Just as there’s a time gap between the LOST island and the freighter, there’s a time gap between the House Where Words Gather and real time. This is why you’re seeing a post about the Hong Kong Film Awards in May.

Not buying it? OK, OK. I’ll come clean. I’ve been busy preparing to be cross-examined for my Joyce Tang Lai-Ming stalker case. I’ve got to come up with answers to questions like: “Why do I have information from Joyce Tang’s Octopus card on my hard drive?”

I’m just kidding. I mention Joyce Tang because I think “Deroyce” — her couple name with rumoured boyfriend Derek Kwok Jing-Hung — sounds too much like “divorce” to be propitious for a Chinese couple. Besides, everyone knows that if I was going to stalk an actress, it’d be Jo Koo (left). By the way, my lawyer wants me to include the following statement:

“Mr. Leung is merely posing a hypothetical situation for humourous effect. It is, in no manner, an admission of wrongdoing or an admission of conspiring to commit any wrongdoing.”

Enough with the shenanigans, on to the business of the day:

First things first: announcing the winner of the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards Predictions Contest. It was a close race that came down to two contestants: Eliza Bennet of Istanbul, Turkey and Jason Fong of Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Both Ms. Bennet and Mr. Fong got 7 out of 8 picks correct.

	Eliza Bennet	Jason Fong
Best Film	THE WARLORDS	THE WARLORDS
Best Director	Peter Chan Ho-Sun (THE WARLORDS)	Peter Chan Ho-Sun (THE WARLORDS)
Best Screenplay	Wai Ka-Fai, Au Kin-Yee (THE MAD DETECTIVE)	Li Qiang (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)
Best Actor	Jet Li (THE WARLORDS)	Jet Li (THE WARLORDS)
Best Actress	Siqin Gaowa (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)	Siqin Gaowa (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)
Best Supporting Actor	Nick Cheung Ka-Fai (EXODUS)	Andy Lau Tak-Wah (PROTEGE)
Best Supporting Actress	Susan Shaw (THE PYE-DOG)	Susan Shaw (THE PYE-DOG)
Best New Performer	Kate Tsui Tsz-Shan (EYE IN THE SKY)	Kate Tsui Tsz-Shan (EYE IN THE SKY)

As a result, the tiebreaker question — PROTEGE is nominated for 15 awards. How many awards will it win? — was used. Ms. Bennet predicted five while Mr. Fong predicted three. PROTEGE ended up winning two awards so the winner of the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards Predictions contest is Jason Fong of Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Congratulations!

For his prize, Mr. Fong selected a HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS movie poster autographed by Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi.

Timo Karp of Germany and Jason Li from Parts Unknown tied for third. Both got 6 out of 8 picks correct.

As for myself, I tied for 17th place with Agata from Parts Unknown, longtime reader Hard Boiled Mark from Chicago, Nero from Fremont, California and Thomas from Toronto. We each predicted 3 out of 8 categories correctly.

My Triumphs, My Mistakes: In the lead up to the ceremony, there didn’t seem to be much buzz for PROTEGE, MAD DETECTIVE or EYE IN THE SKY so I figured that it would either be a sweep for THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT or THE WARLORDS. While working on the HKFA preview blog post series, I spent weeks convincing myself that THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT was better than I initially thought it was so I ended up ignoring the signs for THE WARLORDS and picked a sweep for the Ann Hui film:

Best Film: THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT
Best Director: Ann Hui On-Wah (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)
Best Screenplay: Li Qiang (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)
Best Actor: Jet Li (THE WARLORDS)
Best Actress: Siqin Gaowa (THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT)
Best Supporting Actor: Ronald Cheng Chung-Gei (MR. CINEMA)
Best Supporting Actress: Karen Mok Man-Wai (MR. CINEMA)
Best New Perfomer: Kate Tsui Tsz-Shan (EYE IN THE SKY)

TIE-BREAKER QUESTION: PROTEGE is nominated for 15 awards. How many awards will it win? 2

Instead of being clouded by my self-generated THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT buzz, I should have recalled the example of ORDINARY HEROES (another listless Ann Hui On-Wah film). Along with RUNNING OUT OF TIME and TEMPTING HEART, ORDINARY HEROES led the way in number of nominations for the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards. It ended up winning just one award. This just goes to show you that if you look at something long enough and hard enough, you can convince yourself of almost anything … sort of like how people convinced themselves that a regular truck and trailer was a “mobile production facility”.

