Wong Kar-wai on As Tears Go By
From City Entertainment (Hong Kong). No. 241 (pp. 24-25). Interview conducted in Cantonese in 1988. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Translated by Silver Wai-ming Lee from Chinese.
The test-screening room was almost full when I entered. The film had started before I settled down in the smoke-filled room. I had lots of questions when watching the film. After the screening, I sat down with director Wong Kar-wai and asked him some questions.
Wong is the screenwriter of Once upon a Rainbow. He met Patrick Tam after joining Always Good Film where he conceptualized Final Victory and Sweet Surrender. After overcoming some obstacles, he eventually directed his first film.
Lok Ching: Why is it titled Mong Kok Carmen?
Wong Kar-wai: Mong Kok Carmen is actually another story about a love story between a young police inspector and a dancehall girl. I set the story of Carmen in Mong Kok.1 But some actors thought I was filming that story. When asked by journalists what they were making, the actors said it was “Mong Kok Carmen.” I originally wanted to revise [the title], but everyone thought there was nothing wrong with it. So we just let it be.
LC: How did you come up with the idea of the film?
WKW: I had the story outline of As Tears Go By before writing Final Victory. It was inspired by a very short piece of news: two underage youngsters were instigated by the gang to kill someone. After getting paid and having a wild night of fun, they took action.
LC: Can you analyze the personalities of the three main characters?
WKW: They are all doing things that they ought not do. Maggie Cheung should not be staying together with Andy Lau. He is a temptation to her, but it ends up that she could never own him. Fly (played by Jacky Cheung) keeps on trying to do something of which he is incapable. Andy Lau should not have taken care of Jacky Cheung, but there is no other way out.
LC: Was this an idea that you had for a long time, or was it just a feeling towards these characters?
WKW: I do not make up my stories in a box. As a story develops, the personalities of the characters cannot be separated from your own preferences. The story can be developed in various ways, but it originates from you. It is like, based on my own understanding, I think these characters would react in such a way. My films are not about stories. I develop plots from the characters’ personalities. I believe the story is not important, but the characters are.
LC: Would you talk about the relationship between Final Victory and As Tears Go By?
WKW: I would say the two films are a match. The two films have similar angles. I wrote both scripts with similar themes and characters so people feel the two films are alike. At that time we had three stories related to teenage characters. I was a bit tired of them. Characters continue to develop and stories might extend from this development. I have come to know these people during that particular period of time. So I portrayed them, thinking they were interesting. I don’t believe in research because it is impossible to know someone’s story just by chatting with them for a day or so. It takes time. I became friends with them, and we spent time together. I came to fathom how they lived. I couldn’t start creating the story until I understood these people. There is a sense of distance if you write without being clear about something.
When writing about these kinds of people, screenwriters usually portray them in the gangster genre. But I do not want the characters to be too clear-cut, too “black and white.” The characters have a lot of weaknesses. Like Andy Lau, you cannot say he is a positive character. This kind of portrayal might not be easily accepted by the audience. In Final Victory, the protagonists Tsui Hark and Eric Tsang have weaknesses too. But I think they are humans, and humans have weaknesses. The audience’s acceptance of the characters depends on their portrayals. If they are vividly portrayed, the audience can feel it.
Final Victory is packaged by Patrick Tam. An audience from that social class of the protagonists may feel distant when watching the film. As Tears Go By may have the same problem too. But I believe if I made the film in a raw way, it would be quite innovative. My angle is to express my feelings within the main lines of the characters.
LC: Why are the relationships between the protagonists so special?
WKW: Some things are difficult to write about: why a man likes a woman, brotherhood, etc. These things are very subtle. But I want to raise the point that time is the most important factor. It’s the contact between people. If I stay with you for a long time, it is like turning pages in a daily calendar and your marks can be found on every page. This kind of relationship is unconsciously built up. I did not know why I had to help you, but I just did. This is clearly stated in the last scene that takes place by the sea in Final Victory.
LC: Another example would be the relationship between Eric Tsang and Loletta Lee in Final Victory as well as that between Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung in As Tears Go By. Why would the relationships build up so groundlessly?
WKW: I feel the relationship between a man and a woman cannot be qualified by the length spent on them in the film, like the protagonists in Waterloo Bridge—they fall in love just after bumping into each other underground. In terms of the lightning during the scene at the pier, it is all a work of nature. It does not imply anything.
LC: The music in As Tears Go By starts so suddenly; is this your idea?
