HK International Film Festival (part 2) - World Animation For All

Went to see an animation movie from the HK International Movie Festival today. It was a lot crowded then normal. Long line already formed way before the movie; may be because it's the first day of the long weekend holiday =D There were many kids as well, probably because the movie was World Animation For All.










About the Movie....

Had always been a big fan of animation short, thus of coz won't miss this one - particularly I thought that this one has one of the animation short that I saw from the SF Movie Festival 2 years ago, called Guard Dog by Bill Plympton, which was hilarious.






However, it was EVEN better. It turned out that Bill had worked hard last year and produced a new one which is a sequel to Guard Dog, called the Guide Dog. It was 10x funnier and crazier!! (^_~)v I couldn't find the full version of the animation but only two short clips.


Well... better than nothing. Watching the short clips again still made me laugh so hard - trust me, it's definitely worth seeing if you get a chance regardless of whether you like animation or not~ ;)



Other (pleasant) Surprises
Usually in an animation bundle movie like this, there are only one or a couple that are good, like the Guard Dog one was one of the two that I could still remember from the SF festival 2 years ago. Surprisingly, all the ones that they showed in this movie this time were AWESOME!!!


One Rat Short - I laughed so hard already after they showed the name of this CG (when in the world will people ever said "Oh, one rat SHORT!!?". I really hate rats, but the little New York rat in this flim is really adorable, and his weird obsession about the empty the cheese chips wrapper makes you feel that he's that much more cute (or stupid). =P

(again, just a teaser, couldn't find the full version)




Conte de Quartier - A French animation, in Impressionist art style, ties 7 unrelated characters around a construction site together through a semi-torn doll that has an "inner" secret.








Printed Rainbow - An Indian animation about the last few peaceful days of a lonely old lady; beautiful and a bit sad. It reminded me of ... how much I miss my lovely grandma...






















The Little Match Girl - A Disney production, actually the one that I like the least, probably because it is the most "normal" and conventional. Beautifully done and very true to the original though.





Okokay, I've probably bored most of you who don't really care about animation movies ;)
But, hehe... I like them!!! (as you can tell from the length of this entry). This is how happy I was after watching good animation!!! ^_________________^

HK International Film Festival

Selected a number of movies in the HK International Flim Festival (3/20-4/11) to watch these two weeks. It's nice to finally be able to make a film festival. Haven't done that for looong time since we left SF. (Well... the one in Tokyo... ai.... never mind, when you are struggling with sleeping time, I don't imagine anybody will have extra energy to think about going to any film festival... sigh....)

Anyways, it was great!! Saw 3 movies, and have 3 more this week. (YAY!!! Good movies!!!!) ^_^










We watched two of the movies at the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Center. Nice theatre; audio was a bit weak though. It worked out well, since neither of us had been to the grand theatre at the Cultural Center. New, fresh experience~




















Among the three that we have watched so far, Stranger Than Fiction was by FAR the best and the most funny!! If you like Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind, then you definitely can't miss Stranger Than Fiction.

Go Master is ....... "plain". (Mike was the one who really wanted to watch this, but it turned out that he hated it.) I personally had no big problems with it (may be because it's in Japanese!! haha...) except that - it should be half as long. Feel the normal Japanese movie speed (slow and dragging).

As for the third one, an Iraqi movie Half Moon, let's just say that the Iraqi is still at their infant stage of making good movies... or.... I just don't know how to appreciate dark, depressing Iraqi movies. (but seriously.... what's the point of this movie?!?!) Very disappointed at this one, the description sounds so much more interesting... oh well.... ->_<-



An extra bonus was to see the pretty HK night view at Tsim Sha Tsui. I know i know, for those of you "Hong Kong locals", it doesn't seem anything special; however, for someone who didn't get a chance to take a good look of the nice harbor night view for almost 10 years, the view nothing but SPECTACULAR !!!








Hehe... I am so proud of this city !!!! (^_~)v

Ecard

Got an ecard from an old friend~

Waiting for the right one

Of coz I remember "her"!! (^_~)/

Hope you find your right her soon !!!

N and n ... remember....

Don't worry,
be happy !!!

^___________^


















Called up an old friend from Secondary school a couple days ago. I was so "out-dated" that I couldn't even tell the Mandarin pop song was actually her ring tone and hanged up on her~ haha.... stupid me~
(sorry la... XD --> As everybody knows, I am "old soil" ma~~~ heh...)

