Going with the flow

After nearly 20 years in the business, veteran actress Carina Lau Ka-ling remains hot property. Following her performance as Eric Tsang's cool but ruthless wife in last year's two sequels to Infernal Affairs, the star's stock has been riding high. Lau's face is seen regularly on television and on billboards, her sophisticated and established image advertising everything from cosmetics to apparel and slimming products. She has appeared in three films this year, including director Johnnie To's Throw Down. But the project everyone is talking about is 2046, the much-anticipated movie from art-house director Wong Kar-wai that has been nearly five years in the making. The film is reportedly due for release later this month. Lau, who has dual roles in the movie, is in good company. The cast list reads like a who's who of Asian cinema. It includes Kimura Takuya, Faye Wong, Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, the man rumoured to be Lau's off-screen partner for more than a decade. The actress has missed much of the hype, having just returned to Hong Kong after a four-month stint filming a television series on the mainland. The series, A Spring River Flows East, is based on a 1940s epic that has been described as the definitive Chinese movie of its era. Lau plays an independent woman with a feisty attitude decades ahead of her time. But back to 2046. It is a sequel of sorts to Wong's award-winning In the Mood For Love (2000), for which Leung won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival in that year. 2046 features parallel plot lines set in the year of its title and in the 1960s. In the futuristic half of 2046, Lau plays a robot, while in the '60s part of the movie she reprises her role in one of Wong's earlier films, Days Of Being Wild (1990). But as is often the case in Wong's films, nothing is that straightforward. 'Actually, the futuristic segment all happens in a book written by the Tony Leung character - it's his imagination,' she says. 'He meets a group of people in the '60s and he writes a book, imagining a story about those people but set in the future. At least, that's how I understand it. Whether or not that's what the director means ...' She shrugs, the way people often do when trying to explain exactly what a Wong Kar-wai film is all about. In movie circles, the director is known for his unpredictable working style. He acts on the spur of the moment. Scripts are never fixed, and there is an atmosphere of free-flowing ideas and improvisation on the sets. Changes are made throughout the production process as new ideas occur to the director. 'We were filming for more than four years,' Lau says. 'To begin with, we were shooting in Thailand, and initially I was just Lola the robot. 'At the time the plot was quite different. As a robot I didn't have much dialogue. It was only earlier this year that the director decided he wanted to add the part set in the '60s.' Lau, who has worked with Wong on two films, Days Of Being Wild and Ashes Of Time (1994), says she was well prepared for Wong's unorthodox and impulsive approach. 'He films as he goes along, making changes up to the last minute. The only thing that's different is that we all know each other better. That means we can communicate better. The difficult part is that we still want to add something new into the mix. 'We want this new work to be even more groundbreaking than the last.' Working with Wong is both a challenge and a thrill. 'Every time we started work, it was actually quite exciting,' Lau says. 'You never knew exactly what you were going to be filming.' She would arrive on the set only to be given a changed script and new dialogue. With most directors, last-minute alterations might be seen as a sign of poor preparation - but not with Wong. The director's unconventional approach is about working intuitively and he makes changes for a good reason, Lau says. He always explains why the changes are necessary to the plot and the characters. 'I like that he gives you lots and lots of opportunities to keep going until you have done your best, or what he feels is your best,' Lau says. 'With other directors, you might do two takes or perhaps three. That's okay for them. That's because the director has already made up his mind what exactly he wants from that shot. 'But Wong Kar-wai may want as many as 10, 20 takes. Then he'll come back and reshoot the whole scene.' Making a film this way may be time-consuming and costly but it has its bonuses, Lau says. 'I can try 10 different ways of delivering the same line of dialogue,' Lau says. 'For that to work, you must have a very rich imagination.' Working with Wong has taught the actress to appreciate the subtleties of relationships between people. 'His films are very intricate,' she says. Lau has played a string of highly diverse roles in the past 20 years, starting with her early days at TVB's acting school, but this is the first time she has played a robot. Initially, Lau's mechanical character has no emotions, but as the storyline in 2046 progresses the robot learns how to feel. Lau says that playing the two roles made her think about the relationships people have with their emotions and the way we deal with our feelings. While the robot is able to develop emotions, Lau's human character is less successful in trying to control hers. 'Maybe after you've been through a relationship, or you've been hurt or had a painful experience, you tell yourself not to repeat the way you handled your feelings. But in the end everyone's personality is what it is. You can't change it,' she says. 'It's like my character in Days Of Being Wild. She got hurt by Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing. So she decides that she when she finds another man, she won't get too involved. 'She tells herself: it's better to have a man who loves me than for me to love a man - maybe that will be less painful. But it ends up that after a while she gets really involved in a love affair, and it's really the same. Basically, when a relationship starts to get serious, you can't just say: I will be sensible, I won't get too involved. It just doesn't work. You can't control it.' Lau believes that what a person gets out of a relationship depends on how much he or she is willing to put in. 'If you don't get involved, you'll lose out on a lot of the happiness that comes from being in love,' she says. Lau spent more than four years working on 2046, but it was only in May this year that she was able to see the fruits of her labour, at the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Working right up to the final bell as always, Wong flew directly from the editing room to the festival. He courted plenty of controversy by missing some of the film's scheduled industry screenings. She describes this year's festival as a 'very happy' experience, but is wary of passing judgment on the film itself. 'I haven't really got into this film yet,' she says. 'There are so many different actors, but every shot is beautiful.' Lau says she would have to watch the film a few times before she could claim to have a handle on the complicated, cryptic plot. So, what comes next? Lau is considering several possible projects, but they are all still in the early stages of negotiation. For now, her priority is to get some well-earned rest. 'I really want to take a break,' she says. After a pause, she adds: 'But if a really good opportunity presents itself, I'm always open to offers.' PHOTOGRAPHER: Wing Shya, Shya-la-la STYLIST: Sean K HAIR: Boffy from Chin.G MAKEUP: Kamen