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Gordon Chan Kar-seung talks about modernizing the ancient tale of an unimaginable relationship.

Painted Skin is one of almost 500 hundred stories of the uncanny and supernatural world that comprise the classic Chinese novel Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (or Liaozhai Zhiyi). The story has been brought to the screen twice – once by Bao Fang in 1966 and again by King Hu in 1993. In the third remake of this costume drama, Gordon Chan Kar-seung (A-1 Headline, Beast Cop) shifts the attention from horror to romance – and the love between a human and a monster.

Why did you choose to remake Painted Skin? There are many other tales in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, and it has been filmed twice before.
There are reasons of Painted Skin being filmed more than once. It is one of the few stories in Strange Stories that has a strong visual effect – people would relate immediately to the image of the female ghost. It shocked the whole country when the first adaptation was shown in China back in the ’60s, and now people pay a lot of attention to this remake of Painted Skin. Also, as ghost-themed movies are prohibited in the Mainland and there is an ambiguity about the ‘ghost’ in the story – Xiao Wei can be regarded as either ghost or monster – [with a monster, the film] will be more easily accepted by the Mainland and avoid censorship. This is why I chose Painted Skin. I like breaking rules and I like to do something unprecedented, so I took up this challenge.

What is new in your adaptation compared to those in 1966 and 1993?
The one in 1966 by Bao Fang actually comprises Painted Skin and other stories in the novel, and it was filmed in a more traditional way – Bao just followed everything in the text. When it comes to 1993, King Hu’s version is completely different from the original text. Only bits and pieces remain in the film [which] only focuses on one of the literati, Wang, not his wife – but the wife is an important character! For my version, I try to start from the point of view of Pang Yung (Donnie Yen), he is the rescuer. He has a complicated psychology – he has to save his ex-lover Pei Pong (Vicky Zhao), whom he still loves – his purpose is to save her marriage. This concept is actually quite modern. Everything in the film starts from this complicated love triangle. I think this is the most distinctive feature in this adaptation. But the story still stays the same, it still revolves around these limited characters, and no other subplots are added to the original text.

In other words, the portrayal of human relationships and emotions is what you really wanted to focus on.
True. To me, this is a story of romance where characters speak for themselves about love. There are six protagonists in the film, each has their very unique attitude towards love and relationships.

The original text is very short – did you find it easy or difficult to interpret?
I’d say I’m lucky to have had such a short text to follow! Otherwise it would be very complicated. The fact is, as the text is short, I had more room for my own imagination and interpretation. There would be a lot to consider if the text was too long, and it might have affected the way I filmed it.

It’s emphasized in the press kit that this version of Painted Skin is an “Eastern Magical Movie”. What does that mean?
I think it will serve some purpose when the film is shown in Mainland China – as a reminder that this is not a ghost film, otherwise the film would be banned there. Firstly, we have to make officials believe that this is just a movie about a monster that is created by someone, or growing from a human. They can never accept ghosts, as they suppose them to be illusions. On top of that, this film has to involve some action scenes, therefore I changed the character of Wang (Chen Kun) from someone from the literati to a commander to fit in with what I wanted. Admittedly, this involves some commercial considerations. This film has to be very different from the previous ones to attract new and young audiences. The tagline ‘Eastern Magical Movie’, to be frank, means nothing at all to me, it is just publicity. You can name it whatever you want, as long as it is acceptable to me. I always tell people, ‘Don’t take it as a Lord of the Rings because they are totally different things.’ Firstly, I didn’t have that much money to make it, and, secondly, the industry is still not yet developed enough to film something similar to Lord of the Rings.

But because of the word ‘Eastern’ in the tagline, people will think that the film is an Eastern as opposed to a Western or Hollywood film.
We are very clear about this. We emphasize ‘Eastern style’ from an aesthetic point of view. From the art direction and post production, you may find a lot of Eastern or Chinese elements. Even the protagonists’ views of love are indeed filled with traditional Chinese values and culture. But I am not sure about putting the word ‘Magical’ together with ‘Eastern’. But anyway, yes, there are a lot of Eastern elements in the art and cinematography, otherwise we could not compete with Western movies. If you want to copy their style and technology, don’t forget they have a lot of money [to spend]. It is not comparable, and it’s meaningless as well.

