BTS on New Year's Eve 2017.

Counting down to midnight on New Year's Eve by re-watching all the BTS award show and festival performances they've done since they returned from the U.S. There are five events.

At MAMA in Hong Kong, they did a 20-minute set, with intro video material that drops hints about their next projects (I don't bother trying to figure it out, but they always do it).
Intro + DNA + You Never Walk Alone + Spring Day, then Cypher 4 and a version of Mic Drop with three new dance breaks that were so exciting.

Just a few days later they were back in Korea and performed at the Melon Awards. The set was
DNA+You Never Walk Alone+Spring Day. 

The first of the three year-end song festivals (Gayo) was the SBS show.
The set included DNA and Not Today,

and they finished up with Mic Drop.


At the second festival, the KBS Gayo Daechukje, they had a live band, and began with Spring Day, that incorporated key dance moves from several of their earlier title songs in a dance break at the end. They followed up with a throwback to Lost that showed off the vocal line, then Cypher 4 for the rap line. With the band, they did a rock version of DNA and Not Today, wearing military uniforms.

Finally, their last performance in Korea in 2017 was at the MBC Gayo where they did a sweet version of Go Go, throwing hearts to the fans:
 and then returned to the album version of Mic Drop, rather than the Steve Aoki remix, with all three of the dance breaks they had done at MAMA. At this festival, they performed right after New Year's Eve, and were clearly elated with how they have ended this tremendous year.

Maggie Cheung at the PFA (fall 2017)

I went to most of the films in this series at the PFA of Maggie Cheung movies.  I had already seen Irma Vep, and was out of town for In the Mood for Love, but I saw the rest of the series. Such a star!

Clean (dir. Olivier Assayas) 2004
A heartbreaking account of a mother who attempts to kick her habit in order to win back custody of her child after her famous musician husband ODs. (I did not realize that they were married). She won Best Actress at Cannes for this role.

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (dir. Peter Chan) 1996 Hong Kong. Leon Lai is so hunky in this story of immigrants.

Center Stage (dir. Stanley Kwan) betrayal and survival, in the Chinese film industry during the revolution. The story of Chinese actress Ruan Lingyu who committed suicide in 1935, at the age of 24.

Green Snake (Tsui Hark) 1993.
Snake sisters!

Hero (dir. Zhang Yimou) 2002
Red! Blue! White! Green!