Cinespot : An Interview with Hong Kong Director Patrick Tam Ka-ming

An Interview
with Director Patrick Tam Ka-ming
(Part II)

A Teaching Career

Cinespot: You are now teaching at the City University of Hong Kong. Does the school offer any exchange program with the film schools in China?

Tam: City University of Hong Kong, Beijing Film Academy and University of Southern California are sister schools, and we have formed a triangular partnership. Therefore we have quite some exchange programs among the three schools. Sometimes the film professors at BFA would travel to Hong Kong and be our guest lecturers, so I would say we are keeping good communications and exchange. However, these exchange programs are just a starting point, it is difficult to get to know the market well by merely taking part in one or two exchange programs.
The film market of China is very wide, and audiences from different regions may have different tastes, and their acceptabilities are also not the same. That's why just like what I said, it takes long research to explore the market.

Cinespot: So have you thought of exploring it yourself?

Tam: I consider myself not too familiar with the mainland market. When I choose a filming subject, it should be one that is important to me. I would not pick a subject and write a script for a particular market, that is not the way I work.

Cinespot: From your observations, what are the differences among the film students at City University, BFA and USC?

Tam: USC is a very professional and renowned film school. But I think Hollywood plays a big influence on them. I am wondering if it is possible for them to refine their filmmaking approach? The same goes for BFA, which is also a prestigious film school. But if they want to make a breakthrough, they still need more hard work. As for Hong Kong, there are several schools that offer film programs. Actually City University is not a film school, the correct title is "School of Creative Media". The department I am in is to teach moving image as a subject. Some filmmaking professional used to make a comparison among the three schools offering film programs, including APA, HKBU and our school, and they're pretty impressed by our students and recognized their creativity.

Cinespot: How's your relationship with your students??

Tam: We are doing very well together and they all enjoy taking the class. We are also good friends and they sometimes treat me lunch. They probably feel that I always try to finish my job well, and they know I'd give them a lot of pressures in order to push them. Luckily they accept my teaching style and understand that as a teacher, I have to be a role model. Nowadays young people are very smart, if you only try to be a friend and don't enjoy teaching, they could feel it. I guess my students trust me and understand I really care about them.

Cinespot: Talking about the lack of younger filmmakers in the film business, how would you say is the chance of these film students?

Tam: It is hard to say whether the chance is big or small, it is rather an individual question. The success of a professional filmmaker depends on how diligent and active he is, and certainly he needs to have a strong passion in filmmaking. I always tell my students, if you don't care about what you do, you'll never succeed. Let's say, there are 40 students in my class, it is impossible for everyone to be extraordinary, some ought to be better than the others. For those who are the most talented and disciplined, their opportunities in the business are very big.
For instance, a few years ago, one of my student To Chi-long was very talented in screenwriting. Unlike most students at her age, she was very focused and spent most of her time writing. Before she graduated, I took some of her work to let my filmmaking colleagues to read, and they were all surprised by her talents, and some even invited her to give up school and go to work. I certainly told her to finish the degree first, but at that time, she already started writing movie script for a feature film. I think that the script she wrote was much better than the actual finished film. That film was directed by a new director, someone who's strong at visual but didn't have adequate knowledge on cinema. I was quite dissatisfied with the finished product and I think it wasted the script.
Nevertheless, the failure of that film didn't really affect To's career. after that, a lot of directors have been looking for her, for instance, Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, Stephen Fung, Chapman To and Joe Ma. The good thing about her is that she didn't take all these jobs, but rather turned down a lot of them and only accepted those she realized she's capable of doing. It is a very good work attitude. That's why I said, if you are a newcomer and you are talented plus you have a good attitude, the door of the film business is wide open for you.

Cinespot: Do you have any advice for these newcomers who want to break into the field?

