Enjoying Hong Kong's Night Skyline From My Hotel near Hong Kong University

We're lucky to have our rooms have these large windows which showcase Hong Kong's fantastic skyline - and although my phone is still from the Stone Age, it was able to capture a glimpse of how nice these views are at night.

I keep my windows open at night so this is the sight that bids me goodnight.

TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: The Seven Streets of Liverpool by Maureen Lee

My fascination with stories about people living during World War II continues and it's normally narrowed down to people living in continental Europe, usually France and Great Britain.

This time, Maureen Lee writes about the lives of the people living in Liverpool during the war in this aptly titled book "The Seven Streets of Liverpool" - Liverpudlians living with all the bombings and the food rations and having their men go off to war and their women working as nurses, secretaries and auxiliary officers.

It's a different world filled with fear of the unknown, never knowing when the war will end and having to live with the spectre of death just round the corner.

There are so many characters in the book it's so easy to get lost as to who's who so you'd have to have this idea that this is one community of families she is talking about so better to have that in mind as you read it.

Women play a very central role in most of her novels and here - there's a sorority of sisters helping each other - wives, widows, single mothers, young ingenues - all trying their best to keep their families together while their men are away.

Liverpool as well Ireland are two places I would want to visit soon because of all these fiction novels that I've read that have used them as settings for their stories.

Definitely something to look forward to!

TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: Philippa Gregory's The White Princess

Thanks to today's bed weather, I was able to finish, finally, Philippa Gregory's 'The White Princess'. This is apparently the fifth book in a set of books set in the Cousins' War in England's medieval times, but apparently, each book can stand on its own and you didn't have to read the earlier ones to know how the story flows.

When I first read it, I was a bit bothered by the weepy complaints of the lead character so at the 40th page, I stopped reading and even wanted to return the book to the library! But since I have never abandoned any fiction book, I reread it two weeks later and at a much faster pace, and much to my amazement, it turned out to be quite a page turner.

By reading this book, you get to realize, Prince Harry and her blushing bride were lucky to be royalty today, and not in 15th century England. Then, it was not unlikely for fathers to kill their sons, or brothers to kill their younger brothers, especially if they are in line to the throne. For the kings then, the only way to have a long reign, was to kill everyone that followed you on the bloodline - brother, son, notwithstanding.

So with that spine-tingling premise, the book navigates Henry of Tudor's reign in England with Elizabeth of York as her reluctant bride. Gregory is such a crafty writer that you think everything's sorted out now, then she unleashes, in the last fifty pages of the book, a twist that left me unable to leave the book unread!

So thanks to today's rains, instead of going out, finishing this book was a better idea, and allowing myself to be sucked into Elizabeth's world, was such a thrilling ride!

Can't wait to get my hands on another one of her novels, but which one? I should just eenie-meenie-meine-mo.....

MOVIE REVIEW: 'Triangle of Sadness' Examines Where True Power Lies

Ruben Ostlund returns with another whirlwind of a movie after regaling us with Force Majeure  and The Square.  His film Triangle of Sadness which won the Palme D'Or this year, puts a group of extremely wealthy people in a luxury yacht where the staff and the help seem almost invisible and dispensable, and by a strange of twist, this motley crew of the very rich and the help find themselves in a deserted island drawing into play the question, where does true power lie?

This movie is especially special to Filipinos like me, as answering that question, in the third act of his film, Ostlund puts a Filipina actress, Dolly de Leon, front and center.  There is considerable buzz around de Leon's performance and I myself only learned about her because of this movie and I don't remember a local movie she has starred in mainly because she said she only worked in student films and indie movies.  

However, she makes a commanding presence in the third act and I love that scene where she says, "Who's the captain of the ship now?".  She even uses her newfound power to seduce my long time movie crush Harris Dickinson who is almost 90% shirtless in this movie, to my eternal gratitude to Ostlund LOL.  I first saw Dickinson in Beach Rats, and here, he really acquires that model-esque jaw required for the movie.

Ostlund has left it to the viewer to determine the ending.  For me, I will side with de Leon and she does that dastardly deed if only to maintain her 'power' in the group.  However, for how long can she keep that status quo is the question.  She will have to go back to the previous 'world order' and just find herself a way to worm herself back to the top of the food chain.

It is an engaging movie and the way it pokes fun at the ultra-rich is just hilarious.  Vomit here, vomit there.  Sometimes that Patek Philippe or Rolex watch will not save your life.

