24

Friday night Teresa asked if I wanted to see a movie with her. She said that One Night in Monkok was playing as part of the New York Asian Film fest. It had won a number of Hong Kong film awards.

I met her at the theater at six. We wandered in and found seats. A man gave out slips of paper for a drawing. Teresa said she wasn't interested. "It's probably a poster," she said. I said that if the prize was two round-trip tickets to Hong Kong I wouldn't invite her.

Just before the film began a man walked up on stage with the prizes. There was a mug, three DVDs, a book on Asian horror films, and a poster of Ji-woon Kim's film A Tale of Two Sisters. I leaned over to Teresa and whispered, "I hope I don't win."

He introduced the film, remarking how one of the protagonists was an "older man. In his mid-thirties." Teresa started laughing. The entire row shook with her mirth.

The movie was terrible. At times It wanted to be Infernal Affairs, but was a flat, washed-out film. I had heard of the recent sorry state of Hong Kong films, and seeing the film unfortunately confirmed it.

Afterwards we walked to Chinatown to eat pho. Teresa mentioned she was seeing a friend afterwards to watch 24. She had bought the DVDs and they were currently in the middle of season three. I asked Teresa if she thought her friend would lend me season one. She said she'd ask.

We walked across the street and she introduced me to Vivian. Her apartment was cute and cool. An air-conditioner whirred in a window. She handed me the DVDs, still sealed in the package. I asked her if she wanted to open it. She said no, as long as I opened it carefully. "No teeth marks," she said.

At midnight I decided to watch an episode of the show before going to bed. I had heard a lot about it but never seen it. I put the first DVD in. Four episodes later, I had to force myself to stop. I was meeting Eric in the morning for brunch before seeing A Brighter Summer Day at MoMA, a four-hour Edward Yang film. Posted by eku at June 27, 2005 9:13 AM