Five Years Later:
Sammi Cheng is like Star Wars

One day it begins. You question it along the way. Eventually something dies. This is that story.

Life with Kozo is back, and this belated edition of the self-serving column has been inspired by films like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Spider-Man 3. That means it's been a while (nearly a year) since the last column, and we plan on torturing readers with an epic length installment. This is one long column, so I apologize in advance.

Anyway, if you missed Life with Kozo during its long absence, then you deserve a special award. I've received maybe fifteen or so e-mails over the past year asking where this column is. That's not a lot, but considering the fact that I believe only fifty people read this website, those fifteen qualify as a monstrous 30%. I dedicate this to all fifteen of you.

Actually, that percentage is really much, much less than 30% because according to our handy statistics report, thousands of people stop by here. Do they all stay? No. Do they all care? No. Do they up the site's traffic? Yes. Well, then I must thank them for the increased Alexa ranking and attention it gains me from Google, marketing people, and various other potential B2B partners that I usually have to say "no" to. To all of you: thank you. And I still won't tell you how to contact Christopher Doyle.

For those not initiated, Life with Kozo is a rambling column that chronicles the mundane existence I call a life. Initially, I intended to use this space to blather about anything Hong Kong Cinema-related that I saw fit. That purpose has largely mutated into talking about the site itself and my odd and, quite frankly, annoying need to discuss the unnecessary pressure I put on myself to get this thing updated. I believe the first misgivings I had about launching the whole shebang occurred back in 2002, which not coincidentally is the same year the whole thing started. Discontent is an early riser.

Cut to 2007 and the website is now 5 years older, and sadly, so am I. In that time, Life with Kozo has been largely spent online, as it has everything to do with how the Internet has altered my life. Things are not the same as they were once upon a time. Once I could devour two or three Hong Kong movies per day. Today, I'm lucky if I can squeeze two or three into two weeks, with at least one of those being a PanAsian film, i.e. from Hong Kong, Korea, or maybe some other territory. As you get older, t

Star Wars is now 30 years old, and many people treat it like a religion when in actuality it's just an amazingly successful marketing strategy mixing familiar concepts and genre combinations. Star Wars is like an addictive drug, except besides the euphoric "geeking out" feeling it evokes, it also causes a disappearance of shelf space due to the display of plastic figurines that are worth far less than we believe them to be. Speaking of which, I once collected Star Wars figures thinking I could get the whole lot. Well forget that. Besides the insane amount of limited variants, there's like 50 different versions of Darth Vader alone, not to mention at least 5 Biggs Darklighters. It's like trying to collect unique blades of grass, i.e. it's next to impossible. Becoming an NBA All-Star may be an easier task.

Now that I've alienated 80% of the male populace born in the seventies and eighties by spitting on Star Wars, I'll throw this thought out there: that Sammi Cheng is like Star Wars. Well, it is to me, anyway. You'll find the reason below, though you'll probably have to dig to get to it. Sorry about that.

Recently, Sammi Cheng held her comeback concert at the HK Coliseum and lucky for me, I went. It's actually not the first time I've seen Sammi Cheng in concert; it's actually the third, the first two times occurring when I lived in the United States and did not run LoveHKFilm.com. Back then, LoveHKFilm.com was a series of one-paragraph reviews and scribbled notes about the 500+ Hong Kong movies I had seen. The notes were entered haphazardly on various Microsoft Word documents, but the one paragraph reviews were nicely formatted, printed out, and organized according to the year of film production. All the pages were arranged into a nondescript grey three-ring binder intended for perusal by one person only: myself. That binder still exists, and currently nobody reads it. It rests on a shelf next to a collection of dust-gathering Simpsons action figures.

The sequel to that grey three-ring binder, this very website, is accessed by over 8000 people from all over the globe every day. Probably 15 of those people will read these words, and again, if you're one of those 15, thank you. We stay online just for you.

Sammi Cheng actually hasn't performed live in close to three years, and it's been longer than that since her last album. Going to her concert (called the "Mi Show", as in "Don't fence Mi in" and "Show Mi the money") was a enlightening experience, as it was my first time in the Hong Kong Coliseum, plus my first concert in Hong Kong period. Despite being here 2+ years, I had yet to attend a concert, passing up such performers as Stefanie Sun, Eason Chan, plus those pesky Twins in order to stay at home and run this website. Obviously it's possible to carve some time out for a 4-hour concert, but time arrangement is not my strong suit. Frequently, I divide my website hours between research, writing, production, development, partnerships, or sleeping - and trying to handle all of that simultaneously can't be good for efficiency. Basically, I should try to manage my time better, but I don't, leading to too many unfinished tasks - some of which I should never have involved myself with in the first place. One downside of running this website is I get a lot of interest from others, and sometimes I have a hard time saying "no". This ultimately leads to even more problems down the line when I try to extract myself from commitments I never should have made in the first place.

