Fish out of water

[Don Ellis]

Taken in Western District, Hong Kong -- specifically Sheung Wan, a rustic neighborhood and one of the older districts of Hong Kong that is just next door to the island's Central Business District with its towering banks and skyscrapers and vast, gleaming shopping malls with their designer-label shops.

Hong Kong viewed from the air is laid out almost like a department store -- find one hardware shop and you'll probably find many. The same is true for marble, glass, coffins, bathroom fixtures, machine tools, watches and anything else you can think of.

The Sheung Wan District is home to tiny wholesale warehouses and tea shops (selling wildly expensive tea and crockery) and snake shops and Chinese medicine shops and dried fish shops and a whole line of small stalls just big enough for one person to sit in and make business cards and Chinese chops -- in a word, exotic. I loved it and lived there for six years, from 1986 to 1992.

Leela and I wandered back a year or so ago and saw these fish drying on the other side of the curb (red brick) in the street on double-yellow lines that normally mean no stopping or parking... but perhaps that's just for cars.



Canon G9, in my pre-DP2 days. Click image for larger image.

Don

 

[Rawfa]

Excellent!

 

[D upton-Hackett.]

All those wonderful photography opportunity's around Hong Kong do envy you.

 

[smokysun]

agreed envy! one of my favorite films wang wei's 'the chinese box.'

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[Don Ellis]

Gentlemen... thanks very much for your excellent, envious thoughts. I rather envy myself quite often. I moved to Hong Kong in 1985 and it's a rare day that I don't remember how lucky I am. It's really a marvellous place that combines the old with the new in a city that's safe enough you can explore any time of the day or night. The word that most often comes to mind is exotic... even after all these years.

Don

 

[smokysun]

oops, sorry. the movie by wayne wang:

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Box-J...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1247621786&sr=8-1

 

[Don Ellis]

oops, sorry. the movie by wayne wang:

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Box-J...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1247621786&sr=8-1

Thanks for that recommendation... we haven't seen it, but we do like all three principal actors, so I'll go find it.

In return, I can recommend Ip Man, the semi-autobiographical story of the Wing Chun master who became Bruce Lee's teacher. Even Leela thought it was great and she's pretty critical of movies with martial arts in them.

One comment from a reviewer on IMDB (where it received 8.1 out of 10): Ip Man heralds a break-though in realism for "grounded" martial arts/ Wushu movies; the way Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon heralded a break-through in surrealism for "floating" martial arts/Wuxia movies.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220719/

Don

 

[smokysun]

thanks for the recommendation. this chinese box dvd, by the way, has two discs so it will have a lot of documentary stuff i haven't seen. since you lived through the period, i think you'll find it especially interesting.

best,
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[Don Ellis]

thanks for the recommendation. this chinese box dvd, by the way, has two discs so it will have a lot of documentary stuff i haven't seen. since you lived through the period, i think you'll find it especially interesting.

Always looking for good movie recommendations, so thanks again.

Two others we thought were pretty good were The House of Flying Daggers and Heroes. Oh, and one of our all-time favourites: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. We've probably seen it four times over the years. Always a pleasure. It's in Mandarin and has nothing to do with Hong Kong.

Cheers,
Don

 

[smokysun]

hi don,
got hold of the two disk version of 'the chinese box'. just watched a 45 minute section of home movies where they explored the city before shooting the film. turns out, wayne wang grew up in hong kong, so this is an insider movie and not really romantic.
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

ps. i have both heroes and daggers. the best chinese movies end on a devastating tragic note.

ps. wang also made 'smoke' with harvey keitel who photographs the same street corner at the same time day after day (nyc). very interesting play between photos and film.

 

[Don Ellis]

hi don,
got hold of the two disk version of 'the chinese box'. just watched a 45 minute section of home movies where they explored the city before shooting the film. turns out, wayne wang grew up in hong kong, so this is an insider movie and not really romantic.
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

ps. i have both heroes and daggers. the best chinese movies end on a devastating tragic note.

ps. wang also made 'smoke' with harvey keitel who photographs the same street corner at the same time day after day (nyc). very interesting play between photos and film.

I'll see if I can find The Chinese Box at lunch today. And I'll listen to you for future recommendations -- we thought Smoke was great.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman is your next assignment.

Don

 

[smokysun]

on the list. thanks.

just back from seeing

http://www.fandango.com/awaywego_122124/movieoverview

which gave me a lot of laughs and a final good feeling.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp