[Interview] Kiwi CHOW, Director of <Revolution of Our Times>: I would sacrifice myself for justice, movie is only a path

(From the editor: CHOW Kwun-wai’s movie <Revolution of Our Times> won the Gold Horse Award for Best Documentary. He did not attend the ceremony but sent a video speech. He said the film belongs to every Hongkongers with conscience, justice and those who cried for Hong Kong. Even if many Hongkongers do not have the chance to watch this movie, he hoped that its sheer existence may bring them comfort and hugs.

This interview was conducted in Sep 2021. Apart from reviewing his rocky days of growing up and making films, Chow also talked about what sort of films he was pursuing and their meaning to him, as a director.)

At the age of 18, when he already abandoned school life for three years, Chow asked himself how much he would sacrifice for movies. With weak English and poor HKCEE (HK Certificate of Education Examination) results, he was standing at a crossroad in his life. The question was “Should I return to school and try to get into the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and learn how to make movies (which I love so much)? Or should I abandon this path?”. “It seemed that I must do something most painful (take examinations) before something I will enjoy most (making movies).”

Chow persevered and attended HKCEE three times, attempted twice to enter HKAPA before he was accepted to study for a degree in Films. After his graduation, he worked in a film studio, wrote screenplays and gathered funds at the same time. Finally he completed three movies: <Self-Immolator (part of Ten Years)>, <Beyond the Dream> and <Revolution of Our Times>, each reflecting Hong Kong’s current situation from different perspectives.

Chow describes himself as a big fan of movies. He wants to make all kinds of movies. However at the top of his wish list are movies which are benevolent, can comfort souls and change lives. At the same time, through making movies, he wants to pursue the values and justice he believes in. He is willing to sacrifice himself for these beliefs, including going to jail and losing freedom.

“Flowing along the grand historic river of films, I may only be a droplet. However I still wish this is a crystal clear one.”

Vow to movies at 18

Chow made a vow to the god of movies when he was 17 or 18. ”If heaven grants me more capabilities, I wish to become a director and pursue movies for all of my life. If I don’t have enough capabilities, I still wish to contribute to the film industry and be happy doing so.”

Chow describes this as a “life-long” and romantic commitment aiming to give back to the movies which taught him a lot.

He was born in a big family with a fair living standard. He lived with his parents and an uncle, occupying all three stories of a traditional building. When Chow was small he usually felt lonely: his mother was busy looking after household; his father was busy with a self-owned transportation business and seldom communicated with Chow. When there was no one home, Chow simply watched movies on TV alone, turning the volume way up.

Sometimes he went out for rental videos tapes, other times he watched American TV shows recorded a day before. Three movies had the greatest impact on him: “East of Eden”, a movie about father and son, seemed to understand him and his thirst for his father’s love; He watched the second one “Space Odyssey 2001” at a very low point in his life “when no one cares for me, and I wanted to commit suicide”. The movie made him realize “the meaning of life is to seek its meaning”; The third movie was “La double vie de Véronique” by Kieslowski. Chow joked that he started watching art movies since he was in secondary school. He vaguely understood them and quietly thought he possibly had a talent in movies.

Disliking schools and examinations, Chow decided to walk the movie path upon advice of his social worker

In his high school life, Chow watched movies every day. During summer holiday, three films daily while his record was five. He grew up with a poor self-esteem as he was ridiculed for not able to pronounce properly in English. Consultations with linguistic therapists could not improve his situation. His school switched to use English as the main teaching media in higher grades, only focusing on examinations. Chow, once an obedient student in the elite class, also a prefect (and one of the only three assistant head prefects in his grade), was deeply disturbed by the change and had his performance dropped drastically. He thus gave up and indulged in watching movies, surprising a few of his teachers.

In one of his examination papers he simply answered with various names of directors and films. Seeing this, his class teacher gave him a note instructing him to see the social worker of the school after the examination.

“I finally got to see a social worker!” with his introvert character Chow wanted to be understood but never actively asked. Since then he started his counseling sessions and upon his social worker’s encouragement he decided to go down the road of movies.

Given up studying for three years, he asked himself how much he would sacrifice for movies

Before making movies, one has to learn how,” I understand in Hong Kong there is only one institute to study film making - HKAPA. I really wanted to enroll, but I didn’t even meet their basic requirements (Note 1).”

