Facing the Musical

Original URL: http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/04/19/entertainment/entertainment_30001960.php

Wed, April 19, 2006 : Last updated 23:46 pm (Thai local time)

'Perhaps Love', a film within a film, looks at the complexities of falling in and out of love
In his latest film, "Perhaps Love", director Peter Chan is facing the music. But, the Hong Kong director says he's never been too fond of musicals.

"I thought it would drive me nuts", says Chan, adding that the idea of making a musical started as a joke. "I was asking myself what I could add to a love story that would make me feel more nervous and insecure on the set because I believe insecurity is the cornerstone for creativity".

The answer turned out to be a film within a film, one featuring a pan-Asian cast that includes Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jacky Cheung, Zhou Xun and Ji Jin-hee, the lead actor of the Korean hit TV series "Daejunggeum".

The film tells the story of acclaimed director Nie Wen (Cheung), who casts his girlfriend Sun Na (Xun) in a musical about a love triangle between the lead actress played by Sun Na, her ex-boyfriend Lin Jian-Dong (Kaneshiro) and a circus director performed by Nie Wen himself. What Nie Wen doesn't know is that Sun Na and Lin Jian-Dong were actually involved 10 years ago and the entire plot is eerily close to life. As the film unravels, history and reality mix with touches of fantasy added by Monty (Ji Jin-hee) as the story's muse.

"A musical needs a host. I needed someone like Joel Grey in 'Cabaret'," says Chan of the Monty character.

Chan says he chose to do a musical because it helped him avoid dealing with a script that had an overly emotional dialogue.

"The Chinese are very introverted people. They don't even say I love you," he explains. "I use music, song and dance to tell the story and to express the unsaid feelings they keep bottled up inside."

Moviegoers who've seen "Moulin Rouge" or "Chicago" may experience similar vibes with "Perhaps Love" though the lyrics are in Mandarin Chinese.

Members of the big-name cast were selected as much for their marketing appeal as for their talent.

The director says he's always wanted to work with Kaneshiro, but the actor's teen idol aura has stood in the way. Chan's movies are for people in their late twenties and early thirties, so Kaneshiro was a bit too young. But as the director was developing the script, he finally found a perfect vehicle for him.

"I think his eyes are so fierce without being angry but at the same time hurt. In the press conference scene, his eyes are breathtaking. He always looks very sad, like a hurt wolf," says Chan.

Yet despite the director's praise and his considerable experience in films, the actor confesses that some things are still difficult for him.

"Crying is difficult," Kaneshiro says. His character does a lot of crying in the movie. "When I was working with Zhang Ziyi and Andy Lau on 'House of Flying Daggers', I was amazed at how easy it was for them to cry."

Viewers may think Ji might be better at shedding tears given the number of Korean movies and series that seem to depict a crying competition between the male characters - think "Autumn In My Heart", which has Won Bin and Song Seung Heon bawling throughout the series.

But he doesn't like it.

"It's really annoying. But luckily I don't have to cry in my movies," says Ji, whose role as the narrator and fantasy element requires him to play a reporter, a noodle vendor and a chauffeur.

And Ji doesn't only play the story's muse, he's apparently also a source of inspiration for the film.

In any case, the actor, who plays the role of warm-hearted civil servant Min Jung Ho in "Daejunggeum", thinks he is more a boy-next-door type than a kung-fu master.

Andy Lau was originally supposed to play Monty, but had to drop out due to contractual problems.

When Ji was chosen, he was big in Hong Kong because of "Daejunggeum" but it was the very beginning of the Korean phenomenon. A month before the film was released in China, he became a big star there but no one knew him in Thailand. However, the opening in Bangkok has been timed perfectly because he's huge here now.

"It's like he's actually working with our release schedule," laughs Chan.

Other than Ji, who does songs in Mandarin, lyrics of which he had to learn by heart, Cheung has the lion's share of the dancing and singing. Dubbed the best singer of the group Four Heavenly Kings (the other three are Leon Lai, Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok) by the Hong Kong media, Chan says Cheung is the only player able to pull off acting and singing so well.

And Zhou, to Chan, is the only Chinese actress able to fit in a contemporary setting without looking or feeling out of place. "She looks like a young Maggie Cheung. She looks like she could be in Paris. She could be anywhere."

There is also one significant extra - a concierge - played by Chan's own father.

"I couldn't find anyone and he was visiting on set so I asked him to go change. He was okay with it but I was nervous," says Chan. "I hoped he wouldn't screw up. I had like a hundred people on set. What if my father screws up?"

It's been 10 years since Chan's last Mandarin language film, "Tian Mi Mi" ("Comrades: Almost a Love Story"). It was considered one of the most popular Asian love stories of all time, and Chan says that "Perhaps Love" is still very much his kind of film, except it's slightly darker.

It's not a happy movie, but it isn't a scam either.

The director says he was partly inspired by the bittersweet love affairs in "Gone With the Wind" and "Casablanca", films that which he refers to his as sensibilities and roots. Foreign film critics often say that Chan's films are reminiscent of old Hollywood.

The musical novelty aside, Chan says "Perhaps Love" has been a fun experiment and sums up everything he wanted to talk about but couldn't ever do in motion pictures today.

In a way, "Perhaps Love" and "Tian Mi Mi" are remakes of "Casablanca", especially with the theatrical line at the end. "Like when Humphrey Bogart in 'Casablanca' says, 'We'll always have Paris', I could actually have the actor say 'Don't forget Beijing'," he muses.

"It's a very satisfying process."

"Perhaps Love" opens tomorrow at theatres nation-wide.

Kreangsak Suwanpantakul

The Nation