The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival kicks off last Friday with two films

'Man at Bath,' from French director Christophe Honoré about two men in a troubled and violent relationship, and 'The Kids Are All Right,' an American comedy-drama starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple whose suburban-California lives are turned upside when their two teenage children locate their sperm-donor father.

The festival, which runs until Dec. 1, is screening about 50 features and shorts from filmmakers around the world.

Festival director Joe Lam says he is hoping to reach beyond the gay community and draw straight audiences as well. 'I think it sends a very important message' he says.

Other films in the festival include Japanese director Daishi Matsunaga's 'Pyuupiru 2001-2008.' The documentary follows seven years in the life of transgender artist Pyuupiru, whose struggles are chronicled through his performance art, lively fashion creations, and relationships with his family and boyfriend. 'The ending is quite touching,' Mr. Lam says.

'Queer China, 'Comrade' China' details issues facing the modern gay community on the mainland, while the short film 'New Beijing, New Marriage' documents the mock same-sex marriage ceremony on Valentine's Day last year.

They look like dollhouses-carefully crafted wooden models made of light sycamore

Introducing the Grand Château Series: nine wine cabinets modeled after the most-celebrated estates in Bordeaux: Château Margaux, Château d'Yquem, Château Petrus, Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion, Château Mouton Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Cheval Blanc and Château Lafite Rothschild.

Bespoke furniture designer David Linley, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II, made all the cabinets for this project, which was initiated by the U.K. wine merchant Antique Wine Company.

Behind the doors of each cabinet are drawers filled with wine from one of these estates: 18 bottles of its best vintages from the past 200 years. And atop each cabinet is an architectural model of the actual country house of the estate in question.

But at ￡149,000 British pounds (US$239,205) apiece-￡199,000 for the Château Petrus and Lafite cabinets, because of the rarity of the vintagesinside-who's buying them?

So far, 14 cabinets have sold to Antique Wine Company clients in Europe, Mexico, the U.S. and Asia. But only one customer has bought an entire set: the Hotel Lisboa in Macau, which says it has one of Asia's largest wine collections, comprising more than 3,000 labels. The hotel bought all nine cabinets, minus the premium wine bottles - and says it plans to keep the cabinets on display in its three-star Michelin restaurant Robuchon à Galera. The hotel company did not disclose the price it paid.

'No longer relegated to dusty cellars, the collections of today's fine-wine enthusiasts are now often cleverly integrated into, and featured within, their homes,' says Antique Wine Company Chief Executive Stephen Williams. Asian collectors, in particular, are eager to show off their wines, he adds (link to the article on Asian wine cellars.

Ride a Tokyo subway and you are almost guaranteed to see two groups of people

Those who are sleeping -- not just casual nappers, but folks who are full-on, deep-REM-cycle, drool-down-the-chin asleep.

The other group comprises people staring blankly or furiously punching the keys of clamshell phones with giant screens.

So it shouldn't come as much surprise that a survey by research group comScore's MobiLens service finds that the Japanese are the 'most connected' mobile-phone users in the world. Three of every four Japanese use their phones to either browse the Web, access applications or download content to their handsets. This compares to 44% in the United States and 39% in Europe.

Dig into the survey and some interesting trends emerge. Only 40% of Japanese send text messages, while two-thirds of Americans and 82% of Europeans engage in short message service, or SMS. Why is this?

The Japanese just prefer to send emails, a function that mobile Internet services like NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s i-mode servicehas enabled that for years. While the proliferation of smartphones has made sending emails on the go more common in the U.S. and Europe, the usage figures still trail that of Japan. The report says 54% of Japanese send emails from their phones, compared with 28% of Americans and 19% of Europeans.

One of the unique features offered in Japanese cellphones -- sometimes lampooned as 'Galapagos' models because the technological innovations are specifically tailored to suit Japanese consumers' needs and haven't been adapted for wider use outside of Japan -- is putting Japan ahead of the game in terms of watching video on their phones. Many Japanese watch television on 1seg, a mobile terrestrial digital-audio and video-data broadcasting service. The report said 22% of Japanese watch TV or video on their phones, as opposed to 5% of Americans and Europeans.

