Four Predictions for the Near Future aka Joys of Going Home

Notice to all those who have stumbled upon this site by the vagaries that govern the blogosphere of Hong Kong:

I shall be radio silent once again for the next few weeks due to a trip back to the MEI GWOK.

My time in Hong Kong to date has filled me with amazing feng shui and other uncanny supernatural powers that allow me to gaze into the near future and see what will be before they are.

Here is a Youtube video that provides a glimpse of this most unnatural of dark powers:



That said, I will now make four and only four predictions concerning momentously unmomentous events of the near future as we plod bovinely to the Year of the Ox:


1) The Eagles will win the Conference Final, and then advance to and emerge victorious in the Super Bowl, sending shockwaves of euphoria to that great city of Philadelphia, my second heimat, which ranks in my esteemed book, just below NY for hipster living.

2) There will be partying in the streets at Obama's inauguration. Strangers will hug and cry and dance and sing.

3) It will be colder in much of the U.S. during the next few weeks than it is here in Hong Kong.

4) Yours truly will return to the Big Lychee in a few weeks, having put on the now customary 10 pounds from having stuffed his face silly w/ pizza, tacos, gyros, fried chicken, and other healthy American delicacies.


Here's to going home...

Will return to posting in a few weeks, heavier and happier...

'Till then, I now take time to bestow on you a VIRTUAL LAISEE packet and bid you.....a fond.... JOY GIN!!!!

Eat Kimchi a.k.a. B-ball at Wah Fu Estate

I'm still working on the movie. It's coming along somewhat slowly. In the meantime, to unwind a bit, I've also begun easing back into playing ball. I've been unable to play for 4+ months due to a really bad ankle sprain from back in August.

I played last Sunday morning and again this morning. My ankle still doesn't feel 100%, and I can't jump as well as before--which isn't saying much 'cuz I could never really jump high to begin with. I was the shortest guy on my high school team, but also the slowest and the one with the least ups.

Whatever the case, it was great to play again and to return to what had been a regular game for me before my injury. The same group of regulars, who range in age from early 20s to mid 50s, was there. And they were glad to see me back. It's always a good feeling to be welcomed back to a place.



Playing ball in Hong Kong has been great fun and one of the few ways to really feel a sense of belonging with the local people. I like these guys at Wah Fu so much more than the stuffed shirt types I meet elsewhere all over Hong Kong.

The style of play may be different, but basketball is basketball. It also gives me a good chance to practice speaking the Wah. I can still only say very basic things, and my tones are usually wrong, but I'm getting more comfortable and confident about speaking, which is always a good first step.

As for my jumpshot, it's pretty much shot after my long hiatus. But I can still get by with a lot of fakes and totally anachronistic spin moves that I picked up as a kid from oldtimers at my home court back in Jackson Heights. God, I sometimes miss playing ball back in NY so much...

Anyway, I hope this video gives you a sense of some of the antics that make playing ball in Hong Kong fun, a lot of which is the off-court shenanigans. I know it's juvenile male bonding stuff, but there's something to be said about that. It's why I'd rather play ball any day than just go to the gym.

**NOTE: I've fixed the English subtitles on the clip. There was a portion I couldn't understand, but a very helpful and informed reader (thank you!) filled me in on what one guy was actually saying: "Cheating is allowed..."

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is likely a universal truth that applies to all oldtimer games be they in Harlem, Hong Kong, or Honduras... **

***I'm not sure why the Comment link below doesn't work. If you really want to write a comment, please click the individual link for this post under the BLOG ARCHIVE on the right-hand column (you need to scroll down a tad). It will take you to another page for this post, in which the Comment function works. I have no idea what this glitch is about.... Sorry.***

WRITING STEP OUTLINE and Talking to Actors

I've started getting more inquiries about film collaboration in Hong Kong. Most are from actors/artists/performers. Some with experience. Others with just enthusiasm, which can make up for so much. But many who are contacting me are doing so from far away. It's difficult to collaborate w/ actors who don't share proximity. Exchanging e-mails is okay for a short while, but making films requires face-to-face interaction.

I've also gotten some inquiries from people telling me they are IT specialists, computer effects guys, or management consultants asking me if they can be of some help toward my "project."

I am grateful for this interest and support, but their particular skill set doesn't really fit my needs right now, so I tell them I'm looking for actors, people who want to act on camera, or people who can show up and hold the camera or microphone, so if they're willing to do something physical and concrete, then they're welcome.

I think this is a good way to separate people who are focused and really interested in making a film from those who just have a general vague interest and like the idea of being affiliated with something creative and would like to just be there to watch. That's fine and dandy, but a bare bones production like mine really can't afford to have the extra weight.

I remember back when I was shooting my first film, I always had 10-12 people just hanging around the set doing nothing. Thinking back, I think I invited and welcomed that as a kind of security blanket and chorus just so I'd feel more secure about making a movie.