Chow did not qualified to study Form 6, not to mention HKAPA, as he only got 2 points in HKCEE. After that, he worked in his father’s transportation company. He hoped to learn movies by himself using his spare times. However the job was so exhausting that he did not have any mood to watch movies after work. Then he changed job to be a shopkeeper in KPS Video Express (Note 2) hoping to have easy access to movies. However given the dull but busy work-life he realized he had no chance to watch movies during work either.

At that time, his girlfriend encouraged him to sit for HKCEE again, “how could you become a director this way?” Chow describes that he was standing at a cross-road in his life, “Taking examinations is the one thing I despise as it contradicts my set of values. To certain extent it is the source of my pain. In my life I want to pursue with movies. However I have to do something most painful in order to arrive at something I love most.”

He asked himself repeatedly: how much he could sacrifice for movies. His final answer was: “For movies, I will endure. I will do something I dislike most to prove that I love movies most.”

Resumed study and after three attempts in HKCEE, he made it into HKAPA

Having left school for three years, Chow picked up the textbooks again and attended evening schools and tutorial classes. With one year of bitter study, Chow got 8 points from his second attempt in HKCEE. However since he still failed at English, there was only one private school willing to enroll him.

There he studied in Form 6 [grade 12] along with a third attempt at HKCEE. This time he passed barely in English and fulfilled the minimum requirement of HKAPA. He applied for the School of Film and Television but was not accepted, “not even a chance for interview.”

After finishing Form 7, Chow used his HKALE (Hong Kong Advance Level Examination) results to apply for HKAPA again and got interviewed. However towards the end of the summer holidays he still didn’t receive any call from HKAPA. Thinking that he didn’t have a chance again, he found a job as a moon cake worker in a Maxim Bakery factory.

Then it was like drama: One working day towards the end of August, in front of a big wok Chow was working in full gear, amid boiling temperature, cooking lotus seed soup – that position was the toughest and highest pay. His supervisor was asking Chow if he wanted to become a permanent staff. Chow was struggling “what should I do?” when his phone rang. It was a call from HKAPA, giving him a waiting-list offer.

When asked how he finds his study life in HKAPA, Chow says he felt like a fish swimming in water. “Hey I was number one in class! Ha, ha! It swept away all my past inferiorities. After all, I do have some talent!” He had zero experience in film making or screenplay writing before entering HKAPA. He thinks back and feels that he stood out from the interview list possibly because he watched almost any movies, much more than any other applicants.

CHOW graduated in film directing with first class honours in 2004. In the following few years he created three short films, two from his own experience. <Singing sounds from upstairs>, the third one and his first own creation, about a mental illness patient, received a lot of positive comments. This encouraged him to create a longer version, which later became the screenplay of <Beyond the Dream>, a very popular film.

However, after completing the script, Chow could not secure an investor. Chow could only do teaching along side with working as assistant director or production assistant. He liked movies and all related stuff: when teaching he could analyze films, within a commercial film studio he could observe how others planned their shooting angles and compared them with his thoughts.

In 2011, he enrolled into a Master degree course in film production in HKAPA. Chow admits he was simply attracted by the offer within the course - funding to produce a long film as graduation work. End up Chow made his first directorship on a long movie <A Complicated Story>. He viewed this experience as a “very good exposure” as he could work with celebrity producers and movie stars. However this product was more a group effort. Though he was the director, he could not lead and didn’t have the final say on many matters. “Not very satisfying compared to the freedom I enjoyed producing my earlier short films.”

“Did that put you off from movies?” Chow replies without hesitation, “No! My passion towards movies was too great…. Earlier on you asked me about my initial vow. After that, I never gave up on movies, not even for a moment.”

<Self-Immolator> originates from lies, <Revolution of Our Times> for protest

In 2015, Chow participated in <Ten Years>, touching political topics for the first time. One of the five short films, <Self-Immolator> by Chow, aroused heated public discussions about independence of Hong Kong. Its main plot was in fact written in 2009. The story originated from Chow’s anger towards the government’s repeated procrastinations of the “double” Universal Suffrage (for all Legislative Councilors and the Chief Executive). “I insisted on honesty and endear promises, but the government was telling lie.”

Chow emphasizes that he is a film maker. Though he paid attention to social affairs the degree of his participation was limited to joining progression or attending June 4th assemblies. June 4th Tiananmen Massacre was his first lesson in the awareness of a citizen. He was studying Primary 5 when on one side he saw news clippings showing troops killing students with guns and tanks, on the other side the government claimed that no one died in Tiananmen Square. “The television was telling lies. To me it was like: Wow! Does the world actually look like this?”