Are there any technological breakthroughs in the film?
The most difficult part was how to make the skin peel off from Xiao Wei. How could we do it in a more modern way? It is essential because it is the most memorable scene of the movie, right?
I spent most of the time discussing with the crew how to make it visually convincing. Finally, it turned out to be a multiple-layer process. We do not entirely rely on computers – they cannot solve the problem alone. Instead, I tried to combine the costume design, make up, computer effects etc, so as to produce what you see in the cinema. That is the biggest challenge and breakthrough in the film. Other problems such as ‘How to present the monster?’ or ‘What would a fight between a monster
and a human be like?’ were all challenging to me.

Have you ever thought about importing more advanced technologies from other countries, say the US or Japan?
Well, firstly, we only have a limited budget. For us this is a movie with a huge budget, but for them, it is just small. Secondly, speaking of experts, of course they are experienced, but, as I always say, in terms of skills and techniques, Hong Kong professionals can always compete with them – what we lack is money and time. We even use the same software! We can do what they do. They use 1,000 computers while we just have a couple. Since we do not have enough time, we can only reduce the details and subtlety. This is a big difference, and I think we are still way behind their technology, as the film industry in China is not yet that developed. But I still insist on using our local professionals as I believe they are as good as the others.

What do you think about the actors? Are they close to what you imagined the characters would be like?
Actually, the actors and I shaped the characters together. My habit is to look for an actor at the very first stage of my scriptwriting, because I have to follow the features or characteristics of the actor, so as to shape my characters in the story. It is very unusual for me to have a ready-made character, and ask the actor to fit it. I have to grasp the essence of the actor, so as to evoke chemistry between the actor and the character. That’s my way of thinking. We build up the character together. The script is just a starting point, and it has to be developed by us. This is my special way of filmmaking.

How did you choose your actors then?
The first person I chose was Zhou Xun, I always wanted her to be the monster Xiao Wei. For ages we discussed the film and the character. And then I contacted Chen Kun. Donnie Yen was a must because it was his idea to start this film, and all I was thinking was how to make Painted Skin more centred on Donnie Yen. After fixing those three characters, I started looking for their opponents. Someone has to be opposed to [each of] these characters, like Vicky is opposed to Zhou Xun, Chen Kun is opposed to Donnie. Chen Kun is handsome and gentle, but I wanted him to have a breakthrough and that’s why I changed the character of Wang from a member of the literati to a commander, which makes him stronger. And then I found Betty Sun for Donnie’s partner. I watched Shanghai Grand and thought she was an interesting girl who would perfectly match Donnie. As for Vicky, I wanted her to have a transformation; as I always told her ‘You can’t always be a little girl, you have to grow up!’ She had to leave her cuteness and show her maturity and femininity. So that was the process.

In the 1990s lots of this type of ancient Chinese horror movie were made, but recently not too many - why do you think that is?
To be honest, I didn’t notice this phenomenon until you mentioned it! One of the reasons is the lack of money – this kind of big production requires a big investment. But money isn’t all that matters. Everyone remembers the beautiful female ghost [Joey Wang] in A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991), but nowadays, the aesthetic values have changed, and now you need a lot of input to make something people consider ‘beautiful’.

Is the strict censorship in China an obstacle to you?
Yes, very much. There are a lot of difficulties. If they want to develop the film industry, they will have to loosen the rules in this aspect and, for example, implement a categorization system. This is very important. The worst thing is the active pirate market – that is our true competitor. And for some reason, they have looser censorship on TV shows, I don’t know why.

You had a strong production team, including Hsu Li-Kung (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as artistic director, Stephen Tung Wai (A Battle of Wits) as your action director and Arthur Wong (The Warlord) as photographer.
They are all my good friends, this was just like a reunion of friends (laughs). And we co-ordinate very well, of course. We seem to know what each other is thinking and we trust each other. This team helped me a lot. I gave them a lot of freedom to do what they wanted as I appreciate teamwork. Everyone has their expertise and their own artistic eyes and I trust them a lot. I didn’t want them to ‘work’ for me, but at the same time they were working for themselves. So this time, there were a lot of surprises and joy working with them.