Notes on 2001:
A HONG KONG ODYSSEY
by Mathias Woo

1. 2001: a Space Odyssey and I were of the same age; we were both born in the year 1968. I first came across 2001: a Space Odyssey when I was thirteen at the Palace Cinema in the old Kai Tak Airport area in San Po Kong. This cinema house was the biggest in Hong Kong with more than 3,000 seats and an enormous screen. There were many large cinema houses in Hong Kong at the time--none survives to this year of 2000. The Palace Cinema was turned into a huge shopping mall with residential complex. All the big cinemas houses along Nathan Road, such as the London cinema, the Eaton cinema, the Hollywood cinema, the Ritz cinema and were all torn down. The existing Ocean cinema has became smaller: its lower stall was transformed into Planet Hollywood and the upper circle was broken up into a small cinemas. Hong Kong youth under the age of 23 never have a chance to appreciate the grandeur and beauty of a big cinema house. The enormous silver screen, the space, and the change of colours seemed to have become part of one¡œs body. When I was watching 2001: a Space Odyssey I was not simply following a story. It was a total experience. Nowadays fewer and fewer films explore the special qualities of the cinema house but merely tell simple stories. A cinema house is about sound and space and images. Going to the cinema is about experience. Unfortunately, most of the films we watch today are not about experience. Life is simplified into a 90-120 minutes story. The way how we think, how we live, how we love, what is right, what is wrong become more and more like a simple 90 minutes story.

2. In conceiving of the 2001 a Hong Kong Odyssey, I thought about what were the qualities of Hong Kong: its sound, images, architecture and the people. Then I thought about what were the qualities of intellectuals in Hong Kong. I feel that the Hong Kong intellectuals like to stand aside and watch. All are very cynical and make excuses to feel incapable of doing anything, especially those working in the areas of arts and culture, education and media. That is the reason why Hong Kong become more and more an anti-intellectual society. I was told that to strive for change or to criticize such middle-age intellectual elites would only be an act of squandering energy. I hope that is wrong. I fully understand that to discuss the problem and definition of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Intellectuals on stage is too indirect, and that it is much more effective to use a piece of writing or a documentary than the stage in doing so. 2001 a Hong Kong Odyssey is not going to criticize such a Hong Kong phenomenon--not directly. I just wish to get some creative people with different creative styles to develop some sound, images, text and movement. I simply put them all together and turn them into a theatrical experience without a story. Before 1989, Hong Kong has a special quality: people think different thoughts, live different lives, do different things, all in a haphazard manner. Since 1989, this special quality of Hong Kong appeared to have changed: people seem to be fighting to do the same thing, lead the same life and think in the same manner. Perhaps Hong Kong should try to recapture the special quality it used to have.

(Translated by May Fung and Bell Yung)