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I was born in Hong Kong. My parents sent me to Guangzhou to study in secondary Form Two. They were worried that I would be led astray in Hong Kong.
After returning to Hong Kong in 1975, I worked for Bank of China for two years. The nine-to-five lifestyle did not suit me. I was so bored I watched 200 movies.
I decided to study film in San Francisco. Then I came back to Hong Kong to become a cinematographer.
A cinematographer is responsible for [a film’s] artistic and technical aspects.
You can have a director with no experience but not a cinematographer who has never made a film before.
Twenty five percent of my time goes into the creative side and 75 percent into management.
All bad movies are due to bad management skills. You get a bad script because you did not spend enough time to develop the story. Rubbish post-production is usually due to insufficient time and money.
All this is non-artistic work, but it can make or break a movie.
I always tell investors to slow down. You cannot keep asking for a release date if you do not have a script yet.
For “Zhongkui,” I did not want to tell mythologies that have been told time and time again: That monsters are evil and good humans ought to kill them all.
Monsters may not be that evil. Humans make mistakes and even gods can be wrong.
Let’s not even talk about the possible political inferences—it’s more about introducing something different to most Chinese mythology movies, where there is a simple divide between right and wrong.
It is not a new idea, but we want to challenge the audience so that in the future they might not jump to conclusions about what is good and evil.
I did not expect to win an Oscar at all. The morning of the Oscars, when I opened the LA Times, I read that two prominent critics both predicted that I would win. Only then did I think I could actually win this thing.
I thanked everyone really quickly. I thanked Hongkongers in Cantonese, the Putonghua-speaking crew in Putonghua and others in English.
The next morning, a radio host said there were two highlights at last night’s Oscars. One was my speech: someone edited it to make it sound like I was rapping.
I do not have any baggage; any idea that because I am an Oscar winner, I must do this or I must not do that.
I only do what the story requires. I’m no longer a stubborn person. Filmmaking is now not about doing what I want, but what the story dictates that I do.
My motto is that you are only as good as your last picture.
When working on “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” we studied the composition, framing and the use of negative space in Chinese paintings. It was a great inspiration for Ang Lee.
Ang Lee said to me, “Peter, I want to have a vertical format.” That was because Chinese paintings are vertical. But we couldn’t make it work. It’s still only a dream.
The Chinese audience expects movies to spell out the story. In “Zhongkui,” there are two five-minute scenes with hardly any dialogue.
I do not want to just please the audience. I want to guide them.
I am energetic when I make movies.Without film, I am nothing.
Going forward, I would like to make movies adapted from novels. Writing is not my strength. I’m good at translating stories into visuals.
Chinese and Hong Kong directors are not so good at making sci-fi films, as it requires a strong technical background. The top 50 bestselling movies all involve advanced technology, from “Avatar” to “Titanic” to “The Lord of the Rings.”
I have worked in Hollywood, but I found that there is an established language to each genre. It was boring to me.
I would never leave Hong Kong, though I work a lot in the mainland.
My favorite things about Hong Kong are food safety, free internet and that the air is slightly better than some Chinese cities.
Peter Pau’s new movie “Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” opened Mar 12.

Need to know... "Zhongkui" is Pau's first directorial effort in 13 years. The 3D fantasy adventure tells the story of Chinese demon-hunting folk legend Zhongkui (Chen Kun), whose love for a snow monster (Li Bingbing) gets in the way of Heaven, Earth and Hell.



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Peter Pau

Photo: Nora Tam / SCMP

Magazines

Cinematographer and director Peter Pau won an Academy Award in 2011 for his work on “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and has six Hong Kong Film Awards under his belt. He’s worked on classics such as John Woo’s “The Killer” and Ronny Yu’s “The Bride with White Hair.” He tells Yannie Chan about his new movie “Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal” and what it’s like to win an Oscar.
