 This new intense series on Amazon called X-Pats was filmed in Hong Kong and is already causing a stir. What is controversial about it? Did it make Hong Kong look bad? We're gonna talk about it. So you are telling me that a director from mainland China is filming something in Hong Kong centering white and Korean people and having no main Cantonese characters? Yeah, that sounds about right. Oh, we gotta talk about Andrew. A lot of controversies surrounding Amazon primes, the X-Pats. It is the first time a major major Hollywood star like Nicole Kidman Andrew has ever filmed something in Hong Kong. And this is the first time in a long time. So this is making a big splash. A couple controversies we're going to cover. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications. But you know what is not controversial, Andrew is Smala. Smala sauce. But it is sold out online. So you got to get it in stores right now. Stay tuned for the restock. Here's a couple controversies Andrew. X-Pats TV show puts Hong Kong officials in awkward position because it is seen as glamorizing the umbrella movement. Okay. So actually Andrew, the first two episodes out of six are not available in Hong Kong despite being filmed in Hong Kong. You know, it's funny. Well, I'm not in Hong Kong. But I've seen two episodes. I've seen two episodes. Right. So what I mean real quick, Andrew, first of all, did you enjoy him and what's it about? Let's continue with the controversies. Okay. I'll give you my analysis. Lulu Wang was talking about how she can represent Hong Kong. Lulu Wang, the director, who is from the farewell, right? She basically was saying like, I could still represent Hong Kong even though I only speak Mandarin because Cantonese is kind of dying in Hong Kong. And this made some people kind of raise a couple eyebrows to what that was her reasoning. Well, she was like, I can, I can actually understand a lot of people in Hong Kong nowadays because a lot of people are speaking Mandarin. That is a fact. Well, she was right. But maybe the way she said it was a little bit like people being like, people's like, I don't like how you said that. I don't know about the tone in her intention on that. I can't speak for that. But yes, that's a fact what she said. Yes. Right. Brian T is playing Nicole Kidman's husband in the piece. And he was saying, yo man, for Asian American straight male actors, these opportunities come around so seldomly. I was about to quit acting for, I got this job. So it was good for him. Yeah. It was good for him. And then other people are just saying like, hey man, how come there is no like real main Cantonese actors in this film? There's no famous Cantonese actors. There's no Andy Lau. There are Cantonese actors in it though. Right. But it is about the expat community that is like so well known in it. Yeah. No, no, no. Most of the story. So I'll tell you this. I didn't watch the entire series yet, but I watched a couple of episodes and I'll say this. It's an intense show and I think it's well made. Now, whether or not you want to politicize it, anything can be politicized. It is about Hong Kong. It is, they do have Cantonese characters, local characters, but you're right that it is centered more around these, this rich, rich expat family, but there are actual Cantonese characters. It's true. Now, does it make Hong Kong look good? Well, this is not a spoiler. By the way, the sun gets kidnapped. So that's the hoppa son, the half Korean half white son, I believe of Brian T and Nicole Kidman, which by the way, I forgot another controversy. Andrew Nicole Kidman was granted vaccine exemption when they were filming this in 2020 when everybody else had to be quarantined. Well, that's that's on the Hong Kong government side. I can't speak on that. But what I will say this is the things that I liked about the show is that I liked how they covered the Filipino helper's life. There's a lot of Filipino maids in Hong Kong and Indonesia and Indonesian, but they focus on the Filipino ones and it delves into their life and their perspective. And I thought that was very interesting because this is something that in Hong Kong, if you spend any time in Hong Kong, you know that there is a lot of help out there, right? For all these Wala families and it's in the mid levels. People have a lot of busy lives. It's not just mid level. Even even in other parts of Hong Kong, there's still just a lot of help and they get Sundays off. So they all hang out to each other with each other. And I think it's interesting to delve into their life. Nobody, in my opinion, has really delved into their life before. Just tell the story of where the kid gets kidnapped. Why does the kid get kidnapped on a young guy in Hong Kong on Lady Street? For summer, I didn't want them. I started the second and third episode. So I think it happened in the first episode where the kid, the maid is not there when the family goes out. Yeah. The core came in somehow gets mad at the maid because she's getting too close with her kids. So she feels like she's going to be the mom takes the kids out in her son, whose hoppa gets kidnapped. Yeah, it's kidnapped. Now, is it likely that a well off rich hoppa kid gets kidnapped in Hong Kong? It is not likely. Let me tell you this. But are they even going to take their kid to Larry and Guy to begin with? I don't know. I don't know. But anyways. But what are we, are we being realistic in every show now? Are we being realistic? So is it a documentary now? There's no creative freedom. I think when there's so little western representation filming about the daily lives of things in Hong Kong, people are a little bit like worried, right? Or in a place like that doesn't get a lot of attention as much as they used to in the 90s. People are worried. They're like, oh, everybody's going to think that their kids are going to get kidnapped in Hong Kong. So we need the tourism money. Yeah, it's true. Hong Kong is not like Mexico. So maybe they don't want like that type of connotation. But I guess what I'm saying is it's it is an intense show. And I'm not saying it's a show made to make Hong Kong look