But I digress. Again. Back to Sammi: her concert was actually quite enjoyable, with the caveat that it's all been seen before. It's been nearly three years since her last concert, but since she's put out zero albums in that time, the best we could get for new material were the two new songs released in her collectible EP, which was available for HK$300 (about US$40) to those who braved long lines and the ridicule of people saying, "Hey, I downloaded those songs last week!" Less new material means Sammi basically had to lean on old tricks, including a familiar arrangement of songs, medleys comprised of the same songs which comprised the medleys from her last concerts, and - probably most distressingly - the same robotic, and frankly uninspired dance choreography which has typified every Sammi Cheng concert since the beginning of time. Sammi has a wonderful stage presence and is exceptionally likable, but as far as dancing goes, she's not much more than average.

As a general rule, dancing at HK pop concerts is really never that great anyway, so I suppose these debits can be forgiven. My familiarity with Sammi Cheng is another reason for my leniency. Since Sammi was my first big Hong Kong Cinema crush (occurring back when I was all of 23 years of age), the soft spot I hold for her is something I still look upon fondly. However, that soft spot has hardened somewhat in the last ten years. I realize now that there are some holes in what Sammi does, among them an adherence to formula, plus the aforementioned debits with her dancing. The concerts themselves are also given to pop glitz and glamour that's more odd than enthralling. This year's version included some bizarre costumes, including some vaguely creepy ones that look like the chess pieces that Harry Potter fought in his first film. Basically, you wonder why all of the glitz and glamour exists, beyond its obvious superficial artifice.

That observation could be levied at the HK pop scene as a whole, as I doubt the Twins do anything remotely substantial in their concerts. Hell, I've seen some concert pictures of the toothy twosome cavorting with people in giant Cup 'O Noodles costumes, so you know they cant be much of a step up from Sammi - if they're even a step up at all. The alternative to all this manufactured glitz could be the Leon Lai route, where you admit you can't dance and spend your concerts crooning while standing around. I assume he wears sequined jackets, or maybe a less exaggerated version of Jerry Seinfeld's "puffy shirt" to liven things up, but the bottom line is that the "wow" factor is really not there, for Leon, the Twins, or even Sammi.

But this stuff is pretty much old hat, and hasn't changed for God knows how long. So if they haven't changed, then what has? And what does this have to do with Star Wars?

The answer is simple: I've changed, and my relationship to these things has gone from avid excitement to fond, but mellowed enjoyment - with the caveat that these cultural icons are not the sacred cows I once held them to be. Star Wars has always been a big deal for me, but in retrospect, the original films were rather cheesy affairs, with some lousy dialogue and stilted acting (Sir Alec Guinness excepted, of course). This came into larger focus when the prequels came around, which challenged my fondness for George Lucas' universe to an ungodly degree. Basically, the new trilogy defied me to answer the question, "Do you love the Star Wars universe so much that you will forgive these obvious marketing devices that we call motion pictures?" For me, the answer was yes, I would forgive the new trilogy because of my fondness for the old - but the struggle was not an easy one. I cannot watch the new movies without a fast-forward button handy, and the revamped original trilogy has major issues. I would go into "Greedo Shoots First", but that would really drive home my geekdom. Basically, there's plenty in the Star Wars universe to dislike, but I'm willing to look past it because once upon a time, a four year-old Kozo thought it was pretty neat stuff. I happen to like that four year-old a lot, so I will defer my adult distaste in favor of his bright, wide-eyed innocence.

And about the Sammi Cheng universe? Actually, there's precious little to dislike there besides that fact that her new concert did not thrill me like her old ones did. Indeed, I suspect if I checked out her old concerts via DVD I would suddenly find myself questioning their very effectiveness, or my previous enjoyment of them.

But hey, it's still Sammi, and I'm still Kozo, and this is still LoveHKFilm.com. But now, LoveHKFilm.com is five years old. Something has to have changed in that time, and it looks like it's my love for all that is Sammi Cheng. I still think she's a great performer, but my adoration has waned. What else has waned? My adoration for Hong Kong Cinema as a whole has suffered greatly, obviously. A 2007 recap: of the 19 films I've seen from 2007, I gave a partial-to-full thumbs up to only 6 of them. That's less than 33%, which means I'm way behind the expected "above-average" percentage of 50%. I'm not sure why this is happening. Am I less enthusiastic? I would say yes, but I see the new films with the regularity of a non-Temple Street Rolex, indicating that getting to the movies is not my problem. Is my problem distinguishing them one another? Actually liking them?

