"Cinema, de notre temps" HHH, portrait de Hou Hsiao-hsien

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 2 00:00:38,214 --> 00:00:42,971 <i>HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien</i> 3 00:00:44,675 --> 00:00:47,370 by Olivier Assayas 4 00:00:48,274 --> 00:00:51,953 <i>A Time to Live, A Time to Die</i> (1985) 5 00:00:52,599 --> 00:00:56,797 <i>This film is about my childhood,</i> 6 00:00:58,121 --> 00:01:00,317 <i>and my memory of my father.</i> 7 00:01:03,043 --> 00:01:05,478 <i>He was from Meixian, a district in the province of Guangdong.</i> 8 00:01:06,244 --> 00:01:10,158 <i>In 1947, 40 days after I was born, he led a basketball team to Guangzhou,</i> 9 00:01:12,046 --> 00:01:15,926 <i>for the Guangdong Area Games.</i> 10 00:01:17,688 --> 00:01:21,159 <i>He was Meixian's commissioner for education.</i> 11 00:01:23,341 --> 00:01:27,487 <i>In Guangzhou, he ran into an old school pal, Li Gui.</i> 12 00:01:29,572 --> 00:01:32,849 <i>Li was then Mayor of Taichung, Taiwan.</i> 13 00:01:33,974 --> 00:01:38,572 <i>He invited my father to come to Taiwan to be his executive secretary.</i> 14 00:01:40,776 --> 00:01:45,056 <i>A year later, my father wrote home to us from Taiwan:</i> 15 00:01:45,818 --> 00:01:48,856 <i>He said, "I live well here, there is running tap water."</i> 16 00:01:50,140 --> 00:01:52,416 <i>and that he wanted the family to join him.</i> 17 00:01:54,821 --> 00:02:01,174 <i>In 1949, my father was transferred to Taipei, and made commissioner for education.</i> 18 00:02:02,944 --> 00:02:04,856 <i>Our home was in Hsin-chu.</i> 19 00:02:08,786 --> 00:02:10,857 <i>The weather in northern Taiwan was extremely humid,</i> 20 00:02:12,628 --> 00:02:14,620 <i>and my father was troubled by asthma attacks.</i> 21 00:02:17,189 --> 00:02:19,420 <i>We moved to Fengshan when I was in first grade,</i> 22 00:02:20,671 --> 00:02:24,221 <i>hoping the move south might improve his health.</i> 23 00:02:26,393 --> 00:02:29,591 <i>My grandmother used to make lots of silver offerings,</i> 24 00:02:31,835 --> 00:02:35,624 <i>to be used for her stay in the afterlife.</i> 25 00:02:37,757 --> 00:02:39,509 <i>She was over 80 years old then.</i> 26 00:02:42,078 --> 00:02:43,797 <i>My father was a good son.</i> 27 00:02:44,959 --> 00:02:48,715 <i>He would not start dinner without her,</i> 28 00:02:50,561 --> 00:02:54,112 <i>but she never started it until she got me home.</i> 29 00:02:56,484 --> 00:03:02,081 <i>She dooted on me a lot, because a fortune teller once told her</i> 30 00:03:03,406 --> 00:03:05,477 <i>that I would grow up to be powerful.</i> 31 00:03:07,648 --> 00:03:10,368 <i>Her pet name for me was A-ha,</i> 32 00:03:11,609 --> 00:03:14,761 <i>which stuck and soon everyone called me it.</i> 33 00:03:26,997 --> 00:03:30,848 Taiwan and its capital Taipei, are located on the south eastern coast of China. 34 00:03:30,873 --> 00:03:34,445 Japan colonised the island in 1885 before surrendering it in 1945. 35 00:03:34,888 --> 00:03:38,244 By the end of the 1949 civil war, with the impending victory of the Communists, 36 00:03:38,269 --> 00:03:41,500 the Kuomintang's nationalist army withdrew to Taiwan. 37 00:03:41,525 --> 00:03:44,781 Taipei was named the capital of the 'Republic of China' in exile. 38 00:03:45,293 --> 00:03:49,178 With the support of the United States, Chiang Kai-shek marshalled an army 39 00:03:49,203 --> 00:03:52,772 oriented towards the hypothetical goal of reconquering the mainland. 40 00:03:52,816 --> 00:03:55,458 Martial law, limiting freedom of expression 41 00:03:55,483 --> 00:03:57,728 and prohibiting any political opposition was maintained until 1987. 42 00:03:57,845 --> 00:04:00,298 A-Ha! 43 00:04:12,991 --> 00:04:14,107 Who's turn now? 44 00:04:15,632 --> 00:04:18,352 It's mine, I won! 45 00:04:22,475 --> 00:04:25,513 This here is Kaohsiung. 46 00:04:25,796 --> 00:04:29,267 Later we'll arrive in Fengshan. 47 00:04:33,078 --> 00:04:36,037 It's straight ahead, this direction. 48 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,078 Kaohsiung is the largest city in the south. 49 00:04:40,601 --> 00:04:42,672 Fengshan is nearby. 50 00:04:42,962 --> 00:04:46,876 In the past, it was a 20-minute bus ride. 51 00:04:47,724 --> 00:04:50,956 And then we rode bikes to school. 52 00:04:54,006 --> 00:04:56,475 Sometimes we walked there. 53 00:04:56,767 --> 00:05:00,283 There was a track through the paddies, a track leading to the school. 54 00:05:00,808 --> 00:05:04,352 I loved walking through the rice fields because, 55 00:05:06,170 --> 00:05:10,643 on harvest day, we would often see a man catching birds. 56 00:05:10,932 --> 00:05:12,924 We called him the 'Birdman'. 57 00:05:14,093 --> 00:05:15,859 Like in my film, 58 00:05:17,174 --> 00:05:19,530 <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>. 59 00:05:19,815 --> 00:05:22,205 In that film, he would set up a trap, 60 00:05:22,496 --> 00:05:23,976 a huge net, 61 00:05:24,497 --> 00:05:27,376 and then he would blow on a tiny whistle. 62 00:05:29,459 --> 00:05:32,179 The sparrows would fly down 63 00:05:33,020 --> 00:05:35,330 into the net 64 00:05:35,621 --> 00:05:37,931 Once caught, there was no escape. 65 00:05:38,982 --> 00:05:43,057 He wore a wide brim hat and off it came to scoop up the birds. 66 00:05:43,344 --> 00:05:45,574 Then "pop"... he'd snap their necks. 67 00:05:47,345 --> 00:05:52,421 He never wanted the birds alive, he'd sell them to barbecue vendors. 68 00:05:56,108 --> 00:05:59,181 This is Fengshan temple, we enter through there. 69 00:06:04,671 --> 00:06:08,712 In the past, it was the residence of the county chief. 70 00:06:16,636 --> 00:06:18,992 Once there was this large garden, 71 00:06:19,277 --> 00:06:22,190 and next to it, a huge mango tree. 72 00:06:23,158 --> 00:06:24,956 The wall was here, 73 00:06:25,239 --> 00:06:27,629 and the mango tree was here... 74 00:06:31,401 --> 00:06:33,711 There was a garden, trees, 75 00:06:34,002 --> 00:06:36,358 artificial rocks... 76 00:06:36,723 --> 00:06:39,875 I would slip inside through this alley, 77 00:06:40,164 --> 00:06:42,884 and I climbed the mango tree. 78 00:06:45,766 --> 00:06:48,156 Right about there... 79 00:06:48,687 --> 00:06:50,280 was the mango tree. 80 00:06:50,768 --> 00:06:53,237 I'd steal the mangoes. 81 00:06:53,529 --> 00:06:56,090 I ate some of them quite leisurely, 82 00:06:56,370 --> 00:06:58,726 pocketed others and then I was off. 83 00:07:00,732 --> 00:07:04,646 From the top of the tree, I strongly felt space and time. 84 00:07:06,814 --> 00:07:08,770 And I also felt a... 85 00:07:09,055 --> 00:07:13,527 ... certain loneliness. Yeah, I felt a strong sense of solitude. 86 00:07:15,577 --> 00:07:18,138 This left a deep impression on me. 87 00:07:19,898 --> 00:07:23,779 Maybe that's why that I took to filmmaking. 88 00:07:24,060 --> 00:07:28,859 As if, from a given angle, you can stop and experience sense of being, 89 00:07:29,142 --> 00:07:33,500 and feel immersed in space and time. 90 00:07:34,624 --> 00:07:36,501 This temple 91 00:07:37,505 --> 00:07:42,627 is surrounded by a network of alleys. 92 00:07:43,747 --> 00:07:46,865 When we were fighting, 93 00:07:47,148 --> 00:07:51,109 and the cops were trying to catch us, 94 00:07:51,390 --> 00:07:54,986 we'd escape through the small pathways in the alleys. 95 00:07:57,832 --> 00:08:01,030 As a child with all my time ahead of me, 96 00:08:01,553 --> 00:08:02,987 I'd always come here. 97 00:08:03,754 --> 00:08:07,590 When I was a teenager, all my friends were here too. 98 00:08:08,156 --> 00:08:10,113 We'd chat, make bets, 99 00:08:10,397 --> 00:08:13,071 eat sugar cane, anything really. 100 00:08:14,078 --> 00:08:17,230 There used to be a big tree there, one over there too. 101 00:08:17,519 --> 00:08:21,719 We'd hang up a pair of gymnastic rings, 102 00:08:22,001 --> 00:08:25,631 and we'd try doing sports like that. 103 00:08:26,722 --> 00:08:27,785 Or we would sing. 104 00:08:27,810 --> 00:08:30,603 Do you see the stage? 105 00:08:31,004 --> 00:08:34,441 It is in this temple that the regional competition 106 00:08:34,845 --> 00:08:39,125 for the seven south opera companies was held: 107 00:08:39,887 --> 00:08:44,201 Glove puppets, marionettes, theatre, Taiwanese opera... 108 00:08:44,649 --> 00:08:48,086 The season could last up to two months. 109 00:08:48,610 --> 00:08:51,444 When someone dies, 110 00:08:51,972 --> 00:08:54,612 their soul comes to the temple. 111 00:08:55,133 --> 00:08:57,089 Look at this inscription. 112 00:08:57,374 --> 00:09:00,970 It means: "You are here". 113 00:09:01,255 --> 00:09:03,929 When you are dead, you come here. 114 00:09:04,216 --> 00:09:06,287 "You are coming," you were destined to come. 115 00:09:06,777 --> 00:09:08,973 Inside, there is a large abacus, 116 00:09:09,938 --> 00:09:13,488 as those who serve to do the accounts. 117 00:09:14,140 --> 00:09:18,692 It takes stock of the good and bad deeds. 118 00:09:19,101 --> 00:09:22,253 When I was a kid, I heard it said 119 00:09:23,863 --> 00:09:27,823 that at night you could hear the sound of the abacus clicking. 120 00:09:28,585 --> 00:09:30,462 The midnight count! 121 00:09:30,986 --> 00:09:33,136 You've been here since 1949, right? 122 00:09:33,427 --> 00:09:34,860 Since 1954. 123 00:09:35,147 --> 00:09:38,663 1954? How old are you? 124 00:09:38,949 --> 00:09:40,064 80 years old. 125 00:09:46,311 --> 00:09:49,349 - I am Old Chen. - I know! 126 00:09:49,632 --> 00:09:52,193 - And who are you? - I am Aha. 127 00:09:55,194 --> 00:09:56,833 Have you forgotten? 128 00:10:01,237 --> 00:10:04,355 I have often thought of you! 129 00:10:05,318 --> 00:10:09,791 At first glance, I didn't recognize you. 130 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:12,038 I have grown old! 131 00:10:12,681 --> 00:10:17,312 Some said you came here to shoot a film. 132 00:10:18,403 --> 00:10:20,473 It slipped my mind! 133 00:10:24,405 --> 00:10:26,795 I am too old... 134 00:10:27,566 --> 00:10:30,001 - Do you make nice films? - Yes. 135 00:10:30,807 --> 00:10:33,845 No one comes back anymore? 136 00:10:34,368 --> 00:10:37,806 I went to see Ah-Fu. 137 00:10:39,187 --> 00:10:43,015 Shui-tsai doesn't live here anymore? 138 00:10:44,052 --> 00:10:47,966 Shui-tsai lived behind the station. 139 00:10:48,333 --> 00:10:50,928 - Has he moved? - He left. 140 00:10:51,215 --> 00:10:53,445 - The factory has closed. - To-hsi is dead. 141 00:10:53,735 --> 00:10:55,089 - Who? - To-hsi. 142 00:10:55,376 --> 00:10:58,733 The big brother of Shui-tsai? 143 00:10:59,017 --> 00:11:02,295 - How? Was he ill? - Yes, of illness. 144 00:11:03,219 --> 00:11:06,018 Chong-yuan is dead too, he was... 145 00:11:06,380 --> 00:11:09,100 He was murdered. 146 00:11:09,381 --> 00:11:12,499 - He was gunned down by Chih-shan? - Yes, right. 147 00:11:13,022 --> 00:11:15,742 People of my father's generation, 148 00:11:16,023 --> 00:11:19,461 like old Chen; on arrival in Taiwan, 149 00:11:20,025 --> 00:11:23,177 thought it would be a short stay, no more than two or three years. 