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This is a transcript of the press meeting
with the Hong-Kong delegation organised by Sabrina Baracetti & the FEF team and hosted
by Tim Youngs at the fourth edition of the Far East Film Festival of Udine in April 2002.
The meeting was attended by directors Joe Ma, Thomas Chow & Soi Cheang, actress-singer
Miriam Yeung, HK film programmer Tim Youngs, FEF president Sabrina Baracetti, the festival
interpreter, plus all the press media, HK movie fans and local moviegoers.
Here is the second part of the meeting with Soi Cheang
& Thomas Chow.
Introduction to Joe Ma & Miriam Yeung before the interview
Joe Ma has been around for more than 15 years now. He first
started as scriptwriter and he still master perfectly the story writing process. He wrote
famous scripts not only for him but also for other famous directors, e.g. Black Mask
for Daniel Lee, Victim for Ringo Lam and Big Bullet for Benny Chan. After
spending 5 years to improve his writing skills, Joe Ma started as a director on Rich
Man (1992) a category 3 about three men called in Cantonese 'guo wak tsai' or wise
guys. From there, he has produced, written and directed more than 30 films. (see filmographies)
As a producer, he has always tried to give a chance to
local young directors such as Soi Cheang with Horror Hotline… Big Head Monster,
and Wilson Yip with Juliet In Love and the 1999 summer hit Bullet Over Summer.
Joe Ma is very known as well in the HK movie industry for having developed the yuppie film
genre. They are movies about a bunch of young people more worried about their sex life and
love affairs than about struggling to make a living in HK. Most of these films are
actually from Japanese comic books: for instance, the Feel 100 % series (three
movies so far) and First Love Unlimited (aka Touch). Obviously the local big
stars of the moment were hired for each production to assure a box office success. They
were for instance Sammi Cheng, Ekin Cheng, Gigi Leung, Eason Chan, Eric Kot, Miriam
Yeung…
Meeting with Joe Ma, we realised that although he has mixed
with HK biggest stars, he is a shy and very modest filmmaker. He always tried to answer
the questions as sincerely as possible.
Joe Ma made some of the
biggest box office hits in 2001 and 2002 with Love Undercover & Dummy Mommy
Without A
Baby all starring Miriam Yeung as the character of LK Fung. In both she portrays a
very simple and happy girl who tries her best to have a simple life and to help others in
pitiless and busy HK. But she is really clumsy and she always gets herself into hilarious
situations. Miriam Yeung co-stars with two current big male stars in HK: Edison Chen and
Daniel Wu. Miriam Yeung has been in the music business for seven years and she is actually
a well acclaimed singer in HK. One of her current big hit songs is actually the open and
end credit theme of Dummy Mommy Without A Baby, and it was unsurprisingly written
by HK top music composer Mark Lui Cheung Tak.
Miriam started her movie career in 1998 with
drama comedy Rumble Ages and action comedy The Group, alongside Francis Ng
and Anthony Wong. She still feels a novice about her acting skills but no doubt that she
is skilled when it comes to comedies and laughter.
She joined Joe Ma in 2001 to star as a girl-next-door in Feel 100% 2. It is
actually a remake of Ma's Feel 100% made in 1996 with Sammi Cheng and Ekin Cheng.
Miriam Yeung is ever since considered as a growing bankable multi-talented artist, not
only she sings and acts, but she is also a radio personality.
Its seems that the Miriam Yeung-Joe Ma
combination is pretty successful in HK. After the sucess of Dummy Mommy Without A Baby,
Miriam and Joe have found favour with the box office with an hilarious comedy Love
Undercover.
They indeed make a great team.
After presenting Love
Undercover to the crowded Theatres of Udine for the Far East Film Festival in April
2002, Joe Ma and Miriam Yeung received the Awards of the most popular film of the
festival.