On the bright side, I properly pegged that PROTEGE wouldn’t be a big winner despite its fifteen nominations. I’m also happy that the “hot door” (熱門) buzz for Jet Li came through and he won the Best Actor award. I’ve known since SHAOLIN TEMPLE 2: KIDS FROM SHAOLIN that Jet Li was more than just an action hero. One of the selections in the House Where Words Gather Film Pantheon, KIDS FROM SHAOLIN is the ultimate Jet Li showcase. Not only does he show off his excellent wushu skills, he does drama, comedy, romance, a scene in drag and even busts out in song during a musical number. He does it all in this film so, if you haven’t seen it yet and you are a Jet Li fan, you really need to check out KIDS FROM SHAOLIN.

Other than that, I’m a little disappointed with myself for not seeing the Susan Shaw win in the Best Supporting Actress category. I think this is something I would have picked up on in the good ol’ days when I read the entertainment sections in six papers.

Reader Interaction: Let’s put the nail on the coffin of 27th HKFA talk with replies to reader comments from the past few posts.

m writes: ” … By the way Sanney, you said you would comment on the ending of Protégé. So, what do you think, did he or didn’t he? I must be a pessimist because my first reaction was that he did.”

Well, I must be an optimist then because I think the kid stops Daniel Wu’s character from shooting up.

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From the post on Stephen Hunter’s obituary for Charlton Heston, Glenn writes: I live in the D.C. area and read Hunter’s reviews usually every week.

I resented tremendously his piece on the Va. Tech shooting mainly because he tried to make a connection to Old Boy and other films but then backed away from it for fear of offending anyone.

Either prove the point or do not. Hunter’s insinuations served no one.

Personally, I am sick of people trying to blame films for lone acts of obviously mentally ill people; if Old Boy was the problem then there would be thousands of shooters, right?

I’m sick of it too but I understand the sentiment behind it. People want to make sense of a senseless act so they look for simple explanations like the influence of movies and video games.

Going on a tangent, the thing that really bugs me these days is people blaming McDonald’s and other fast food joints for childhood obesity when the blame should really rest with parents and schools.

Speaking of the D.C. area, what ever happened with the case of the lawyer who sued a mom and pop dry cleaners for US$65 million (or something outrageous like that) over a pair of missing pants? As a person who was raised from the proceeds of a mom and pop operation, I really felt bad for the owners who had to waste time and money dealing with a litigious zealot.

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Buma writes: Andy sent you a get-well message?

That’s the coolest thing I ever heard.

Do you know the circumstances leading to that ? I’m guessing you have a friend/reader who knows Andy personally. I don’t think he speaks English well enough to read your old website.

Here’s the story, as it was told to me: Andy Lau was in San Francisco for a screening of HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Jennifer Young, a reader of my old website, approached him and asked him to write something to me. Andy Lau graciously agreed and that’s how I got my note.

By the way, I was asked in an e-mail what the card says. It reads: “Hang on! We are all behind you! Hope you get well soon!”

Pretty cool. This is why I feel pangs of guilt for thinking that he doesn’t really deserve that Best Supporting Actor award for PROTEGE and that his latest film, THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON, is terrible.

* * * * *

Glenn writes: Andy is still a god; anyone who jumps off a concert stage to fight his own security guards is pretty bad ass in my book. Your get well card is an awesome gift. Did you get any from Pinky Cheung maybe?

