Labubu's Panda-monium Promotes Hong Kong

Yeoh posing with her special edition Labubu with twin pandas

Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh has become the latest Labubu fan after she was gifted a custom one holding two panda cubs that are celebrating their first birthday in Hong Kong.

Yeoh posted pictures of herself on Instagram holding the doll with a mischievous grin with a giant bucket of popcorn, another with British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo, and a shot with fellow Wicked actor Jeff Goldblum.

Jia Jia and De De were born in Hong Kong

"Celebrating Hong Kong born Panda Twins first birthday (and my birthday too) with Labubu in the Hollywood Bowl!!! Thank you @discoverhongkong for sending the greatest companions!" she wrote.

Yeoh is one of several celebrities who received the specially-designed Labubu doll as part of a collaboration between the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and the toy's creator, Hong Kong-born Kasing Lung, to mark the twin pandas' first birthday and promote the city... of course.

The cubs, Jia Jia and De De, who were born on August 15, are the first pandas to be born in Hong Kong and this promotion is a way to prolong panda-monium a bit longer.

Seems like just about everyone has caught onto the Labubu craze, and the government is riding the wave with this special doll. 

Will it catch on with Labubu fans? The sales numbers will tell.

Some Golden Globes Winners

Murphy giving his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes

The awards season has begun and tonight the Golden Globes were held in Los Angeles. It's hard to believe it's been a year since Michelle Yeoh won best actress for Everything Everywhere All At Once, and from there the multi-genre film went on to win big at the Oscars. She has had an amazing year flying everywhere all at once, getting married, having a grandchild -- on her husband's side -- and releasing a series called The Brothers Sun on Netflix.

This past year I saw a few films and was pleased to see some of them do well at the Golden Globes.

Yeoh on the red carpet earlier this evening

Oppenheimer, about the father of the atomic bomb won five Globes for best drama, best director nod for Christopher Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr, and original score.

It's quite an intense movie and if you haven't seen it yet, best to read up on J. Robert Oppenheimer first as the film goes over his background, from being a philanderer to his questionable communist links. It's unfortunate the women in his life don't get more opportunities to reveal more of their characters though. Nevertheless, both Murphy and Downey were fantastic going head to head in this story that is hard to tell, even over three hours.

One can't mention Oppenheimer with out saying something about Barbie. I liked the premise of the film and it started off funny, but then the laughs soon disappeared. Even Will Ferrell did his best to get the comedy going, but it wasn't enough. Yes, America Ferrera's monologue got cheers from women in the audience, but it seemed to be contrived like the rest of the film.

The Boy and the Heron is Studio Ghibli's first ever Golden Globe! And it comes days after Hayao Miyazaki's birthday too! This is also an intense World War II film about coming of age, destruction and reconstruction, where a boy yearns for his mother who has died, and a mysterious heron that speaks may lead him to her. 

Studio Ghibli wins for The Boy and the Heron

Toshio Suzuki is a Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer who posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying he was very happy to hear The Boy and the Heron won a Golden Globe, that it was "a very special feeling."

"Since the beginning of this year, Japan has been hit by a series of tragic earthquakes and accidents. When I hear the reports of many people still waiting for rescue in the disaster areas, I am filled with a sense of despair. In such a situation, I hope the bright news of winning an award can bring a smile to everyone's face, even if only a little. Together with our U.S. distribution partners, we look forward to further success with The Boy and the Heron. Thank you very much to the Golden Globes for this honor."

From this statement Suzuki must have felt it was not appropriate to go to the awards ceremony, but we are thrilled for Studio Ghibli.

And finally so pleased to see Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph win best actor in a musical or comedy film and best supporting actress in a motion picture respectively for The Holdovers. This is a film that at first seems like it is a comedy full of wry humour, but it goes way beyond it and has a message for everyone, that we never really know a person until they reveal the truth to you. It ties in very well with one of the most searched words on the Internet -- authentic.

Randolph kisses her award for The Holdovers

The next awards are the Emmy Awards on January 15, Baftas on February 18 and then the Oscars on March 10.

