Settling into her seat in a plush suite in a hotel in West Kowloon, Carina Lau Ka-ling says she harboured some doubts about Let the Bullets Fly, the film in which she stars as a money-grabbing ex-prostitute. It's not about the project's quality, the nature of her role or her own performance in it, of course - rather, she's not sure Hong Kong audiences will 'get' all the things the film wants to say about the calamitous state the mainland is in today through a story set in a fictional city in 1919.
'I have this feeling that people here won't understand what the film is all about,' says Lau of the Jiang Wen-directed film, which revolves around a battle of wits between Goose City's de facto ruler, Wang Shilang, a brutal tycoon played by Chow Yun-fat, and bandit Zhang Mozhi (played by Jiang himself) who arrives in town to take up the mayorship - a job he took out of the hands of the real appointee, Ma Bongde (Ge You), during a railroad raid.
Lau's character is known only as 'the mayor's wife', the absence of a name pointing to her willingness to go with whoever's star is on the rise: she begins the film as Ma's partner, and ends up bedding Zhang.
While set in the early 20th century, the film is a thinly veiled critique of the collective hysteria which sustained the many waves of social upheaval throughout the 61-year history of the People's Republic - whether it be the intense purges which marked the Cultural Revolution, or the unfettered pursuit of money as the mainland lurched towards capitalism during the past 20 years.
Lau's character is the epitome of such opportunism: devoid of principles and scruples, the mayor's wife is content to 'let the bullets fly' before emerging to side with the victors so as to ensure maximum economic gain.
'It was a time when people were faced with all these different possibilities,' Lau says.