I wish I got something from Pinky Cheung (right). She’s got class like a ‘57 Cadillac, got all the drive with a whole lot of boom in back …

Speaking of Pinky Cheung, she and Jan/Jay Lau Kam-Ling are the only reasons I’m flirting with the idea of picking up FATAL MOVE. Not Sammo Hung, not Danny Lee Sau-Yin and not Simon Yam Tat-Wah. Kozo thinks it stinks so dropping $15 to $20 just for babeage may be too steep a price but still …

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MW writes: I thought THE WARLORDS was very average. Just another ancient brotherhood tale but with better cinematography and production values. Aside from that, I left the theatre disappointed after all the hype I had about it. Good director, international stars, potentially interesting and unique story backdrop ended up being a very bland movie. Basically the sum did not equal the parts and all the acclaim it’s getting is due to its reputation. But even I think it’s unfair to compare it to the horrible SPIDER-MAN 3.

I drew the comparison to SPIDER-MAN 3 because I got the same cinematic experience from both films. Both were big budget films that were slickly produced and highly-anticipated. Both were plagued by poor storytelling that leaves you feeling disappointed. If I had a ratings systems, I’d give the same rating to both films.

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Glenn writes: Sanney, why the quote from The Kinks’ Come Dancing? Took this 41-year-old rocker a minute to recognize that quote on your masthead from one of my favorite bands.

Simple explanation: “Come Dancing” was playing on the radio when I was updating the blog. For a while now, I’ve been resisting the urge to abandon Top 40 radio and listen mostly to “oldies” radio. The thought first crept into my mind last summer when the Top 40 station in my market seemed to only play “Hey There Delilah”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie and “Before He Cheats” on an continuous loop. I finally gave in a few weeks ago when I heard Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body”. I used to love Mariah Carey’s songs back in the 1990s when she had hits like: “Someday”, “Emotions” and “Fantasy”. Now, her music is overproduced and nonsensical. All I can make out from “Touch My Body” is something about a “secret rendezvous”, something about “YouTube” and something about how she’s going to “hunt you down”.

When I was updating the blog that night, not only did I hear “Come Dancing”, I heard “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, “Little Lies” by Fleetwood Mac and “Take It Easy” by The Eagles. All personal favourites. Even though it’ll make me feel incredibly old, I may not be going back to Top 40 radio.

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Will writes: Sanney, do you mind if I ask you a personal question? Just how much TV do you watch? You referenced Rome, American Idol, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Iron Chef and Law & Order: SVU in this post. In your old posts, I’ve seen references to Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, Law & Order, One Tree Hill, etc. That’s a lot of TV.

Yeah, I’ll admit I watch a lot of TV. It was even worse when I watched TVB series in addition to what was on TV here. Sleep? Who needs sleep? I’m a lot better now though. The TVB rental place here went out of business when I sick but even before then I stopped watching TVB series. The last one I rented was IN THE REALM OF SUCCESS — five or six years ago. I miss it though and, if there was a TVB place here, I probably would have checked out LA FEMME DESPERADO, TRIMMING SUCCESS and other twenty-episode light dramas. I used to prefer the short comedy/drama series over the long, overwrought “grand productions” like AT THE THRESHOLD OF AN ERA or, more recently, THE DRIVE OF LIFE.

As for Western TV, I don’t watch all the TV shows I’ve mentioned. I have friends who watch TV (no pretentious “books only” people in our crowd) so I pick things up by osmosis. For example, I don’t watch AMERICAN IDOL but I know of Randy Jackson’s “yo dawg” and “pitchy” schtick because my friends talk about it. Thanks to the whole cancer ordeal, I’ve developed a “life’s too short” mentality so I’m abandoning ship on shows more readily than I used to. I gave up on LOST after “Meet Kevin Johnson”. For a while now, probably around the time of that awful Bai Ling episode, I’ve felt that the show has been jerking me around with forty minutes of filler, eighteen minutes of commercials and just two minutes of actual plot development. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when there ended up being virtually no payoff for years of “Rousseau and her long, lost daughter” build-up. Besides, the only character I cared about anymore was Desmond. Jack, Locke, Kate and company all somehow became insufferable to me.