Real Time: Single? Virtual Lovers Available for Holiday Cards

For all those lonely hearts seeking a special someone during the holidays, coupledom is just a snapshot away. Hong Kong's New Town Plaza shopping mall has installed a photo booth in which singles can be photographed next to virtual partners. Enter the booth, select a virtual mate to smile alongside you in a holidaygram, and voila â ' season's greetings from two!

Hong Kong shopping malls are known for extravagant gimmicks to lure coveted holiday shoppers. This year, the annual competition has escalated to new heights. New Town Plaza has invested $15 million Hong Kong dollars, or US$1.9 million, on Christmas promotions this season, up 15% from the year before.

Its 'love and togetherness' decoration theme this year includes a romantic starlight garden and a nightly light show. Shoppers who spend HK$15,000 or more and are looking to tie the knot are eligible to receive custom-made proposal plans from romance consultants.

The virtual photo booth, which requires either a HK$20 donation or a shopping bill at the mall of more than HK$200, is equipped with Augmented Reality (AR) technology that captures real-world objects and integrates them into a virtual world on the screen. Besides a virtual man and woman, two children and two types of Christmas-themed costumes can be selected to be placed in the holiday photo, which will be available on New Town Plaza's Facebook page.

'But the main point of the photo booth is for the people suffering a lonely Christmas,' says Day Yuen, managing director for 430 Limited, the interactive design firm behind the technology.

This is not the first time AR technology has been used to get closer to virtual loved ones. In the resort town of Atami, Japan, AR technology was used to photograph lovestruck men with their videogame girlfriendsas a real-life extension of the Nintendo DS game LovePlus.

New Town Plaza is expecting both foot traffic and sales to grow 12% in November from last year and 15% in December. So far, the booth has been a big attraction. 'I'm not sure why it's so popular,' says Mr. Yuen.

Since his directorial debut 19 years ago

Peter Chan has become one of Asia's leading filmmakers, cranking out box-office hits while filling his office shelves with best-director awards.

He began with a string of popular Hong Kong comedies and dramas in the 1990s, then ventured to Hollywood to direct the 1999 romantic comedy 'The Love Letter,' which starred Kate Capshaw and Tom Selleck. In China in 2005 he directed the musical 'Perhaps Love' with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Xun, followed in 2007 by 'The Warlords,' a period war epic starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Mr. Kaneshiro. Now, he's turning his hand to the martial-arts, or wu xia, genre. The Wall Street Journal caught up with Mr. Chan on the set of his latest film, itself titled 'Wu Xia.'

WSJ: How do you plan to 'redefine' the martial-arts genre with 'Wu Xia'?

A: All our period films seem to be mixed with martial arts and action. But period films actually have many different genres -- love stories, thrillers, crime dramas -- and I think we never see these period films in complete authenticity. We never see the details of life, and we never feel like we're transported in time.

WSJ: What attracted you to the story?

A: 'Wu Xia' is about a man who's in hiding, but his identity is unraveling and he needs to deal with his past.

I always believed that wu xia and the gangster genre are pretty similar. Once you step into that world you can never get out.

WSJ: What's driving higher production costs in the Chinese film industry?

A: There's only one thing that drives up costs -- demand versus supply.

The camera operator that we've worked with three times has doubled his salary in every movie I've worked on with him. There are too many movies that need good people.

WSJ: How is working in China compared with Hollywood?

In a remote and mountainous part of China's southwest Yunnan province on a cool autumn morning

Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tang Wei have traveled with the rest of the 200-plus crew to this isolated spot near the border with Myanmar, where they have been camped out since late August.