 

MOVIE REVIEW: Tar Shows the Folly of Arrogance

 

For ordinary mortals like us, we are so used to giving concessions to celebrities and famous people when they commit human weaknesses like adultery, sexual harassment, and ego-tripping, because in our eyes, they have become godlike figures to be worshipped and adored, that's why we often look the other way when they do shitty things and gasp at all the mayhem that happens after, when all their shit hits the fan.

Todd Field, the director of Tar, also directed Little Children, which starred Kate Winslet, Jackie Earle Haley, and Patrick Wilson - with the latter, being one of my favorite movies in 2006.  We wait almost two decades before Field returns back to the cinema with a movie that is so timely, witty, and done with such Biblical relish, I could feel God's whip being lashed in this riches to rags story.

Cate Blanchett plays Lydia Tar, a world-famous female conductor and in this movie - she is the lead conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  Blanchett's performance is so commanding, she appears huge and masterful and we the viewers forgive her arrogance and haughtiness because we are in awe of her talent and achievements - a towering woman in the male-dominated world of orchestra conductors.

Aside from Blanchett's performance, I love the script and how it attacks 'being woke' and the canceling of accomplished people and their achievements.  I once told my mother that if we had a moral compass to apply on all the achievers in this world, we would all be hunter-gatherers right now - since most geniuses are assholes and have very poor social skills - almost zero empathy even.  That's why they are geniuses and we are just ordinary folks.

This lack of moral compass on the lead characters eventually leads to her downfall, which was not swift, mind you, the movie took its time in fleshing our Tar's life and family, setting her up so high, we could just shake our heads when the last scene is played out.

How the mighty have fallen.

I highly recommend this movie if you are like me lol someone who loves arthouse movies with witty dialogue - and it would help a lot if you have a bit of IQ about the classical world, because the name-dropping here is relentless, and unless you know those people Blanchett rattles off in her monologues, you'd be totally lost in context.

MOVIE REVIEW: 'Smile' - Interesting Premise but Disjointed Editing Spoils the Momentum of Horror

 

Many scenes in the horror movie 'Smile' have the antagonists sport that eerie smile which in this movie, is a portal for a something bad happening to the character present.  

This entity controls the victim and makes that person commit suicide, and then proceeds to the next victim and continues the process.  This then leads to a string of deaths which go back a long time because no one really notices that there is connection between all these deaths.

It's an interesting premise and execution-wise, the first 30 minutes of the movie are the most engaging because I am invested in finding out how this strange 'smile' can cause these otherwise sane people to go over the edge.

However, as the movie progresses, and the lead actress played by Sosie Bacon with the help of her ex played by Kyle Gallner, begin to slowly uncover why all of these are happening, the movie's director, Parker Finn, fails to enlist the help of the movie editor as I noticed two very key and scary scenes pan out to a totally unrelated next scene.  Kung sa Tagalog pa, "Anyare?" (What happened?)

This lack of editing cohesiveness kind of destroys the momentum of terror the movie was trying to build and causes a mumbo jumbo of disjointedness in the moviegoers memory and reaction.

The ending is even more bizarre in my opinion so my brother and I left the theater wondering what kind of entity was that and why did it act like that.  I think even horror entities should have motivations on why they are doing these things, don't you think?

Abstract Art: Profound Beauty in Emptiness and Reflection

I don't know why I am drawn more to abstract work rather than true renditions of objects and humans. For me, they are more exciting to watch.

And I thought I've seen all types of abstract work.

However, these paintings done by some of our best local painters are amazing! They are almost devoid of color, and even if they do, the colouring is so minute that when you step away from the painting, the colors subsume themselves to the general hue that the painter decides.

My favorite among this set is this almost plain white rendition of empty white space with only a big circle as the shape. Talk about having to reflect on a blank white circular space.

"Abstract art is not meant to reveal perfect renditions of objects and people. Instead, much abstract art is meant to set the scene for reflection."

There is an ongoing exhibition of 70s and 80s abstract art at the CCP entitled "You Are Here" featuring some of the top Filipino abstract art painters during that time including Arturo Luz.

These works though are antitheses of the abstract work that I love - the chaotic work of Pollock, the misshapen figures of Miro, Dali and Picasso - and the deliberate boldness of colour in Rothko's works.

However, these paintings are almost antiseptic and as the exhibit says, it borders on emptiness.

"Emptiness in art does not stop at how the work looks, but continues by helping you think about what kind of feeling it invokes in you".