Watching Dragon, Hidden Growler

INDEX

Many Chinese and East Asian films are very successful due to their fantastic creativity and innovation.

Here are a selection that deserve your attention.

Rawle Austin presents...

An interview with Bai Ling - Taking the Film World by Storm!

Bai Ling is a stunning, talented actress with a unique poetic wisdom that is soon to set the world alight. Currently living in Los Angeles she briefly stopped over in London fresh from her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival. I sat down in conversation with her to find out what makes her tick. Her answers will surprise you. I’ve kept her voice intact so that you can hear the real, raw Bai Ling.

Rawle Austin: How did you first get into acting?

Bai Ling: It’s fate. It’s why I’m on earth. I feel like I came from the moon, to come here to visit and have a talent as an actress. It’s just one of the gifts I have.

It's like each of us has our own unique quality, mission or talent to serve.

So I found out for me [my talent] is to be an actress. On earth to serve, to have fun and to dance, to smile and to enjoy. And to give love. RA: Which actors/actresses inspired you to perform and why? BL: None really. I like [the film] Casablanca (1944). You know, I would say the actors and actresses in that film inspired me. It’s the film itself that makes me want to be lost in fantasy. Fantasy is more beautiful; it’s more romantic than real life. Take Audrey Hepburn, the first time some photographer from Mainland China said I look like a famous actress I asked ”who?” They said “Audrey Hepburn”, they said I looked like her a little bit.

So I thought “who’s she?” so the first film I ever saw was Roman Holiday (1953) and I saw she was very beautiful and elegant [in that film].

RA: And were there any Chinese actors or actresses that inspired you?

BL: No. I don’t look at life like that, so I don’t look at life like somebody inspired me to do something. I mean follow your heart, whatever you’re meant to be, meant to do, you will do.

So it’s not because of other people doing it that I’m doing it. So I feel like being an actress is meant to be so that’s what I’m doing.

It’s more like I follow my own heart, follow nature’s rhythm and give the beauty of the earth through me. I’m like a tool, here to transform the earth’s beauty and it’s knowledge, it’s heart and compassion and love to the world through my character. RA: What do you enjoy most about acting? BL: I’m not acting; I’m living in the moment. So, you say I’m acting, you call it acting but for me it’s not.

It’s a moment. Every moment you see in Dumplings was a true moment of breath and fresh air at that moment.

Nothing was prepared, nothing that I know of anyway, it just happened naturally at that moment. That’s the way I enjoy.

That’s the only way I can do it or enjoy doing it because I don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s like real life.

Surprises for me are a gift. I’m sure if I’m surprised the audience will be surprised. And the camera is like a reflection of who you are and will capture the truth.

And you transform it through film to the audience. So it’s kind of a fascinating journey but for me it’s like the truth that I’m leaning for, it’s that moment of life. RA: How would you describe the film ‘Dumplings’ to Growlersworld.com readers? BL: I think Dumplings; basically, it’s a very dangerous, modern subject for Chinese cinema. It’s very contemporary and modern. It deals with lost souls in a fast paced society. And it asks what is the meaning of life, what’s the meaning of love and what’s the meaning of youth. Some people are desperate to grab something, to hold on to youth then they feel they have everything. But they miss the point of life. You know, nature has it’s own rhythm of changing.

Of earth and death, it’s a circle. So you can’t hold on to anything forever. You have to accept this beauty each day when you grow and see each new day of birth.

In human life there’s a growing older by nature. Every day is a new birth. There’s no time, there’s no age.

So I feel like the good thing about this film is that it displays the darkness, the shadows and the ugliness and the things we don’t want to see that surround us.

But the shadows are on the same track as the beauty because they are there for a reason. And I think that without those shadows, without pure darkness you will never be able to see the moon and the stars.

So they are there for a reason. So they’re equally important. You can only appreciate beauty and sunlight by knowing there’s a dark side, a shadow world. I think of my part [in the film] itself, I love her. She’s so bold and she’s so independent, so wise, so innocent, yet provocatively sexy. It’s fun, such a beautiful, bold and modern character. RA: What was your favourite experience working on this movie?

BL: The fact that it was like a secret. A secret dance, a secret love affair with the character I’m playing. So it’s her journey but I’m giving her life and blood and soul. So it’s most difficult and challenging and fun.

It’s a dance and love affair with her because she’s a hard character to observe, to grasp, to know. She’s very mysterious and is always challenging me.

She’s leading me, guiding me and testing me. She leads me astray sometimes, so it’s like she’s testing me and I feel like I have 200% love for her.

She revealed herself on screen to me. It was quite a tough journey but quite a joyful and memorable dance I had with her. She’s a beautiful character and I learnt so much from playing her.

RA: Can you describe what it was like working with director Fruit Chan (Chen Guo)? BL: I think that he has a concept of modern man that is very contemporary. His films all deal with contemporary life, contemporary struggles and young people’s journeys in the modern ways. So for me, the most precious gift he gave to me is the tremendous freedom. So he basically allowed me to do whatever I wanted to. He said “Bai Ling, as long is it’s true for you, do whatever you want to do.” So when I was filming, all these vivid ideas came to me and naturally at this time it was crazy. I suddenly asked for a fan, I wanted sunflower seeds and I wanted to sit in a certain way. It all happened in the moment. But because he allowed me to be free and to dance freely on screen, that was a gift. The freedom to be wild.

RA: What was it like working with actress Miriam Yeung (Yang Qianhua)?

BL: She’s a comedy actress, she works very hard. I didn’t know she was a comedian. She was very serious and she’s very good in the film.

It was fun, we didn’t [because it was a hard environment, the work was so tiring, the work was so hard] have much free time for talking to each other.

