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Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To talked through his long career, including his free-wheeling style of shooting, in conversation with Japanese director Yu Irie at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). He also acknowledged that Hong Kong filmmakers now have less freedom than they once had.
Yu Irie, this year’s director in focus in TIFF’s Nippon Cinema Now section, said he’d grown up watching Hong Kong films and counted To’s Exiled and The Mission among his favourite movies.
When quizzed, To said it was true that he shot Exiled and several other films without a screenplay: “For me, creating a proper screenplay before you start shooting means that the movie is already completed. I wouldn’t be able to do my best shoot.”
“I know before I start shooting where the scene is going to begin, where it ends, and where we’re going to make the cuts,” To continued. “All that is inside my head.”
When asked how those working methods affected his actors, he said: “Around one third of the way in, the actors will know what the director is looking for and will have captured the spirit of the movie.”
But he then smiled and said: “It’s probably not the best style of filmmaking. I wouldn’t recommend it to young filmmakers.”
The legendary filmmaker, who is also serving on TIFF’s competition jury along with Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, also talked about how he’d often shoot two or even three movies simultaneously.
“It would be like one commercial movie, one more personal, perhaps another film as well. I’d start shooting one thing, then drop it for a few months if I wasn’t feeling inspired. All the different styles and methods of directing, I could distinguish between them in my head.”
Speaking of his 2008 crime caper film Sparrow, which screened in competition at Berlin film festival, he said: “We spent two to three years making the film. We didn’t have enough funding, so we’d shoot another film to raise money and then come back to it.”
He returned to the subject of young filmmakers when asked by an audience member about the current state of Hong Kong’s film industry. “When it comes to expression and execution, there have been some regulations introduced in Hong Kong,” said To, apparently referring to the increased censorship imposed over the past few years by Beijing.
Last year, three films in Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival were deemed problematic by local censors and were only allowed to screen with some blacked-out scenes and muted sound. Johnnie To established the annual festival, which takes place over the summer, to support emerging filmmakers in Hong Kong.
“If you’re trying to create a film, you have to be ready to understand how the censorship is working,” To continued. “If you have something to say in this world, you have to think about how you’re going to say it and how truthful or clear you can be.”
He also said young filmmakers shouldn’t feel like they don’t have any options. “If you can’t create the film in Hong Kong, make it in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, or even here in Japan. The most important thing is to have talent, and if you have talent, you can make a film anywhere. It’s up to you to make it happen, but you have to do it in a smart way.”
To also called for more investment in the Hong Kong film industry, whether government or private, as that’s the only way to create more opportunities for young filmmakers: “I’m going to be 70 [years old] soon. Perhaps I can keep working for another ten years, but I’ll be an old man. The situation has changed, the times have changed.”
The conversation between To and Yu Irie took place as part of Tokyo International Film Festival’s TIFF Lounge series. The TIFF Lounge talks continue tomorrow with Cannes film festival’s Christian Jeune in conversation with some of the filmmakers selected for TIFF’s Nippon Cinema Now section, including Takino Hirohito, Yang Liping, Kim Yunsoo and Mark Gill.
