Hong Kong highlights (1) - sights & scenes

I went to Hong Kong recently...again! (twice in less than 6 months). This time with friends. It was surprisingly sunny, with rather fair weather and I must say this was more like a eating trip (to be covered separately in another post) more than anything, with some little time for sightseeing and shopping (mainly snacks and some clothes). Well, I've finally uploaded my photos and thus am ready to talk about the trip, though I've not really added description for the photos.

I admit that the last time I went, in October, I didn't really do that much sightseeing. Well, this time neither, but I did go to some areas I hadn't gone before.

Hong Kong Disneyland
My last experience with Disney was end Dec 2008, when I went to Disney Sea in Tokyo. This time round, our first stop in Hong Kong was a night stay in the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, where we could visit the park and watch the fireworks. What greeted us was the parade. I had thought we wouldn't catch any parades, but I guess I didn't check the schedule.

Well, we were rather hungry since it was already 3 plus by the time we reached there, and the airline brunch had more or less digested, so after a bite at the fast food joint, we started exploring the "land". It wasn't very big, and not that many rides, but with my friends' recommendation, we checked out a few. Well, most were on the more kiddy side. But I'm fine with that coz I think I'm not so geared up for rides these days, unlike my childhood days. The supposedly most exciting ride in the park, as my friends said, was the Space Traders (which was supposed to be Space Mountain?). That was quite fun, with its speed and roller coaster effect. The "centripetal" force left us a bit wobbly as we tried to find our "straight line" walk. It wasn't that scary lah, just our bodies getting back the balance. We had wanted to go again at the end of our visit, but there wasn't enough time. Other rides we took were Buzz Lightyear with the fun shooting, the regular It's A Small World full of childhood memories (I must say there were a lot more dolls here than LA; but that was long ago when I went), Winnie the Pooh with the hunny pot ride, and the Jungle River Cruise with an excellent storyteller (loved the pyrotechnics). We also caught Mickey's PhilharMagic, a 4D film, which I enjoyed very much.

Well, of course the highlight of the night were the fireworks. Took a video of part of it. Gave up trying to take photos and turned on the movie function.

On the whole, it's true that HK Disneyland is much smaller and doesn't have that many things as compared the others. Ah well, for the short time we had, it was not too bad.

Victoria Peak
It's my 2nd time on the Peak within 6 months. Things were quite different this time round. It was shrouded in fog this time, so we couldn't see anything. See the difference:
This time:

Last Oct:

It was pretty cold, but good thing I had a good windbreaker and scarf.

Street scenes
Ok, I didn't really get to see much, but I took my first tram bus ("ding ding" bus) in HK this time. Don't think I've taken it before. It's a much cheaper option then the regular buses and you can do some sightseeing, even though it has fixed routes using the circuit.

Lamma Island (南丫岛)
As suggested by a friend, we decided to do a trail on Lamma Island, by which we would end with a sumptuous seafood dinner. We took a ferry from Central Pier and alighted at Yung Shue Wan (榕树湾), and made our way (via the trail) towards Sok Kwu Wan (索罟灣). We took a 1-2 hours stroll, through the hills, and took in the sights. It wasn't tedious actually and settled down to a sumptuous dinner at just HK$900 plus for seafood like abalone, bamboo clams, fish, scallops, etc. among the 4 of us. And guess what! We stumbled upon a library while waiting for our ferry back (talk about 职业病). Woah, the library is only open on Tuesdays & Fridays.

