Director Xu Anhua's latest documentary work "Elegies" was nominated for the Best Documentary Film at the 60th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Golden Horse Awards and was shortlisted for the 6th West Lake International Documentary Festival (IDF) Judging Unit. It just won the 202

023 Golden Horse Film Festival｜Filmmaker Lecture: Xu Anhua's transcript

Date: November 23, 2023/After the screening of "Poetry"

Venue: Hall 11, Xinyi Weishow Cinema

Speaker: Director｜Hui Anhua, poet｜Liao Weitang, Huang Canran

Host: Hong Hong

Transcript: Yang Dianan

Photography: Kang Zhihao

Text is reproduced with permission from the "Golden Horse Film Festival"

Honghong: Let me first ask Director Xu Anhua, whether in your works or in the entire film history, "Poetry" " is a very special work. So far, I know that the only film about poetry that I know of is directed by Li Cangdong. But the English title of your "Poetry" is Elegies, which means "elegies." When you look at the title after watching this film, you will have many interpretations of it. What are your thoughts on this?

Li Cangdong "Poetry"/Xu Anhua "Elegies"

Xu Anhua: started because Huang Canran wrote seven poems "Elegies", and Elegies is just a Form, it is not necessarily sad. , I think it would be a bit too biased to directly translate it as "Elegy", and I also feel that the Chinese and English titles do not necessarily have to be the same. , like "Man 40", is called "July Rhapsody", and no one cares about my .

Ann Hui's "July Rhapsody (2002)" poster

Honghong: I think the protagonist of this film should be Hong Kong, but in fact this film involves many places, such as Shenzhen, as well as Huang Canran and Liao Weitang's Beijing’s experience finally led them to come to Taiwan. Surrounding the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the core should still be Hong Kong’s experience.

Could you please talk to the director about interpreting Hong Kong through "Poetry" at this moment? In addition to a poetic monologue at the end of the film, there are also many historically representative places in Hong Kong, such as Queen's Pier and Springfield. Huahua Kindergarten is very emotional.

Xu Anhua: What I want to convey mainly is poetry, not Hong Kong. What I want to focus on are two poets and their views on poetry. This is an eternal question. Through this eternal perspective, I feel that this is the main purpose of "Poetry" to explore its meaning and convey experience.

Photo source: Golden Horse Film Festival

Honghong: This film may have a side effect for the audience, which is to introduce everyone to Hong Kong poets and poetry. The movie also includes some poets, such as Celan and Szymborska, but most importantly, we see a whole generation of Hong Kong poets, even young poets like Huang Runyu. Generally, people outside the literary circle are not familiar with the expression of poetry in Hong Kong, and film is a mass media, but you have talked about a minimal literary genre.

Xu Anhua: poetry should actually be the most popular media.

Liao Weitang: should be regarded as a misalignment of the times. We have always wanted poetry to bear the pressure of the times, but by some coincidence, movies came to the forefront . I think it is good that the oldest muse and the latest muse come together.

Xu Anhua's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

Honghong: Many Hong Kong poets were filmed in the movie, but later they focused on filming Huang Canran and Liao Weitang. Did you, the director, think so from the beginning? Or did you deal with it this way after taking pictures of a lot of people and finding that the others couldn’t be cut in?

Xu Anhua: When first applied for the film fund, the outline stated that we would film these two poets. They are in their prime, and their experience and poetry are representative. I felt a little lazy after taking the photo, so I visited other famous poets of my generation.But then the structure was a bit strange. It was originally focused on two people, but a bunch of people came out from behind. After telling them, it becomes an open ending, leaving it to the next director to make a modern poet, which might be better. So these older generation poets are very similar to tradition, and the ups and downs of subtitles and music are very similar to Army: successive poets .

Honghong: I always feel that this film is very similar to the current "Golden Age". It captured how a generation of literati communicated and pursued their life goals. "Golden Age" also used some pseudo-documentary techniques.

Anhua Hui's "The Golden Era" (2014) poster

Anhua Hui: I think it is better to make a real documentary than a pseudo-documentary.

Honghong: Are you aware of this technique?

Xu Anhua: No.

Honghong: Can Huang Canran please also talk about ? I remember that when I met Huang Canran thirty years ago, he was still working in "Ta Kung Pao". At that time, he was a very introverted person, and he did not dare to look at what he was talking to me. I. In 2015, Liao Weitang brought Huang Canran to me. After watching this film, I feel that Huang Canran has opened up and is very good at expressing himself. He is not as serious as before. I would like to ask Huang Canran after watching this film. Thoughts on the film.

