Directors debut Overheard 3

Mak, Chong believe improvement in storylines helping HK films

At the Walter Reade Theatre at New York's Lincoln Center, two famous Hong Kong directors, Alan Mak and Felix Chong, were staying back stage. "The back stage is specially designed for movie stars to exit the theatre fast and safe," said Ted Geoghegan, publicist for the New York Asian Film Festival.

A volunteer working at the festival, and also a fan of the two directors, asked Mak and Chong to sign the DVD of Infernal Affairs, which is the best-known film by the two directors.

The 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller written by Mak and Chong tells the story of a police officer who infiltrates and works undercover in a gang.

Infernal Affairs won the best original screenplay at the 40th Golden Horse Awards and the best screenplay at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards. It was remade by American director Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director, his second Golden Globe for Best Director, a Critics' Choice Award and his first Directors Guild of America Award.

Mak and Chong attended the international premiere for their new movie, Overheard 3 on June 27 at the Walter Reade Theater, where the audience cheered the film from beginning to end. Longtime fans of the Overheard series bonded with those who were just experiencing it for the first time, calling it "spectacular" and "very exciting".

"Though I didn't get the chance to talk to every audience member, they seemed to like it,"Mak said.

Overheard 3 is a story about conspiracies in real estate in Hong Kong.

"It's illegal to sell land to people in Hong Kong, but everybody just does it. But no one says a word about it. Everybody just keeps silent," said Mak, while putting his hands over his mouth.

"However, as property prices go up, people care more and more about this issue, but nobody can find any solution to it," Chong added.

In Overheard 3 the directors broke the mode for crime films, eliminating a plot involving police and gunshot scenes.

Chong said audiences' tastes are changing so fast that "we have to keep up and change; there's no way we can do the same kind of movies all the time."

"Certain movies used to have really high box-office receipts before, so movie makers followed the trend, but things are different now. Hong Kong movies have become more diverse," said Chong.

According to Mak and Chong, more directors are paying attention to the screenplay, which they said affects the quality and efficiency of production.

"Hong Kong movies were known for improvisation, nobody really cared about the screenplay, though the black humor might be good sometimes, the production was not reliable," Chong explained.

Improvement in storylines is also contributing to the development of Hong Kong films, they said.

"Because the movies are a collaboration of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, we need at least one or two actors from the mainland," said Mak. "But in previous movies, actors from the mainland were asked to play Hong Kong people, and it was really hard because though we're all Chinese people, there's still a cultural difference."

"Right now, we understand that's not working, so we change the story and the background of the characters, and let them play people who have emigrated from the mainland. Therefore, the acting is more authentic," added Mak.

Chong noted that many people from the mainland live and do business in Hong Kong. "Because of this, the audiences accept the fact that when they see characters talking in different dialects, in Mandarin and Cantonese, and they are still having a conversation."

"The collaboration of movies with the Chinese mainland also gives Hong Kong a huge market, so directors don't have to make a blockbuster film for money. The competition happens in creativity now. I think for Chinese movies, this is a great thing," Chong said.

Noting that the future market for movies made in Hong Kong is the Chinese mainland, Mak said: "I think for movie makers, you can only make a story out of your own culture."

Chong agreed: "We need to have a Chinese version of Transformer to satisfy the taste of the mainland audience. We need to create something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we need to innovate based on our own culture."

For China Daily

(China Daily USA 07/04/2014 page3)