03-020 The 3:07 A.M. Project

03-020
The 3:07 A.M. Project

I am coming back to this chapter. I found something new. No, I am not talking about the upcoming feature film Nun 2. I do not have any news for that. I am not working in the movie industry. I have no internal information to leak. The “new” information I found is actually nearly a decade old. It is even older than the first feature film in The Conjuring Universe.

A section called “Tie-in Media” was added to the Wikipedia page of The Conjuring Universe in October, 2022 and successfully drew my attention to. The new section is about a series of anthology horror short films, titled The 3:07 A.M. Project. If you have watched The Conjuring, you will know what the meaning is behind 3:07 A.M.

The 3:07 A.M. Project consists of 4 shorts, each around one and a half minute long. They are namely This One, For The Lady, The Séance, Box & One Last Dive. The whole series is around 6 to 7 minutes. Each short was directed by a different director under the same recurring theme 3:07 A.M.

The 3:07 A.M. Project is a co-production of Vice Media, Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema. The ‘project’ was released on 17^th July 2013, 2 days before the premiere of The Conjuring. It serves as a marketing device for The Conjuring and is still available on YouTube.

While the series does not connect directly to the franchise, it officially belongs to The Conjuring Universe. So why don’t we watch it together to celebrate the new year?

Go back to the Lobby ...

04-010 Filet-O-Fish copycat

04-010
Filet-O-Fish copycat

Sometimes, eating fast food can be a cultural impact.

First is the local menu. Do you know McDonald’s in India are vegetarian? And Whoppers in India are made by mutton, not beef. No pork is used in the Sausage McMuffin selling in Singapore, because it needs to be halal. You need to pay extra for a happy meal toy in McDonald’s in Germany. However, instead of those cheap plastic toys, their happy meal toys are wooden. Also, KFC in China sells duck.

McDonald’s in India. Everything is vegetarian.

Double Mutton Whopper in India’s Burger King.

Apart from food, more funny questions are out there. Why does Pizza Hut not do well in England? Why KFC does much better than McDonald’s in mainland China, but not in Hongkong? With an average salary of US$1000 per month, why you can never find a seat in Starbucks in Beijing?

Dig deep in these questions can broaden your eyesight.

Hamburger is a foreign food here. We didn’t even have this word in our language. Then all in a sudden, it came our first McDonald’s in 1975. It soon became popular. Very very popular indeed! We did not only learn what burger is but also what “Fast-Food” means.

Businessmen are smart. Soon, many fast-food copycats popped up from nowhere and flooded the market. People start selling hamburgers, with their own interpretations. Pickles gone. Ketchup replaced by mayonnaise. And beef burger became pork burger or chicken burger or a mixture of chicken, beef or pork.

These lasted until late 90s. As Hong Kong is getting more and more international, we now know what a burger should be. Many new burger restaurants set up in the recent decade. Bosses are all local Hongkongers but they sell very authentic burgers.

Localized burgers are almost gone with only a few shops remain. Some people do look for them as a memory of their childhood.

Recently, I visited one in an old district of Hongkong that still sell localized burgers. I bought a Filet-O-fish copycat from there. And at the same time, I bought an authentic Filet-O-fish from a McDonald’s just nearby. Let’s see how different they look. 

A small takeaway restaurant in Tin Wan, an old district of Hong Kong

The restaurant is called “Lok Fu Eatery”. Size is very small without any seats.

Manuals are hanged on the wall in Chinese language only.
It sells Hamburger and Filet-O-Fish.
I ordered a Filet-O-Fish copycat, with a cup of hot coffee.
It is $23 in total, which is a little bit less than US$3.

It happens that there is just a McDonald’s round the corner.

I bought the same thing, a Filet-O-Fish breakfast set from McDonald’s.
It costs me $20 only.

McDonald’s uses paper bag for their burgers. Only plastic bag is used for the coffee.

I don’t think I need to tell you what a Filet-O-Fish is.
It tastes the same as anywhere in the world.

The “Lok Fu” copycat uses plastic bags, 3 in total.
One for the burger, one for the coffee and one to hold them all.

The bread is thicker than the original’s and has sesames on it.

