apples, but the apples sure were good right off the tree.

Picking apples also reminds me of the Andrei Tarkovsky film IVAN'S CHILDHOOD, in which there's a haunting scene involving apples.

Anyway, enjoy and please leave comments if you have any. I enjoy reading them.

Kim Ki Duk's DREAM at Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

Like I wrote on my last post, last night So Jene and I schlepped out to Kowloon Tong AMC in Festival Walk mall to see Kim Ki Duk's DREAM, which was being screened (one-screening only) as part of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival.

We, especially I, had very high expectations since the guy's been remarkably consistent in making truly unique films. I love COAST GUARD, BIRD CAGE, and BAD GUY. I also believe that this guy is the most-talented, most-original, filmmaker of my generation. (That is correct: He is the best most-original living filmmaker I have seen in the 30+ years that I've been watching films.)

But, it turns out the guy is only human, and this movie was less than stellar.

Here are some tidbits: The main character speaks only Japanese, but all the other Korean characters can miraculously understand him. He talks to them in Japanese. They answer back in Korean. And nothing, not even one piece of dialog, is used to explain or address this.

But this is just a minor quibble in the overall plausibility benchmark.

Granted that Kim Ki Duk movies aren't usually known for being very plausible and we knew going in not to expect a mainstream narrative, but this movie was just too much. Too much so that it prevented the development of real empathy.

So Jene termed it aptly by saying she couldn't empathize at all with the characters because the things they were doing were outright stupid.

Stupid in what way?

For instance, the main character is put in a situation where he must not sleep. So what does he do? Normal people would drink coffee. This guy starts to stab himself in the head and pound his foot with a hammer.

I actually don't think Kim Ki Duk is one of those gratuitous gore-type directors like Miike, who do gore for fore's sake.

Kim Ki Duk's 14 other movies are magnificent, equally disturbing and sublime, and even more impressive because he wrote and directed every single one of them.

I know the next Kim Ki Duk film will be amazing.

On the whole, a rather disppointing night. Still, while watching the film--the audience was mostly HK Chinese (I'd been wondering what sort of fanbase the guy has here in HK; in South Korea, his movies don't play at all)--there were scenes that really inspired me. I started thinking, I could do this. I've shot scenes like this. All it takes is two actors and a 35mm camera.

Cut to the chase, I began thinking I could make a 35mm feature film. All I need to do is write a script that has very little dialogue. That way it can be shot with novice actors with a 35mm cameral.

Sure it'll cost some money (I figure it can be done for 50-60 thousand dollars), but what the hell am I waiting for? Even a bad movie can get some light of day, and can lead to the next film.

You have to have something to show for yourself.

Hong Kong Laundry (**Short Film**)

I've made it four for four this week by posting a youtube movie for four consecutive days.

Granted only two were films shot here in Hong Kong, but still, I feel very good about myself.

Here is the latest film called HONG KONG LAUNDRY. It is a 1-minute haiku about... Hong Kong laundry.

Enjoy!



As for the Kim Ki Duk film, I'll write more about it tomorrow.

SOMEBODY'S OLD CHEESE

I forgot that I never posted SOMEBODY'S OLD CHEESE on this blog. It's an 8-minute film that prompted the response video from Jonny Stranger.

Its genesis was a trip I took to Austin, TX two summers ago. I went to visit Jonny Stranger and to make a film with him there based on one of my old plays.

That film never came through in the week I spent there. Still, Jonny and I took turns interviewing each other and thus came SOMEBODY'S OLD CHEESE.



By the way, the woman in the photo above is Elizabeth Regen, who is a terrific actor and writer. I met her when we were both writers at NYU. She played the older sister to Natalie Portman's character in Luc Besson's THE PROFESSIONAL back in the day. She appears in TV shows from time to time. Most recently, she was in the movie BEER LEAGUE.

The guy in the photo is Jerry Ongkeo, a talented rapper from NYC. I've lost touch with him. I hope he is well and wish him the best. I remember eating at his house a few times when I was very broke.

I'm doing some translation work right now. Tonight, So Jene and I will go see a Kim Ki Duk film in a movie theater in Kowloon Tong. I'm very excited. I'm a huge fan of Kim Ki Duk and believe that he is one of the most original and unique filmmakers in the world today. The closest thing to a Kim Ki Duk even in the history of cinema is Fassbinder, and Kim Ki Duk is more original, more intense, and more creative, and more maverick than Fassbinder.


Kim Ki Duk's aesthetic can best be described as most original and most disturbing but not perverse for perversion's sake. And the guy is prolific with barely any misses. Nearly all his movies are captivating. And he writes every one of his own movies. How he manages is beyond me. The guy is unbelievably talented.


That said, I've only seen Kim Ki Duk movies through DVD. Tonight will be the first time I get to see one of his movies on the big screen. It's being shown as part of an Asian Film Festival here in HK.

Jonny Stranger sends me a delightful video response

This is a link to a video response that Jonny Stranger sent me after seeing SOMEBODY'S OLD CHEESE.

He looks grizzly with his beard, but his voice still has that youthful mischievous tone.

I miss him. He's a good guy.

Anyway, here it is.



Enjoy!!!!!

Jonny Stranger is an independent filmmaker based in Austin, TX. He has made two feature films: YORICK (16mm) and MOJO TANGO (2008). On top of that, he has a huge list of films on youtube. Google him!!

ANTIGONE 5000 Clip

I'm not trying to flood this blog with short movies, but since I have been motivated lately to go through my old films, I used a 2-minute clip from ANTIGONE 5000 to make this short film.

I still can't quite get over just how terrific an actor Nelsan Ellis is. I so wish I'd written something for him back then.

Anyway, he's now in L.A. getting regular work on TV. He also did a movie called WARM SPRINGS about FDR's futile attempt to try to cure his polio.

Nelsan was amazing. I really should have done a better job with this film, but what's the use of Monday morning quarterbacking, right?

Anyway, here it is:




The film was shot in the woods in New Jersey. So Jene was so supportive of me. But, ultimately, I let her and everyone on the cast down by not being more thorough with the production. Still, it was a return to filmmaking after about 6 years of not touching a camera.