Now, I know better. I'm looking for people who can get behind the camera and/or in front of the camera and so something real and physical. The truth is that most filmmakers can also act. Once you do a couple of these things, the whole process becomes demystified. Shooting, lighting, recording audio, acting, writing... all these things become activities that one can do, and not some complex thing that only experts can do.

A major lesson that I learned back in film school was from Lorenzo Semple Jr., who taught a screenwriting class. I'm not sure if he's still alive. He was quite old even back when I was taking his class. He wrote the screenplay for various classic movies from the 60s and 70s, including one of my all-time favorites, PAPILLON. He also wrote the scripts for the campy TV show BATMAN, for which he told us he got death threats from hardcore purist fans who didn't like how he'd camped up the superhero and sidekick.

One of the coolest things he did for us students besides being completely blunt about whether what we'd written was good or not was to let us vote on his behalf for the Academy Awards. He was an Academy member of long standing, but no longer thought much of the direction movies had gone with their increasing emphasis on special effects and decreasing emphasis on story. Whatever the reason, he let the class (there were about a half dozen of us) pick the selections on his ballot for that year and had us mail it in. It demystified the whole film industry machine for us. It also taught us that a certain amount of irreverence was healthy.

Back to my present struggle. So far, I've exchanged e-mails w/ a couple of interested actors and have run into the same familiar difficulties of scheduling meetings w/ interested people. In comparison to the response I would have gotten back in New York, the HK response is a mere trickle. The same amount of postings about an indie feature production in NYC would have gotten me 30-50 headshots easy.

Here, I've gotten only about a half dozen. Again, this is simply an observation and a factual accounting, not a gripe that HK is not NY. I'm so over that. I don't even get worked up now about crowds and people encroaching on my personal space. In fact, all the usual trivial gripes that nearly all foreigners have about HK no longer faze me at all. This is HK, and it needn't be a carbon copy of NY or London or what have you.

In the meantime, I've got an original story for the film and am writing a step outline, with specific situations and parameters from which actors can come up with their own dialog. Improvisation is difficult without goals and guidelines. It's like when people do "brainstorming" sessions without specific parameters and end up with nothing. Ditto for actors and improvisation. You have to have a start and a finish to a scene.

I'm now focused mainly on polishing the story and looking for actors that can fit the pieces of the puzzle together. I'm very excited that this is starting to come along.

More imporantly, I've had a breakthrough in the way I look at my situation. I guess it's somewhat perverse, but I'm actually very pleased that so few film productions (be they industry or independent) are going on in Hong Kong and so very few good films came out of Hong Kong in 2008.

Why?

Because all this will make our film stand out even more and provide even greater sense of accomplishment once it's all done. I'm feeling great about this film. I can't wait to start shooting.

I've also been getting renewed inspiration from Melvin Van Peebles, a Chicagoan whose first feature film LA PERMISSION (1968) was made in France, after years of not being able to make a film in the U.S.

The road I face is much less arduous than his. He had to write and make films in French. HK is much more English-friendly, though I definitely plan to work some Cantonese into the film. Thank you, Mr. Van Peebles!!! You are a true independent!

125 Years Isn't That Old, Is It? (From Ibsen to BLIND SHAFT (2003))

I’m busy translating a bunch of business contracts. The work is tedious, but money’s money, even if it’s the Korean won, which has depreciated so much in recent months that I've actually started turning down some jobs after doing the money calculation. Still, it's a way to earn a little money that also allows me the flexible schedule and large blocks of free time needed to work on my novel and make films.

As for making the feature film, in search of ideas for a story, I’ve begun to do what I often do when I can’t come up with an original idea of my own for whatever reason. I’ve turned to works from the past that are in the public domain to see whether any of them can be updated to the contemporary Hong Kong setting. This is a very common practice. George Lucas’s STAR WARS series is basically a Japanese samurai film set in space. Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur’s I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) is a retelling of JANE EYRE.

Nearly all novels or plays that were published prior to 1923 is in the public domain. This doesn’t mean, however that filmmakers can have a field day. Many of these literary works that are in the public domain aren’t well-suited for modern audiences. And those that are (Jane Austen & some Shakespeare) have already been done over and over.

In addition, literary and dramatic conventions from the past are often very different from contemporary ones, which means they don’t always help the cause of providing fodder for a medium, narrative film, which requires accessible storytelling.

The last time I ventured into the fascinating world of the public domain, I ended up with a short film based on Sophocles’ ANTIGONE, which in its original is compelling even if its form is so unlike any that we modern audiences are used to. In my hands, it turned into a straightforward drama with added exposition scenes between Antigone and Creon. The outcome was disappointing at best and very much a strange baby that was neither here nor there.

That said, I’ve begun to seriously consider doing a contemporary version of Henrik Ibsen’s THE WILD DUCK set in Hong Kong as part of a series of feature films about Hong Kong. To do so requires some modification. As great a contribution to modern theater that Ibsen has made (which is absolutely in no doubt as any self-respecting Norwegian will happily tell you and many did during my two-day stint as a street book peddler near Columbia University before our move to HK (which is another story)), much of the original play, which was written in 1884 and is in five acts, now seems clunky and dull. A contemporary adaptation could benefit from slimming the story into 3 acts and losing many ancillary characters and some story elements.