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Interview
Some of the questions below are from journalists or fans present in the
audience. We are grateful to them for their participation. We are happy to share, with
their fans, words and thoughts from the HK personalities from this question-answer
session.
Joe Ma, there are four films in connection with you presented here at the
Far East Film Festival (Funeral March, Horror Hot Line… Big Head Monster, Dummy
Mommy Without A Baby and Love Undercover). You have a reputation of making
youth-orientated and popular cinema. How do you keep track of trends in cinema and youth
culture in HK for both directing and producing?
Joe Ma: Did I do that? I love to have conversations with
people from different backgrounds. Some of them are young teenagers but most of them are
old people. However, whenever I talk to them… actually I listen to them more than I
talk to them. So that adds many details which may help me to correct my scripts.
After watching Dummy Mommy
Without A Baby and Love Undercover, it seems that the pairs between
director-producer Joe Ma and actress Miriam Yeung and director-producer Johnnie To and
actress Sammi Cheng are quite close. Is it a model for you, do you try to do something
similar? Or is there not any connection and you have tried to differentiate?
Joe Ma:
We cannot plan that. We can't say "OK somebody did that, we copy the team and
the formula". Personally I love to direct comedies with major female parts. I think
Johnnie To loves to direct many different sorts of movies including urban comedies with
major female parts. But at least there is a difference between Johnnie and me… it's
her part [pointing to Miriam].
Miriam Yeung: According to the marketing research in HK nowadays comedies is the
most popular genre. That's why so many comedies come out in HK. I think that may be this
is due to the atmosphere in HK. So we don't really want to copy somebody here and there. I
think that the most important point is to make people happy.
Dummy Mommy Without A Baby bears the same Chinese title as the famous comedy of the
sixties: Young, Pregnant And Unmarried. Is your movie a deliberate remake or is it
just a coincidence?
Miriam Yeung: I think it's accidental. I haven't seen the
movie. I wasn't even born yet when the movie came out! Maybe it's accidental that it bears
the same title.
Joe Ma: I have seen that movie [burst of laughter] when I was that big. The story
is very different. The one from the sixties is about family, it's a family comedy about
fathers and daughters. Dummy Mommy… is about a boss, a company and its
employees. It's quite different. The director of the original movie [Chor Yuen] was really
nice. He played a little part in Dummy Mommy… He is the boss in the small
restaurant.
LK Fung is a recurrent character in Dummy Mommy Without A Baby and Love
Undercover. Could you tell us about what this character has come to represent?
Miriam Yeung: She's a happy girl. The thing is her mind is
quite straightforward and also she wants to make people happy, which will make her
happiness. So I think she's a cheerful happy girl inside the story and it's a kind of
refreshing character in HK.
Did you have any input in the
script when the character was given to you? Did you suggest any changes?
Miriam Yeung: Actually no! [laughter] Because I think that directors have their own
decisions and ideas inside the story. And they also know everything about the characters.
I mean this is a chance for me to learn more about acting. So sometimes I have a little
voice inside me saying, "just follow the director's ideas"!
HK Films are different from Hollywood, European and even mainland
ones. They offer something else. Are there some special sets of qualities in these films
that are unique to HK features?
Joe Ma: To me it's an embarrassing question. I think that the HK movies have some
elements that determine its peculiar energy. However, I believe that Korean movies are now
more energetic. What can we do? [laughter] We should try to improve.
Miriam Yeung: I don't know how to answer this question. It's very complicated…
After working in the industry, I found that making movies in HK had a lot of restrictions.
There are problems with talents and resources for people. The market is shrinking.
However, I'd like to let you know that all the HK filmmakers are very sincere no matter
under what circumstances. What we are trying to do is to use our films to reflect sincere
pictures of HK, the HK life and the HK culture. We want to show what we are today and this
is the message we try to convey through our films.