'Wu Xia,' from director Peter Chan, is a $20 million martial-arts drama slated for release next summer. The story, which takes place during the end of the Qing Dynasty, is about a repentant killer living a simple life in a secluded village and whose past catches up with him.

Mr. Chan, one of Asia's most-successful filmmakers, is looking to put a new spin on the martial-arts genre with 'Wu Xia,' which translates roughly as 'martial-arts chivalry.' He's assembled an A-list cast, two cinematographers, an award-winning costume designer, and a visual-effects team from South Korea to bring what he describes as detailed authenticity to the film. Its ambition underscores the current trend in Chinese cinema toward highly polished blockbusters.

Still, there is little Hollywood glamour out here on location. Filming today is in a tiny village about an hour's drive from Tengchong, a city of several hundred thousand -- relatively small by Chinese standards -- in western Yunnan. Tengchong is home for the cast and crew during the shoot. Getting to today's location involves a convoy of trucks, buses, vans and cars -- all of us sharing the road with villagers and livestock along a series of smooth two-lane highways and bumpy, unpaved paths through fields and forests. To get to the shoot, the crew and cast -- sporting shin-high rubber boots to trek around in the mud -- hike across steep terrain marked by rocks and puddles to the river valley below.

'It's hard going down and exhausting going up,' Mr. Chan says as he arrives on the set.

Rain earlier in the week interrupted filming for a few days, but today the sun is out. 'We've been shooting here for two months and I can't remember a single day other than today that it hasn't rained at least a little bit,' he says. 'We've been fighting the weather all the way through.'

But irony has its revenge: For a scene the next day, the crew has to create rain using two giant hoses.

Actors and dozens of extras roam around the set in period costumes, looking more at home in the rural setting than the crew in their jeans and T-shirts. Curious locals watch the bustle and activity. Their dialect is unfamiliar to most of the crew, who come from places like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Some villagers from the area have been hired as extras. Li Xingli, a 51-year-old farmer, says she isn't familiar with the movie's star cast. 'But it's fun,' she says with a smile, 'and my husband supports me.'

Ms. Li, in fact, is working alongside three very recognizable actors. Mr. Yen is arguably Asia's leading martial-arts star following a string of recent hits including 'Ip Man' and its sequel, 'Bodyguards and Assassins' and 'Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen.' Mr. Kaneshiro -- this is his third film with Mr. Chan -- has been a top leading man for nearly two decades. Ms. Tang, with just a handful of films to her credit so far, is one of Asia's leading young actresses.

The cast also includes Jimmy Wang Yu, one of Hong Kong's biggest action stars from the 1960s and '70s, in his first film appearance in more than 15 years.

Mr. Chan sits under an orange tent about five meters from the actors. His blue director's chair faces a video monitor that shows what the audience will see. Messrs. Yen and Kaneshiro arrive on the set in full costume -- Mr. Yen dressed as an ordinary villager with a long, single braid of hair that was customary of the era, and Mr. Kaneshiro looking elegant in a gray robe and brimmed hat -- and prepare for a scene on a small cliff over the riverbank. A few takes later, the director and Mr. Yen huddle in front of the monitor to watch a playback. Mr. Yen returns in front of the camera to shoot another take after a couple minutes of quiet discussion, although to the casual observer subsequent takes all look the same.

Mr. Chan later joins Mr. Yen, who also is the movie's action choreographer, for one of the film's action sequences. A character in the scene is pushed over a bridge. Above the heads of the crew, a highway of carefully placed cables and wires are wrapped around the forest trees. The stunt isn't simple. On one end are the men maneuvering the wire, and on the other end a stuntman dangles above the whitewater rapids far below. After several takes, they wrap for the day.

'With Peter Chan, everyone knows it's going to be a powerful, dramatic movie,' Mr. Yen says. 'That's one of the main reasons why I want to be in this film in the first place.'

For Mr. Kaneshiro, he says working with Mr. Chan is more important than the script. 'The character changed as we talked about the script,' he says. 'I didn't know how to do this guy,' but one day they decided to give the character a Sichuan accent and everything fell into place.

