Movie reviews: The Eye

This is another in a long list of Asian horror/ghost films I have watched recently. I picked up this one because it is directed by the Pang Brothers, famous for several Hong Kong/Thai films and also because I wanted to break the long line of Korean horrors I have been watching. The great thing about Asian film is that I have rarely heard much about the film beforehand, which means I can watch without any expectations. On the whole, this was a good film, although certainly not the best I have seen. Still, it makes a pleasant change from the perhaps more polished Hollywood films and can certainly be given marks for originality.

Mun, who has been blind since the age of two, has a cornea transplant. The operation is a success; her vision is virtually reinstored. All should be well, but there is one problem. Mun is able to see things that other people can’t and eventually she realizes that she can see the dead. Sometimes they are harmless enough; other times they are very threatening. In addition, her bedroom keeps turning into someone else’s. Terrified, she seeks the help of a psychotherapist, Dr Wah, who has the job of readjusting Mun to the life of the seeing. Initially, he doesn’t believe her, but soon realizes that Mun’s terror is real.

Mun begins to feel that the person whose cornea she has been given is trying to tell her something. Dr Wah manages to get his uncle, who performed the operation, to tell him the name of the donor, a Thai-born Chinese girl called Ling. Mun and Dr Wah travel to Thailand and find the village where Ling lived. Finding out about Ling’s death helps Mun to realize what it is that she needs to do to let Ling rest in peace.

This film intrigued me from start to finish. Angelica Lee, who plays Mun, is faultless. Her acting when she sees herself in the mirror for the first time is really touching; I could really believe that she had recently regained her vision. Her terror when she realizes that she can see things that no-one else can is superb. I have seen her in other roles, but I think this is the strongest of her performances that I have seen yet. I found it thought-provoking – what would it be like to have been blind for most of your life and then suddenly regain your sight?

I was less impressed with Lawrence Chou as Dr Wah. To begin with, he was supposed to be a trained psychotherapist, but he looked about 18. Then I found his acting quite wooden and much less believable than Mun’s, particularly when he comes to realize

Book reviews: A Fortune

Would you fly if somone told you you’d die? That is the question addressed in the book “A Fortune Teller Told Me.” It is a book I probably would never have read if it hadn’t been chosen for my book club this month. However that’s the good thing about book clubs sometimes you end up reading books you would never have looked at and sometimes you enjoy them, this book is one of those.

The book is a true story written by Tiziano Terzani an Italian journalist working as an Asian correspondent travelling all over Asia reporting on events and writing articles for magazines. In 1976 he visits a fortune-teller in Hong Kong who tells him “Beware! You run a grave risk of dying in 1993. You mustn’t fly that year. Don’t fly, not even once.”

Tiziano puts it to the back of his mind but as 1993 approaches the fortune-tellers words come to make him rethink his plans. He decides to take the fortune-tellers advice not so much because he believes he will die if he flies but he sees it as a challenge and an interesting way to spend the next year.

And so this book describes his journeys on all modes of transport but plane as he travels over Asia visiting many different countries and seeing things he would never have seen had he been travelling by plane.

This book is so much more than just a travel through Asia and one man’s experiences. It looks at fortune telling, how people put their trust and make major decisions based on what a fortune teller tells them. Terzani visited many fortune tellers who came up with bizarre methods of reading into his future including reading his feet and burning sheep’s shoulder blades. It is also amazing how people will hear what they want to hear, if they hear one thing that applies to their life they just seem to happily forget that everything else the fortune teller has told them is wrong. I also found it interesting that in the book all the fortune tellers tell Terzani that he will live to an old age but I discovered in my book club discussion that in fact he had died much earlier.

There is also a strong theme of modernisation and consumerism. We see how modern changes and so called “progress” can actual be a bad thing for people from poorer countries and can just increase the gulf between the rich and the poor and cause more exploitation.

Terzani also comes across many people who are searching for something in life and have not found it. He meets monks who spend there time trying to mediate and seek a life of contemplation but who have

Best Asian destinations for the US dollar – Part 10

Visit some distant countries and you feel right at home; they’re so similar to your own country that you can hardly tell you’re someplace foreign. But then there’s Asia. There, you know you’re in an exotic foreign place. The sights, the smells, the tastes and of course the languages are so unfamiliar, even strange, that your senses scream “Wow, this place is truly foreign,” and that’s wonderful, because that’s why you’ve traveled there in the first place.