I’ve begun doing a quick outline of this adaptation. It could serve as the basis of a somewhat talky but could-be-compelling-depending-on-execution film focused on two main characters : GREGERS and HJALMAR from the original. The story still has a lot to say about life everywhere, but could be tweaked to say volumes about life in Hong Kong.

It helps that the original play isn't that well known. Many people, even those who know who Ibsen is, aren't that familiar with this play. And for whatever reason, deserved or not, this play as well as many of Ibsens' other works, are now relegated to the category of literary and dramatic works that are thought to be amazing but read only because some teacher at school assigned it or as part of some acting class. I believe the same can be said of much of Chekhov. (This is just an observation. I don't have a strong opinion on whether this is good or bad.)

I'm mostly concerned with pragmatic aspects of doing such an adaptation. Another plus is that there haven't been many screen adaptations of this play. The most recent and famous one being by Henri Safran in 1983 starring Liv Ullmann and Jeremy Irons. (This is a good thing and a bad thing. The bad is that there are probably good reasons why there haven't been more screen adaptations of this play.)

On a different note, I've just seen BLIND SHAFT (2003) by Yang Li. I’d caught bits of this film earlier in NY, when it aired on a local public TV channel. I didn't know much about the film or the filmmaker then.

Having just seen this film in its entirety, I was startled that such a bleak and dark film about contemporary life made its way past the Chinese censors. In fact, I learned from a little research that the filmmaker is based in Germany and circumvented Chinese censors by making the film outside the established filmmaking procedures and conrols by registering it as a foreign production originating in Germany and Hong Kong.

It is, in fact, one of the best films to come out of China that I’ve ever seen. (*It's at least 20,000 times better than the tired loosely-historical epics with 20,000 PLA extras that have now become a major staple of Chinese cinema and which function as de facto propaganda for China's superpower greatness -- Yes, the same critique can be applied to vast spectacles from the U.S., only the U.S. government doesn't play such an overtly direct role in film production. But of course, those films suck just as much.)

Yang Li's ugly little lump of coal of a film is intense for its entire 85 minutes while delivering many little truths about the price of modern life.

My only quibble is that were I the producer, I would have strongly urged Yang Li to cut the first two minutes from the film so that the film would then start from a completely different place and deliver even more of a jolt than it already does. Once you see the film, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The Korean Wave and Women in Hong Kong, Singapore, & Japan

I've already written about how the typical Hong Kong Chinese response upon learning that I am Korean is to smile and shout, "Daaih Chuuhng Gam!"

This is, in its own way, a manifestation of the "Korean Wave," the term used to describe the proliferation of popular culture (pop songs, movies, TV shows) from South Korea to the rest of Asia in the past decade. For the Chinese-dominant part of Asia, the embodiment of this Korean Wave is "Daaih Chuuhng Gam" aka JEWEL IN THE PALACE (2003). For Japan, it is the TV soap WINTER SONATA (2003).

Indeed, the Korean Wave has been such a big phenomenon that it has already elicited its share of backlash in China, Japan, and Taiwan, in the form of published tirades, netizen attacks, rants from jingoist politicians, and even some local performers publicly lashing out against their South Korean counterparts. Chang Zhen-yue, a Taiwanese rapper, even has a song that excoriates Bae Yong Joon (the star of WINTER SONATA) and Korean boy bands.

I have just read a book called EAST ASIAN POP CULTURE: Analysing the Korean Wave (2008) edited by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi. It is a collection of academic essays regarding the phenomenon approached from various academic angles.

Here are some interesting tidbits:

1)a) An essay that examines views of women viewers of Korean soaps in HK and Singapore revealed that 30% of HK women subjects thought there is some discrimination against women in Hong Kong, while nearly 50% of Singapore women believed there was discrimination against women in Singapore.

b) Given the statement: "I have to be married to be happy.", 39.1% of HK women subjects disagreed w/ this while just 10% of Singaporean women subjects disagreed.

**The author of the essay used a very small sample of women and did not try to draw big generalizations or conclusions. Still, the numbers are interesting.**


2) Women viewers of TV soaps in HK, Singapore, and Taiwan nearly unilaterally stated that they did not like graphic or overly sexualized scenes and situations portrayed in American TV shows like DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and SEX IN THE CITY and cited the lack of such overt sexual content in South Korean TV soaps as one of the reasons they liked the shows.


3) Before the Korean Wave, Japanese TV soaps were very popular in many Chinese-speaking parts of Asia. Many TV programmers in Taiwan and other parts of Asia were initially drawn to Korean soaps in the late 1990s because they were cheaper to purchase than Japanese TV soaps. Japanese TV soaps have lost favor in many Asian TV markets since then.

