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HK Magazine

Her new film “Crossing Hennessy” has been chosen to open this year’s International Film Festival. She shares with Johannes Pong why she wants to be Dr. Doom.
I grew up in Macau. I came to Hong Kong when I was studying in Form 3.
It was so different back then. People were scared of government officials. Now the government officials are scared of the people.
There was no MTR yet. Buses were so cramped.
Corruption was rife. I mean, if there was a problem, money was the way to smooth it out.
When I was a kid, I thought there was a robot camera for movies that just went around automatically, taking videos from all angles. I didn’t realize that a single scene required numerous takes, from different angles, then weeks of editing.
I was so disillusioned when I found out that such machines did not exist.
Becoming a director was not my plan. It was a plot twist.
I had no goals. Wanting to write novels was the closest thing to my “I want to be a ___ when I grow up” fantasy.
After high school, I became a production assistant at a now defunct TV station. Then I moved on to TVB.
I almost became a trainee property agent.
If I took that job, I might be filthy rich now, or I might have nothing at all.
When I was a production assistant, once they started setting up the lighting, I would doze off. You know, setting up lighting took so long back then.
I wish there was a camera that would just capture colors exactly how you see them through your eyes. Maybe in the future...
I wrote my first script when I was at TVB.  Director Patrick Tam asked me to write it. Actually no, it wasn’t even a proper script, it was just a monologue.
I would’ve been a totally different person, like even more lazy, if I didn’t give birth to my two daughters.
My girls need to eat, they need care, so I became more productive. My husband isn’t a very hardworking person either.
Why do people have to be so hardworking? I’m against being hardworking. Not everyone can be hardworking.
You can’t just have hardworking people in a society. The rhythm of that society would be stressful. Janitors would be constantly sweeping the floor.
I’m lazy, but comfortable.
No I don’t get bored. There’s so much to do at home. But I just don’t have the time.
Like watching movies, listening to music, knitting (I’m really good at it—I inherited the skills from my mother), recycling old stuff to make new things, playing video games.
I can just sit there and watch thrillers all night. Nothing calms me down like a good thriller.
I’m anal. I can’t stand movies where they have a scene with actors walking around in Kowloon, and then they turn a corner, and they’re in Central.
So, I’ve kept “Crossing Hennessy” around only Hennessy Road in Wan Chai.
Someone misquoted me. I did not say, “Within ten years Hong Kong films might become obsolete.” I just said Cantonese films might become obsolete.
I’m pessimistic. I have to make a doomsday prediction so that we can do some great films.
I feel like I have to warn people. That will encourage us to make more good Cantonese films.
I don’t think we have to produce “localized” Hong Kong films. We just need to make good films.


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Ivy Ho

Ivy Ho, director of "Crossing Hennessy"

Magazines

Screenwriter-director Ivy Ho has been in the film business since the 1970s. Her breakthrough came in 1996, after she wrote Peter Chan’s “Comrades, Almost a Love Story,” starring Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai, which has become a cult classic.