BBQ with old friends

A small recount of my pre-birthday BBQ celebration with a bunch of old buddies from St Francis College (equivalent to US junior high to 12th grade + 1st year in university).

The last time I saw them was at least 7 years ago... Time really, flies~ (But we are all still pretty and young, i.e., pretty young, heh...). Some of them are even from St James Primary School (equivalent to US first grade to 6th grade). We really do go all the way back... (^_~)v

Had lots of fun!! And gosh I miss BBQ HK style. See the contrast -


US Style - just put meat in the thing and wait for it to cook for you
















HK Style - manual work from sticking the food to the fork, to sitting next to the burning hot fire, waiting for the meat to be slowly grilled








The last time I did the HK style must be at least 10, 11 years ago~ ^_^ At that time we had to bring our own food, drinks, BBQ fork, tissue, paper, and even coal. But 10 years later (i.e. nowadays) the outdated me witnessed the society improvement firsthand - you don't need to prepare anything yourself except bring along your tummy ;) hehe... Jackpot!!!

(I know i know... The picture resolution in the blog is pretty low. If you want to view the full res version, please go to my Flickr photo album.)

Food is all prepared for you. "All you can eat" buffet style. Choose your own favorites.













We ate so much that night..... And the fire is ........... HOT !!!






































"Oh no, will Leung Man-kit not recognize me?"

haha... Jackie, what do you think - do you recognize who this is?






Old buddies \(^_~)/~


























Everybody ChEeRrRrRrzzz~




















After BbQ

We went to a famous desert house around the BBQ site afterwards. It turned out to be a small "surprised" birthday celebration with a little birthday mango pudding, haha!


Ordering... (without knowing what is going on)








"What? A birthday cake? I mean, a birthday mango pudding??" (^_~)v









haha... My first birthday celebration with so many "pretty gals" since ..... a loooooong time ago.... ;) Yay !!!













Birthday wish is .... (secret, of coz !!! Geez... r u seriously thinking that I'll tell u!!!?!)













Thanks everybody~ ^__________________^

And thx to the courtesy of Gigi for sending me all these pictures ;)

Family-sick...

I think I miss my family....

My dad, mom and brother just came back from a 3 day trip to Las Vegas. Dad sent me their picture album. Looking at their pictures, I realized... I am not homesick, but I might be a bit "family-sick" -- I miss my family...






































Looking at their pictures reminded me all the family trips that we took when Jackie and I were little (like... really little, still in primary school). I still remember how much I looked forward to those annual family trip as a kid. ^_^ I think it's at that time that my serious (but expensive) interest in seeing, exploring more of the world has started to incubated.

Part of me wants to see the whole world; the desire to experience and live in all those so-called "big, developed cities" is quite strong. But part of me also knows that I don't want to stay in a place that won't allow me to visit my family very conveniently. Mike and I have discussed a lot about our desires to keep a city life and yet live close to our parents. (especially every time we moved to a new city ;) We still haven't decided where we will settle down (and probably won't be able to until after a long time). I just hope that we can find a place where we can live happily and still can see our families easily...

We DID it !!!!!!

After almost a year of "Japanese salary men", involuntary workaholic torture in Japan, we have finally moved on --> Mike and I have moved to Hong Kong about a month ago. (yeah!!!)

I can't tell you how happy we are since we left Japan. The only things I missed about Japan are the friends that I made there and the 恵比寿 swimming pool (the cleanest pool I've ever seen in my life)...

Anyways, Hong Kong --> i.e., new changes, new job, new living environment, new life style , new schedule, and more importantly, NEW LIFE !!! I can't tell you how much more happier Mike and I are since we moved out here~ Comparing with Japan, it is like... hell and heaven!! I know it's probably a bit too dramatic description; but coming to think about it, it's true in many ways.

You got to love the convenience of EVERYTHING here (yeah, virtually everything, not kidding!!) Restaurants, shopping centers, grocery stores, electronic shops, anything you can name. Transportation is excellent. MTR is my all-time favorite transportation. The JR and subway in Tokyo, in comparison, look like crap. Another major advantage is the low cost of living in Hong Kong. Everything is 10 times cheaper and you got 10 times more selections !! I couldn't stop buying and cooking different kinds of vegetables everyday from the market the first couple weeks we were here!! haha....

Some other things that Mike likes particularly about Hong Kong are (of course) the safety of it. He was so serious that he did a somewhat in-depth statistics and wrote a blog entry about it.

Anyways, in conclusion, we haven't been this happy for a looooooong time...

See, our happy "looks", hehe (^_~)v