I’ve tried my best by creating multiple drafts and kept tweaking the two trailers for days until I created these two trailers. I wish I have better movie trailers making skill. Please have a watch to get a sense of the two documentaries that I made back-to-back in from 2014 to 2015. Enjoy.
“I decided that I would do my best in future not to write books just for the money. If you didn’t get the money, then you didn’t have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.”
Over the years, I try to only make films not “just for the money” but make films that I think are “important” in some way. Obviously I can be wrong and what I think “important” may turn out be not that “important” as seen by the clearer eyes of history. That risk is, of course, something I am willing to take as a filmmaker given I’ve made only three documentaries in 10 years.
I’ve tried to make the two films as good as I can given limited resources and skills. Can the two films be better or “improved”? Of course. But I feel I have done what I could with them over the months I worked on them and further editing may have marginal improvements and feel like procrastination. So I decided it was time to wrap them up and get on with things.
“If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.” Right on Neil.
Uber, Hong Kong gov profiled ‘success story’, raided by HK police, Uber drivers arrested
Uber, a controversial taxi alternative that connects private drivers with riders, has its Hong Kong office raided by Regional Crime Unit of Kowloon West today as reported by ABC news. Three Uber Hong Kong employees (age 21 to 29) and five Uber drivers were arrested according to the Hong Kong Chinese media Apple Daily news.
“InvestHK provided Uber with significant support, including information on public transportation and advice on market entry strategy prior to its launch.”
Let’s think about it for a moment. A government department helping a multi-billion foreign high-tech company with “significant support” including “advice on market entry strategy prior to its launch” sounded like a perfect task and job well done for investHK. And that would fit HKSAR Chief Executive CY Leung‘s often talked about desire to establish an Innovation and Technology Bureau (創新及科技局) very well.
It is not like Uber has changed its business model since May 2015 when Hong Kong government talked about her “significant support” including “advice on market entry strategy prior to its launch” in its investHK Success Story. This reporter is not a lawyer but to many casual observers, the Hong Kong government’s prior “significant support” including “advice on market entry strategy prior to its launch” might be seen by some, fairly or unfairly, as potentially a form of entrapment.
Does Hong Kong still have a stable business environment where innovative entrepreneurs can work under a fair legal system where rule of law still matter? Will the Hong Kong government explain what rules, laws, or regulations have changed between May 2015 (a “success story”) to August 11th where people were arrested and equipment and records confiscated as part of a criminal case investigation?
An earlier version of this report is cross-posted to examiner.
Note 1: Uber is not operating in Calgary even it operated briefly in 2014 before insurance concerns halted the service. In separate polls conducted by the city and the company finds majority of Calgarians embrace idea of Uber. And more importantly, officials from cities like Calgary are willing and working with Uber to try to bring more choices to citizens in a manner that protect the safety of riders.
Note 2: This reporter has uploaded saved copies of the English version of investHK Success and Chinese version of investHK Success Story 投資推廣署 – 成功個案 as part of this news reporting as per fair dealing provisions of copyright law for readers to read and research for themselves. At press time, it appears that both the English and Chinese “success story” files have been deleted from the investHK website. Some Hong Kong Facebook users voiced their suspicion that the HKSAR government might have deleted the files to avoid embarrassment or incriminating evidences.
20150811 Uber Sucess Story deleted – English
20150811 Uber Sucess Story deleted – Chinese
11th August 2015 Update: On the night of August 11th, Uber Hong Kong stated “Uber ensures that all trips have insurance coverages” and they will “fully support their drivers” and “fully cooperate with government officials, work to improve current legislation, putting safety and benefits of passengers and drivers first.” (rough translation from Chinese).
For the record, here is the media in Chinese as reported by Apply Daily,
After viewing the following video clip, I have one simple question. Is Hong Kong Police Above the Law? 香港警察是否可以無法無天，凌駕於法律之上？Has Hong Kong become a police state/city where Hong Kong citizens’ rights and legal due process need not be protected nor respected by the police? Have a watch and see for yourself in this legal protest. According to what was stated by one of the peaceful protesters (based on the observable footage), the crowd (“over 100”) has been detained by the police without any reasons given. When the police seemed to be willing to release the crowd, a police officier who seemed to be in charge halted the release of the protesters and clearly stated no reason is to be given nor needed for the crowd’s detention.