 

~~~~~~~~~
Well, that's most of the sightseeing we did in Hong Kong, sans food, which will be another sight. :)
Macau in another post.

Closer by Pangdemonium! Productions

I haven't watched the movie so I can safely say I have an "unbiased" view of the production, although my emotional and analytical faculties might have been impaired by the flu I was having.

The whole plot revolves around truth, how it can hurt and alienate, rather than bring one closer to another. The 4 characters (Larry, Anna, Dan and Alice) intertwine in a series of love and lust affairs and can I say, sometimes of sexual politics? They make up, break up, then make up and break up again. How truth can be used as a weapon of "destruction" in the case of love. As the notes of the programme puts it, "while lies and deception cause damage, the truth, it seems, can make that damage irreparable...truth does not bring any of the characters closer." Is love a matter of choice?

I didn't feel that it was draggy (even though it was longer than I expected), and was giving it concentration throughout, which was a good thing. However, I didn't find it as engaging as I thought it should have been. To give credit, each actor/actress played their parts perfectly well, but when they crossed paths, there was something lacking that didn't bring out the intensity between characters as I would have imagined the play to be. A lack of chemistry maybe? The show didn't really reach a climatic point...it seemed to be getting there at points, but then didn't. As my friend puts it, it came out a little "flat".
I wasn't getting any closer to the core of the plot or the character-to-character relationship struggles...or maybe it was meant to be so? The "distant" feel?

However, I must say that strangely, the final scene gave me a sense of "relief" (not because it was ending lah). At that point, the truth is as truth is, all things released and laid bare. Each character had moved on with their own lives and Alice's real identity was revealed. No more tension, politics, struggles, etc. Just plain clarity.

On another note, I felt that the only one who could see through or acknowledge the facades of life was Alice (or Jane). She says some of the most bare truths of life like when at Anna's exhibition:

"It's a lie. It's a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, and all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say it's beautiful 'cause that's what they want to see. But the people in the photos are sad, and alone, but the pictures make the world seem beautiful. So the exhibition's reassuring, which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie."

I think I should go watch the movie since I've heard good reviews about it.

陈洁仪：我的音乐之旅 (Kit Chan: My Musical Journey)

她，让我“等了又等”。

As part of the Esplanade's Huayi Festival 2011, Kit Chan performed at 2 sell-out concerts with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO). I won't say I'm a fan of hers since I didn't buy all her albums or keep close tabs on news about her, but I believe she's one of the best female pop singers from Singapore. The versatility in her voice is admirable and it's good news she's getting active again in the arts scene after her 6-year hiatus. Fortunately, they added 1 more show and I managed to secure tickets for that.

As the title of the concert suggests, it brings the audience through her musical journey, structured in movements, starting with her early days, her breakthroughs, her explorations into other things like musicals, turning points of her life, and finally, her comeback.

Opening the show was a prologue, DJ-style with Danny Yeo (杨君伟) seated on the 2nd level of the stage (it was an interesting set-up). Her voice rang out first as she opened with Amazing Grace, and as we searched intently for her appearance, she came out on the gallery on the upper level, joining the choir in that first movement where she sang 3 songs - Amazing Grace, Something Good from "Sound of Music" and Mr. Turner.

I don't think I'll go into every song. There were covers, her memorable songs (金曲), and also her own songs. Yup, she writes songs too if you didn't know. I liked "Mr. Turner" (her 1st composition) which was rather catchy. I believe that's in one of her albums.

