End of Love on IMDB

(Someone--apparently straight--reviewed my film on IMDB. Not sure what question he was referring to. Perhaps it had to do with the necessity of the sex scenes? Despite being revolted by the gay sex, the guy seems to like the film, which somehow mean more to me than gay men liking my films. )

I do think I would have given this movie a better rating. Problem is, that is just to explicit, especially in the first third of the movie. People who think "Brokeback Mountain" was too homo-erotic are in for "a treat here" (no pun intended). And while there is no actual penetration shown (I think, I couldn't bear watching all the "love scenes" between men shown in the movie).

Of course, this owed to the fact, that I don't read anything before I watch movies. But still, just because this depicts homo-erotic love, doesn't have to be just a movie for queer men. And seeing as the story as it is, actually is pretty good (therefor still a pretty good rating that it gets from me), about human needs it's a shame. Of course the movie stays true to itself by showing the love between men. And almost every love scene, does have something to say. And that's where some things go missing, dialog wise. The main character for example, said something about his mother, which was meant as a joke, but I didn't get it.

So if you can bear the sight of naked men and sexual situations between them, you will get treated to a story worth watching. The director seemed amused by my question after the screening of the movie and he seems like a nice guy, but this movie just wasn't something I actually would watch (again)

《歲月神偷》的水晶熊獎

《歲月神偷》挾柏林電影節得獎之名在香港票房報捷，卻沒有很多人提到它獲得的水晶熊獎是由一班四歲以上的兒童作評審的(Generation Kplus Children's jury)。我這樣指出來不是想說這個獎的價值somehow比較小(反正每個獎都有其遊戲規則)，而是想說只有一個真正進步開明的社會，才會認為兒童有足夠的獨立思巧和判斷能力選擇他們喜歡的作品，才會在柏林影展這種大型國際性項目把評審的重任交給他們。這種事情在中國人家長式思維的社會幾乎不能想像，就算是ifva的青少年組，評審員從來都是三、四、五十歲的老餅，以老氣橫秋的語氣品評年青人的「創意」和「活力」，想深一層其實不無可悲之處。

小風波

最近無端端上了八卦週刋，事緣是個多月前在這個網誌寫的有關於《安非他命》入柏林的一段文章被記者發掘出來，還說是我「唔妥雲翔」。很巧合地我上星期日在一個派對中結識了雲翔，發覺他是一個很nice的人，之後我電郵給他解釋這件事，說我不是針對他或他的電影，他不但毫不介意，還邀請我看《安非他命》。

我們其實有很多相似的地方，包括對愛情、直男、生死的態度，還有一種灰暗但積極的人生觀。還有，我覺得若有一個人本可拿著一筆夠他un un 腳歎世界的錢用來投資在自己的電影上，無論如何都是值得尊重的。

活化工厦之出口術

看到發展局局長林鄭月娥籲工廈業主要盡企業責任，以較低廉的租金租予創意文化產業人士的新聞不禁「O嘴」，難道局長那麼不吃人間煙火，認為香港的業主普遍憑企業良心辦事？

政府口口聲聲說推動創意工業，理應以實質政策配合。活化工厦政策明益業主，讓他們免繳「豁免費」便可把工厦改裝成商厦或酒店，簡接趕絕創意文化租客。若政府真的要支持創意文化產業，可以用的手段很多，包括租金補貼、加入誘因(如優先處理)鼓勵業主改裝後租給文化產業，而不是只懂出口術！

Further reading

The Empty Locker

The Hurt Locker has no plot. The characters are so flat as to be almost stereotypical. What it is is a series of action set pieces, nicely done, but nothing more. The story could have taken place anytime in the past 60 years where American imperialism have made a mess of things. It almost goes out of its way to avoid making any reference to the Iraqi war at large, there's no attempt to criticize or justify it. War is simply this vague concept, a setting in which to showcase the hero's bravado. As the titles at the beginning of the film suggests, war is like a drug, as if it's just an individual affliction.

If the film carries any ideology, perhaps it lies only in the celebration of this quintessentially American trope: the lone hero, the rogue individualist who triumphs because he's willing to break rules. But at what price? The nighttime scene towards the end of the film strikes me as particularly ludicrous. The hero arrives at a place where a suicide bomb has hit. He has a flash of inspiration. Perhaps it wasn't a suicide bomber, and the assailants are waiting in the periphery for a chance to blow up the rescue crew. He therefore decides to go into the dark recess of the city to look for the bad guys. But if there were bad guys waiting out in the dark, wouldn't he be walking into their ambush?