Tartar sauce is replaced by mayo.
No cheese inside. And no chopped onion.

But the fillet is made by real fish meat,
unlike that machine pressed fish patty in real Filet-O-Fish. 

Conclusions

Instead of machine pressed fish patty, you got real fish fillet in the copycat. The fillet itself tastes much better than McDonald’s. But I need to admit. I was abused by McDonald’s for too long. A copycat without chopped onion simply goes nowhere.

McDonald’s won.

Go back to the Lobby ...

04-009 We need more international burgers

04-009
We need more international burgers

Back in November 2020, a rather interesting post was circulating on Facebook worldwide. It was from “Burger King UK”. In the post, Burger King asked the public to buy food from McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and many of their competitors. Reason? COVID knockdowns were killing the restaurant industry and any purchase would be essential, no matter the purchase was made to them or to others.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/burgerkinguk/posts/10157489048836921

The post granted a lot of salutes to Burger King. McDonald’s fans also posted photos of their McDonald’s milkshake on Burger King’s Facebook, saying they have followed the advice. 😊 

I started wondering, how many International Fast Food Restaurant chains can I found in my city. And to my surprise, there is no easy answer to the question.

First, how should we define a restaurant as a “Fast Food Restaurant”. Fast Food Restaurant is also called Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR). Everyone know what it is, McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s etc. But how exactly can we define a restaurant as a QSR? If Wendy’s is a QSR, how about Wimpy? Their food are almost the same but in Wimpy, you get a waiter serving you. And should the list also cover restaurants not selling Western Food? How about chains not originated from the US or the UK? Should we count them? If not, why?

I found the answer on Wikipedia. There exists a list of all QSR chains with more than 500 stores worldwide. The list does not give out a clear definition on QSR. It is not unarguable. But it technically phased out those more high-end restaurants, as a city normally cannot support so many fine dining restaurants of the same brand.

So, how many of them you can find in Hongkong. Let’s go through the list one by one. To my surprise, there are not so many.

Note: The list is dynamic and would change from time to time. The writing time of this post is at the end of 2022.

First, we have McDonald’s, definitely. And it is also the largest here.

McDonald's in Hongkong

Subway in Hongkong

Starbucks in Hongkong

Subway is not doing very well here. Most of the Subways in Hongkong only provide takeaway. Starbucks is also everywhere. And KFC is also doing well recently, but still not as popular as McDonald’s.

KFC and Pizza Hut are operated by the same company here.

The struggling Burger King, with only one outlet here at the time of writing.

Burger King is doing really bad. At the time of writing, only one Burger King survive in Hongkong and I am not sure how long can it stand. Pizza Hut is better, with more than 40 stores around.

And the 7^th on the list, Domino’s? Sorry, Domino’s is no more although its “stepson” is still around. No Dunkin’, no Krispy Kreme, no Hunt Brothers, no Taco Bell, no Orange Julius, no Dairy Queen, no Wendy’s, no Baskins-Robbins and no Hardee’s neither. We used to have Wendy’s & Hardee’s but they’re also no more.

Popeyes is just hanging on in Hongkong, with only one outlet hiding inside a food court.

Popeyes' Menu

The next we have is already the 22^nd on the list, Popeyes. But it is not doing good either. There is only one outlet surviving in the city center, hiding inside a food court.

Sukiya in Hongkong

MOS Burger in Hongkong

Cinnabon in Hongkong

Jollibee in Hongkong

Five Guys in Hongkong

Ichibanya in Hongkong

85C Bakery Café in Hongkong

BreadTalk in Hongkong

Häagen-Dazs restaurant in Hongkong

The remaining are Sukiya from Japan (37^th), MOS Burger, also from Japan (44^th), Cinnabon (47^th), Jollibee from Philippines (50^th), Five Guys (51^st), Ichibanya (54^th), 85C Bakery Café (65^th), BreadTalk (75^th) & Häagen-Dazs (76^th).

That’s all! We have 16 out of 103 restaurants of the list. I wonder how international we actually are!

Go back to the Lobby ...

03-019 Dead Silence, the missing puzzle of The Conjuring Universe?