As for the popularity of HK and/or Chinese-language soaps in non-Chinese Asian nations, to date, no HK or Chinese-language TV soap opera has been broadcast on network TV in Japan. (**There was no mention of it in the book, but my guess is that this is also true for South Korea.**) Various reasons are cited for this, but primarily, lack of production value.


4) Another essay examined the viewing practices of middle-aged women viewers of WINTER SONATA in Japan. This demographic of fans has often been derided and belittled for their outward enthusiasm in the mainstream press and by Japanese men in particular. I too shared this prejudice. Lonely women in their 40s and 50s swooning over a sensitive young soap star. The whole thing seemed rather silly to me.

But the essay, Winter Sonata and Cultural Practices of Active Fans in Japan: Considering Middle-aged Women as Cultural Agents, written by Yoshitaka Mori made me see this phenomenon in a totally new light.

Driven by this TV soap, many middle-aged women have taken initiative and have gone out in the world to do very cool things. They weren't merely passive viewers, who due to loneliness and misery, were being duped or manipulated by TV producers. Not at all. They were finding an active meaning in their life and in some cases, were duping the media. A subject cited in the essay stated how she'd hoodwinked the press by performing or acting the role of a zealous fan to get her photo in the newspapers.

Moreover, these women were taking initiative and expanding their mundane routines. Many had learned to use the computer and the Internet to learn more about the show and to interact with other women like them. Others had travelled, many for the first time, to South Korea, a country whose culture they did not know much about.

They did so not in search of cute young men, as they're often derided by the mainstream press, but to learn about Korean culture and to see things for themselves. This is after many decades of having a very biased and limited knowledge of Korea, given the already enmeshed and complex relationship that the two nations have of each other.

Not that any and all exchange of culture ought to be accepted uncritically as something transcendant and positive, but these middle-aged women were doing cool things and not simply being older versions of silly school girls. The essay even cited an example, in which these middle aged women viewers of WINTER SONATA were doing more to solve international political friction than conventional government institutions.

The point is, the relationship of middle-aged Japanese women fans of WINTER SONATA to the Korean Wave is much more complex and interesting than what has been usually described in the mainstream media in Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere. In other words, don't mess with and don't underestimate middle-aged women.

Lowlife Jerk and Top 10 Films of 2008

Another year is coming to a close, and I'm feeling a little down.

I've gotten a total of 4 responses from posting notices here and on various Hong Kong public forums seeking people interested in collaborating on films. And that's counting the one loser who actually took time out of his miserable life to e-mail me, a complete stranger, just to say he could tell from my ad that I was "a lowlife jerk."

It seems I've come quite a long way since being a promising young filmmaker generating real buzz. Four guys from my circle at NYU, have since directed commercial films that won theatrical releases. One guy, whom I'd pegged as being the least talented among us, has directed half a dozen commercial films, including one of the highest-grossing films in Korean film history.

In contrast, I'm here in Hong Kong without a single contact, posting lame on-line classified ads practically begging people to work with me. (I think Peter Kubelka, who made some wacky experimental films, including UNSERE AFRIKAREISE, also had to beg and rope people in to make films for practically all of his career.)

My rational side tells me I'm still young enough not to panic and need not get down on myself about this general sad state-of-being. This side also tells me to keep plugging away, stay upbeat, and focus on my successes: two published novels that won some critical acclaim, some plays that were produced, a screenplay that was sold, and a string of short films...

But there's another part of me that can't help but get a bit negative. I've wasted so many opportunities in the past for whatever reason, and now, this stint in Hong Kong feels like I'm serving time in filmmaking purgatory. I've become a fish-out-of-water struggling to make a film under the least favorable conditions.

It doesn't help that our life here brings us into contact for the most part with people who have absolutely no interest in films and novels. It doesn't startle me at all now to hear people say with all seriousness that the best movie they've ever seen in their life is HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 or THE MUMMY--which wasn't a bad film at all, but how could that be any grown-up's best film ever?

Anyway, that's enough whining. Sorry!

Here is my list of the TOP 10 FILMS OF 2008 with country of origin and brief category description.

A few titles were actually originally released in 2007, but are being included in the list because they played in many theaters in 2008. For the most part, except for the two South Korean films and TROPIC THUNDER, which I believe doesn't get the credit it deserves because it's so easy to dismiss, these films were included in the major big movie lists.

The glaring omission from my list is the Romanian film FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS & TWO DAYS by Cristian Mungju, which has been heralded by nearly every major film critic in the West, but which didn't impress me at all. I thought the film, a slice-of-life that follows two young women on the day one helps the other get a back alley abortion in a repressive Romania of the 1980s, works only conceptually but not at all as a film.

The film makes its point, in a very dull and clumsy manner, that life was bad in Romania and back-alley abortions are gruesome. But is that really a point that's hard to make? Even as a staunch supporter of a woman's right to choose, I still found the film tedious at best.

No Hong Kong or Chinese films made my list this year. It was definitely not a good year for Hong Kong films. Rather sad.


