Culture was the central point of my reason to start this blog. I thought that there was so much to explore in Asian culture to try and understand the future.
Initially my interest was focused very much on Japan and Hong Kong. It’s ironic that before the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ initiative there was much more content out there about what was happening in Japan. Great and really missed publications like the Japan Trends blog and Ping magazine.
Hong Kong’s film industry had past its peak in the mid 1990s, but was still doing interesting stuff and the city was a great place to synthesise both eastern and western ideas to make them its own. Hong Kong because its so densely populated has served as a laboratory of sorts for the mobile industry.
Way before there was Uber Eats or Food Panda, Hong Kongers would send their order over WhatsApp before going over to pay for and pick up their food. Even my local McDonalds used to have a WhatsApp number that they gave out to regular customers. All of this worked because Hong Kong was a higher trust society than the UK or China. In many respects in terms of trust, its more like Japan.
Korea quickly became a country of interest as I caught the ‘Korean wave’ or hallyu on its way up. I also have discussed Chinese culture and how it has synthesised other cultures.
More recently, aspect of Chinese culture that I have covered has taken a darker turn due to a number of factors.
In sharp contrast to the wall-to-wall kinetic-driven nature of action films in general; Dragged Across Concrete is a well-paced crime film.
The role of smartphone shot video dragged it kicking and screaming into the modern day via Rodney King.
The film reminded me of a number of others:
The Usual Suspects and Magnolia for its multi-threaded plot. It was interesting to see how the director managed to drop some threads sooner than others
Quentin Tarantino for his emphasis on dialogue, even to the point of awkwardness. And the resurrection of Don Johnson as a film star – which worked really well in this film
Michael Mann’s Heat for the meticulous planning of the crime and the way Gibson’s character continuously weighed up his options in terms of probability. It was kind of like being inside the head of the DeNiro character in Heat
Dragged Across Concrete owes a lot to Spaghetti Westerns with its stand offs pacing and anti-heroes. All action comes with consequences which is very unlike the fireworks of Hollywood. It owes more to the realism of Sergio Corbucci‘s action films.
There are odd moments like the gimp masked thug who finances the robbery van by robbing a pawn shop and convenience store. More film reviews here.
I got to see the Hellboy reboot. Make no mistake it’s flawed. It doesn’t have the synchronicity with the source material of Guillermo del Toro’s adaptations. It was great to see Daniel Dae Kim on film, but his English accent wasn’t great. It was right up there with Dick Van Dyk. There was an ensemble of supporting actors and the amazing Ian McShane. David Harbour does a good job filling Ron Perlman’s shoes as the title character.
The cinematography was really nicely done. There was something about the CGI that was both ambitious and felt cheap at the same time. I was reminded of Russian films like Guardians.
The script showed a great love for the comic source and at the same time the pacing, the dialogue was a bit punchier than del Toro, but the pacing didn’t feel right. But that doesn’t mean that it deserves the kicking that it has received in the media. Part of this is down to the fact Hellboy is going head-to-head in the box office with Shazam. Shazam is DC’s answer to Guardians of The Galaxy. A confection with the right degree of surrealism, humour and action.
Hellboy is darker and misses del Toro’s deft stylistic touch.
I quite like a number of flawed superhero films. I really enjoyed Ang Lee’s reboot of Hulk with Eric Bana and Nick Nolte. Yes it was artistic, but I could see why your average superhero film wouldn’t appreciate its symbolism.
Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone‘s problem wasn’t that it was a poor film but that reviewers couldn’t handle an accurate rendition of the Garth Ennis story in film. My favourite has to be the supposedly unfilmable Spawn. Amazing effects, the underrated Michael Jai White and Charlie Sheen hamming it up like his life depended on it. I am sure Hellboy will grace their number too. More related content here.
Easter Week has mean’t that I’ve been exceptionally busy closing things before taking the long weekend break. Easter isn’t a huge holiday in the Carroll household, but its the first break that we get since the Christmas holiday, so always welcome. For many students in Europe Easter signals a hard push on revision in advance of exams. If you are studying or relaxing Happy Easter and Passover.
