The two feature films you’ve directed so far have been
crossovers. You Shoot, I Shoot was a hitman comedy and
Men Suddenly in Black mixed gangsters, action and black
comedy. Why did you take this approach?
I prefer to combine different types of genres. I think that if
you want to make a breakthrough with one style of film you
should combine with it another. For example, by mixing a
horror movie with a romance movie. Men Suddenly in Black
is a combination of the melodrama and gangster genres.
This way, I can find a new approach. If people ask me to
simply make one type of film, I refuse as I find it too boring.
For example, for You Shoot, I Shoot the company originally
wanted me to write a hitman story, because it was just
after Fulltime Killer. They thought that if I wrote another hitman
story it’d find a market. But I thought that would be a
drag. So I put the killer element inside a comedic structure.
What was your inspiration for Men Suddenly in Black?
At the start, I wanted to film a straightforward gangster
story. I really like The Godfather, Heat, and A Better
Tomorrow. I really want to film a straight gangster movie; a
cops and robbers movie. But unfortunately, even now when
I raise this type of project, the film company thinks I’m not
suitable. They see me as a comedy director. I think the
company actually wanted me to film a comedy, anyway. I
started it as a joke with the scriptwriter. I was laughing
about how I could disguise a comedy as a cops and robbers
film. Then I found this approach was actually quite
attractive. So I decided to combine comedy with cops and
robbers. During discussions with scriptwriter Patrick Kong,
we found we both liked the film Wise Wives and Foolish
Husbands by Chor Yuen. We thought we could change a film
like Wise Wives and Foolish Husbands into a cops and robbers
movie. Also, because I really like Michael Mann’s Heat,
I put some ideas from that into Wise Wives and Foolish
Husbands. It started off as a mixture of these two types.
That idea went on to inform the early structure of Men
Suddenly in Black, too.
Why was Wise Wives and Foolish Husbands such an influence
on you?
Wise Wives and Foolish Husbands was a very big influence.
When I was a child, I watched that film a lot, because they
were always showing lots of old films on TV. I watched them
before I went to school in the morning. I used to think
Cantonese films were very boring. There were few good
comedies. But every scene of Wise Wives and Foolish
Husbands was detailed. And that left a deep impression.
When I mentioned old Cantonese movies to the scriptwriter,
both of us really liked that one. So we discussed how to do
it with modern ideas. It gradually became Men Suddenly in
Black.
What appealed to you about the topic of cheating men?
Couples cheating is a universal story. That attracted me.
Everyone is aware of it. At first the topic of You Shoot, I
Shoot ‘s story related to the film industry. Investors worried
about talking about such an uncommon topic because
movies about filmmaking usually do poor box office in Hong
Kong. I wanted to convince investors that black comedy
could be popular, so I decided to pick a more usual subject.
Even if your approach is unique, investors won’t worry if
it’s a proven subject matter.
You’ve mentioned freedom to film the story. What about the
casting decisions?
It was my choice. Eric Tsang Chi-wai was the investor, the
producer, and also the main actor. He agreed to the
approach. Eric is an actor who can act in both gangster
movies and comedies, so he fitted the bill. When we cast
the rest, we chose performers who’d been in both gangster
and comedy movies. We chose Jordan Chan, Chapman
To and Tony Leung Ka-fai. If we chose someone who’d only
done comedy, the audience’s first impression would be
“This is a comedy”. That was why I didn’t choose [comedian]
Cheung Tat-ming. He’s never been in gangster movies.
Finally, though, I did give him a role. We wanted to make
audiences think the film had both comedy and gangster
elements.
What is your next movie going to be about?
I hope it will be a drama. I’m developing one called Crime
Without Punishment. I hope it won’t be thought of as a
comedy. People may think of me as a director of black
comedies, but I don’t want to be labelled. So the next film
will be a crime drama.
Tim Youngs