Ms. Tang also describes developing her character with Mr. Chan -- a new experience compared with how she has worked on previous films. ''I really love it, because it's really flexible and very similar to film as a student in college.'

During the week, minor mishaps abound on the set: A stunt coordinator slips on a rocky ledge, leaving large scratches along the side of his body; the continuity girl is bitten by a wild dog in a bamboo forest; and an assistant production manager is shoved around by a group of tourists eager to get to a scenic waterfall blocked by the film crew.

'I think working in China is somewhere between Hong Kong and Hollywood,' Mr. Chan says.

Gold briefly broke through $1,400 an ounce on Tuesday and if comments from the head of the World Bank are any guide

Writing in the Financial Times, Robert Zoellick argued the world needs a new monetary system to replace the current U.S. dollar standard. And he suggested gold should be part of the mix.

It wasn't quite a call for a return to the gold standard. Mr. Zoellick actually argued for a new reserve system based on a basket of major currencies, including the yen, the euro, the British pound and the yuan. But his inclusion of gold was what really made the news.

To see what this might mean for the gold market, look at the situation today.

Western governments typically hold a lot of their currency reserves as gold bullion. According to recent data from the World Gold Council, the U.S. has 72% of its reserves in gold, Germany 67%, Italy and France 66% and the Netherlands 56%. The European Central Bank holds 26% of its reserves in bullion.

In many cases, these are bullion holdings accumulated back when the world was on the gold standard.

But the western countries are on the way down in the world economy. They account for a smaller and smaller share of world output. Most, including the U.S., are running huge current account deficits.

Now look at the Asian countries that are on the way up.

As of September, India had just 7.4% of its reserves in gold. Indonesia: 3.5%. Malaysia: 1.4%.

And the big kahuna, China? Just 1.5%.

Gold, in many ways, is a ridiculous item. It has no utility. It's gaudy. There is nothing mystical or magical about it. And despite what the gold fanatics will tell you, it is no more 'money' than anything else.

Its appeal as a currency is very simple, if negative.

It's 'none of the above.'

It's not dollars, or euro, or yen, or pounds or yuan. Gold is a 'currency' that is not under any nation's control, cannot be debased or devalued. And that makes it an appealing element in foreign exchange reserves.

If the world moves from a reserve system dominated by the dollar to one based on a basket of currencies, including gold, you could expect all the major central banks to take part.

And if the rising Asian powers were to shift even a small amount of their reserves into gold, what would that mean? Consider the numbers.

China has total currency reserves of $2.65 trillion. Its 34 million troy ounces account for just $47 billion of that. If China wanted to take its bullion holdings to $265 billion, or 10% of total reserves, at today's prices it would have to buy another 155 million ounces.

To put this in context, the total world gold supply only comes to 129 million ounces a year. Mining output is just 85 million ounces.

And if China wanted to take gold to 25% of is reserves around the level held by the ECB, for example it would need to buy another 440 million ounces at today's prices.

That's the equivalent of every ounce of gold dug up by every gold miner in the world for the next five years.

That would dwarf the 262 million ounces held by the U.S. at Fort Knox and other depositories.

Is this going to happen? Obviously not. It's an impossibility. But it shows that even small shifts by Asian central banks will have an enormous effect on the gold market.

Many private investors bet on gold by purchasing bullion, or shares in a bullion fund like the 'GLD' SPDR Gold Trust. There are other possibilities. One, recommended here on several occasions, has been to buy call options on the GLD. A call option, which can be purchased through any broker, is a bet on higher prices.

These let you bet on higher prices without risking too much capital. They also give you leverage.

An illustration: GLD is $136. But $150 call options, good until January of 2012, cost just $10.60 a share. These will give you the right to buy shares in GLD for $150 at any point over the next 14 months.

So if gold continues to boom you can cash in. But if it tanks your losses are limited to $10.60 a share.