150 00:11:24,186 --> 00:11:27,658 But there you have it: at 80 years old, he's still stuck here. 151 00:11:27,948 --> 00:11:31,862 My father, when he first came here, thought he'd work for a few years 152 00:11:32,509 --> 00:11:34,262 and then we'd leave and return home. 153 00:11:35,831 --> 00:11:39,507 All the furniture he bought then was makeshift stuff. 154 00:11:39,792 --> 00:11:43,422 Bamboo, the cheapest and the simplest. 155 00:11:48,555 --> 00:11:51,309 He thought, he felt like... 156 00:11:51,716 --> 00:11:54,106 there was no family graveyard. 157 00:11:54,877 --> 00:11:56,994 It was not his home country. 158 00:11:57,349 --> 00:12:00,560 Assayas: <i>Had China left a major impression on your father during his youth?</i> 159 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:04,156 No, not at all. 160 00:12:05,561 --> 00:12:08,360 Every day my grandmother 161 00:12:08,583 --> 00:12:11,436 prepared for our return to the mainland. 162 00:12:13,244 --> 00:12:17,762 She would say to me: ''Come, let's go that way.'' 163 00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:24,798 She believed Guangdong was just around the corner! 164 00:12:27,369 --> 00:12:30,248 She wanted to die in her homeland. 165 00:12:51,858 --> 00:12:56,011 In 1981 or 1982, I went to Hong Kong for the first time. 166 00:12:56,540 --> 00:13:06,461 A festival of Taiwanese cinema had been organised. 167 00:13:06,743 --> 00:13:09,577 We all wanted to see films from the mainland. 168 00:13:10,465 --> 00:13:13,026 Such films were banned here in Taiwan. 169 00:13:13,306 --> 00:13:15,901 Even in Hong Kong we had to see them in secret. 170 00:13:16,747 --> 00:13:20,457 Many of us saw the mainland films and we were all deeply moved. 171 00:13:20,748 --> 00:13:24,220 Not by the plot or the stories they were telling, 172 00:13:24,510 --> 00:13:27,071 but more by the language and the tongue, 173 00:13:27,351 --> 00:13:30,185 as well as the landscapes that we saw. 174 00:13:31,432 --> 00:13:36,554 I understood when I saw them, that my early education 175 00:13:36,954 --> 00:13:42,466 cultivated in me a mental universe formed under the influence of the mainland. 176 00:13:42,836 --> 00:13:45,829 There was this profound excitement about seeing your native land. 177 00:13:45,997 --> 00:13:50,304 Assayas: <i>Does he consider himself a Chinese or Taiwanese filmmaker?</i> 178 00:13:50,494 --> 00:13:52,804 I'm a Taiwanese director. 179 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,552 From a cultural point of view, 180 00:13:57,642 --> 00:14:01,272 you can't deny that you are Chinese. 181 00:14:02,283 --> 00:14:05,515 But in the current context, 182 00:14:05,805 --> 00:14:08,035 the political reality... 183 00:14:12,687 --> 00:14:16,317 with this separation into two nations, 184 00:14:17,009 --> 00:14:20,400 you also cannot deny that you are Taiwanese. 185 00:14:20,730 --> 00:14:22,961 I am a Taiwanese director. 186 00:14:24,371 --> 00:14:26,886 Our esteemed director is here! 187 00:14:39,337 --> 00:14:42,057 I grew up with you, 188 00:14:42,778 --> 00:14:45,247 fighting and gambling! 189 00:14:48,580 --> 00:14:51,015 I started gambling because of Lo-kuo. 190 00:14:53,422 --> 00:14:58,941 When I was in the first grade, he took me home to gamble, starting with marbles. 191 00:15:04,066 --> 00:15:06,978 Where's Wu-hsiung? Is he still here? 192 00:15:07,637 --> 00:15:11,275 The family house is still here, but he moved to Niaosong long ago. 193 00:15:14,109 --> 00:15:16,670 Wu-hsiong was a slick guy. 194 00:15:16,958 --> 00:15:18,983 Here are the king size marbles. 195 00:15:21,992 --> 00:15:25,045 Our balls were different. They were much smaller. 196 00:15:25,533 --> 00:15:28,607 They are bigger now. These are standard. 197 00:15:30,475 --> 00:15:35,471 They were made of glass, out of soda bottles. 198 00:15:41,639 --> 00:15:44,108 Shall we play a game of spinning top? 199 00:16:20,239 --> 00:16:22,404 <i>A-Ha Ku!</i> 200 00:16:24,290 --> 00:16:25,290 <i>A-Ha!</i> 201 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:32,515 Assayas: <i>His friends from back then, have they all become gangsters?</i> 202 00:16:33,178 --> 00:16:36,552 A few of them, yes. But the groups aren't run like a... 203 00:16:36,553 --> 00:16:39,670 a well-oiled organisation. 204 00:16:40,180 --> 00:16:43,537 They existed more as enforcement if something arose in the neighbourhood. 205 00:16:44,862 --> 00:16:49,015 As society evolved, the underworld became highly complex, 206 00:16:49,362 --> 00:16:51,524 because the interests at stake were increasingly important, 207 00:16:51,549 --> 00:16:53,622 such as the engineering projects in this place. 208 00:16:55,226 --> 00:16:59,300 They took advantage of the opportunities to get into construction 209 00:16:59,587 --> 00:17:04,344 and getting others to invest in the projects taking place here. 210 00:17:05,189 --> 00:17:07,750 With these benefits, others want to come and get a taste. 211 00:17:08,070 --> 00:17:12,459 Add to this generalised trafficking, 212 00:17:12,514 --> 00:17:14,724 in particular drug smuggling, 213 00:17:15,593 --> 00:17:21,473 each aided by advanced transportation and sophisticated communication networks. 214 00:17:21,596 --> 00:17:23,911 The range of influence is always expanding, 215 00:17:23,936 --> 00:17:26,408 becoming so complex that everyone is involved. 216 00:17:27,077 --> 00:17:30,832 For some, this process is deadly. 217 00:17:31,633 --> 00:17:37,040 They die from drug use, or get killed in shootings, 218 00:17:37,065 --> 00:17:39,517 as my friends just informed me. 219 00:17:50,806 --> 00:17:56,556 My elder sister and brother were convinced 220 00:17:58,528 --> 00:18:03,650 that I was a hopelesss case. 221 00:18:07,732 --> 00:18:09,563 I gambled away the family's money. 222 00:18:09,852 --> 00:18:11,923 Many things of this nature. 223 00:18:13,974 --> 00:18:16,614 When it came time for the draft, 224 00:18:19,656 --> 00:18:22,125 I was very happy to join the army. 225 00:18:23,737 --> 00:18:29,614 I had this self-awareness that I had to break with my previous life - ka-cha! 226 00:18:33,301 --> 00:18:35,019 It was overwhelming. 227 00:18:36,302 --> 00:18:41,535 There was a mountain of receipts from the pawnshop. 228 00:18:41,864 --> 00:18:44,425 I'd taken valuables from home, 229 00:18:44,501 --> 00:18:47,061 my father's watch, for example, 230 00:18:47,157 --> 00:18:49,590 and sold them off. 231 00:18:50,371 --> 00:18:54,802 At that time I left everything behind and tore up all the receipts. 232 00:18:55,349 --> 00:19:00,300 In the army, I decided to make films. 233 00:19:00,591 --> 00:19:03,106 On Sundays, on leave, 234 00:19:03,392 --> 00:19:06,175 I went to the cinema, and I sometimes saw 235 00:19:06,889 --> 00:19:08,362 four films in a day. 236 00:19:13,675 --> 00:19:16,920 So I decided that when I got out of the military, 237 00:19:16,945 --> 00:19:20,373 I would go into the film industry, 238 00:19:20,516 --> 00:19:21,992 whether I went to film school or not. 239 00:19:22,168 --> 00:19:23,731 Back then, I had no clear concept of anything at all, 240 00:19:23,887 --> 00:19:24,848 I just liked movies. 241 00:19:26,175 --> 00:19:27,313 If the question was asked, <i>"What exactly do you want to do?"</i> 242 00:19:27,325 --> 00:19:28,858 I actually had no idea. 243 00:19:29,311 --> 00:19:32,838 I started working 244 00:19:35,304 --> 00:19:39,723 as soon as I left university 245 00:19:39,858 --> 00:19:44,400 as an assistant and scriptwriter, without thinking about becoming... 246 00:19:48,139 --> 00:19:49,356 a director. 247 00:19:50,228 --> 00:19:54,768 At the very beginning, I wanted to be an actor. 248 00:19:55,474 --> 00:19:57,438 During my studies, I participated 249 00:19:57,463 --> 00:19:59,804 in the preliminary round of a singing competition. 250 00:19:59,872 --> 00:20:02,272 I loved singing, but I was nervous. 251 00:20:03,053 --> 00:20:04,269 I seized up with stage fright. 252 00:20:05,820 --> 00:20:08,574 It was in this grand hall. My voice was gone. 253 00:20:08,923 --> 00:20:12,516 The first step was singing acapella, 254 00:20:13,242 --> 00:20:16,411 and if you had talent, you could get to the first round with accompanying music. 255 00:20:19,559 --> 00:20:21,813 I was eliminated in the preliminaries. 256 00:20:27,461 --> 00:20:29,280 Translator: <i>Was it cancelled later?</i> 257 00:20:29,503 --> 00:20:31,981 No, but there were no more contests for me, ever. 258 00:20:33,184 --> 00:20:38,911 In my early days, I discovered that the major actors, the big stars 259 00:20:39,749 --> 00:20:41,986 had to be 6 feet tall 260 00:20:42,267 --> 00:20:43,911 and very handsome. 261 00:20:44,548 --> 00:20:48,987 Since I'm that short, I knew acting wasn't for me, 262 00:20:49,270 --> 00:20:51,387 so I decided to work behind the scenes. 263 00:20:51,947 --> 00:20:57,070 However, films at that time were commercially oriented 264 00:20:57,593 --> 00:21:02,159 It had to be funny, comedic. 265 00:21:02,751 --> 00:21:05,329 You had to make them very funny. 266 00:21:06,676 --> 00:21:10,717 So, my first and second films 267 00:21:11,065 --> 00:21:13,007 were both funny and made a lot of money. 268 00:21:14,944 --> 00:21:16,384 Assayas: <i>They were comedies?</i> 269 00:21:16,775 --> 00:21:17,444 Comedies. 270 00:21:18,852 --> 00:21:19,648 A-Digu! 271 00:21:19,883 --> 00:21:21,017 A-Digu, hurry up! 272 00:21:21,055 --> 00:21:21,523 A-Digu! 273 00:21:23,153 --> 00:21:26,199 <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i> 274 273 00:22:16,869 --> 00:22:21,328 <i>My father's family retreated with the nationalists from Shandong, in 1949.</i> 275 00:22:22,466 --> 00:22:26,328 <i>My mother's family, in her words, it was almost...</i> 276 00:22:28,493 --> 00:22:32,382 <i>100 years ago when they migrated from Guangdong province</i> 277 00:22:32,712 --> 00:22:34,241 <i>and settled here.</i> 278 00:22:34,375 --> 00:22:36,113 Chu Tien-wen <i>Screenwriter</i> 279 00:22:36,138 --> 00:22:39,700 Probably because my father and mother both wrote manuscripts, 280 00:22:40,067 --> 00:22:44,686 many of the friends who visited our house 281 00:22:44,711 --> 00:22:47,960 all belonged to the literary world. 282 00:22:47,985 --> 00:22:49,603 Whether it be writing essays or novels. 283 00:22:50,117 --> 00:22:52,483 This likely influenced me. 284 00:22:55,307 --> 00:22:57,561 I started writing in secret. 285 00:22:59,101 --> 00:23:01,624 Then I submitted some of it to the local newspapers. 286 00:23:01,679 --> 00:23:07,183 I don't know if the editor knows us or what, I just used my name. 287 00:23:07,351 --> 00:23:09,915 After this, I naturally kept writing. 288 00:23:10,029 --> 00:23:11,953 I started when I was 15. 289 00:23:12,317 --> 00:23:16,362 Next, the newspaper published a 5000 word story, 290 00:23:16,446 --> 00:23:19,203 "Xiao Bi's Story" 291 00:23:19,940 --> 00:23:23,203 Hou read it and was interested. 292 00:23:23,228 --> 00:23:27,897 He wanted to buy the rights and adapt it to film. 293 00:23:28,344 --> 00:23:31,659 At that time, there was no such thing as buying copyrights in Taiwan. 294 00:23:32,819 --> 00:23:38,087 When we made an appointment, my parents were very worried. 295 00:23:38,112 --> 00:23:41,808 They coached me on what to do and what to say 296 00:23:41,837 --> 00:23:45,847 It was said that people in the film industry were very devious 297 00:23:45,872 --> 00:23:48,679 and difficult to work with. 298 00:23:49,615 --> 00:23:52,529 So I dressed myself up to look older. 