Archives

Autobiography Chapter 12: Don't Hope To Make TV Dramas Again

31 December 1995

Filming the first movie "Young And Dangerous: The Prequel", taught me to feel what is group living. Singing is very independent, it is a group activity, even forming a band is too. But filming a movie made me know that you cannot be short of anyone's importance. The director, the assistant director, the lights man....cannot be without one, a number of months I faced them day and night, I learnt how to get along in a group.

Before I filmed movies I thought the process would be very rigorous, serious in speech and manner. But in fact the actual situation was slightly different. Perhaps I was lucky to meet a bunch of workers who had a passion for films and also enjoy the process of making films. They valued and enjoyed their own work, it really is rare. This makes the actors and actresses and the director communicate even better. I think that if we were a bit more relaxed it would make it easier to study the role.

In fact initially I resisted accepting the role in Young And Dangerous, because beforehand Ekin had filmed 5 chapters at the end. I was scared the audience would feel bored. I thought, how could I attract everyone and the desire to go to see the film. The only thing was introducing the myth of Chan Ho Lam's birth.

Just on this belief, adding to that the fact I had met the director Andrew Lau. I decided to be in this movie, because I could see the director had heart to make a good movie. That's why I believed in him. I didn't look at the script beforehand. I always never liked to look at scripts, the reason was because the extent of my Chinese was not good. I only saw the story outline, I digested the story and the character of the role. And then when I was practising the lines on the set, I immersed myself into the role, to capture the role's essence. Suppose if I were this person, what would my response be? Then ask the director if the style of acting I thought of will make it more natural. This is my acting method.

I like this movie, because there are already not many bosses who will have the guts to use a bunch of newcomers to play the main roles. The only pity is that when it went up it was listed as adult. Plus it collided with period of the World Cup. Alas! Once every 4 years, there won't be anyone going out to see movies. But I didn't mind how the ticket sales were. Ticket sales cannot determine whether a movie is good or bad. As for my own performance, I feel it was up to standard. It seems that the director thinks that this kid, me, is not too bad. He could see that I at least was willing to gamble, willing to try and I achieved what he wanted. The feeling this director gives me whether it was real or fake I actually don't know. I hope I haven't got it wrong.

Filming my first movie and TV drama, the feeling was completely two different things. Movies told me to feel vitality, TV I only felt it was very industry standard, very rushed, very meaningless. Some people say that TV is more useful than movies, I say movies have more heart than TV. These are the so-called viewpoints and angles.

In this lifetime I hope I don't have another chance to make TV dramas. It is too wasteful of my hard work, it's meaningless to use a lot of ideas to think of how to film it good. But at the end they unexpectedly told me to just follow the script and that will do. I am disgusted by this kind of shooting system. The structure is too untraditional. Even if inside there are a lot of workers and director who have hearts to do well there it is useless. No choice, the TV Company's system basically doesn't match with me. The set only had 6 hours and everyday we could only constantly rush shooting.

I dislike the fact that the main role's partner holding a couple of TV dramas at the same time even more. This minute playing this role, the next minute going to that role, the third minute going to another role. I'm not doubt their ability, but wouldn't it be better to put your full concentration into one drama? Will you capture the essentials shooting like this? Or are you just done by handing over the person?

I have said a lot of bad points, after all does making dramas have any good points? Yes it does, I like that kind of family style living. Everyone is trapped inside the set, it is more groupy than movies. Because of shooting dramas, I have made a lot of friends. I have learnt the way to get along with people, the spirit of supporting each other. Like when me and Wai Gaa Hung unceasingly filmed for three days and three nights. Tired to the point that it was unbearable. The two of us spread ourselves on the judo mat and rolled up pretending to be a Chinese sausage roll. Tired to the point I had to do these stupid things to support myself, to forget about sleepiness. Really even myself laughed out loud.

In fact I'm a person who sees friendship as being very important, when I shot this "Aiming High", even the extras became my friends. I feel that really friends have no class separation. Hawick Lau, Timmy Hung and Nicola Cheung are good. We, a bunch of young people, are very good together. Sometimes we shoot till 4am. At 5 o'clock we all go out to eat midnight snacks together. A bunch of friends, joking while eating and drinking. The pains from before are temporarily forgotten.

Copyright © 2010 www.multistars.com www.nicholas-tse.net All rights reserved.