words yvonne teh

On August 9, a landmark Hong Kong-Taiwan-German co-production premiered at Switzerland’s Locarno International Film Festival. A dramatic offering that centres on a young man whose personal journey from reckless rebel to Zen drummer takes him from his Hong Kong home to rural Taiwan, it is written and directed by Kenneth Bi. Before he flew off to Locarno, the 2006 Hong Kong Film Awards’ Young Director Award winner was able to sit down with bc for a chat about his latest work, which he had wanted to make even before he shot his previous movie. In fact, as Bi reveals, “I started both films roughly at the same time.” That was quite a few years ago.

The Drummer grew out of an incident during the making of Bi’s second film, the Singapore-Hong Kong co-produced Rice Rhapsody, in 2003. “When I tried to get [Rice Rhapsody] off the ground in 1999, the financing collapsed and I spent four months in Singapore trying to prep it, looking at every location possible, and then it totally collapsed.” In the aftermath, “I came back here and, dejected, went to a performance of U Theatre…” – an internationally renowned Zen drumming collective that combines percussion, philosophy and life experiences – “…and saw these drummers performing at the end of 2000. And I was just blown away. I started to write a script...”

When I suggest that The Drummer had an unusually long gestation period, Bi’s initial response is a laugh and the comment, “Well, it’s normal for some people!” Then, after acknowledging, “For some people in Hong Kong, it takes just six days to do,” he points out, “in Hollywood, it can take 10 years.” But proudly, almost stubbornly, proclaims, “I’m not making just a Hong Kong film. I’m making my film!”

Still, what compelled him to persist and make what he believes is “a very special film nobody else would even think to make”? “Because of the philosophy behind it. It wasn’t just ‘Oh, I saw a pretty girl, I want to make a film about her!’ You know what I mean? Because that can change. But what was behind The Drummer doesn’t change. You’ve got to have that fire... and if there’s enough [there] for it to burn, it keeps burning.”

Appropriately enough, considering its message and the dedication of its director, The Drummer demanded strenuous effort and a struggle against the odds. Among other things, its two main male stars needed much persuasion before reversing their initial decisions to turn down a movie that ends up with a very strong cast indeed. But, as Bi insists, “With this film, I wanted these actors, I wanted these big locations, it had to be made properly. I always wanted Tony Leung [Ka Fai], I always wanted Jaycee [Chan].” Who respectively play father and son in the film.

When asked why he needed Tony Leung Ka Fai so desperately, Bi laughs. “Tony Leung would be the best maniac father!” he says. Not so much because this physically imposing actor (whose recent roles include a flamboyantly manic Triad boss in Election and a cool criminal mastermind in Eye in the Sky) is adept at playing a character all fiery and frightening. Rather, on top of that, “In the end, you would sympathize with him. You would understand where he is coming from, how he is that way, why he is that way...”

As for Jaycee Chan, Bi says, “I always wanted him because he was a young kid – I wanted someone who was 22-23 – and there aren’t that many known actors that age in Hong Kong. Granted that he wasn’t that known but he was good. He made that big picture with Derek Yee (2 Young) that had made a lot of money. My main concern was whether he was too soft! But I needed a kid, a young guy.” And one who could play a character who essentially undergoes a major life and personality change.

“If I had cast a rebellious, angry young kid for this role, the first part would have been okay, but for the second part, I would have problems believing him. Every calm and collected moment, you’d feel him acting. I needed a kid who had that special quality, then make that person play the cocky guy. And he had that quality.” Bi laughs again as he observes, “Usually, he’s not that cocky. So he got to play a cocky guy and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it!”

When the talk turns to The Drummer’s lead actress, Bi says he approached the star of his previous film – a director, producer and scriptwriter in her own right – for assistance. As he recalls, “I gave the script to Sylvia Chang to read. Sylvia told me, ‘You know, this girl IS Lee Sinjie. Lee Sinjie IS this girl!’” That is, an individual who “can’t just let bad things go. She’s very intense and she’s a very righteous person.”

The Drummer also stars Hong Kong thespians Josie Ho, Roy Cheung, Kenneth Tsang and Yumiko Cheng. But while there is no German presence in the HK$16 million movie’s cast, behind the scenes, as part of the co-production stipulations, are German individuals and creative elements. Perhaps most unexpectedly, given the film’s emphasis on Chinese drummers and drumming, the music composer is the German Andre Matthias.

Bi is quick to stress, however, that he was given a lot of creative control over the project and, while the German producers told him that he had to take on some German talent, they didn’t specify who. Thus “I met a whole bunch
of composers, showed them the script and told them the story. I hadn’t shot the film yet but with video references, showed them ‘this is what it’s going to be like...’ A lot of them were quite famous composers, well established. And they were good.”

However, he found most of the submitted compositions “just didn’t strike me as the film’s music” – except for a piece by Matthias. Although the composer had never previously scored a feature film, on listening to one of his two submissions, Bi enthusiastically concluded, “He made my film into a piece of music!” And knew for certain he had found the scorer of his cinematic offering, whose target audience are “looking for more in a film than just momentary thrills and ‘kiss, kiss, bang, bang’ – though, he admits with a laugh, this film does have some ‘bang, bang’ in it!”

The Drummer will open in local theatres on October 11.