From the young, confused and vigorous young man in "Young Nezha" to the incarnation of Xuanzang, walking slowly and resolutely among the world of living beings, over the past thirty years, Li Kangsheng has been the character in Tsai Ming-liang's movies from beginning to end. Logo throughout. He is an actor and a symbol, and has even become the embodiment of time. His life and the characters in his artistic works are intertwined and become an indistinguishable "river". But Lee Kang-sheng is not just a "well-off man" in Tsai Ming-liang's movies. In recent years, he has also appeared more frequently in different film and television works, cooperating with young mainland directors and starring in characters that are in great contrast to his past.
just closed hishorts! During Xiamen Short Film Week, Li Kangsheng, as the final judge, not only participated in the heavy review work, but also directed and starred in the short film "Windy Days with Clouds".
李康生
End hishorts! After the review work, Li Kangsheng accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from The Paper, talking about his creation from actor to director, and his understanding of his "slow life".
short film, a freer creative medium
At first, Li Kangsheng only agreed to be a judge, but later he temporarily added the short film of two other actors Huang Lu and Yu Haoming to be screened and communicated with the audience. Li Kangsheng woke up early to catch an early flight, and after intensive watching and discussions every day, he "recognized bed" again. Li Kangsheng bluntly said that "I was too tired from the beginning to relax."
But he still enjoyed the process. "Some feature films asked me to be a judge, but I turned them down." Li Kangsheng said that the reason why he was willing to accept hishorts! I was invited to the Xiamen Short Film Week because "I think I can see relatively new things, things for young people."
He believes that more pure creations can be seen in the short film ecosystem. “Feature films are subject to market pressure. Sometimes the director has to make the film in line with the audience’s taste, and sometimes the funder will also put pressure on it, so most of the long films There are not too many surprises in the film. On the contrary, because there is no pressure in making short films, it is a carrier that can create more freely."
Lee Kang-sheng poster
Lee Kang-sheng, who has acted in many art films, has already traveled all over the world in large and small films. Festival, Xiamen’s youthful atmosphere made him feel fresh and energetic, “It’s only five years old, it’s already very diverse, and there are still many possibilities in the future.” For more than a week, the gathering of young people with boundless creative ideas reminded him of the past, “ When I was young, I was more energetic, impulsive, and wanted to do something for myself. But when I get older, I will be more conservative."
This time, Li Kangsheng also brought his self-directed and acted short film "Windy Days" ,cloudy".
At the beginning, an automobile manufacturer approached Li Kangsheng and hoped that he would shoot an advertisement. Li Kangsheng felt that he was good at making feature films. "I told the producer and asked him to convince the boss, and he kept giving in to the producer during the process. The film brainwashed the boss. Fortunately, the boss also knew that if you want to shoot a purely commercial story, you don’t have to ask me, so the creation is relatively smooth and free."
"Windy Days, There Are Clouds" poster
Regarding being a director, Li Kangsheng said, " I am very demanding about photography. Although I don’t understand it very well, I care about the coordination of the entire shot and picture. As for actors, because I am an actor, I may know better when to force actors to come out with more things."
Li Kangsheng did it himself When an actor is an actor, there are often only simple hints in the script for him to perform. However, because the opponent actor in the short film is a child, he still needs to give as detailed instructions as possible, and even needs to demonstrate to the young actors, and as a "well-off" person. The way of creating is very different.
once filmed a movie for his father's mortgage house.
This short film series has a total of 5 episodes. Li Kangsheng is hishorts! Xiamen Short Film Week specially edited a version that met the length requirements, removing the product placement part, leaving a divorced father "abducting" his daughter on a road trip to celebrate his grandfather's birthday. 80% of the scenes take place in the car, and Lee Kang-sheng talks a lot more than he does in Tsai Ming-liang's movies.
Lee Kang-sheng hopes to use such a short film to "care about modern society, family culture, parent-child relationship" and other issues. Since the completion of production, "Windy Days with Clouds" has won several awards in the advertising industry.
Li Kangsheng first became a director 20 years ago. At that time, he and his good partner Tsai Ming-Liang agreed to make a short film each, with Lee Kang-sheng making "Missing" and Tsai Ming-Liang making "Not Parting". The titles and themes of the films echoed each other, and they were eventually combined into a feature film.
As a result, Tsai Ming-liang first shot "Unbreakable", which became too long and unbearable, so it was directly made into a complete feature film, incidentally using up Lee Kang-sheng's share of the budget. Li Kangsheng, who had already aroused his creative desire, simply mortgaged his house to complete his feature film debut "Missing". The film also won the New Wave Award at the Busan Film Festival.