TOP 10 FILMS OF 2008

1. THE CHASER by Na Hong-jin (South Korea) *Commercial thriller/Subverted policier*

2. THE DARK KNIGHT by Christopher Nolan (USA) *Commercial thriller*

3. THE EDGE OF HEAVEN by Fatih Akin (Germany) *Serious Drama/Social Commentary*

4. ROUGH CUT by Jang Hoon & written by Kim Ki-duk (South Korea) *Commercial thriller/Subverted Gangster Film*

5. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD by Sydney Lumet (USA) *Subverted Heist Film/Morality Tale/Modern Greek Tragedy*

6. THERE WILL BE BLOOD by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA) *Serious Drama/Social Expose*

7. CHOP SHOP by Ramin Bahrani (USA) *Social Commentary/Gritty Human Drama*

8. THE VISITOR by Thomas McCarthy (USA) *Social Commentary/Message Film about 9.11 and Its Impact on Immigrants*

9. IRON MAN by Jon Favreau (USA) *Fluff Fun*

10. TROPIC THUNDER by Ben Stiller (USA) *Fluff Fun*

HONORABLE MENTION: KUNGFU PANDA and WALL-E

**THE CHASER is the best film of the year by far. See it if you haven't done so. You're in for a treat.**

To put things in context, here are the films that are currently playing in nearly all theaters in Hong Kong (granted it's Christmas season):

TWILIGHT

TALES OF DESPEREAUX

MADAGASCAR 2

POKEMON MOVIE 10

BEDTIME STORIES

ONG BAK 2

IP MAN

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

FOUR CHRISTMASES


Palace IFC, in the fanciest mall in Hong Kong is also playing

AUSTRALIA


And the one "arthouse theater" in HK is playing the following films in addition to the above titles:

FOREVER ENTHRALLED (China)

IF YOU ARE THE ONE (China)

TOKYO!

TRUE WOMEN FOR SALE (Hong Kong)

MIAO MIAO (Taiwan)

TWILIGHT (2008) aka Book Proves Secret Fear of Writers to be True

There are some immensely popular books that seem to be fluff but are so well written that even if the material isn't one's cup of laai cha, one can’t help but feel a begrudging respect. For me, the Harry Potter series is an example of this. I just don't care for wizards, magic and spells. It's a matter of personal preference. Still, it's clear those books are writen extremely well.

Then there is TWILIGHT, a bestseller by Stephenie Meyer which has now spurned a film adaptation. So Jene, who loves the Harry Potter series and has introduced me to many books that I would have otherwise skipped, suggested I read the book as an exercise to see how it would be adapted for the screen.

Adapting a very popular novel to the screen is always difficult since a strong fan base demands that the film not deviate from the book even if this strict adhesion to the source material works against the film. On the other hand, it also means a minimum x number of fans of the book will flock to theaters regardless of how the adaptation is done.

At the risk of being called out for sour grapes (which I must harbor at some level since my own books haven't sold well), my main impression of the novel is that it seems to have been written by an 11-year-old for other 11-year-olds. The sentences are clunky and scenes go on for much too long. The vampire story seems to be rehashed from existing works of that genre and there's very little that could be called complex or sophisticated. I can't quite understand how any grown-up could derive enjoyment from this piece of junk.

The remarkable success of a book like this makes me question my own sanity. To me, it's so evident that this book is so unbelievably lacking in every way, yet it has somehow won the praise of hundreds of thousands of readers. It's enough to make a writer lose faith in the reader and wonder why he or she even bothers.

Whenever I read a complete piece of rubbish like this that's sold millions of copies, I can't help but think back to the writers I've known in my life (most whom I met when I was in university or freshly out of university). In their unguarded moments, nearly every writer I know has told me that as cynical as it sounds, deep down he or she has come to accept that the worst most talentless writers are the ones who make it commercially.

I don't agree with this view since it's a blanket statement and it's clear that there are exceptions. But TWILIGHT certainly seems to providence ammunition for such a claim. Sure not every novel has to say something serious or important, and there is a place in this world for fluff. But this book isn't even good fluff.

That said, the only sense I can make for how and why this book works(and rather well obviously given its success) is that it does, in its inane, childish and clumsy way, try to tell an earnest story of incredibly intense first love. BELLA, the narrator and main character, sees and studies the beautiful EDWARD, who is actually a vampire, as no one else at her school does. The bulk of the book is long passages of Bella obsessing and agonizing over the meaning behind Edward's tiniest gestures, words, and actions.

As for the film adaptation, this is precisely where it fails. Without the film equivalent of Bella's obsessing over the object of her first love, the intensity of the obsession/first love doesn't come through on screen. It also doesn't help that the film treats these scenes of fascination-turning-to-obsession-to-purest love quickly and as merely a means to get to some special-effects-driven good vampire vs. bad vampire fight sequences.

