Anthony Wong Yiu-ming in Vancouver

Wong performed last night in Vancouver

Last night I attended my first Cantopop concert! In all my years living in Hong Kong I never went to one because I wasn't familiar with the music, no one asked me to go, and it felt inaccessible.

But a friend asked me to go see Anthony Wong Yiu-ming in Vancouver and I shelled out for a pretty good seat, only metres away from the stage at The Centre downtown. I'm surprised that since 2013 the building, which used to be owned by four brothers from Hong Kong is now owned by Westside Church! Nevertheless it's a great venue, clean and comfortable seats. Several Hong Kong bands and artists have used this place, partly because the staff are not in a union.

He was last in Vancouver five years ago

I was expecting a band with dancers, but it was very scaled down, Wong with two musicians who mostly played synthetizers, and one periodically played guitar, the other played the accordion for one song. 

Wong's fans were excited to see him -- one near the front even had a bright sign lit up with LED white lights that said "明哥" or "Ming Gor", a term of endearment. Many wore either his current concert tour T-shirt, or previous ones.

I don't know the songs that he sang, but later in the show he sang Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. Wong explained that when he goes to a different place he likes to sing a song from there. As French is also spoken in Canada, he sang a song by Edith Piaf.

He explained he admired Jean Cocteau, a Renaissance man in his day, who was a poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director and visual artist. He was good friends with Piaf. She died October 10, 1963, and Cocteau died the day after.

Wong noted that Anita Mui Yim-fong was born October 10, 1963...

Early on in the show fans rushed to the stage to give him flowers. My friend had heard earlier that Wong had asked his fans not to give him flowers but money instead. Possibly a joke? But Wong was grateful to receive the flowers and read out a few of the cards, though these fans had written very long letters to him and he couldn't read them all.

He sang a mix of new and old songs

On stage, Wong drank a lot of liquids, as he coughed a bit. But after he seemed to end the show, and the audience clamoured for him to come back. He finally appeared and seemed to have his second wind and sang songs that Joseph Koo Kar-fai had written, again explaining it was because the legendary composer had lived in Vancouver (until he died last January). Wong seemed to be excited and told the audience he was singing yet another song that he didn't perform in Toronto, which got his fans all cheering.

The show started at around 8.20pm and didn't end until 11pm!

This evening, he came to the Asian Centre at the University of British Columbia to talk about his work in Cantonese. Again the room was filled with fans, almost all from Hong Kong, with a few from China.

Someone asked him if he would stay much longer in Hong Kong given the situation, and his brushes with the law. Wong admitted that he had thought about leaving, but he said his loved ones are in Hong Kong which is why he will stay. He added that he feels like he doesn't belong anywhere in particular and that's fine with him.

Another asked about his songwriting process and this was where Wong praised his collaborators, the two musicians who were on stage with him, along with a few others. He said it was a collaboration, where he might have some ideas and they try to realise it for him, and it's a back-and-forth collaboration; Wong insisted he could not do it by himself as he does not know how to read music, let along write it, but he has ideas, and these musicians have the technical ability to help him.

Fans asked Wong questions at UBC

One woman asked about his influences and how he curated them. He said there were too many to say what they were, but explained that when he was a child, he helped his father with his work and for that he got some pocket money. Wong would spend it watching movies in a theatre that changed films every two days so he watched a lot of them. He also listened to a lot of music too and from there he said he has been exposed to a lot of different things.

A fan asked about why Cantopop is not as globally popular as K-pop and he said it's because the Cantopop songs are very Hong Kong, it's about the place, the people, the circumstances... with K-pop it has a melody that is accessible and the lyrics are generic, that everyone can relate to.

Wong was gracious with his time and answered each question with lengthy replies; other celebrities might just answer with a word or a quick sentence or two. His fans hope he will come back again soon -- his last concert in Vancouver was five years ago!

Review: July Rhapsody

Marital tensions bubble to the surface in July Rhapsody

Last night VIFF had a showing of July Rhapsody, or in Chinese 男人四十 "man, 40", a 2002 film by Ann Hui so we checked it out, despite the pouring rain.

Armed with a bag of popcorn we settled in to watch the movie and not being much of a Hong Kong movie watcher, it was my first time seeing Jacky Cheung Hok-yau on the big screen and a young one at that! 

He's Lam Yiu-kwok, a high school teacher passionate about Chinese literature but his students think it's a boring subject. However, there's one female pupil, Woo Choi-lam, played by then newcomer Karena Lam who has potential and a crush on him.

Lam is married to Anita Mui Yim-fong's character, Chan Man-ching, who were high school sweethearts. It transpires that their Chinese literature teacher has returned from Taiwan, elderly and frail, and Chan wants to help him in his last days. It's a source of tension between Lam and Chan, revealing the truth about the origins of their eldest of two sons.

Compared to his friends in business and the stock market, Lam makes a lowly salary but keen to prove he can afford to pay his share of a fancy dinner. 

The film reveals the mundane life Lam and his family live, reflective of most middle-class families in Hong Kong, living in cramped flats, shopping for food in the supermarket, but making enough to put food on the table and hoping for their children to have a slightly better future.

Perhaps it's because of this situation that Lam is drawn to Woo, and Lam is fantastic as this character, a confident teenage girl who has no fear in flirting with her teacher; he tries to play it straight with her, but she lures him in with her cockiness.

There's a lot of insinuation in July Rhapsody -- when the eldest son realises who his father is, there isn't much of a reaction except for crying in his pillow. What's his say in all of this? How does he feel about being led on that Lam is his biological father? He's a flat character that could have been further developed.