"Missing" poster
asked Li Kangsheng why he was so obsessed with filming "Missing" back then. He said it was because of his father. "My father had always been looking forward to my brother giving birth to a grandson for him to hold. One time, my mother took her grandson to the park to play. The little boy had a big bump on his head. When he got home, my mother was very panicked and said, "What's the matter? What to do? My brother would scold her when he saw it, and he was very worried. I just wanted to use this story to develop it. If the child disappeared, what would happen to my family?"
"Missing" in the film The grandfather and grandson respond to each other in the movie, showing the warmth and alienation in family relationships. At the end of the film, Li Kangsheng typed a line, "Dedicated to my father in heaven." The memory of his father has traveled through 20 years and continues into his current creation.
Stills from "A Windy Day, There Are Clouds"
In "A Windy Day, There Are Clouds", Lee Kang-sheng plays a father who is taking his daughter to celebrate his grandfather's birthday. On the way, he meets another man who has lost his child. "Father" Ma Jiahui. "Maybe it's because I don't have children and I don't know how to be a father." Li Kangsheng observed that the divorce rate in today's society remains high, and there are also many friends around him who don't know how to get along with their children because of divorce. He combined these observations and imagination Projected in the film, he becomes a clumsy and helpless father.
Li Kangsheng said that his father had a profound influence on him, "My father came to Taiwan from the mainland and was very strict with me since I was a child. He is more than 20 years older than my mother. He is the so-called strict father in Chinese families."
In "Young Nezha", Xiaokang is working hard to get into a key university. This is also what Li Kangsheng's father expects of him in real life. As a result, Li Kangsheng was spotted by Tsai Ming-liang in the game arcade, and he went astray from then on. This matter has made Li's father brood for many years and he could not agree with it. Li Kangsheng, who did not receive his father's approval, has always felt uneasy in his heart. The first time
felt his father's attitude towards his film career changing was after filming "Long Live Love". The film won the best film at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan and also won the Golden Lion, Venice's highest honor. Because he won international awards, Li's father no longer opposed Li Kangsheng's filming and did not urge him to find other jobs. "He didn't say he agreed, he just didn't stop me anymore."
"Long Live Love" stills
"Long Live Love" means to Li Kangsheng, in addition to external awards, his father's acceptance, and more importantly, he began to realize that he "Enlightenment" on performance. ""Long Live Love" made me discover that I have some insights into acting, and I found that I can give the director more unexpected performances."
The characters in the movie use words to talk about trivial matters, but are completely silent in the face of love. The long shot of Yang Guimei crying in the park at the end of the film even evolved into an organized "crying New Year's Eve event" among young people 20 years later. At the beginning of the new year, Li Kangsheng saw this strange event in the news and forwarded it on Weibo, saying that he would go there next year if there is another chance.
After his father passed away, when Li Kangsheng was cleaning up his room, he also found a video tape of "Youth Nezha", "I didn't even know this happened, and I was shocked and moved at the moment."
"Young Nezha" poster
Keep your own pace and walk without distractions
In Xiamen, Li Kangsheng communicated with the audience and after saying hello, the host at the scene said, "Director Kangsheng speaks as slowly as he does in the movie. "Slowness has almost become Li Kangsheng's signature state.
Tsai Ming-liang once said of Li Kangsheng, "He is very strange. Everything is slow, his reactions are slow, and even his turns are slow. "The slowness of Tsai Ming-liang's films was "dragged" out by Li Kangsheng.
Lee Kangsheng
When they first started working together, Tsai Ming-liang couldn't stand the pace and even criticized Li Kangsheng, but Li Kangsheng replied to him, "I This is how it is, this is my nature. Tsai Ming-liang did not expect that he would retaliate, and this sentence also changed Tsai Ming-liang's view of performance, "We always have existing views on actions, and we always feel that specific emotions must be performed how they should be performed." I began to see something very different about him. His movements may be very slow, but why do I always want him to move faster? "
Even in the subsequent increasingly "slow" performances, Tsai Ming-liang believed that "this slowness and loneliness are actually telling the essence of life." In the interview,
said that his rhythm is different from others Regarding the adaptation process, Li Kangsheng said, "I am not anxious, but the director is more anxious. At the beginning, I worked with Uncle Miao (Miao Tian) and Yang Guimei. They thought it was weird when I acted opposite them, but they also There is no way to cater to me, and there is no way for me to cater to them. I don’t feel incongruous. I feel that this rhythm is my personal characteristics. I just do myself and they do theirs. Later, everyone got used to it and we became a group. In fact, actors can also have their own rhythms, and they don't all have to be in the same rhythm. "
Stills from Tsai Ming-liang's movie "What time is it over there"
However, Li Kangsheng thought about it and felt that he "should not have been so slow" when he was a child. "No one said that when I was a child, and my classmates didn't say that I was slow when I was studying." I only discovered it when people said this to me after I entered this industry. "This slowness may be related to the initial discomfort when entering this industry. "Everyone is my teacher, and I gradually became afraid to speak. Hiding the words in my heart, the things I want to express gradually become less and less. Maybe Director Cai has already finished what he needs to say, because he loves to talk. "Li Kangsheng joked.