Will Michelle Yeoh be a HKTB Ambassador?

Yeoh credited Hong Kong for her helping her get to Hollywood

Hot on the heels of Michelle Yeoh winning the Oscar for Best Actress in Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Hong Kong Tourism Board is trying to lure her to become an ambassador for the city.

During her acceptance speech, Yeoh thanked Hong Kong for helping her get a leg-up in her film career, and the HKTB hopes to capitalise on that, as well as other celebrities to become the city's ambassadors.

HKTB wants people to come back to the city

The tourism board plans to spend an extra HK$800 million (US$102 million) on promoting meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), along with its giveaway of 500,000 plane tickets, discounted train tickets, and dining coupons.

So far 1.46 million visitors arrived last month, the first time the monthly figure broke the 1 million mark since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

HKTB estimates there will be 25.8 million tourists coming to Hong Kong this year -- 46 percent of the 55.9 million visitors who arrived in 2019. A record 65.1 million visitors came in 2018.

Yeoh is a fan... of Mandarin Oriental

Will Yeoh bite and sign on as an HKTB ambassador? She's already a Mandarin Oriental fan...

 

Queen of the Oscars

Yeoh radiating movie royalty with her Academy Award

Tonight belonged to Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian to win the Best Actress Oscar at the Academy Awards.

It was pretty much expected the star of Everything Everywhere All At Once would win, it was her year. And as the cast and directors have explained to the media, the multiverse film about an immigrant family allowed Yeoh and her fellow actors to stretch their acting abilities to do action, sci-fi, romance, drama and comedy.

Wearing lots of bling in her hair and finger, Yeoh was majestic in her white feathery dress as she accepted the award.

Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once

And her speech connected to many people:

"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof -- dream big -- and dreams do come true," she said, taking a deep breath. 

"And ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up."

Yeoh dedicated her Oscar to her mother, Janet as well as all the moms in the world "because they are really the superheroes. And without them, none of us would be here tonight. She's 84, and I'm taking this home to her. She's watching this right now in Malaysia, KL [Kuala Lumpur] with family and friends. I love you guys. I'm bringing this home to you."

It was lovely to hear her thank Hong Kong, where she her movie career took off, which led her to Hollywood.

"And also to my extended family in Hong Kong, where I started my career. Thank you for letting me stand on your shoulders, giving me a leg up so that I can be here today."

Quan tearing up during his acceptance speech

Her co-star Ke Huy Quan also won big with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. 

"My mom is 84 years old and she's at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar! My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage. They say stories like these only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it's happening to me. This -- this is the American dream."

Quan is referring to his family who fled Vietnam in 1978 and lived in a refugee camp in Hong Kong before they made their way to the United States.

Throughout this whole promotion of the film and successive awards event, Quan has been so humble, so endearing and so heartfelt and so real that you can't help but love his honesty.

Yeoh has talked about how the EEAAO cast and crew gathered everyday together and became a family, respecting and loving each other. This is why they are so tight and celebrate each win together..

It's been amazing to watch Asian actors finally get their due, with much more to come.

Quote of the Day: Ke Huy Quan

Quan gave an emotional acceptance speech tonight

The Golden Globes were handed out tonight and we love Ke Huy Quan's acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

He became famous as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 38 years ago. After that Quan doubted himself and his ability to keep going in acting.

But almost four decades later he has affirmed to himself and the rest of the world that he deserves to be on the stage.

Here's his speech:

Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. 

I was raised to never forget where I came from and to always remember who gave me my first opportunity. I am so happy to see Steven Spielberg here tonight. Steven, thank you. 

When I started my career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I felt I felt so very lucky to have been chosen. As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it. If it was just luck, through so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer, that no matter what I did, I would, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid. 

Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me. They remembered that kid and they gave me an opportunity to try again. Everything that has happened since has been unbelievable. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, thank you so so much for helping me find my answer. You have given me more than I could have ever hoped. 

Thank you to the Hollywood foreign press Association for this incredible honour. Thank you to A24 Ley Line Entertainment and Agbo. 

