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Money matters:
Graham Macdonald MBMG International Ltd.
All you need to know about Hedge Funds - part 2
So, how do Hedge Funds (HF) vary from other kinds of funds?
Well, the more traditional fund managers usually operate long only funds. They
buy cash, bonds or shares and can only make a profit if what they have bought
goes up in value. The vast majority of these people are tied into tracking the
performance of a benchmark immaterial of whether it is rising or falling.
HF managers do not have such a handicap as they can go long and short. We saw
last week how a ‘short’ works. Where the ‘hedge’ comes into play is down to the
manager. He or she will buy undervalued shares and sell short overvalued ones.
This combination will, hopefully, protect the total portfolio from any big
market moves.
There is a massive variety of investment styles and strategies within the HF
industry. It is commonly accepted that there are five main kinds of HF styles.
These are:
1. Equity Hedge - This attempts to profit by going long/short in publicly traded
equities which are thought to be, respectively, under and over valued. Most of
them will have a variable hedge usually tending to a long bias. However, in
times like this many managers will go for a market neutral position or high
hedge ratio. Gains are best over the longer term.
2. Event Driven - This type of fund will buy and short shares of companies that
are going through times of change, e.g. selling parts of the business, new
products, capital changes, taking over other organizations, etc. This will also
involve distressed securities and merger arbitrage. The former will usually do
well in times of poor growth and the latter when things start to improve.
3. Global Macro - This will try and take advantage of any changes in
macro-economic trends. Strategy and tactics are applied on a multi-asset basis
and gains hope to be made on how macro-economic decisions affect the markets.
Returns are usually best when following a trend, whether that is up or down.
4. Managed Futures - This involves trading derivatives and futures in financial
and commodity markets. Many managers will use either a long term trend or short
term active trading using historical data for forecast future prices. More
volatility here than the others but good profit to be had when following either
upward or downward trends.
5. Relative Value - This applies arbitrage to benefit from any price
discrepancies between like minded stocks and shares. By going long in
undervalued companies and short in overvalued ones, these funds make profits
that come from the changes in price relationships between the aforementioned
like minded shares. Usual Relative Value investing revolves around different
types of arbitrage as well as an equity market neutral stance. Performs well in
most weathers achieving low double digit gains with a low level of volatility.
Just to confuse things, we now get Funds of Hedge Funds (FoHF) as well. These
combine to make up a more diversified portfolio which returns profits on a more
consistent basis whilst aiming to reduce volatility. Depending on what the
end-user wants, a FoHF can be made up to suit any kind of requirement that gives
capital/principal guarantees, profit lock-ins or just pay out dividends. Without
doubt, a good FoHF should perform at least as well as equities but at a much
lower volatility ratio. It also offers access to funds that may be unavailable
to investors in their original form.
Basically, FoHFs should be able to offer: Good risk-adjusted returns, better
choice of fund managers, portfolio built to specific needs, proficient use of
capital, less volatility, third party due diligence and good administration.
What really sets hedge funds apart from their counterparts is they aim for
absolute returns and are not hindered by benchmarks thus allowing them to make
profits even when markets are falling. This is achieved by the skill of the fund
manager rather than just relying on gains achieved in a rising market. As seen
above, this is managed by being able to be flexible in rising AND falling
markets. The fact that a hedge fund manager does not have to be loyal to any
asset sector also helps with the overall absolute returns.
Whilst there are now literally thousands of hedge funds, most of those with a
proven track record are managed by those who have previous experience in
investment banking or traditional investments. On top of this they are also well
incentivised by performance related bonuses. Put another way, if you don’t do
well then neither do they.
Now the industry that Jones pioneered is even bigger, with around 10,000 funds
managing USD1.74 trillions of assets by the middle of last year. Despite all
this, Merrill Lynch reckons that all of this only accounts for 1.6% of global
assets. You should have a small percentage of hedge funds in your portfolio as
well.
