'Confession of Pain' next for a Hollywood makeover.

After the stunning success of 'Infernal Affairs', erm, I mean 'The Departed' at the Oscars, it looks like Hollywood is going straight into remaking another Andrew Lau/Alan Mak crime thriller, last year's Hong Kong hit Confession of Pain.

Hollywood Reporter story.

I thought Scorcese and co. made a lot of unnecessary changes in 'The Departed' which was a shame since I.A. was such a brilliant film. I haven't seen 'Confession of Pain' yet but from the reviews I've read, it doesn't quite match the quality of I.A. although there are meant to be a couple of good performances from Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

Synopsis of the original film and trailer here.

Pigazine - a Hong Kong podcast

I just found this podcaster via iTunes.

The presenter of this Cantonese podcast (Ah Pig) seems to divide her time between Hong Kong and Canada and is sometimes joined by a male co-presenter (Ju Jai).

Check it out. The podcasts are fun listening and it's nice to hear 'normal' colloquial Cantonese like this. In fact, this is a quite a good way of brushing up your Canto if, like me, you need to!

Homepage: http://pigazine.com/Home.html.

From Chinese refugee family to Harvard hockey star

A lot can change within the space of a generation, as I'm sure many 'bbcs' will testify:

The N.T. - Experiencing Hong Kong's wilder side

Many Westerners have a stereotypical view of Hong Kong as a forest of skyscrapers, all gleaming glass and shoppping malls. That's true of Central and Hong Kong island, of course, but as many bbcs will be aware, the New Territories offer a very different environment: lush, green, almost tropical. And whilst many N.T. towns have been massively developed over the last few decades, you are still never very far from open skies and forested hills.

The Telegraph's Linda Kernan takes a walk on the 'wild side' of HK.

The evolution of Chinese cuisine.

An interesting article from The Times, which pays particular attention to the use of MSG in Chinese food, and perhaps puts it into perspective:

“In culinary terms it is much like Parmesan cheese, and is regarded as a condiment by the Chinese, while westerners see it as junky,” says Fuchsia Dunlop, who has studied Chinese food for ten years and spent two years at chef school in China. “It’s no worse for us than refined salt or white sugar,” she says.

In fact glutamates are a naturally occurring amino acid present in many foods, including tomatoes, ripe cheese, peas, chicken and broccoli..."

Read the full article here.

Presenting the bbc blog's Top 8 Pig Hall of Fame

Despite what the soothsayers... erm... say, I still think the Year of the Pig will be an auspicious one.

So to celebrate the upcoming piggy year, here's a list of some notable pigs. A piggy Hall of Fame, if you will. And to all readers: Gung hei fat choi!


8) Porco Rosso

The slightly lewd, mercenary ace pilot with the head of a pig is the hero of one of Hayao Miyazaki's lesser known films. The film is a homage to the days of prop planes and flying aces, done in that imaginative, Studio Ghibli way.







7) Porky Pig

This wide-eyed, perpetually smiling Loony Tune character was known for his distinctive stutter and featured regularly in my a childhood TV viewing. Looking at him now though, he seems a little bit sinister. Put some trousers on, Porky!







6) The char siu at Loon Tao restaurant, Gerrard Street, London

What? Of course I have to mention food! This is a bbc blog after all :)

You have not experienced Chinatown food until you have tried the char siu at Loon Tao. Trust me, it's amazing. Get the location here.






5) Spirited Away's parent pigs

Beautifully animated as you'd expect from a Hayao Miyazaki movie. The transformation of Mum and Dad into grunting pigs is a perfectly magical Miyazaki moment.







4) Miss Piggy
For some reason, the fact that 'irresistably' sexy Miss Piggy was voiced by a man (Frank Oz) never seemed that weird. Her unrequited love for Kermit was a brave celebration of mixed-race relationships although technically, they were both Muppets ;). Let down by her violent streak. The Miss Piggy wiki.






3) George Orwell's Animal Farm pigs

Part of my school reading list, Animal Farm was probably my first introduction to 'political' writing. The dictatorial pigs were brilliant creations - scary yet believable.







2) The 'Lost' Wild Boars

Scary. Dangerous. Big. Had to be hunted for food. One of the last good things about 'Lost'. Once the hogs went, things immediately started to go downhill. Image from: http://lost.wikia.com/.




1) Zhu Bajie aka Pigsy from 'Monkey Magic'

Although Pigsy was portrayed as a buffoon in Monkey Magic, the original character from the Chinese story Journey to the West was in fact a formidable fighter and commander of an army in Heaven. It was after he made a drunken pass at the Goddess of the Moon that he was banished to Earth, and because he landed in a pig farm, he was reincarnated as part pig, part human. Zhu Bajie is able to transform himself into 36 entities and his weapon is 5000 kilo, nine-toothed rake which you have to say is pretty cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Bajie




And that concludes this piggy Hall of Fame. Happy New Year, peace and prosperity to all.

Year of the Pig already looking bad!

Oh dear. This is why I don't put any faith in Chinese fortune tellers. They really don't hold back if they forsee bad news!

The world can expect a roller-coaster ride of conflict and unrest, natural disasters and a plunge in global stock markets once the Year of the Pig begins, Chinese soothsayers say.

"It is anticipated that there will be more international conflicts and disharmony, which will even lead to regional warfare, uprising and unrest, or the overthrow of governments in certain countries," [Feng shui expert Raymond Lo] said.

"So it will not be surprising that there will be more gun battles, murder with guns, bombing attacks in the year 2007," Lo added.

Feng shui expert Lee Sing-tong predicts serious conflict in the Middle East this coming year.

"Religious wars will turn intense. There will be large-scale warfare or explosions," said Lee, a third-generation feng shui master.

He also expects serious diplomatic conflicts in the East, for instance between China and Japan, and says the problem will be most acute until May 5.

Fortune teller Alion Yeo predicts an interest rate hike in the third quarter and a big accident between June and July.

"It could be a big fire or an explosion. It would be something that draws the world's attention and causes the stock market to fall," he said, adding however that the market would quickly recover.

Yeo also predicts a strong earthquake, at least 7.0 on the Richter scale, in a Japanese city between March and April. But the number of wounded would be limited by the earthquake resistance of the country's architecture.

Uh oh. That really doesn't sound good. And there I was thinking 'Year of the Pig' sounded so nice and positive.

It's not all bad, though:

Although Yeo anticipates global unrest, he expects a mediator will come in to balance the tense situation between conflicting countries.

"I don't think it will be that bad this year. Although there will be a lot of unrest and disharmony, problems will be solved in the end," he said.

Lo agreed. The pig belongs to the water element and is the birth month of wood. The pig symbolises the germination of plants and when new life is born.

And Lee predicts the birth of someone of national importance to China.

He said this person will be born on June 30 between 5.00-6.59 am Hong Kong time (21.00-22.59 GMT) somewhere in the east or south of the country.

"This date of birth is very rare. It only happens once every 60 years. It is very difficult to see such a good fate," he said.

Full article.

Random Photo of the Day (or so)

Preparations for CNY 2007 in Mong Kok market, Hong Kong.

Photo by rboyne.