Huang Canran: What I enjoy the most is that other poets were mentioned in the first ten minutes. Whether it is their poems or the things and opinions they want to express, they are all extracted very accurately. My feelings are not important, what I want to talk about is that this movie is very niche, and some moviegoers are very serious. You might as well read this movie as a poem.

The poem has hints. Did you just ask Ann Hui if she was filming Hong Kong? She said she was photographing poets, but was she photographing Hong Kong or poets? You want to avoid it, but in fact it has to do with writing something in . When Xu Anhua chose this "Elegy", he chose a relatively popular part. In fact, the whole poem is very heavy. Poetry requires imagination, and if we continue to dig deeper, there is still something in it.

If you watch the complete "Elegy", you can understand that Xu Anhua's meaning is grander. Xu Anhua filmed me and my family walking on a mountain road in Shenzhen. Suddenly the movie switched to another poem of mine, "Trouble". In fact, this poem was written in "I See Hong Kong from the Mountains of Hong Kong" . poetry.

It is not shown in the movie, but my poem indicates that it happened in 2004. At the end of the poem, I wrote: "I will continue to share weal and woe with you." I left Hong Kong in 2014, and then something happened in Hong Kong. This is a bit ironic. of. Watching a movie in this way is both an audience and a reader, which is also in line with the meaning of the English title Elegies. People who like poetry will go to the movies, and people who like movies will read poetry, which is very interesting. Readers do not need to care about what the author says but have their own opinions and can dig out more information.

Xu Anhua's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

Honghong: Compared with Huang Canran, Liao Weitang is a social activist and anarchist, and his poetry is also very involved in society. Although Wei Tang yourself doesn’t believe in communication, I think your poems communicate a lot with contemporary readers. How do you view the representation of you and Huang Canran in the movie?

Liao Weitang: First of all, I want to say that I still don’t believe in communication. Then I want to clarify one thing here. Many people think that the mansion where Xu Anhua and I first met in the movie is my home (laughs). I don't mind mansions, but I do mind such an ugly mansion. This is an epidemic prevention hotel! Otherwise, people think that a poet is getting rich unjustly.

I think this film gave me an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between poetry and poets. After seeing the finished film, I was very interested in the connection between Huang Canran and myself, including our respective choices. We used to be friends who met every week. At that time, I was only in my twenties and Huang Canran was twelve years older than me. I would go to his house to see him every week.

When the movie filmed his previous home, Huang Canran turned to me and said, "It seems familiar!" I have walked that road countless times, but in the end we seemed to have taken different paths. Is that true? not really. I can find a lot of resonance from Huang Canran's revealed state of mind.

Xu Anhua's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

The second thing that suddenly dawned on me was understanding my relationship with Taiwan. 2021 is when the epidemic in Taiwan is the most serious. Whether we are giving lectures or staying at home, we often wear masks. But that was the time when I was closest to Taiwan. Maybe it was just like what Huang Canran said about "sharing weal and woe". When you have the deepest feelings for a place, you are with it in adversity, rather than having fun together. When having fun.

My feelings towards Hong Kong are the same. I have always joked that I am an anarchist. Anarchists do not agree with any nationalism. It makes no sense to add a country before any poet.

After experiencing 2014 and 2019, my identity with Hong Kong has indeed increased. There is a feeling of suffering in it: "My city is suffering, so I should love it." There was a sentence during the interview that I liked very much, but Without cutting it in, Xu Anhua asked me what was the saddest moment? I said it’s 2019.

Huang Canran: In the movie, my girlfriend and I were waiting for the bus on the side of the road. She was using an app on her mobile phone to calculate the time for the bus to arrive. She got on the bus with her vegetables and I walked my dog ​​back up the mountain road. This is considered a movie. Easter eggs (laughs). Another very interesting thing is that when we were looking for a book, the movie did not tell us which book we were looking for. It was actually Mandelstam, which is what Liao Weitang mentioned later in the movie. You may have to watch it several times to realize this, which is very interesting.

Honghong: I find it very interesting to be able to pick out this book among the piles of books about . I would like to ask Director Xu Anhua, you read a poem at the end of the movie. Can you share the content of the poem with us?

Xu Anhua: is Huang Canran's "Elegy". It has seven sections. I chose the one that everyone can understand best. I like this poem very much, even though I don't quite understand it.

Honghong: just talked about whether poetry is popular or niche. What I mean is that poetry is originally only people in the literary circle care about. However, many poetry collections have been removed from the shelves in Hong Kong in the past two years, and even literary award-winning works have been removed from the shelves. Cancellation, This shows the political nature of poetry itself, and those in power actually care about the influence of poetry. At this time, the movie "Poetry" appeared, which seemed to prove the importance of poetry .

