Samantha Culp

Click on the picture above to see a video from the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Celebration.

Last night was both the Mid-Autumn Festival (Jung Chau Jit) and the opening of 2046– the Mid-Autumn festival being a time to appreciate the beauty of the moon and eat mooncakes, and the release of 2046 being, well… let’s just say I haven’t been this excited for the release of a movie since Jurassic Park opened when I was 11.

First Rachel, Yomei and I went to Tai Hang, near the Tin Hau temple. For 125 years, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, this neighborhood has put on a Fire Dragon dance, in which a 50-foot-long straw dragon bristling with burning incense “dances” through the streets (with the help of a lot of burly men) to safeguard the region against plague and bad luck. We pressed in with the crowd, snacking on cha siu bao (barbecue pork buns) and sipping iced milk tea (and then Asahi) until the dragon made its appearance. Little girls in yellow silk costumes ran around the blocked-off road, their hair pinned up into beribboned buns and curlicues, positively glowing with the excitement of staying up late with their friends and being the center of attention. I’m not sure what their official “role” was, but they kept skipping up and down the street, pointing up at the moon and oohing and aahing (but it ended up being more like screeching), as I think they had been coached to do. Probably something to do with the traditional Jung Chau Jit legend, about the maiden in the moon who owns a rabbit or something (every young Hong Konger I talk to seems to be fuzzy on the details). There was also a group of older kids on a rolling platform with one of those huge loud drums– I think it’s taiko in Japan, not sure what the Cantonese name is. They rotated the strenuous drumming duty, and crashed cymbals as well– a fantastically chaotic noise, I think the very definition of the word “clamor”, in the best possible way. Finally the dragon arrived, spewing incense and glowing with fire. Quite exciting. Of course my camera battery died right as he came into view. Maybe it’s better that way.

Next we made our way through the teeming streets towards Victoria Park, where even more people were congregated to admire the moon, play with lanterns, and eat mooncakes. This just happened to be the most direct route to the Windsor Cinema, where I had booked 18 tickets for myself and assorted friends to see 2046. The movie was frustrating and beautiful. It’s hard to make a judgement that lands on one side of the coin. Is it worth seeing? Definitely. Is it incredible? Definitely. Is it disappointing in certain ways? Yes. Because that’s bound to happen when you anticipate something too much. And in a funny way, that’s part of what the movie itself is about. The sadness of giving too much to someone who will never give anything back. The paralyzing idealization of the past. The realization of loss. The loneliness of telling your secrets to the air.

After the film, we walked to a nearby bar where we commandeered a whole room to continue the mid-autumn, post-cinematic, celebration. Strangely enough they were playing “In the Mood for Love” on a TV in the corner– a film that is altogether more complete and “satisfying” than “2046″. But the latter also has something that keeps pulling me back, like a weighted magnet. See it and decide for yourself.

Are you excited yet?



Click the picture for more stills.

Watch the trailer here .

Only three more days until Wong Kar-Wai’s long-awaited 2046 comes out in Hong Kong. I guess you could say I am “pumped”.

When is it coming out in America? Not until early 2005? Oh. I’m sorry.

More pre-release gossip and pictures from MonkeyPeaches, Hong Kong Entertainment Review, and WKW.net

On Friday, September 24th, New Asia College celebrated the birthday of its founder, Ch’ien Mu. Ch’ien Mu is long dead, but the party was up and kicking. My fellow ELIs and I (as well as Yomei’s grandfather who had flown in from Taiwan for her birthday) had front-row tables for a thousand-person dinner and a whole evening of bizarre entertainment, including old professors singing Cantopop songs, young boys performing yo-yo and jumprope tricks (click here to see a video), a magician, a juggler, a Chinese acrobat, comedy interludes by the student MCs, and the grand finale– the quasi-gothic Hong Kong musician Seasons Lee, and some other, better-known and better-liked Cantopop singer. Right as it was wrapping up, we gracefully made our exit and walked the two minutes back to our flat, passing Seasons Lee and his few Cosplay-decked-out groupies on the way.

