Again with the HK Floods

More "our flood" films are going up on youtube all the time, although none so far are as insanely crazy and stupid as the series I've linked you to in the previous posting. You have to check that one out: this guy driving to work - and it has to be seen because you cannot believe anyone would think work is that important. What he went through! Absolutely, there must have been at least 14 lives at stake to make that hideous journey worth it.

Of the new ones, the best is this:


(香港黑雨-上環) Black Rain and Flood in Sheung Wan - June 7, 2008

It's 10 minutes long and most of it is in Chinese, but there are some lovely images in there. Some very sad ones too.

It's starts off not very spectacular - just people wading through water to get to work - although there's a hilarious piece at 3.00 where Dragon Grandmother is determined - literally "come Hell or High Water" - to get to some wedding, and granddaughter's gorgeous dress is ruined and she's really huffy about it - but then at 3.35 there's the guy in the electronics store talking about how he's lost everything, and you can see the ruined equipment behind him and it's awful how distressed he is - and from there on out the situation gets steadily worse, until, round about 4.55, you start thinking "Hell, this is serious!" ...

... but there are still light moments, like at 5.15 where an old guy is wading through water up to his chest delivering congratulatory wreathes, and 6.20 when all these stranded folks wave cheerily at the camera. And then at 7.14, there's the set table floating by which is such a hoot, and 7.52, the guy recording it all sees the escaped goldfish he was told about earlier at 2.30. Then around 8.23 the car alarms and burglar alarms start going off, and it just gets increasingly unbearable, until 9.27 when you see some gum chewing foreign journalist coming along, casually snapping pictures, and you just hate him for taking it all so lightly and really hope he'll be drenched by all the water people are tossing out of their places.

Oh, yeah, and about the escaped goldfish, I was told that people had seen escaped goldfish swimming all around Wan Chai but didn't believe it, however, after seeing this ... hey, it's not an urban legend after all.

Anyway, do check this out. I'll keep looking and post up links to any new good ones I find.


Update: posted a message on youtube telling kayanlau, the video journalist who posted it, how much I liked his film, particularly the shots of Dragon Lady on her way to the wedding. I got this reply from him:

"The couple was on their way to get married. They didn't think a flood was going to stop their traditional ceremony." Oh boy, that makes it even funnier! "Here comes the Bride!"

Do check it out!