[2010.09.11] TSUI HARK TEACHES FILM WITH WINE

courtesy of takungpao.com

Director Tsui Hark yesterday appeared at the Beijing Film Academy to discuss his trip to Venice. "Old Master" even brought white wine to drink with students. He even announced his mailbox to recruit talent.

After DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (DIK YUN KIT ji TUNG TIN DAI GOK)'s Venice premiere, it performed decently with a variety of media score and word of mouth. Not only did Variety give it a score of 7.6 and the best score from film critics, but also on the Venice Film Festival site it was in third among the 13 films in competition with a score of 7.4. Despite being a Golden Lion prize favorite, Tsui Hark did not wait until September 11 for the result. He even appeared as a guest of the Beijing Film Academy on the 9th and began a "new lecture" for nearly 1,000 students.

Tsui Hark revealed that he was 16 when he decided to make movies. At the time through a friend's recommendation he went to study film in school. Yet after returning from New York he made television series in Hong Kong. Later he wrote up some ideas for the production team and was permitted to make his first wuxia television series GUM DOH CHING HUP (GOLD BLADE LOVE HERO). Tsui Hark expressed that this series brought him into the wuxia world. Speaking of script study, Tsui Hark said to the university students, "When you are sincere and focused enough about something, the people in the story will chat with you."

Tsui Hark who has always walked a different road not only looked back to his past glory but also drew his sword at the event and even drank with students. Tsui Hark honestly said that this trip to Venice was quite a surprise. He never thought about being selected, not to mention the film's 7.6 high score. It was no longer important whether the film won or not. Tsui Hark said about the film's overseas response, due to cultural differences between China and the West foreigners were attracted to the Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian, Detective Dee and other Chinese elements' mystery and charming characteristics and the film received generally good reviews. However he had no way to predict whether it would win or not, as he never even imagined that it would be selected to begin with. He was very surprised.