The Real World Of Hong Kong And Southern China

Producer/cinematographer/narrator Rick Howard takes viewers on a tour of Hong Kong and Southern China that features narration which is so rapid and disjointed you think he must have patched his film clips together, turned on a tape recorder to make notes and decided they were good enough to use. While showing footage of Macao, we're transported mid-shot, mid-thought, mid-sentence to the mainland border with the People's Republic of China ("Macao was founded in the 1590s and now you're on the border with China.") Like a guy at a slide show whose clicker has gone out of control, the narrator struggles to follow the images which careen past. THE most bizarre element in this entire project is Howard's inclusion of underwater footage of a Philippine coral reef he filmed for their tourist authority twelve years ago: 6.5 minutes worth. Viewers stupefied by the cheesiness of the tape thus far will be stung into outrage by this pointless padding of an already too long and dreadful tape. Aside from these points, Howard pokes fun at important Chinese concepts such as fung shui, (which literally shapes the unique architecture in Hong Kong), and ritual morning exercises and devotions. There is also more attention paid to floating restaurants than to Confucius or Lao-Tzu. In short, the city, the people and their culture deserve far better treatment than this. So does the viewer, for that matter. Not recommended. (R. Reagan)