Now, regardless of where you travel, you are fairly likely to fit one of two tourist profiles. The first type of tourist wants to see the famous places they’ve heard about or read about. They expect to enjoy comfortable accommodations and eat palatable foods. They expect to be reasonably safe in all they do. Then there’s the second tourist profile. They’re looking for greater stimulation, more fun, anything that they couldn’t do where they live, and especially something they can fashion into interesting conversation with their friends back home. They’re not adverse to less comfortable accommodations, and are willing to try unknown foods. And they are open to a little bodily risk.

So let’s assume you’re an experiential tourist and that you have only a week’s vacation, and want to see the best of Asia. Let’s say you’ve picked the following countries to cram into this limited time, and want to put together a travel itinerary that includes Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and possibly China. How could you do it, and what would be your destinations. This article can’t tailor a specific itinerary for you and your interests, but it can provide you with some ingredients that you can mix together to bake your own cake. Here they are, for each country:

JAPAN

Since our tourist has only a day to spend in Japan, Tokyo seems the most logical final destination. Here’s a proposed plan.

Accommodations: No Western style hotel for this experiential tourist, who instead wants to stay at a traditional ryokan, a Japanese -style accommodation. Experience the elements of Japanese culture and customs, staying in a room with a Tatami (straw mat) floor, and sleep on a futon (bedding) placed right on the Tatami.

Food: There’s nothing like a sukiyaki dinner prepared right at your table, and topped with a raw egg. There are dozens of sukiyaki houses in most cities; look for Japanese-style buildings with a cow sign hanging outside.

Attractions: Take the bullet train on any of eight routes, and travel at 180 mph. Experience

Travel experiences: Asian adventures

Although I had a lot of trouble in Asia, and sometimes just wanted to go home, I really enjoyed myself most of the time.

There is this “thing” about going to a country, where you don’t know anybody and don’t know much of the language.

You feel free and you will find yourself eventually, because you don’t have to be someone you are not. There is no impressing anybody and when you do go home to the people you know, you are more of yourself than you ever were before and you don’t care much for being anything but whom you are.

Now that’s something I brought back with me from Asia and not many people are lucky enough to have that opportunity.

One event that really got me thinking about who I was happened in a small island called Macau, just off the coast of Hong Kong.

I was there for one reason only- to do a visa- run as quickly as possible and go back to Taiwan, where I was living and teaching English to kids.

Unknown to me, my stay in Macau would be anything but a visa- run, as my passport along with other items was stolen from my room at some dodgy hotel in central Macau.

To me at the time, it was the worst day of my life. A lone, female tourist without a passport is lost, there is not much that you can do, but ask for help and help is what I got.

With the help of the police and immigration officers, I was able to go into Hong Kong without a visa and apply for a new temporary passport.

It is times like these when you are waiting for the worst to happen, that you reflect on your life and reflect on who you are.

I was only permitted to stay in Hong Kong for 7 days, with a chance of being deported if my temporary passport wasn’t ready by the end of those 7 days.

Waiting can do a lot to a person and I certainly did a lot of thinking.

On the sixth day, I finally got a phone call from the embassy, telling me that my temporary passport was ready.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was and as soon as I could, I went off to apply for a visa, so I could get back to Taiwan.

I arrived in Taiwan that night with my new visa and I knew that apart of me had changed forever.

If you think about it, when these things happen to you, you have to adapt to the situation and in adapting, you change for better or worse. In my case I changed for the better.

Simple things became important to me, like arriving back at my flat in Ping Tung City, Taiwan after a very strange 7 days and thinking to myself that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else and that I’m home.

To me now, when I look back to that day my passport was stolen, it is no longer the worst day of my life, but the day that I opened my eyes and saw the light. I wouldn’t take back that day for anything. They say what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger and I personally agree with this.

Ricky in Hong Kong 06,07,08

Hed Kandi Asia Tour at FINDS Hong Kong

BEP live in Hong Kong – disco club

Four Tet Live in Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Tokyo Krawlers Episode 4 (Part 5)

Hong Kong Nightlife

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