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The above data and research was compiled from sources
believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its
officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above
article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any
actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For
more information please contact Graham Macdonald on
[email protected]@mbmg-international.com.com
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Snap Shots: by Harry Flashman
Filter Fun
 The
first thing I did when I unpacked my new camera was to check the size of
the lens diameter. It was a 55 mm. The second thing I did was to rake
through my collection of stepping rings to screw on to the end of the
lens to bring the diameter up to 62 mm. Why? Many reasons.
The first and probably the most obvious reason was to make the new
camera lens compatible with my box of photographic filters I have
accumulated over the years. The vast majority of these are 62 mm, which
is a good size as it is larger than most 35 mm camera lenses, so will
not produce a vignetting effect if you stack a few of them together,
such as a polarizer and a +1 magnifier. That is important.
So do you really need a box of filters like me? Not if you are only
going to photograph food, but just about everything else can be improved
by using filters.
The first one to have is called simply a Skylight 1A. This filter does
make the sky a little deeper, but the main reason to have it is as a
sacrificial piece of glass, so that your good, expensive lens does not
get scratched. Skylight 1A’s are very cheap.
One of the nicest filter effects is what is called “center spot soft
focus”. Now this just means the center is in focus and the edges are
nicely soft and blurred. This effect is used by portrait and wedding
photographers all over the world to produce that wonderful “romantic”
photograph.
Now to use this filter. If you have an SLR (single lens reflex) camera
or a digital, you actually look through the lens when you are focussing
and what you see is what you get (the WYSIWYG principle, mentioned many
times in this column). Set your lens on the largest aperture you can
(around f5.6 or f4 is fine). Focus on your subject, keeping the face in
the center of the screen. Now bring up your magic soft focus filter and
place it over the lens and what do you see? The face is in focus and the
edges are all blurred! Try some different f stops as well (it makes the
center spot larger or smaller) and record the details in your trusty
notebook!
You can also use these filters with any compact point and shoot camera,
but it is a little more hit and miss. The reason being there’s no
WYSIWYG with compacts. What you have to do is position the center of the
filter over the lens and, while keeping it there, bring the camera up to
your eye, compose the shot and then shoot. Takes some fiddling and
manual dexterity and take a few shots as you are really flying blind.
The next one is the polarizer. I have mentioned polarizers recently, but
the difference between polarized sunlit shots and unpolarized is
incredible. The depth of color when you polarize is fantastic. As you
rotate the polarizing filter, the reflections on any shiny surface, be
that grass, trees, water or whatever, just disappear, leaving the
undiluted bold color.
Soft romantic effects can be produced in many ways, and here are a few
tried and true methods, and the first is super inexpensive as well. Just
gently breathe on the Skylight 1A filter just before you take the shot.
Your warm breath will impart a “mist” to produce a wonderfully misty
portrait, or that early morning mist look for landscapes. Remember that
the “misting” only lasts a few seconds, so make sure you have the camera
pre-focussed and ready to shoot. If you have control over the aperture,
try around f4 as well.
Another interesting result is by smearing Vaseline on the same Skylight
1A and seeing the different effects you get. Do not smear the Vaseline
on the end of your lens. It is impossible to get off without washing in
hot soapy water, something you can do with a filter, but not with your
lens.
There are many more filters, colored effects, graduated effects, star
cross and more. Photography should be fun. Try a filter or two this
weekend.
Modern Medicine:
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
Timely diagnosis of cancer
I was watching the news on TV the other night and on came a
report that claimed that if you lived in Taiwan you had a better chance of
cancer survival than if you lived in the UK. This was put down to the fact
that your cancer diagnosis was done more quickly in Taiwan than it was in
the UK.
If my mother’s experience of the UK National Health System is anything to go
by, you will be lucky to live long enough for the diagnosis to be made, by
the time you get your specialist’s appointment and wait for the test results
and then see the specialist again. But, I suppose, if nothing else, it does
help cut down the waiting lists!