Kerri Chandler went through one of his Dad’s record boxes, that he hadn’t previously opened. His Dad had been a DJ and inspired Chandler to get behind the turntables himself.
Chandler Senior’s box is an eclectic collection of songs but also had impeccable taste.
Cerrone – Love in C Minor (1976)
Kerri Chandler – Get It Off (1990)
Kerri Chandler – Super Lover (1990)
Kerri Chandler – Drink On Me (1990)
Ronnie Laws – Always There (1975)
The John Coltrane Quartet – Greensleeves (1961)
Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Summer Nights (1975)
The Impressions – People Get Ready (1965)
The Delfonics - Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) (1969)
Crown Heights Affair – Dreaming a Dream (Goes Dancin) (1976)
Crown Heights Affair – Dancin (Special Disco Mix) (1976)
The Dells – Always Together (1968)
The Dells – I Want My Momma (1968)
The Dells – Agatha Van Thurgood (1968)
Bob James – One Mint Julep (1976)
Bob James – Westchester Lady (1976)
Roy Ayers – Searching (1976)
Teena Marie – Portuguese Love (1981)
Jakki – Sun…Sun…Sun.. (1976)
Donald Byrd – Lansana’s Priestess (1973)
Roy Ayers – Running Away (1977)
Kerri Chandler – Atmosphere E.P. – Track 1 (1993)
Martin Circus – ‘Disco Circus (Disco Version) (1979)
Beats in Space put together yet another amazing mix
Amazon leaving China. Amazon bought into an e-commerce business which at the time had just over 10% of the country’s e-commerce market. At the time I had colleagues in Hong Kong who worked on promoting the newly acquired business. A number of years ago I spent an inordinate amount of time creating a three-page document pitch for the Amazon China business. At that time Amazon’s market share was between 1.5 and 2% of the Chinese e-commerce market place. Five years later and its down to 0.6%.
What’s going on? Like most things there are a wealth of factors impacting foreign competitors in China. But one big one that people probably don’t want to admit is that Silicon Valley isn’t insurmountable. For decades the US technology has managed to concentrate wealth and talent in a small place and then benefited from market scale. Europe has been unable to replicate this success. It’s home market is an aggregation of markets that aren’t as integrated or coalesce as well as the US. And US companies exploit the European single market treating as divisible international components illegally.
When US companies like Google, Uber and Amazon hit China they come up against:
Smart people – Chinese universities churn out huge amounts of developers, engineers, designers and business managers
Huge home market scale
Equally well motivated entrepreneurs who know their home market better than the foreigners. They are also willing to work very hard with a 996 culture
Local market conditions that are divergent from their own. For instance, Google failed to predict how fast it needed to grow its search indexing to match the Chinese web. Baidu kept throwing in the boxes needed. Google had lost when it suddenly changed its mind on censorship
Government regulation (but that isn’t as important as they’d have you believe in most cases)
Amazon thinks that its cross border business where Chinese consumers buy abroad from online will grow. Consumers do this to get products that they can trust. Domestic platforms have made big gains in this market sector too though.
I wouldn’t buy a Range Rover Evogue, even if I was richer than Bill Gates. But I did love this advert.
And this old video of Jim Carroll talking about ideas as they relate to account planning.
TLDR: version of my review is that its a thoroughly modern spy thriller.
The protagonist Elliot Kane is a British intelligence officer who has returned from Saudi Arabia to London. He is sent a video of himself in a room that he’s never been talking to a man that he doesn’t know. Harris takes the reader on a spy story that takes place in the Central Asian republics between China and Russia.
It is a thoroughly modern book:
Addressing the confluence of interests between government and businesses going abroad that had long driven policy and actions in Africa and the Middle East. But is now driving along the Silk Road with the expansion of China’s Belt & Road Initiative and the quest for oil and mining
Privatisation of military, cyber and intelligence capabilities. We know have a private intelligence and military industrial complex. Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen & Hamilton. Palantir do data analysis for intelligence, as does Detica for the UK. SCL Group ran outsourced psychological warfare programmes for western militaries and supported political interference in the developing world
Technology including modern information warfare over social media channels, fake news and deep fake videos. Even pretty crude efforts at the moment drive effective disinformation campaigns, deep fake video and audio completely undermines what the nature of truth is.
