Entertaining Band of Pirates

Movie poster for The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Last night my friend YTSL and I watched The Pirates! Band of Misfits at Grand Cinema in Elements mall.

We opted for the 2D version as we didn't think the 3D one would offer much more in terms of special effects.

As a result, tickets were not much of a problem and we got some comfortable seats that also vibrate depending on the sound effects.

This is the fifth feature-length film by Aardman Animations and director Peter Lord and his crew have come up with a great pirate adventure that is a visual and audio feast full of laughs.

I could hardly recognize Hugh Grant's voice as the Pirate Captain who is constantly praised for his "luxuriant beard", and he leads a rag-tag group on a rickety boat pillaging whichever ships they come across.

He wants to enter the Pirate of the Year contest, but his chances are practically nil when his competition includes Black Bellamy voiced by Jeremy Piven and the seductive Cutlass Liz with the voice of Salma Hayek.

But how can Pirate Captain prove his worth?

He somehow gets mixed up with Charles Darwin and the scientist realizes Pirate Captain's feathery companion is not a parrot but the last surviving Dodo bird...

And then all heck breaks loose and it also involves a sword-wielding Queen Victoria.

The attention to detail in this movie is amazing. In the opening scene there's a fight on the pirate ship and one pirate uses a live lobster to beat up another, complete with the crustacean's eyes blinking. Queen Victoria's motto is "I hate pirates" engraved on her crown and the creators had fun naming the various shops and pubs in 19th century London.

Pirate Captain's crew are definitely a band of misfits -- there's Albino Pirate, Pirate with Prosthetics, and Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate who is actually a woman but no one seems to notice or question why her beard is different.

Apparently I missed a few quirky details in the film, such as the bumper sticker on the back of the ship that says "Honk if you're seasick" and Queen Victoria's treasure room has a gold Shaun the Sheep, Wallace and Gromit.

We also loved Darwin's sidekick, Mister Bobo who was adept at using flash cards to say his lines. Darwin says of him: "I thought that if you took a monkey, gave him a monocle and covered up his gigantic unsightly behind, then he would cease to be a monkey and become more of a... Man-Panzee if you will."

The Pirates! Band of Misfits wasn't knee-slapping hilarity, but good fun.

Hardly Setting the Record Straight

Hunan party chief Zhou Qiang maybe wishing he could eat his words

The investigation into activist Li Wangyang's death becomes more outrageous by the day.

Now Zhou Qiang, the party secretary of Hunan province has spoken out confirming Li committed suicide on June 6.

"The fact that Li committed suicide is crystal clear with verified evidence," he told visiting Hong Kong reporters.

He confirms an official report released July 12 stating that Li had torn a strip from a bed sheet which he used to hang himself from the window while his roommate slept, even though his feet were on the ground and the 62-year-old was physically fragile, deaf and blind.

Zhou said the Public Security Bureau in Hunan sought the help of Cong Bin, a vice-chairman of the Chinese Forensic Medicine Association, as well as other experts.

They led an investigation based on the findings of four pathologists from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, who authorities claimed, conducted an autopsy on Li on June 8.

"With the assistance of other experts specializing in criminal investigation, forensic medication and legal science, and after a conscientious and careful investigation in accordance with mainland law, Cong concluded that Li killed himself," said Zhou, who trained as a legal professional at college.

However activist Hu Jia questioned Zhou statements, saying he "defended an investigation that was neither credible nor reliable".

"Those experts might give truly professional opinions in common criminal cases, but in such a high profile, political case as Li's their role is to help ensure the credibility of government is not damaged," said Hu.

He is supported by Liu Weiguo, a lawyer from Shandong province who sent an open letter to China's top legislature seeking a new investigation into the circumstances of how Li died.

"The investigation was not complete and some key parts were missed. The professional qualifications of the experts involved doesn't necessarily mean the investigation was authoritative," Liu said.

To add weight to his statement, Zhou added none of Hunan's 71 million citizens had any suspicion about the results of the investigation, adding that even Li's relatives, including his younger sister, all accepted the conclusion.

But Hu said Zhou did not acknowledge that Li's family and friends who were likely to challenge the investigation were muzzled.

One of Li's close friends, Zhu Chengzhi had disappeared and it is believed he is in detention awaiting criminal investigation, while other supporters are under house arrest and is sister had lost contact with other activists.

It's interesting to see Zhou try to put an end to this fiasco once and for all, but the weight of his words and stature don't mean much when one looks at how Li's case has been handled, cremating him so quickly and not allowing an independent investigation or autopsy.