Barbarians at the Gate of China Finance?

But apparently what China's next wave of economic reform really needs is leveraged buyouts and high-yield - i.e., junk - bonds.

That was the message from Wu Xiaoling, the highly respected former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and currently a member of China's legislative body. Speaking at a private equity forum in Beijing Sunday, Ms. Wu said that China probably couldn't accept the high levels of leverage seen in developed markets, but if Beijing wants to realize its professed goal of consolidating certain industries, then companies have to be able to raise debt for the purpose.

'Of course there are risks involved with leverage, but [it's not always viable] to do M&A with 100% of your own capital,' she said.

'China's current problem is not that leverage is too high but that it's extremely difficult to raise debt for the purposes of M&A.'

In September the State Council said it would encourage companies and local governments to promote consolidation in heavy, polluting industries and would roll out M&A regulations that would relax restrictions on private capital, encourage fund-raising through stock and bond issues, give tax incentives, and step up state investment and financial support to speed up the consolidation.
'The whole world is deleveraging, but China needs to leverage up,' Ms. Wu said.
She also said that China should develop a high-yield bond market so that companies could raise debt for planned acquisitions.

But what does this mean for China's private equity sector? High levels of leverage are central to the private equity model in Western economies, helping to amplify the returns to investors. But private equity funds have struggled to raise debt to make acquisitions in China, in part because China has no real system in which private-equity buyers can use a company's assets as collateral. That deters banks from taking the risk of arranging financing.

For that matter, private equity firms have found it very difficultto even take controlling stakes in Chinese firms, let alone buy a firm out in its entirety.

Certainly Ms. Wu's choice of audience to discuss the merits of leveraged buy-outs would suggest she thinks that private equity firms perhaps should be allowed in on this M&A revolution. And a junk bond market would help private equity investors bypass the banks and their collateral requirement by raising funds directly from the market. But while Ms. Wu was broadly supportive of private equity's role in the economy, she didn't explicitly say financial investors should be allowed to raise debt for buyouts.

Been on a diet recently? Research shows four in ten women actually gain weight

Four out of ten women who diet end up heavier than when they started watching their waistline, a study revealed today.
The research also showed that a large percentage of women start noticing the pounds creeping back on just 21 days after reaching their ideal weight.
Yesterday, Dr Ian Campbell of the Jenny Craig weight management programme said: 'In the UK 61.4 per cent of adults are overweight or obese.
'Successful weight management requires a long-term commitment in order to lose weight successfully and for good.
'Dieting can be a real challenge so setting realistic goals and remaining focused on them is important.
'Otherwise as this research shows, women could end up heavier than when they started.'
The 'Food: Body: Mind' report was commissioned by Jenny Craig who quizzed 2000 women aged between 18 and 65 who diet regularly on their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours around weight loss.
Six in ten said they are currently on a diet and one in five women saying they are on a 'continuous diet'.
It found the most common triggers to start dieting was seeing their 'reflection in the mirror', preparing for a summer holiday or unflattering photos posted on social networking sites.
Other popular reasons include comments by friends or relatives or remarks from their other half.
However the study showed that one in ten fall off the wagon within one day, while almost a fifth manage to make it to a week or more. The average is ten days.
Many blamed pressure they put on themselves to lose weight too quickly for the weight gain, which leaves them with a bigger appetite than normal.
Others blamed colleagues, who tuck into fatty lunches and snacks unaware of the effect it has on the dieter, while mothers who polish off their children's leftovers was another common cause of weight gain.