Boy, I’ve gone far, far afield. Let’s close the show with a topic that’s actually relevant to the entertainment circle …

From the post about THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, Roper writes: How can you put Gong Li (who does NOT do martial arts) in the same sentence with those other actresses? No comparison.

I put Gong Li in the same sentence with Zhang Ziyi and the other actresses not because they are martial arts heroines but because they are stars in Hollywood films hoping to get roles in other Hollywood films. I think that’s a valid basis for comparison.

Glenn writes: So what is with the apparent references in the film to bootlegs?

Kind of ironic in a Weinstein product considering that only a few years ago they were making it increasingly difficult for geeks like me to get legal non-US DVDs of Hero even while they left it on the shelf for 2 years.

I hate bootlegs too so I didn’t appreciate them trying to lump all imports under the bootleg umbrella.

You sort of answered your own question. The “bootlegs” that the kid shops for in the pawn shop are simply imports.

Mike Mai writes: Li Bingbing stole my heart in this film. She’s extremely beautiful!!!!

I agree. Li Bingbing is certainly more eye-catching than Crystal Liu in THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. I focused on Crystal Liu because she has aspirations for a Hollywood career. I don’t think Li Bingbing has similar ambitions.

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In the meantime and in between time, that’s it, another edition of The Teahouse. If you made it this far, thanks for slogging through all the stuff about music and TV. A big thanks also to Lester Mak for designing the spreadsheet for the HKFA Predictions contest. There wouldn’t have been a contest without his help so let’s all give Lester some dap.

Next time: In keeping with the timeliness of this blog, I’ll be doing a post on celebrity relief efforts for the earthquake … in Taiwan … on September 21st, 1999.

Just kidding but, in all seriousness, if you haven’t done so and if you have the means, please consider making a donation to the earthquake relief effort through your local chapter of the Red Cross.

Image credits: ecboyboy.com (Jo Koo), United States Government (Moblie Production Facility graphic), Chung Yuen Motion Picture Company (Jet Li), NextMedia (Pinky Cheung)

Welcome to The Tea House where I get ready for the day I become the benevolent dictator of the Republic of Sanneyistan by coming down from my hermetic cyber-mountain top and interacting with my loyal subjects, uh, readers.

I was going to call this feature “Sanney’s Mailbag” but I only received Congressional approval for an e-mail address this past weekend (go here for details) and “Sanney’s Comment Box” sounds like something you need to fill with kitty litter. In the end, I decided to play off the House Where Words Gather theme and call this feature “The Tea House”. Picture all of us sitting at a table and having a pleasant conversation while sharing a nice big pot of tea and some freshly-steamed siu mai dumplings (燒賣).

Let’s start things off with some comments on the comments from the last post “Sypmathy for Mr. Imprudence”:

Eliza Bennet writes: Comparing her [Cecilia Cheung] to Maggie of now would not be fair. Better compare her to Maggie of her age. But Tang Wei? Her performance was not bad at all but all the nostril flaring didn’t bring anything new at the table. I’d like to see her do something else before I form an opinion on her acting prowess.

aircompass writes: I think it’s much too early to place Tang Wei’s talent. She’s certainly a charming and intelligent girl, but one decent performance does not a Maggie Cheung make.

I adore Cecilia Cheung, however. I think she always brings something good to the table, and I think she’s a very reliable and effective dramatic actress.