Joe Ma: There are a
lot of things we should do for the HK movie industry, in many ways, in the distribution
field for instance. On top of that, there is a lack of talents, actors, actresses,
scriptwriters and directors. Because while we where in the Golden Age [in the eighties],
producers and businessmen could earn money easily. So they though they'd got money
forever. They didn't spend a little time, resources or money to educate and to train new
talents. So now what we can do throughout our projects is to try to give more
opportunities to newcomers, to let them experience and improve themselves. That what we
can do.
I've worked with Soi Cheang [director of Horror Hot Line… Big Head Monster &
Diamond Hill] and Wilson Yip [director of Bullet Over Summer & Skyline
Cruisers]. The most important part is to have more talents, more people well educated
directors and stars just as in Korea. So the industry could expend again.
In the end of the day we lack financiers and investors. They are actually not very
open-minded and should be a little more farsighted and not only see the immediate results
on a short-term basis. If they foresee a little bit more and if they can have a vision,
then we can actually have more opportunities to make more movies. I think that is may be
the type of talent missing in HK.
Miriam Yeung: By then, I would have more opportunities to play different types of
roles! [laughter]
- Answers from Soi Cheang & Thomas Chow
-
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At the moment the situation of the HK film industry isn't very
promising. But how can you explain the huge success of Shaolin Soccer by Stephen Chow Sing Chi?
Joe Ma: In HK the actual situation is different from 10 years ago. Then, people
were used to go to theatres three times a week. Now they maybe go two times a year! So
suddenly, everybody went to see Shaolin Soccer, and it broke the record. In
addition to that, Stephen Chow is considered as the 'god of actors' in HK. Everybody loves
him. When we found that he's spent two to three years to finish the project as a director
and an actor we were really happy of the result. Lots of people loved this movie that is
quite amazing and magical in our experience.
Miriam Yeung: Sometimes the box office revenue isn't a measurement of whether the
film is successful or not. Other elements must be taken into account to measure the
success correctly. In a way I feel like the movies I made with Joe Ma were pretty
successful too because people gave them good reviews. They were not very high box office
records though.
-
Answers from Soi Cheang -
What did you expect to find here in the Udine Festival? And what are your
feelings now meeting up with your fans from HK and from the rest of the world?
Joe Ma: It's my second year to be
here. Basically I find it quite relax. It's not a competition film festival. It's just to
exchange some ideas, to see other country movies as an experience. I love to see people
here, it can maybe give some inputs in my life.
Miriam Yeung: This is my first time to be here. I found that everybody here, the
audience and the press media are so sensible and nice to HK people. Before I got here I
just knew that people here were quite interested by HK movies. I didn't know why. But
today I know why. It's an exchange of cultures from different countries and it's great!
-
Answers from Soi Cheang & Thomas Chow -
Miriam, could you compare the different sets of challenges, difficulties and pleasures you
have in your singing career and your acting career?
Miriam Yeung: Sure, it's different. It's different kind of pressures. I've been
singing for nearly seven years and I have learnt how to get rid of that kind of pressure.
But as an actress, I think that I am still a newcomer. And, I think that this [the
festival] is the best way to relieve my pressure!
What are your next projects?
Joe Ma: I am planning to make a comedy!
Miriam Yeung: I hope Joe Ma would come to me to make me the heroine of this comedy!
Special Thanks to Joe Ma, Miriam Yeung
for their kindness and patience.
We are grateful to Tim Youngs and Sabrina Baracetti for the organisation and to have
allowed Joe Ma and Miriam Yeung to meet with their fans in the best conditions.
Thanks also to the main participants Tim Youngs from Another Hong-Kong
Movie Page, Shelly Kraicer from A
Chinese Cinema Page & Ryan Law from The
Hong-Kong Movie Database and to everyone
who joined in the meeting and who participated.
Special thanks as well to chief programmer Stephen Cremin, and the Far East Festival team for their
hospitality, help and organisation.
Text & press meeting transcript by Thomas, April 2002. Original photos are © by HK Cinemagic.
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