03-019
Dead Silence, the missing puzzle of The Conjuring Universe?

When looking into James Wan’s filmography, you will find most of his movies developed into big franchises.

James Wan’s filmography

James’ early movies like Saw, Insidious & The Conjuring all became big franchised. In recent years, we saw him setting foot on some of the already developed franchises. Furious 7 is part of Fast and Furious. Aquaman is DC.

But there is one being left behind. Up till now, it is a standalone, with no connection made to other universes, nor any sequel or prequel planned. It is, the 2007 Dead Silence.

Dead Silence, directed by James Wan

The movie is generally poor rated. Though someone disagrees and claims it a James’ forgotten gem.

Why 'Dead Silence' is the forgotten gem of James Wan's Horror Oeuvre
https://www.popmatters.com/james-wan-dead-silence-2646165002.html

Movie watching is very personal. Just like music, you no need to like a certain singer just because someone says he or she is good. But when I saw someone said this movie should be, or will be a part of The Conjuring Universe, I decide to give it a go.

Why Dead Silence Should Become Part of The Conjuring Universe
https://screenrant.com/dead-silence-movie-sequel-conjuring-universe-reason/

Warning: Spoiler ahead.

Story starts with an old legend.

The movie starts with an old legend of an unrestingly spirit, waiting to revenge. It possesses horrifying dolls. Jump scares and ghost in mirror reflection appear throughout the movie.  It is very James Wan, isn’t it?

The ambience of Dead Silence fits very well with James’ later horror movies. But to consider a common universe, storyline is more important.

Timeline

Center of The Conjuring Universe are undoubtedly the Warrens. Not everything in The Conjuring Universe needed to be factual but at least, nothing should happen outside Warrens’ lifetime. Distinct from The Conjuring movies, Dead Silence did not give a date. But we can find this out from its storyline.

Mary Shaw's birth certificate, showing she was born in 1869.

Mary Shaw's tomb shows she died in 1941.

The movie indicates Mary Shaw died in 1941. And the mortician Henry Walker watched her show just a few months before her murder. Henry did not mention how old he was but from his appearance, I think age 8 is a good guess. 

Henry watched Mary Shaw's show when he was a boy.

She looks really like in her 70s.

Jamie's great granduncle was found missing weeks after the show and Mary Shaw was murdered soon after.
This indicates the show must be happened in 1940 or 41.

The 'present date' Henry Walker looks in his 70s or even older.

And Henry nowadays looks like 70s. So, simple mathematics! 1941+70-8. Dead Silence should occur in early 2000. CZsWorld simply set the release year 2007 as when the story took place. Ed Warren was already dead by that time.

Jamie's home has a lot of classic items like a reel-to-reel tape recorder and vinyl record player.
But I also saw a cordless landline phone.

Jamie got an old dining table, but the other kitchenware looks very IKEA.
Also, don't overlook the CD player on top of the fridge.

Ella got a collection of CD.
This shows the story could not be happening in the 70s or even 80s.

Scene outside the Chinese takeaway.
Car model shows the story happens in a modern time.

Isn't that a POS with TFT monitor on the cashier?

Continuity

At the end of Dead Silence, Mary Shaw took Jamie Ashen. Many are not satisfied with this ending as evil won. However, I noticed there is a half second pulse before Jamie screamed. I think Jamie did this with intention. He fully realized he was the last in his family line and wanted to end everything up. At the final scene, we saw Mary Shaw adding the Ashen’s family photo to the last page and closing her sketchbook, which signifying that the curse is now ended, and her spirit will move on. Jamie scarified himself to set Mary free. The story is completed. There is no place to add a sequel and link it up with anything.

Someone also suggests maybe one day we will see Ed Warrens bringing a possessed ventriloquist doll back, putting it next to Annabelle. But all Mary Shaw’s 101 dolls were burnt to ash in the movie. What else can the Warrens bring back?

If I must give a connection between this movie and The Conjuring Universe,
I would say the movie idea. Isn't the doll on the left Annabelle?

I don’t think Dead Silence can be a part of The Conjuring Universe. But it is a steppingstone for James to develop his horror universe. I recommend this movie to all of you.

Go back to the Lobby ...