Despite this shift in focus, which I can only guess must have been made to try to add production value to the film and make it feel more like a movie, the special effects are poor and there’s very little to distinguish the film from a small TV show except that Robert Pattison plays the moody vampire. Overall, the film plays worse than most recent TV shows about supernatural elements mixing with the ordinary populace set in high schools, which as a TV genre, tends to be far more witty and sophisticated.

The classic BUFFY THE VAMPIRE series, which also featured a moody vampire love story, epitomizes this. The genius of that series and its creator Joss Whedon is that each episode also worked as social commentary about familiar issues in high school life (eg. Eating disorders, cliques, losing one’s virginity…)

Lacking this sophistication in the source material, the film adaptation of TWILIGHT also disappoints because it fails to show the earnest obsessive intensity of first love that is the book's focus and main strength.

Seeking Collaborators for Independent Film in Hong Kong

I posted an ad on Gumtree for actors and other people to collaborate on an independent film here in Hong Kong.

CLICK TO SEE GUMTREE AD

I'm looking for actors, writers, filmmakers, or creative people in general who are just interested in making an independent film and can invest their time and energy to collaborate on a film.

The key is to not try to follow the production model that is used by big-budget mainstream films. Trying to replicate a mainstream film on a miniscule budget leads only to disappointment as I've learned on numerous occasions in the past. Instead, make a film that mainstream film production can't make due to the fact that they are hindered by number one motive of recouping investments. This film will be like THE PUFFY CHAIR, MUTUAL APPRECIATION, KISSING ON THE MOUTH, QUIET CITY, etc. what film festival programmers and critics have labeled Mumblecore.

If any of you are or know actors or creative people who aren't shy but have a general open and brave persona and are willing to do new things, please let them know about me and my independent film.

Race, ethnicity, language ability, stupid things like this do not matter. What matters is energy and general openness and willingness to invest time and effort to collaborate on film as actor, writer, or cameraperson, or best, all of these things. Experience in traditional film production or acting doesn't matter. This is not a mainstream production. we're looking for interesting creative people who are up for something different and want to seize this opportunity to make a cool interesting film about life in Hong Kong.

The best thing about making independent films is the collaboration and the willingness to experiment and try something new. Again, this is a small no-budget film that's more like a theater workshop. We'll see who shows up, collaborate to finetune a story and script and go from there. This will be a very low-budget film, so don't think of a traditional studio set. This is guerilla filmmaking.

No guarantees of fame or wealth. But I can guarantee a feature film will be made, and it will be interesting. Something that has true passion and life. Something that you'll be proud of.

Please pass this along to those who might be interested.

Beginnings of Pre-Production aka Thank You Val Lewton

So I'm really at the beginning of what I'm sure will be a long process to make an independent feature film in HK.

I've checked with film labs. I've gone over my equipment. I've compiled a small budget. I've even built a poor man's steadicam with plans found on the Internet from the famous Johnny Chung. By the way, he has become a youtube superstar lately with his 3-D subvert tutorial of the Nintendo wii.

I got the parts from a hardware store in Aberdeen and was able to put together the poor man's steadicam in a couple of hours. I can't believe how well the poor man's steadicam works. If only I'd had this when I was shooting FREE COUNTRY. Oh well.

Anyway, all I need now are actors. And more importantly, some idea, a story to hang scenes on.

I have really nothing as of yet, just a bunch of unrelated ideas and sketches and lots and lots of notes. So I spent part of the day looking for inspiration in the classics.

What do I mean by classics?

I read the screenplay for the Val Lewton-produced classic, THE SEVENTH VICTIM (1943). I've seen this film a few times, including once at a screening with live organ accompaniment at the classic restored movie house off of the Stanford campus in Palo Alto.

I'd forgotten a lot of details from that film. The only scene I remembered was the unforgettable famous scene with the gang of pacifist Satanists. (It's really in the film.)

I couldn't believe some of the things I was reading. It was one hell of a screenplay and gave me some good ideas.

I don't know much about Val Lewton except that he was from the Ukraine and was the apotheosis of the low-budget producer but with a knack for storytelling and mood setting. I remember being so impressed after seeing CAT PEOPLE (1942) and BEDLAM (1946), which was one of his bigger-budget pictures. You can't help but recognize the talent despite the unbelievably low production values in some of his films.

Anyway, this is a start. We'll see how it goes from here. I do miss NY though. That's a city that's filled with actors

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2008), aka This Film Makes Us See with New Eyes

For whatever reason, at some point in their careers, many writers stop reading other people's books. There are too many books in the world. They don't want to be influenced or contaminated by other writers.

This is also the case with filmmakers. At a certain point, many filmmakers stop watching other people's films, especially new films.

I'm not like this. I no longer read nearly as much as I did or should, but I continue to actively watch new films, devouring them when given the opportunity, and not just "quality" films. Despite being, for a lack of a better term, a film snob, I watch many different types of movies and have no qualms about watching what many would dismiss as junk (eg. YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, MADE OF HONOR, HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO...)

Why do I not discriminate so?

Because most movies, whether they are branded mainstream or independent arthouse, are bad. I know not to expect otherwise.