Upon reflection, I wish I would have done a better job of writing that last paragraph about Cecilia Cheung’s acting. I didn’t mean to compare her with Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk or Tang Wei. I was referring to the type of role and not the actresses. I should have written: “I don’t think she has the chops to give a subtle performance required by complex roles like Su Li-Zhen/Mrs. Chan from IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE or Wang Chia-Chih/Mak Tai-Tai from LUST, CAUTION.”

I think Cecilia Cheung is a solid actress. She has a great screen presence that engages you and makes you care about her characters even if they are a dopey shopping addict or some otherworldly, mystical hot babe. It’s just that I don’t think her acting skills are refined enough to handle roles that call for a lot of subtlety.

By the way, I agree with aircompass about Tang Wei. She gives an outstanding performance in LUST, CAUTION but it’s way too early to place a “Screen Queen” crown on her head.

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Glenn writes: I think I’ve made my love for Cecilia’s acting well known on this site; I’m a sucker for her crying bits where her already raspy voice gets even further choked up. Works every time for me.

Man, I’m feelin’ ya on this one. The raspiness is the vocal equivalent of a hot babe wearing nothing but a men’s white tuxedo shirt.

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Eliza Bennet writes: Edison Chen at the press con (heh) didn’t seem sincere to me. It actually seemed like he was expecting some sort of a reaction from everyone.

He didn’t strike me as entirely sincere either. His proclamation that he was going to dedicate himself to “charity and community work” seemed about as genuine as O.J. Simpson declaring, years ago, that he was going to dedicate himself to “finding the real killers”. I was just saying that despite the prepared script, you could sense that — at the core — there was a real human who has been severely humiliated. By contrast, at their press event, EEG chose to present corporate creation Gillian Chung™ instead of genuine human Gillian Chung so it was hard for people to connect with her and feel any real sympathy for her plight.

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Viktor writes: I find it is a disgrace that the people involved are now judged by the quality or authenticity of their press conferences. The fact remains that they did no wrong to anybody (the allusion to Nixon’s crookery in “Sexy Photos Gate” is malicious, to say the least).

I don’t think anyone is trying to equate what Edison Chen and his partners did in private to Nixonian crookery. Adding the “-gate” suffix to any sort of controversy has just become a convenient way for the media to label scandals. Earlier this month, the Obama-Clinton race for the Democratic presidential nomination begat “NAFTAgate”. Since September, American football fans have been subjected to endless talk about “Spygate”. I think that “-gate” has become mostly disassociated with the original Watergate scandal. If you go to Wikipedia, you can see a list of more than twenty scandals that have had “-gate” attached to it.

 

The Eastern Heretic and the Poisonous West (left) with their American counterparts the Venerable West (centre) and the Eastern Dowager (right).

Linguistically speaking, I’ll admit that I was surprised when I saw that the Chinese media attached “-gate” to the scandal. Chinese and English are so different, it’s often difficult to translate concepts from one language to the other. You don’t see the American media calling Senator John McCain of Arizona the “Venerable West” or Senator Hillary Clinton of New York the “Eastern Dowager”. I’m guessing that, for logistical reasons like article length and headline length, calling it “Sexy Photos Gate” was easier than using the unwieldy “Edison-Gillian-Bobo-Cecilia Picture Scandal”. Moreover, the latter became inaccurate when more starlets became involved.

As for Gillian Chung and Edison Chen being judged by their respective press conferences, I’ll paraphrase Hyman Roth from THE GODFATHER, PART II and say simply: “this is the business they’ve chosen”.

Besides, I think most people are judging Gillian Chung™ and Edison Chen™ rather than the actual Gillian Chung or the actual Edison Chen. I think you have to be very naive or very foolish if you don’t understand that there is a distinction between the public persona and the private person. Based on how he presents himself to the public eye, you’re entitled to have an opinion like Edison Chen™ is a poseur — a dopey, bad-boy wannabe who, if caught in a gunfight, would probably pull a Ruby Wong from PTU rather than take nine to the body like 50 Cent. However, unless you know him personally, it’s impossible to have a reasonable opinion on the actual Edison Chen. Put it this way, there has got to be a difference between Edison Chen™ and the actual Edison Chen. There must be something endearing about the actual Edison Chen because multiple women liked him enough to have relations with him and trusted him enough to let him take compromising photographs of them.

