Original subtitles

"Chapter One.

"To fall in love with Asia is one thing.

"To fall in love in Asia is another.

"Both have happened to me.

"The Star Ferry to Kowloon at night...

"the lights of Hong Kong behind me...

"it's a gift,

"a dream,

"a curse.

"The best thing,

"the happiest thing,

"yet, also,

the loneliest thing in the world."

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la - ♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

- ♪ Sha la, la, la - Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

♪

All of us, when we travel, look at the places we go,

the things we see through different eyes.

And how we see them is shaped by our previous lives.

The books we've read.

The films we've seen.

The baggage we carry.

Years ago, when I first watched

the stunningly beautiful films of director Wong Kar-wai,

it shaped forever the way I'd see Hong Kong.

From that point on, my hopes,

my expectations of this city

would be seen through that lens,

a lens that was, in nearly every case,

pointed by, focused by this man:

Christopher Doyle,

long-time resident of Hong Kong,

known by his Mandarin name Du Kefeng.

And it won't go away.

His earlier works with Wong Kar-wai

were distinguished

by unspeakably gorgeous images

of beautiful people moving through spaces

both unfamiliar and yet painfully intimate.

Alternately jagged,

frenzied, innovative,

languid, composed,

chaotic.

I obsessed over his work, fetishized it,

longed to see Hong Kong like the characters

in so many of his films longed for each other.

And I feared, like those characters,

I would be denied.

I was wrong.

The good thing about the escalator,

it's the best place to watch people.

♪

The mid-level escalators.

7 million people in Hong Kong,

many of them flowing through this mile-long

escalator system.

It's Chris Doyle's happy place.

What do you look at in Hong Kong?

And you've lived here how long?

- Oh, 20, 30 years, almost. - So...

I-I mean, I've spent more time

in this space than I have spent in bars.

♪

Look at this, we have people coming and going.

We have the city passing us by.

We have... to me, the energy is the noise,

is the people.

I mean, the films that we made

are only this way because we made them here.

I've made 12 films within 2 square kilometers

of where we are right now.

In fact, we're gonna pass by my apartment,

which is the most famous apartment

in Hong Kong. You shot in there, right?

It doesn't exist anymore

because the energy changes.

♪

But to tune into the energy...

Ah-ha, hello... Then we have a movie.

Then we have this conversation.

Then we have something that the cameraman

is gonna fall over backwards trying to film.

I think you're just preparing all the time.

For example, you watch some of my movies.

- Yes. - Or we read a book.

- Yeah. - Or we go out

drinking with friends. Yeah.

And then bang, bang,

we're doing something which all of those energies

focus in a way that somehow connects with other people.

Hello. What do you want in life?

I mean, you do understand

the impulse, right?

People see work that you've long ago

just like moved on from.

And they get, you know... They get a hard-on,

and it won't go away.

I mean, come on, it's...

But the great pleasure is,

I did it...

and it's done.

You want me to reshoot "Chunking Express"?

♪

But of course they all do, don't they?

But I don't know how I did it!

Is there a value in

just beautiful people and objects

moving through space in beautiful ways?

Is there a value to the color

of a pomegranate? Yeah, yeah, there is.

Exactly!

This is our challenge, is to celebrate that.

So-called "beauty" is not,

you know, "My make-up is so good,

and then I... I lifted my face a bit."

No. Beauty is the darkness

and the pleasure of embracing that

and that giving you something more

of your experience of life.

I read a script, and it says,

"He looked so sophisticate"...

How do you film "sophisticated"?

How do you convey the taste of a chili?

We'll never know, but...

the privilege we've been given

is, number one, we've experienced it personally.

So it becomes part of who you are.

♪

Leaf Dessert Noodle Shop

is a hundred-year-old holdout in Central.

Chris has been coming here for years,

both to film and for this:

Choy noodle soup for him,

and beef brisket noodles with wonton for me.

♪

Ah, here we go.

So this is family food.

Yeah.

You don't know. I don't know.

This is the most famous noodle stand

in cinema history, in Hong Kong.

Has he been in the films himself?

Many, many, many times.

This is our next nomination for Hong Kong Film Awards.

Ah, man.

