Life Style

A panther gazes straight at the camera in a striking black-and-white photo taken by German photographer Lars Beusker, showing just how breathtaking images of animals can be.Beusker, who was named “Nature Photographer of the Year 2022” at the US-based International Photography Awards, takes his wildlife photos exclusively in black and white.“In black-and-white photography, no colours distract from the subject,” he says.“The eye focuses exclusively on the animals. This increases the intensity of the photo.”A photo of a panther by Beusker. Photo: Instagram/larsbeuskerA photo of a baby snow monkey being massaged by its mother by Beusker. Photo: Instagram/larsbeuskerAs with portraits of humans, an animal photo’s composition, exposure and mood are important, Beusker says.

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is not easy. Rama, a young musician from the Indonesian capital Jakarta and the protagonist in the visual novel game Afterlove EP, experiences this after the death of his girlfriend Cinta. He is at a low point and he cannot get her voice out of his head.While he continues to struggle after a year of mourning, an important performance is coming up. His band finally wants to release their first major EP.Time is running out and Rama wants to overcome his personal crisis and become the band’s frontman again.Afterlove EP is the final work of video game designer Mohammad Fahmi, who died in 2022. Fahmi also made the indie games Coffee Talk and What Comes After, both released in 2020.It tells a quiet and sensitive story of grief, new beginnings and the power of...

Opportunity can come knocking at any time. For chef John Troupis, it came almost two decades ago while he was clearing tables at a restaurant in St Louis, in the US state of Missouri.The then 14-year-old was working as a busboy when, on a particularly busy night, the dishwasher failed to show up.Troupis offered to fill in and found that the kitchen, unlike the front of house, was hectic and stressful. He was hooked.Around the same time, he had his mind blown by The French Laundry Cookbook, a beautifully photographed tome comprising 150 recipes that was co-written by the restaurant’s chef and owner, Thomas Keller.At Jean-Pierre, Troupis serves French bistro classics such as steak tartare, duck confit, onion soup, escargots and boeuf bourguignon. Photo: Jelly Tse“I picked it up in a bookstor...

The high-speed bullet train says Japan as much as Godzilla, sushi and Mount Fuji. And it takes centre stage in Shinji Higuchi’s new film Bullet Train Explosion, which premiered on Netflix this week.Higuchi, the director of the 2016 film Shin Godzilla, has reimagined the 1975 Japanese film The Bullet Train, which has the same premise: a bomb will go off if the train slows to below 100km/h (62mph).That movie also inspired Hollywood’s Speed, starring Keanu Reeves, which takes place mostly on a bus.Higuchi recalls being fascinated by the aerodynamically shaped bullet trains growing up as they roared by, almost like a violent animal. To him, as to many Japanese, the Shinkansen – as the trains are called in Japan – symbolise the nation’s efforts to become “top-rate”, superfast, precise, orderly ...

Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans burst onto the action scene with The Raid (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014), a bone-crushing brace of visceral Indonesian martial arts films that propelled its leading men to international stardom.His new film, Havoc, stars Tom Hardy and trades the sweaty streets of Jakarta for a gritty unnamed city on the United States’ east coast in the midst of a blood-soaked gang war.Shooting the film in the UK was a gruelling process stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic, union strikes and clashing schedules.But Havoc arrives on Netflix on April 25, with an international cast including Timothy Olyphant, Jessie Mei Li, Sunny Pang and Yeo Yann Yann.Speaking to the Post, Evans says Havoc is his love letter to the so-called heroic bloodshed film genre – which came out of Hong Kong and o...

According to research firm Statista, Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users. Upon scrolling the app, it is clear that Instagrammers are wild about food, food, food.Instagram users eat with their eyes, and many foodies who post videos and photos know one thing: social media does not demand perfection – when it comes to food, at least.Instead, the focus is on authenticity, on getting a glimpse of real life, and there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to photographing things like pasta, burgers and salads.Nevertheless, a certain amount of planning is involved in creating food content. This can be split into two parts: the cooking of a dish, and the staging of it for the camera. Finally, with a view to future social media posts, there should be some running theme or ...

Christiaan Stoop, the executive chef of three-Michelin-star Taian Table Shanghai, takes over the Mandarin Bar + Grill in the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong hotel for three days from April 24.The Dutch chef is known for serving tasting menus that blend French technique with global influences, such as pairing Hokkaido scallops with Iberico pork, and infusing delicate desserts with Chinese teas. He was awarded two knives, signifying “world class” status, at The Best Chef Awards in 2024.On the tasting menu (HK$2,888/US$370) in Hong Kong will be signature dishes such as sea urchin on sourdough with brown butter; torched Carabinero prawns with sea asparagus and kumquat kosho, a Japanese seasoning; as well as confit toothfish with scampi and wild fennel in bouillabaisse sauce.It is a menu that spea...

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.New York has such an established Chinese population that the city is home to multiple Chinatowns.The original, in Lower Manhattan, is one of the oldest and biggest Chinese enclaves in the United States.Pell Street in Lower Manhattan Chinatown in 1979. Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThe neighbourhood’s population was estimated to be more than 100,000 at its peak in the s...

Carolina Lasso’s first panic attack came at a company-wide meeting, right before her scheduled presentation. She had given many similar talks about her marketing team’s accomplishments. When her name was called this time, she could not speak.“I felt a knot in my throat,” she says. “My head, it felt like it was inside a bubble. I could not hear, I could not see, and it felt like an eternity. It was just a few seconds, but it was so profound, and in a way, earth-shattering to me.”Lasso was struggling after a cross-country move followed by a divorce. Her boss suggested mental health leave, a possibility she did not know existed.She worried whether taking time off would affect how her team viewed her or cost her a future promotion, but in the end she took it.“I’m thankful for that opportunity ...

3/5 starsIt is all doom and gloom for the first-time mother at the heart of Montages of a Modern Motherhood, a meticulously observed and wonderfully acted drama but one that may not connect with a wider audience because of its unusual, and almost perverse, resolve to paint new parenthood as a completely joyless experience.It marks the much anticipated return of writer-director Oliver Chan Siu-kuen, whose 2019 hit Still Human is regarded by many as one of the best first features by a Hong Kong filmmaker in the past decade. Yet the new film could not be more different in tone than her heartwarming debut.Chan, who has a five-year-old son herself, has expressed the hope that viewers will develop a better understanding of the postnatal struggles of women through her film. Ironically, Montages o...