Making a controversial movie, even if it is a laugh,
may not be as much of a big deal as getting it into Chinese theatres
TV actor, radio personality, film actor and now also film producer: Chapman To Man Chat is quite the versatile talent. Moreover, he is comfortable with both comedy and drama, as he has amply demonstrated in a wide-ranging filmography that includes the AIDS feature Forever and Ever, the influential Infernal Affairs crime trilogy and the ‘battle of the sexes’ comedy Men Suddenly in Black.
So when he tells bc that he and Pang Ho Cheung – with whom he has formed the Not Brothers production company – thought that Isabella, the 2006 film festival and art-house favourite directed by Pang and starring To, was “a very commercial movie”, it is difficult to know whether he is being funny or not. And, at least initially, I am similarly unsure about his comment on their sophomore co-production, Trivial Matters: “Just like the movie’s title, we thought that making a film is a very small thing. It’s trivial matters!”
Then he elaborates and the message becomes clearer: the supernatural elements, prostitution, foul language and student pregnancies in this film adaptation of a short story collection by Pang, even if not completely normal, shouldn’t, he says, be portentous to portray on film. After all, as Pang once told actress Crystal Tin, To’s wife, “Never trust the script. It’s always a creation only!” In other words, it’s only a movie!
Yet nowadays, To observes, it is not easy to produce a movie with that kind of subject matter because the censors of more than one of the territories that are part of the Chinese movie market will not allow a film like Trivial Matters to be shown in its entirety. Perhaps not even with cuts. To fully expects the Mainland Chinese censors to decide against allowing this irreverent comedy – whose Chinese title Bor Si Yi literally translates as ‘broken matters’ but which is also Beijing slang for ‘trivial matters’ – to be screened in theatres there. Ironically, if that happens, he says, “The audience in China can understand the title but they can’t see the film!”
Still, To and Pang hope that Trivial Matters will gain the support of audiences in Hong Kong, where it will be screened uncut and with a Category IIB rating. When asked about the film’s target audience, To’s first reaction is, “Whoever is old enough to watch a Category IIB movie!” Then he narrows it down: “Those who don’t know Mandarin. Cantonese speakers.” For the idea is to put this fun work up against the Mandarin-language behemoth, The Warlords, that will also be playing in local theatres this month.
However, that is not to say Trivial Matters’ appeal is aimed exclusively at Cantonese speakers or Hong Kongers. As To shares, “I watch basically all films – Thai films, Korean films, French movies, [films with a] Poland director. So if I watch movies from all over, why can’t audiences elsewhere watch Hong Kong movies? We’ve got seven stories, so it’s just like a buffet, okay?”
Looking at the star-studded cast for Trivial Matters, it really does seem this work will serve up quite a feast for its viewers. For in addition to To – who plays a prostitute-visiting producer named Chapman To – and Crystal Tin (whose character, To divulges, is an extremely foul-mouthed woman!), the movie’s impressive cast include Eason Chan, Gillian Chung, Shawn Yue, Stephy Tang, Juno Mak, Feng Xiaogang and – in a segment in English rather than Cantonese – Edison Chen!
Trivial Matters will open in local theatres on December 20.
yvonne teh |