By the way, congratulations to Shawn Yue Man-Lok! I think it’s now safe to declare him the winner of the long and bitter Shawn Yue-Edison Chen “teen idol” rivalry.

* * * * *

Glenn writes: While I do agree that Charlene [Choi Cheuk-Yin] is the more talented of the Twins, I can’t recall anything memorable beyond comedy roles — has she done anything even close to drama? I haven’t watched Diary yet; maybe that will prove me wrong? She was good in Leave Me Alone and My Wife is 18 — made that film far better than it should have been.

My memory may be faulty so the timeline may be slightly off but I believe Charlene Choi established her dramatic acting bona fides way back in 2000-2001 before EEG hooked her up with Gillian Chung. I believe both HEROES IN LOVE and FUNERAL MARCH were made and released before Twins released their first album in the Autumn of 2001. While Ah Sa got nominated for the Best New Artist HKFA for her role as a “girl with a terminal disease” in FUNERAL MARCH (losing an honourable decision to Karena Lam Ka-Yan’s performance in JULY RHAPSODY), HEROES IN LOVE was the better showcase of her young acting talents.

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A comment about Damn You, Kozo! … Kozo’s rant about inconsistent romanization brought to mind a conversation I had recently with someone about “legacy kids” (children of people who are rich, powerful or famous). This person, who shall remain nameless, hates George W. Bush with a passion and was trying to make the argument that, generally speaking, legacy kids grow up in a pampered environment so they don’t develop the skills that allow them to handle important positions when they are adults. I have to admit that I found the argument convincing until the person used Kim Jong-Il as another example of an “incompetent legacy kid”. It’s not that I think Kim Jong-Il is doing a bang-up job governing North Korea, it’s that the person I was talking to referred to Kim Jong-Il as Kim Jong II (Kim Jong The Second).

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A little help … Any Microsoft Excel experts out there? I’m flirting with the idea of running a Hong Kong Film Awards predictions contest and I need someone to help me develop a formula so that I can determine the winner without having to manually go through every entry. If you can help, please get in touch with me.

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Have you seen PROTEGE? If you have, please read this post and discuss the ending with me.

 

IMAGE CREDITS: Lung Poon Restaurant (Siu Mai), TVB (Screen grab from LEGEND OF THE CONDOR HEROES), The Huffington Post (John McCain, Hillary Clinton), Milkyway Image (Ruby Wong), Reuters (Kim Jong-Il)

SPOILER WARNING: This post talks about the ending of Derek Yee Tung-Sing’s film PROTEGE. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want the ending spoiled, you know what you have to do …

I’m wondering what people think happened with Daniel Wu’s character in the closing scene. Did the little kid stop Daniel Wu from shooting up or was it a callback to the beginning of the movie when she picked up the needle and threw it in
the trash after her mother shot up? I zaprudered the scene and it looks like she arrives just as he’s about to shoot up but it’s hard to tell.

What’s your opinion? Did Daniel Wu’s character realize that the little girl gave his life meaning or was he on the road to becoming a junkie like the girl’s mother?

I’ll share my thoughts about the movie later this month when I break down the Best Film category for the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards. Right now, I’ll just say that — for a “best film of the year” candidate — it has a lot of problems.

