Screenwriters From Hong Kong

"My ideas about writing changed as soon as I started directing. As a writer, I wanted my scripts to be perfect and fully formed. As a director, I know there are always factors beyond my control. Many things in any film cannot be planned concretely in advance. The best you can do is visualise what you want, and then respond to what’s there once you go on set. Nowadays I start from a fairly loose script and tend to write the dialogue on the day of shooting."

"We always put something in front of the camera because we wanted to create the feeling that the audience was one of the neighbors and was always observing or watching these two people. And the color is so vivid because everything from memory is vivid—it’s beautiful because it’s very close to your mind."

"Filmmaking is an organic process from start to finish, so there should be many surprises along the way. You never know what film you really have until it is delivered."

"When I was young, the idea of “world cinema” didn’t exist. We would watch any films that we could find in the cinemas. Today, some of those films have become accessible again on streaming platforms. In a way, it doesn’t matter as much where they exist as long as people have access to them."

"It takes less effort to stream a film at home these days. However, streaming should not fundamentally affect how a film is made, as long as the pleasure of watching films doesn’t change, and we as filmmakers continue to serve that purpose."

"I never want to make beautiful pictures. I just want to make sure it’s right. Every set up, every shot, represents a choice: what you want to see, and what you don’t want to see."

"In the last 10 years, a lot of kung-fu films have become over the top. And at a point, audiences start to think that kung-fu films are just a show, or a gimmick."

"As someone once said: ‘Art is a never-ending dance of illusions’. It is impossible for us to dance exactly like we did before. What has really changed is not the films but the man on the floor."

"I like Latin American literature a lot and I’ve always thought Latin American, and Italian people are very close to Chinese, especially the women — jealousies, passion, family values, it’s very close."

"We all need stories. What happens in our daily lives changes our stories."

"Just make the film. Action is the first word you must learn. And the second is patience. As a filmmaker you must wait for many things. You have to wait for money, the weather, the cast, the release. So you need to have good patience. The process is so long and most of the time it’s frustrating. To be a filmmaker, you must first take action, then have the persistence to pursue it."

"It was my dream! I wanted to know what exactly martial arts is. When you look at martial arts films, the later ones became more and more exaggerated. It’s like, wow, is martial arts only a show?"

"You try to cope with the mass audience, but in fact you are not doing something for them—I would be fighting with myself. I thought, I don’t have to make big films, I can make small films that I can be happy with. I can find my own audience."

"Of course, people are more affected by actors or acting. But as a filmmaker, I need some logic. And this was my logic in making these two films, and how I connected these stories and these films together. People say my films don’t have any plot or storyline, but in my logic there is a storyline."

"Its always my conviction that young filmmakers do not actively need old filmmakers help, because the society in which they are living in, their surroundings and their knowledge is completely different. I mean there’s a whole set of different rules which they know better than we do, but if we use our experience to tell them what to do I think it hinders more than it helps. Not unless the old director who’s out to help is also a very good teacher that is saying to the student what he needs to know instead of just telling the student his experience. And being a teacher, I think I’ve been one myself and I know that I’m not good enough, because to be a great teacher is more difficult than to be a great filmmaker."

"I’m not conscious, what I’m really trying to do when I shoot a movie. I was just looking at it as more or less like a toy, something which I like to play with and try to impress people. I think that is actually something not so bad. I mean like doing it for the fun of it, instead of doing it as a real sacred job. I think it should be both. (as a comparison of her artistic filmmaking ethos in relation to the Hong Kong New Wave and the Taiwanese New Wave)"

"…You know I’ve done everything before right? Horror movies, action movies… I want to try a movie just for the sex scenes, not the fighting! I’ve never had a chance to hold a girl and kiss her. Everyone tells me I should fight again, but actually I want to try everything. Now I just want to find new, young action stars…"

"…To portray a realistic older person, for me it’s actually getting harder. The film is very much about people of my age group, and all the troubles that come with it. I really value my time and spending it with senior people, I was practically brought up by my own grandfather."

"…It is not about who is doing what, the matter is that all of us are doing it. We have all started this path. This path is for long term development. We want to create a cradle of new talents. In the long run it’s a very strategic decision to train new talents, to create new opportunity’s for the future of the movie industry, especially for the martial arts genre. There are schools everywhere, everybody is learning something, and it’s important for the future that’s what matters."

"…Almost half my life I’ve worked in the movie industry, and it’s very rare to see a good, strong script. I really love movie making, editing and directing, however if you want me to count it then there’s only really handful, about 5 movies that I consider to have had good scripts that I’ve been involved in. So if I see a very good script and I wasn’t involved, then I feel it’s a pity I wasn’t involved in that collaboration. So if there’s a good script then it’s good to be involved, but if nobody invites you then it’s very hard, those sorts of opportunities are rare to come by."