[2023.10.27] TONY LEUNG CHIU WAI THANKS HOU HSIAO-HSIEN FOR INSPIRING HIS ACTING

Tony Leung Chiu Wai returns to Japan to speak with viewers after 10 years, as he appears at the Tokyo International Film Festival Master Class

At the student exchange, Hirokazu Koreeda reveals his photo with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and admits that Hou is like a mentor to him.

Hirokazu Koreeda shares his experience with students around the world
courtesy of mingpao.com

The 36th Tokyo International Film Festival yesterday screened the Tony Leung Chiu Wai starred classic 2046. He then attended the Master Class and shared his experience from working with two great directors Wong Kar Wai and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Director Hou earlier confirmed that he had dementia and bid farewell to the film industry. Having worked with him on CITY OF SADNESS, Leung Chiu Wai said that thanks to his revelation, his acting was improved. However he did not mention Hou's condition. On the other hand, MONSTER director Hirokazu Koreeda yesterday had an exchange with several hundred university students from Japan, the mainland, Hong Kong and other places. At the event he displayed his photo with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and recalled how they met. He also said that several years ago he already knew about Hou's illness, as he lamented between his words.

Leung Chiu Wai yesterday attended the Master Class at the Hibiya cinema in Tokyo, several hundred attendees welcomed him with applause. He first greeted everyone in Japanese and revealed that 10 years ago he came there to promote THE GRANDMASTERS (YUT DOI JUNG SI), and he was happy to see Japanese viewers again. He spoke in Cantonese on the stage, talked about working on many internationally renowned films including Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1989 film CITY OF SADNESS (BEI CHING SING SI). Director Hou earlier announced his retirement due to dementia. Leung Chiu Wai dodged the subject and only said that early in his film career, he wanted to work with filmmakers of different places. Director Hou happened to approach him. He thought it would be a good experience and thus decided to take the role.

Leung Chiu Wai admitted that he did not know much about Taiwan history or how to speak Taiwanese, thus the character was designed to be hearing and speech impaired. He said, "Director Hou had me read many books, mainly literary work. He also asked a hearing and speech impaired friend to help. I almost impersonated him in the performance. In order to get into the character, I constantly stayed in the hotel and experience the world of silence." He joked that Director Hou at first let him perform freely. Perhaps he observed that he did not know how to act, so he introduced someone who was hearing and speech impaired to him. He also said that he was inspired by CITY OF SADNESS, so his acting was improved.

Speaking of Director Wong Kar Wai, Leung Chiu Wai admitted that he was lucky to have run into him when he was at his most lost in his acting. "While working on DAYS OF BEING WILD (AH FEI JING JUEN), Cheung Man Yuk only needed two or three takes while I took almost 20 takes. At most I had 26, at the time I felt quite a setback. Later when I brought it up with Wong Kar Wai, he said that I used too much acting and suggested for me to follow my heart in the performance." Leung Chiu Wai praised Wong Kar Wai as a director who was very able to tune actors. After making DAYS OF BEING WILD, "I decided to keep working with him." Their relationship endured for 20 years. For awhile, for around 2 to 3 ye3ars, he would visit Wong Kar Wai's office every night. They would eat dinner and chat. After this period, Leung Chiu Wai finally entered Wong Kar Wai's world.

After working together on several films they had more and more chemistry. Leung Chiu Wai treated it as "his second actor training class". His acting improved by the day and he defended him from the "Wong Kar Wai makes movies without a script" rumor. "I believe he has a script, he just doesn't show it to the actors. Actually every actor is very clear what he has to play. The directions are very clear, only on the day of the shoot would he have that day's script." He felt that Wong Kar Wai did not want actors to perform with a set method. If they received the script early on, their acting would not be flexible. Thus he felt working with Wong Kar Wai was like "an adventure".

During live audience questions, someone asked whether Leung Chiu Wai would not be able to leave his character. He said that when he started acting he would indeed. As long as time passed, he was able to return to himself. He also said that the more he got into the character, the more time he would take to leave it. He also hoped to be able to work with directors of different places like European directors. Thus next year he would work on ON BODY AND SOUL Hungarian director Iidiko Enyedi's new film SILENT FRIEND, which he looked forward to very much as he has already spent 8 months to explore the character. As the event reached its end, the event arranged for a group photo. The audience said loudly in Cantonese, "I really love you, waiting to see you 3 years after 3 years", after which he smiled in return.

The Japan International Exchange Fund and the Tokyo International Film Festival organized a student exchange event that took place yesterday in Hibiya, Tokyo. Winning the Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay and Queer Palm prize, the Japanese film MONSTER's director Hirokazu Koreeda had an exchange with university students from Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong and other places. Before the event began, a documentary film that he made in Taiwan for a Japanese television station was shown. It was about Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's film production. Hirokazu Koreeda said that this was the beginning of their connection.

Hirokazu Koreeda's family was born and raised in Taiwan. Back then he claimed to be making a documentary film, but actually was searching for his roots in Taiwan. Thus he met Hou Hsiao-Hsien. He revealed the notes from early in the production, in which he drew many scene break down pictures. At the time he thought he drew very well, so he showed Director Hou. Although he said "the production technique is decent" he asked why did he not first get an understanding of the actors' ideas. Every word that Director Hou has said, he treated it as "homework".

Hirokazu Koreeda also said that several years ago he already knew about Director Hou's dementia. Back then they visited Jiufen when Hou suddenly remembered his film production past and said, "(Maggie) Cheung Man Yuk is here". He was very surprised. He also said that Director Hou has always hoped to unite young filmmakers everywhere and it was exactly what he was doing.