Not long ago, the 74th Berlin Film Festival announced the list of the "berlinale special" section, and Tsai Ming-liang and Li Kangsheng's new film "Nowhere" was on the list. This is Tsai Ming-liang and Li Kangsheng Kang Sheng's sixth Berlin nomination is Tsai Ming-Liang's return to Berlin after his feature film "Days" was shortlisted for the Berlin main competition in 2020. "Nowhere" is a new chapter in Tsai Ming-Liang's "Walker" series. In this series, he transforms into a monk in red robes walking around the city.
Stills of "Nowhere"
At the 2023 Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival, Lee Kang-sheng's film "Where" walking at the Pompidou Museum in Paris was screened. Tsai Ming-liang said , "I hope to live to be 80 years old and see how Li Kangsheng performs in this series."
The walking location of "Nowhere to Live" was in the Museum of Fine Arts in Washington. Talking about his walking over the years, Li Kangsheng said, "What we photographed is Xuanzang's spirit. The state of walking is actually the same, and the mentality is that the more we walk, the more we walk." The more determined. When I was shooting in the past, I was still somewhat disturbed by the surrounding environment, especially in Hong Kong. The city of Hong Kong is too prosperous, with busy traffic and noisy people, but I will still be disturbed by the surrounding environment. Now I can really focus on nothing. "
Break through yourself and try different acting methods
However, Li Kangsheng, who has been slow for half a life in Tsai Ming-liang's movies, has become "faster" in recent years.
In recent years, Li Kangsheng's screen image has become more abundant. He is making films in the Mainland and cooperating with more and more young directors. Talking about this change, Li Kangsheng said, "On the one hand, my favorite directors who act in their films may be getting older, and they are making fewer and fewer films. , and I also want to help young directors."Li Kangsheng knows his "advantage", "It's not easy to be a director. The first film means a lot to them. It will be easier to enter major film festivals if my name is on the cast list. "
In "The Unexpected Life", Hua Qi appears to be honest but is actually violent and gloomy; in "Snow Cloud", Han Jiangyu is a returnee from a foreign land who lives in the past; in "Forest in the Mountain", Brother Sheng is bound by love and returns to the world...Li Kangsheng I hope that I am not just a "well-off person" in Tsai Ming-liang's movies.
"I hope that the audience can see Li Kangsheng with different aspects. I have also played the role of 'The Wolf Master', a gang boss, and the ghost-catching Zhong Kui. "In the film list starring Lee Kang-sheng in recent years, you can also see creations that favor genres such as thrillers and suspense, "break through yourself and let yourself try different performance methods."
Stills of "Forest in the Mountains"
Stills of "An Unexpected Life"
Of course, there is no need to worry that Lee Kang-sheng will lose his characteristics, "The directors who come to me are more 'accustomed' to me. Most of them grew up watching my movies, and they all feel that my performance has inspired them, and they also think that I should be able to Only those who are qualified will come to me. "However, Lee Kang-sheng also admitted that as a Taiwanese actor, there are still restrictions on filming in the mainland. "Due to the accent problem, I don't think I have ever filmed north of the Yangtze River. They were all filmed in the south, and my accent is still the same. limited. "
The story of "Snow Cloud" takes place in Hainan.
Li Kangsheng was once troubled by severe torticollis, which was once life-threatening. The most severe period lasted for five years, which made him suffer from depression. "He had to undergo too many treatments. I went to almost 50 famous doctors. Some concluded that I would be permanently disabled, while others concluded that I would be troubled by this condition forever. Massage was very painful, and I had no confidence in curing it. Later, Li Kangsheng said that he had become a good doctor after a long illness, and he finally got better after insisting on wearing a neck collar for four or five months.
"Now I feel that all my money has been made in vain these past few years. Except for staying up late and smoking, I can't quit. At other times, I am keeping in good health." . Asked about his current health condition, he responded, "The condition is still not very good, mainly due to lack of exercise." When you are tired, your neck will be very sore and you need to apply heat frequently and do stretching exercises. "
