By Layla
Most of our films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival have been at Metroplex, a cinema in an outlet mall just outside town which also houses something else... A trampoline park! On Monday evening, pre-film, we donned our extra-grip socks and bounced forth into a world of trampoline fun. We were magnificent (well, we slowly jumped bravely up and down) and it was a ridiculous amount of fun. Which is more than can be said for the dreadful Houston, We Have a Problem, the mockumentary that followed and contained zero laughs. Rather, it was just like watching a serious, but entirely inaccurate documentary! We drowned our sorrows with cheese and prosecco at Classified near our house afterwards...
The next day started in jolly form with an animated film about the Hiroshima bomb in Japanese with English subtitles (ironically we cannot watch Japanese films in Japan as they lack subtitles!) in the rather cool arthousey Cinematheque Broadway. There's some deal here which means that senior citizens can get cinema tickets for $3 / £2 during the day and they flock to films as a result - as we learned from am elderly and friendly Chinese man who was a former English teacher who also spoke annoyingly good Japanese. It certainly led to a jolly holidayish vibe (which was rightly absent from the film). And from there to lunch in the adjacent Cafe Kubrick. It's such a delight knowing there's always going to be something vegetarian on any menu here so we can eat in all the cool places. Afterwards we dashed through the rain to the Science Museum which was a bit rubbish but delightfully interactive and I infuriated Roz by beating her on a virtual reality game. She still hasn't forgiven me... That evening we went to yet another cinema, Sky, and saw an array of mostly rubbish short films, before returning to our neighbourhood for a superlative meal at Spanish restaurant 22 Ships. Mmm delicious.
On Wednesday it was STILL raining: infuriating for two people with two plans for Hong Kong: films and hiking. Luckily a local storyteller who I had come across had sent me a rainy day plan so we intrepidly followed it. We ventured into obscure buildings filled with hip art galleries, up the famous giant moving stairways and escalators that convey Hong Kongians up and down a giant hill (Hong Kong seems to be all about giant hills), and lunched in PMQ, a hipster's dream of cool building and design shops and cafes. We hid from the rain in Fine Print, a coffeeshop where Roz had her best flat white so far in Hong Kong and we lamented Tokyo's paucity of this fine beverage, ubiquitous in other world cities.
We headed home to glam up because tonight was a big night: my first performance at Hong Kong's storytelling show, aptly named Hong Kong stories and housed in the historic and cool Fringe Club. But first, outstanding Mexican food in the nearby steampunk-ish Brickhouse restaurant. The story event was cool - an audience of about 80, some great stories, and I did the closing story (the one about how Roz and I got together, which I first performed at the huge 9:30 Club in Washington). This proved a grand (and possibly alarming) introduction to me for the Hong Kongites.
Yesterday we'd wanted to hike but the weather said no so we kicked off the day at the AMC cinema with a film about Holocaust deniers. Sticking to the jolly film theme, as you can see... (Note from Roz: both this and the Japanese anime were very good notwithstanding the less than holiday vibe.) We headed up a big hill for a delicious lunch at Mana cafe, then hopped on the train to... I'm almost to shy to reveal it... A second trampoline park! Ryze at Quarry Bay felt less cool than Bounce at the Metroplex but soon we were gleefully bouncing and resolving to find more local trampolining when we get home! Roz (eventually) learned to jump from one trampoline to another and we felt - ridiculously - like Olympians as we bounced from one to another. Entirely exhausted by all that excitement, we finished off the day with outstanding Indian food at nearby Himalaya. And went to bed with the promise of mere cloudy skies. Will today be a hiking day? We are hoping yes!
Most of our films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival have been at Metroplex, a cinema in an outlet mall just outside town which also houses something else... A trampoline park! On Monday evening, pre-film, we donned our extra-grip socks and bounced forth into a world of trampoline fun. We were magnificent (well, we slowly jumped bravely up and down) and it was a ridiculous amount of fun. Which is more than can be said for the dreadful Houston, We Have a Problem, the mockumentary that followed and contained zero laughs. Rather, it was just like watching a serious, but entirely inaccurate documentary! We drowned our sorrows with cheese and prosecco at Classified near our house afterwards...
The next day started in jolly form with an animated film about the Hiroshima bomb in Japanese with English subtitles (ironically we cannot watch Japanese films in Japan as they lack subtitles!) in the rather cool arthousey Cinematheque Broadway. There's some deal here which means that senior citizens can get cinema tickets for $3 / £2 during the day and they flock to films as a result - as we learned from am elderly and friendly Chinese man who was a former English teacher who also spoke annoyingly good Japanese. It certainly led to a jolly holidayish vibe (which was rightly absent from the film). And from there to lunch in the adjacent Cafe Kubrick. It's such a delight knowing there's always going to be something vegetarian on any menu here so we can eat in all the cool places. Afterwards we dashed through the rain to the Science Museum which was a bit rubbish but delightfully interactive and I infuriated Roz by beating her on a virtual reality game. She still hasn't forgiven me... That evening we went to yet another cinema, Sky, and saw an array of mostly rubbish short films, before returning to our neighbourhood for a superlative meal at Spanish restaurant 22 Ships. Mmm delicious.
On Wednesday it was STILL raining: infuriating for two people with two plans for Hong Kong: films and hiking. Luckily a local storyteller who I had come across had sent me a rainy day plan so we intrepidly followed it. We ventured into obscure buildings filled with hip art galleries, up the famous giant moving stairways and escalators that convey Hong Kongians up and down a giant hill (Hong Kong seems to be all about giant hills), and lunched in PMQ, a hipster's dream of cool building and design shops and cafes. We hid from the rain in Fine Print, a coffeeshop where Roz had her best flat white so far in Hong Kong and we lamented Tokyo's paucity of this fine beverage, ubiquitous in other world cities.
We headed home to glam up because tonight was a big night: my first performance at Hong Kong's storytelling show, aptly named Hong Kong stories and housed in the historic and cool Fringe Club. But first, outstanding Mexican food in the nearby steampunk-ish Brickhouse restaurant. The story event was cool - an audience of about 80, some great stories, and I did the closing story (the one about how Roz and I got together, which I first performed at the huge 9:30 Club in Washington). This proved a grand (and possibly alarming) introduction to me for the Hong Kongites.
Yesterday we'd wanted to hike but the weather said no so we kicked off the day at the AMC cinema with a film about Holocaust deniers. Sticking to the jolly film theme, as you can see... (Note from Roz: both this and the Japanese anime were very good notwithstanding the less than holiday vibe.) We headed up a big hill for a delicious lunch at Mana cafe, then hopped on the train to... I'm almost to shy to reveal it... A second trampoline park! Ryze at Quarry Bay felt less cool than Bounce at the Metroplex but soon we were gleefully bouncing and resolving to find more local trampolining when we get home! Roz (eventually) learned to jump from one trampoline to another and we felt - ridiculously - like Olympians as we bounced from one to another. Entirely exhausted by all that excitement, we finished off the day with outstanding Indian food at nearby Himalaya. And went to bed with the promise of mere cloudy skies. Will today be a hiking day? We are hoping yes!
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