299 00:23:52,596 --> 00:23:54,627 I think I wore high heels and a skirt. 300 00:23:55,710 --> 00:23:58,333 <i>But when I saw Hou, this idea totally evaporated...</i> 301 00:23:58,433 --> 00:23:59,535 <i>I thought...</i> 302 00:24:00,609 --> 00:24:04,438 <i>he was nothing like our imaginary filmmaker.</i> 303 00:24:05,107 --> 00:24:10,554 <i>Since our ideas were so closely aligned, our first collaboration was very pleasant.</i> 304 00:24:11,246 --> 00:24:15,877 I first came across Chu Tien-wen in a newspaper, 305 00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:19,094 when I read her novelette 'Love Story', right? 306 00:24:19,502 --> 00:24:21,070 - 'Love Story', right? - Right. 307 00:24:21,672 --> 00:24:26,430 I used it as the scenario for the film <i>Growing Up</i>. 308 00:24:28,766 --> 00:24:33,039 I thought the story was really good, so I called her. 309 00:24:34,071 --> 00:24:38,224 We met in an old café in Taipei. 310 00:24:40,062 --> 00:24:44,250 We hit it off immediately as we spoke, 311 00:24:45,172 --> 00:24:49,648 and so I asked her to help me with the script. 312 00:24:49,766 --> 00:24:53,149 The film was well received and made quite a bit of money, 313 00:24:53,305 --> 00:24:56,590 so, for her, she got sucked into screenwriting and couldn't get away. 314 00:24:56,922 --> 00:24:58,891 and our collaboration continues to this day. 315 00:25:00,195 --> 00:25:03,598 - If it hadn't done so well... - That would have been the end of it. 316 00:25:03,672 --> 00:25:05,595 Ever since our work together began with <i>Growing Up</i>, 317 00:25:05,874 --> 00:25:08,842 she has worked on each and every script for my films. 318 00:25:08,999 --> 00:25:11,242 <i>The Boys from Fengkui</i> captured some of my early life, 319 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:14,296 while <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>, was inspired by her own. 320 00:25:14,499 --> 00:25:17,788 Between the films, we began to gradually come to understand 321 00:25:17,813 --> 00:25:20,742 that our families were quite different from one another. 322 00:25:20,976 --> 00:25:22,687 Our upbringings were quite distinct. 323 00:25:23,632 --> 00:25:28,234 It became really clear when filming <i>A Summer at Grandpa</i>'s at her home. 324 00:25:28,327 --> 00:25:29,656 Her grandpa, 325 00:25:30,054 --> 00:25:35,835 her grandfather had an old motorbike that was 40 or 50 years old. 326 00:25:35,968 --> 00:25:38,893 There was a clock that was similarly old. 327 00:25:38,952 --> 00:25:41,984 The grandfather also had an old gramophone... 328 00:25:42,210 --> 00:25:44,335 At the time, everything was about half a century old. 329 00:25:44,367 --> 00:25:45,796 Now it's all about 60 years old. 330 00:25:45,835 --> 00:25:47,640 <i>Looking at all these belongings,</i> 331 00:25:47,665 --> 00:25:50,812 <i>you come to see how much our elders</i> 332 00:25:50,837 --> 00:25:53,179 <i>must have treasured them.</i> 333 00:25:53,335 --> 00:25:54,468 <i>Additionally,</i> 334 00:25:54,515 --> 00:25:58,148 <i>although Tien-wen is a child of the Mainland on her father's side.</i> 335 00:25:58,601 --> 00:26:01,456 <i>However, her maternal grandparents are natives,</i> 336 00:26:01,481 --> 00:26:04,117 <i>and so you can feel like you really belong to this place,</i> 337 00:26:04,142 --> 00:26:09,320 <i>and experience a sense of stablility rooted in living here for generations.</i> 338 00:26:09,968 --> 00:26:13,093 <i>In the case of my own family, everything was different.</i> 339 00:26:13,118 --> 00:26:13,959 <i>For my parents,</i> 340 00:26:13,982 --> 00:26:17,320 everything was temporary, from the furniture to the house itself. 341 00:26:17,804 --> 00:26:19,015 With this psychology at work, 342 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:21,125 you felt like you were going to leave at any moment. 343 00:26:21,507 --> 00:26:23,812 The constant doubt and anxiety... 344 00:26:26,046 --> 00:26:27,827 ate away at me without really knowing it. 345 00:26:29,968 --> 00:26:33,765 Understanding another's family background, 346 00:26:33,814 --> 00:26:36,859 can help you understand your own. 347 00:26:36,890 --> 00:26:41,623 So I decided that I would film my own life story, 348 00:26:41,648 --> 00:26:42,476 <i>A Time to Live, A Time to Die</i>. 349 00:26:43,257 --> 00:26:48,485 While I was shooting <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i> and <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i> back to back, 350 00:26:48,510 --> 00:26:50,174 a lot of those who had studied the cinema abroad returned. 351 00:26:50,627 --> 00:26:54,299 They began sharing what they learned, "This is a master shot, this is this and so on". 352 00:26:54,581 --> 00:26:58,433 It became clear that there were many ways to shoot films that left me at a loss. 353 00:26:58,510 --> 00:27:01,693 At this time, the script for <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i> was ready, 354 00:27:03,467 --> 00:27:05,014 it was written and complete. 355 00:27:05,209 --> 00:27:08,372 However, I didn't know how to put the script on film. 356 00:27:08,630 --> 00:27:12,441 Tien-wen listened to my concerns 357 00:27:12,466 --> 00:27:13,731 and agreed that something may not be right. 358 00:27:14,099 --> 00:27:15,427 Then she gave me a book to read. 359 00:27:17,044 --> 00:27:21,170 It's name was 'The Autobiography of Shen Congwen'. 360 00:27:21,567 --> 00:27:23,084 After finishing it, 361 00:27:23,109 --> 00:27:25,274 I felt it had a strange but intuitive structure. 362 00:27:25,299 --> 00:27:26,911 It has a standpoint, 363 00:27:27,583 --> 00:27:29,513 a point of view. 364 00:27:29,538 --> 00:27:31,974 The view is looking down upon all events. 365 00:27:34,614 --> 00:27:39,373 Looking down and observing all the woes of the world 366 00:27:39,398 --> 00:27:41,412 and watching objectively. 367 00:27:42,193 --> 00:27:44,928 There was an extreme breadth of mind. 368 00:27:45,217 --> 00:27:46,772 When I was shooting <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i> 369 00:27:46,797 --> 00:27:48,460 I kept saying to the photographer, 370 00:27:48,485 --> 00:27:49,482 "Back a little, back a little." 371 00:27:49,827 --> 00:27:50,264 Chu: <i>And detached.</i> 372 00:27:50,303 --> 00:27:51,740 "More detached, More detached." 373 00:27:53,670 --> 00:27:56,896 One year after <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i>, 374 00:27:57,154 --> 00:27:59,022 it was time to shoot <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>. 375 00:27:59,639 --> 00:28:01,335 I was facing the problem of form again. 376 00:28:01,967 --> 00:28:04,490 What stylistic choices can I make to express the story? 377 00:28:04,787 --> 00:28:06,936 As before then, form had never been an issue on my mind. 378 00:28:07,506 --> 00:28:11,537 It was then on one occasion when I was at Edward Yang's house, 379 00:28:11,772 --> 00:28:16,107 that he showed me Pasolini's <i>Oedipus Rex</i>. 380 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:19,389 I watched the film and I thought, 381 00:28:19,414 --> 00:28:20,600 "Wow, it's so clear." 382 00:28:20,811 --> 00:28:24,115 I totally understood why the director was choosing his shots and perspectives. 383 00:28:24,787 --> 00:28:26,116 The point of view, 384 00:28:26,141 --> 00:28:28,688 whether it's the objective one, 385 00:28:29,256 --> 00:28:32,545 or the ''subjective'' view of the character, 386 00:28:33,045 --> 00:28:35,467 and sharing what the actor or actress sees. 387 00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:37,670 This is point of view. 388 00:28:37,873 --> 00:28:39,178 After the film, I felt – "Ah!" 389 00:28:39,951 --> 00:28:41,482 My feeling, when I was shooting <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>, 390 00:28:41,795 --> 00:28:44,639 was that there were three points of view or perspectives in the film. 391 00:28:44,664 --> 00:28:46,982 The objective one, that of the filmmaker, me. 392 00:28:47,350 --> 00:28:49,975 What the director's mind and eyes think and see. 393 00:28:50,561 --> 00:28:53,198 The other is that of the actor. 394 00:28:53,772 --> 00:28:57,037 What the characters' mind and eyes think and see. 395 00:29:00,178 --> 00:29:00,983 Actually, there are only two. 396 00:29:01,008 --> 00:29:02,842 There aren't three perspectives, there are only two. 397 00:29:05,709 --> 00:29:09,248 A-Gong, have you seen <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>? 398 00:29:09,485 --> 00:29:09,896 Yes. 399 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,633 Yes, he did. He saw it in Taipei. 400 00:29:12,673 --> 00:29:13,305 Right. 401 00:29:13,961 --> 00:29:15,852 Have you seen <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i>? 402 00:29:16,962 --> 00:29:18,165 I can't recall. 403 00:29:20,094 --> 00:29:23,421 When the film was being screened in Taipei. 404 00:29:23,446 --> 00:29:25,352 I took my grandparents to see it. 405 00:29:27,165 --> 00:29:29,805 <i>They said it was done beautifully!</i> 406 00:29:30,657 --> 00:29:35,293 After you saw <i>A Summer at Grandpa's</i> 407 00:29:35,340 --> 00:29:36,957 what did you think? 408 00:29:39,465 --> 00:29:40,340 This is hopeless. 409 00:29:40,965 --> 00:29:41,965 I remember... 410 00:29:42,142 --> 00:29:44,481 I remember him saying after the screening 411 00:29:44,506 --> 00:29:48,731 "My goodness, the house in the film is more beautiful than in real life!" 412 00:29:50,139 --> 00:29:51,139 That was then. 413 00:29:51,419 --> 00:29:53,724 Later he felt that it was a good memorial, 414 00:29:54,224 --> 00:29:57,747 because the area has changed completely since. 415 00:30:13,911 --> 00:30:19,919 <i>The first time Hou and I met was in 1980.</i> 416 00:30:21,638 --> 00:30:24,083 <i>It was shortly after I first entered the film world.</i> 417 00:30:24,108 --> 00:30:25,669 <i>I'd just entered the industry</i> 418 00:30:25,694 --> 00:30:27,931 <i>and began work as a screenwriter at Central Motion Picture</i> 419 00:30:28,357 --> 00:30:29,286 Wu Nien-Jen <i>Director and screenwriter</i> 420 00:30:29,311 --> 00:30:33,982 Central Motion Picture was in reality a Kuomintang propaganda agency. 421 00:30:34,536 --> 00:30:37,158 Before the abolition of martial law in 1987, 422 00:30:37,183 --> 00:30:40,517 it was the largest production company in Taiwan, 423 00:30:40,970 --> 00:30:47,345 and already, before I joined, a partly state-run company. 424 00:30:47,525 --> 00:30:51,705 It's strange that I got a job there at all, 425 00:30:52,759 --> 00:30:54,869 as it was a very conservative organisation 426 00:30:54,894 --> 00:31:00,103 and many of the films produced beforehand were heavily propagandistic. 427 00:31:01,173 --> 00:31:05,080 In 1980, Ming Ji was appointed the new director of Central Motion Picture, 428 00:31:06,705 --> 00:31:10,117 and was of the view that Taiwanese films were entirely lacking 429 00:31:10,142 --> 00:31:13,642 and that the industry was in need of new blood. 430 00:31:14,181 --> 00:31:15,502 A lot of my friends tried to dissuade me 431 00:31:15,527 --> 00:31:17,916 as many at the time opposed the Kuomintang. 