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Still very much a work in progress, this blog is my response to The Critic, a professional Hong Kong film critic who suggested I start one to share my thoughts on the films he takes me to see every week. I resisted the suggestion. "I'm a literary translator, not a film critic," I said. Besides, I suspected this was The Critic's polite attempt to get me to shut up so he could get back to reading his book.

At last, however, I had to concede that he was right. I have watched so many films over the last two-plus years that I have inevitably formed some strong opinions. Given that the focus of my criticism reflects a preference for story and character development and is often very different from The Critic's, I finally decided my thoughts might even be worth sharing. So here I am, an accidental film critic.

Life in Hong Kong is more than just the movies, however, and I want my blog to reflect that. Life in Hong Kong looks very different depending on who's doing the looking. For what it's worth, here's my take.

P.S. - For readers outside of Hong Kong, HK release dates are shown at the top of each film review post, but might be somewhat different from wherever you are. Also, some future reviews might discuss a past release -- I have a backlog! Besides, there are always movies-on-demand services like Netflix, right?