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Picture: Edward Wong

Filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang on sexuality and being touched by a goddess

The award-winning independent film director talks about his childhood, homosexuality, Uma Thurman and meeting Guanyin

GOLDEN AGE I grew up in the ’60s. Then, all people watched movies. It wasn’t like now, where you have all sorts of entertainment. It was the golden age of cinema. I was born in a small town in Malaysia called Kuching, which had about a dozen theatres and I spent my childhood there, watching two films a night. I was brought up by my grand­parents, who sold noodles. My parents also sold noodles but they had too many children, so my grandparents took care of me. I would take turns going with one of them to watch movies. I watched old Cantonese films, those made by the Shaw brothers, American movies, Hollywood blockbusters, Malaysian films and Bollywood ones.

ANOTHER WORLD When I went to Taiwan for uni­versity, I picked drama and film. I wasn’t sure what the difference was between film and theatre, but I had a life-changing moment there. At that time, [Asian territories] were either very conservative and isolated, like mainland China, or more liberal, like Hong Kong and Taiwan. The only films available to those in the latter were commercial and politically correct ones. There were two factors that determined the content of our films – government and businessmen. They decided what we could or could not watch and what should be cut out. I didn’t know there was another world of movies. Suddenly, martial law was lifted and we had freedom of expression, so things and information exploded and we were quickly liberalised. Taiwan was one of the first places to hold film festivals and have film archives. I was only a university student but I became a cineaste. I finally saw all the movies that weren’t accessible when I had been younger – classic movies and art films.

SUFFERING FOR HIS ART Everyone says the most difficult part of making movies is finance. But, if you want to earn money, don’t make independent films – although if you do it well, you will be able to earn some. [Making films in the United States is] even more difficult; you have to con­sider the box office earnings and you are controlled by your boss and audi­ences. It’s the same with any other industry; whether or not it’s difficult simply depends on you.

Tsai Ming-liang with Yang Kwei-mei, star of Vive L'Amour.
BLESSED ARE THE FILMMAKERS The most reward­ing experience isn’t being recognised by people, but a god speaking to you. In 1994, I was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. I was a new director and it was only my second film, but I was competing in an inter­national competition. From what I had heard, opinions on my movie (Vive L’Amour) were polarised. Some people strongly disliked it and some loved it, but everyone thought, “This is a new director so he won’t get an award.”

The night before the award ceremony, I saw Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) in my dream. She sang to me and I was so touched that I started crying. I saw her hand touching my head, like a scene from the movies. And I told (the film’s star) Lee Kang-sheng, who I was sharing a room with, that we would win tomorrow. The next morning, we were immediately told that we had won an award.

Uma Thurman. Photo: Felix Wong

A SENSE OF UMA Many years later, I was one of the judges in a panel for the Festival del Film Locarno, in Switzerland. I chatted with the manager, who had also managed the panel for the Venice Film Festival the year I received the award. He told me that I initially hadn’t been given the highest prize. The judges had had a huge debate and decided to compromise in the end, by giving me a consolation prize. But the next day, the director of the film festival received a phone call from the celebrity Uma Thurman, who was one of the judges who supported me. She asked, “Have you signed?” He said, “Not yet because I was drunk last night.” And she told him not to sign and that he needed to hold the vote again. So I ended up coming joint first (with the Macedonian film Before the Rain). I still haven’t met her but I think we are connected by fate. Last year, a sifu from the Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist foundation published a book and someone helped him translate it into Chinese. For some reason, the sifu asked me to write a prologue, even though we hadn’t met.

I was very touched by his writing and, after the book was published, I discovered there were two prologues. One for the original English version and one for the Chinese translation. One is mine and the other was written by the father of Uma Thurman, who’s a Buddhist.

SELF-EXPRESSION I use homosexuality as subject matter but not for making money. Filmmaking is a creative process as well as a way of self-expression. Very early on, a friend from Hong Kong who really liked my films suggested that I participate in the London LGBT Film Festival. I thank­ed him but I rejected the suggestion. At the time, society was very conservative and I did not want my film to be branded. But now I would not mind. It’s a learning process, learning to accept homosexuality and myself.

Tsai Ming-liang has teamed up with multimedia sound artist GayBird to present an avant-garde theatre show, One Zero, which will be performed on Friday at 8pm, and on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm and 8pm, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre. Tickets cost HK$320. For inquiries, call 2370 1044.

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