IMAGE CREDIT: Film Unlimited (PROTEGE screen grab)

Maybe it’s because I’m a softie but I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of sympathy for Edison Chen Kwoon-Hei as I watched his press conference last Thursday. Though his statement contained ill-advised credibility-killers like his concern for “society as a whole” and his pledge to dedicate himself to “charity and community work”, it was clear from his body language that Chen was genuinely gutted by “Sexy Photos Gate”. While my sympathy and HK$25 will buy him a tray of shrimp dumplings at a dim sum restaurant, I thought Chen came off much better than Gillian Chung Yan-Tung did in her press conference. Comparing the two, it’s hard not to notice that Chung self-inflicted even more damage to her career by appearing duplicitous and insincere just as she was taking heavy criticism for being duplicitous and insincere. EEG really needs to find better public relations help because the people manipulating PR for them now are doing more harm than good.

For the most part, Chen is still being excoriated over the scandal. His announcement about dedicating himself to charity is being dismissed as a publicity ploy and he took criticism for being disrespectful to Lydia Shum Tin-Ha by not allowing a proper period of time to pass before having the spotlight refocus on him and “Sexy Photos Gate”. Those who feel any sort of sympathy for Chen are definitely in the minority. Even tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-Sun, of all people, crushed Edison Chen. This past Saturday (February 23rd), Sing Tao Daily reported that the casino magnate refused to offer any opinions about “Sexy Photos Gate” because it was “trash” but he did say that he thought “that person” (Chen) was “cheap, cheaper than dirt.” Ouch.

Some other thoughts on the Edison Chen press statement:

- A few people are parsing Chen’s stepping “away from the Hong Kong entertainment industry” to mean that he is going to take a shot at Hollywood. Are you kidding me? If Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat thought breaking into Hollywood was frustrating and difficult, what kind of chance does Edison Chen stand? The odds are so low that he stands a better chance of re-establishing a career in Hong Kong entertainment than he does at building a meaningful Hollywood career.

- With all due respect to Lydia Shum, it’s difficult to fault Edison Chen for holding the press conference on Thursday. He was caught in a no-win situation. Hold the conference on Thursday and get criticized for being disrespectful to Lydia Shum. Delay it a few days and continue taking shots for being a coward. Announcing that you are waiting out of respect for Lydia Shum opens you up to talk of trying to get sympathy by riding on her coattails.

* * * * *

Another sign that I watch too much TV: I was watching the new LAW & ORDER episode last Wednesday night and I couldn’t help thinking that — if it actually blipped on the radar of people here in the West — “Sexy Photos Gate” would make for a great “ripped from the headlines” episode. Multiple suspects are available for the ol’ LAW & ORDER twist and I’ve already come up with the pithy ending: McCoy and Cutter are walking away from the courthouse following the verdict. They spot the agent for whoever murdered “alternate universe Edison Chen” holding an impromptu press conference on the courthouse steps. McCoy turns to Cutter and says: “The show must go on.” Cue “Executive Producer Dick Wolf” title card.

* * * * *

Some comments on the comments from the last post:

Will writes: “No thoughts because of the snowstorms in China”? Damn snowstorms! I was hoping to hear what you thought of everything. Surely, you must have SOME opinions.

Using a phrase that seems to have become part of the North American lexicon in the past couple of years, my opinion on “Sexy Photos Gate” boils down to: “it is what it is”. People are people. They have their foibles. They make mistakes. They react to things of a sexual nature. I’m confident Edison Chen isn’t the only person to have recorded themselves having sex. Everybody has done things in their life that they regret and everyone has sexual instincts. Basically, I can understand why events unfolded like they unfolded — from Edison Chen taking the photos in the first place to the women allowing Chen to do so to the interest in seeing and collecting the photos.

I can also understand why some people took to the streets to protest police actions surrounding the photos. Given the already sensitive nature of Hong Kong political culture when it comes to the issue of human rights, it’s easy to see why people would be irked by the ham-handed response by the police — especially the insinuations that even having the photos on your hard drive was a criminal offense.

The only strong opinion I have about the entire affair is that I wish people would stop the mourning and weeping for society. Over the past three weeks, I’ve read multiple variations of “this scandal is bringing down society” or “we must protect the younger generation from this scandal”. For more than 5,000 years, Chinese society has survived despite war, conquest, pestilence and death, I think it and the younger generation will somehow manage to survive “Sexy Photos Gate”.