I feel like she’s a very nice person. And I want to see her comedies. I’ve never seen them and I think they’ll be very good. Also she sings too.

RA: What are you working on next? BL: I have another film that will be released here soon I think called Edmond. I play an exotic dancer with William H Macy. It’s based on a David Manning play and will be released in the UK soon. I just had a film in the Cannes film festival I just got back yesterday [Wednesday 24th May 2006]. The film is in competition for a Palm D’Or and it’s called Southland Tales. It has a very good director [Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko], young and talented. It’s a most unique film. They portray me as a modern day Greta Garbo.

Very mysterious, sexy, funny and intelligent throughout the whole film.

And then I have another four movies already finished, which will be released very soon. ‘Living and Dying’ is a love story and a thriller and I play a bank robber in the film [Directed by Jon Keeyes].

Then another one is called ‘Man about Town’ where I play a journalist, like yourself. The character is a modern day young intelligent woman and I starred with Ben Affleck. So I was like challenging him all the time in the film as the role.

And then I have the film ‘The Gene Generation’ which is sort of like The Matrix. It’s like The Matrix and La Femme Nikita combined. It’s very hip, very futurist.

In the film I dress in all black and use real guns very gracefully. It’s like a comic book character. [See more on this movie at www.genegeneration.com] I just got a leading role in an adaptation of one of the best selling Chinese contemporary novels called Shanghai Baby. It’s about young people’s life in Shanghai. www.shanghai-baby.com It’s quite fascinating. We’re shooting in September in Shanghai and Berlin.

It’s about a young writer’s journey of life, love and lust.

She’s looking for the ending of her novel, multiple lovers and discovering the meaning of life. She experiences the wildness and the sexuality of young people’s life.

It’s what’s happening today in Shanghai and I want to portray her as a 22nd Century, modern intelligent also beautiful young woman. So that’s something I’m looking forward to.

For each character that I play I read the script, I understand, I don’t really do much research because I think actors take an emotional journey of human beings.

So emotion is just like a wild river, it’s in your internal universe. So I live life, I like real life. I don’t really watch many movies, I don’t watch TV at all, I just like to learn and experience life. This makes you sensitive about life; you experience the sadness, happiness, sweetness and cruelty, everything in life. And when you portray a character you understand the character, so you know where the character stands. You know how she feels, so for me it’s quite personal, quite private and quite easy. It’s about emotion, about the truthful emotion and the moment of life at that moment.

For me it’s not about research, it’s more about the music and poetry of playing the character. More like feelings, it’s more romantic than trying to look for things from outside.

I think from within, when you feel a certain way, you feel the truth and you usually know how you should behave.

RA: What made you decide to return to Chinese cinema after a long stint in Hollywood?

BL: It’s not anything I decided, it’s just what fate has arranged for me. Somebody called me, a producer called me.

He said “Dumplings is a film I would like you to do, would you like to do it?” I said “Sure, yes.” So it’s basically like your fate, your life, your journey is already there. You just have to trust your instinct and take life’s gift and give your gift back to life. So that’s the way I live life, it’s all not planned. I don’t have plans, I don’t want to know the future, the future is not here yet.

The past, like yesterday is like a page that has passed already. Finished.

I’m like a child, when I get up and open the curtains I wonder if it’s rainy or sunny. You know it’s just like I’m anxious, waiting for the day.

A gift to be unfolded in front of your eyes and it’s all a gift. I just enjoy the moment. It’s like a new experience; even if I’m tired I enjoy the tiredness. I think it has this lazy beauty in it too.

And also, I enjoy doing nothing, then everything comes in slow motion.

This weekend I’ll be wondering around, through the streets of London. I think that’s something I’m very much looking forward to. Just getting lost, watching people, talking to strangers or just not talking. Just drinking coffee on the pavement and just seeing what happens. I like to experience life being not so worried about material things, trying to be successful and trying to make money. I just enjoy life.

You know life; you don’t need much actually, in real life.

You have to be not so greedy, just enjoy what you have and be appreciative, look at the positive side of life and just give.

You know, Dumplings won the Asian Academy Awards, the foremost important acting awards, and it’s because I was never thinking about winning any awards.

I guarantee you; if I was thinking about winning awards I’d never win.

It’s just nature, when you’re freely giving you get so much more than you ever expected. So I think I’m lucky in life, I’m travelling, I do what I love to do and get paid for it. The only thing I will feel not guilty about is receiving all the gifts I get because I give everything that I have when I portray the character. I give the truth, the honesty of my heart and emotions and thus I connect to the character.

RA: How would you describe today’s China?

BL: I think in China it’s so fascinating. I think it’s the future of the world. It’s like this young sexy woman, just woken up and ready to go dancing, go to disco, go to conquer the world, go to seduce men.

I feel a lot of beauty, a lot of energy, a lot of unknown, a lot of mystery but a lot of excitement.

It’s like so exciting there in China today. No matter how tired I am, if I have three days with no sleep, when I land in China I suddenly wake up. I suddenly have energy, like it vibrates from the earth. I feel just so full of life everywhere, just so excited.

It’s like you’re just like a child observing so much information, there’s many things to observe. I’m very proud to be Chinese and I think China is such a fascinating old culture and now it has a fascinating development.

New, modern cities of style, of modern ways. Young people are so free and they’re so daring.

And somehow that land of China is so rich. It has this ancient beauty also with the modern ways mixed together. That makes it very mysterious and very exciting to get to know China.

Because of the character I sometimes describe myself as having a spirit in me [that I try and get to know]. Probably, in China, there are a million spirits there, or more, for you to really get to know China.

Dumplings was released on 16 June 2006 by Tartan Films and is now available on DVD.

Read Bai Ling's blog!

Warrior King - A Review>

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Check out Dianying.com for an extensive database of Chinese films.

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