2006.04.02 “The Reminiscence of Leslie’s Artistic Life” Seminar - Part 1

Leslie Cheung’s Real and Sincerity in the Movies
Date: 2006.04.02
Guest Speakers: Mr. Jacob Cheung and Mr. Jason Lam Kei To
2006.04.02 張國榮影像中的真與誠….. 張之亮先生、林紀陶先生

Translated by Daydreamer on March 14, 2007

PART 1

Leslie Cheung’s Real and Sincerity in the Movies – PART 1

Preface

Jason Lam Kei To:

The subject of today’s seminar is “Leslie Cheung’s Real and Sincerity in the Movies”. In the later stage of his movie career, Leslie did not put the “real and sincerity” in his heart only, rather, he expressed them through the movies that he played.

I would like to share with all of you something that I experienced yesterday. Yesterday was April 1st and to make a living, we still had to work as usual. I met with three movie workers. In our meeting, unexpectedly we all talked about Gorgor. We felt it necessary to give a minute to him. We therefore observed a minute’s silence to commemorate this good friend of ours and of the movie world too. We will continue to do so every year because we all miss Gorgor. After we observed one minute’s silence, Mr. Joe Cheung Tung-Cho, whom we called “daddy” in the movie circle, said that we all could not forget Gorgor because his acts and doings in the later stage of his movie-making career have become a paragon, an example for all movie workers. In “The Kid”, Gorgor only accepted $1 as his remuneration. He expressed his love and sincerity towards movies by taking actual action. In this year’s commemorative activity, therefore, it is of perfect timing and most appropriate for us to invite Mr. Jacob Cheung to be our guest speaker. Mr. Cheung has exchanged many experiences with Gorgor in the movie “The Kid”, some of which even I myself have not had the chance to be aware of. Moreover, Mr. Cheung has also participated in the production of the short film “From Ashes to Ashes” that Gorgor later directed. Let me pass the mike on to Mr. Cheung.

The Preliminary Idea of “The Kid”

Jacob Cheung:

I am not very good in expressing myself in words. Today, I am here to share with you my own personal feeling and sentiment towards Gorgor, as well as some of the things that you may or may not have already known about him. What I can say is that because of my collaboration with him, I therefore have had the opportunity to be here today to share with you about Gorgor. Today’s topic is about the real and sincerity of his artistic life, actually, I am inappropriate to talk about this topic because I am not too familiar with Gorgor’s performance and his life. The things that I may share with you are only those I actually saw and came across when we shot the movie “The Kid” together.

I remember that in 1998, the movie industry in Hong Kong was at its lowest point. Many workers in that industry were jobless. One of the reasons that it went downhill was due to the rampant video piracy. Besides, people were disappointed with the Hong Kong movies. They did not go to the cinema any more. At that time, under the motivation of some twenty directors, “Creative Alliance” was established with a hope to revive the industry. We were thinking of inviting some respectful directors, such as Ann Hui On-Wah (許鞍華), Mabel Cheung Yuen Ting (張婉婷), Wong Kar Wai (王家衛) and Stanley Kwan Kam Pang (關錦鵬) to earnestly shoot some movies. We also wished to invite some famous actors, like Gorgor, to play in those movies. The way it would work is first we had the directors, then the stories and actors, afterwards, we would arrange for the movies to be sold to overseas. After calculating how much money we could earn from the sale of the movie to Taiwan, how much rewards we could expect from the Hong Kong videotapes and how much money the cinema owners would lend us, with the actors not receiving any remuneration, and the main crew members cutting their salaries as much as possible, we hoped that the costs of the whole production could be reduced by 30 to 40% because we knew that the major part of the production costs would probably be spent on the remuneration of the actors.

Once we had those ideas in mind, the directors were to come up with some subject matters for the movies. At that time, I was one of them. I was thinking what the society required most with people facing financial crisis and negative assets then. One day, when I was on the bus, I saw a pregnant woman. Giving birth to a new life was a happy thing but all I could see on her face was sadness. I thought what did Hong Kong need the most at that time. As a movie worker, I was thinking of the message that I could convey to and share with the audience. Actually, it was a very happy thing to bring happiness to others. Uncle Qiao Hong (喬宏), an actor who has already passed away, said that he did not mind playing comical roles because comedies could bring happiness to audience. I thought to myself, under what circumstances would Hong Kong people smile again, and how could we make a comedy. We therefore watched Charlie Chaplin’s movies over and over again. One of them which touched me most was called “The Kid [Charlie and the Kid]” (差利與小孩). We thought who could play Charlie’s role. If the movie “The Kid” was to be re-made, we hoped the people would realize how much they had lost: the loss of loved ones and departure of relatives, failure of business investment, and many other unfortunate things. However, no matter how unfortunate those things were, they could not replace the ones who we loved in our life. In order to deal with daily life’s worries and troubles, many Hong Kong people have therefore neglected their closest friends and relatives. At that moment, I thought it would be good to convey such a message by way of a comedy. In the “Creative Alliance”, different director was to make a movie with a different theme, and one of them was “The Kid”.