WKW: Some use of music is intended. Another reason is that we were in a hurry during postproduction. For example, we planned to insert a love theme in the sequences of “Take My Breath Away,” but we gave up due to copyrights. Shooting was completed on the 27th and the film premiere was scheduled at midnight on the 4th,2 so we used whatever music we had at hand. The theaters are screening the C Copy now. I hadn’t watched the output myself until I went to the theater. I had to spend days and nights filming during the last month, so I asked William Chang to help me edit. He did well as he knew this film best. Patrick Tam edited two action scenes. O Sing-pui edited the scenes with Alex Man. Stanley Kwan helped with the dubbing. I made the final cut.
I am still working on some mixing to make the soundtrack better.
LC: Is anything cut out?
WKW: I changed the ending, deleting the scene at the jail. I let Andy Lau to die during the shootout. I don’t want the scene in which Maggie Cheung remains speechless when seeing Andy Lau being mentally impaired.3 The reason for the change is that the movie is too long. It is impossible to run 9,300 feet of film reel. Also, many people want Andy Lau’s character to die because they cannot accept him as an idiot. Being mentally impaired is more unacceptable than death. I think it does not matter to end [note: WKW said cut] the movie at this point. I only want to express that they have some energy and how they release it. There isn’t much difference in what the consequence is. This is an instinct. At that moment, they do it without considering the consequences. They have never made rational decisions.
LC: Is it that they plan rationally before taking action but are unusually emotional at the last minute?
WKW: Maybe they suppress themselves before taking action but finally do it. I know many people of this kind, and I have also witnessed their behavior in this way. When they reach a certain age, they become worldly and their energy fades away. They would feel miserable when they are aware that they could not do whatever comes to mind.
LC: Are you satisfied with this change in the ending?
WKW: The ending now is made in the most efficient way. And it is too simple to the general audience. There are not enough time and tension to bring the audience to the climax. I think this ending is weak, but acceptable.
LC: The action scenes are very special; are they improvisations? And do they intentionally represent different stages?
WKW: Actually I do not like formulated choreography. The real violence does not rest with movement, but with feeling. There should be one point in every fight scene, like in the scene at the open-air food stall. I shot it from the viewpoint of Andy Lau. When he wants to kill a guy, the camera focuses on that guy. Andy Lau stares at that guy and cannot see what happens around him. He is full of rage; he is as furious as the horrendous heat at the food stall. The only thing in his mind is that his rage will fade away after the killing.
The chase scene at the pool hall is a sudden event. The ending scene was shot from Jacky Cheung’s viewpoint. At that very moment, he can hear very acutely, so you hear the noises from the police vehicles and people.
LC: How was the shaking effect made in the fight scenes?
WKW: I made it by ‘adding frames’ when shooting. I shot with the frame rate at twelve frames per second (usually a film is shot at twenty-four frames) and then printed every frame once more. This is how the effect was achieved.
LC: Is there any difficulty when shooting other scenes?
WKW: We shot a fight scene outside the Broadway Cinema on a weekend night. We wanted to film it in secrecy, but once we set the camera, people gathered around us. We stopped shooting every time the police arrived and continued after they left. Our crew took three hours and had good morale. Some of the crew members were worried that it would not work, but I was not scared at all. I believe there is nothing impossible to film. I think it was fun and challenging.
LC: Is there any special meaning about the interior of Andy Lau’s home?
WKW: I want [his home] to reflect a sharp contrast between day and night. When night time arrives and the TV is on, these people become active. It marks the beginning of nightlife. During daytime, everything in the house is still. There are more camera movements and strange angles at night. One example is the shots of Andy Lau getting up and turning on the TV.
During the interview, Wong kept mentioning several things: his strict control over cinematography and lighting; his feeling towards Mean Streets (directed by Martin Scorsese); what if As Tears Go By was directed by Patrick Tam; his realization at a later stage of shooting that he should stay relaxed like Juzo Itami when he made films. Wong also reminded himself that making films is for fun. He explained this would make him ignore the difficulties while being on set and see the outcome as less important.
NOTES
1. The Chinese title of As Tears Go By can be literally translated as Mong Kok Carmen. Mong Kok is the most crowded place in Hong Kong where many gangster films are set. Carmen is drawn from Carmen the opera composed by Georges Bizet.
2. Midnight premieres were a common practice in the Hong Kong film industry from the 1980s to 1990s. Filmmakers would re-edit the film based on the audience reaction; therefore, the final cut could be different from the premiere/midnight cut.
3. The alternative ending of Andy Lau being mentally impaired is used in the Taiwanese version. Also, the Chinese title Mong Kok Carmen was changed to Hot-blooded Boys.