It's good too.

♪

I don't watch movies. I don't...

watch other people's work.

I can't draw,

but I know if you put this...

♪

And you move it around a bit...

it may take you somewhere.

So, to me, collage is like the unexpected put together

to perhaps suggest something that you never thought of.

♪

Our experience actually gives us a distance

and gives us this wonderful freedom,

which is called time.

I thought time was running out,

but it's not.

Time is actually

being more condensed, because we're more focused.

♪

Now our job as artists is to show you the world

that you think you knew

and celebrate it.

In my wonderful experience and wonderful journey

with a person called Wong Kar-wai,

it finally... After all the films we made,

we made a film called "In the Mood for Love."

♪

I think everything we did before then

was preparation.

I think that's it. If you find this

in your life,

you actually say one sentence

or you make one dish

or you make one image

that is true.

That's pretty good,

because not many people get that.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

The love of money and shiny new things

is slowly but surely erasing the past.

So before it's gone, this is a reminder

of how Hong Kong used to eat,

at dai pai dongs like this one

in Sham Shui Po.

Cheap, delicious food served from open-air stalls.

Pull up a plastic stool, crack a beer,

fire up the wok.

So tell me, what is a dai pai dong?

- "Dai" is "big." - Big.

"Pai" is "license."

And "dong" is "place."

- So it's... - So it's "big license place."

Right, and how many of these are left in, uh...

- 28. - Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Only 28? Only 28.

Why? Why don't...

Because the government doesn't...

They want, uh, street clean.

That's...

That ain't right. Yeah.

The name of the place is Keung Kee,

and Gaza Cheung recently took over as chef.

How do you get one of the last licenses

for a dai pai dong? Accident.

- Accident? - Yeah.

This license is hold by somebody else,

not by me, but this place,

it's been around for 40 years.

Now, did you change the menu?

Same menu? No, I changed the menu...

- Right. - And start a typical,

old-fashioned Chinese meal.

Drunken chicken.

Hacked-up birds cooked in hot pot,

with medicinal roots and herbs

that will no doubt make me strong.

What will I feel after I eat it?

- Hyper. I can use... - Hyper?

- Hyper. - Energy?

Strength? Yeah, energy!

Vitality? No penis in there?

No! No.

- No penis in there. - I wouldn't eat that.

Myself. Really?

- Unless you want. - I've had a fair amount

of penis on this show. Oh.

♪

A clay-pot dish of fish tripes,

cooked in an egg custard,

topped with a crispy fried yóu zhá.

Wait a minute, is that egg?

Egg.

So it's like a... Like a quiche.

Try it.

It's pretty damn good.

Crispy, custardy.

I've never had anything like this

anywhere in China.

Movies? Oh, yes.

You know Wong Kar-wai? I do.

- Do you like him? - Uh, I love Wong Kar-wai.

Which is your favorite Wong Kar-wai film?

Oh, "In the Mood of Love."

Me too.

It's the most beautiful film ever made.

There you are.

No way.

♪

♪

♪

Hong Kong is a mixed culture with East and West.

- Right. - Because of the 160 years

as a British colony,

Hong Kong really developed its own, unique culture.

The people in Hong Kong really want to see that.

Or for the foreign people like you,

you want to see, "Oh, it's really old Hong Kong."

♪

All this is disappearing.

♪

All this could be gone.

It's vanishing before our eyes.

♪

Simon Go is a photographer who's documented

to 200 small, family-run shops in the city,

many of them already shuttered.

I go everywhere in Hong Kong.

And I really want to...

To preserve the memories.

Especially in these few years,

I found so many old shops disappeared

because of some urban development.

And I think I've got

a mission to preserve that.

♪

To feel sentimental about the past

is unusual for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has always been about changing.

- Yes. - It's always embraced change.

Realistically, can these businesses

be protected?

Ah...

It's really difficult to say.

But I think that when the government

and the Hong Kong people see more about

our own unique culture,

for many people, try their best to fight for that.

China Café in Mong Kok,

what's called a cha chaan teng,

or "tea restaurant,"

serving a particularly bizarro

but much-loved bit of Hong Kong history.