Liao Weitang: When poetry is around us, we really don’t notice it. But when poetry is absent, we find the world unbearable.

Huang Canran: It is very difficult to describe poetry in a certain sentence. I am the same age as you (Honghong). You ask me what is poetry? It's really hard for me to answer. Just ask me why I write poetry? I will also be stupid. I can talk about the details of the movie, but I want to talk about the power of poetry... Maybe I think poetry is a big thing. I have been experiencing magical moments of poetry all my life. It is difficult for me to talk about the social role of poetry. I can’t even talk about it. If you don’t know where a poem is, you don’t even know what the next line is when you write it, then why do you dare to say what the poem is.

Honghong: After all, movies are the art of images and sounds. Even if poems are abstract, you can see real landscapes, characters, and behaviors through movies, and they interact with each other and become clear . Maybe many people don't read poetry very much, or they think poets are monsters, like Wei Tang who had long hair, stayed up late at night or drank alcohol when he was young. In "Poetry" we see people in real life writing poems. For example, Wei Tang is now a good father, and Huang Canran is now living a simple country life, but he has done a lot of translations, which has benefited a whole generation of Chinese readers. Yu Huang Canran has many translations.

Ann Hui's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

Anhua Hui: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the two of them very much. They are very honest about their feelings. If they just deal with me, this film will not work. I feel that the final cut of this film is very real to them. It is difficult to present intellectuals. I don’t understand their poetry very well, I just like it very much.

Honghong: This film can also be said to be Xu Anhua’s experience of searching for poetry. Sometimes you (Xu Anhua) records all this like an old friend or student.

Xu Anhua: I shot a lot of Huang Canran's scenes but edited them out. If you think this film is good-looking, it's because the editing seamlessly connects their lives with the poems.

Honghong: We will open the question to the audience next.

Photo source: Golden Horse Film Festival

Post-screening Q&A

Audience A: Thank you very much to the three of you for bringing this film. I feel that it has an impact that is based on life but leaps beyond life. I would like to ask about Huang Canran's translation. Celan's poems seem to be explained in detail in Liao Weitang's clip, but Huang Canran himself also translated Celan's "Death Fugue". I originally thought that the film would develop Huang Canran and his translation. part, but it turned out not to be the case. I am very curious whether director Xu Anhua and Huang Canran discussed the translation aspect? And how to organize these materials later? Secondly, I noticed that several parts of Huang Canran's poems seemed staged, especially the scenes in the tea restaurant and the tailor's scene, which seemed to have the feel of a drama. I would like to ask if this was a deliberate design?

Xu Anhua: (the part about translation) Huang Canran talked about, but we cut it out because it was very long and I couldn’t understand it (laughs). The other part is that the actors in the teahouse are indeed actors, and the tailor is real. He said that he made suits for Xu Guanjie, and the shop is in Sham Shui Po.

Photo source: Golden Horse Film Festival

Huang Canran: Xu Anhua is the only person who interviews me as a poet, and everyone talks about my translation.

Liao Weitang: Huang Canran has always emphasized that poets have a high rank, so you should stop mentioning translation (laughing).

Audience B: Liao Weitang After Szymborska’s online course, Director Xu Anhua was surprised and came to ask Liao Weitang a question. I want to know what kind of question it was?

Xu Anhua: I really forgot about (laughing).

Liao Weitang: is very likely to ask me if I have eaten (laughs). I remember it was about poetry. It was probably about Szymborska’s political news. She (Hsu Anhua) also liked Szymborska very much.

Audience C: I started reading Liao Weitang’s poems when I was a child. I am almost forty years old this year (laughing). The first book I read was "Sinking with the Fishes". I am Taiwanese myself, so I pronounce it in Mandarin, and I noticed that Liao Weitang pronounces it in Cantonese. When Ann Hui recited a poem in Cantonese at the end of the film, I immediately thought of "Man 40". When I was a child, I recited Tang poems in Mandarin. For the first time, I discovered that Tang poems can be so beautiful when recited in Cantonese. I am curious about the language everyone chooses when reciting poems? Next, I would like to ask a question. This film has a lot of gangster scenes. It feels like it was intentional. I’m curious why you chose to let the second camera run in when editing or filming?