Note: Raw video footagelinked to via Facebook status of HK Legislative Council member Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄). Note that this reporter has no way to verify the video’s authenticity, there is no reason to believe it is doctored as there would likely be plenty of collaborating photographic and video evidences filmed by other media outlets present at the protest.
It saddens me to write this article about Hong Kong but I want to express my deep admiration for ATV‘s senior news executives Leung Ka-wing (梁家榮) and Tammy Tam Wai-yee (譚衛兒) who resigned to defend press freedom. I hope I never had to make such decisions, but if I had to, I wish I had the moral fiber to resign in protest.
“Two senior news executives at Asia Television have quit over not being able to stop the station from airing an incorrect report on the death of former president Jiang Zemin.
The resignation of senior vice president of news and public affairs Leung Ka-wing was accepted by the broadcaster with immediate effect. His deputy, vice president Tammy Tam Wai-yee, tendered her resignation soon after ATV announced Leung’s departure around 5pm.
In a phone interview with ATV news, Leung said: “Why do I have to take full responsibility? It is because I failed to stop that news report from being aired despite my all-out efforts.”
He did not say who had insisted on running the report on July 6, only that he had tendered his resignation two days after the report was aired. ATV major investor Wang Zheng earlier denied suggestions he was the source of the announcement.”
“Former Asia Television news chief Leung Ka- wing has come under pressure from lawmakers to reveal everything surrounding his resignation at a Legislative Council panel meeting.
The request comes one day after Leung quit, saying he was taking full responsibility for not being able to prevent the station from airing an erroneous report on the death of former president Jiang Zemin.
His deputy, vice president Tammy Tam Wai- yee, tendered her resignation soon after ATV announced Leung’s departure on Monday afternoon.
Leung’s remarks sparked speculation that editorial independence may have been compromised by the station’s top management and there are now doubts as to whether those responsible for the report were impartial. Read the rest of this entry »
I am a keen observer of pretty girls in HK and around the world. Unfortunately today, against my better judgement, I will argue the Hong Kong newspaper Apple B.B. Daily should voluntarily stop taking photos of some of these pretty girls (中環我至靚) in Central, Hong Kong. Yes, some of these photos taking and publishing has to be stopped! Especially many of the photos that I love the most. Isn’t this paradoxical?
Lets look at some of the photos of the pretty girls in Central, Hong Kong as reported by Apple B. B. Daily. And see if you notice a very important pattern.
??? Have you noticed a pattern yet? Lets look at some more pictures.
As you may have noticed already, the pretty girls in only 3, yes three, out of the above 13 photos actually post for the photos! And as you can read from the Flickr set, only those 3 photos have people’s names attached.
As you see, the other photos are of people talking on the phones or walking on the street simply going about their businesses. I have no indication that these people actually has or has not given Apple B.B. Daily permission to publish their photos on a column dedicated to photos of pretty girls in Central, Hong Kong!
Is this ethical behaviour? How will you react if this is your newspaper? Or if this is practiced in your city/country?
And if you live in Hong Kong, what do you think about this?
*** The Freedom of Press Paradox ***
While I don’t know the specific Hong Kong law but I suspect what the photographers of Apple B.B. Daily have done here are safely within the boundary of Hong Kong law. And I bet a Canadian dollar that a Canadian newspaper can legally take and publish photos of pretty girls standing on a public street too (although I can’t be sure).
The brave men and women of Apple B.B. Daily are truly the pioneers of newspapers and poor-tastes. At the end of day, no one can blame them for their total pursuit of making money through sex and smut at the same time as speaking truth to the powerful Chinese Beijing and HK governments.
Yes, seriously, Apple B. B. Daily do fight for democracy at the same time as they insert B. B. (bouncy breasts) of ladies in bikinis into completely serious news article!
