June 7, 2005 Archives

2046 in Montreal? Hah! Google has no clue, but I already bought the DVD (for a relatively hefty 80HKD or ~14CAD) and will bring it back with me to Mtl. I saw it on Saturday, so it's really a sequel to In The Mood For Love, where Chow Mo Wan goes completely wacko. Some reaction I can feel for, for the very least. I thought it was to be a futuristic movie, but it wasn't as "fantastic" as I wanted to expect it to be. Very well-grounded in the Hong Kong of the Sixties (the one I dream to travel to someday), with the few references to 2046 in Chow Mo-Wan's head and novels, as he searches for Su Li-Zhen. Really, really, really the sort of romantic shit I'd eat every day (since there's no other reason why I like Chungking Express so much - speaking of which, I haven't even done the WKW-fan hypothetical walk around town - and wtf, I don't even realize I'm in Dreamland?).

Ok, so I was in Macau to visit my grand-aunt (my grandmother's sister on my father's side), and my grand-uncle. In Chinese, all this explaining of who's who ultimately reduces to one term (tai yi-po). It's complicated for a CBC like me to know all the possibilities that are currently not in use (such as my father's brothers potential sons and daughters, who're not just cousins, but "tong" brothers/sisters - so this paternalistic society and its corresponding language says). And multiple family names, if possible in Western societies, is totally unthinkable in the Chinese society. But I can see how one breaks a deal with his/her partner in crime, such as naming the first child after one of the spouses, and the second after the other, but how do you infirm filial relationship?).

This is me with my grand-aunt. She's that cute little 80-something lady who just can't stop chatting. She thinks I act like my father - which is only a natural way to describe a grand-nephew she saw for a few hours three years ago, and then previously as a kid, and a baby.