Thank you to our incredible producer Jonathan Wong. Thank you to Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu, and our entire EEAAO family. And last but not least, I want to say the most important person in my life, the one person that never stopped believing in me, my wife Echo, I love you with all my heart. 

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Yeoh takes the lead of this wacky martial arts sci-fi film of fate

Some of my friends in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Vancouver had seen Everything Everywhere All At Once and they either laughed so hard or cried a lot. I was warned that it would probably be taken down from theatres soon so I made an effort to see it this past Sunday.

Can I first say that there are way too many commercials showing before the actual movie starts? I arrived in the theatre 10 minutes before and already they were showing many ads. And then when the lights dimmed there were at least another 10 minutes of commercials. 

Finally the film began and immediately drew us into a crazy world. It opens with Evelyn Quan (Michelle Yeoh), overwhelmed by all these receipts she needs to present to the Internal Revenue Service. Not only that but she is running a laundromat and worried about her father who has come to visit from China. Oh and her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is gay and has a girlfriend who is white, and Evelyn's husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) wants a divorce.

Waymond, Evelyn and Gong Gong at the IRS

If that's not enough to handle on your plate, on the way to seeing the IRS agent Dierdre Beaubeirde (Jamie Lee Curtis) viewers suddenly have to deal with every character having an alternative persona in a different universe, and seeing Evelyn's life constantly flashing before our eyes.

And then wait! There's martial arts thrown in the mix with people from different universes coming to get Evelyn, and they gain their energy from doing bizarre things. In Evelyn's case it's drinking tons of soda pop and telling Deirdre that she loves her. 

Weird right?

The storyline for Everything Everywhere All At Once is completely off the wall crazy but somehow it all holds together that makes viewers laugh and tear up when it comes to the mother-daughter dynamic, expectations of immigrant parents and trying to forge a new path.

In the end it's about your life and what you make of it. 

Curtis is hilarious as a frumpy chubby woman! 

It turns out Evelyn wanted to get away from her parents and went to America with Waymond, who promised her the world and instead gave her a laundromat business. But there is another parallel universe where they didn't marry and she became a famous movie star, and he a wealthy businessman. 

She has to resolve her past in order to rectify her present and future. And that involves a lot of swift martial arts kicks and punches. 

Her relationship with her daughter Joy -- or rather her nemesis Jobu Tupaki becomes physically confrontational as they fight in different time periods and places, and at times it is hilariously treated with crayon animated drawings and pinatas of them and then they become zen-like as rocks in a desert.

The same could be said with the fantasy relationship between Evelyn and Dierdre -- who both seem to have fingers like raw hotdogs. How the directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert came up with this idea and for Curtis and Yeoh to pull it off... they must have laughed so hard filming those scenes.

Evelyn with her bizarre hot dog fingers

Again it all sounds so absurd, but it all comes together, representing different thoughts that can appear in our brain all at once. 

Yeoh is fantastic at Evelyn... her accent is a typical immigrant one that's Chinglish, but at the end she sounds more like herself with the slight British accent... was that intentional? She is the difficult mother to Hsu, who acts out her frustrations with eye rolls and attitude. 

The numerous fight scenes Yeoh had to do are very impressive for a 59-year-old! Take that Jackie Chan! They are choreographed like many martial arts films, and Everything Everywhere All At Once is an homage to them, with wacky props.

Quan is wonderful as Raymond who is the tender, long suffering husband of Evelyn, who also has a few fight scenes of his own. The former child actor also has a background in martial arts, though an injury sidelined him to become a consultant on films instead.

Hsu as Joy's nemesis Jobu Tupaki 

There is also the inclusion of James Hong as Evelyn's father who is a fixture in many films. It's a bit funny hearing Cantonese, Mandarin and English all the time, but director Kwan says he grew up listening to these languages mixed together.

When the film finally finishes at 140 minutes you think, "What did I just see?"

But when you strip it down, Everything Everywhere All At Once is about all of us, how we constantly have flashbacks of our lives and how these events shape us to who we are, everything, everywhere, all at once.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert

140 minutes