However, there is a message for us all in this. Timely cancer diagnosis does
improve your chances of survival. This is not really rocket science or some
new breakthrough. If you leave battery acid on your shirt long enough, it
will eat a hole in the fabric. If you leave cancer cells in your body long
enough, they can eat so many good cells your life and living is compromised.
Unfortunately, the diagnosis of cancer is generally not made (or the
diagnostic procedure even started) until the cancer produces some abnormal
symptoms. Those abnormal symptoms are also not made by the cancer itself,
but by the organs that have been attacked, or by the sheer physical size of
the cancer causing physical problems. Cancer of the lung is a good example
of the first case, and cancer of the bowel is often an example of the second
type.
We are actually very lucky in Thailand, as there are several centers of
excellence in the capital and in the provinces, one being such as my own
hospital, the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya.
Now when I say “centers of excellence” I am referring to the speed of
diagnosis that is possible, not the treatments that are available. There are
many factors that can influence that speed (the following table has been
extracted from Jiwa et al, BMC Family Practice 2007 8:27):
1. Need to travel to clinics in the capital may have financial and
logistical implications for the patient and therefore lead to
procrastination.
2. Health professional, different gender of GP may deter some patients from
presenting with embarrassing symptoms that require intimate examination for
diagnosis.
3. Equivocal tests necessitate repeat visits to clinic.
4. Lack of coordination for individual patients’ needs may result in
inconvenient scheduling of appointments.
5. Limited scope to obtain second opinions.
6. Access to specialists limited by distance from capital.
As you can see from the table, we are very lucky in Thailand, as the centers
of excellence can easily cover the six factors. What is also not expressed
in the six point table is the speed of test result returns. Where we enjoy a
45 minute turnaround for blood tests, patients in the UK receive their
results in days, not minutes. Similarly, appointments for CT scans and MRI’s
are usually ‘same day’ with results usually the same.
So, timely diagnosis is very possible in this country, but unfortunately
there are still instances of late diagnosis, but in the majority of cases
this has occurred through ignoring the symptoms or ignorance of the
importance of the symptoms. The simple advice is to never ignore any
deviation from ‘normal’ in your body - after all, you know your body better
than anyone else.
There is also a somewhat mistaken idea that your annual check-up will
uncover hidden or early cancers, so you don’t have to do anything until next
year. Certainly there are some cancers that are detected in this way, but
whilst the annual check-up can discover many endocrine problems, blood
problems and cardiac abnormalities, it is not going to uncover cancer in the
brain, bones or skin, unless they are very advanced.
Timely diagnosis does come back to your ability to inform your doctor of
changes. Do not feel embarrassed that it “might be nothing”. Let me assure
you that all doctors enjoy informing people that they have not got a problem
after diagnostic testing, rather than the other way round!
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
You might think this is a stupid complaint, but it is driving me mad. My
girlfriend and I have been together for 10 years, she is totally trustworthy,
she runs the finances and we have no money problems. Like everyone these days we
use ATM cards to get the money out of the bank (is there anyone who uses
passbooks any longer?) but this is where the problem is. At least twice a year I
get a frantic call to say she is somewhere and can’t pay the bill because she
can’t find her ATM card. OK, so it’s only twice a year, but it means I have to
leave the office and meet her at the bank to apply for another new card, and
that takes more than a couple of minutes, and my passport and photocopies and
all the usual razzamatazz. I don’t know if she leaves the card in the ATM
machine or drops it somewhere, but we’ve never had one returned. I have told her
to be careful with it, but the message hasn’t got through. What can I do? Any
suggestions?
Andy ATM
Dear Andy ATM,
I can understand the frustration, my Petal, but I haven’t got much experience
with ATMs I’m afraid. None of the banks seem to have one that gives out anything
less than 20 baht, so the card isn’t much use to me! You say that you have asked
her to be more careful in the past but that hasn’t worked, so telling her again
is not going to do much good, other than make her angry and you even more
frustrated. What about asking for two ATM cards, one you carry and one that she
carries? That way she will always have access to the account (as long as you
don’t lose yours)!
