Roll on, Fruit Chan
FOR A DOWN-TO-EARTH take on the real Hong Kong, look no further than Fruit Chan. His films offer a raw, often bleak, view of life of Hong Kong's working class. And his latest offering, Hollywood Hong Kong, is no different. The second part of a trilogy on prostitution, it opened the 26th Hong Kong International Film Festival on Wednesday. Durian Durian, the first in the series, kicked off the festival in 1997. Clearly Chan is on a roll. But the recognition has not gone to his head. Far from it. With his easy manner and ready smile, he remains as unpretentious as his films.
Chan, 44, comes from the school of hard knocks. What he has achieved is thanks to his own hard work. Born on Hainan Island, he was brought up reading Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. There were no science or technology lessons at school. Instead he was taught that capitalism was the enemy. But the fierce communism did have its benefits.
'We watched a lot of films. Before the Cultural Revolution Chinese movies were very good, and we also saw films from other Communist countries like Russia, Romania, Albania, South Korea and Vietnam,' Chan said.
But the Cultural Revolution put restraints on the films deemed appropriate and eventually only eight movies were considered acceptable. Soon after that Chan's parents moved to Hong Kong.
'At school we were always being told that capitalism was a bad system, so my brother and I couldn't understand why my parents moved here,' he said.
They arrived in July 1971, on the day of Bruce Lee's funeral. Chan had never heard of the actor, but gleaned details of his life from the newspaper and gossip on the street.
Life was harsh. The family had no relatives in Hong Kong and slept on friends' floors, moving every couple of days. School was out of the question. The family had only $2,000 between them and Chan and his brother had to work.
He found a job in an electronics factory, and made it through Forms One to Three at night school. After a few years, he landed the job that would change his life - as a projectionist in a cinema in Jordan. 'Cinemas in those days were huge. They had at least 1,000 seats, and I learned a lot about movies,' he said.
He acquired a taste for international films and when friends told him that the Film Culture Society was offering a one-year film studies course, he was determined to sign up. There were just two stumbling blocks: the school required students to have completed their secondary school education, which Chan had not, nor did he have the money for the tuition fees.
'I lied and said I'd finished school. I think they knew I hadn't, but they could see I was really eager and serious about films. To cover my fees, I worked at the school doing odd jobs and helping organise film events.'
After film school, he joined the industry at the bottom and, step by step, made his way up the ladder until he was director of his own films.