Tam: If you want to make a film, don't think too much, pick a subject you really care and want to do, it should be a subject very close or intimate to you, a subject that urges you to voice out and share with others, and be active. But remember not to pick something you don't really care, because it is quite pointless in that case. Moreover, you need to have thorough understanding of the cinematic languages and don't care too much about the technicals. The more important thing is that you need to know how to convey your subject through the use of these languages. For instance, if you are going to film a long take, you need to understand and analyse why you have to do it that way. Nowadays a lot of young filmmakers focus too much on the visuals, but they don't know why they have to use such a shot.
In short, I would say "Why" is always more important than "How". For instance, how to set up your lighting and smoothly move a camera is a matter of "how", but the crucial part is, "why" you have to do it that way. That's what a filmmaker should ask himself.

Those Were the Days

Cinespot: Can you share a little about your early days?

Tam: I consider myself quite lucky, as I never need to knock at the doors of the investors to beg for money, which I am certainly not good at. Starting from my first film The Sword, I already didn't have to worry about money. But making The Sword was quite a horrible experience. That's a mainstream commercial film and most of it was shot at the soundstage. There're quite a lot of politics going on and I really didn't enjoy working at the stage.
In fact back in the days when I was at TVB, I already made TV movies in 16mm film and on-location sound, and I got a lot more creative freedoms. For instance, in one of the Seven Women episodes I made, there is a long take of 10 minutes, showing a woman talking about a sex-related topic. Compared to it, my first filmmaking experience was actually quite retroactive. But then I tried to experiment with different cinematic languages during the production.

Cinespot: You spent sometime in San Francisco to study films in the 70s. How was the experience like?

Tam: I came to a college in Half Moon Bay to take a filmmaking course. At that time I was sent by TVB. Perhaps I was too young and naive, I randomly picked a course and when I got here, I was deeply disappointed and realized I had made the wrong choice. I already knew what they're teaching and there wasn't much learning opportunities. I instead spent quite a lot of time sneaking to the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and watched a lot of movies. I found it much more useful than taking the class.
In the 80s, I came back to San Francisco again, filming part of the scenes for Love Massacre here.

Cinespot: Prior to After This Our Exile, you haven't directed a film in the last 17 years, what were you doing?

Tam: In the past 17 years, I was never away from filmmaking. After I have finished My Heart is the Eternal Rose in 1989, I realized there're a lot I didn't understand about films, and so I wanted to take a break and think about what I wanted to do in the future, or what kind of films I wanted to make. During that period, I worked as an editor and art director for various films, for instance, Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild and Ashes of Time. In 1995, I was invited to teach a screenwriting class in Malaysia, and in 2000, the School of Creative Media of the City University invited me to come back to Hong Kong to teach, and so I have been teaching filmmaking since then.

Cinespot: What is yout biggest influence in filmmaking?

Tam: I like a lot of filmmakers, and the two more important ones are Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson, others like Jean Renoir or Kenji Mizoguchi are also influential. Among Godard's films, I love Pierrot le fou and Two or Three Things I Know About Her the most. When I was making the Seven Women series at TVB, I even dedicated one episode to Godard. As for Bresson, he was a very unique film auteur, his cinematic language and instinct are very different from others. He liked to use the most simple story and minimalistic details to tell the most fruitful message, and to utilize the most superficial action in order to convey the inmost feeling. In addition, his film is also different from traditional drama in a way that he treated actor as a model. He didn't want any dramatic performance from the actors. I think it is very original and focused.

Cinespot: What about the use of music in your films?

Tam: When I choose a piece of music or song, it must be something I really love, and when I try to apply it to the film, it must fit the story and help to bring up the emotions, but the music shouldn't distract the audiences from the film itself.

Cinespot: What is your future filmmaking plan?

Tam: When I was in Malaysia, I wrote a lot of scripts. Right now I am revising one of the scripts. Same as last time, I am collaborating with the same student Tin Koi-Leong. The story is also set in Malaysia. Perhaps I'll spend another seven years to finish this film, I guess it won't be 17 years this time. But I would still put my priority in teaching first. When I was making After This Our Exile, I was already away from school for quite a period of time.

Cinespot: Thank you very much for your help.

Tam: Thank you very much.

Conclusion

Again, we would like to appreciate director Patrick Tam for taking his valuable time and sharing his insight with us, and certainly for allowing us to compile and publish the interviews. Please give a round applause to director Tam!

Thank you!

Written, compiled and photographed by Kantorates
May 2007

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