The Fall of the Giants

This morning the world is surprised by the news that the last two surviving investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have applied the US Federal Reserve Board to have their status changed into a bank which can take deposits. By this move it marks the end of an era of investment banking industry in the US.

As "normal" banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley can open branches and take deposits in order to bolster their financial position. From now on they are subject to regulation by the Fed. It ends the division between investment and regular banking in the US.

Earlier this year investment bank Bearn Sterns collapsed in the wake of the financial turmoils and was sold to JP Morgan, a week ago Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy protection while Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank Of America. What is left now are only a few small boutique securities firms.

In less than a year since the mortgage crisis hit the global financial markets, gone are the giants that once dominated the investment banking industry...

Yee Chuen Leung
Chief Editor

A March Through Bitter Sea

The young inexperienced journalist George Hogg ventures out to the front at Nanking to report on the war. As an eyewitness to atrocities committed by the Japanese army Hogg finds his own life in jeopardy. Saved by Chinese communist fighters he finally ends up in an abandoned orphanage in the remote Huang Shi.

Hogg feels compassion for the life of those neglected orphans. Despite the fact that he cannot speak a word Chinese, Hogg tries to build trust with those young boys, and from thence to give them some education. When the war is drawing alarmingly near to Huang Shi, Hogg decides to march with the children over the mountains to the much safer Shandan that is located 1100 km further away in the desert. This is in brief the true story of the children of Huang Shi.

The cast of The Children Of Huang Shi is above average with big names such Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. The seasoned Hollywood director Spottiswoode however did not get more out of it than a mediocre movie. Jonathan Rhys Meyers acting is sympathetic and vigorous. Radha Mitchell, as a tough nurse, is a worthy match to Meyers and her acting shows strong vigor and valor.

Chow Yun Fat shows that he is great actor but as a hardened communist warrior he seems to be very talkative. Like a schoolteacher he dwells on the so-called Bitter Sea, which seems to be an ancient name for China.

Spottiswoode has made serious efforts to portray the relationship between Meyers and the children of Huang Shi. He however failed to further deepen those ties in the movie. Also, the personal traumas of the young boys are not further explained.

Michelle Yeoh plays a brilliance role in The Children Of Huang Shi. As a female trader she does her acting with much grace and eloquence. She seems to feel affected by the charm of the young and handsome Meyers, but as a wise Chinese lady she knows well how to hide her personal feelings. Director Spottiswoode has done a great job by capturing this piece of great acting.

The pace and tension are high at the start of The Children Of Huang Shi. Spottiswoode however did not manage to keep hold of them in the course of the movie. At the end tension has turned level giving the audience a hard time to keep theirselves focused.

The camera crew did the filming excellently. The shots of magnificent sceneries are unequalled, adding an extra dimension to the movie. Although originally set up as a war epic, The Children of Huang Shi has become a bit more like documentaries when slices of interview with surviving orphans are shown who make tribute to their hero George Hogg.

Despite the little flaws the ordeal on The Children of Huang Shi has to be a positive one. The significance of this movie lies in the fact that it draws our attention to a war in that part of the world which is little known to us, and it reminds us of the achievements of the long forgotten war hero Hogg and the “little Long March” that the children of Huang Shi have made more than sixty years ago.

Yee Chuen Leung
Chief Editor

Clark Field Airport

Under the watchful eyes of volcano Pinatubo we board our plane bound for Kota Kinabalu. Flying from Clark Field Airport was an lasting experience.

It takes nearly two hours from Manila to Clark Field by cab. Our driver Anthony, who is a Filipino guy from ethnic Chinese origin, is driving fast and aggressively.

Not far from Clark Field the volcano Pinatubo rises up from the horizon. It was a threatening and awesome view. Our cab got off the highway at Angeles; it appeared that one has got to pass by the red light district Angeles City in order to reach Clark Field Airport. It was a miserable looking slump.

Clark Field Airport is located in the newly designated special economic zone. Until the latest eruption of the volcano it served as the most significant US airbase in the Pacific. But thanks to Pinatubo it is turned into a civil airport for discount airliners like Air Asia, Asiana and Tiger Air. The security is still very tight where our cab has to pass by a score of military checkpoints before reaching the terminal building proper.

Passengers have to queue up outside the terminal building where their passports and tickets are examined before hand by a cheeky but pretty looking Philippine lady. We have to endure her bullshit talks and insults before we might enter the actual departure hall.

The departure hall was small and Spartan looking. Passengers were packed together like bunches of sheep. After various security checks we finally reached the gate. I rushed to the male toilet, time for a good pee. Gosh! Much to my surprise and irritation there was only one tiny toilet for men to available. And it was already occupied!

The queue before the shit hole was growing and we all did not understand why that moron needs that much time to do his shitting. Finally, it was my turn. When I came out, I was almost overrun by two young Korean bulies who apparently could not hold it out anymore...

At the gate there was only a small canteen where you could get almost nothing. Coffee was a cup of hot water poured out from a thermos! There was a television set in the gate showing a Philippino soap. The noise was that load that it yelled the hell out of you. And no one understood since most of the passengers were foreigner...

It was getting dark when our aircraft finally arrived. Walking over the tarmac we headed to our plane. It was a relief that volcano Pinatubo remains quiet before we got rid of this place...

Yee Chuen Leung
Chief Editor

A passionate espionage thriller

One may wonder what the Taiwanese director Ang Lee wants to tell in his latest movie Lust, Caution (Se Jie). The sudden end of the story that started so promising gives the audience a sense of dissatisfaction. Does it have to do with the facts that the personages did not meet their own goals?

, acted by Wei Tang, who sees herself getting more and more entrapped into a dangerous plot of intrigues and espionage. In there, her mission is to lure the with Japanese collaborating politician Yee, played by Tony Leung, into a trap.

Eye-catchers are the gorgeous Chinese dresses Wei Tang is wearing and the nostalgic atmosphere that encompasses the city of Shanghai in the late thirties of the last century. Bonuses are the gracious beauty of the actress Wei Tang and together with the subdue charm of Tony Leung that make Lust, Caution a real gem. It also reminds you of the other great movie In the mood for love (2000) by Wong Kar-Wai.

There is however a sharp contrast between both films. The last one was a kind of love story that overwhelms you by an avalanche of vivid colors and sounding melodies while Lust, Caution is an espionage thriller under the setting of the grim Japanese occupation of China.

The title Lust, Caution reveals the essence of the story: it is all about passion and lust but also caution. Wang raises her stakes in order to lure the politician Yee into a trap where her fellows can assassinate him. The game of seduction conducted by the irresistible Tang Wei combined with the cautious approaches by the scrupulous and calculating Tony Leung shows glimpses of great acting.

One of the best-acted scenes is not the explicit sex scenes but the one where Wang is singing a song to minister Yee in a Japanese geisha house. Much to the surprise of the audience Yee seems to be really touched by the song and he shows his real emotions for the very first time.

The acting by Tony Leung in Lust, Caution is absolutely fabulous. Newcomer Wei Tang, however, also did her part well and proves that she can be a good match for the veteran movie star from Hong Kong. The fact that Lust, Caution is laden with scores of Golden Horse Trophies at the film festival in Taipei last December only underscores this.

There are of course some critical notes on Lust, Caution. The film is rather long, and it sometimes looks to drag on that slowly that the tension it tries to build up is losing steam. The focus is too much set on seduction and eroticism that make the movie rather like a love story than a war epic. The positive elements however prevail in Lust, Caution that makes it worth watching.

Yee Chuen Leung
Chief Editor