The 2nd movement heard her performing her early hits 《喜欢你》 (Liking You)、《担心》 (Worry)、《拔河》 (Tug of War) and 《心痛》 (Heartache). She was fully warmed up (me too) when she reached 《心痛》, her 成名曲 (breakthrough song) that brought the mood in the concert hall up a notch. On another note, I always felt 《拔河》 was a challenging song to sing, with the "tremolo" portions if I can call them that, and the need to have good control of the voice tones.

The highlight came in the next movement when she re-appeared with 《等了又等》, from Snow.Wolf.Lake （雪·狼·湖）. The audience started clapping the moment she opened the song and me? I found myself tearing. This had got to be the best song or climax for the night. I must say, it's so different when she sings Cantonese songs...they seem to sound more melodious than her Chinese songs. Maybe because the Cantonese dialect has more intonations and she seems to use a different voice when singing them. She went on to sing 《月亮代表我的心》 and 《炫耀》, which saw the first appearance of Jimmy Ye （叶良俊） as guest pianist. Not often would you get to see Jimmy Ye playing on stage.

I wasn't familiar with the 2 songs from the 4th movement, 《懂得》 and 《东湾土星》, but the last and 5th movement had 《天冷就回来》, which I think is a beautiful heartwarming song by 梁文福 (that also inspired a musical of the same name). And of course, how can she leave without singing 《家》 ("Home"), our 1998 NDP song. She sang the Chinese version.

It didn't end just yet, and for the encore, she sang one song (only) - "Home" by Michael Buble (yup, not the NDP song, but she did switch to that halfway and back again) which is found in her latest album of cover songs 《重译》. It was quite an apt closing of the concert actually, with lyrics like "I wanna go home" and "let me go home" as she "encouraged" us to be on our way.

Gee, I don't really know how to rate it...should I give a biased or honest opinion? Well, I felt I would have enjoyed a real 演唱会 with more of her songs and less of a classical concert set-up. Strange seeing everyone sitting prim and proper at a pop (well, almost) concert . I had a "where are the light sticks?" thought and had to control my "sing/hum-along" compulsion. Ha! I think the audience started to loosen up at the encore, which was too short really.

Anyway, the SCO performed a nice interlude with a "mash-up" re-arrangement of her songs after the 2nd movement. Maestro Tsung Yeh （叶聪）is a great conductor.

On the side, I missed the autograph-signing session. Me blur didn't see the notice or I would probably have started queuing early, which was limited to the first 250 people. The queue was really long that went round to the back of the concert hall I believe from what I saw as I looked round the building while going down Esplanade Drive...and that was already 20-30 min after the concert ended.

命运建筑师之远大前程 (Grand Expectations) - English review

(For the benefit of those who can't read Chinese, have done the review in English as well) 

Director: Edward Lam
Playwright/Creative Director: Sylvia Chang
Venue: Esplanade Theatre
Run: 5 & 6 Feb 2011 (part of Huayi Festival 2011)

Synopsis:
Little Devil (David Wang) and Baby (Lee Sinjie) are a pair of actors who specialise in posing as the perfect couple to help their clients in marketing their products. Once lovers, they have a love-hate relationship. Baby wishes to find her own happiness while Little Devil dreams of striking it rich. During one of their stints at a property launch, they meet Moses, the architect.

Moses (Tony Yang) is inspired and inexplicably attracted to Baby, the way she looks pregnant and her uninhibited way of expressing herself, her opinions of home decor, etc. He hires her to be his inspiration for a new project, to play a pregnant "happy wife at home" where she would stay at his house. However, as much as Baby wishes the situation to be real, Moses neglects her whenever he is inspired to work on his design. She is lonely and unhappy, unlike the role she plays. In a turn of events, she discovers she has a hereditary eye disease that slowly renders her blind. She decides to leave Moses once she serves her purpose and also have a last meal with Little Devil. Both Moses and Little Devil finally realise their real feelings for her when she disappears from their lives.