Back to the awesome Cattle Depot. I almost mistake a cat in a terrarium for installation art, but it appears he just lives there.

I just found some pictures of my Dad and my godfather in Hong Kong in the 1960s. They’re the coolest.

Click on the picture above to see a bigger collage

Gallery hopping in Central. Going-out-of-business-sale at a bookshop (picked up a Lonely Planet for Mongolia, and a book of art critic Hou Hanru’s essays). Hanging out with Lily. Getting to see the inside of the Landmark construcion site (I even got to wear a hard hat). Lunch at a Korean surfer bar. Saw the Pancakes and PixelToy at Times Square. Listening to the new Anticon release at White Noise Records. Sipping cafe au lait while cats jump over my feet at Cat Store/Meow Cafe in Causeway Bay. Checking out the lamps and computer animation of designer Akin Vong at the Habitus design gallery in Sheung Wan. Thrilling at the 2046 posters that are up already in the subway. Back to Causeway Bay for drinks with Lenny et. al. Then to a moving-out party in Tsim Sha Tsui for Ryuji, a young Japanese guy who works in HK for Bandai Toys. The party was full of young, drunk Japanese kids, and the moment we entered and people noticed me, three hammered guys joyfully called out in unison: “Aaah! Lost in Translation!”

Awkward and special.

Yomei and I went to see the new Shunji Iwai film at the Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei, possibly the best arthouse theatre complex in Hong Kong (or many other places for that matter– I think it’s cooler than the Angelika, actually). It comprises a theatre, DVD shop, and a cafe/bookshop (with DVD library) called “Kubrick” where directors will sometimes hold talks after their screenings (you can also have coffee and a free flip through the latest issues of Film Comment, Sight and Sound and Relax). This visit, I finally made the wise investment of a membership: for $100 HKD (about $12 USD) annually, you get a free matinee ticket, discounts on future tickets and DVD/book/magazine/cafe purchases, free rentals from the DVD library (whose selection, though small, gives my beloved Yale Film Study Center a run for its money– sorry Michael!) And to top it off, I got a free gift of collectible movie folders! My kind of film dorks.

And the film itself,“Hana and Alice”, was fantastic. I have to be in the right mood for Shunji Iwai, but this one works. It’s the story of two high school girls, falling in and out of love with a single boy, and in and out of friendship with each other. Heartbreakingly pink cherry blossoms. Japanese schoolgirls in ballet class. Snowy mornings in peacoats on the subway. Skipping rope at the seaside. Etc. I don’t think there was any Debussey in the score (as there is in many of his previous films), but there might as well be. Normally these things combined would make me a little bit nauseous, but somehow he pulls it off.

Ehhh…. This movie looked much cooler than it actually was. I convinced my flatmates to go see this opening night, and we were all rather disappointed. Though Anthony Wong is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, even when he’s stuck in these cheesy b-roles. And the stupider the dialogue in a Hong Kong movie, the more opportunity I have to match subtitle to sound and work on my Cantonese.

A-1 Headline Trailer

It’s hard to believe: the first week of being a university teacher has come and gone and I have survived. I still feel in a daze, and will try to explain more about my classes soon. Upper left: me in my quasi-professional wear heading out to teach my first class. Upper right: Relaxing at our favorite Fo Tan dai pai dong after the first class, where the special promotion was buy three large bottles of San Miguel beer and get your hand cast in rainbow wax. Rachel triumphantly shows off her prize. Below that: the surprisingly beautiful CUHK at night. Bottom two: snaps from the re-opening of

Para/site Gallery and the new exhibit by Map Office.

The Yue Laan Jit is the “Hungry Ghost Festival.” In Southern China it is believed that each year, during the seventh lunar month, the gates of the underworld are thrown open, and angry ghosts roam freely on the earth. To keep them from hurting, possessing, or even killing people, it is necessary to placate them with hell money (paper dollars burned on the street) and all-night Cantonese opera.