I thought the overwrought response by the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild was particularly dismaying. A couple of days into the scandal the Guild held an “emergency meeting” then emerged to release a sanctimonious statement saying that the affair was “not only a tragedy for the entertainment industry but a tragedy for Hong Kong people”. They called distributing the photos a “poison” for the younger generation and called for the police to stop the “bad wind from blowing further”. The first thing that came to mind when I read the statement was Helen Lovejoy screaming: “won’t somebody please think of the children” in that Maison Derriere episode of THE SIMPSONS. My second thought was where was this concern for poisoning the younger generation when Wong Jing was producing the RAPED BY AN ANGEL movies and John Woo was making films with body counts well into triple digit territory?

Instead of holding emergency meetings and releasing statements that make them look like dopes, it would be far more constructive for the Guild to follow the leads of sports labour unions by holding workshops or developing literature that provide advice for new members on how to handle fame and fortune. Tips like “don’t pose for pictures or videos that may damage your reputation” could have prevented “Sexy Photos Gate” from happening in the first place.

Glenn writes: … Twins were due to break up anyway and both Charlene and Gillian have done good work solo — Charlene in SIMPLY ACTORS and others and Gillian in BEYOND OUR KEN and other flicks.

While Gillian Chung has done well in her solo acting roles, I don’t think she’s done enough to establish an identity outside of Twins. The perception of Chung has been that she’s the “lesser Twin” — pretty, cute but not as talented or charismatic as the award-winning Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin. Even if “Sexy Photos Gate” didn’t happen, Chung wouldn’t have much of a career outside of Twins. I think deep down EEG knows this because if Chung could be profitable outside of Twins, Twins would already have disbanded.

Eliza Bennett writes: As a fan of Cecilia’s acting I never saw that her career is having a downslide (I blame THE PROMISE!!!). Your post sure was a wake up call as far as I’m concerned. If your predictions come true, it will be sort of a waste of a good actress.

I hope you didn’t think I was saying that Cecilia Cheung Pak-Chi’s career is circling the drain because the point I was trying to make was that the scandal wouldn’t be too damaging because the white-hot “it girl” period of her career was over. From the release of KING OF COMEDY during Lunar New Year 1999 to late-2003/ early-2004, Cheung was the “it girl” of the HK entertainment circle. It seemed like she was in every other holiday movie or every other major production. She was so popular in the first three years of her career, newspapers and magazines tried to increase sales by publishing vacuous articles about her father and her little brother or writing stories about the contents of her trash. By “downside of her career”, I meant that the buzz of celebrity surrounding Cecilia Cheung now is markedly less intense than what it was earlier in her career. She is now at the point where producers are going to hire her for a role because they want her for it rather than because her star power will help them make money. This is why I don’t think the scandal will significantly damage her film career.

While we’re on the subject of Cecilia Cheung, I was wondering what you guys thought of her acting. I think she has great screen presence but she’s an unrefined actress. If you watch LOST IN TIME or ONE NITE IN MONGKOK or THE PROMISE, there are many instances where you can tell that she’s “acting” because she has a tendency to overplay emotion. Borrowing the exquisite brushwork analogy of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, Cecilia Cheung is an 1.0 mm medium point pen not a 0.5 mm fine point pen. Right now, I don’t think she has the chops to give complex, subtle performances like Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk did in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE or Tang Wei in LUST, CAUTION. I’m not saying that she’s a terrible actress, I’m saying that she’s not in the “great” actress category yet.

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Rest in peace, Lydia Shum Tin-Ha.

IMAGE CREDITS: Associated Press (Edison Chen), NBC Universal (LAW & ORDER cast), 20th Century Fox Television (Helen Lovejoy), 21 Century Shengkai Film (Still from THE PROMISE)