‘These days, anyone can call themselves actors’: why Chan Kin-long turned to directing with Hand Rolled Cigarette, Hong Kong Film Awards winner
- Chan Kin-long started out wanting to be an actor, and played a variety of roles before making his directing and screenwriting debut with Hand Rolled Cigarette
- He doesn’t accept that ‘models or influencers’ can now call themselves actors without basic film knowledge, and hopes to gain acceptance as a director
Among the actors in a trailer for the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony held on April 16 was Chan Kin-long, an increasingly familiar face in the city’s film industry.
The metaphor is apt for Chan, who has developed an unwavering obsession with film since he first discovered it.
On the surface Hand Rolled Cigarette is a crime thriller, but it is much more than that, Chan says. “It is a metaphor for romance [or a special connection]. You lick the paper when you roll a cigarette, and if that cigarette ends up in between the lips of someone else, they end up smoking [particles of] your saliva.
“There is a certain closeness [and patience] in the act.”
Before making his directing debut with Hand Rolled Cigarette, Chan had made many screen appearances and earlier in his career worked in film production roles, including lighting.
“I’d say my official debut came with Fruit Chan’s The Midnight After,” Chan says.
Adapted from the popular 2012 web novel Lost on a Red Minibus to Tai Po, the 2014 satirical horror comedy has paranormal and apocalyptic themes and received its international premiere at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.
Chan Kin-long plays a supporting role as the rowdy “Glu-Stick”.
“I started out wanting to be an actor, but the scene is so different now compared to the old times – these days, anyone can call themselves actors, even models or influencers,” he says.
“It’s a joke, really; It shouldn’t be this way. Even if you didn’t go to drama school, you should at least be able to discuss film in a way that matters. There should be a foundation of basic knowledge.
“Of course, there are natural born talents, but I feel that these days, it’s a lot of ‘KOLs’ using ‘actor’ as an identity.”
Chan adds: “You can print that – I don’t mind.”
As for the question of how he defines himself now, Chan says that he sees himself more as a director or a multidisciplinary creative person. Despite being somewhat cynical about the commercial and populist nature of entertainment and how “it’s all PR, branding and marketing”, he admits that it is within the film industry that he wishes to gain respect more than anything else.
“I feel like if the industry accepts me, I’m all right. Everything else will follow.” Chan says. “At the end of the day, everyone has different tastes and preferences. I can never appeal to every audience. All I can do is to keep creating.”
Chan concludes the interview with a quote from Konstantin Stanislavski, the influential Russian theatre practitioner, about how actors should not get trapped in their own vanity: “Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.”
