One big happy family

Meet the new member of my family. His name is Buddy. Some dog lovers found him wandering around near Shing Mun Reservoir. He was smart enough to follow them home, and for two months he's been shut up in a cramped public housing apartment. I found him on a pet adoption website, and liked him immediately. He's absolutely gigantic, and reaches up to my waist standing up, but so very gentle and almost regal in bearing. I think of him as the Rolls Royce of dogs.
The people who found him belong to a group of people who regularly go out and rescue dogs from the pound. Today they paid me a visit to check up on Buddy, and I made them an apple pie, served with vanilla ice cream. It was a little too sweet, and I think I put too much nutmeg in, plus the pie top was a bit too dry. Not too shabby for a first effort, though. My guests were super nice. They brought a whole bunch of snacks for the dogs, and lots of boney treats. Both Buddy and Plato were tired out at the end of the day from all the chewing!

Perez made me cry!

And this 47 year old single unemployed women from Glasgow named Susan Boyle who appeared on the show Britain's Got talent is the reason why.

Watch it here!

This video got a million hits on Youtube in 2 days. You gotta see it to believe it.

太負面？

今天答問會後又有觀眾說我的電影對同性戀的描寫太負面，會否擔心教壞青少年，或會成為某些人抗擊同性戀的武器呢？我說：「佢地要咁樣諗係佢地嘅問題，你唔好以為你唔camp唔吸毒那些人會放過你，佢地一樣會話你係死基佬！唔好為那些人而活啦。」

Thank you fans!

那天Q&A大部分人一出字幕就蜂踴離場，心裡難免有點不是味兒，終於俾我發現部戲原來都有人鍾意架(雖然是上次G&L Film Fest 的觀眾)，所以要學傅頴講句：Thank you fans!

I am surprised but happy to learn that "愛到盡" will be shown in the coming HKIFF this year. You know, gay films seldom have chances to be shown in the local cinemas as there is barely gay director (no matter he is good or bad) in Hong Kong nor any local straight director will dare to touch the gay issues. Just hope the talent of the director and the actors of this film can reach out to more movie goers besides gay people.

I saw "愛到盡" in G & L Film Festival last year. It is a rare movie dealing with the mundane lives of the "local", not exclusively, gay people in search of love after self-hatred, betrayal and desertion. The best "Hong Kong" gay movie I have ever seen as it is truly and openly, and more than that, the director has gusts to draw the bitter portrait of a young local gay junkie, who probably lives among us, with graphic sexual details. It is a rare gay film with heart and the director deserves our commendations and encouragement to make more about gay lives which are of every one of us.

Until now, I still can't forget the last shot of this sad but honest movie. The eloquence of the director’s effort in speaking the story and the realistic performance of the actors in this film make it the most unforgettable in the years to come. To me, I guess, it is a landmark of the local gay film made about the local gay people. I highly recommend it to all of you who loves not only gay films but films.

End of Love Review

Film Review: End of Love

By Elizabeth Kerr, 三月 24, 2009 02:53 ET

Bottom Line: Imperfect but subtlely compelling drama steers clear of the cliches that define gay Asian cinema.

More Hong Kong Filmart reviews

HONG KONG -- If there was a hallmark of queer cinema in Asia, it would be its never-ending and tired focus on the angst involved in simply being gay. One more gay high school student with a crush on his straight best friend, and buckets of requisite I-wish-I-wasn't-gay agony will be one too many.

Hong Kong indie filmmaker Simon Chung ("Innocent") steers clear of that ditch and turns in his most assured film to date with "End of Love," a simple drama about a young man trying to find his own footing vis-a-vis personal morality and the capacity for emotional connection. Chung's handling of Asian homosexuality may be a little too mature and blunt for general release in Asia, but broad spectrum and niche (gay, Asian) festivals are sure to be drawn to the film.

Ming (Lee Chi-kin) is an aimless 22-year-old when he enters into his first serious relationship with Yan (Alex Wong). After he and his mother argue about him being gay, she dies and he's suddenly independent and forced to find his own way. Then conflict starts to seep into the dynamic between he and Yan; Ming falls in with the wrong drug-positive crowd, starts turning tricks and eventually winds up in a Christian rehab. There he meets Keung (Guthrie Yip), and though he may not be as open to conversion as Keung, his time in rehab brings him personal clarity.

That Ming's problems don't stem from his homosexuality is a breath of fresh air in an industry that is more comfortable using gay characters in melodramatic tragedies -- almost as cautionary tales. Ming's issues are not with being gay, but with intimacy and trust. But Chung doesn't make any attempt to sugarcoat some of the less glamorous aspects of gay life in Hong Kong. He captures the fleeting, surreptitious nature of some gay interactions with a nonjudgmental camera that makes Ming's epiphanies stark by contrast.

Lee turns in a naturalistic performance as a man coming to understand himself that is grounded in reality (Chung claims the character was based on a friend of his), and it proves to be the foundation that keeps the sporadically predictable story engaging.