Cantonese Glamour Not Required

Having loved my times there back in the early 90s, I shed a tear for the injustice Hongkongers suffer at the brutal hands of the despicable CCP.

Indeed, only recently did I meet the ebullient Harry. Once a building manager there. Now having taken advantage of the UK resettlement scheme, asylum granted, two teenage children enjoying their new school, and him relishing his new job in property in England. He doesn't even mind the cold. We need more like him.

The above promo shot is from a November 2022 two-episode BBC documentary.

A title card.

The type of treatment we often seek to herald a specific topic.

What struck me straight away? How unglamorous a choice.

Where's the once neon, now LED smothered sparkling downtown streets? The vibrant vivacious food markets? The staggering kaleidoscope collage of Manhattan skyline?

The programme makers and its designers disregard all of this and more.

Instead, take a grey day. With Victoria Harbour's waters equally ashen.

A deliberate, apt metaphor, perhaps.

Then take a lesser seen view. Looks like from above where Wanchai becomes Central, on the way up to Victoria Peak. Peering across to Kowloon's Tsimshatsui.

With a noticeable absence of colour. Not even a Star ferry in sight. Save for the strange smudge near-ground of light red building frame. Alongside almost invisible gloom-green bush.

This photo shouldn't work.

If a tourist snapped it, they'd likely delete on the spot.

Yet as a mood-maker, it holds a certain wonder.

An anti-glamour shot.

I sense this is a vital option for us when trying to craft a slide for our own and, critically, our prospect's situations.

Below, I show an attempt at cropping to remove the imperfection of the ceiling that intrudes top-left.

Then see what removing much of the lower invader colour does.

I think the sheer ordinariness of presentation of an extraordinary place is a winner here.

A solid reminder that when we're trying to fashion stickability of message, well-lit iridescent cinematography needn't necessarily be the aim. Especially for the 'before' talk of where they're at right now.