My blog

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• HK film fund...

  Saturday, Oct 13, 2007 8:36PM / Standard Entry

  If you don't know about this already, it's an older article (about a week+ old) from the Variety...  The subject line was: "Hong Kong puts faith in veterans."  Some of you know very much my view of the HK film industry and the problem I have with it, and this article just confirms my view.  For those who are interested and don't know about it, do go check it out.
  
  My favorite line is, "It is most important to resuscitate the Hong Kong film industry, therefore priority has to be given to more experienced filmmakers... We can't risk too much experimentation."
  
  Enough said...
  
  I didn't have time to blog about this, and honestly, I just don't want to feed the angry or negative energy into my body.  But I'll just briefly put out a few questions for y'all to ponder upon:  How can we arrive to great art / entertainment if we don't experiment?  Isn't that an oxymoron?  Why do the financial aid go to support the already established "world & well"-known filmmakers who don't really need the aid anyway?  Shouldn't the goal of a governmental department be to preserve culture and art, and to protect the interest of a bigger mass (not a privileged few... or maybe I'm just too naive...?)
  
  The only way to revive the industry is to have *more* experiments, to give voice to the younger generation, to let them grow and flourish this cinema desert... instead of having the handful of masters (who have made great films for the past decade undoubtedly) to again take over the industry market for the next decade as well...
  
  If you're just as baffled as I am with this... maybe we should all move to Iceland!
  
  But most importantly, I want to say is, Hail to AnD!  What the guys are doing on this website is so precious and pioneering and amazing!  My hats off to the AnD team, and to all the artists (featured or not) and all the users who are here to create this great community.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Reykjavik

  Sunday, Oct 7, 2007 3:28AM / Standard Entry

  again, It's been a while, not really good at blogging lately, just way too busy, so apologies.  I'm in Iceland right now for the Reykjavik Film Festival, it's a really nice and friendly festival (I love Iceland, so I guess I'm a bit biased, but really it's a good festival!)  I got to meet Baltasar Kormákur (director of "101 Reykjavik") yesterday... he's a really cool guy with lots of energy (guess you should be able to tell from his film...)  he gave a talk and said something so amazing that I want to share... he said, "In Iceland, if you want commercial success, you have to make an art house film.  For example, my last film was a thriller, but I know that I have to make it somewhat an arthouse thriller in order to be successful in Iceland..."  My jaws were on the floor... What da!?  Man, if I knew, I'd have moved to Reykjavik years ago!  Then again, not speaking the language would be a big disadvantage for trying to work in the industry here, even though everyone speaks English (better than I do!)   It's true that the East Europe/Scandinavian/even Europe has a far better and  healthier film industy/system, I just wish that the countries that I have ties with (US/HK/UK) could just do the same...
  
  Stupid enough, I forgot to bring my cable so I can't download some of the pictures that I took.  So maybe the next blog...
  
  One thing I love too, the Icelandic can drink (well what else can they do in those dark and cold nights...)  So a hello to y'all and "Skál"!
  
  k.
  
  
  

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• Happy Mid-Autumn|中秋節快樂|La Fête de la mi-automne

  Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007 9:34PM / Standard Entry

  Sorry sorry sorry... I've been bad for not blogging... since Bestival, life is like a box of.... Russian dolls... there are so much to do/conquer, and just when I thought I could pad myself on my back for accomplishing a task/solving a problem, another one is awaiting me...  it feels like no matter how many layers of Russian dolls I peel open, there is always another one!  I've been operating with 5 hours sleep/day, gluing my ass in front of the computer all day.  My lower back and shoulder problems are coming back... which is not a good thing, and yoga isn't helping...  things are crazy and lots to do, but am also making good process.  I need two of me to do everything!
  
  I'll write more later.  Meanwhile, enjoy the beautiful full moon, and have a mooncake for me (don't think I could make it out to Chinatown today to get myself some mooncakes... :-(
  
  祝大家中秋節快樂！謝謝 Vincent, 若不是你，我就忙得連中秋也忘啦！
  
  Mes bichettes à Paris, bonne fête de la lune.  Alors, vas-y, prends-toi un gâteaux de lune pour moi.  bisous.
  
  k.
  
  
  
  
  

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• Bestival 2007

  Monday, Sep 10, 2007 6:15PM / Standard Entry

  It's been so crazily busy that I didn't have time to blog...  finished the latest draft of my scrīpt, went to New York, back to London, then to Isle of Wight...  I wish that I could be like Hiro, so I can just teleport myself everywhere, save me so much time! 
  
  NYC was great, went to a few biz meetings, hung out with my best friends and also celebrated my b-day with them, and of course, met Brian Yang for the first time (our rendez-vous was long overdue anyway, since he knows practically all my best friends and I know most of his childhood/college friends... what a small world!)
  
  Bestival at the Isle of Wight was just amazing, but our band was super busy the whole time, arrived on Fri night, met up and practiced with a bunch of ukuleleans for our Sat. night performance - Night of 100 Ukes - on the main stage.  We also had to go through our own set list since we're also playing on Sat. afternoon on the second main stage. 
  
  Schedule for the second main stage - Big Top, we're on the second bottom:
  
  
  
  First arrived on stage:
  
  
  Our set list:
  
  
  Gill and Tim prepping their ukes:
  
  
  Zed getting himself ready:
  
  
  Matt looking serious:
  
  
  Bestival roadie crew:
  
  
  We performed for about 45 minutes, our own stuff, had a really great time.  Then we had to rush off to meet up with the other ukuleleans.  Basically, our band initiated this Night of 100 Ukes event, gathering close to 100 ukuleles to perform "Ring Of Fire" and "Kungfu Fighting" in front of the main crowd.
  
  These two are my favorite ukes, the flying V and his Mohawk go so well together!
  
  
  Sat. night, waiting to perform on the main stage:
  
  
  Backstage, watching Soul II Soul singing "Back to Life, Back to Reality":
  
  
  On stage, this is what 25,000 people look like!  They filled the field ALL the way to the back in the dark:
  
  
  The cool roadie asked me to snap a picture of him:
  
  
  Fireworks lighted up the sky as soon as we finished performing:
  
  
  The Cuban Brothers came on to the main stage after us, a whole bunch of us went to take a breather, I had a few drinks, then went back to the main stage to see the Beastie Boys:
  
  
  I wanted to go to the backstage to meet the Beastie Boys afterwards, but I gave my backstage pass to one of our friends, oh well...  I was completely exhausted by then anyway...
  
  
  

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• Chia-Yi Renée Chao 趙家怡

  Monday, Aug 27, 2007 5:29PM / Standard Entry

  Another great bat / super-hero friend just joined the AnD family - Renée Chao!  Like Eric, Renée has battled with me through many tough shooting days.  She's an amazing art director who designs and dresses the set for films.  She can practically make anything out of nothing!
  
  So please check out her profile, say hi and give her (and her new cutie cat MAX) a big welcome!
  
  You can also check out her website:
  http://www.artbychao.com
  
  
  

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