A Night Tour of Hong Kong

Previously I did a blog series on my favourite Cantopop artists. While there are few more artists I like, I am mixing things up a bit here and introduce a few music videos which have something in common, that these are all filmed in Hong Kong at night. Although these are not necessarily my most loved songs, I think it would be an interesting way to introduce Hong Kong, especially to those who have never visited the city before. So see if the city looks similar to what you may have imagined.

Covering My Mouth to Say I Love You 蒙著嘴說愛你 was the most popular song in Hong Kong in 2020 by Keung To, the hottest Cantopop idol in Hong Kong right now. Keung To (pronounced "toll", not "to") is from the boy band Mirror, which was formed in 2018 from the contestants of the reality talent competition show The King Maker. You may have heard of the band from the news last year when a giant screen fell down during their concert in Hong Kong and seriously injured a dancer.

Anyway, back to the song. It was released at the start of the covid outbreak in 2020 as a motivational song, when everyone had to start wearing masks. In the MV, TV screens with Keung To singing were pushed around the busy streets of Causeway Bay and Central in Hong Kong at night. You can get a glimpse of the Bank of China Tower and HSBC Building in the background.

The music video has attracted 20 million views so far. Although this may not sound a lot, bear in mind that the population of Hong Kong is only 7.5 million, and YouTube is banned in China. The song also won My Favourite Song Award in 2020, as voted by the live audiences at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation, making him the youngest ever artist to win such award.

The Night and The Star 夜幕天星 was a 2016 song by the group C AllStar. The group was formed by four talented singers who started their musical career busking in the pedestrian streets. Since then, C AllStar has become one of the most popular groups in Hong Kong. This song and the MV is about the famous Star Ferry, which carries passengers across the Victoria Harbour at a dirt cheap fare for over a century. It describes the beauty and the romance of the ferry ride, as well as the many talented buskers performing near the ferry pier.

Don't Text Him was a 2018 song by Serrini, an independent singer songwriter who is famous for having a PhD in Literature and her funny and outspoken personality. The song lyrics talked about the joy and pain of an unrequited love. Serrini did not appear in this music video herself though. Instead, the two characters walked down the street from Mong Kok to Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon peninsula, across the Victoria Harbour opposite the Hong Kong Island. The MV was probably shot late at night, when most shops were closed and the streets were rather empty.

Late Night Farewell Exercise 深夜告別練習 was a 2020 song by the band Zpecial. The song and the music video was about a chance encounter between two skateboarders at night. Again, the band themselves did not star in the music video (they probably can't skate). In the MV, you can see the famous evening skyline of Hong Kong at the beginning, as well as the tram line and the many streets of Hong Kong late at night.

A Mindless Fish 失魂魚 was a 2015 song by the independent band Silhungmo (literally "Little Red Riding Hood"). It was part of the Brazilian project Around The World in 80 Music Videos (you can watch the behind-the-scene video here). The MV was shot over a single take around the streets in Central District. The band played at the busy junction at D'Aguilar Street and Queen's Road Central towards the end of the MV.

Labyrinth was released in 2017 by Japanese musician Mondo Grosso and performed by Mitsushima Hikari, who recently reached a career height with the popular Netflix series First Love.

Back to the song and the music video. In the MV, Mitsushima Hikari danced around the infamous "Monster Building" in Quarry Bay at the start. These "ordinary" residential buildings were first made popular by the 2014 movie Transformers: Age of Extinction. Since then the location became an Instagram hotspot, and causing quite a bit of disturbance to the local residents.

The MV then moved on to Kowloon where Mitsushima danced around the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok. The final scene was shot in Sham Shui Po, one of the older and poorer districts in Kowloon. It was recently ranked one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world, as young and creative artists started to move in because of its cheaper rent.