“If the regime is not honest, we have to rebel. Doing so we are acting in good faith, they aren’t”

Chow became famous via <Self-Immolator>, but it immolated his career as well. After <Ten Years> Chow could no longer find anyone willing to invest in his movies. When Chow consulted senior practitioners in the industry, the latter suggested Chow to compose a “confession letter”. Chow refused. Finally, Chow successfully arrived at $6 million partly via a grant from the Hong Kong Film Development Fund, and partly as personal loan. In May 2019, Chow started shooting <Beyond the Dream> and finished within just one month.

For Chow, this was the first long movie he directed under his sole command. He finished shooting exactly in the earlier hours of 4th of June and went home to sleep. After he woke up later that day, he went to attend the June 4th Vigil in Victoria Park in the evening.

Anti-Extradition-Law-Amendment-Bill (Anti-ELAB) Movement broke out shortly after that. A businessman who watched <Ten Years> requested Chow to produce a film to document the movement. So Chow started <Revolution of Our Times> in August. He split his time between shooting it and editing <Beyond the Dream>. Chow says “the whole movement (and my personal state as well) was so divided.” In Nov 2019, after the “conflict at Number 2 Bridge of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)”, Chow was leaving the CUHK campus. Someone in the same vehicle asked Chow what his plan was for the following day. Chow thought for while and realized that it was the day for premiere screening of “Beyond the Dream”.

When shooting <Revolution of Our Times>, Chow had no time to think or worry about its impact to his movie career. “I thought I should fully focus in shooting first”. He believes that daily life is exactly a protest. As a movie maker, “When the environment distorts history and I record the truth, this is a kind of protest.”

Making movies for Hong Kong as a means to pursue justice

During these years, Chow received many comments and feedback about <Self-Immolator> and <Beyond the Dream>. They brought him a lot of comfort. One said <Self-Immolator> triggered his political awakening. “Oh gee, it was just …overwhelming to me.” A “blue” (pro-establishment) watcher said <Self-Immolator> drastically changed his view about independence of Hong Kong. A mother shared with Chow that because of <Beyond the Dream> she would try to accept her son’s girlfriend, a mental illness patient. A young girl who wanted to commit suicide told Chow that his movie redeemed her. “It was ‘redemption’, not just an ‘influence’!” Chow says with his eyes wide open. “I don’t understand a lot, but I believe in movies.”

Both films were produced for Hong Kong. Will he give up his career for these movies? Chow shakes his head, “Never thought about this!” He says Hong Kong, movies and his religious belief are equally important. His pursuance in all three is in fact the same and consistent with justice, freedom and universal values.

 “I don’t need much money to continue with movies. My passion in movies is not about money or the beauty of a shot, but something behind the camera… a virtue that can influence people’s hearts.”

That leads to the original question “How much are you, in your current state, willing to sacrifice for movies?” Chow comments that the question is not accurate because movies have become his approach towards justice, mercy and freedom. So the question is rephrased as “How much are you willing to sacrifice for the justice and values you believe in?”

Chow says he can sacrifice himself. “I don’t want to get into jail or separated from my love ones, but in the name of my values I am willing to continue.”

Epilogue: If god turns me into a movie, I wish Hongkongers will watch it

In an earlier interview, Chow was asked if he got arrested due to his making of <Revolution of Our Times>, what words would he want to leave for Hongkongers? Back then Chow said it was not necessary because <Revolution of Our Times> was his “last words”. “Everything I wanted to tell them was all told in the movie.”

But I [the author] am not totally happy with his answer. “What if even after your arrest Hongkongers still cannot see this film?”

Chow bursts into laughing before sinking into a thought for a while. He replies, “I understand up till now Hongkongers has no chance to watch <Revolution of Our Times>. However if I get arrested I will become a movie. I don’t want this to happen but if god makes it so, I will stick to my role and act well. I hope Hongkongers will watch this movie.”

(Note 1: HKAPA’s general admission requirement back then was passes in five HKCEE subjects including English and Chinese Languages.)

(Note 2: KPS Video Express was the biggest video rental chain store)

#Documentary #Movie #ChowKwunWai #RevolutionOfOurTimes

 Source: InMediaHK.net #Nov28

Author: LEUNG Ho-yee

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