Sick today. Fever and congestion. Did not step out of the apartment. Still, did not want to see my streak end. That's the power of turning something into a habit, I guess.
So, here is a short film shot from my tiny balcony overlooking Wah Fu Estate and Waterfall Bay.
And yes, the title of this post is a homage to Jim Feldman's excellent series of paintings of the ICC.
I've been giving you one short per day. But today, we're going to make history.
Today, I offer you not one, but three shorts all from Wah Fu Estate. Don't ask me how I find the energy. It's just how I roll. Moreover, Wah Fu is a treasure trove of inspiration and other delights. There's no limit to the things one can find there just by strolling about...
If you have not been there, you really need to go. It is one of the oldest and nicest government housing projects in Hong Kong. It's also a good place to play basketball, and there are amazing views of the sea.
It'd be great if these short films found their audience. But ultimately, we write and make movies for ourselves. And I'm cool with that. I just can't believe how long I've been able to keep this going.
Thank you, So Jene, for encouraging me today and going with me all the way to Lantau. You are awesome!!!
Not much energy today. But I really wanted to keep my streak alive. So, I made a film that pays tribute to a film made by Jonny Stranger, with whom I've had the good fortune to make half a dozen films.
Like they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The Chinese titles were done by our friend Maggie Lee. Thank you again, Maggie. You rock!!
I'm not sure what people are making of this series of short films, but I'm having a blast. This is the first time I've shot so much stuff with no crew and no other actors. I didn't even know one could make films like this.
Not that this is the m.o. I want to follow from now on or anything--I'm simply making do with what I have for the time being. I'm available as a camera operator and an actor, and I haven't found actors in HK, hence these solo films. But I'm a little surprised that this can even be done, though I have to say that it's not easy. Working alone with a camera definitely has its hazards.
ALONE IN TIN SHUI WAI, the 17th short film in this series, reminds me of YOU CAN'T LEARN TO PLOW BY READING bOOKS, the feature film that Richard Linklater made before SLACKER. He shot it on Super-8. It is mostly of him doing mundane everyday stuff and riding the train through Texas. Very boring stuff, but he later said making that film, which he financed with an inheritance, was his film school.
This isn't my film school, but I've been reminded of little things here and there that I've forgotten over the years about how to frame shots and put shots together. Mostly, I'm enjoying this. They say that suckers do art for art's sake, and real artists do it for money.
That's a complex topic, which I don't want to get into, but I'll say this much. Obviously, I'm not making a cent from any of these short films. That sponsorship deal from Tsingtao never materialized. But, there are lots of dumber ways to waste one's time. I'm enjoying doing these films and seeing parts of Hong Kong that I wouldn't otherwise see.
Some of these short films are good. Others are not. Many people will think that these films and making them is pointless, especially since I'm not getting any money from them. This may be. But then again, what in this world, whether money is involved or not, really is that important in the big picture?
Anyway, that's way too much jabbering... Here's the film koan. It's about the perils of working alone when shooting a film. It's a little long, but stick with it. The ending is worth it.
Laurence Lau's CITY BESIEGED and Ann Hui's THE WAY WE ARE, two diametrically-opposed films about life in Tin Shui Wai, prompted me to go to this often-villified new town in the New Territories and take a look for myself.
For those not in the know, Tin Shui Wai, which is often referred to as the City of Sadness, is basically Hong Kong's most notorious 'projects,' where all sorts of unspeakable horrors are said to exist.
In fact, like many 'villified 'hoods,' it's also a place where tens of thousands of ordinary working people live with the humdrum routine of daily life.
If you haven't been there, it's worth making a trip. The light rail at Tin Shui Wai is very cool. There's one that runs in a circle. I rode the loop three times. Very pleasant.
This is my film koan about Tin Shui Wai, shot at Tin Yiu Estate.
This is a short film about the novel BLONDE LOTUS, which was penned by Cecilie Gamst Berg, one of the most original and interesting people in Hong Kong and a terrific blogger (China Droll). I read this novel and enjoyed it very much. It is heartfelt and gushing with emotion.
This film was shot in Chungking Mansion, where parts of the book take place. It is my thank-you to Cecilie Gamst Berg for encouraging people in Hong Kong and elsewhere to learn Cantonese. Check out her excellent Cantocourse series on Youtube.
As for my own quest to learn Cantonese, my tones are bad, I talk like a three-year-old, and I often butcher the language, but learning a language, by definition, means making mistakes. And as a student of Cantonese and other languages, I have to say Cantonese is so very beautiful, elegant, and logical. It's without doubt, the most fun language I've ever studied.
Learning Cantonese and chatting with local people in my broken Cantonese has been such a source of joy for me. My life in Hong Kong would be so much duller without this gift.
This was shot at the park at the foot of Wah Fu Estate, where I often find myself without even realizing it. So far, to my utter delight, I've made more than a half dozen short films about this place.
It's where I play ball, buy a lot of my groceries, go to the library, sometimes swim, and shoot films.
So, even though I live in Bel Air, which costs way too much and has a huge indoor pool that goes nearly always underused, when we eventually leave Hong Kong, what I'll miss will be Wah Fu Estate, the folks I play b-ball with there, Waterfall Bay, and learning and speaking my broken Cantonese.
That said, I present this film and give respect to Wah Fu Estate and Tsingtao, which I'd rather drink out of a can straight from the Circle-K any day over some fine wine that costs something obscene... You both rock!!!
P.S. I'm no Michael Phelps, but if anyone over at Tsingtao is mesmerized by this film and wants to sign me up as a spokesperson, please know that I work cheap...very cheap... dirt cheap.
I don't know if it's my computer, connection, whatnot... but I had the most difficult time trying to upload this on YouTube.
Moreover, since our laptop was lost in November, I've had to make do with the built-in Windows Moviemaker to edit these videos instead of Adobe Premiere. Hence, the poor sound, inability to finetune edits, fuzzy subtitles...
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