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SCMP Reporter

FOUR women from around the globe have each been commissioned to create a short film for a US-backed feature length movie and the only direction they were given was the title - Erotic.

  Along with directors from America, Germany and Brazil is Hong Kong's Clara Law, often referred to as the territory's new wave director.

  With a budget of US$1 million (HK$7.7 million) and a free rein, Law and her husband, scriptwriter and producer Eddie Fong Ling-chin, got together to create Won Ton Soup.

  It is a story of young love, passion and uncertainty and spun into the theme of erotica is an issue close to Law's heart - 1997.

  During a break from doing the Cantonese soundtrack for her latest film Temptation of a Monk, which was filmed on the mainland and makes its debut at the Venice Film Festival, Law spoke about the plot of Won Ton Soup and her own concerns about the imminent handover of Hong Kong to China.

  ''It is about a young Hong Kong girl who met an Australian-born Chinese when in college in Australia. The story happens in Hong Kong when he comes to look for her to spend a short vacation,'' began Law.

  ''She spends the time trying to tell him they have to split, while he is trying to find out why. It is set against the background of a very unstable Hong Kong - a feeling of insecurity and that everything is changing, that things are not what they used to be.

  ''It is a film about feelings of disorientation, as if people are displaced,'' said Law about Won Ton Soup, which stars Hayley Mann and Tim Loubinos.

  ''A lot of people, young and like ourselves, look to 1997 and fear time is running out,'' said the 36-year-old director.

  ''The girl, like all the young people, is trying to get as much as she can, as quickly as she can. At the back of her mind she realises she is losing her innocence and is trying to stop herself from loving him, who is like her conscience.

  ''When they are together they make love, but afterwards she comes to her senses. He uses sex to try and win her back, often with very funny results.''   Yes, the sex is steamy, says Law, but it is also hilarious.

  ''I think that sometimes sex can be very absurd - ridiculous if you look at it as a technique and some of the positions we get into in the search for pleasure,'' she said.

  How a Hong Kong audience will react should be ''very interesting'' said Law with a chuckle.

  ''This is the first time that four women directors are doing this and doing it honestly. I think it is at least something we can discuss.

  ''It may not be a feminist film, but it is certainly from a woman's point of view. It is a very good idea, especially as erotica is always looked at from a man's point of view. It is also interesting as it is four women coming from four very different cultures,'' said Law.

  While the American producers are going for an R-17 rating in the States, [restricting it to 17-year-olds and above] Law could not predict how the film censors in Hong Kong would react. Law's award-winning Autumn Moon was slapped with a category III rating by the Hong Kong censors for its December 1992 release because of one sex scene, a decision branded ridiculous by the director.

  ''They just give you whatever they think is the right category and there is no way you can ask for a reconsideration. If you want it reconsidered, you have to cut the film,'' said Law.

  Will she cut Won Ton Soup for Hong Kong? ''I won't,'' was her blunt reply.

  ''There is nothing exploitative and there is nothing that shouldn't be there,'' she added.

  Born in Macau, educated in Hong Kong and England and with her family now living in Australia, Law describes herself as someone who has nowhere she can call home.

 It is why 1997 is such an important issue to her, she says. And her feelings about Hong Kong are like those of a love-hate relationship, which is what her short for Erotic is about.

  ''In 1997 I will be 40 and at the prime of my life, but I don't know what is going to happen. I will stay as long as I can express myself, as long as I can still do something here.

  ''But I don't think this is the only place I will stay. I also think that for somebody in the creative area it is good not to be just in the one place.

  ''I always enjoy the experience of working in another country,'' said Law, who has split her time over the past couple of years between China, Hong Kong and Australia.

  Erotic will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February and then be distributed in the four directors' countries before going around the world. Temptation of a Monk will be shown in Hong Kong next month.



That steaming feeling