To see a truly good film is a rare event. That's why I am so pleased to write this post.

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2008), whose German title is AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE (lit. On the Other Side) and was written and directed by Fatih Akin, has startled me with its masterfulness.

I should have checked out this director earlier as one of his previous films, GEGEN DIE WAND (2004), a.k.a. HEAD-ON, was talked up quite a bit a few years back in NY. I passed on seeing that film then, but will soon remedy this.

This young German director of Turkish descent has created a stunning film in THE EDGE OF HEAVEN. It's no surprise that the film has received critical acclaim at prestigious international film festivals, including Best Screenplay at Cannes, and is on many film critics' TOP 10 FILMS of 2008 lists.

Instead of a clunky description of the story, I will point out two examples of masterful filmmaking from the film.

Example #1: The iconic German actress Hanna Schygulla plays the aged mother of one of the main characters. Her daughter, a German university student with an idealistic streak, brings a Turkish woman whom she has just met, to stay in their house. The daughter wants to help the Turkish woman, who is homeless and an illegal immigrant. The mother seems to project quiet disapproval and warns the daughter about harboring an illegal alien. In this manner, the film makes the viewer think he or she is seeing a contrast between the staid mother and the bohemian rebellious daughter.



Later, however, the film reveals that this staid mother is not who the viewer has come to think she is. In her youth, she was also a free spirit and a bit of a bohemian who hitchhiked to India. She shows herself to be someone so different than who she seemed to be.

Thus, the viewer's very perception is challenged and this character is revealed to be complex and truly human and not the "type" that the viewer has pegged her to be. In other words, the film challenges and undermines the viewers' perception to provide true insight.


Example #2: The opening scene of the film is of a car driving into a gas station in rural Turkey. A man gets out of the car, asks the gas station attendant to fill it up, then goes inside to the little convenience store, where he buys some snacks and exchanges small talk with the shopkeeper about a song that is playing on the radio. The shopkeeper says the singer is from the region but died of cancer due to fallout from Chernobyl that's only revealing itself to the public now. The man pays for his stuff and the scene ends. It's a two-minute scene. No tension. No conflict. No nothing. Completely mundane. Something that could happen to anyone.

Ninety-minutes of the film later, the same scene is replayed in exactly the same form. No changes. But the film has revealed the events that have led up to this man's setting foot in that gas station. It's the same scene. The same two minutes. But now, it's filled with tension, true pathos, and an abundance of meaning.

Again, this is an example where the film shows us something, makes us think we see it, only to reveal that what we think we're seeing is not so. It challenges the expectations and perception of the viewer. It makes us see with new eyes.

These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg for this remarkable film. This film is a wonder to behold. The performances are superb. The storytelling is quietly confident even as it takes the viewer on an emotional journey. It is a drama of the best kind. A must see.

As for Year-End Best lists, many of which contain this film, many people dislike such lists and dismiss them outright. Although I often think these lists contain egregiously bad films, I find that such lists can sometimes help bring attention to deserving films.

Many excellent films peter out without seeing the light of day because they don't register on people's radar. Even people who haven't seen QUANTUM OF SOLACE will have heard of it because of the ridiculous amount of money used to market this piece of junk, but this is just not so with even THE EDGE OF HEAVEN or even smaller films without the marketing dollars to promote them.

The Goethe Institute in Hong Kong is promoting a screening of this film in March 2009 that will take place at the Hong Kong Film Archive. For more info, please click on the title of this post.

Shooting Film in Hong Kong a.k.a. My Run-In with Run Run

I'm preparing to shoot an independent feature film here in Hong Kong.

As part of this process, I call a bunch of film labs to find out where I can get 16mm film processed in Hong Kong. I'm calling to find out what film stocks can be processed and what the rates are. The person who answers the phone at Mandarin Labs in Kwun Tong connects me to a different person, who passes me on to someone else. Eventually, I get the ear of a film technician named Paul Wong.

I tell him I am an independent filmmaker. He gets me right away and gives me the scoop and a rate. He tells me that Mandarin is the only lab in Hong Kong that handles 16mm. He also tells me there is no film lab in Shenzhen but there is one in Guangzhou. He adds that they probably don't do 16mm. As for reversal film, this cannot be processed in Hong Kong any more and suggests I look at labs in Australia or the U.S.

Overall, the guy is informative and down-to-earth. I'm talking to a human being and not a robot or a recording. The experience is the same as if I'd called up a small mom-and-pop film lab in the States. (These are mostly dying out, by the way...)

Then, I call a bunch of other labs to see whether Paul Wong is on the level about his lab's being the only lab that does 16mm processing. Some other lab tells me to try Shaw Brothers Lab in Sai Kung.

So I do, only to find that the receptionist who fields the call is completely confused by my inquiry. She keeps asking me what company I'm calling from and I keep repeating that I am an independent filmmaker, which just confuses her more. I tell her that I produce and shoot my own films. This baffles her. It's not the English that confuses her, but the concept, as the woman's English is quite good.

