[2014.03.10] STAR CLASS COLUMN: ABERDEEN'S FOUR FOUNDATION OF MINDFULNESS

courtesy of mingpao.com

Most recently a busy work schedule has again appeared on the daily itinerary, completely because of the Pang Ho Cheung new film that I am a part of, ABERDEEN (HEUNG GONG JAI), will be released in May. In addition the film will also be this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival opening film, a series of promotions has just begun. The deeply nostalgic trailer of the film has already drawn in everyone.

The trailer is full of visuals of each character but without a line of dialogue, only The Decemberists' ROX IN THE BOX accompanied it in the background. This song was around a mining accident that took place in Butte, a small town in Montana, in 1917. The director chose this song specifically. He expressed that he chose this song because its emotions were very suitable to the story's character mentality and the current Hong Kong situation.

Reportedly, Director Pang has already spent five years from the film's preparation to now. When he explained his creative journey he said that he made this film with a rather heavy heart. The film completely shook off his recent color. Every character in the film carried some knots that could not be undone in their hearts, thus the film's tone was also rather heavy.

Actually, the director's projected ambition for ABERDEEN could be glimpsed in the second trailer.

The Pang Ho Cheung in my eyes is someone who while is passionate about life also thinks about life.

I particularly value the trailer where the director quotes the Buddhist philosophy of Four Foundations of Mindlessness to bring out each character's trouble and story and see through four reverses in life. Four contradictions, or four incorrect perceptions, are body, feeling, mind, and mental qualities in and of themselves. Because we insist on having self, we remain focused on them. In Buddhism it is considered reverse thinking. Because of these four contradictions, people gradually become servants to reaching and chasing and cannot become the master of their own lives. Were these four characters in the film also striving to forget such follies, to bury the pain that is deep in their hearts?

As for the philosophy in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, one has to always maintain four foundations of mindfulness; we see only our bodies' imperfections, we watch our suffering become pain, we observe our heart's impermanence, and we transcend only by confronting ourselves.

My character Kwok Yan Yan brought out seeing only our bodies' imperfections, meaning that the constantly observation and examination of our bodies are unclean, fragile and varying. Thus no one should be circling this colorful shell all day, be vain and stubborn with the body. Kwok Yan Yan was an actress whom was obsessed with body and beauty, struggling to strive in show business and questioning her own worth while striving to escape the aftermath of her stubbornness with her body......the variety of obsession and suffering are from everyone's continuous contradictions, which conceivably are some revelations that Director Pang Ho Cheung wanted to bring with the depiction of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness in ABERDEEN.

- GIGI LEUNG WING KEI