Never Let Me Go (2005)

by Kazuo Ishiguro; Vintage International; In English; 288 pages. Life primed me to enjoy this novel: Ishiguro won the Nobel a few days after I first opened it and I already loved Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World for their rambling chronologies and narrator’s strong, if similar, voices (does Ishiguro …

Tuesday Photoblogging

This past Saturday, Hong Kong celebrated the Chung Yeung Festival, a day spent worshipping ancestors and hiking. In a when in Rome... spirit (and because I enjoy hiking, anyway) I traveled to Tai Po Kau nature reserve. I met up with a friend from Northwestern, who showed me around her workplace, the Chinese University of Hong …

Tuesday Photoblogging

A few weeks ago, I hiked (most of) a trail from Tung Chung to Mui Wo. The trail began with a long, cement staircase up the side of the mountains. At the crest of the steps and at the end of a wide cement ledge, the trek next had me scurrying up and around steep …

Mimic (1997)

Dir. Guillermo del Toro, Cin. Dan Laustsen; in English; 111 minutes. This movie checked off del Toro's "creepy" tropes (bugs, horological movements, close-ups in dark and cramped spaces) and continued his trend of bad acting combined with poor writing. With a film called Mimic, you might expect to wonder if del Toro meant to draw …

Big Men (2014)

Dir. Rachel Boynton, Cin. Jonathan Furmanski; In English; 99 minutes. Boynton created a penetrating documentary that highlights how people traffic in power not only in Ghanain government but also in American business. Big Men pulls together a complicated web of people, places, and money, all while presenting audiovisual evidence that showed me what sort of …

Monday Photoblogging

I've lived in Hong Kong for nearly three months, and have taken photos here for nearly eight weeks. These pictures show my favorite sites (and sights!) on hikes, train-rides, and walks round the area. The day after the 2017 Mid-Autumn Festival, I joined some friends in hiking from my neighborhood, Tung Chung, to Tai O, …

Blind (2014)

Dir. Eskil Vogt, Cin. Thimios Bakatakis; in Norwegian, with English subtitles; 96 minutes. Blind immersed me into the world not of disability but of protagonist Ingrid's paranoia and hyperactive imagination. Ingrid struggles as much with blindness as she does with trust and openness. The film's strong visual style and tricks—we see what she thinks she …