Simon's been coming here for over 40 years

and orders his favorite: fried pork cutlet

over rice, with tomato sauce.

Oh!

Thank you. Wow.

This rice is very popular in Hong Kong.

- Very popular. - Especially for a schoolboy,

I came... every time I came to a cha chaa teng,

I ordered this. I think it's a...

It's a perfect match for me.

And, well, I had to try this:

macaroni, Spam,

and egg... soup.

I have no idea where this came from.

I mean, is it a soup? Is it a stew?

What do I... Should I break it up?

No, it's okay.

Because in cha chaa teng, nobody care about...

- Table rules. - Table manner

or anything, you know?

♪

You know, food and smell

always bring forth so many memories.

I still remember my parents and my grandparents,

they would make some dumpling at home.

And they really worked hard for prepare the meal

for the family.

The taste is really great and really sweet.

And...

after my grandmother and my mother passed away,

I have not any chance to eat that again.

But about four or five years ago,

my Auntie made them for me.

When I put it to my mouth,

I burst into tears.

My wife behind...

comforts me.

Speechless.

The taste, the food recalls so many...

So many memories for me.

♪

In the beginning, Hong Kong was this:

a fishing village, like this one.

♪

There you go.

You're gonna give me a camera?

Hell, yeah.

All right, guys, well...

All right, proceed to smoke weed.

- Can I roll? - Yeah!

How do I roll?

That button, here. Yeah, there.

Oh, that's so complicated, I have to press the button.

♪

Can I close down the aperture a little bit?

Where is the aperture? Can you tell me?

You're on a 2-8.

Yeah, you're on it.

I don't smile a lot on this show,

by the way, but I'm smiling now.

♪

I want to shoot you guys.

So tell us, you behind the camera,

what are you seeing?

I'm trying really hard to get footage now.

Really? Why is that?

This is one of

the most beautiful shots I've ever made.

I've never made a shot about cameras before.

So tell us, what is a camera to you?

I think it's a good thing to hide behind.

I think, Anthony,

we have one of the most beautiful images

in all of your film.

This is why we're on...

It's why we're on the damn boat.

Do we have a movie?

- We have a movie. - We have a movie.

Are you sure we...

I'm worried we didn't record it!

We'll find out in a second.

Then we have to do it in person.

Oh, sit.

Ha!

♪

Tai O is one of the last fishing villages

in Hong Kong, on the western side

of Lantau Island.

The families here have made their living

from the sea for generations.

For Chris Doyle and his codirector Jenny Suen,

it's a return to the location

of their recent film, "The White Girl."

So where are we? I recognize it.

We're in the Venice of Hong Kong, obviously.

I mean, there we are. We've got the canals.

We got canals going in all directions here.

We got the most beautiful bridges

outside of Venice.

Don't forget, "Hong Kong"

means "fragrant harbor." Mmhmm.

So it's a good place to eat, I guess.

Well, you have experience here.

You guys shot a film here.

'Cause you shot like right here.

We literally shot right here.

This is it. This is the main location

of the film. This is the main-actually,

when we were prepping the film,

we had looked at all the fishing villages

around Hong Kong.

And this one was the most complete,

in the sense that it's a real community,

as opposed to, you know,

something closer to the city.

And it's a metaphor for Hong Kong,

because we feel Hong Kong is disappearing also.

And so much of what we're doing

is to keep something that makes us unique alive.

♪

For lunch, there's corn and fish maw soup...

♪

Fried fish maw with dried scallop,

dried shrimp, and pork.

♪

Salted egg yolks are left in the sun

to cure slightly,

then served over rice.

Crispy pork belly cooked in shrimp paste

and yu choy.

♪

I drink to heaven!

Under which we stand together and enjoy this.

We drink to earth because...

Well, there's no more earth, but we drink to sea today.

I drink to heaven, I drink to earth,

and I drink to you.

Isn't that the most beautiful way

to share a drink with friends?

I have a tricky moral question, though, for you.

A moral question? Me?

- Yes. Yeah. - Oh, great.

I was... I'm a recovering Catholic.

I can answer any moral question.

We are changing the world by looking at it

through cameras, as... As happens every time

you look at real people, the real world,

real places.

