In Macau, I spent my one free day on a walkabout with Bede Cheng (above). He had hoped over from Hong Kong (by jetfoil, one hour). Bede used to work at the Hong Kong Film Archive and he was keen to explore the nooks and crannies of Macau with me. He was literally a walking film encyclopedia. At random street corners, he would say, “Does this house not remind you of the house in xxyy”, or “Do you remember the 60’s Japanese gangster film xx, well the fight scene took place right here” or “This is the location where much of “Days of Being Wild” was filmed”. I enjoyed his running commentary tremendously. I was looking at the city with bifocals, switching between what was before me and what existed in the filmic world that I hadn’t seen and could only imagine.