Anhua Hui's "Man 40" July Rhapsody (2002) stills

Anhua Hui: is intentional. I remember that when Liao Weitang was talking about a very boring thing, a camera suddenly came in. Why do we keep Liao Weitang’s words so long? We deliberately stayed until we almost couldn't stand it anymore, because he really lectured like this. The reason why I can’t stand it is not because his words are tasteless, but because we want everyone to see how an intellectual lectures (laughing). Suddenly walking into a scene also wakes everyone up.

Liao Weitang: Why do I read poetry in Cantonese? I want to restore the voice in my head as much as possible, , but the most original voice in my head is not entirely Cantonese, but my hometown - western Guangdong - it is slightly different from Cantonese, If I have the chance, I will read the poem in my real native language, and its phonology will be stronger because it retains a lot of the pronunciation of ancient Chinese . The fact that I insist on reading and writing in Cantonese is also related to my life in a foreign land. is the talisman I brought from Hong Kong.

Huang Canran: I am more complicated. I am from southern Fujian, and there is no official dialect in southern Fujian. Speaking Cantonese is similar to speaking Mandarin. Every word in Cantonese has a Mandarin, which is the standard pronunciation. You can pronounce each word one by one, but Hokkien is very difficult and you have to use a lot of words. Alternative words.For example, how do you write the lyrics of "Dancing Girl"?

Honghong: Now I have found some words to write in .

Xu Anhua's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

Huang Canran: I have a poem "Quanzhou", which writes: "Because I have not lived here for a long time." If you read it in Hokkien, you have to translate it into Very rustic language.

Honghong: But when you write, is the voice in your head the same as Mandarin?

Huang Canran: is definitely not Cantonese, but it is Hokkien or Mandarin, I can’t figure it out.

Honghong: This is a special situation when writing in Hong Kong. I asked Yesi this question. I asked him whether it was written in Cantonese or Mandarin. He said that it was actually written in Cantonese, but he could have pronounced it in Mandarin because he was not writing in Cantonese dialect, he was writing in Mandarin.

Huang Canran: is right! Why do I use Mandarin instead of Hokkien or Cantonese? Because Mandarin is the most natural. I have never read Cantonese before. It is natural for local people to read textbooks and read words when they were young. I regarded Cantonese as a tool, so it was unnatural, so Cantonese became my second language, and when I returned to Hokkien, I had to learn it again and translate it again.

Honghong: When you listen to director Ann Hui reading your poem in Cantonese, do you feel like you are listening to a translation?

Huang Canran: Cantonese is the best among all dialects. Mandarin is very dull. It is fine as a communication language, but it is very monotonous when used for recitation. Therefore, in my poetry reading meetings, everyone speaks Cantonese, Sichuan dialect, Yangjiang dialect... which sounds particularly nice.

Xu Anhua's "Poetry" Elegies (2023)

Audience D: Borrowing the concept just provided by Huang Canran, I think this film has a feeling of video poetry. I would like to ask the poets whether the poems they read are what they want? Also, I would like to ask director Xu Anhua, with the concept of filming poetry, why did you choose to film the daily life of poets? How do the two poets feel when they see their daily life merged with their poetry?

Xu Anhua: I chose a lot of poems and let them choose.

Liao Weitang: I even protested against ! Why did I choose so many poems from more than ten years ago?

Honghong: Do you think that is no longer you?

Liao Weitang: is not the case. Maybe it’s because I now prefer more compact poems like Celan’s.

Xu Anhua: I’m sorry because I’m the director. If I don’t understand it, I can’t shoot it! (laughing)

Honghong: Audiences also asked why they chose to film their lives?

Xu Anhua: I also want to know how a poet lives.

Honghong: The result of is similar to yours.

Xu Anhua: Most people think that poets do not eat the fireworks of the world.

Honghong: Are you disappointed with the results? Are they all the same as you?

Xu Anhua: is right, I am very happy (laughing).

Photo source: Golden Horse Film Festival

Liao Weitang: I think this is a false question. Poet is life, life is poetry, how can poetry and life be separated?

Audience E: I would like to ask the director about the filming of Liao Weitang. The movie shows many passages of Liao Weitang's comments and lectures. This kind of presentation is relatively rare in other movies. Why show the part where the writer is giving lectures?

Xu Anhua: His (Liao Weitang) lectures also directly reflected his views on writers and poetry.

Liao Weitang: and that’s my life (laughing).

Honghong: lets everyone know how hard it is to make money in Taiwan.

Audience F: I would like to ask Liao Weitang at the end of his lecture, he mentioned a poem about Taiwan and Hong Kong. I am very curious what that poem is?

Honghong: Everyone is very concerned about the cut off part.