I ask her over and over if Shaw Brothers Labs processes 16mm film. Instead of giving me an answer, she asks what country I'm from. I ask, why does that matter? She says it doesn't, but keeps asking what country?

Finally, after talking in circles for too long, she gives me another number to call. I do and get a person who tells me she is "the one who can handle (my)inquiry." I ask her whether her lab does 16mm negative processing, and if so, how much it costs per foot. Most film labs in the U.S. have that info on their web site. And if they don't, that's what the phone is there for.

The Shaw Brothers Lab woman says she cannot tell me this information over the phone and tells me I must first make a formal written inquiry.

I can't help but shiver. It's as if she's used some special kind of Sai Kung feng shui to read my mind and knows that I'm about to make an epic film, my magnum opus celebrating the life and times of his true majesty, the one and only Dalai Lama. --- (For those without a sense of humor and the 30,000+ Chinese censors trolling the Internet at this very moment for objectionable content, that was a joke. I am not making such a film.)

I explain again to the lab person that all I need is a YES or NO and a figure per foot as I'm trying to estimate a budget for a small film shoot.

She says, "I understand. But it's better you make an official request in writing."

Finally, I give up and ask if it's okay to e-mail such a request. She says fine and gives me her e-mail.

I e-mail a request because frankly, what choice do I have?

I find the whole experience a bit strange. Granted there probably aren't that many people calling about 16mm processing, but a film lab is a film lab. And this is Hong Kong, an alledged world city with a proud filmmaking tradition.

All I can say is, Sir Run Run or whoever is running the empire over at Shaw Brothers has created quite a bizarre institution.

Of course, having sent out a formal request in writing as instructed, a part of me already knows what will inevitably happen next.

In a day or two, I'll get an e-mail in official-sounding yet slightly-botched and stilted Queen's English from some stiff at Shaw Brothers Labs "regretfully" informing me that they "no longer process 16mm film, especially for any production that portrays the Dalai Lama in a positive light."--( Note to censors: That was another bad joke.)

Anyway, if anyone else out there is thinking of shooting 16mm in Hong Kong, this is the low-down on available labs. One lab. One system.


POSTSCRIPT: I called back a few times the next day, and again talked to the same person, who this time told me she had received my e-mail request but "couldn't respond because I hadn't included my phone number."

She then asked that I submit dates when I wanted the processing done because "the price depends on the schedule."

After getting off the phone with this ridiculous person, I got fed up and called back on a different extension and finally got someone on the phone who instantly gave me the info I needed.

$1.20 HKD/ ft. She then explained she'd been out of the office and someone else had been getting her calls for her.

Basically, the joker who I'd talked to initially had had me jump through hoops instead of simply saying, "I don't know. The person who knows is out of the office. Please call back."

Is it that hard to say, "I don't know"? I say this all the time. Geez!

BELLA by Alejandro Monteverde (How is this film in Hong Kong?)

BELLA (2006), written and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, is in theaters now in Hong Kong after making its rounds in film festivals. For a so-called independent film, it is shot beautifully and has some real production value. It looks slick like a film that must have cost about $500K to $1 million U.S. dollars.



It's an earnest work that clearly has good intentions. Despite this, the film suffers from a very poor script and doesn't transcend that fundamental flaw.

Basically, the film is a long introduction to two characters, a chef and a waitress, who have experienced sadness and grief. For the first 50 minutes, the film trudges along as an "I've got a secret" story. It's clear the protagonist is still agonizing about some dark event from his past and that is why he is drawn to the pregnant waitress.

Until the dark secret about his past is revealed, the film is content to show the two main characters mosey about during the course of a day at various iconic settings in and around NYC (riding the subway, walking through a street fair, talking to a homeless man...) talking to each other.

By the time that dark secret is finally revealed, the audience has lost all interest. The film and its characters don't give the viewer any reason to care other than that one is pregnant and the other broods a lot and once was a star soccer player. It's a shame because the character of the fallen soccer hero is one that holds real possibility for drama.

Ultimately, this film manages to bore and insult the audience. Insult how? An independent movie should show some truth. This movie fails to do that.

The only thing that rings true in this film is the portrayal of a hectic high-stress kitchen of a Mexican restaurant in NYC. Nearly every other detail rings false. Just because a film has sadness and grief as its topic and doesn't have explosions doesn't automatically make it some kind of independent film gem. This film is clear evidence of that.

How this film managed to cross the Pacific and reach Hong Kong screens while far worthier independent films that deserve to be seen and gain recognition never manage to do so is a real mystery and a shame.

LIST OF MOVIES Made by independent filmmakers for less than $100K that are more compelling and show real vision that have yet to win theatrical release or wide distribution and definitely have not played in Hong Kong:

1) AFTER THE APOCALYPSE (2004) by Yasuaki Nakjima

2) YORICK (2002) by Jonny Stranger

3) FUNNY HA HA (2002) by Andrew Bujalski