Where does that fall in your comfort zone?

When the character of the place changes.

Ah, yeah, it's true.

We're part of the problem, not... right?

The only way is just not to be cynical about it.

We want the audience to feel a certain way.

But if the process is open, then I think it has integrity.

If we've done what we love in integrity,

if we've tried to be as true as possible

to how we see things,

perhaps, perhaps... Mmhmm.

It transfers.

♪

The only function of what we do

with art or with anything

is to give voice to the unspoken,

to give it a form that it's never been

perceived in before.

We can't change the evolution of history

or the gentrification... You can't stop that.

But at least you can say, "Look what you're losing."

That's all... that's the only...

All we can do is give an image to an idea.

♪

The infamous Chunking Mansions

sit right smack in the center

of high-end Tsim Sha Tsui,

right around the corner from swank hotels

and surrounded by shops selling luxury goods

and designer brands.

5 housing blocks and 17 stories

containing, well, everything and everybody

who the rest of Hong Kong would like to ignore.

While many locals avoid it for its, well, reputation

and for some of its less legitimate

business enterprises, shall we say,

it offers cheap rooms and asylum

for people, specifically refugees,

from all over the world

and even a taste of home.

When I met Selena about 15 years ago,

we decided to open a restaurant in Hong Kong.

But most of the African guys here,

to be honest, they don't have money.

Most of them, they are refugees.

So how do we sell the food to them?

So we opened us a kitchen

for all of them to come and cook their food,

enjoy and meet new friends.

Then, uh, they can enjoy themself.

That's how we started.

I moved from Hong Kong to Canada.

My husband moved from Ghana

to China and Hong Kong.

But we know that if you move

to another country, it's not easy.

So we try to provide a place for them

to feel like they are at home.

After we have this place,

we see a lot of happy face.

I see a lot of them gains weight.

They have a big tummy.

And I say, "Okay, that's..."

"what we are doing is the right thing."

♪

Tell me about this building.

It's legendary, of course.

For me, I think it's...

It's really a very unique place.

Like it's a place that when I come out

from my home, it's a place that I know

I'm gonna pass in some way.

It's a place I meet new friends.

It's a place that gives me a lot of confidence.

When I'm in here, I know where to go.

I know who to talk to. I know which food to eat.

In the '60s and '70s,

the city relied on cheap refugee labor.

No longer.

Today, most refugees are seeking asylum

anywhere they can find it.

Many here are stuck in limbo.

Can't go back, can't work,

can't leave.

Jahan fled Iran six years ago

just ahead of the secret police.

Shermarke is a student from Somalia,

who had equally compelling reasons

to leave his home.

What brought you here?

The basic reason for me to come here

was finding a safe haven, right?

- Yes. - I mean,

you're in a safe place.

That's the only thing you're thinking about

in that moment. You came from Iran.

- Yeah. - Why did you come

to Hong Kong? Why did I leave Iran?

The short version goes,

they wanted to kill me, and I said,

"No thank you." I end up here.

It was... It wasn't something

that I would dream of or I planned.

I have no idea about the currency,

the government.

No, nothing at all.

♪

How long have you been here now?

Uh, going to be six years.

- Six years? - Yeah.

They tell me that

even if you be accepted as a refugee,

you are not welcome to stay.

You have to be resettled in another country.

- Right. - They are telling me

while you're staying, you are not allowed

to work, study, even volunteer,

or contribute in society in any way.

But you can exist.

That's it. You can exist, yeah.

- You believe me or not... - Hold on one sec.

Let me reset.

- How is it going? - Good.

You believe everything he says?

- Yes. - Oh, Jesus!

I think we're good. We got a lot of bread.

But if they can bring that up for eating...

Actually, they brought it in.

Let's just leave it there.

Can we push you a little bit to your right?

All right? Let me know

when everybody's up.

Roll sound.

♪

So what is your hope?

What are your prospects

of being able to go to America?

I would love to go to America.

But it's not the way U.S. sees me

qualified to be there.

Right before Donald Trump was appointed

to be the American president,

I had my last interview.

And then, unfortunately, you know what he did?

He banned six, seven countries,

including my country.

So now, currently, I'm...