Dear Hillary,
One of my best mates has broken up with his Thai girlfriend. They had been
together for just a few months. She says she wants to move in with me, but I’m
going a bit slow on it because I don’t want to hurt my mate (we go on the town
together every Friday night) and I’m just not sure about her. Mate says she’s a
gold digger and says he tossed her out because of it. She says she left him
because he was stingy, but more than that she wanted to be with me. I’m really
confused by all this. Which one should I believe? Will it be too risky to let
her move in?
Gary’s Mate
Dear Gary’s Mate,
What sort of “mate” are you, Petal? You describe the guy as one of your “best
mates” who you go drinking with once a week, but you don’t trust him enough to
believe him when he speaks of the ex-flame. Does he pay for all the drinks every
Friday, or do you trust each other to split it down the middle? I am also a
little upset at your attitude as regards your mate’s ex-girlfriend. “Will it be
too risky to let her move in?” you ask, almost like “Should I buy a new fridge,
or settle for a dishwasher?” This is a living, breathing, feeling woman that you
are discussing like a piece of furniture. By the same token, she is obviously
not one to settle down with any one male, and appears to be playing the field
for what she can get out of the relationship. I believe that neither one of you
is ready emotionally or mature enough to get involved in this type of
relationship. Go into it and you will lose your “best mate”, as well as your
money. Far too risky for you, Petal. Stick with one night stands until you are a
little older (and wiser).
Dear Hillary,
My girlfriend and I live in an apartment in town. We have a good relationship
except for the fact she keeps losing the keys and mobile phone. This is very
annoying, how can I stop her doing this?
Annoyed
Dear Annoyed
Have you ever considered the fact that your girlfriend is losing keys and
telephones as a subconscious way of expressing her lack of satisfaction with the
relationship or simply as a device to annoy you? It is very difficult, if not
impossible to change someone else’s behavior, unless you change your own
behavior first. I suggest you change the way you respond to her. One quick fix
is to either don’t let her see that it annoys you or simply don’t speak to her
for days every time she loses things. The best way though is to “Give her the
monkey and let her feed it.” This is a Thai expression for allowing her to take
the consequence of her own actions. Do not let her have or use your mobile phone
ever, keep a spare set of keys for you, but never unlock the apartment for her,
and never give her another set after she has lost one. If this is too tedious,
maybe losing this girlfriend would be less frustrating. However, it could be
worse. It could be ATM cards like Andy ATM’s girlfriend, Petal!
Learn to Live to Learn: with Andrew Watson
A sense of mission
It’s that time of year again for many in education; the end of a
long year for some and a shorter year for others, is in sight.
The longest holiday imaginable is about to begin, one which to
many outside education and an increasingly vocal number inside,
seems entirely unreasonable.
Don’t ask teachers in the state sector what they think of
international school holidays; you’re likely to receive a
derisory snort, possibly peppered with a whiff of envy. Whilst
in England that summer break has been stuck for eons at about
six weeks - just short enough for students to cling on to
something from the previous year’s educational experience -
international schools provide anything from eight to ten weeks
vacation. Teachers on the international circuit are generally
contracted to work between 176 and 185 days a year. Imagine!
Almost precisely half a year! Six months work for a full year’s
pay! Plus free flights for you and the family more or less
anywhere in the world, thrown in! Globe trotting indeed! Quite a
life wouldn’t you say?
Which is why, frankly, I haven’t much sympathy for teachers who
whinge and moan about their workload, or complain about their
emoluments. I feel like shaking them, shouting “Come on, get
real!” I came into education relatively late and I think anybody
who has experienced the harsh reality of industry and business
brings a different and possibly necessary perspective about the
nature of work into the classroom. So, I have to bite my tongue
(I’d rather bury my head) if a school leader does the
“countdown” to the end of term. “Only ten weeks to go…only nine
weeks to go…” I can’t stand it, honestly. It’s a freakish
mentality. Why not “Only three terms to go!” at the start of
September? Or indeed, if we’re really into the self-seeking,
self-serving game, why don’t we compress the school year even
further, just to ensure that we can extend our summer break as
far as possible? Incredulous? Don’t be. For the unscrupulous in
education, self-satisfaction comes first.