432 00:31:17,941 --> 00:31:23,337 They'd say, "Why are you, a novelist, working for the Kuomintang?" 433 00:31:26,099 --> 00:31:30,564 However, at that time in Taiwan, novelists were subject to strict censorship. 434 00:31:31,580 --> 00:31:34,301 As a result, I thought that literature was too limited, 435 00:31:34,326 --> 00:31:37,213 and that the cinema was more likely to affect the greatest number of people. 436 00:31:37,494 --> 00:31:44,377 It just so happened that a number of filmmakers had returned home from the USA. 437 00:31:44,791 --> 00:31:48,634 It was serendipitous that we were looking for them and they us, 438 00:31:48,659 --> 00:31:51,119 so we looked at their work and chose our men. 439 00:31:51,634 --> 00:31:54,716 Given the urgency of needing new directors, 440 00:31:54,741 --> 00:31:57,532 allowing one director to make one film wasn't efficient. 441 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,733 So, we thought if we had four directors work together, 442 00:32:00,758 --> 00:32:03,362 we'd produce four at once. 443 00:32:03,948 --> 00:32:05,668 In Hong Kong, at the time, 444 00:32:05,693 --> 00:32:09,536 there was a lot of discussion regarding the "New Wave" filmmakers. 445 00:32:10,004 --> 00:32:14,115 When I met them in Hong Kong, 446 00:32:14,140 --> 00:32:18,630 I found their way of working very interesting. 447 00:32:18,882 --> 00:32:23,882 They were a team, they worked together. 448 00:32:24,710 --> 00:32:30,674 It was mainly Tsui Hark, Ann Hui and Allen Fong. 449 00:32:31,135 --> 00:32:34,356 Hou Hsiao-hsien and Chen Kun-hou, 450 00:32:34,381 --> 00:32:37,955 they had taken charge of production. 451 00:32:38,065 --> 00:32:44,606 The directors were Hou, Tseng Chuang-hsiang and Wan Jen. 452 00:32:45,039 --> 00:32:49,057 Each of them made an episode of <i>The Sandwich Man</i>. 453 00:33:09,394 --> 00:33:11,456 Chen Kuo-fu <i>Critic and Filmmaker</i> 454 00:34:12,479 --> 00:34:15,916 At that time, 455 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,911 you could feel a burning energy in these people. 456 00:34:20,562 --> 00:34:25,797 It was comparable to that of the young revolutionaries, 457 00:34:27,004 --> 00:34:29,838 who had, in the past, answered Sun Yat-sen, 458 00:34:30,125 --> 00:34:32,959 and his call to a republican revolution, 459 00:34:33,246 --> 00:34:35,715 which overthrew the Qing dynasty. 460 00:34:36,168 --> 00:34:37,806 While we were not so young anymore, 461 00:34:38,088 --> 00:34:41,399 in the cinema, we were novices, 462 00:34:41,690 --> 00:34:43,408 without pasts or prejudices. 463 00:34:43,690 --> 00:34:46,000 We shared that same momentum. 464 00:35:57,757 --> 00:36:02,549 It was in 1983 that, with the help of the New Cinema guys on <i>The Sandwich Man</i>, 465 00:36:04,039 --> 00:36:08,796 the potential of this movement became clear to me. 466 00:36:09,601 --> 00:36:15,996 Through my experience on the film I began to understand 467 00:36:16,284 --> 00:36:23,674 that it was possible to think and act through film. 468 00:36:24,206 --> 00:36:28,324 Right after that anthology film, Hou shot <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i>. 469 00:36:28,349 --> 00:36:29,933 It took me by surprise, 470 00:36:29,958 --> 00:36:32,417 as he had broken entirely with the style of his previous films, 471 00:36:32,441 --> 00:36:36,010 to assert a totally confident and idiosyncratic approach. 472 00:36:36,035 --> 00:36:38,647 In the cinema of Hou, 473 00:36:38,932 --> 00:36:41,970 <i>The Boys from Fengkuei</i> represents a decisive step and turning point. 474 00:36:42,253 --> 00:36:46,885 A leap from the ground level to the apex. 475 00:36:49,215 --> 00:36:52,014 His 1985 film, <i>A Time to Live, A Time to Die</i>. 476 00:36:52,297 --> 00:36:54,652 Which remains, in my eyes 477 00:36:54,937 --> 00:36:58,693 the very best film in the whole of the Taiwanese cinema. 478 00:38:56,061 --> 00:38:59,145 <i>I would come here sometimes when I had free time,</i> 479 00:38:59,169 --> 00:39:03,474 <i>to think, read and take notes.</i> 480 00:39:03,499 --> 00:39:09,225 <i>Almost all my scripts, ever since</i> A Time to Live, A Time to Die 481 00:39:09,459 --> 00:39:12,253 <i>have been completed here.</i> 482 00:39:12,518 --> 00:39:17,100 <i>It's like an office that's totally mine.</i> 483 00:39:18,037 --> 00:39:21,383 I have my own habits here, 484 00:39:21,408 --> 00:39:24,106 and the space clears my mind for the creativity needed. 485 00:39:24,340 --> 00:39:31,754 I'll jot up notes, as in here, 486 00:39:31,778 --> 00:39:38,835 on moods, plot lines and characters. 487 00:39:39,780 --> 00:39:43,944 When all of this has been considered, I move on to the actual filmmaking, 488 00:39:44,382 --> 00:39:47,257 imagining the tone of the opening scene, 489 00:39:47,647 --> 00:39:49,647 after which each scene follows. 490 00:39:49,913 --> 00:39:54,760 I write everything down, constantly revising the scenes, 491 00:39:54,785 --> 00:39:59,200 as I repeat this process every day, over and over until I'm satisfied. 492 00:39:59,957 --> 00:40:01,801 Afterwards, I'll discuss it all with her. 493 00:40:01,826 --> 00:40:04,158 Basically, I listen to him, 494 00:40:04,183 --> 00:40:07,910 and aim to give him feedback. 495 00:40:09,668 --> 00:40:12,799 I may explore some adjacent notions, 496 00:40:13,045 --> 00:40:16,356 and come back with ideas not present in the script, 497 00:40:17,177 --> 00:40:19,528 or that have nothing to do with the film. 498 00:40:19,802 --> 00:40:22,380 If he likes them, he'll integrates them. 499 00:40:22,489 --> 00:40:26,195 Our sessions are quite different to those of other creative teams. 500 00:40:27,430 --> 00:40:31,758 We talk about our lives. Everything, in full. 501 00:40:32,265 --> 00:40:36,380 A personal detail of mine may cause a cascade of memories, 502 00:40:36,404 --> 00:40:38,297 and from that new ideas flow. 503 00:40:38,648 --> 00:40:39,992 I'm too lazy to write. 504 00:40:40,017 --> 00:40:41,273 I get tired of it all the time, 505 00:40:41,298 --> 00:40:44,406 and it used to be a one-man struggle. 506 00:40:44,961 --> 00:40:48,933 They are brilliant writers, 507 00:40:48,958 --> 00:40:51,245 so I write down my ideas, 508 00:40:51,269 --> 00:40:53,555 basically some key words, which we then discuss. 509 00:40:54,234 --> 00:40:57,743 Chu then takes them away and starts to write, 510 00:40:58,125 --> 00:41:00,586 and I just relax and wait for her to finish. 511 00:41:01,141 --> 00:41:03,015 This is my next film, <i>Flowers of Shanghai</i>. 512 00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:06,326 Chu and I have already discussed the structure, 513 00:41:06,351 --> 00:41:11,160 and she's completed the full outline. 514 00:41:11,185 --> 00:41:14,410 However, I want a different approach this time. 515 00:41:14,435 --> 00:41:16,902 This time I wanted to write the screenplay 516 00:41:16,927 --> 00:41:19,770 and all of the dialogue myself. 517 00:41:20,980 --> 00:41:23,910 I'm doing a first draft, 518 00:41:23,935 --> 00:41:28,504 after which we'll discuss it, and perhaps have her then do a rewrite. 519 00:41:28,684 --> 00:41:33,236 It's not finalised yet, this is just a first draft. 520 00:41:33,328 --> 00:41:35,711 <i>This is my notebook.</i> 521 00:41:36,054 --> 00:41:38,953 <i>It was the basis for the script.</i> 522 00:41:39,281 --> 00:41:41,632 <i>He asked me to bring it.</i> 523 00:41:42,607 --> 00:41:44,065 <i>It's</i> A City of Sadness. 524 00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:49,172 After discussing the script that's pretty much it. 525 00:41:49,203 --> 00:41:53,516 Changes are made if something isn't right, or the actors don't like something. 526 00:41:54,047 --> 00:41:58,951 I want the actors to be able to get into the part. 527 00:41:59,568 --> 00:42:02,894 I want them to understand the scenarios, 528 00:42:02,919 --> 00:42:05,285 and also feel like they can improvise. 529 00:42:07,933 --> 00:42:10,993 The script moves around a lot. 530 00:42:12,446 --> 00:42:15,964 They sometimes think that all the writing was for nothing. 531 00:42:16,196 --> 00:42:22,215 I don't write the script for Hou. 532 00:42:22,553 --> 00:42:27,162 I do it for Nien-jen, as he needs it to write the dialogue. 533 00:42:27,225 --> 00:42:29,279 I do it for the crew, 534 00:42:30,021 --> 00:42:31,912 as they need to prepare sets, 535 00:42:31,943 --> 00:42:34,209 and get the actors ready and everything else right. 536 00:42:34,404 --> 00:42:35,764 So, I write it as a guide, 537 00:42:36,264 --> 00:42:37,623 - And hope it doesn't restrain him. - <i>She doesn't show it to me!</i> 538 00:42:37,732 --> 00:42:42,568 He doesn't want to read it, it's basically a blueprint for the crew. 539 00:42:43,154 --> 00:42:45,904 Sometimes, if I can't figure a scene out, 540 00:42:46,607 --> 00:42:50,467 if I'm having trouble getting a scene wrapped, 541 00:42:51,084 --> 00:42:52,350 or if I think it is bad, 542 00:42:52,375 --> 00:42:56,162 I'll shift to another scene. 543 00:42:57,201 --> 00:42:59,646 One with similar atmosphere. 544 00:43:01,209 --> 00:43:04,943 This preserves the mood for the actors, 545 00:43:06,535 --> 00:43:09,472 because I almost never do rehearsals. 546 00:43:10,253 --> 00:43:13,041 I explain the scene to them, 547 00:43:13,066 --> 00:43:14,675 and when they've understood everything with an, 548 00:43:15,285 --> 00:43:15,621 "Ah!", 549 00:43:15,910 --> 00:43:17,074 then we're "shooting." 550 00:43:17,308 --> 00:43:19,800 Often, right after he calls cut, you realise you never wrote this. 551 00:43:26,593 --> 00:43:27,147 Fuck you! 552 00:43:29,124 --> 00:43:30,226 You deserve to be dead by now! 553 00:43:30,406 --> 00:43:31,234 Why aren't you? 554 00:43:32,452 --> 00:43:35,874 You pulled one hell of a dirty trick on Wen-leung! 555 00:43:37,369 --> 00:43:38,717 <i>A City of Sadness</i> 556 555 00:43:40,937 --> 00:43:42,202 You piece of shit! 557 00:43:42,601 --> 00:43:43,234 Huh!? 558 00:43:45,460 --> 00:43:47,179 - <i>What do you want?</i> - What do I want? 559 00:43:48,491 --> 00:43:51,406 You know what you've done... 560 00:43:51,906 --> 00:43:53,366 Don't say things that you'll regret! 561 00:43:54,671 --> 00:43:55,913 You wouldn't dare! 562 00:43:56,062 --> 00:43:56,882 Try me! 563 00:43:58,820 --> 00:43:59,681 Couldn't I? 564 00:43:59,781 --> 00:44:00,749 You've got guts! 565 00:44:01,085 --> 00:44:01,882 All talk! 566 00:44:04,389 --> 00:44:07,147 Bastard! I'll get you! 567 00:45:14,647 --> 00:45:15,803 Boss! 568 00:45:18,657 --> 00:45:19,710 Are you okay? 569 00:45:22,282 --> 00:45:23,845 Call a doctor! 570 00:45:23,939 --> 00:45:25,337 How bad is it? 571 00:45:36,542 --> 00:45:38,167 Put the knife awayy. 572 00:45:39,472 --> 00:45:40,620 Go and get the doctor quickly! 573 00:46:04,094 --> 00:46:04,954 Wen-leung! 574 00:46:27,063 --> 00:46:29,703 <i>I came here a few times,</i> 575 00:46:30,224 --> 00:46:34,504 <i>when we did</i> A City of Sadness. 576 00:46:34,786 --> 00:46:37,585 <i>The gold mines had closed, the town was very rundown,</i> 577 00:46:38,067 --> 00:46:40,628 <i>because there were no residents anymore.</i> 578 00:46:40,908 --> 00:46:44,743 <i>You could feel the passage of time very palpably.