Organisers ban vuvuzela at Asiad event

The vuvuzela trumpet, which became the droning soundtrack to the football World Cup in South Africa, has been banned from the Asian Games, organisers have confirmed.
Vuvuzelas provoked strong emotions in South Africa, with some fans loving the distinctive low-pitched bellow while others -- including many players, coaches and commentators -- driven to distraction.
But athletes gathered for the 16th Asiad which opens on Friday will have no such concerns after a local government official confirmed that the plastic trumpet, often in garish colours, will be banned from all venues.
Zhang Youquan, deputy director of the civilisation office of the Guangzhou government, named the vuvuzela amid a list of banned items.
That list, prominently displayed outside venues, also includes whistles, lighters and matches, drink, food in large amounts that can be easily thrown, balls, rackets, frisbees and balloons.
According to a report by the Guangzhou Daily, spectators violating etiquette during the Games featuring 45 countries and regions competing in 42 sports will be advised by volunteers.
Vuvuzelas became the unofficial symbol of the World Cup, but they drowned out crowd chants and made it nearly impossible for players to communicate with each other.
The horns have since been banned by UEFA, European football's governing body, and by several English Premier League club grounds, as well as at the Commonwealth Games last month in New Delhi.

The city is engulfed in a divisive debate as it prepares to set its first-ever minimum wage

Lawmakers passed the minimum-wage bill after a 41-hour session in July in response to growing public calls to tackle the widening wealth gap. Some of Hong Kong's lowest-paid workers, such as toilet cleaners or security guards, earn as little as HK$20, or about US$2.60, an hour.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, in a luncheon address to business groups last week, said the government was forced to legislate a minimum wage after a 'tepid' response from the business community to a voluntary plan for a minimum wage proposed in 2006.

'[T]ensions are developing in society because the fruits of the economic recovery have not trickled down to all levels of the community,' said Mr. Tsang. 'Some people feel that they are being ripped off.'

A Provisional Minimum Wage Committee appointed by the government has yet to recommend the hourly rate, but HK$28 per hour, the median between what labor representatives and business groups are calling for, is considered likely. Law firm Mayer Brown JSM said it believes the recommendation could come this month.

Critics of the minimum wage call the legislation an unwanted departure from Hong Kong's laissez-faire roots. They argue that in an economy so dependent on small and midsize enterprises, employers operating on tight profit margins may need to lay off workers. Compliance costs will also pose a major burden, they add.

'Any increased regulation reduces Hong Kong's competitiveness,' said Duncan Abate, a partner at Mayer Brown JSM, who is also an executive council member of the Employers' Federation of Hong Kong. 'Minimum wage is a very intrusive piece of legislation that warps the balance between supply and demand and creates unemployment.'

Simon Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said rising wages weren't as big a concern for the industry as rising commodity prices, but he said the worsening sentiment toward big business in Hong Kong is still a matter that urgently needs to be addressed.

'It is likely that companies will try to adjust and cut costs in other ways first before laying off workers,' he said.

U.S. President George Bush says he is leaving office with a record of accomplishment

Applause was heard from the Cabinet meeting room at the White House as the session came to an end.
When reporters walked in a minute or so later, the president was offering his thanks to all those who have served during his eight years in office.
"This administration has had a good and solid record and I am very proud of it. I tell people that I leave town with a great sense of accomplishment and my head held high," Mr. Bush said.
He spoke of progress in areas from education to the environment. But he said the biggest achievement of his administration has been keeping America safe.
"Most of all, we protected this country from harm. And we did so by providing tools for our professionals as well as asking our military to do hard work which they have done time and time again," Mr. Bush said.
As he spoke, members of the incoming Obama administration were at the White House for an unprecedented national security drill.
Working with officials from the Bush team, they rehearsed how the United States would handle a hypothetical terrorist attack.
The exercise is part of an ongoing effort to make the transition from one president to the next as seamless as possible.
President Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, says much is at stake.
"As Republicans and Democrats, we disagree on a lot of policy issues but we agree completely that we want this new team to be as successful as they possibly can be especially in the areas of national and homeland security," Bolten said.
Incoming Obama chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel agrees.
"There is no higher task to any administration than protecting the American people," Emmanuel said.
This is the first change of administration since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. And while similar exercises are held throughout the year for government officials, this is the first time teams from the incoming and outgoing administrations have held a joint drill.