Teaching is meant to be a vocation, isn’t it? A commitment to
something bigger than “just a job”. It’s a privilege, a unique
opportunity, the most serious undertaking, to guide generations
of young people towards happiness and success and the world,
perhaps, towards a more peaceful and just future.
So where’s the sense of mission in a state of mind which counts
the days? Where’s the sense of mission in “winding down”? How
can anybody consider him or herself a committed professional if
they slap brain-numbing (and probably inappropriate) videos on
for students in the last few weeks of term, whilst the students’
parents are working their butts off in order to afford huge
school fees? They’re not paying for 165 or 170 days, after all -
likewise, I would argue, they’re not paying for ‘C’ grades. You
see, you have to have accountability.
Imagine what you’d think if your national soccer team decided to
“wind down” for the last ten minutes of an important game (I’m
just wondering whether England do that after all)? Let’s face it
- in a 180 day school year, every day for a student is an
“important game”.
These are uncomfortable truths of course; truths that dare not
speak their name. Bizarrely, you’ll run the risk of being
quickly ostracised in a staffroom if you put forward such
radical notions of duty towards students. At which point, it
might be prudent to remind everybody that schools exist first
and last, for students. Schools and those who work in them, as
Professor Steward Sutherland so clearly articulated, “Have to
make the choice whether they want to be the mirror of society or
the change agents of society.” Or as Dumbledore puts it, we have
to make a choice between “what is easy and what is right”.
Imagine a theme park for the mind that is continuously invented
and reinvented by a community of people who are energetic,
playful, responsible, caring, and committed to learning. See the
high level of academic achievement in exhibitions, project
awards, and special events that are a way of life. Notice the
presence of all age groups making connections with one another
through the work they do, the problems they solve, and the
experience, strength, and hope they share. See the use of
technologies everywhere to invent the future, examine the past,
and make sense out of today. Move through a main street filled
with business, professional, and service activities; discover
the side streets that lead to national and international
neighbourhoods where customs, culture, and history are an
interactive theatre of life. Appreciate the music, art, drama,
and physical movement present everywhere and used by all as a
way to nurture body, mind and spirit. Sense the presence of
professionals committed to achieving extraordinary results in
each moment of every ordinary day, and children of all ages
discovering the champion within.
If you can imagine all of this, then you have just imagined a
real place - this is the mission of Guajome Park Academy, in
California, “an adventure for the mind and a home for the
heart”.
C.K Chesterton said that, “education is simply the soul of a
society as it passes from one generation to another.” If as
teachers we are serious about our sense of mission, you might
expect that we should model the values that we expect to see in
our students; that we should celebrate the sacredness of life
and keep going to the very end and find the strength to do so
from within; that we should lead the search for truth and social
justice fearlessly with consistent strength of character; that
we should learn to live together in peace; and that we should be
compassionate and serve others with a shared sense of mission.
Malcolm Bradbury, in “Doctor Criminale” put it well; “I think
always we need a morality, a politics, a history; a sense of
self, a sense of otherness, a sense of human significance of
some kind, a sense of eternity.”
Next week: The Art of teaching
DOC ENGLISH Teaching your kids how to learn English:
The death of a language
Hello! Welcome back to the regular column for parents teaching their
kids English at home. This week we discuss the negative effect English
teachers like me are having on Thai languages and dialects :(. Shed a
tear for ‘Mok’, a language spoken in Thailand on the verge of
extinction. Gasp in awe at the sheer number of languages in the world
and be astounded by how many of them are on the edge of a language
precipice.