</i> 579 00:46:45,030 --> 00:46:50,151 <i>When the mines were booming, the bars flourished.</i> 580 00:46:50,432 --> 00:46:53,425 They were girl bars. 581 00:46:53,713 --> 00:46:57,468 This place was perfectly suited for the movie, 582 00:46:58,394 --> 00:47:01,476 it had the exact atmosphere I was looking for. 583 00:47:01,632 --> 00:47:06,189 Especially in winter, because it rains constantly. 584 00:47:07,078 --> 00:47:10,196 Let's sit in here and have some tea. 585 00:47:11,119 --> 00:47:14,795 Do you charcoal-roast your oolong? 586 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:16,640 <i>Of course.</i> 587 00:47:16,921 --> 00:47:21,439 Most stores don't make it this way anymore. 588 00:47:21,755 --> 00:47:24,013 <i>Yes, it has a different flavour, when the oolong is roasted.</i> 589 00:47:24,419 --> 00:47:25,341 We'll have that. 590 00:47:26,404 --> 00:47:28,161 How are the watermelon seeds? 591 00:47:28,185 --> 00:47:29,622 <i>The best, of course.</i> 592 00:47:29,677 --> 00:47:31,286 <i>You'll know when you eat them.</i> 593 00:47:31,310 --> 00:47:31,982 We'll take them! 594 00:47:35,448 --> 00:47:36,456 Would you like some tea? 595 00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:36,971 <i>Yes.</i> 596 00:47:38,689 --> 00:47:43,526 A Time to Live, A Time to Die <i>earned me violent attacks.</i> 597 00:47:43,811 --> 00:47:47,600 <i>The clear message behind the film was,</i> 598 00:47:47,969 --> 00:47:53,288 <i>that this notion that we could reclaim Mainland China was, ultimately,</i> 599 00:47:53,854 --> 00:47:55,811 a bunch of lies and an impossible dream. 600 00:47:57,896 --> 00:48:01,287 I was aware of the political pressure. 601 00:48:01,311 --> 00:48:02,730 <i>It was harsh back then.</i> 602 00:48:03,300 --> 00:48:06,389 <i>The slightest criticism meant big trouble,</i> 603 00:48:06,776 --> 00:48:10,331 <i>and no film was made without the approval of the censor.</i> 604 00:48:10,620 --> 00:48:14,006 <i>Ever since the nationalist government had taken power,</i> 605 00:48:14,031 --> 00:48:16,654 <i>our history books had been China-oriented.</i> 606 00:48:16,983 --> 00:48:20,943 <i>Our native history as Taiwanese people was obscured,</i> 607 00:48:20,968 --> 00:48:24,741 <i>and deliberately shortened and oversimplified.</i> 608 00:48:25,226 --> 00:48:27,946 <i>Before</i> A City of Sadness, 609 00:48:27,971 --> 00:48:31,280 <i>I only knew Taiwan's story in fragments.</i> 610 00:48:31,350 --> 00:48:36,861 <i>Through the film, I wanted to honour the dignity of the people,</i> 611 00:48:36,886 --> 00:48:41,589 <i>especially those who had been subjected to especially harsh oppression.</i> 612 00:48:41,872 --> 00:48:46,264 I knew I was at risk addressing this issue. 613 00:48:46,793 --> 00:48:51,027 However, I knew it would be fine, 614 00:48:51,637 --> 00:48:55,971 there was no need to be afraid because I wasn't being critical. 615 00:48:56,518 --> 00:49:02,869 I wasn't aiming to castigate, but to look at everything objectively. 616 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,458 The interesting thing about the film is its approach, 617 00:49:08,483 --> 00:49:12,224 I wanted to explore the passage of major power transitions, 618 00:49:12,249 --> 00:49:17,322 from the Japanese to Nationalist governments, to martial law, 619 00:49:19,245 --> 00:49:22,044 through the misfortunes of one family, 620 00:49:22,686 --> 00:49:26,044 and, within that story, 621 00:49:27,008 --> 00:49:29,603 explore a political and economic turning point. 622 00:49:30,449 --> 00:49:36,121 I was interested in this from a both familial and individual perspective. 623 00:49:37,532 --> 00:49:40,617 This is a very sensitive point of history, 624 00:49:40,642 --> 00:49:43,724 and we had our share of troubles back then. 625 00:49:44,014 --> 00:49:47,073 Fortunately for me, at the time, martial law had lifted. 626 00:49:47,925 --> 00:49:50,073 Furthermore, the... 627 00:49:50,776 --> 00:49:54,439 the opposition had gained ground. 628 00:49:54,464 --> 00:49:57,649 Basically, I knew it wasn't possible, given the situation, 629 00:49:58,979 --> 00:50:02,451 for the KMT to bother with the hassle of coming after me. 630 00:50:03,061 --> 00:50:07,540 It would be a headache to attack a director popular at both home and abroad. 631 00:50:08,823 --> 00:50:13,216 Initially, the censors demanded two cuts, 632 00:50:14,105 --> 00:50:16,495 but the press attacked them mercilessly, 633 00:50:16,826 --> 00:50:18,818 so they backed off. 634 00:50:19,827 --> 00:50:23,136 However, I learned that in the south of the country, 635 00:50:24,389 --> 00:50:28,429 based on some agreement between the production company and the censors, 636 00:50:28,830 --> 00:50:33,017 sensitive scenes had been cut from the film. 637 00:50:35,593 --> 00:50:38,890 From doing my own research, 638 00:50:38,915 --> 00:50:42,115 I could see that in families in Taiwan, no one spoke. 639 00:50:42,915 --> 00:50:45,714 Adults said "keep silent". 640 00:50:46,476 --> 00:50:51,506 Despite the policy changes and a more benign government, 641 00:50:51,789 --> 00:50:54,350 after four decades, people still wouldn't speak out. 642 00:50:54,639 --> 00:50:59,311 When the film was released, everyone began to speak. 643 00:50:59,601 --> 00:51:04,802 There were a lot articles and reviews, all one after the other, like a fad. 644 00:51:05,803 --> 00:51:10,435 It was as if a wave was breaking, and now everything was out in public. 645 00:51:10,965 --> 00:51:13,321 People let out what was buried inside, 646 00:51:13,516 --> 00:51:15,359 and felt truly liberated. 647 00:51:19,488 --> 00:51:23,642 It used to be that all films were dubbed. 648 00:51:24,490 --> 00:51:27,936 There were only a few dubbing artists, 649 00:51:27,961 --> 00:51:31,563 so, in the end, everyone's voices sounded the same. 650 00:51:32,053 --> 00:51:37,047 I prefered to have my actors voice themselves. 651 00:51:37,535 --> 00:51:38,885 For <i>A City of Sadness</i>, 652 00:51:38,910 --> 00:51:42,682 we decided to shoot with synced sound. 653 00:51:43,577 --> 00:51:47,010 After discussion with Tu Du-che, 654 00:51:47,498 --> 00:51:48,870 we rented a Nagra. 655 00:51:49,619 --> 00:51:52,737 We shot with a Nagra and two microphones. 656 00:51:53,448 --> 00:51:56,693 <i>This meant there was, on</i> A City of Sadness, 657 00:51:56,982 --> 00:52:01,261 <i>a radically different nature to the edit and assembly.</i> 658 00:52:02,264 --> 00:52:05,143 <i>The sound became a key element.</i> 659 00:52:05,758 --> 00:52:07,196 Tu Du-che <i>Sound engineer</i> 660 00:52:07,221 --> 00:52:09,494 Just like Director Hou said, 661 00:52:09,947 --> 00:52:12,302 we did some tests with Lee Tien-lu's voice. 662 00:52:12,587 --> 00:52:18,947 We had done some tests with sync sound on 16mm film. 663 00:52:19,230 --> 00:52:21,215 Prior to <i>A City of Sadness</i>, 664 00:52:21,240 --> 00:52:25,702 our experience was limited to synchronised recording. 665 00:52:25,992 --> 00:52:30,146 We were not as familiar with sound editing. 666 00:52:30,392 --> 00:52:33,109 <i>The "New Cinema" era was a milestone,</i> 667 00:52:33,395 --> 00:52:36,149 <i>as the young directors brought major changes,</i> 668 00:52:36,436 --> 00:52:39,292 <i>and we technicians, also got in on the act,</i> 669 00:52:39,317 --> 00:52:42,993 taking advantage of it to push for what we needed. 670 00:52:45,519 --> 00:52:50,117 It was Hou who enabled us to realise our dream, 671 00:52:50,142 --> 00:52:54,078 of shooting a whole film in live sound. 672 00:52:54,483 --> 00:52:56,474 On <i>A City of Sadness</i>, 673 00:52:56,499 --> 00:52:59,799 we had very rudimentary equipment, 674 00:52:59,824 --> 00:53:04,834 just a Nagra, a mono track and two microphones. 675 00:53:05,126 --> 00:53:09,041 Hou later decided to back me up and buy me additional equipment. 676 00:53:09,332 --> 00:53:13,084 When I gave Mr. Tu money, 677 00:53:13,293 --> 00:53:18,881 I told him not to worry about paying me back. 678 00:53:19,171 --> 00:53:23,530 So long as he was making a secure living, 679 00:53:23,813 --> 00:53:27,602 the principle was that it buy equipment, 680 00:53:27,895 --> 00:53:29,785 and fund the training of new people. 681 00:53:30,135 --> 00:53:34,813 This equipment laid the foundation for Taiwanese cinema 682 00:53:34,838 --> 00:53:38,910 to improve the quality of the sound recording. 683 00:53:39,099 --> 00:53:42,570 As there was no financial burden on me, 684 00:53:42,595 --> 00:53:44,977 as Hou had paid for it all, 685 00:53:45,261 --> 00:53:51,622 the money I was saving personally meant I could buy things I needed. 686 00:53:51,903 --> 00:53:56,456 This allowed me to help on low-budget films, 687 00:53:56,716 --> 00:53:59,863 with operational finance coming from big-budget projects. 688 00:54:01,347 --> 00:54:03,816 The box office was very good. 689 00:54:03,841 --> 00:54:06,099 <i>A City of Sadness</i> was a huge success. 690 00:54:06,629 --> 00:54:09,303 The biggest of 1989. 691 00:54:09,726 --> 00:54:12,346 This made it easier to find investors. 692 00:54:12,523 --> 00:54:15,237 I've always refused interference, 693 00:54:15,262 --> 00:54:20,428 or the idea of relinquishing control to get funded. 694 00:54:20,714 --> 00:54:23,229 That had made fundraising difficult in the past. 695 00:54:24,035 --> 00:54:25,693 Prior to <i>A City of Sadness</i>, 696 00:54:25,718 --> 00:54:31,099 some of my films had received awards at European festivals like, 697 00:54:31,124 --> 00:54:35,308 Rotterdam, Nantes or Berlin. 698 00:54:36,677 --> 00:54:38,990 None had won major awards. 699 00:54:39,320 --> 00:54:41,994 The Taiwanese press ignored me. 700 00:54:42,281 --> 00:54:48,197 Some dubbed me the winner at a provincial festival. 701 00:54:48,733 --> 00:54:53,357 When <i>A City of Sadness</i> won the Golden Lion at Venice, 702 00:54:53,645 --> 00:54:56,444 suddenly investors showed up everywhere. 703 00:54:57,007 --> 00:55:00,683 Before, I'd had to mortgage my house, 704 00:55:01,728 --> 00:55:04,084 borrow heavily, 705 00:55:04,369 --> 00:55:06,679 just to co-produce my films. 706 00:55:06,970 --> 00:55:08,882 I hadn't been able to pay any of this off. 707 00:55:09,171 --> 00:55:11,970 <i>A City of Sadness</i> changed all of that. 708 00:55:45,001 --> 00:55:50,297 Media attention and critical recognition internationally 709 00:55:50,322 --> 00:55:54,342 attracted the attention of the government, 710 00:55:55,028 --> 00:56:01,060 which, based on the success, started to promote the cinema culturally, 711 00:56:02,270 --> 00:56:07,392 and to even set plans in motion to finance filmmakers. 712 00:56:08,592 --> 00:56:12,049 In addition, every year, 713 00:56:12,074 --> 00:56:15,511 festival managers from around the world 714 00:56:15,536 --> 00:56:20,425 came to Taiwan to search for films. 715 00:56:21,471 --> 00:56:25,631 As a result, art films became big business. 716 00:56:57,736 --> 00:56:58,853 Lee Tien-lu <i>Puppeteer and actor</i> 717 00:56:58,891 --> 00:57:01,401 After the funeral of my father-in-law, 718 00:57:01,825 --> 00:57:04,766 we returned to Taipei. 719 00:57:05,493 --> 00:57:09,123 I had only 50 cents in my pocket. 