Post by Katniss on Nov 6, 2009 22:18:11 GMT 7
Exclusive Interview 'Accidents' Director Cheng Pou Sui: Filmed 800 Ways of Dying
Source: Sohu Entertainment
6th Sep 2009
When watching 'Accidents', it somewhat makes one recall Lawrence Block's novel: "Eight Million Ways to Die" – a city with eight million people, and eight million ways to die. Cheng Pou Sui portrayed this fate, this darkness, this absurdness and tragic ways of dying on the big screen. Audience are impressed and couldn't help to admire him, so many people died in the one movie, yet there wasn't two same way of deaths. You will be so appealed such that you can't help but wonder how many more ways of deaths are contained in Cheng Pou Sui's brain cells.
Sohu: I met a foreigner who came to watch 'Accidents' and said it was for Johnny To, but after the movie, he said it was not Johnny To (style) at all, is this what you want to hear?
Cheng: I've heard a lot of feedback, two extremes, some say very Johnny To (style) some say, very unlike Johnny To (style), for me, the most relaxed thing about this movie is the style. The style you see now was actually gradually built after I've found the theme and assassination motive. Because when they assassinate among a crowd, they can't appear too nervous, they need to camouflage well, everything must be done slowly, they must see clearly before they act, and the style then gradually surfaces.
Sohu: How many ways of deaths did you actually created? Those accidents, were there repetitively discussed, or was it a flash of idea?
Cheng: What you saw in the movie, on how they assassinate, that is actually exactly how our crew live through the days of filming.
Sohu: Everyday brainstorming on how to assassinate?
Cheng: Right, it is quite hard. In the first scene, when the glass fell, we did not create it that way initially, we wanted to use sound waves to break the class. When we asked university professor, he borrowed us a sound gun, we experimented it, the glass was broken, but the sound was too loud. Thus this method was rejected, and we changed to another. It was like that all the while. The one in the rain, we thought over it for two months, thought of many ways, I only know that place, because I like that place, I like to assassinate there, how to? There is only a tram track there, how do I utilize it? We asked many people, how is the possibility of electric… we thought of every possible point for very long.
Sohu: In 'Accidents', Fatty and Uncle and Michelle who plays Woman, are all assassins but they in fact look so naively innocent, especially Fatty, I wonder which character you like most?
Cheng: Actually I like every role, I like Richie's role the most I think, because it stands out. But the most absorbed is non other than Louis Koo's role. You saw his condition in the movie, he asked a lot of questions, they are actually questions I would like to ask, throughout the entire filming, I never found the answers, I keep asking, I keep asking like Louis Koo, at the set I told him, "I don't know too, I am seeking answer like you." Maybe during the seeking process, this is our movie's style. The way we tell this story, is that we keep tailing Louis Koo, what he sees, you can't see, just like Michelle's death scene, he asked me, is Michelle lying, why did she come to the parking lot, I don't know, Michelle came asking me too, I said, "I don't know too if you're lying, I don't know how it should be acted too." She asked me if it was true, I don't know too, I don't want the true or the fake. What I want is the entire plot to be in a 'don't know' state. (Laughs) During our filming, I kept writing this line on my board: "I don't know if Richie is the assassin too." I don't know, and I definitely don't want to know.
Sohu: 'Accidents' caused audience to keep peeking at Louis' peeping, is that the kind of anxiety you want to relate to audience?
Cheng: Right, right, right. The situation we want most in this movie is that, an accident is an accident, and that everyone has some unanswered questions, if I can't resolve something with you, but when Louis Koo plays this person, such an intelligent, such a danger sensitive person, he surely wants answers to the question, but this made him not himself. You see Richie Ren eating in his office, sleeping, what Louis Koo wrote was: "He is an expert, he has no single mistake." You can somewhat deduce that he has gone mad at this point of time, he forced himself there. He was not wrong actually, he was so sure that Richie was there to kill him, until the very end, Richie really came for him, but it was actually caused by himself.
Source: Sohu Entertainment
6th Sep 2009
When watching 'Accidents', it somewhat makes one recall Lawrence Block's novel: "Eight Million Ways to Die" – a city with eight million people, and eight million ways to die. Cheng Pou Sui portrayed this fate, this darkness, this absurdness and tragic ways of dying on the big screen. Audience are impressed and couldn't help to admire him, so many people died in the one movie, yet there wasn't two same way of deaths. You will be so appealed such that you can't help but wonder how many more ways of deaths are contained in Cheng Pou Sui's brain cells.
Sohu: I met a foreigner who came to watch 'Accidents' and said it was for Johnny To, but after the movie, he said it was not Johnny To (style) at all, is this what you want to hear?
Cheng: I've heard a lot of feedback, two extremes, some say very Johnny To (style) some say, very unlike Johnny To (style), for me, the most relaxed thing about this movie is the style. The style you see now was actually gradually built after I've found the theme and assassination motive. Because when they assassinate among a crowd, they can't appear too nervous, they need to camouflage well, everything must be done slowly, they must see clearly before they act, and the style then gradually surfaces.
Sohu: How many ways of deaths did you actually created? Those accidents, were there repetitively discussed, or was it a flash of idea?
Cheng: What you saw in the movie, on how they assassinate, that is actually exactly how our crew live through the days of filming.
Sohu: Everyday brainstorming on how to assassinate?
Cheng: Right, it is quite hard. In the first scene, when the glass fell, we did not create it that way initially, we wanted to use sound waves to break the class. When we asked university professor, he borrowed us a sound gun, we experimented it, the glass was broken, but the sound was too loud. Thus this method was rejected, and we changed to another. It was like that all the while. The one in the rain, we thought over it for two months, thought of many ways, I only know that place, because I like that place, I like to assassinate there, how to? There is only a tram track there, how do I utilize it? We asked many people, how is the possibility of electric… we thought of every possible point for very long.
Sohu: In 'Accidents', Fatty and Uncle and Michelle who plays Woman, are all assassins but they in fact look so naively innocent, especially Fatty, I wonder which character you like most?
Cheng: Actually I like every role, I like Richie's role the most I think, because it stands out. But the most absorbed is non other than Louis Koo's role. You saw his condition in the movie, he asked a lot of questions, they are actually questions I would like to ask, throughout the entire filming, I never found the answers, I keep asking, I keep asking like Louis Koo, at the set I told him, "I don't know too, I am seeking answer like you." Maybe during the seeking process, this is our movie's style. The way we tell this story, is that we keep tailing Louis Koo, what he sees, you can't see, just like Michelle's death scene, he asked me, is Michelle lying, why did she come to the parking lot, I don't know, Michelle came asking me too, I said, "I don't know too if you're lying, I don't know how it should be acted too." She asked me if it was true, I don't know too, I don't want the true or the fake. What I want is the entire plot to be in a 'don't know' state. (Laughs) During our filming, I kept writing this line on my board: "I don't know if Richie is the assassin too." I don't know, and I definitely don't want to know.
Sohu: 'Accidents' caused audience to keep peeking at Louis' peeping, is that the kind of anxiety you want to relate to audience?
Cheng: Right, right, right. The situation we want most in this movie is that, an accident is an accident, and that everyone has some unanswered questions, if I can't resolve something with you, but when Louis Koo plays this person, such an intelligent, such a danger sensitive person, he surely wants answers to the question, but this made him not himself. You see Richie Ren eating in his office, sleeping, what Louis Koo wrote was: "He is an expert, he has no single mistake." You can somewhat deduce that he has gone mad at this point of time, he forced himself there. He was not wrong actually, he was so sure that Richie was there to kill him, until the very end, Richie really came for him, but it was actually caused by himself.