R.I.P. ‘Mok’
Of the 6,912 languages spoken in the world, around 516 are on the verge
of extinction (Source: Ethnologue [www.ethnologue.com]). At least one is
on the verge of extinction in Thailand. ‘Mok’ is a dying language once
commonly spoken in the Northwest; east northeast of Chiang Mai, on the
Wang River. Today, the language is nearly extinct. Only a few elderly
speakers are still living. When they die, so may their language and
their unique culture.
Actually Thailand isn’t the biggest culprit by far for extinguishing
languages. Surprisingly, Australia tops the list with well over a 100
languages on the verge of extinction and the USA is not too far behind.
There are even little known languages in Sweden, Norway and Germany that
face the axe if nothing is done to revive them.
It’s a shame to see any language disappear. Often languages don’t simply
die, but there are assimilated into other languages and cultures and
‘mixed up’ to the point where they are no longer unique. It’s great to
see my home language spoken so widely across the world, but I often
wonder whether the growth of English as a common language is at the
detriment of the development of other languages.
Sometimes I visit a Thai School in the North East. It’s a great school,
the kids are really hard working and they are always very friendly. I
encourage you to visit your local Thai school. Thai students are
generally always desperate to practice their English with a native
speaker and are always keen to converse with a foreigner. Anyway, I
digress. Like most Thai schools the only taught languages at the school
are Thai and English. This is a shame because in the North East they
also speak Laos and/or Khmer (Cambodian) at home. So in fact for these
children, English is a 3rd language and like most Thais they are aiming
to become trilingual! However, I often wonder what will happen to the
use of Thai Laos, Thai Khmer, other languages and dialects in Thailand
if they are not taught in school. Will they all die out and will we be
left just with English and Thai? That would be really boring.
Why preserve languages?
For a start, languages contain local knowledge of cultures and natural
systems in the regions in which they are spoken. When languages are
lost, so is unique information on that region or culture. Languages
preserve information on human history. Stories, songs and anecdotes
passed down through generations help keep history alive.
The UN estimates that more than half of the languages spoken today have
fewer than 10,000 speakers and that a quarter have fewer than 1,000
speakers and that, unless there are some efforts to maintain them, over
the next hundred years most of these will become extinct, so it’s
important that we act now. In recent times only, more than 750 languages
have already become extinct around the world.
There is a genuine fear being expressed today is that many of today’s
languages, in view of their degrees of adulteration or outright
abandonment, may not live to see the 22nd century. In fact, it is
estimated that only ten percent of the present languages in the world
will survive. Do we want a homogenous world, where everybody speaks the
same language, wears the same standard clothes, and thinks the same
standard thoughts? No! So let’s respect and help preserve different
languages and cultures.
But what can we do?
We can’t make the Thai Department of Education change their language
policies and get the minority languages taught in school (the UN is
working on that); however, you can support the use of Thai, Laos, Khmer
or other languages and dialects at home, as well as English of course.
Children are perfectly capable of learning more than two languages and
in fact learning more than two languages has been proven to provide
cognitive benefits in many children (they will actually be brighter for
learning a third language!).
Please support your local language (or dialect). Don’t let them die out.
For more information go to the Endangered Language Fund (http://www.en
dangeredlanguagefund.org).
That’s all for this week mums and dads. If you want more information on
teaching your children at home you can email me at: do
[email protected]
Enjoy spending time with your kids.
Let’s go to the movies:
by Mark Gernpy
Now playing in Pattaya
Hancock: US Action/Comedy – A different kind of superhero:
edgy, conflicted, sarcastic, and misunderstood. He gets the job done and
saves countless lives, but he also seems to leave an awful lot of
collateral damage as well. The people of Los Angeles have had enough. So
did studio executives according to reports, who after seeing the
original cut immediately ordered big changes and several scenes reshot,
because the hero was so downbeat, disreputable, and even disgusting. His
costume seems to be stolen off the back of a homeless person, and we’re
introduced to Hancock as he wakes up on the sidewalk in a pool of his
own vomit, reeking of alcohol, and then leaps into the sky to save
someone, destroying everything in sight in the process. Starring Will
Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman. Not kid-friendly: There’s a lot
of bad language, some graphic violence, and more. Early reviews: mixed
or average. But it’s sure to look very good on the opening weekend
records because it’s cheating and will be counting not only Thursday to
Sunday as the weekend, but Wednesday as well!
