Life Style

Independent filmmaker Jenifer McShane travelled to the US state of Missouri to make her second documentary about prison life, focusing on an unusual group of men at South Central Correctional Centre south of St Louis.The access she was given inside the maximum security facility included permission to screen the film for the inmates. Along the way, she learned an important lesson about what not to do when showing a movie inside a prison.In a “rookie moment”, McShane said in an interview last year, “I accidentally started to go up to turn off the lights – because you always watch a movie without lights on. Well, not in a max prison. So they all rush, ‘Jen! No, no, no.’”“Aside from that rookie mistake, it was probably the most moving [screening] I’ve ever done because they were riveted, and t...

Nutmeg is a spice that is used sparingly. Many recipes call for just a few “scrapes” or “grinds” of it because its flavour and aroma are so pervasive.Once it is ground, those dissipate quickly, so it is better to buy whole nutmeg, which keeps for a long time, and grate it just before use; there are special nutmeg graters, but a Microplane also works well.The nutmeg is not actually a nut; rather, it is the hard seed of a fruit. It is covered by a delicate, reddish-orange, weblike mace, which is also used as a spice. The nutmeg tree is indigenous to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, although it is now also grown in other places.Nutmeg can be steamed and distilled to produce essential oil, which is used to help digestive problems, stimulate the appetite and act as an anti-inflammatory.Nutmeg is...

Summer has arrived in Hong Kong and, according to the Chinese almanac, this weekend is great for – you have guessed it – going out and meeting friends. Try to avoid renovating the kitchen or having your hair and nails done, though.Here are our top five picks of things to do in Hong Kong this weekend.1. Ginsanity at PMQThe annual gin extravaganza is back for another year at Central’s PMQ, and the weather is looking favourable for some alfresco drinking.Ginsanity returns to PMQ in Central. Photo: HandoutThe festival brings together more than 100 distilleries from Hong Kong and around the world, and entry is free – pay for drinks as you go, with cocktails priced from HK$75 (US$9.60). Grab a Ginsanity reusable cup for HK$30 or bring your own.If there’s a gin you take a shine to, bottles can be...

“A waterfront pavilion gets to enjoy the moonlight first.” This is a Chinese saying that explains how someone can benefit from being close to those with influence – and it more or less describes how Hong Kong resident Jaden He Jingde, a veteran martial arts director and Cirque du Soleil alum, landed in the reboot of House of Dancing Water in Macau.Originally directed by Franco Dragone, best known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, House of Dancing Water ran from 2010 until 2020, when Covid-19 restrictions forced the aquatic show to close down.Dragone died in 2022, but the show was revamped by his long-time collaborator Giuliano Peparini and reopened on May 7.“I worked with Franco and Guiliano in [Las] Vegas,” says He. “When the production company decided to incorporate more martial arts i...

What is good design? Too often in Hong Kong design is judged according to the safe, practical standards of corporations and institutions, two disrupters from the contemporary art world feel.To shake things up, the pair have launched a design festival called Postapalooza. Dozens of distinctive and striking posters submitted by artists from across East Asia, both amateur and professional, are on display at Heath, the hip culture hub in the basement of Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, until June 12.Kenny X. Li, founder of experimental visual magazine Yep Yep, and Eunice Tsang, founder of alternative art space Current Plans, say their open call for submissions yielded around 200 designs by artists from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and T...

This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.Sometimes troubled productions can create powerful cinema. Other times they create disasters like Xiao Feng’s 2018 film Air Strike.Rumoured at the time to be the most expensive Chinese film ever made, it was conceived to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in the second world war, and features a prestige international cast, from Chinese favourites Liu Ye and Fan Wei to American stars Bruce Willis, Adrien Brody and Rumer Willis, Bruce’s daughter.The fact that Mel Gibson is credited as a consultant suggests he was once in the frame to direct, perhaps alongside cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), who was a...

Chinatowns are often portrayed as gritty underworlds riddled with prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking. Some of this is rooted in truth, but that unfair depiction is largely the result of rampant xenophobia and cultural ignorance, especially in the West.In a series of articles, the Post explores the historical and social significance of major Chinatowns around the world and the communities that shape them.Given the distance and language barrier, it is hard to imagine how, a century ago, the Chinese population of Mexicali, a border city between Mexico and the US, outnumbered the local Mexican population in size.It was that generation of Chinese migrants who built La Chinesca, or “The Chinese” in English – the oldest Chinatown in Mexico.One of the earliest records of Chinese presence ...

3.5/5 starsTowards the end of Kei Ishikawa’s visually captivating new film A Pale View of Hills, Niki (Camilla Aiko) tells her mother, Etsuko (Yoh Yoshida), she shouldn’t feel guilty about leaving Japan for Britain after the second world war. “We all need to change,” she says.For Etsuko, that comment rings very true: trapped by both the trauma of war and the tyranny of patriarchy, reinvention was perhaps Etsuko’s only option to attain a more rewarding life.But some of Ishikawa’s changes to the 1982 novel on which his film is based, by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro – in which a middle-aged Japanese woman offers her daughter a montage of memories about her life as a meek homemaker in Japan in the 1950s – may come across as unnecessary.By amplifying the book’s much more muted soci...

Lewis Pugh has followed an unspoken rule during his career as one of the world’s most daring endurance swimmers: do not talk about sharks. But he plans to break that this week on a swim around Martha’s Vineyard, where Jaws was filmed 50 years ago.The British-South African was the first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world – and has taken on extreme conditions everywhere from Mount Everest to the Arctic.“On this swim, it’s very different: we’re just talking about sharks all the time,” joked Pugh, who will, as usual, wear no wetsuit.For his swim around Martha’s Vineyard in 8-degree Celsius (47-degree Fahrenheit) water he will wear just trunks, a cap and goggles.Pugh, 55, is undertaking the challenge because he wants to change public perception around the now at...

With World Whisky Day drawing near – it’s May 17, for the uninitiated – many this weekend may be looking to sip the spirit neat and unperturbed, either at home or at one of Hong Kong’s many well-heeled whisky-focused establishments. One such place is the Ginza-inspired Mizunara: The Library, which has been one of the best spots to enjoy Japanese-style bartending, service and atmosphere – complete with its own Zen garden – anywhere in Hong Kong, and is helmed by group beverage director Masahiko Endo and bar manager Massimo Petovello.If you choose to celebrate World Whisky Day at Mizunara, you can enjoy a wee dram from the bar’s stellar collection or, alternatively, via a precisely mixed cocktail such as the signature Smoky Manhattan.Mizunara Group beverage director Masahiko Endo. Photo: Han...