*** Concluding Thoughts ***
Hong Kong is a really vibrant and strange market for newspapers, for both paid and recently free newspapers. Apple B. B. Daily bossman Mr. Jimmy Lai is one of the most intriguing and interesting entrepreneurs in Asia unfortunately the way he runs his newspapers (or allowed his newspapers to be run) just make me sick.
The Alliance‘s Lee Cheuk-yan and Mak-hoi-wah visted Calgary yesterday (July 31, 2011) and I had a chance to interview Mr. Lee Cheuk-yan. The following are clips of my video interviews with him.
“The bearded face of the detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is spray-painted on a nondescript gray wall overlooking the steep lanes of Hong Kong’s nightlife capital, Lan Kwai Fong.
Given his real-life circumstances — summarily disappeared at the hands of the Chinese authorities with no charges yet laid — the furrowed forehead and hooded, tired eyes of the image now seem a representation of suffering. Underneath his face is one simple question, “Who’s afraid of Ai Weiwei?”
This graffiti, appearing all over Hong Kong, has become a political statement, more than a month after the world-famous artist was detained by the authorities at Beijing airport. The campaign could yet lead to a jail term for the young graffiti artist responsible. And that fact has led to fears about the erosion of Hong Kong’s distinct freedoms, which are a legacy of its colonial past under the British.
Despite causing consternation for the authorities, many Hong Kong residents like both the graffiti’s aesthetic and its political message.
“It’s cool,” says passerby Peter Chan. “The graphic is cool, and the presentation of protest against China is cool.””
Comments Off on Ai Weiwei disappeared since Apr 2nd – Hong Kong Graffiti Challenges Chinese Artist’s Arrest | China | Tagged: Ai Weiwei, Democracy, Graffiti, Hong Kong | Permalink Posted by kempton
I saw this style of changeable ads on the HK subway. I wonder will this ad/display system work in Calgary to make some money for the city/Calgarians and provide some info for the riders?
If Americans need any warnings of what a blind pursue of “grades” can lead to, they just need to pay attention to what has happened to Hong Kong and its educational-industrial complex.
The following are some November 2010 photos of advertisements on buses, outside of buildings, and inside buses, etc selling tutorial services for students to get better grades. There are enough money involved that some of these companies hire TV/movie stars for their advertising campaigns.
Note: The term “educational-industrial complex” is created to remind us of US President Eisenhower’s “military–industrial complex“.
***
For the record, an article about “Race to Nowhere” in New York Times.
It isn’t often that a third of a movie audience sticks around to discuss its message, but that is the effect of “Race to Nowhere,” a look at the downside of childhoods spent on résumé-building.
“How do you help your children balance when the whole education system is pushing, pushing, pushing, and you want your kids to be successful?” Alethea Lewis, a mother of two, asked a roomful of concerned parents who had just seen the film, a documentary, last week in Bronxville, N.Y., at a screening co-sponsored by the private Chapel School.
With no advertising and little news media attention, “Race to Nowhere” has become a must-see movie in communities where the kindergarten-to-Harvard steeplechase is most competitive.
The following is a video of a Star Ferry ride from Central to Tsim Sha Tsui in the lower deck. I’ve ridden both upper and lower decks many times and think the cheaper lower deck actually gives a much better experience. ‘
P.S. If you understand Cantonese, here is a charming RTHK segment 「香港故事」之印度．印象. The comedian V’s “explanation’ of why two East Indians need to communicate in Cantonese in Chungking Mansions is priceless! (兩個印度人响重慶大廈講廣東話！)
Dec 6, 2010 Update: Found the following and thought them interesting and worth checking out.
Since coming back from a recent Hong Kong trip, it was fun to watch a little bit of the Hong Kong leg of The Amazing Race last night. Will write more about Hong Kong later.
Love to hear in the comments section if any readers also find this news funny.
P.S. I am normally not a betting man (unless the odds are with me), in this case, I am willing to bet $10 that, within the about IPO price range, there will at least be two prices that will NOT be used. :)
I am watching TEDxHongKong Live. It is live for the next few hours until 5pm HK time, Tue Aug 31st. (3am MST/Calgary time, Aug 31, 2010).
