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szdaily -> Entertainment -> 
Ann Hui describes ‘fantastic struggle’ to make new film
    2020-09-11  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

IT was in high spirits that Hong Kong film director Ann Hui started the press conference for her film “Love After Love” at the 77th Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, in which she was granted the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement award. This was the first time a female director received this prize.

Based on the short story “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier” by Eileen Chang in 1943, the movie is a love story “about high society and its moral depravity before World War II.”

“It is nostalgic, but the human drama is true to this day,” Hui said at the livestreamed event, where she shared the “fantastic struggle” involved in the making of the film.

After filming, Hui and editor Mary Stephen went for post-production in Hong Kong just as the violent protests started. To make matters complicated, after Stephen left, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, leaving the team to work via Zoom for seven months.

“It was a fantastic struggle. It is a moving example of how film people work, regardless of crossfires,” she noted, adding that even going to Venice was complicated due to travel restrictions.

At the press conference, Stephen said those obstacles helped in the way the film was shaped, “in its intensity and emotional response.”

This was the third time Hui made a movie based on one of Eileen Chang’s books, with the first two being “Love in a Fallen City” and “Eighteen Springs.”

“Eileen Chang is remarkable. The modernity in which she depicts love is remarkable,” the director stressed, explaining that all movies treat love in different ways. The first movie is about unrequited love, where the female lead wants to marry, but the partner doesn’t, while “Eighteen Springs” is about how circumstances, society and family can make it impossible for a couple to be together.

For Hui, “Love After Love” is a “realistic portrayal of fatal love and its circumstances, and this is eternal.” In the film, Weilong (Ma Sichun) is a student from Shanghai who arrives in Hong Kong to live with her estranged aunt, Madame Liang (Yu Feihong), a former mistress who inherited her lover’s inheritance. Weilong falls in love with playboy George Chiao (Eddie Peng) and gradually leaves her naivete and simple look behind.

Via conference call, Peng revealed that it was a very challenging role, which required “a lot of hard work to understand the character,” but the close relationship with Hui helped.

“There were some uncomfortable scenes. My character is a scumbag to women, and I needed more time to discuss with Ann before shooting,” he shared. For the role, Peng lost weight and learned Portuguese, which the trailer gives a small taste of when George Chiao recites a sonnet written by the Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camoes.

According to Variety, Christopher Doyle’s “photography delights in the richness of the palette,” but it is costume designer Emi Wada and production designer Zhao Hai who steal the show with “glorious” outfits and “exquisite” interiors.

With a Golden Lion now featuring in her award cabinet, Hui confessed to feeling happy and honored. “I just hope everything in the world will turn better soon and everybody can feel again as happy as I am in this moment,” she said in a statement.(CGTN)

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