Meanwhile, a lot of poetry is recited in the film, many related to the Three Gorges and talking about how it will soon be flooded and how they should go visit it before that ominous deadline. It also reveals how many Hongkongers haven't been to China before, and as a result have no relationship with the motherland, post 1997 handover. 

Mui looks sad in the film most of the time -- it was her last one before she died of cervical cancer in 2003. She also looks particularly skinny... did she know at the time she was sick?

It's an interesting juxtaposition between her character who feels compelled to look after her teacher and former lover, while Woo is keen to start a business and travel to India and Kashmir to find goods to sell in her store. Is it a generational thing? Or there are opportunities if you take risks?

Perhaps there are more questions after watching July Rhapsody!

July Rhapsody

2002

Directed by Ann Hui

Jacky Cheung Hok-yau

Anita Mui Yim-fong

Karena Lam

Review: Rouge

Mui plays Fleur a ghostly courtesan from the 1930s 

To start off 2024, we looked back and watched Rouge, a Hong Kong movie from 1988 starring Anita Mui Yim-fong and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing at VIFF.

It is sad to note that 2023 was the 20th anniversary of both their untimely deaths, Cheung from suicide on April 1, 2003, and Mui on December 30 that year from cervical cancer.

I had never seen the film before and it was made before June 4, 1989, when Hong Kong was well on its way to becoming an industrious powerhouse, with textiles, film, and finance. 

Cheung's character falls for Fleur in Rouge

Rouge was adapted from Lilian Lee Pik-wah's novel of the same name, and the film directed by Stanley Kwan. The story is set in a brothel in 1934, when Chan Chen-pang, a wealthy merchant's son (Cheung) is mesmerised by Fleur, a courtesan (Mui) and they fall for each other.

However, his family vehemently objects to their relationship and so the couple decide to commit suicide to be together forever.

Fast forward to 1987 when Fleur approaches a newspaper guy named Yuen to put an advertisement in the paper for Chan to meet her on a specific day and place. But Yuen soon realises she's a ghost during a comical scene on the tram going to Shek Tong Tsui.

Fleur is so out of place and cannot adapt to the modernity of 1980s Hong Kong. Perhaps it's because she is a ghost and has only one goal in mind, to reunite with Chan.

After overcoming their fears of what Fleur is, Yuen and his girlfriend, a reporter, try to help her find her lover from over 50 years ago, and thank goodness for the antique shops along Hollywood Road because they hold some clues that help them figure out what happened to Fleur decades ago.

Watching Rouge I couldn't help but notice how beautiful both Cheung and Mui were at the time. Her character Fleur has been a courtesan since she was 16 and is well aware of her social standing and fate, whereas Chan only thinks of being with her and becoming a performer on stage.

A newspaper man named Yuen meets Fleur

They are a couple fuelled by romance and idealism, whereas Yuen and his girlfriend are more down-to-earth and honest with each other, perhaps shaped by the different times they live in, or societal values changed in half a century.

Lilian Lee's story is very clever, with lots of opportunities for funny scenes interacting with a ghost and Kwan adapts it with scenes jumping back and forth between 1934 and 1987. The scenes in the past seem to be saturated with colour, whereas contemporary Hong Kong seems a bit drab and dark for the most part! 

There's also a bit part for Patrick Tse Yin -- in his much younger and better-looking years, and interestingly stunts performed by Jackie Chan! 

In any event, Rouge is an enjoyable film that takes its time to reveal the story, making you wonder if you will ever encounter a ghost and if you did, what would you do?

Rouge

Directed by Stanley Kwan

Based in a novel of the same name by Lilian Lee

93 minutes

Coopting Leslie and Anita, 20 Years Later

What do fans think of this government tribute, 20 years later?

Hard to believe but 20 years ago on April 1, Hong Kong lost one of its brightest stars, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, a talented Cantopop singer and actor. Later that year in December, Anita Mui Yim-fong passed away from cancer. 

I was not in Hong Kong at the time -- a friend was so distraught he sent me copies of the Chinese newspapers covering Cheung's suicide at the Mandarin Oriental in Central in 2003. 

Fans used to remember Cheung every April 1

Since then every April 1, fans have bouquets of flowers sent to the outside of the hotel where a makeshift memorial is set up every year.

Fans come to take pictures of the flowers that have messages telling "Gor Gor" how much they miss him.

However last year with the national security law in place, the police made it very difficult for fans to even gather. Plainclothes police shooed people away, and they could only take a quick picture of themselves holding their flowers by the hotel and then leave.

This year it seems the government wants to take advantage of the two-decade anniversary with the first annual "Pop Culture Festival" with the slogan "Let's Pop"... 

Let's pop???!!!

What does "Let's Pop" mean?

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department has organised the extravaganza to celebrate the glory days of Cantopop in the 1980s and 1990s. There will also be a "Miss You Much Leslie Cheung Exhibition" at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum to remember the much-loved star, while a concert will be held at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Cheung and Mui will also be celebrated in a show called "When Leslie and Anita Meet Hei & Gin", featuring some of the two performers' greatest hits at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre.

It is rather macabre for the government to resurrect these two stars from the dead in the hopes of reviving Hong Kong's fortunes. Fans should be given the opportunity to remember them the way they want to commemorate their favourite performers. Were fan groups notified about these massive initiatives? 

Also -- why is Hong Kong looking to the past when it should be looking to the future? The authorities seem to be politicising these two performers, using their names and reputations to earn street cred.

When a "Pop Culture Festival" says, "Let's Pop", it's just popping pathetic...