I'm studying and I'm planning to move

to somewhere else.

♪

To be honest, um...

I'm not a big fan of hope.

I have no hope in the system.

Or I have no hope

in someone gonna get me out of here.

I'm trying by my own.

I'm trying to be my best as possible here

and seek by myself for ways to get out

of Hong Kong and the system.

♪

♪

♪ You've said you've tried

♪ He just can't comprehend

♪ What is that thing

♪ That we're trying to defend ♪

♪ No one can decide

♪ How this is going to end

♪

♪ It's in my hot blood

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't, I can't ♪

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't do it anymore

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't, I can't ♪

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't, I can't ♪

♪

Have you eaten anything this morning?

Uh, no. I'm hungry, man.

Oh, come to me. There we go.

"David Boring" is a five-piece band

fronted by Janice Lau and Jason Cheung,

their backgrounds in architecture and medicine

seemingly at odds with their somewhat more

nihilistic music.

You know this place. You've eaten here before

many times, 'cause you guys

went to school right in the neighborhood.

It's very popular with students.

We always come after deadlines,

so first thing in the morning,

4:00 a.m., all students.

- Yeah. - And the place is

even more crowded than right now, yeah.

What are the things that you see disappearing

in Hong Kong that are most alarming to you?

Certainly a degree of freedom.

As someone who's born and raised here,

you can definitely feel a change

in the last five to ten years.

And what we are trying to do with our music

is to address that sort of change.

Are you able to say what you want?

- Yeah. - Yes.

- Yeah. - In ten years?

I don't know. Right now, yes.

Say what you want.

You are actually allowed to play music.

You're allowed to do whatever you want.

But there's no venue.

There's no space for you to practice.

I think this is how the society is limiting

the possibility of young people,

in that sense.

Whatever your feelings about how things are going,

some things are a constant,

a comfort, a birthright.

Like egg custard buns.

Egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk.

When steamed, the custard returns

to more molten form.

Braised chicken feet.

First fried, then braised

with ginger and star anise

before being finished in the steamer.

Is it possible to make a living

playing your kind of music?

- No. - Impossible.

- No. - Hence the day job.

Hence the day job.

Actually, Hong Kong is a society

that really values elitism and professionalism.

- Right. - But in a way that, um,

we are seeing even these standards

are falling apart within the system.

But it's important to be part of a system

to make any changes at all.

- Right. - Because,

if you just stay on the fringe,

it's very hard to get people

to listen to you.

What do young people want in Hong Kong?

Are they different than the generation before?

Or are they ready to think about stuff

and get angry?

I think that society itself

is projecting a really unhealthy image

of what young people should be like.

Because there's always a model

of what the successful life is,

which is to get a house by 30,

have a family, that sort of thing.

It's not like you can actually change anything.

It's quite a pessimistic thing to say,

but it's... It's more about doing things

to keep yourself sane.

♪ It's nothing more than a stuff toy ♪

♪ With a smile that's so coy ♪

♪ Don't say what I'm trying to avoid ♪

♪ 'Cause everything has been destroyed ♪

♪ I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't ♪

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't take it anymore

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't, I can't ♪

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't ♪

♪ I can't, I can't

♪ I can't

♪ Ow

♪

I may be in the "Hey, you kids",

get off my lawn" phase of my life

and hostile in principle about changes

to age-old customs and traditions I love,

but it turns out that the new Hong Kong

has its hopeful aspects.

Oh, yes. This is bread and dip.

This is sourdough, chicken fat,

chicken stock, egg waffle.

And this is a Taiwanese bottarga.

So just use your hands. Wow.

I am immediately happy.

Chef-owner May Chow

is the creative force behind Happy Paradise,

a restaurant and bar

serving traditional Cantonese dishes

made with modern cooking techniques.

Joining us are Jenny Suen

and feng shui master Thierry Chow.

Oh, my God, this food is great.

How long have you been open?

Seven months, only.

Wait a minute. Only seven months?

- Yeah, yeah. - So this is your new baby.

It was a little bit more reflection

about being Chinese. Like, how do I be modern

but not lose the soul of it?

Now, how important...

And I should be asking... I should be asking you this...