Kane comes across as a jaded, human bookish character more George Smiley than James Bond. Harris did his research really well. He brings alive the locations and the main characters.
If I had one criticism it would be that the end felt a bit rushed, rather like the author was trying to exceed a word count. Despite this I am happy recommending A Shadow Intelligence as a good leisure read. More book reviews here.
Faster Robots Demoralise Coworkers | Careers | Communications of the ACM – If you get the pace wrong would the effect of robots demoralise coworkers limit productivity? Is the future not robots augmenting coworkers, but replacing coworkers a more productive alternative. A Cornell-led team has found that when robots are beating humans in contests for cash prizes, people consider themselves less competent and expend slightly less effort—and they tend to dislike the robots – to be fair I’d expect to see something similar if the same person kept winning employee of the week. I know that workers on the line at Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port used to sabotage the robots on the line on a regular basis. This might phenomenon of robots demoralise coworkers be part of their motivation (along with laziness and malice)
Marbridge Consulting – China’s February 2019 Domestic Handset Shipments Down 20% YoY – 14.51 mln mobile handsets were shipped in China in February 2019, down 19.9% YoY and 57.4% MoM, according to new figures released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a department of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The significant month-on-month drop can be explained in part by the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday towards the beginning of February. Of total shipments in February, 13.98 mln were 4G handsets, down 20.2% YoY, 37,000 were 3G handsets, and 0.49 mln were 2G handsets
Aging Millennials Soothe Themselves With Childlike Fashions – WWD – to try and hang on to youth. The attenuation of youthfulness is a cross generational phenomenon. For instance middle aged dads the still buy streetwear rather than Superdry, skate and go to gigs.
SXSW 2019: Virtual Cinema – JWT Intelligence – culture is still trying to adapt AR and VR. Whilst it has the energy of an early SIGGRAPH demo reel, I still think the storytelling aspect of things is struggling to find its legs
Patrick Pruniaux: “There Truly is an E-commerce Potential for Horology” | Luxury Society – Kering haven’t been particularly good at using Ulysse Nardin as a brand in China, but they are rectifying it now. Kering are looking to tap into ‘new’ watch consumers who can’t spend Rolex money on a watch, this position now looks more tenable since Apple has stopped going for the luxury sector with the Apple Watch
How to Create an Authentic Luxury Experience for Millennials | Jing Daily – if a luxury brand wants to entice today’s consumers, whether it’s in China or beyond, it needs to underscore its authenticity and relevancy. Powerful words, to be sure, but what does it mean to be authentic and relevant? For the moment, let’s start with the opposite. During many of my brand strategy sessions, I often hear the expression “they feel staged” when people describe brands that they would never buy. Needless to say, when brand feels staged, it is neither authentic nor relevant. The synonyms unnatural, deceived, cheated, and faked come to mind. In other words, a staged brand is bullshitt*ng their consumers.
Louis Vuitton Has a Michael Jackson Problem | Intelligence | BoF – LVMH invested significantly in Virgil Abloh to elevate its menswear line. However, the potential failure of Abloh’s Michael Jackson-inspired collection—whether due to pulled items or lack of consumer interest—is unlikely to significantly impact Louis Vuitton’s overall revenue, as men’s ready-to-wear is a small part of their business. The real concern for Louis Vuitton is protecting its brand reputation, which remains strong unlike some competitors who have faced recent social media backlash. This is especially crucial now, as consumers are quick to criticize any perceived missteps.
You May Have Forgotten Foursquare, but It Didn’t Forget You | WIRED – interesting how Foursquare went from being useful (I use it as spatial bookmarking, so that I can return to new places that I like) to where 2.0 middleware with a bit of ad tech creepiness thrown in for good measure (paywall)