On another note, while seeking treatment for her eyes, Baby meets a doctor (Wang Zhan) who was coincidentally at that fateful launch, and who was also attracted to her then, only that she didn't notice him then. Unfortunately, now she can't really see him clearly, but they eventually get married and she has finally found her real happiness, using her heart to see.
_________
First things first, I found the play a tad long. It was 3 hours long. Yes, that's a long time, but Design for Living was of about the same length and it didn't feel that long. If I were to compare the two, I enjoyed Design for Living more. Nevertheless, the story picked up in the last half hour, which redeemed it in that aspect.

One interesting style was when I wondered why the playwright revealed the outcome in the beginning (1st scene), i.e. of who she chooses in the end. Eventually, I realised what it meant when during a narrative in the beginning, Baby said that "if I knew this day would come, I would have looked at you more carefully". Because she became blind.
_________

Thoughts

1）Two men who don't understand what a woman's happiness really is.
Little Devil thought that being rich will bring a woman happiness, so he keeps chasing after the "big money", wanting to be his own boss without being practical first. I believe he wanted to provide for Baby, but she probably wanted a more stable relationship.
Moses thought he could 'build' happiness by creating a house that a woman wants. But an empty house is not a home; a perfect house on the outside but emptiness inside is fruitless. A woman needs something real and speaks of a future, to build a home together.

2）Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but was the naming of the character "Baby" on purpose? An overuse of the word that it has become too cliche or meaningless? No longer precious. (Actually, a better translation of the "宝贝" is "Precious").

3）Baby was always living in a world of "fake" happiness, something short-lived and temporary, that only exists in role-play. So what the eyes see physically isn't real, only what we see in our hearts is.

4）Sometimes, you can't see what you see, you can't hear what you speak; you don't see what you should have seen and miss it; you speak what you do not mean and don't know what you say.

命运建筑师之远大前程 (Grand Expectations) - 中文评介

 “不让你的眼睛

　再看见人世的伤心。。。”

一首熟悉的歌曲、一首感人的歌曲。。。一首“你的眼睛”（王展演唱）为这场戏拉开了序幕。显然的，这是一部关于“眼睛”的话剧。人往往被眼前的意象蒙骗了；说看得见，但其实看不见。

故事简介：
小鬼（王耀庆饰）和宝贝（李心洁饰）是一对专门扮演幸福情侣的搭档，在不同的场合替不同的客户演出完美的生活，赚取客人的信任。但曾经是情侣的他们其实并不幸福。年轻貌美的宝贝一心渴望遇见能带给她幸福的白马王子；小鬼总梦想有朝一日名成利就。两人似乎有一份又爱又恨的情债。在一次发展商推出新屋时，他们遇见了设计屋子的摩西（杨祐宁饰），一位满怀憧憬的青年建筑师。他看到了宝贝与小鬼的完美搭配。 “怀孕”的宝贝，化身幸福小女人，小鬼俨然是年轻企业家、她体贴的丈夫。两人真真假假的互动，紧扣众人的目光。
摩西深深被宝贝所吸引，他迷上她幸福孕妇的角色，更喜欢她毫无保留的表达方式。于是把宝贝从小鬼身边带走，邀请她在自己的全新设计作品里表演“一个女人的幸福”，并为他带来成功与名望。 只不过这只是一场“幸福”表演吗？宝贝能真的找到她在小鬼那儿所找不到的幸福吗？
摩西在这“幸福”的扮演中达到目的，找到灵感设计了“宝贝的家”。可是，在他冷落宝贝的当时，宝贝的幸福梦想破灭。她也渐渐因先天性的疾病瞎了。她决定在合约圆满后离去，也与小鬼共度了最后一顿晚餐，从此从他们的生命中消失。小鬼和摩西这时才发现宝贝在他们心里的地位。
不过，宝贝在寻医时遇见了王展饰演的眼科医生。原来，在那次的房屋发销场上，他也被宝贝吸引了，也撞见过她几次，只是宝贝没注意。只可惜，宝贝已无法清楚的看着他了。但他们最终也结为夫妇，宝贝也找到了她所渴望的真正幸福。

导演 (Director)： 林奕华 （Edward Lam）
编剧/创作总监 (Playwright/Creative Director)： 张艾嘉 (Sylvia Chang)
————

让我先讲讲坏的吧。感觉上，这场舞台剧有一点儿长（三个钟头）。对，三个钟头是很长，不过，前年的《华丽上班族之生活与生存》 (Design for Living) 也是差不多一样长，但感觉上不觉得如此。若要我跟那比，我比较喜欢《华丽上班族》。不过，我觉得最后的半个钟的剧情发展，稍微减轻那“长”的感觉，所以也不算差。

最初，我觉得奇怪为什么编剧这么早（第一场) 就把结局说出来（她选了谁）。后来，我在她瞎后才发现戏初的字句“如果知道有这么一天，我就仔细注意/看你了”的含意。

思绪/解剖：

1）两个男人。两个不懂女人所要的幸福是什么的男人。
小鬼以为只要有钱就能带个女人幸福。我相信他想赚大钱是因为他想给宝贝幸福，不过一味要当老板赚大钱是不切实际的。宝贝因此常和他吵架。我相信，她只想要个安稳踏实的感情。
摩西以为幸福是可以塑造的而想建一间能带给女人“幸福”的屋子。可是一个外表美满，但里头空荡荡的屋子是无法带给女人幸福的。女人需要一个充满真正美丽憧憬的未来。

2）我也想过，编剧命名 “宝贝”为“宝贝”是为了点题这名词的滥用吗？哈哈！或许我想太多了。

3）宝贝在戏里一直活在虚构的美满。她与小鬼的“幸福 、完美”搬演证实眼前所看到的其实都是假的，梦幻的。只有心里看到的是真的。

4）在剧中，摩西指出了一个重点。Sometimes, you can't see what you see, you can't hear what you speak. 人有时以为看见了，但其实错过了；也有时没听到自己所说的话而口是心非。

I feel

I feel, that's why I smile.
I feel, that's why I cry.
I feel, that's why I leave.

Of "Doo-Wops & Hooligans"

I don't usually do this, but while walking past HMV yesterday, I heard them playing something that caught my attention. I was like "that's really nice"...and went in to buy the CD. It turned out to be Bruno Mars' "Doo-Wops & Hooligans".

Talk about impulse buys. Ha! But am enjoying it.

女人心