We then started looking for Charlie. Derek Yee suggested that I should try contacting Gorgor, yet I was doubtful if Gorgor could play the role of Charlie well. At that same time, something else was bothering me too. Although I concurred with the ideas of the “Creative Alliance”, yet I was worried about how people would think of us. We were merely a team of back stage crew members who were jobless, yet we tried to find an excuse to ask the group of famous actors to help out the Hong Kong movie industry by not receiving any remuneration, that feeling was not very good! I therefore could not make up my mind whether I should contact Gorgor or not. Finally, I realized that if we did not invite a famous actor to participate, the movie would likely be unable to be completed. Even if it was completed, there might not be any audience. Not that other directors and I had not made movies of similar theme before, the thing was not too many people were interested in watching them. Moreover, our self-complexity and doubts towards others restrained us from taking any action, including our thinking of using a “popular” actor; we thought that there were too many con games in human nature that we did not want to get involved. Derek Yee eventually contacted Gorgor. He mentioned the project to him on the phone. After Gorgor knew about it, and I remember that in less than a week’s time, a meeting was set up.

One Day at 3 p.m. in the Coffee Shop of the Peninsula Hotel

Jacob Cheung:

That day, we met in the Coffee Shop of the Peninsula Hotel at 3 p.m. I was very nervous. On the one hand, he was a true superstar, someone whom I like very much, and on the other hand, it was as if I had to market to him the idea of not accepting any remuneration. Before I had had the opportunity to explain the script to Gorgor, he already indicated that he understood it. Most probably before we met, he had learned of the complete issue from Shi Nansheng (施南生) or from some other people. My worry therefore was unnecessary. He understood well that the group of movie workers involved merely wanted to do something good. Gorgor mentioned that he would participate in the making of the movie because he hoped that everyone could go back to work, and the most important thing was that the crew members could have some income; he would not mind of any other arrangements. He only wanted to make a good film and that everyone could work together. I thought, “Everything happens so quickly, I haven’t even had a chance to tell him about my story!” ( Jason Lam Kei To: Right, you still haven’t said what you’ve prepared to say!) From that moment onwards, Gorgor never had any regrets, nor complaints. For one dollar only, he signed a contract to play in that movie. In order for a contract to be valid, it required a value, we therefore put in the amount of $1. That was the beginning of the whole issue. The Gorgor I saw then was the same Gorgor I met twenty years ago at the making of the movie “Merry Christmas”. I was the producer then. At that time, the role that Gorgor played only required him to work for three to four days. He was the boyfriend of Loretta Lee Lai Chun in the movie. During the shooting of that film, he came and went quietly after his part was finished. At that time, I did not know Gorgor well. Until our collaboration this time, I still had not told him that I was the person who used to call and notify him of the schedule for shooting the movie “Merry Christmas”. I was too shy to do that. (Jason Lam Kei To: I think he would remember you in any event.)

Gorgor and Ming Jai

Jacob Cheung:

From then on, we began to work on the script of “The Kid”. We would send the script to Gorgor for his review and comments once it was ready. Gorgor said to me, “Director, please arrange as you wish. I wish that on the whole issue you do not have to face a lot of pressure. The most important thing is let us work together to make a good film. I don’t want to affect your decision.” Therefore, Gorgor had not provided too much opinion on the revisions of the script or on anything else. Perhaps he did find the script satisfactory.

