The inaccessibility of Hong Kong’s waterfront has been a widespread source of complaint for years now. Along both sides of Victoria Harbour, where one should find open space devoted to the public, one instead finds disconnected stretches of land frequently obstructed by large buildings. It...
Will we ever have democracy? It’s a question that’s been on Hong Kongers’ minds for over a decade now. Beijing and Chief Executive Donald Tsang have effectively said we will by 2017 and 2020 (for the election of chief executive and Legco respectively), but some of their opponents...
What makes an event a “mega-event”? Is it one that attracts a large number of people? Or is it simply one that costs a lot of money to put on? These are just a few of the questions that need to be asked with respect to the government’s $100 million “Mega Event Fund” (...
(USA) “A Perfect Getaway” would easily be just another forgettable post-summer thriller, if it didn’t happen to have one of the most outrageous twists you’ll have seen in a while halfway through it. In fact, it’s more than outrageous, it’s downright ridiculous....
Category IIB. It would be interesting to know what John Dillinger, a film buff himself, would have made of this epic portrait of his Depression-era bank-robbing escapades. Dillinger was a celebrity in his day, an anti-hero for the masses at a time when Wall Street’s major institutions were...
If the new year is a time for fresh starts, the reports produced by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on December 31 couldn’t have been more timely. Promising suggestions on “how Hong Kong can improve its [financial] regulatory...
Category IIB. The trailer for “Plastic City” is exhilarating, depicting a movie that mixes “Infernal Affairs”-style intrigue with rough-and-tumble, in-your-face “City of God” action. Unfortunately, “Plastic City” is not that movie.In fact, “...
A first-time director is a funny thing—you have to impress, show that you’re capable of leading. You have to strike a delicate balance between good storytelling and visual flourishes, leading many a filmmaker to choose style over substance. The genre is key: crime is an easy favorite,...
Never has the triumph of love over war seemed so wrong. Tony Ching Siu-tung’s “An Empress and the Warriors” is a schizophrenic mix of over-the-top action and over-the-top romance. It’s the latter aspect that’s hard to stomach. It’s also the one that congeals in...