Liao Weitang: The course was an activity that was paired with the book I published at the time, "Rose Opens for No Reason." At Huansunjia Coffee, the first class was on-site. After the class, the epidemic situation took a turn for the worse, so it was changed to Online courses. My editor-in-chief took the opportunity to tell me and asked me to read a poem to cheer up my classmates in Taiwan. If I remember correctly, I recited a poem called "Guanyin" on the distant mountain, and the poppies are in the poppy fields. We should not seek immediate comfort like taking medicine, but let you think about it. The meaning of suffering.

Audience G: Director finally mentioned that he was moved by poetry when he was young, and said it was a life-saving poem. Can you share which poets wrote the poems?

Xu Anhua: is actually very Shakespearean. The last part of "King Lear" mentions the suffering of survival and how to survive it.

Honghong: End Media has an article about a conversation between Xu Anhua and Liao Weitang. Xu Anhua mentioned that she liked Keats's poems when she was young.

Xu Anhua: She seems a bit too romantic now (laughs).

Audience H: This film was shot during the epidemic. Liao Weitang just mentioned that the epidemic has deepened his relationship with Taiwan. I would like to ask the director whether he encountered any difficulties while filming during the epidemic? The epidemic has also changed society on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and four places. I would like to ask the director for his understanding of this aspect.

Xu Anhua: I can’t take pictures of Liao Weitang going to other places because everything has been changed to online. I was very depressed and wanted to go back, but then I thought that this was also a real situation, so we shot him online, and it turned into a historical moment of the epidemic. This is also a lucky coincidence for the filmmakers.

Honghong: This is also where documentaries are superior to feature films. Documentaries just go along with it, but there is no way for feature films.

Audience I: Director Xu Anhua finally mentioned the reason for making the film, and also mentioned his doubts or mission about poetry. After this journey of searching for poetry, what new insights have you gained?

Xu Anhua: I really feel that poets are often unpleasant and their words are too true. But they are all very cute, because they are all naive, like the poets of the previous generation who were all in their seventies or eighties, and reacted directly to everything they encountered. If you work in society, you will think it is very valuable.

Audience member J: I particularly felt that Director Ann Hui mentioned to Huang Canran: "I can't appreciate my own poetry." And even as a Chinese language student, I can't appreciate my father's works. I would like to ask you two, if you had the opportunity to convince your children or family members, from what angle would you like them to understand the work?

Huang Canran: I don’t care whether children can read my poems or not. When I was in Ta Kung Pao, I didn’t want people to know that I wrote poems or did literary translation. My mother's educational level is not high. I told her that I was a poet, and I still had to explain to her what a poet was? A mother just wants her child to have a stable job and not to worry her. I published a book of poems, and my family didn’t know.

Honghong: Liao Weitang, your family is simply a family of poets. You and Cao Shuying (Liao Weitang’s wife) are both poets, and your child has become a Rocker.

Liao Weitang: My son often refuses to read my poems because his Chinese is not good, but I later thought of a solution. I translated it into English and passed it off as rock lyrics. He would also comment and say: "This is good. This is not good". One thing I am very proud of is that my children will tell people in school: "My parents are both poets!" They won't think it's anything, but we have colored glasses, like those poets in the past who were always embarrassed to say He is a poet himself.

Huang Canran: I was so happy when I filled in the Taiwan ID card today. There was a job column for "writer", so I filled it in (laughing). There is also a specific title under the writer column, so I will write "poet".

Audience K: There is a scene in the movie where Liao Weitang went to school and mentioned that he made a special trip here in order to reflect the real class environment.But in fact, the current teaching environment is unreal, swinging between reality and unreality. How does the director view it?

Xu Anhua: Do you think the movie is real or unreal (laughing)? Point out an unreal situation and it becomes real.

Honghong: exposes the fictional part to you, it is not disguised.

Xu Anhua: This is a sense of humor.

Audience L: I am a translator myself, and I can understand that translation is a profession that requires a living. I would like to ask Huang Canran, who is both a poet and a translator, whether there is any interaction between the two identities?

Huang Canran: Poets are the poorest, so translation is to support this identity. But translation is a highly focused and professional matter, and I often use the concentration of translation to practice. I focus on writing poetry for one or two months, which may be better than writing every day. It may even take me half a year or a year to start writing poetry during a certain break.

Honghong: poetry always appears in the gap between life and work. Today we would like to thank Director Ann Hui and the two poets for their presence. Remember to buy their poetry collections, and remember to watch the movie after it is released.

Photo source: Golden Horse Film Festival

The original text is taken from the official website of the Golden Horse Film Festival, click on the original link to view

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