Update: I watched a good portion of TEDxHongKong and it was really good.
The following a revised edition of my #TEDxHongKong tweets with new comments (in reverse time order, latest first)
– Truly admire what Edward Ng has done to help the villagers and change & shape the minds of his students. #TEDxHK (check out his Bridge to China project)
– Edward Ng: It is not the physical bridge that is important, it is the spiritual bridge that connects people. #TEDxHK
– Edward Ng: Inspiring bridges building projects to help kids and adults in remote villages. #TEDxHK
– Edward Ng: Temp outside school +40 & -20 outside, don’t need cooling or heating. Cool. #TEDxHK
– Love to see @bengoertzel AGI works in 10-20 years but I am too realistic/pessimistic and don’t expect it to work in the specified time frame. #TEDxHK [Kempton: Check out Ben’s main website for more info about him and his research. As someone who has been trained in computer science and actually curious about latest development in AI and AGI, unfortunately I found the speech not as inspiring as I had hoped. I wonder what do the less technical people think about the presentation.]
– Ben Goertzel: Narrow AI (e.g. Chess: Deep Blue) vs AGI (Artificial General Intelligence, Hmmm thinking on its feet AI) #TEDxHK
– Ben Goertzel: 1200 genes diff b/n reg and super flies. 800 genes “related” to human genes #TEDxHK
– Ben Goertzel: Super flies have more sex! :) #TEDxHK
– Ben Goertzel: Super flies have stronger hearts! :) #TEDxHK
– Ben Goertzel: Talk about AI, super flies and possible path to immortality. #TEDxHK
– The Show Choir: Music director Horace Mui has done a wonderful job with the HK kids. Keep up the good work Horace. #TEDxHK
There is supposed to be a live Feed Tue Aug 31, 2010, 12noon-5pm HK time, so I look forward to check out some of the proceedings (even it will be quite late in Calgary/Canada time, HK is 14 hours ahead of Calgary/MST).
“”The investigation has got to find out, what was the turning point? What happened?” Philippine National Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon told CNN Tuesday.
Gordon told CNN that interviews with survivors have revealed that the situation inside the bus changed dramatically toward the end of the 10-hour standoff.
“Apparently the man went berserk. He was telling everybody he was not going to harm [them]…He said that nobody’s going to get harmed. He said that he was probably going to die, but not the hostages,” he said.
A woman who was on the bus told reporters her husband was killed when he tried to stop the gunman.
“My husband was very brave. He rushed out from the back of the bus to try to stop the killer,” said the woman, who identified herself as Alicia Leung.
She told reporters that she pretended to be dead in order to survive.
“Why did authorities not rescue us? There were so many of us on the bus. Why did no one come to rescue us? It is so cruel,” she said.”
“The Philippine government faced a wrenching public discussion on Tuesday over how its police handled a 12-hour hostage standoff that unfolded on live television and ended with the deaths of eight tourists from Hong Kong and their armed captor.
Growing criticism of the police response underscored what may be an early test for President Benigno S. Aquino III, who was elected in a landslide this spring. Chinese officials said they were appalled by the killings, and one prominent member of the Philippine government blamed the police for mishandling the siege. The Hong Kong executive complained that he had been unable to reach Mr. Aquino throughout the crisis.
[…] Mr. Mendoza appeared to exploit the live coverage by posting placards on the bus windows specifically addressed to the news media. He even gave an interview to a radio station. As night fell, negotiations grew tense.
Shortly after the live broadcasts from the scene showed a brother of Mr. Mendoza being detained, he opened fire inside the bus. It was 20 minutes later when the police stormed the bus.
At a news conference after the siege, Mr. Aquino said officials with the Philippines National Police had decided to “wait it out” because they believed the standoff “could be settled peacefully, without loss of life.”
In some quarters, there was also speculation that police officers used to a culture of graft and favoritism might have had a level of sympathy for Mr. Mendoza that blinded them to the seriousness of the situation. Mr. Mendoza claimed that he had not been given a fair shake as he fought the charges of extortion and that he only wanted the chance to be heard.