Feng shui is something I know nothing about.

When you moved into the space,

did you consult?

- She's my friend, yeah. - I was guessing.

She's my friend.

Feng shui is just the environment

and the relationship between the environment

and the people.

When you're in a restaurant,

when you're eating the food, the space matters.

It...

It changes the way you taste the food.

So when you look at this space,

what are you looking for and what do you do?

There's a couple things.

So number one is, I use a compass.

So we're northeast, southwest.

So from there, we have a formula,

and then that will tell us where the best chi is.

- What is chi? - The energy

that are given off by the universe.

So I look around, and I see the colors

of the decorations and how the furnitures are.

And then I can say, "Okay, are these good placements?"

♪

It's all about the flow of energy,

where... where you're looking at,

where the light comes from.

Which is so... Wait a minute.

But a lot of what...

A lot of what you've been saying

in fact reminds me

of a certain cinematographer right now.

Exactly.

I wouldn't know.

Positive energy harnessed appropriately,

one can turn one's full attention

to the food.

Sautéed prawns with pomelo pith,

fried shrimp roe, and prawn oil.

Those are dishes that I feel even Hong Kong people

don't do it so much anymore,

because it's such an old-fashioned dish.

So we want to make it cool again.

Tea smoked pigeon, served medium-rare,

sea salt on the side.

A Hakka-style chicken,

poached in Shaoxing wine

with oyster mushroom fried rice

and shitake broth.

Again, this would feel

like a very traditional Cantonese dish.

But it's not, because it doesn't

really exist in its form and combination.

Pig brain with burnt pear vinaigrette.

All of it truly,

stunningly delicious.

There's something that I think

binds all of us together, which is,

we're trying to reinterpret Hong Kong culture

in a way that makes sense to us.

I think as we're getting older,

we start to actually enjoy our own culture.

Think that's why you do that movie about "The White Girl."

Or she does, you know, her feng shui.

Because you want to create something new...

- Yeah. - That represents the city

as it is today.

♪

♪

Okay, this is my prawn grove noodle.

Do you see how... This is the part I...

Wanna try it? Yes, please.

- What do you think? - I love this.

Douglas Young is the founder and creative force

behind the Hong Kong lifestyle brand G.O.D.

Okay, this is a classic.

So it's the same stuff, but without the prawn.

I'm told that, what, two,

maybe three people left in all of Hong Kong

are making bamboo noodles the old-school way.

- That's right. - I mean, I've seen this

process once before, it's incredible.

♪

Lao Soong Kee is run by the third generation

of a family who still prepare

their wontons from scratch...

♪

And make their noodles, their bamboo noodles,

the painfully labor-intensive,

time-consuming, old-school way.

♪

One of the last operations in Hong Kong

to do this.

♪

It is one of many things in this city

that are under pressure or disappearing.

A lot of traditional crafts,

buildings... Yep.

Are, without remorse or sentiment,

being bulldozed away.

Well, that's the story of Hong Kong, you know?

Hong Kong is always going through change,

and nothing's precious, it's as if...

As if, you know, if something's old,

it's, like, torn down, thrown away,

destroyed. That's Hong Kong.

♪

When I was a kid, all the shopping

used to be done on the street.

There did not used to be shopping malls.

I miss the buildings three stories high,

instead of like glass facades.

And actually, I think also

in the way people dress, as well.

'Cause the people around here,

they dress in this kind of strange mix.

I mean, even the look of Chinese characters,

to me, is very interesting.

But it's disappearing because, actually,

mainland China is trying to get rid

of our Hong Kong style of writing.

We'll lose that as well.

♪

Those are beautiful to me.

The things that continually fascinating...

- Yeah. - Fascinate me about...

That's what the city is about.

But those are disappearing.

Those are disappearing because I think

the government wants to present an image

that is like modern and Western.

And so we've got to clean ourselves

of these sort of messy...

- Yeah. - Street people.

And I think that's... I hate that.

Yeah, but I think actually

our generation, the new generation,

is beginning to appreciate what we have,

because we grew up in a wealthy period,

and we had happy childhood memories.

So we wanted to preserve that.

I really see it happening in Hong Kong.

Finally.

♪