good. Like how Singapore looks good and crazy rich Asians. No, it is not glorifying Hong Kong like that. I understand. I admit it. It's not. But it's not. I don't think it's making Hong Kong look horrible. You say it's not demonizing. No, it's not demonizing Hong Kong. But it is a serious place. And it's letting you know, hey, at the end of the day, Hong Kong is a very safe place. Let's be honest. It's a huge city. But there's still some. You got to worry out. They're not hooping that southern playground in Wanzai. Yeah, it's a it's a it is a real city. So you have to watch out for things. People were just saying, man, why is everybody concerned about a work of fiction? It's not a dictionary. And someone said, yeah, but if anything, it should teach people that maybe having leash kids on their toddlers is not bad. Because when you have everybody criticizes parents who put their kids on leashes, but at least your kids don't get kidnapped. Yeah, I do understand why people have leashes for their kids as weird as that is, because I seen like the crowds and you have a kid and you're walking through them. And if you're not carrying them, you kind of need to be like, you want to be latched on to them somehow? Right, right, right. Somebody just said, man, I would play. I would have watched it if she didn't skip the quarantine. I hated that because Andrew, there was a lot of crazy things happening during the filming this. Nicole Kidman went back to Australia for two months in the middle of filming because she couldn't deal with it like because there was a lot of restrictions and they just ended up they ended up finishing the series and now it's coming out three years later. Somebody just said, man, it shows Kowloon in a bad light because obviously Andrew in Hong Kong, there was a split between the island side where a lot of the expats live. Mid levels is there. Yeah. Peak Stanley town, repulse bay and then island side, which is viewed as more like crape. I mean Kowloon, which is viewed as more crazy like the BX. Yeah. Well, I can't speak on it. I'm not in Hong Kong right now. So I mean, listen, if if you're from Hong Kong or you currently live in Hong Kong and you're offended by this series, I'm not going to tell you not to be. Okay. That's fine. I mean, just as an Asian guy, I can say that I'm offended by a lot of things. So did you enjoy it as somebody with roots in Hong Kong? It's the first American production to pump millions and millions of millions of dollars into something in Hong Kong in quite some time. What you think, man? Yeah. I thought it was a well-made show. And if you are interested in that, if we've, if at the end of this video that you've watched us talk about it, you're still interested in the show, you can watch it because you just need an Amazon account, right? So, but I'm not telling every, this is not one of the shows I'm writing for. I'm not saying everybody should watch this show. I'm just saying, if it sounds interesting, watch an episode. It's, it's a well-made show. It's so funny because that expat world in the mid levels or the peak or whatever you want to call it, Repulse Bay, it's sort of what makes Hong Kong what it is. But of course, a lot of the actual like Cantonese people are like local hungers. They don't really like love that crowd of people because they act like they run the place. Yeah, I know. They don't treat it with any sort of like seriousness. You know how they, you know, obviously a lot of the expats, they never learn Cantonese. Exactly. No, and I think that you can see that in the film. I don't know if that's the point of the film, but you can see that they are disconnected from the locals 100%. Right. You said everybody's like, all the dads are cheating on them all. Yeah, they're all disconnected from the, you know, it shows the maids. It shows the local HKers and it shows the rich expats that are non-Chinese. And I'm just saying like, it kind of does show you a little bit of everything. Yeah, my favorite place in Hong Kong is land quite far. Trust me, it is not glorifying the expat life. I wouldn't say. Right. I wouldn't say it's glorifying it, especially for the expat women. It's definitely not glorifying it for them. Any place that used to be a former British colony, there's still that scene that exists there to this day. Everywhere. Singapore. Singapore. Parts of Malaysia. Yeah, Malaysia is like starting to, yeah. Neighborhoods of Malaysia probably. Just a lot of places in Asia that were colonized by European powers, specifically like British powers, they got this scene still to this day existing. Sort of, sort of vanishing now. Yeah, but, but again, having been to Hong Kong several times in my life, I thought it was a interesting show, but I don't. Am I going to finish the series? I don't know. You let me know in the comments down below. You know, I would just have preferred like maybe MC Jin or somebody else can pop up. Well, you know, I did not see a Tony Lerner or Andy Lau in this. So, you know, I don't know if I want to. Is it really a Hong Kong series? If there is no Andy Lau, Laoduckwa. If there is no Laoduckwa, how can it be for Hong Kong people? What was more statistically unrealistic that the kid got kidnapped or that the interracial couple had Brian T and Nicole Kidman? I'm just based off what you see. I don't know. Yeah, I think probably the kid getting kidnapped is unlikely. But anyways, it does happen. It's a big city. Anyways, guys, let us know in the comments down below. Did you watch the series? Are you interested in the series? How problematic do you think the making of it is? To me, listen, if you find out later down the road that one of your favorite series that the director of one of your favorite movies was kind of racist, is that going to ruin the movie for you? You let me know. I don't know. Because, pardon me, that's on the Hong Kong government side. I don't know. I didn't make the decisions for Nicole Kidman. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think of the X-Pats. If you watched it on Amazon Prime in the comment section below. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.