Ian Bryson, an analyst in Singapore at the London-based consultancy firm Control Risks, pointed out that the police were not centrally controlled and said, “Clearly, the message of Mr. Mendoza’s grievances gained traction within members of the PNP.””
“A Canadian and his two daughters are confirmed to be among the dead in Monday’s hijacking of a tour bus in Manila, Philippines.
CTV News has identified the killed Canadian as Ken Leung, 58, and his two daughters, as Jessie Leung, 14, and Doris Leung, 20.
Ken Leung’s wife was unhurt, but their son, Jason Leung, 18, remains in hospital. There are conflicting reports of whether he was hit by gunfire, or by a hammer when police stormed the bus by breaking windows.
Ken Leung was a dual-citizen, living in Hong Kong. Witnesses said he sacrificed himself to try to save other passengers.
“Ken Leung was killed trying to protect his family, trying to protect other hostages,” Ben O’Hara-Byrne, CTV’s China Bureau Chief, reported Tuesday.”
P.S. It has been painful to watch how the Manila police botched the negotiations and how the whole situation escalated out of control and resulted in the death of 8 tourists at the scene and the hijacker.
It pains me to see how far off the mark did the Manila police perform compare to the scenarios depicted in the CTV/CBS TV series Flashpoint which is styled after the Toronto PoliceEmergency Task Force.
I recently discovered a very interesting and insightful advertising executive from Hong Kong, his pen name at Apple Daily and his blog is Bud (畢明). I saw the following interesting & inspiring YouTube videos from Bud’s blog. Enjoy and thanks Bud.
Message on a fly! This one is super cool! Apparently the string holding the message to the fly is made of biodegradable material! [HT Bud]
What a slick BBC Winter Olympics ad! Very creative. [HT Bud]
This is an AXE ad so if you want political correctness, this one is NOT for you! :) [HT Bud]
A cute AmEx ad (but I think my lowly “free with cash back” VISA card has the same advantages)! [HT Bud]
Love this quote as it shows how hard Peter works. Incidentally, if you shop in Giordano and one of the customers being observed, you may feel a bit creepy. :)
“I spend some of my weekends on the computer watching through cameras in our stores to see how customers respond to promotions.“
“Wednesday night, 6:30pm, the phone rings: it’s Long Hair. “Can you play guitar for me at the rally tonight? I want to sing Bob Dylan’s song, “The Times they are a’Changing”.
My first reaction: Uh oh. Leung Kwok Hung loves music, loves Bob Dylan and loves to sing. But keeping him in rhythm and in tune is like trying to steer a sailboat through a typhoon.
“I have the lyrics already!” he urges. “Come down to Chater Garden, bring your guitar, okay?””
I have been trying to track down a YouTube clips of the performance without success until this morning. My friend is humble in talking about her performance. Let me put it this way, the sound system/the camera’s mic magically turns Daisann & Long Hair’s performance into something even Bob Dylan can’t do a better job. (smile)
On a more serious note, I deeply admire their and others’ willingness to standup and fight for Hong Kong.
As a steering committee member of the Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group and organizer of the Calgary anit-prorogation rally, and a Canadian with the ability to communicate in Chinese, I felt it was my responsibility to explain to my fellow Chinese-Canadians the danger of an unjust and partisan prorogation (shutdown) of Parliament.
Now, allow me to first sink to mr stephen harper‘s calculating and manipulating level for a moment. stephen harper is a good strategist that has been courting the Chinese votes for years. So it is extremely important to let Chinese-Canadians understand the danger and seriousness of a prime minister that is willing to shutdown Parliament to avoid being held accountable by the Parliament.
The prime minister is accountable to the Parliament, NOT the other way around. harper may be the prime minister, but WE are his BOSS!
It breaks the hearts of many Canadians with Hong Kong and Chinese connections to see our beloved Canada, thanks to stephen harper, is now even LESS democratic than Hong Kong.
The following is a video of the OMNI news report of Jan 23rd, 2010, rally in Calgary (more blog entries about the Calgary and other protests here, here, here, here, and here).
Posted by kempton 
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