I'm not sure. The experience of watching these films has changed greatly since the laserdisc days of the late nineties. The cinema has changed, the audience has changed, and even I've changed. The eye I cast upon things like Star Wars and Sammi Cheng is far more cynical than it used to be.

However, I have discovered one thing recently, and it's that I would prefer to run this website more than any other job I could have in the world - a tough admission, considering it's not my regular job and could never pay me as much as one would. Honestly, the odds are stacked against LoveHKFilm.com lasting another 1-2 years. Having both a full-time management job is stressful enough, but running this antiquated HTML monstrosity on the side AND hoping to one day have a normal life (i.e., family, mortgage, downpayment on a yacht) are enough to put someone in a funny farm.

Two years ago when I first started to work at YesAsia.com, I got an e-mail from Mark Morrison, former webmaster of Australian Asian Cinema supersite Heroic Cinema. At the time Mark was not yet the former webmaster, having spent years making Heroic Cinema into the leading Asian Cinema site down under. However, Mark was on the verge of burnout, juggling the site, his job, and his family. He decided to hang it up, passing Heroic Cinema on to some of his team. At the same time, however, he gave me some advice which I sometimes reflect upon: quit your website, right now. You'll thank yourself for it later.

I'm definitely paraphrasing his words, but the intent is the same. Basically, he was telling me that one day I'd run myself ragged trying to manage my website, my life, and my job. He's right, and that's exactly what has been happening. The actual details are probably not worth going into, but I honestly don't think I have ever been in worse condition in my adult life, physically, mentally, or emotionally. It's times like these that you give up and walk away - from something. And that's probably what I have to do now.

But what should I walk away from? Sammi Cheng or Star Wars? Well, in truth neither pursuit takes up much time, as both have, along with most of my other personal pursuits, been ditched long ago in favor of only two things: job and website. Those are the two biggest responsibilities I currently carry, and both of those have the option of being nixed in favor of the other. However, one pays the bills, while the other one only bears the possibility of doing so. Also, one earns respect (though ironically not from many of the people I've worked with), while the other only earns occasional blogger links. This website got me my current job, but if I drop my current job to pay attention to this website, can the website one day get me a new job? Honestly, who really cares about the above other than me?

I dunno, honestly, and that's exactly where I'm at. I'm not sure of a lot of things, but I still know what I like. I may not care for Sammi Cheng, or Star Wars as much as I used to, but I know that I still like Hong Kong (and Korean, Japanese, etc., also - it's a PanAsian world nowadays) Cinema, and I still like this website. As I really have nobody to pass this site on to, I can only do one thing: take every step necessary to make sure LoveHKFilm.com survives just a bit longer than 1-2 years. It won't last as long as either Sammi Cheng or Star Wars, and it sure as hell will never be as popular as either. But at least I'll be happy knowing that I gave it a try.

But something has to die along the way. And if it's not my love for Sammi Cheng or Star Wars, then it may be Life with Kozo. Given the fact that it took ONE YEAR for me to finally write this personal column (and this is actually the fifth attempt in over eight months), it's obvious that Life with Kozo is at an end. Not only do I have very little time to put together rambling columns about my personal obsessions, but Life with Kozo prevents this site from really moving forward. This site is about reviews and other assorted movie-related stuff. It's not about the Webmaster nor the reviewers. It's about the movies and the audience. If people are to take this site as more than a collection of Ekin Cheng jokes and brutal knocks on Hong Kong movies, then some things must go the way of the dinosaur. I may still write columns or features for this site one day, but they'll likely not be in the same, self-reflective way as Life with Kozo. Things change, people change, hairstyles change, interest rates fluctuate. This site must change. And Life with Kozo ending is part of it.

To that end, I would like to thank the numerous people who wrote in over the years to tell me that they enjoyed this column. Frankly, not all of it was well-written or even that interesting, but I had a good time doing it, and it was actually gratifying to know that some people really cared to read it. I recently got an email from a reader telling me that they read my 7-31-06 column after experiencing a personal tragedy, and while the words themselves were not important, the feeling they received while reading it was. They told me that reading the column was like talking to an old friend. It may be the nicest email I've ever received in the time I've been online.

Life with Kozo may yet return one day, though it will probably have a different function and a different direction. It may also be called something else. Who knows, maybe it'll be a real blog and not a series of static HTML pages. I can't tell you how troublesome these things are.

Thanks again. I hope you've enjoyed Life with Kozo.

- Kozo, 6/10/2007