Upclose with Felix Chong
Director Felix Chong, best known as the screenwriter of “Infernal Affairs,” has a new flick out, “Once a Gangster.” He tells Doretta Lau about his fantasies, personality quirks and writing process.
HK: Why did you decide to direct this film on your own, without your usual writing and directing partner, Alan Mak?
FC: Alan and I are very different. He’s a very straitlaced person. He’s very normal. But I’m kind of abnormal. [Laughs.] I’m always coming up with outlandish and strange ideas. Of course when you’re making a movie there are things you have to take into consideration, like the audience. If you have a weird idea, you can’t necessarily make it into a film. So I accumulated a lot of these ideas—actually, I’ve wanted to make this kind of film for a while, but I never had the opportunity. But then one day, my schedule was clear, so I shot this film.
HK: When did you write the screenplay?
FC: I started writing it on the day that Martin Scorsese won the Oscar for “The Departed.” I wrote it in a week.
HK: You wrote the entire screenplay in a week?
FC: Yes—I’ve always worked this quickly. I’m famous for this in the industry. When I was a kid, either I was slightly autistic or hyperactive. My brain just doesn’t stop. As soon as I wake up, my mind is spinning. Also, I don’t have dreams. Perhaps I wait until I’m awake to have my dreams and fantasies. So once I focus on something, I can get it done very quickly, and it will become a finished screenplay. Of course, some screenplays are good and some are not. Just because I can finish one, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good. And sometimes I’m not that quick. The play I wrote for Frederic Mao for the Arts Festival, “The Liaisons,” took me half a year.
HK: How does your writing partnership with Alan usually work?
FC: I usually do most of the writing, because if you had to wait for Alan to do the writing, you’d be dead. Half a year later he still wouldn’t be finished with a screenplay. So, I write a draft, and then he reads it. He’s much more knowledgeable about the production side of things, so he can spot issues. Just because I can think something up, doesn’t mean it can be shot on film. He figures out whether we’re able to shoot the script, and then we rewrite it so that it’s a shootable script. You can’t just write a screenplay, it has to be shootable… by the way, have you seen the film?
HK: Yes.
FC: Did you think it was too outrageous?
HK: No. I was thinking that the triad genre has been done to death, and this film is a fresh take on gangster life.
FC: I was afraid that I went too far and that people wouldn’t understand the film, or they’d swear when it was over.