720 00:57:10,554 --> 00:57:12,566 What could I do with 50 cents? 721 00:57:12,730 --> 00:57:15,165 I rented a rickshaw 722 00:57:15,788 --> 00:57:18,332 to take my wife, daughter, 723 00:57:18,618 --> 00:57:20,848 and baby home. 724 00:57:21,139 --> 00:57:22,970 My son, Hong, and me, 725 00:57:22,995 --> 00:57:26,537 we walked back to Duanlungtong, taking 13 breaks along the way. 726 00:57:27,161 --> 00:57:29,817 <i>The Puppetmaster</i> 727 726 00:57:29,842 --> 00:57:35,655 <i>By a happy coincidence, I met a former disciple when I arrived.</i> 728 00:57:36,022 --> 00:57:41,226 <i>Since the defeat of Japan, he played on Ping-chiang Street,</i> 729 00:57:41,251 --> 00:57:45,464 <i>and he started a busy season there on July 7th.</i> 730 00:57:45,543 --> 00:57:47,803 <i>He came to see me on July 13th,</i> 731 00:57:47,828 --> 00:57:50,263 <i>knowing I would be home.</i> 732 00:57:50,654 --> 00:57:54,630 <i>He came to see me, and he started by saying:</i> 733 00:57:54,655 --> 00:57:57,664 <i>''Master, the whole company is waiting for you,</i> 734 00:57:57,689 --> 00:57:59,572 <i>''come and play with us.''</i> 735 00:58:00,689 --> 00:58:03,550 <i>I replied by saying that I still got malaria attacks.</i> 736 00:58:03,685 --> 00:58:05,035 <i>What could I do?</i> 737 00:58:05,756 --> 00:58:10,432 <i>He said not to worry about it.</i> 738 00:58:10,604 --> 00:58:13,896 <i>A bed would be set up backstage,</i> 739 00:58:13,941 --> 00:58:18,839 <i>and I could lie down if the malaria attacks ever started,</i> 740 00:58:18,864 --> 00:58:24,654 <i>he would take over performing the show.</i> 741 00:58:55,843 --> 00:58:57,280 Dui, take my puppet. 742 00:59:03,444 --> 00:59:04,358 <i>He's shaking now.</i> 743 00:59:04,383 --> 00:59:05,234 <i>Hurry, hurry.</i> 744 00:59:14,421 --> 00:59:15,350 <i>He's shaking now.</i> 745 00:59:17,444 --> 00:59:22,069 Assayas: <i>When was it possible for a Taiwanese film to shoot on location in China?</i> 746 00:59:23,046 --> 00:59:25,356 <i>I went there in 1988.</i> 747 00:59:25,847 --> 00:59:30,718 <i>It had become as martial law had been lifted in 1987.</i> 748 00:59:31,169 --> 00:59:37,004 <i>In fact, it wasn't Beijing that had forbidden us,</i> 749 00:59:37,571 --> 00:59:41,009 <i>but Taiwan that was reluctant to let us doing film and TV programs there.</i> 750 00:59:41,256 --> 00:59:44,804 <i>China embraced us.</i> 751 00:59:45,303 --> 00:59:48,732 <i>The film is set in old Taiwan,</i> 752 00:59:48,757 --> 00:59:52,168 <i>but the Taiwan of old no longer exists.</i> 753 00:59:52,358 --> 00:59:55,655 <i>So I went looking for it on the mainland.</i> 754 00:59:57,129 --> 01:00:02,250 Rice fields, landscapes, houses and period clothing. 755 01:00:02,781 --> 01:00:06,806 Both places are similar in many ways. 756 01:00:06,942 --> 01:00:09,503 Everything looks identical to old Taiwan. 757 01:00:10,525 --> 01:00:15,759 In particular, country villages and rural landscapes. 758 01:00:15,845 --> 01:00:17,825 We made this a police station. 759 01:00:17,908 --> 01:00:22,147 Lee Tien-lu had worked closely with the police, 760 01:00:22,901 --> 01:00:28,662 doing a lot of promotional work for them with his puppets. 761 01:00:29,047 --> 01:00:32,553 Lee Tien-lu is like a walking encyclopedia of Taiwanese history. 762 01:00:32,578 --> 01:00:36,424 He has spent all of his life in Taiwan, 763 01:00:36,890 --> 01:00:41,114 ever since the initial Japanese occupation of Taiwan. 764 01:00:41,146 --> 01:00:45,994 In my childhood, I watched a lot of puppet theatre. 765 01:00:46,114 --> 01:00:51,028 Lee's style was very traditional. 766 01:00:55,036 --> 01:00:57,875 The puppets are smaller, about the size of your palm, 767 01:00:57,900 --> 01:01:00,036 It's very refined. 768 01:01:03,356 --> 01:01:07,116 I find his performances to be very beautiful and fluid. 769 01:01:07,528 --> 01:01:12,836 He also has in-depth knowledge of Peking opera. 770 01:01:12,861 --> 01:01:14,801 He sings it very well. 771 01:01:15,098 --> 01:01:19,364 This type of theatre is a local tradition, 772 01:01:19,389 --> 01:01:22,608 but its repertoire is closely linked to 773 01:01:22,633 --> 01:01:25,762 to the model of the Peking opera. 774 01:01:25,926 --> 01:01:28,051 He is a very funny person, 775 01:01:28,076 --> 01:01:31,770 as an artist, totally unselfconscious. 776 01:01:32,411 --> 01:01:36,934 He does not think of himself as an artist. 777 01:01:37,653 --> 01:01:39,629 He's bursting with life and energy. 778 01:01:40,137 --> 01:01:43,614 Despite our age difference, 779 01:01:43,864 --> 01:01:48,217 I feel very close to him, we are kindred spirits. 780 01:01:49,313 --> 01:01:51,266 Like me, he was always fighting, 781 01:01:51,290 --> 01:01:53,834 very temperamental, 782 01:01:54,508 --> 01:01:57,365 and very strong-willed. 783 01:01:57,591 --> 01:02:00,696 When I went to shoot in China, 784 01:02:00,721 --> 01:02:04,260 I brought my whole team with me. 785 01:02:04,990 --> 01:02:08,060 There was about 100 of us. 786 01:02:09,591 --> 01:02:12,426 Twenty on the Mainland side, and eighty on ours, 787 01:02:12,451 --> 01:02:17,232 and about a dozen trucks. 788 01:02:17,396 --> 01:02:21,386 Lee brought along a puppet troupe, 789 01:02:21,411 --> 01:02:24,263 because I wanted the real thing. 790 01:02:24,576 --> 01:02:27,950 They were all older men, 791 01:02:27,975 --> 01:02:30,279 50 or 60 years old. 792 01:02:30,630 --> 01:02:34,869 If they made mistakes, he would glare at them. 793 01:02:35,201 --> 01:02:36,513 They were terrified, 794 01:02:36,904 --> 01:02:39,607 despite their age and experience. 795 01:02:50,761 --> 01:02:54,806 <i>I came here when I was an assistant director.</i> 796 01:02:56,197 --> 01:03:00,655 <i>There are many tunnels in mountainous areas like this.</i> 797 01:03:04,484 --> 01:03:08,681 As a child, I would get carsick, 798 01:03:09,171 --> 01:03:11,655 so I always took the train. 799 01:03:15,694 --> 01:03:20,413 <i>Lee really is an encyclopedia.</i> 800 01:03:21,132 --> 01:03:26,655 <i>He knows all about our traditional customs and rites.</i> 801 01:03:26,680 --> 01:03:31,968 <i>every detail about things we no longer understand.</i> 802 01:03:31,993 --> 01:03:33,763 <i>Thanks to his vision of the past,</i> 803 01:03:33,788 --> 01:03:35,887 <i>my creative work can access those dimensions,</i> 804 01:03:35,912 --> 01:03:39,212 <i>and take on a wider view,</i> 805 01:03:39,236 --> 01:03:42,536 <i>covering how we Taiwanese acted in the past,</i> 806 01:03:42,561 --> 01:03:48,493 <i>and interacted with traditional Chinese values.</i> 807 01:03:48,593 --> 01:03:51,934 <i>From mining my own experience,</i> 808 01:03:51,959 --> 01:03:54,738 <i>I've tried to develop a form of creation</i> 809 01:03:54,763 --> 01:03:58,708 <i>that allows me to reflect on myself.</i> 810 01:03:59,067 --> 01:04:01,613 <i>Seeing my past and background more clearly,</i> 811 01:04:01,638 --> 01:04:04,378 <i>thinking about how I have become who I am,</i> 812 01:04:04,410 --> 01:04:08,074 <i>has allowed me to understand others better.</i> 813 01:04:08,685 --> 01:04:13,122 <i>My earlier films tended to be more dramatic and romantic.</i> 814 01:04:13,169 --> 01:04:16,536 <i>I often wanted to take a different direction.</i> 815 01:04:16,732 --> 01:04:20,438 <i>However, modern life seemed hard to decipher,</i> 816 01:04:20,463 --> 01:04:23,547 <i>and I had to take time and consider how to look at it.</i> 817 01:04:23,572 --> 01:04:28,094 <i>I wanted to reflect on it with some distance.</i> 818 01:04:28,391 --> 01:04:30,211 <i>It's just like when we reflect on your past.</i> 819 01:04:30,236 --> 01:04:33,189 <i>I wanted to make a movie that does that with "now".</i> 820 01:04:33,458 --> 01:04:35,278 Man 1: <i>Excuse me.</i> 821 01:04:35,317 --> 01:04:37,051 Man 2: <i>Give us a hand, please.</i> 822 01:04:37,778 --> 01:04:39,762 Hou: <i>Back up a little.</i> 823 01:04:40,536 --> 01:04:41,200 Hou: <i>Bye.</i> 824 01:04:43,544 --> 01:04:44,919 Hou: <i>It's Da Hua.</i> 825 01:04:45,583 --> 01:04:47,840 Assayas: <i>How long until we arrive?</i> 826 01:04:48,137 --> 01:04:50,354 Hou: <i>When will we arrive in Shih-fen?</i> 827 01:04:50,379 --> 01:04:52,496 How long will it take? 828 01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:56,685 I shot two films here: 829 01:04:56,710 --> 01:05:00,119 <i>Dust in the Wind</i> in 1986, 830 01:05:00,144 --> 01:05:02,176 and <i>Goodbye South, Goodbye</i> in 1996. 831 01:05:02,504 --> 01:05:06,223 I wanted to film in the present tense, 832 01:05:06,248 --> 01:05:11,590 and no longer with a look to the past, 833 01:05:11,615 --> 01:05:13,401 then see the difference. 834 01:05:13,775 --> 01:05:17,275 It feels like that modern life moves fast, 835 01:05:17,300 --> 01:05:20,651 and you can go anywhere because it's convenient. 836 01:05:20,676 --> 01:05:27,595 Filming in the present, as a result, takes on another mood and form. 837 01:05:27,650 --> 01:05:28,947 She is from Ping-hsi. 838 01:05:28,972 --> 01:05:31,415 We became friends when I shot there. 839 01:05:35,025 --> 01:05:37,619 Did you shoot in Che-tong? 840 01:05:37,644 --> 01:05:41,908 A long time ago, but I rarely go there now. 841 01:05:42,752 --> 01:05:45,742 <i>I am very curious about the thoughts of people,</i> 842 01:05:45,767 --> 01:05:48,017 <i>those in the past and of my contemporaries.</i> 843 01:05:48,041 --> 01:05:51,525 <i>as well as the world itself today.</i> 844 01:05:51,550 --> 01:05:56,369 <i>If I see a man, in a café,</i> 845 01:05:56,394 --> 01:05:59,173 <i>who smokes constantly,</i> 846 01:05:59,198 --> 01:06:01,158 <i>I want to know what he is thinking about.</i> 847 01:06:01,183 --> 01:06:06,033 <i>I would like talk to him, get inside his head.</i> 848 01:06:06,058 --> 01:06:07,884 <i>It's a new experiece.</i> 849 01:06:07,909 --> 01:06:11,189 <i>Maybe sometimes on my way somewhere,</i> 850 01:06:11,214 --> 01:06:14,619 <i>a group on motorbikes stop for the light.</i> 851 01:06:14,644 --> 01:06:18,187 <i>Their thoughts on the world must be totally different to mine.</i> 852 01:06:18,212 --> 01:06:20,470 <i>Their way of thinking about life,</i> 853 01:06:20,495 --> 01:06:24,674 <i>their mindset and logic must be different to mine.</i> 854 01:06:24,699 --> 01:06:26,627 <i>This sparks my curiousity.</i> 855 01:06:26,666 --> 01:06:29,580 <i>Now I've changed in this direction.</i> 856 01:06:29,955 --> 01:06:34,212 The Puppetmaster <i>was about Lee and his family.</i> 857 01:06:34,237 --> 01:06:37,148 <i>Then there was</i> Good Men, Good Women, 858 01:06:37,172 --> 01:06:40,960 <i>following Annie Yi and her life,</i> 859 01:06:40,985 --> 01:06:42,947 <i>I still didn't feel it was enough.</i> 860 01:06:42,972 --> 01:06:46,477 <i>After that I moved on to</i> Goodbye South, Goodbye, 861 01:06:46,502 --> 01:06:51,869 <i>and trying to capture the savvy and ideas of real people today,</i> 862 01:06:51,894 --> 01:06:57,405 <i>the authentic rhythms of their lives and behaviours.</i> 863 01:07:16,169 --> 01:07:17,419 <i>How about pak choi?</i> 864 01:07:18,176 --> 01:07:20,958 Do you have salted cabbage? 865 01:07:21,395 --> 01:07:22,887 What's that? 866 01:07:23,051 --> 01:07:24,762 Fried cabbage. 867 01:07:49,174 --> 01:07:51,673 Assayas: <i>How long has it been like this in Taiwan?