more HK football lunacy

I should be working on something else FAR more important, but I stumbled across this and HAD to post it since it is so time sensitive. Germany just beat Portugal, so that means that my neighbourhood can sleep soundly tonight as I live in one of the many Little Portugals located in Toronto.

How does HK like their football? Well, 30 billion viewers watched the last World Cup in 2002, and 2.78 million Hong Kong people tuned in to watch Germany play Brazil in the final. And on the morbid side of things, according to the ever vigilant World Cup Death Watch from the WFMU blog, fifty soccer fans around the world have died as a result of the World Cup since it began on June 24 and eleven of those fans were from China, the most of any country.

"The experts attribute the death to the 'World Cup Syndrome', " China Daily reported. "The experts say the Chinese fans have to watch the World Cup at midnight due to the time difference, which breaks their biological clocks and makes them more exhausted, so the incidence rate rises sharply."

In Lan Kawi Fong, the notorious ex-pat nightclub/bar area, the streets are packed with fans and the booze does flow. I was there in March during an international rugby match and it was out of control. I have some footage I shot of the crowds and the cops standing by on alert, but sadly that is on my HD at the office. In the meantime, here is some fresh footage of Hong Kong-ers watching 2006 WC.

Here are more topical HK football postings:


"Airport 98" John Woo's Nike football ad from 1998. Watch the ad here.

"Already a sponsor of the Brazilian National Team, Nike hired the skillful players to introduce their new soccer shoe line "Mercurial" in the wake of the 1998 World Cup France. A TV spot was conceived with the team killing time with a soccer ball while waiting on their flight to France. Wieden & Kennedy of Amsterdam, Nike's agency, teamed up with the advertising branch of Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender's A Band Apart Commercials to produce the spot. A director was needed who was capable of bringing the lightweight and dancelike quality of Brazilian soccer to the small screen. John Woo seems like the ideal choice, although the acclaimed action director never had done a commercial before. But he brought TV experience to the project, the ability to stage fast-paced action sequences and his enthusiasm for the sport.
"In a commercial, you can try to do a lot of new experimental techniques. It's no limit. It's a crazy thing, but very, very creative," the directors told the Shawnee News Star." >>more

The above taken from a wire story posted on hardboiled.de

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A pair of Nike ads by HK art film director Fruit Chan (Made in Hong Kong, Longest Summer, Little Cheung, Dumplings: Three... Extremes). called "Baby Heart" and "Estate Joy". Great stuff, especially the one showing the residential estate.




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An ad for the Emirates Airline where a soccer ball will help you when you are shopping for chicken feet and tripe at the local market in HK...


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A San Miguel beer ad starring Stephen Chow Sing-chi and the cast of Shaolin Soccer. The subs are tiny, but at least they are there...


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Watch your back! During the final minutes of a soccer match in Hong Kong, two spectators had a dispute on which is the best team on the field. And here is how it ended... Lord love You Tube!


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Can't really blame the behaviour of the fans, when the referees act like this! Check this clip of a referee starting a fight with local football star Lee Kin Wo.