China News Service, Hong Kong, November 16. Title: Hong Kong director Tsui Hark: Catching the ball thrown by fate. As soon as the conversation with China News Service reporter Han Xingtong started, actor and director Sylvia Chang turned to ask his old friend Tsui Hark: " Do you s

China News Service, Hong Kong, November 16. Title: Hong Kong director Tsui Hark: Catching the ball thrown by fate

China News Service reporter Korean Star Child

As soon as the conversation started, actor and director Sylvia Chang turned to her old friend Tsui Hark and asked: "Do you still remember when we were filming "Shanghai Nights"? There was a scene where we were very involved. You said the performance was good. Was it retaken fifty times in the end?”

Hearing this, Tsui Hark chuckled, covering his face, but refused to admit it, insisting that he had a bad memory due to his age.

Amidst laughter, Zhang Aijia feigned anger and joked to the audience, so after filming this movie, we parted ways. From now on, he will shoot his, and I will shoot mine.

The picture shows the conversation between director Tsui Hark (middle) and Sylvia Chang (right). Photo courtesy of Hong Kong m+ Museum

Some people may be curious, why are we talking about this old drama produced in 1984 now? It happened that m+, the Hong Kong Museum of Visual Culture, recently opened the director's special exhibition "Tsui Hark: The Pioneer of Unconstrained Vision" to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the "film studio" founded by Tsui Hark and producer Shi Nansheng , and held "Shanghai Night 2024" (4k restored version)" premiere. Taking this opportunity, old friends who usually live in different parts of the world sat down to talk, and that was the beginning of the scene.

Re-shooting it fifty times is true, but there is also a hidden secret. Tsui Hark Chi, the "originator", admitted nearly 40 years ago: In those days, films were made with film, and the effects had to be developed before they could be seen. Coincidentally, the person in charge of showing "pornographic films" was on vacation for three days, so he "filmed blindly" Three days. When I finally washed it out, I saw that it was not in focus at all. Walking back to the set in despair, Tsui Hark still remembers the feeling of being at a loss between apologies and pressure when facing a group of staff members who "didn't know what to say."

No one may believe it. This kind of confusion has been throughout his film career. After all, in the eyes of others, he is the leader of the new wave of Hong Kong films. In his early years, he was proud of his pioneering works that redefined martial arts. Later, he went north to embrace the co-production trend, and he was like a duck to water. He directed the war-themed movie "Changjin Lake " " Takes Tiger Mountain " with its novel narrative techniques and scenes of gunfire and bullets, astonishing domestic and foreign audiences.

But from Tsui Hark’s perspective, everything is far from so unfavorable. On the contrary, the anxiety of "not being very sure and not knowing what to do" trapped him like an iron fence, and he was stuck in confusion. When he first entered the film industry, he certainly had the courage to break the old and create new ones and reconstruct the genre of martial arts films, but he was so confused when it came to directing that he didn't know where to start. A few years later, when he was filming the romantic comedy "Shanghai Nights", he even fell into self-indulgence. A whirlpool of doubts, "How happy should a comedy be?" "Is it appropriate to film a story about Shanghai in Hong Kong?" At this moment, I heard Sylvia Chang lamenting the many problems in film marketing nowadays. Challenge, Tsui Hark quickly waved his hand, "I rarely ask, I dare not ask."

Looking back, Tsui Hark felt that he just caught the ball thrown by fate, and tried his best to throw it into the basket. Every hit represented When a work came out, I breathed a sigh of relief after handing in the answer sheet, without too many distracting thoughts.

Perhaps the same is true for the generation that came from the New Wave. Behind the label of avant-garde and unconventional, "we never thought about whether it was bold or not. It was just a group of people getting together to make a movie, crying and laughing, and leaving a lot of good memories. ." A deeper understanding of oneself and reconciliation with it are all achieved in movies.

The picture shows director Tsui Hark (left) and producer Shi Nansheng (right) attending the opening ceremony of the director's special exhibition "Tsui Hark: The Pioneer of Unconstrained Vision" at the m+ Museum. Photo courtesy of Hong Kong m+ Museum

"I don't know if saying this will help young directors. You will definitely suffer a lot of setbacks, failures, and self-struggle. You don't know whether you should shoot like this, or even whether you should stay in this industry. But If movies are an important thing to you, then you have to stick with it." Tsui Hark remembers that when he was filming his debut film " Butterfly Transformed into ", he searched for butterflies to present his unique "butterfly control skill". He imagined that the protagonist could dance in the sky and control the wind to take his life, but in reality the butterflies were completely out of control. Flying wildly. He also collapsed and thought about giving up. But if Tsui Hark gave up at that time, there would be one less person in the film industry who dared to make a big breakthrough. As a famous director, the new wave that is riding on the wind may be delayed for a few more years.

So Tsui Hark always said to the younger generations, "One day you will be like me, like many others." The audience watched old films together and celebrated their forty years in the industry. "The only fly in the ointment is that the light and shadow of the sun and moon urge people to run, running through the flowers, running through the desolation, thousands of sails have passed, but their close friends are also scattered.

" That afternoon, Tsui Hark said many times that he missed him, who was already seventy years old. With his beard and hair all white and his sharp edges restrained, he is infinitely close to the heroic twilight years in his movies: all the love in the world has turned white, and the world has gone through many vicissitudes of life.(End)

Source: China News Network