Another difficulty we were facing was to find a kid to play the role of Ming Jai. We needed to find a kid who could make people moved. I felt that to make this movie successful, apart from Gorgor, we also needed a lovely kid to make the audience feel that he was our own child, someone close to us. It was my preference that this kid better not know how to act and had no contact with film-making at all because I did not want his facial expression to be too formalized. At that time, we put up advertisement and invited many kids to come for audition. Finally, I reviewed the video tape of those kids who did not get elected and finally chose “the four years old Ming Jai”. Many thought that this kid was only four years old, it was impossible for him to know how to act. The reason that we did not have too much funds, in reality we were not permitted to over-budget, nor were we allowed to spend more than thirty days to film the picture, we therefore had to choose a kid who knew how to control his own mood, and had a lovely, pure and naive outer appearance. Another candidate was eight years old. He understood well what he was required to do and he was very easy to communicate with. Comparatively, I found the four years old kid more favourable, feeling that he was Ming Jai. The kid who was eight years old was very sensible. What followed was that we sent the pictures of those two kids together with the casting to Gorgor for his review. Gorgor expressed that it was difficult to choose that way. He wanted to meet with them personally. We therefore arranged for a group of kids to meet with him. Since denying a kid at a one-on-one interview to determine his chance of playing in the movie would affect him psychologically and it was something we did not want to do, we therefore arranged for a large group of kids to attend together. They met and talked with Gorgor. Gorgor told me that personally he liked the four years old kid. I then said to him, “Well, that is your choice; if he does not listen to you, then….. hahaha!”

We had a mutual consensus that we would not use a reward-punish method to encourage the kid. That was not too good! The kid still had a long road to walk. It was not a good method to show our encouragement by rewarding him with, say, an apple or playing a game with him if he acted nicely. Gorgor felt the same. We could not affect the kid’s viewpoint about the value of things. It was adults’ business to make the movie, we should not affect the kid. As Gorgor said, he would arrive early at the set before the camera started to roll every day to play with the kid. They did play happily, just like good friends. He did so everyday in order to establish a good relationship with the kid, to make the kid feel that he was a family member and not merely an actor. The kid’s family praised Gorgor of his understanding and kindness. Gorgor had become his friend, not merely for the sake of making the movie, but the important thing was that he hoped the kid in future would not change his viewpoint about the value of acting or the value of being a human being. That was the method we adapted. We never gave a gift to the kid. We wanted the kid to know that because he was not a professional, therefore he could play the game poorly; however, once he participated in that game he must finish it, just like every man must finish whatever he had started. Gorgor had imbued him with an education.

It was tough for Gorgor to be on the set everyday. On the one hand, he had to put himself into his character, and on the other hand, he had to make the kid establish a good relationship with him. The pressure he faced came from two directions: on the one hand, he did not want to let the audience down. He knew the image he gave to the audience was of the upper middle or white-collared class, yet now he had to portray himself as one who lost all his fortune overnight, he therefore had to deliver a good and persuasive performance making the audience appreciative of his acting skills; on the other hand, he had to consider whether the kid would understand his performance and must also take into consideration that his mood did not affect the kid. As he said, he was relatively laborious. First, his opponent was just a kid; second, he did not want to disappoint the audience of his performance; third, he did not want people to have the impression that because this was a pro bono movie and that he did not receive any reward, the movie therefore was not a good one. You can imagine how much pressure he was under.

Gorgor’s Invisible Impetus

Jacob Cheung:

At all times, Gorgor tried not to affect the director’s creation, but on the whole matter, his impetus was very important. We had contacted several actresses inviting them to play the female role but they all declined our invitation. The reason was that playing the role of a mother, which role was eventually played by Qiqi, was unacceptable to them (Jason Lam Kei To: That role was not flattering! Perhaps the viewpoint about the value of that role was not too good, however, the truth was a different matter!) The viewpoint on value really is something worth discussing; however, today we are not going to do that. Some actors said that they wanted their image to be like this or like that, however, when they were an actor, their main job was to play the role well. The image of their life and the image of their performance are two different things. After Gorgor learned of the issue, he was not very happy. He voluntarily contacted several actresses, but from his perspective, he had his own difficulty because he had participated in this movie, he did not want to stand in the front line, he only wanted to stay behind and help. Afterwards, subsequent to some discussions, we decided to invite someone who was not an actress to play this role. Gorgor suggested Qiqi. He said, “Try to contact Qiqi, she is good!” I asked him if he minded. He said, “No, since we are not boyfriend and girlfriend in the movie!” As we all know, Qiqi is very tall and many actors will mind, but not Gorgor. Later on, I contacted Qiqi and she accepted my invitation right away. She also just received a symbolized amount as remuneration. Both Ti Lung and Carrie Ng Kar Lai were supportive of this movie too. It was simply because that even Gorgor was supportive of this movie, no one therefore had anything to say. As a result, many other people supported and participated.