Vignette of an angry man
Amore charming lunch companion would be hard to find. Which is a peculiar thing because Jimmy Choi Kam-chuen, director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre's film and video department, lobs bombshells throughout lunch in chic eatery, China Lan Kwai Fong.
Take his comment on the restaurant as we are ushered in by designer-clad staff: 'It's a place for yuppies and foreigners. Already I don't like it - but I must wait to taste the food. Perhaps I will be surprised.' And, later, on whether we should have wine: 'My mother died from alcohol abuse. She had money problems. Watching a parent get drunk is really touching. So I took a pledge over her body not to drink.' And on journalists: 'Reporters ask stupid questions with no background, no research. And they are so conservative.' Difficult or what? But in fact Mr Choi turned out to be immensely easy to talk to, to the point where he needed urging to taste food that went cold waiting.
So lunch among the greenery, seated in a Hollywood Road-roomful of cabinets filled with celadon, terracotta and jade, and entertained by a parade of beautiful people, became a challenge for a different reason.
The man likes vigorous debate. In fact, his whole life seems to have been about it.
As we sipped water and chose vegetable rice flour rolls ($52) and deep-fried seaweed and walnuts ($65) for starters, he explained that while in New York in 1979, studying film and TV production, he wandered the streets debating with everyone he met in a bid to see the world in a different light.
What exactly was he debating? 'Someone once told me I was an angry young man. I think it was just dissatisfaction. I wasn't clear about why. I think now it is because society is so unfair. Why were we so poor? But then you need a constant learning process to grow up.' To say he is on a mission in his present job to help Hong Kong grow up is, he decides as our food quickly arrives, putting it too strongly. Yet Mr Choi has been instrumental in turning Hong Kong's arthouse film industry on its head. He launched Video Power in 1989, an amateur group which allowed him to create his own documentaries, concentrating on the process rather than the product.
'I didn't know at the time I was changing things but quite a few people in it were directors, so it did have some influence on film here.' Four years ago, he launched Audience Cinema, asking the public to send in their own programme proposals. More recently, he focused funds on seminars. He also, of course, dictates most of the alternative films to be shown in Hong Kong.