Yet aside from some weak protest from his soldiers in arms, nobody tries to stop his stupidity. It's as if the filmmaker (and Americans in general) want to believe that this war could be won by bravado alone, that if all soldiers were so brave and heroic, Iraqis would simply fall down on their knees in admiration. This lack of insight is the most troubling aspect about this film. Nobody wonders why the Iraqis hate their supposed liberators so much that they are willing to blow themselves up if it means they can take down a few Americans with them. Nobody questions what they're doing in Iraq in the first place. At one point in the film, in a particularly heartfelt and soul searching moment, the black guy makes a comment about risking their lives everyday. I wanted to scream, "This is the best you can come up with, you dumb fuck. After a year in Iraq in the bomb squad you just realized life is like rolling dice?"

美版《愛到盡》

美版《愛到盡》經已推出，歡迎訂購！


Customer review on Amazon:

"End of Love"

Secrets and Lies

Amos Lassen

Ming who is now in a Christian "rehabilitation" camp, looks back on his life. He once lives amid a whirlwind of sex and drugs when he hustled men on the street and then he lived a more sedate, romantic life with his partner, Yen, who was older and romantic. Their relationship was built upon secrets and lies and they haunted the men. Yet it was only when Ming's mother confronted her son's sexuality that his life changes and Ming really tries to give up selling his body.

The film is graphically explicit--at least in the beginning. It is very homo-erotic but that does not mean it is hardcore. There are no scenes of penetration but it does show love between two men. The men are naked a good deal and they hide nothing. Some of it is very strong and it is almost as if we are watching a mirror. All in all, I found it very well done.

My anti-smoking rant

The problem about travelling in China is, of course, the Chinese—yes, those incessantly smoking, spitting, littering, loudly talking, pinky fingernail growing people who inhabit this country. Okay, I could ignore the spitting, step over the trash, put on my earphones to block out the chatter and look the other way when confronted with those ugly, yellow fingernails, but I can’t very well stop breathing. Yet smokers are everywhere in China, lighting up whenever they wish—on the streets, in parks, restaurants, hotel rooms, shopping malls, train stations, even on buses.

I had a hellish time on a recent trip traveling on a cramped bus from Changsha to Shauguan in Guangdong. The trip was over five hours, with frustrating traffic jams caused by many road accidents along the way (bad Chinese drivers?) And people were constantly smoking. In a crowded bus with all the windows closed. At one point, as the guy in front of me lit up, I abruptly stood up and reached over to open the window beside him. “Hey, I’ve got a kid here,” he protested. Indeed, he was carrying a baby in his arms, who must be no more than four or five months old. “Then why are you still smoking?” I snapped. As a compromise, he kept the window open a crack, but finished his cigarette. He did not smoke again for the rest of the trip. But it’s incredible that this guy, a new father, was worried about a blast of cold, fresh air harming his child, yet completely indifferent to the second hand smoke he was blowing in his baby’s face every few minutes. Is he that stupid and ignorant?

Then I thought, maybe this is some kind of conspiracy—I mean, with its vast resources and its influential propaganda machine, surely the Chinese government could be doing a lot more to curb smoking, enforce no smoking laws (if they existed: there are no smoking signs in most public facilities, which people blithely ignore without consequences), educate people about the harmful effects of smoking, increase cigarette prices (at less than 5 yuan a pack, Chinese cigarettes are among the cheapest in the world), all of which have proven to be effective in reducing smoking in the rest of the world. So why hasn’t it? The answer has to be money. Assuming that about half of the adult male population and 5% of the female smoke, there are approximately 350 million smokers in China (according to WHO estimates), and if each smoke a pack a day at 5 yuan a pack, we’re talking about a 1.75 billion yuan a day industry, all of which state owned, which means that unlike in most countries where the government only earn a tax on tobacco sales, the Chinese state gets all of the 1.75 billion yuan a day in revenue.

Because health care has to be paid for by the individual in China, and most of the harmful effects of smoking do not show up until middle age, past the prime for most of the low-skilled workers who make up the labor force, the social costs of smoking is, for the government (as opposed to the smokers’ families), minimal. So the government can sit back and enjoy the financial bonanza that 350 million tobacco addicts bring. You can forget about Colombian cartels, Golden Triangle warlords, the Talibans, the Chinese government is the single largest drug pusher on the planet today. By creating an environment that makes it easy and socially acceptable to smoke (look at the fine examples that long tome smokers such as Mao and Deng have set), and by making tobacco affordable and readily available, China has the largest smoking population of any country in the world. According to statistics, half of the 350 million people will die preventable, premature deaths as a result of their addiction, more than the population of Japan and South Korea combined. And this does not include all the victims of second hand smoke that they bring down with them. Do I smell a class action negligence suit?