Day #22,749

Walk km 16,304-16,307: running errands

Movie #2467: Girl Gang (1954, Robert C Dertano)

It's amateur hour again. Timothy Farrell is a one man organized crime boss. He sells drugs to school kids, runs a chop shop for stolen cars, has his hop headed girls have sex with old coots so he can blackmail them, teaches youngsters how to shoot heroin, keeps a disgraced doc around for medical emergencies, has his hop headed kids have sex with him, has those same kids stick up gas stations and has some kid playing boogie-woogie piano! And he does it all in 62 minutes.
My favourite scene: doped up chick shoots a gas station attendant then throws the gun at the wounded man who picks it up and starts shooting back!
Loads of fun. 

Day #22,746-748

Walk km 16,276-16,288: Stanley Park
Walk km 16,288-16,301: Meetup walk, UBC to downtown
Walk km 16,301-16,304 (6444 to go): to T&T

Movie #2466: I The Jury (1953, Harry Essex)

A Mike Hammer story done up comic book style. Unfortunately, they went a bit too far when they cast Biff Elliot as Hammer. The worst acting job in the history of Hollywood? Probably.

Day #22,745

Walk km 16,273-16,276: running errands

Movie #2465: Mighty Jerome (2010, Charles Officer)

Documentary of Harry Jerome. Started watching on the plane and finished by getting the DVD from the library. Harry was a world record holder in the 100 meters/yards back in the days when track and field athletes weren't on drugs. Excellent.

Day #22,744

Walk km 16,269-16,272: early morning Victoria Park walk
Walk km 16,272-16,273 (6471 to go): back home

This is the last of my southeast Asia walks. My goal off 300 km has been successfully completed..

Movie rewatch: Bobby Fischer Against The World (2011, Liz Garbus)
Watched this on the plane. I knew I'd seen a Bobby Fischer doc before and it was this one. Still a good pick compared to the other stuff available.

Movie #2464: How I Live Now (Kevin MacDonald, 2013)

Listed under "avant-garde" on the plane. This is a kid's movie about a American teen going to the UK just as WorldWar III breaks out. But the really important thing is that she falls in love. Crap.

TV Episode #99: The Goldbergs - The Circle Of Driving (2013, Adam Goldberg)
Horrible. I know I saw it on a plane but that doesn't have anything to do with it: this is just out-and-out gawdawful.

Day #22,741-22,743

Walk km 16,225-16,243: last walks in Vietnam
Walk km 16,243-16,248: Victoria Park Hong Kong
Walk km 16,248-16,255: morning walk in Victoria Park
Walk km 16,255-16,269: North Point to Star Ferries (both sides of Victoria Harbour)

Movie #2463: The Hitcher (1986,  Robert Harmon)

There are so many holes in this plot that you soon realize what you're watching is a fairy tale not an action adventure flic. Exactly who is John Ryder and why has he been sent to make Jim Halsey's life a living hell?
Since Jim was starting to nod off at the start of the picture I guess a dream would be as good a guess as any.
A lot of fun.

Day #22,737-740

Walk km 16,156-16,190: 2 more walks around West Lake
Walk km 16,190-16,207: walking in Ho Chi Minh City (including getting lost)
Walk km 16,207-16,210: early morning walk in the park
Walk km 16,210-16,213: late morning walk in the park
Walk km 16,213-16,225: evening walk

Movie #2462: Rock all Night (1957, Roger Corman)

Roger does his take on "The Petrified Forest". Bunch of characters are holed up in a bar with two criminals who hope the cops won't find them. Lots of dramatic situations bring out the true character of each person in the bar. Dick Miller provokes most of the action. Fun.

Day #22,736

Walk km 16,137-16,156: around West Lake (Hanoi)

Movie #2461 The Hanging Tree (1959, Delmer Daves)

None too exciting western of a doc (Gary Cooper) with a past. Interesting character parts for Karl Malden and George C Scott. Probably looked real nice back in '59 at the Bijou but there's not really anything in this plot to be of any interest. 

Day #22,735

 Walk km 16,120-16,137: still more Hanoi walking

Movie #2460: Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes (1974, Bill Brame)

There is a certain charm to this Grade-Z blaxsploition entry. It's mainly due to the amateur style of the film and the leading role played by Paul Harris (although the white dude with a much smaller role gets top billing).

