A 3×5 Piece of Hong Kong’s Movie Heaven

Here is some proof that the world is not completely digitalized:Hong Kong, a city of a mere 6 million, is home to one of Asia’s biggest entertainment industries. It’s movie and pop starts are recognized throughout East Asia, and known, if not by name, by face in the west.In a small shop in Hong Kong, a man named Hung Chiu Chung offers fans and curiosity seekers a tangible piece of Hong Kong’s glitz. A story in Hong Kong’s BC Magazine illuminates a bit of the shop’s history and the massive amount of photos Hung still has:

It is no exaggeration to say Hung owns tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of photographic negatives and prints of a multitude of entertainment personalities, including Cantopop Sky King and TVB actor-turned-movie-star Andy Lau, the shop’s undisputed top seller over the years.

Despite a decline in business recently, Hung regularily welcomes Hong Kong film aficionados into his shop and hopes that, though his customers are fewer, the rapport that he has with them will keep him in the collectables business.However, that is easier said than done. Hong Kong’s soap operas now run up against soaps from Japan, South Korea, and even mainland China. Though they are dubbed, the bigger budgeted imports are extremely popular. Great film directors like John Woo, and Tsui Hark have long since immigrated to Hollywood. The man who defined Hong Kong’s new wave, Wong Kar Wei, also seems poised to make the jump across the Pacific. When his American studio films, My Blueberry Nights and The Lady From Shanghai, come out next year, it will all but signal the end of Hong Kong’s TV and film glory days.But perhaps not the end of Hung Chiu Chung’s business. He is convinced that Hong Kong’s movie industry has reached people regionally and internationally, and that these people still want a tangible reminder of Hong Kong’s star power.

“Although very small, Hong Kong has produced a lot of famous films and people. That’s why I have customers from so many parts of the world.”

Dan Eldon

Dan Eldon was the youngest photographer ever to work for Reuters.  He was not a naive newby trying to make it when he was stoned to death in Mogadishu in 1993.  He had spent a great deal of his teenage years traveling through the dark continent in a rusted Range Rover.Hia mother has published some of his graphic art work.  Dan apparently kept scrapbooks of his escapades.  The work is interesting, bizarre, and beautiful.  His visual accounts of his journeys in South Africa and Japan are the work of someone who is experiencing the world for the first time, while his sublime photos of war in Somalia reveal a cameraman who is familiar with the brutality and violence of the world.In some ways Eldon’s life was extraordinary.  He did things in 22 years that most people would never do.  Still, when looking at his scrapbook, its hard not to see yourself as a young person, coming to grips with the oddities, frustrations, and small joys.  Besides his brutal death, the thing I will remeber about Eldon is his account of traveling down the length of eastern Africa in his Land Rover.  He and his companions often avoided thieves and muggers by lodging in the safest places available: the local jail’s holding cells.It’s hard not to envious of Dan.  He had a level of self trust that seems alien to me.  He was as accomplished at 22 as most people are in their entire lives.  Every far-fetched scheme he came up with was successful.  His intuition seemed to guide him, and he seemed to know what made him happy.  His search for happiness and his intuition brought him back to Africa again and again.  Eventually, it got him killed.But he lived so, so much.