Zhou's credibility is riding on how Li's case is handled as he is considered a rising star tipped for further promotion in the upcoming 18th national congress this fall. The bungling of Li's death has led to ridicule of Zhou and he has also side-stepped questions on how this will affect his political career.

It's all too plain to see a lot has gone wrong with Li's case and nothing done to rectify the situation, nor to release his relatives and supporters.

This only shows the government's inability to take responsibility for its actions and face up to the truth.

The fact that Zhou said that it was "crystal clear" that Li committed suicide is so ludicrous it leaves us exasperated.

Trying to cover up the death of a deaf and blind man whose hands shook only reveals how much the authorities feared this helpless man.

While Li may be physically gone, he still continues to haunt the government.

Hong Kongers March Against Brainwashing

Children and their parents braved the heat to protest

The Hong Kong government is inadvertently encouraging its citizens to get fit -- by participating in protest marches every weekends.

Yesterday afternoon was the latest one with somewhere between 32,000 (police estimate) and 90,000 (organizers' estimate) people were out in force to show their opposition to the government's national education program.

Traffic was halted from Central to Wan Chai in the late afternoon, even beyond when transportation officials believed the protest would be over, which means the larger turnout figure is more likely. I waited for a bus at the Bank of China building in Central going westbound, but traffic eastbound had ground to a halt for a while already. Trams were pretty much emptied out while truck drivers opened their doors and read newspapers.

While this was a minor nuisance, the people were protesting for a good cause.

A group of students called Scholarism joined the National Education Parents Concern Group and the Professional Teachers' Union in stating they would not join a government proposal to set up a committee to examine how the subject would be taught in schools.

While the idea is typically bureaucratic, it's also because the issue is so divisive that you're either for national education or not.

Organizers expected 10,000 people, about nine-fold showed up

Many believe the national education program is a way to brainwash the future generation. Critics already have proof thanks to a textbook called the Beijing Consensus Handbook published by the National Education Services Centre that says the Communist Party is "united" and "selfless", and saying the US-type of democracy is "inefficient".

This is the same company that was given HK$70 million over six years with another company, both run by Yeung Chiu-chung, a Beijing loyalist and Hong Kong deputy to the National People's congress.

Many feel the fact that the government is instituting national education is wrong mostly because it is an agenda set by the mainland to impose its version of history and culture to young minds.

As Hong Kong is a relatively free city, how would sensitive issues, particularly June 4, 1989 be treated?

Meanwhile the Hong Kong government denies the new courses will mimic "patriotic education" teaching in China. "Brainwashing is against Hong Kong's core values. We would not support or accept that," said Education Secretary Eddie Ng on Saturday.

However, if the government does not accept brainwashing, why don't Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and other senior officials take the lead and publicly make comments about June 4, political dissidents on the mainland and other social issues in public?

Then that would give us all a very good idea of where Hong Kong stood on national education.

But the fact Tsang's administration and now Leung's are silent only says too much about their stance of the subject.

Hence the need to speak out.

Creative Book Art

A 24-foot high work of a woman and her cat

 The other day I was in Times Square in Causeway Bay and the atrium on the second floor had an interesting exhibition -- art pieces made of books.

They are the artwork of Mike Stilkey who has entitled the exhibition "Full of Smiles and Soft Attentions".

Fun piece of a bear playing the guitar on the grass

The biggest piece is a portrait of a sophisticated skinny woman holding her cartoonish-looking pink cat complete with bow tie in her left arm. Or is he a stuffed animal?

It's so interesting to see the colourful compilation of the books that were then painted over. Imagine trying to collect that many books to deliberately paint on!


But there's more.

The exhibition features more book "statues", whimsical images of more cats with flamboyant whiskers, an elephant in a suit wading in the ocean, while a bear sits on the grass and plays the guitar.

One of my favourite pieces is a glass "tank" with a pile of books painted like a shark in the water. It immediately brings to mind Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.

Instead of a real shark, the painted one does just fine and in fact Stilkey should make a cheeky comment that no animals were harmed during the artistic process.

A painted shark in a tank... what does it remind you of?

In Stilkey's exhibition biography, it explains the Los Angeles native not only paints on books, but also album covers, vintage papers and book pages. He also uses a variety of ink, coloured pencil, paint and lacquer.

His work is described as alternatively whimsical and melancholy, evoking the styles of a range of artists including illustrator Edward Gorey and Egon Schiele, an expressionist.

Full of Smiles and Soft Attentions
Until August 5
Times Square
Causeway Bay