I was just pondering about what a woman really needs in a relationship? We always talk about expectations, criteria, etc., but these are just guidelines. After giving it some thought, I think that it all boils down to making us feel loved and secure about the relationship.

A woman's heart is very "soft" (心很软), so it's not difficult to move her, if she doesn't have any bad vibes about you. Once she has the affirmation, the walls will break down (yes, women protect themselves in this area and even if she's feeling a lot, she'll try not to show it). So most of the time, I believe you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg of how she's feeling or really thinking.

Personals

I'm tired of waiting for something/someone to come round. So recently, (this sounds embarassing) I updated my SDN lovebyte profile. Incidentally, I received a few messages so far, but have not responded to any of them, yet. Call it apprehension, but I don't really know how I should respond or whether I should respond.

One problem with this service is that the profiles posted don't indicate our religion, unless we explicitly say it in the description of ourselves or what we look for (I submitted feedback on this to SDN). So how shall I reply? The most important thing I want to know first is if they are (active) Christians.

I've also been wondering, does the website highlight "recently updated" profiles? That's why I've been receiving messages? Or maybe they just like my picture (I used my current FB profile)? Or maybe it's the description of myself? A couple of them did say they read my profile and wished to know more (but don't know if they say the same thing to other girls too).

If they have read what I look for, they would know I'm looking for a Christian. So should I ask outright whether they are Christians? Or maybe in a less direct way like which church they go to? How do I even start a "conversation"?

I'm totally inexperienced in this.

Something New, Something Old

It's been a long night. Just caught a double bill by Faithworks and sharing some thoughts on them.

I found the 1st play "Getting Married with Dad Dead Next Door" a tad draggy, such that I failed to find a strong message coming through to me (or it got blurred out). J commented that it's surprising since I'm usually quite perceptive...maybe I was tired...it was a bit long at around 75min (for a double bill). But I did deduce that the mother knew that the father was dead already, right at the beginning of the play (or did I assume it?). Maybe because I was paying more attention to what was said and acted out to deduce it by virtue of knowing already there's a dead dad. But this of course, as J said, meant that there was no element of "suspense" for me, which might have reduced the appreciation of the play and caused me to feel it was a bit long. I kept wondering when it will finally come to the point where all of them would discover that the rest of the family also knew that the father was dead, which I expected would be the climax of the show. But unfortunately, the climax didn't last long. Maybe a little shortening of the post-discovery might have brought it to a more impactful close. Generally, in my personal opinion, the play was nicely structured, the way the scenes changed with each set of characters, but it probably needs some tightening up.

As for the 2nd play "The Bench", it wasn't exactly a play, as in with a main storyline or theme, but more of snippets of happenings around a bench in a park. People come, people go. They did it in a cyclical manner, i.e. about things that happen on one day at the bench, then another day of similar happenings starts, with some new characters introduced into the existing characters' own mini-stories, or more "development" of relationships and about the characters' lives. I was getting concerned at when this pattern will end, and was a little expectant of whether these characters will finally meet at some point (which I think would have brought it to an interesting juncture), but that didn't happen. The more interesting part came when a geeky guy came out in the 2nd part, providing much comic relief. But it was predictable he would meet the lonely girl and something would develop from there. Both J and I felt this set-up might have been more suited for film then stage.