Went to see Magic Kitchen tonight (Sammi Cheng, a dubbed Maggie Q, Andy Lau, one of those F4 guys, a few other people). It was OK. I see these movies, as I probably mentioned before, because they're chatty and informal in a way that Hollywood movies just can't be; and while Magic Kitchen was somewhat forgettable, it was still chatty and engaging. There's something about Sammi that I find a bit antiseptic; Andy Lau was his usual polished self; the F4 guy was good-looking but not particularly memorable; Maggie Q looked nice and was competent; the actress who played Sammi's other (somewhat promiscuous) friend was probably the most charismatic character of the lot; it was nice to see Asuka Higuchi again (from You shoot I shoot, which you just have to see), even if only in a bit part.

I finally realised why (or probably just perhaps why) I still tend to feel a little awkward being the only white person in the audience watching those Chinese movies at that cinema on a Saturday night, despite the fact that I've been doing it on and off for nine straight years: because in the movies themselves there are Chinese people, who are usually attractive, eloquent and and charismatic, but even when they're not are still recognisably human, and then there are white people who are always two sizes too big, oddly wooden and weirdly inarticulate. And somehow kind of pink. And it's very difficult looking around the auditorium to avoid the tempation to draw some sort of tenuous parallel.