STAR FERRY AND QUEEN’S PIER
Edinburgh Place, Central
The history: Parsee businessman Dorabjee Nowrojee founded the Kowloon Ferry Company in 1888 (renamed the Star Ferry in 1898). Now, 12 ferries carry over 70,000 passengers a day. The Star Ferry Pier itself was built in 1957. The Queen’s Pier is located close by, just in front of City Hall. It’s been the landing point for six former governors and the first port of call for British royals.
Many of our heritage buildings could soon face destruction.
“Silk” begins with a brilliant premise. A group of scientists have captured the energy of a ghost in the form of a young boy. Naturally, they want to find out why he acts the way he does, and why he’s there, and a zillion other things one would want to know after getting hold of a ghost. Unfortunately, barring some clever sequences, much of the film ends up being more “Bah” than “Boo.”
Macau already rakes in more gambling money than the Las Vegas Strip. How tacky can it get?
Macau is well on its way to becoming the next Las Vegas. In three short years, the city hopes to have completed it’s ambitious Cotai Strip, a chunk of reclaimed land connecting Taipa and Coloane Islands that will provide 30,000 hotel rooms, 1,000 gaming tables, at least 30,480 square meters of convention space and 150,000 jobs.
“DOA: Dead Or Alive” may be a silly, cheesy film based on a videogame and designed for 14-year-old boys, but there’s at least one scene so jaw-droppingly surreal, it will surely become a cult classic played at late-night bars around the world.
In less than a century, Hong Kong could disappear entirely beneath a rising sea, according to new warnings from polar explorer Robert Swan. Swan, who was the first man to walk on both the North and South Poles, has witnessed first hand the terrifying rate at which the ice caps of Antarctica are melting and warns the subsequent rise of the sea level could wipe Hong Kong entirely from the map. This change could occur slowly over a period of 100 years - or suddenly, without warning. We are, quite literally, sitting on a time bomb.
According to new environmentalist warnings, if global warming continues, Hong Kong could be wiped from the map.
“The Banquet” is part Shakespearean drama, part Greek tragedy, and part “Dangerous Liaisons,” with plenty of graphic wuxia battles thrown in for good measure. It’s the kind of movie meant to say to overseas critics, “Look at us! This is Chinese cinema. See what we can do when we have money?” Unfortunately, by the time it’s all over, viewers will be stunned but ravenous for a light cinematic sorbet to cleanse the dazed palate.
If Al Gore had been as self-assured as a US presidential hopeful as he is in “An Inconvenient Truth,” he might actually have gotten the chance to do something about the dire predictions he makes about global warming. As it stands, the film is a bizarre but effective mixture of classroom lecture, slideshow (the ULTIMATE slideshow), pseudo-autobiography and - no question about it - an alarming look at the earth’s health.
At the corner of Bowen Road and Wan Chai Gap Road, you’ll find an absolutely beautiful tree. It sits beside a waterfall and has attached itself to a wall and a bridge. It stretches over 60 feet into the sky. It’s what the Conservancy Association’s environmental affairs officer Martin Wan calls “a giant on the bank.” It is but one example of what is known as a “wall tree,” and a short walk along Bowen Road takes you to several more beautiful specimens.
Wall trees are an important part of our heritage. Scott Murphy takes us on a tour.
There are moments when “United 93” is so horrifyingly chilling that anyone left unmoved should check to see if they have a pulse. Then again, at other times the acting and reactions, particularly by those helpless on the ground, are cringeworthy. Yet given that the events of that day were uncharted territory, who can really say how they would or wouldn’t act if they were thrust into the same situation?
“My best friend died in June, 2003. He went on a three-day weekend bender, snorting and smoking cocaine. His heart gave out in a bar in SoHo. I watched him go into convulsions. I think he went through 10 to 14 grams that weekend. It was around that time that I knew I had to do something.”
Jamie is a British expat in his early 40s, and a recovering cocaine addict. With drug use booming across the city, this is his story of the dark side of coke.