</i> 868 01:07:52,299 --> 01:07:53,166 <i>Does he have any comment?</i> 869 01:07:53,509 --> 01:07:58,144 <i>When the value of the Hong Kong dollar fell and ours rose,</i> 870 01:07:58,169 --> 01:08:03,504 <i>Taiwanese producers invested heavily in films there,</i> 871 01:08:04,578 --> 01:08:07,947 so a lot of Hong Kong films were imported. 872 01:08:09,091 --> 01:08:12,748 However, over the last three years, 873 01:08:12,773 --> 01:08:16,958 audiences have started to shun them, 874 01:08:16,983 --> 01:08:20,240 as the stories and casts are all the same. 875 01:08:20,714 --> 01:08:27,438 As a result, distributors started to buy in Western films, 876 01:08:27,648 --> 01:08:31,713 They snatched up anything from any studio, festival or filmmaker. 877 01:08:32,555 --> 01:08:35,125 In the past, the import of Western films was limited, 878 01:08:35,150 --> 01:08:37,483 in order to protect the local market from competition. 879 01:08:37,508 --> 01:08:42,992 so the number of prints available was set at a maximum of eight. 880 01:08:43,273 --> 01:08:48,398 That's finished, so now there are at least 50 prints around. 881 01:08:48,719 --> 01:08:52,375 Western films monopolise the rooms. 882 01:08:53,063 --> 01:08:55,914 It looks like a supermarket, 883 01:08:55,939 --> 01:08:59,820 where the only product would be foreign cinema. 884 01:08:59,969 --> 01:09:04,617 Have you considered ways in which you could distribute your own films, 885 01:09:04,642 --> 01:09:08,281 perhaps by renting screening rooms or opening a cinema? 886 01:09:08,430 --> 01:09:10,664 My dream is to build a theatre. 887 01:09:11,102 --> 01:09:13,922 Distribution here has been monopolised by the major chains. 888 01:09:14,891 --> 01:09:21,093 My films should be released in a few venues, 889 01:09:21,118 --> 01:09:22,680 and stay there longer, 890 01:09:22,705 --> 01:09:25,328 in what in Europe you call an arthouse run. 891 01:09:25,353 --> 01:09:27,939 In the current chain system, 892 01:09:27,964 --> 01:09:31,323 if a film is to be distributed, 893 01:09:31,348 --> 01:09:32,815 it will be in 40 theatres at a time, 894 01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:34,242 and require 40 prints of the film, 895 01:09:34,267 --> 01:09:37,894 Imagine the cost for 40 prints of your film? 896 01:09:37,919 --> 01:09:41,151 And then you factor in the costs of promotion. 897 01:09:41,308 --> 01:09:45,073 If the film doesn't work, 898 01:09:46,003 --> 01:09:49,167 it's a complete disaster. 899 01:09:49,542 --> 01:09:51,612 Some films are ideal for an arthouse run, 900 01:09:51,637 --> 01:09:54,097 an extended screening period on only one or two screens. 901 01:09:55,440 --> 01:09:59,987 I've been mulling over if I could develop an arthouse cinema, 902 01:10:00,167 --> 01:10:04,784 with only a screening room or two, 903 01:10:06,370 --> 01:10:08,222 a small coffee shop, 904 01:10:08,769 --> 01:10:12,917 where people can meet and talk all about movies, 905 01:10:12,942 --> 01:10:19,745 and buy special publications and film merchandise. 906 01:10:19,909 --> 01:10:22,019 <i>They're abundant abroad.</i> 907 01:10:23,480 --> 01:10:27,433 <i>It could be next to a university.</i> 908 01:10:28,511 --> 01:10:32,347 <i>Students and cinephiles could find their way there.</i> 909 01:10:33,447 --> 01:10:36,230 It should be a nice place to socialise, 910 01:10:36,255 --> 01:10:40,503 like the temple was for me and my friends back then. 911 01:10:42,065 --> 01:10:46,144 Now, for young people today, it's McDonald's. 912 01:10:46,169 --> 01:10:47,425 This is where they meet. 913 01:10:47,605 --> 01:10:54,370 Interpreter: <i>Does Hong Kong's return to China affect Taiwan?</i> 914 01:10:55,011 --> 01:10:59,487 Of course, Hong Kong acted as an intermediary between Taiwan and China. 915 01:10:59,512 --> 01:11:02,870 Direct relations were prohibited. 916 01:11:04,995 --> 01:11:07,378 Now that's all changed. 917 01:11:07,542 --> 01:11:10,440 There's just the Mainland now. 918 01:11:10,933 --> 01:11:15,675 We've lost this intermediary point. 919 01:11:15,700 --> 01:11:20,558 How will the Taiwanese government respond to this? 920 01:11:20,612 --> 01:11:24,253 Before it was Taiwan and Hong Kong investing in China, 921 01:11:24,278 --> 01:11:27,105 now China is getting global attention. 922 01:11:27,269 --> 01:11:30,253 Before, the relationship between Taiwan and the Mainland was – 923 01:11:30,278 --> 01:11:32,730 they used to want us to come 924 01:11:32,755 --> 01:11:34,925 Now we must push for it. 925 01:11:34,950 --> 01:11:39,769 The relationship is not the same anymore. 926 01:11:39,831 --> 01:11:41,815 Dealing with this issue requires wisdom, 927 01:11:41,840 --> 01:11:45,636 but I sincerely doubt the capabilities of our decison-makers. 928 01:11:46,730 --> 01:11:50,815 This is why there was the missle crisis between Taiwan and the Mainland in March. 929 01:11:50,840 --> 01:11:52,870 It's a question of wisdom. 930 01:11:53,073 --> 01:11:57,557 When a U.S. aircraft carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait, 931 01:11:57,582 --> 01:12:01,883 China understood that it was really dealing with Washington. 932 01:12:02,109 --> 01:12:04,757 So now China negotiates with the United States, 933 01:12:04,782 --> 01:12:06,258 and entirely ignores Taiwan. 934 01:12:06,751 --> 01:12:11,368 United States also wants to patch up relations with Communist China, 935 01:12:11,393 --> 01:12:12,938 and ensure that relationship is strong, 936 01:12:13,149 --> 01:12:17,243 because the market in Asia is booming. 937 01:12:17,868 --> 01:12:22,142 For the best interests of its own economy, 938 01:12:22,167 --> 01:12:28,147 Washington has to re-establish good relations with the CCP. 939 01:12:28,172 --> 01:12:32,357 In my opinion, regarding the current situation, 940 01:12:32,382 --> 01:12:36,490 Taiwan's future is likely to get more difficult, 941 01:12:37,350 --> 01:12:41,123 unless our politicians can begin to act wisely. 942 01:13:13,324 --> 01:13:19,401 In my filmmaking, the character is decisive, 943 01:13:21,086 --> 01:13:25,001 and the character is based on real people I encounter. 944 01:13:25,288 --> 01:13:27,849 <i>Who Jack Kao will play,</i> 945 01:13:28,609 --> 01:13:33,204 <i>or who Lee Tien-lu, Annie Yi, Wu Nien-jen will be,</i> 946 01:13:33,229 --> 01:13:36,224 <i>It is only when they have been defined,</i> 947 01:13:36,248 --> 01:13:39,242 <i>that a story is developed around them.</i> 948 01:13:39,533 --> 01:13:42,571 <i>I begin with the people.</i> 949 01:13:43,695 --> 01:13:49,009 Lim Giong has a background as a musician. 950 01:13:49,577 --> 01:13:52,411 He will struggle to make the transition to acting, 951 01:13:52,698 --> 01:13:55,008 unless he can access the bigger picture in a way he understands. 952 01:13:55,299 --> 01:13:57,530 However, with Jack Kao, I give him less, 953 01:13:57,820 --> 01:14:00,733 otherwise his imagination runs wild with ideas. 954 01:14:02,581 --> 01:14:07,054 I direct the actors in a simple way, with only a small amount of discussion. 955 01:14:07,423 --> 01:14:12,783 They're free to move and develop their own rhythms. 956 01:14:14,145 --> 01:14:16,580 They know what needs to be said in a scene. 957 01:14:16,866 --> 01:14:19,746 I'm there to remind them to not focus to entirely on the words, 958 01:14:20,028 --> 01:14:24,022 to draw their attention to others, 959 01:14:24,309 --> 01:14:27,666 the space and how they could interact with it. 960 01:14:30,311 --> 01:14:32,462 The script is there to give them a direction, 961 01:14:32,952 --> 01:14:36,343 <i>to let them know what is there to be said in a scene,</i> 962 01:14:36,634 --> 01:14:39,945 <i>but they need to be free to think while they perform.</i> 963 01:14:40,235 --> 01:14:43,148 <i>The dialogue must be the result of a reaction.</i> 964 01:14:44,076 --> 01:14:45,396 <i>Speech is always spontaneous.</i> 965 01:14:45,677 --> 01:14:49,637 <i>Sticking to script can, sometimes will,</i> 966 01:14:50,759 --> 01:14:52,078 <i>make a performance unnatural.</i> 967 01:14:52,359 --> 01:14:55,352 <i>It's much more powerful and moving, I believe,</i> 968 01:14:55,640 --> 01:14:58,474 <i>if the reactions are spontaneous.</i> 969 01:14:58,762 --> 01:15:00,957 <i>Generally, my rule is not to have a rehearsal,</i> 970 01:15:01,242 --> 01:15:03,359 <i>as I think rehearsal makes the scenes too familiar.</i> 971 01:15:03,843 --> 01:15:06,802 It restricts the actors if they know the material too well. 972 01:15:07,085 --> 01:15:10,874 In general, I find one or two takes are enough. 973 01:15:11,166 --> 01:15:13,601 If it's taking too long, I'll stop, 974 01:15:13,887 --> 01:15:16,607 and attempt the scene the next day. 975 01:15:17,088 --> 01:15:20,206 <i>If the scene still isn't working, I'll cut it,</i> 976 01:15:20,489 --> 01:15:22,606 <i>and figure out an alternative.</i> 977 01:15:23,290 --> 01:15:25,101 <i>If I have to design another scene,</i> 978 01:15:25,126 --> 01:15:27,285 <i>I make sure it's new for them,</i> 979 01:15:27,572 --> 01:15:30,770 <i>to ensure that it's novel and unfamiliar.</i> 980 01:15:43,258 --> 01:15:46,968 <i>A film is a world that you create,</i> 981 01:15:47,259 --> 01:15:49,569 <i>and a place to put all that you feel.</i> 982 01:15:49,860 --> 01:15:51,293 <i>You can't do this in real life.</i> 983 01:15:51,581 --> 01:15:53,716 <i>If you expressed all of your feelings in daily life,</i> 984 01:15:53,741 --> 01:15:55,201 <i>for some it would be unbearable,</i> 985 01:15:55,226 --> 01:15:56,740 <i>some people find it very hard to handle.</i> 986 01:15:56,765 --> 01:15:58,990 <i>I think this what I am like,</i> 987 01:15:59,143 --> 01:16:01,453 <i>and I always will be.</i> 988 01:16:01,744 --> 01:16:04,543 <i>It's only by making films,</i> 989 01:16:04,825 --> 01:16:08,058 <i>that I can understand myself better.</i> 990 01:16:08,347 --> 01:16:11,146 <i>As in</i> Goodbye South, Goodbye, 991 01:16:12,188 --> 01:16:14,498 <i>I find myself drawn to these characters.</i> 992 01:16:14,789 --> 01:16:19,421 <i>I especially like their energy,</i> 993 01:16:19,711 --> 01:16:22,784 <i>their passion, their vitality.</i> 994 01:16:23,072 --> 01:16:26,907 <i>I can't be critical of my characters.</i> 995 01:16:27,193 --> 01:16:29,025 <i>I present them as they are.</i> 996 01:16:29,514 --> 01:16:32,996 <i>If you love what you see,</i> 997 01:16:33,021 --> 01:16:34,032 <i>you need to present it.</i> 998 01:16:34,316 --> 01:16:36,387 <i>Then I observe them objectively.</i> 999 01:16:36,677 --> 01:16:40,172 <i>About them I feel... not tragedy,</i> 1000 01:16:40,196 --> 01:16:42,873 <i>but a kind of inescapable isolation.</i> 1001 01:16:43,159 --> 01:16:48,360 <i>They seem trapped by history and their own experience,</i> 1002 01:16:48,641 --> 01:16:51,281 <i>as if it were destiny or fate.</i> 1003 01:16:53,723 --> 01:16:57,306 <i>Many filmmakers in their fifties get preachy,</i> 1004 01:16:57,331 --> 01:17:00,556 <i>their work is brimming with their philosophy of life.</i> 1005 01:17:00,580 --> 01:17:03,465 <i>They get every idea in there.</i> 1006 01:17:03,490 --> 01:17:05,357 <i>As a result, the films are bad.