Day #22,734

Walk km 15,103-16,117: more Hanoi walking

Movie #2458: A Thousand Pleasures (1968, Michael Findlay)

Wow! The great thing about skin flics is that if the director adds the required amount of nudity to the film, he's pretty much free to fill the rest of the film with whatever he wants. In this one, we have a guy driving down a rural road in his station wagon with his dead wife in the back. He stops to pick up two hitchhikers. Then things start to get weird.
Special kudos for whoever was in charge of selecting the music. Especially effective where those "Ancient Airs And Dances" type stuff during the nude parts - added a touch of class!

Movie #2459: Take The Money And Run (1969, Woody Allen)
Another pleasant evening spent with Woody Allen. I don't find him hilariously funny but most of his movies are nice breezy affairs with a few chuckles.

Day #22,733

Walk km 16,085-16,103: walking in Hanoi

Movie #2457: Cheap Thrills (2013, E L Katz)

Fable concerning the evil that money can do. Our hero degrades himself more and more for easy money until he's monetarily rich but spiritually worthless. Did keep me glued to the screen throughout. 

Day #22,731-732

Movie #2456: Nashville Rebel (1966, Jay Sheridan)

Another contender for worst movie ever made. The point of interest here is that the star of this turkey is non other than Buddy Holly's old guitar player, Waylon Jennings. Waylon plays an up and coming country singer who's as dumb as a stump. The villain of the piece makes his first appearance in the picture smoking a cigarette through a holder! Huge amount of padding supplied by country stars of the day playing their current hits. Tex Ritter sings :"Hillbilly Heaven" - Loretta Lynn sings 'You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)".

Day #22,729-730

Walk 16.060-16,085: more walking in Taiwan

Kaohsiung - photo taken by Alice - my camera is broken


Movie #2455: John Goldfarb Please Come Home (1965, J Lee Thompson)

It's krazy and it's kooky but is it funny? No.

Day #22,725-728

Walk 16,014-16,060: walking in Taiwan

camera is malfunctioning - no pictures

Day #22,724

Walk km 16,005-16,012: to end of Nathan Rd and back
Walk km 16,012-16,014: looking for restaurant

Hong Kong night scene
approx km 16,006

Movie #2454: The Lively Set (1964, Jack Arnold)

I was quite surprised by the production values here. A James Darren movie? The plot may be hackneyed but  everything else says "A" picture. The final race scenes were especially well done.

Day #22,723

Walk km 15,990-16,001: north east from Hotel
Walk km 16,001-16,005: Avenue Of The Stars

boat
approx km 16,003 between Kowloon & Hong Kong Island

Day #22,722

Walk km 15,971-15,981: Mong Kok to Chatham Rd Hong Kong
Walk km 15,981-15,988: to Waterloo @ Cornwall and return
Walk km 15,988-15,990: out to eat

typical street scenes
Kowloon

Movie rewatch: The Trial (1962, Orson Welles)
I just read the book a few months back and thought (incorrectly) that Kafka meant The Law to be a metaphor for life itself. But doesn't Orson agree: don't those cathedral doors look like the doors to The Law? Or was I just seeing things?

Day #22,720-721

Walk 15,969-15,971: short walks Vancouver & Hong Kong

above: British Columbia
below: Siberia

Movie #2451: Stromboli   (1950, Robert Rossellini)
Movie #2452: Assault on Precinct 13 (2005, Jean-Francois Richet)
Movie #2453: Like Father Like Son (2013, Hirokazu Koreeda)

Three strinker on a plane. Stromboli is very earnest but I'm just not religious so I was not won over.
The remake of Assault On Precinct 13 was just plain crap. Why do people keep remaking good movies? The good ones don't need to be remade. Why not remake the bad ones and improve them?
Like Father Like Son was another earnest effort but it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Two babies were switched at birth and the error is not found until 6 years later. What are the parents to do? Obvious answer, right? Nope. These two couples go through all kinds of angst before finally deciding on the wrong answer.

Day #22,719

Walk km  15,966-15,969: running errands

Movie #2450: Kalinovski Square (2007, Yury Khashchevatskiy)

Documentary about Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and the 2006 election. The filmakers use sarcasm to make fun of the dictator and his minions. Turns out that Lukashenko makes George W Bush look like an intellectual. He admits to having scanned "War And Peace" but found that it was fiction so lost interest!
As of this writing, Lukashenko is still in power. It doesn't matter how stupid you are, as long as you're brutal and ruthless enough, you will succeed.