Wanted: US Action/Thriller – If you think you’ve seen it all in
violent and bloody action films, you haven’t yet seen this one: it
raises the bar to a whole new level! Visually I think it’s fascinating –
there are scenes which I really could not believe I was seeing – and I
would say it’s about as exciting as a movie can get. This fast-paced
thrill ride, with its dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects,
adrenaline-fuelled action sequences, and nail-biting terror, is the
first American film by the Russian director Timur Bekmambetov.
A young man (James McAvoy) discovers his father is an assassin, and when
his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father’s
organization and trained by a man named Sloan (Morgan Freemen) to follow
in his dad’s footsteps, and in the process is transformed from a drone
into a dark avenger. Also starring Angelina Jolie and Terence Stamp.
Rated R in the US (and richly deserved) for strong bloody violence
throughout, pervasive language, and some sexuality. Generally favorable
reviews.
Death Sentence: US Drama/Thriller – Despite the scathing reviews,
I like this. Very much. Tense, taut, and terrific. It’s a white-collar
revenge fantasy in the vein of Death Wish (and based on a novel by the
same author, Brian Garfield). Ponders the nature and limits of
retribution, asking if murder can ever be justified. Brilliant all-out
performance by Kevin Bacon (I don’t understand why he is so underrated
and unappreciated as an actor) and a chilling, deeply disturbing
performance by John Goodman in a small role. From the director of Saw.
Rated R in the US for strong bloody brutal violence, and pervasive
language. Generally negative reviews.
The Last Moment/Rak-Sam-Sao: Thai Romance/Drama – A love triangle
develops between three university friends, one of whom becomes
terminally ill.
Get Smart: US Action/Comedy – A funny and action-filled film
making fun of spies and secret spy gadgets; almost as good as having a
new James Bond film. Mixed or average reviews.
The Happening: US/India Drama/Sci-Fi – M. Night Shyamalan
produces another mysterious film people will either love or hate. Go
with an open mind. Rated R in the US for violent and disturbing images.
Generally negative reviews.
The Incredible Hulk: US Action/Sci-Fi – With an excellent
performance by Edward Norton, it’s a terrific comic-based action picture
with mythic themes. Very exciting indeed, and a top notch production.
Generally favorable reviews.
Kung Fu Panda: US Animation/Comedy – Pure fun! And I laughed a
lot. An animated comedy set in the legendary world of ancient China,
about a lazy panda who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to
save his valley from a villainous snow leopard. Sort of a take-off of
recent Kung Fu films, full of irreverent invention and dazzling
animation. Sharp, funny, and even tender. Generally favorable reviews.
Scheduled for Jul 10
Hellboy II: The Golden Army: US Action/Fantasy – Again
directed by Guillermo del Toro and again starring Ron Perlman as
Hellboy, this presents again a dark and difficult fantasy world full of
fantastical creatures determined to prove the Lovecraftian premise that
he who destroys the earth does the universe a favor.
Red Cliff: China Action/Adventure – This $80-million film,
directed by John Woo – the most expensive film ever produced in Asia –
has been plagued by difficulties from the outset, including the walk-out
by two stars and a storm that wrecked an outdoor set. And now, on June
9, a stunt went wrong and claimed the life of a stuntman and injured six
others. According to Chinese news reports, a small boat that had been
set on fire was to have rammed a larger boat. The scene, shot by a
second-unit crew, went amiss when the fire spread quickly to the larger
boat and raged out of control.
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