</i> 1007 01:17:05,647 --> 01:17:08,606 <i>Whereas before, with these directors,</i> 1008 01:17:08,798 --> 01:17:12,480 <i>their first films were strong, precise and affecting.</i> 1009 01:17:13,450 --> 01:17:17,809 People were genuinely touched by them. 1010 01:17:18,092 --> 01:17:20,561 So I think we should all try and return to that, 1011 01:17:20,853 --> 01:17:25,006 the approach seen in these early films that was... 1012 01:17:26,015 --> 01:17:28,165 powerful and direct. 1013 01:17:28,455 --> 01:17:32,052 Just like when we first got out of school, 1014 01:17:32,377 --> 01:17:35,097 and learnt that we had to begin to face the world. 1015 01:17:35,378 --> 01:17:37,256 That is the way we should be. 1016 01:17:51,784 --> 01:17:54,348 <i>Goodbye South, Goodbye</i> 1017 1016 01:18:14,872 --> 01:18:18,947 Its exhaust system looks fucked up. 1018 01:18:32,038 --> 01:18:34,792 Is your bike going to explode? 1019 01:19:47,887 --> 01:19:51,816 <i>"Ha! Go! You're nothing special"</i> 1020 01:19:52,043 --> 01:19:56,683 <i>"Everything's about you, while I depress myself"</i> 1021 01:19:56,824 --> 01:20:01,183 <i>"Although I love you, you can't be so childish"</i> 1022 01:20:01,535 --> 01:20:05,816 <i>"Not even a lonely duck would want you"</i> 1023 01:20:06,769 --> 01:20:10,910 <i>"Ha! Go! You're nothing special"</i> 1024 01:20:11,066 --> 01:20:15,714 <i>"Everything's about you, while I depress myself"</i> 1025 01:20:15,848 --> 01:20:20,223 <i>"Although I love you, you can't be so childish"</i> 1026 01:20:20,527 --> 01:20:22,754 <i>"Not even a lonely duck would want you"</i> 1027 01:20:23,278 --> 01:20:26,955 <i>When I met Jack Kao, I felt this he was very capable.</i> 1028 01:20:27,363 --> 01:20:30,520 He brings a real presence with him, when he is on screen, 1029 01:20:31,175 --> 01:20:33,313 <i>especially with his eyes and face.</i> 1030 01:20:33,634 --> 01:20:34,632 How long have I known Hou? 1031 01:20:34,657 --> 01:20:36,964 Almost 10 years. 1032 01:20:37,949 --> 01:20:38,887 Jack Kao <i>Actor</i> 1033 01:20:40,089 --> 01:20:42,604 <i>The first time I met him,</i> 1034 01:20:43,777 --> 01:20:44,855 <i>he didn't give me anything to do.</i> 1035 01:20:44,880 --> 01:20:49,649 He made me wait for two days. 1036 01:20:49,933 --> 01:20:53,449 My work began on the third day of the shoot. 1037 01:20:54,095 --> 01:20:55,157 Lim Giong <i>Musician and actor</i> 1038 01:20:57,576 --> 01:20:59,886 For me it began with <i>The Puppetmaster</i>. 1039 01:21:01,217 --> 01:21:03,971 Yeah, <i>The Puppetmaster</i>. 1040 01:21:04,538 --> 01:21:06,291 <i>I was just starting out in film,</i> 1041 01:21:06,779 --> 01:21:08,213 I knew nothing about it. 1042 01:21:08,900 --> 01:21:12,098 I was looking at how they worked. 1043 01:21:12,661 --> 01:21:15,772 I didn't know how to talk to the crew, 1044 01:21:15,797 --> 01:21:17,811 <i>the cinematographer and lighting technicians.</i> 1045 01:21:18,103 --> 01:21:19,776 Hou: <i>You were meant to be busy creating.</i> 1046 01:21:20,064 --> 01:21:25,015 With experience, you learn to manage quite well, 1047 01:21:25,306 --> 01:21:28,663 creating the details of your role is quite fulfilling. 1048 01:21:30,027 --> 01:21:33,066 If you mention it to Hou later, 1049 01:21:33,429 --> 01:21:37,264 he will say: "Oh, you were creating for yourself.'' 1050 01:21:38,871 --> 01:21:40,782 I wasn't really doing anything! 1051 01:21:45,273 --> 01:21:48,789 I wasn't very confident with my acting. 1052 01:21:49,795 --> 01:21:50,750 He is a musician. 1053 01:21:51,235 --> 01:21:54,672 Perhaps he wanted my help at the box office, since I was doing well? 1054 01:21:56,277 --> 01:21:58,473 I saw you in concert, 1055 01:21:58,758 --> 01:22:02,274 I noticed the energy you were giving off. 1056 01:22:04,120 --> 01:22:07,591 I hoped to get this energy into the movie, 1057 01:22:08,641 --> 01:22:10,872 but first he had to make the adjustment. 1058 01:22:11,162 --> 01:22:13,417 The two are quite different, you need to adjust. 1059 01:22:13,442 --> 01:22:16,113 Then you could be more controlled. 1060 01:22:16,844 --> 01:22:19,803 It was when doing <i>Goodbye South, Goodbye</i>, 1061 01:22:20,085 --> 01:22:22,725 that you finally made the transition. 1062 01:22:23,207 --> 01:22:25,482 I was very conscious of the camera. 1063 01:22:25,808 --> 01:22:29,518 Hou: <i>He's very self-conscious</i>. Lim: I'm always aware of it! 1064 01:22:52,097 --> 01:22:55,727 <i>I find that, here in Taiwan,</i> 1065 01:22:57,219 --> 01:23:01,772 the society is still imbued with something primitive. 1066 01:23:02,421 --> 01:23:05,971 Suffused with a fierce machismo. 1067 01:23:06,262 --> 01:23:09,335 At every turn, you have to prove you are a man. 1068 01:23:09,823 --> 01:23:11,257 <i>Like a wild animal.</i> 1069 01:23:11,544 --> 01:23:13,854 I find it quite fascinating, 1070 01:23:16,266 --> 01:23:21,626 the symbols of strength in this male world. 1071 01:23:23,028 --> 01:23:27,023 <i>Politics is a similar world, as it's all about countering an other's power.</i> 1072 01:23:27,510 --> 01:23:31,299 <i>But, honestly, I'm less interested in it.</i> 1073 01:23:31,591 --> 01:23:35,984 <i>Why? It's too calculating, too base.</i> 1074 01:23:36,273 --> 01:23:38,310 <i>The gangster scene, though,</i> 1075 01:23:38,794 --> 01:23:40,751 it's a world founded on machismo, 1076 01:23:41,035 --> 01:23:43,938 which is more romantic, 1077 01:23:45,676 --> 01:23:47,395 more forceful. 1078 01:23:47,877 --> 01:23:51,507 <i>In Taiwan, this primitive side still exists.</i> 1079 01:23:51,799 --> 01:23:55,998 <i>I have experienced this male world myself,</i> 1080 01:23:56,280 --> 01:23:58,496 <i>and I've always been around men,</i> 1081 01:23:58,521 --> 01:24:02,356 it takes me back to the past, to where I grew up. 1082 01:24:03,203 --> 01:24:08,232 There, it was always necessary to be the best, 1083 01:24:08,707 --> 01:24:14,956 <i>to strive after becoming the big man,</i> 1084 01:24:15,847 --> 01:24:18,191 <i>or the leader of the thugs,</i> 1085 01:24:18,215 --> 01:24:20,559 <i>otherwise you were nothing.</i> 1086 01:24:23,010 --> 01:24:27,846 As a man, I feel that a man has to do what a man has to do. 1087 01:24:28,132 --> 01:24:33,082 Today, men are less assertive, more neutral. 1088 01:24:34,334 --> 01:24:37,213 Women will eventually surpass men. 1089 01:24:37,495 --> 01:24:40,169 I am certain the world will change completely. 1090 01:24:43,217 --> 01:24:47,815 I'm nostalgic for the macho world, 1091 01:24:48,619 --> 01:24:50,656 its rivalries, 1092 01:24:50,940 --> 01:24:53,933 competing like a pack of dogs, 1093 01:24:54,261 --> 01:24:57,698 fighting to be in charge. 1094 01:25:12,562 --> 01:25:20,386 <i>"Although you and I meet in the air every day"</i> 1095 01:25:23,433 --> 01:25:31,937 <i>"Because your soft and sweet voice is cute"</i> 1096 01:25:34,170 --> 01:25:42,383 <i>"I can't help it"</i> 1097 01:25:42,964 --> 01:25:47,127 <i>"I'm lost for you"</i> 1098 01:25:47,227 --> 01:25:55,463 I've always loved the early pop songs of Taiwan. 1099 01:25:55,644 --> 01:25:58,796 They probably remind me of childhood memories, 1100 01:25:59,085 --> 01:26:02,238 what I felt towards my family. 1101 01:26:02,527 --> 01:26:05,964 They are mostly sad songs, correlating to my past feelings. 1102 01:26:06,728 --> 01:26:08,082 I picked up a lot of them then. 1103 01:26:27,277 --> 01:26:35,949 <i>"Although you and I meet in the air every day"</i> 1104 01:26:36,332 --> 01:26:38,183 <i>My bearing is quite different when I sing,</i> 1105 01:26:38,208 --> 01:26:41,727 <i>and my friends all notice I'm very serious about it.</i> 1106 01:26:42,734 --> 01:26:46,171 I enter a song completely when I sing. 1107 01:26:46,455 --> 01:26:47,855 I inhabit the mood of the song, 1108 01:26:48,376 --> 01:26:51,926 <i>its atmosphere and tone.</i> 1109 01:26:52,898 --> 01:26:56,972 <i>It cleanses your soul and allows you to express your happiness.</i> 1110 01:26:57,379 --> 01:26:59,769 <i>When I'm writing a script,</i> 1111 01:27:00,260 --> 01:27:02,775 or even thinking about one, 1112 01:27:03,061 --> 01:27:04,751 maybe thinking of a time I was happy too, 1113 01:27:04,776 --> 01:27:06,499 I will start to sing, 1114 01:27:07,503 --> 01:27:10,018 or start to a hum any tune that comes into my head. 1115 01:27:14,483 --> 01:27:20,175 <i>"I only miss you."</i> 1116 01:27:25,116 --> 01:27:27,543 <i>For me, singing is an excellent way to, you know,</i> 1117 01:27:27,568 --> 01:27:31,518 let out pent up emotions and express my feelings. 1118 01:27:31,542 --> 01:27:34,363 I find it exhilirating. 1119 01:27:35,021 --> 01:27:38,545 And you sing that much better when you are in love. 1120 01:27:54,079 --> 01:27:59,332 <i>"After many struggles, do you ever feel tired?"</i> 1121 01:28:00,496 --> 01:28:06,316 <i>"I've felt that way before, many times"</i> 1122 01:28:06,691 --> 01:28:09,387 <i>"When someone broke my heart"</i> 1123 01:28:10,171 --> 01:28:13,304 <i>"And no one understands"</i> 1124 01:28:13,616 --> 01:28:19,788 <i>"I think we both feel truly exhausted"</i> 1125 01:28:20,201 --> 01:28:26,640 <i>"Cheers friends, let it all out"</i> 1126 01:28:26,797 --> 01:28:34,197 <i>"And think of the past as a hangover"</i> 1127 01:28:34,409 --> 01:28:40,513 <i>"Tomorrow's wine glass is free of yesterday's sadness"</i> 1128 01:28:40,927 --> 01:28:48,069 <i>"Raise your glass with me and celebrate the past"</i> 1129 01:28:52,798 --> 01:28:54,494 <i>[Singing in Japanese:]</i> 1130 01:28:54,519 --> 01:29:00,111 <i>"After many struggles, do you ever feel tired?"</i> 1131 01:29:00,880 --> 01:29:06,025 <i>"I've felt that way before, many times"</i> 1132 01:29:06,594 --> 01:29:09,418 <i>"When someone broke my heart"</i> 1133 01:29:10,088 --> 01:29:13,804 <i>"And no one understands"</i> 1134 01:29:13,994 --> 01:29:19,585 <i>"I think we both feel truly exhausted"</i> 1135 01:29:21,546 --> 01:29:27,226 <i>"Cheers friends, let it all out"</i> 1136 01:29:27,528 --> 01:29:33,867 <i>"And think of the past as a hangover"</i> 1137 01:29:34,950 --> 01:29:41,445 <i>"Tomorrow's wine glass is free of yesterday's sadness"</i> 1138 01:29:41,724 --> 01:29:48,889 <i>"Raise your glass with me and celebrate the past"</i> 1139 01:29:49,068 --> 01:29:54,736 <i>"Cheers friends, let it all out"</i> 1140 01:29:54,761 --> 01:29:55,572 <i>[Singing returns to Mandarin:]</i> 1141 01:29:55,597 --> 01:30:02,706 <i>"And think of the past as a hangover"</i> 1142 01:30:03,086 --> 01:30:09,425 <i>"Tomorrow's wine glass is free of yesterday's sadness"</i> 1143 01:30:09,639 --> 01:30:15,398 <i>"Raise your glass with me and celebrate the past"</i> 1144 01:30:16,882 --> 01:30:23,010 <i>"Cheers friends, let it all out"</i> 1145 01:30:23,211 --> 01:30:29,650 <i>"And think of the past as a hangover"</i> 1146 01:30:30,487 --> 01:30:37,038 <i>"Tomorrow's wine glass is free of yesterday's sadness"</i> 1147 01:30:37,329 --> 01:30:43,634 <i>"Raise your glass with me and celebrate the past"</i> 1148 01:30:44,360 --> 01:30:50,923 <i>"Cheers friends, let it all out"</i> 1149 01:30:51,179 --> 01:30:58,177 <i>"And think of the past as a hangover"</i> 1150 01:31:01,636 --> 01:31:02,440 That's a wrap! 1154 01:31:03,305 --> 01:32:03,532 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm