Rebels of the Neon God 青少年哪吒 (1992, dir. Tsai Ming-liang)
Although you had already directed several television films, Rebels of the Neon God was your first major feature. What did you learn making that film?
I don’t remember! (Laughs) I remember that when the film came out, a Taiwan film critic criticized it, saying that it was too similar to a made-for-television-movie. But I strongly disagreed, I always felt it was a film and very different from my television work. But a lot of people typecast you in their minds and couldn’t get past the fact that I had been a television director for so many years. There were a lot of critics who made such rash judgments of my early work, but I always knew that I was working in a new medium and was well aware of the scale of the projected images I was working with. But at the same time I was constantly exploring just what the proper distance between my camera and my subject was. I was always flirting with distance. Often I would want to get in real close, but I knew that was dangerous. At the same time, I knew being too far away can be dangerous as well. It is very different from television, because in television you knew exactly what the parameters are. You are working with a small screen and can never get too far away. But film is very different […] and it requires a very different approach from television.
And the original script for Rebels was originally only two thirds the final length? And it was producer Hsu Li-kong who completed the story?
Actually, the conclusion was not in fact written by Hsu Li-kong. There is a story floating around that Hsu completed it, but that is because he wanted to send the script in to apply for government funding and the application required a completed screenplay. However, after writing the first two thirds, I couldn’t write anymore and had to get back to Malaysia for the New Year. So I told him to finish it any way he wanted, but I was leaving. (Laughs) But we never actually used his ending for the shoot. I think his version involved Lee Kang-sheng talking a fake gun to commit some crimes or something, but I didn’t use any of that.
There was another incident when I was at work on a screenplay for a mini-series. I had been working on the script for two years and had writer’s block when it came to one scene. My downstairs neighbor was a very famous female screenwriter. She was extremely quick and prolific, so was able to make a lot of money in the industry. Seeing that I had been working on the same screenplay for two years, she felt bad for me and invited me over for dinner. Over dinner she asked just where it was that I was having trouble. I told her that I couldn’t figure out how to write an argument scene between a woman and her mother-in-law; I didn’t know what kind of things they would argue about. The next morning she slipped the finished scene under my door. I was very moved, but I wouldn’t use it. I just laughed and wondered how she could do that. The same thing happened with Hsu Li-kong. They all think it is easy—after all, it’s just a screenplay. But for me it is very difficult. I get to a certain point and that’s it, my inspiration is gone. The same thing would happen when I was working in television; I wouldn’t be able to finish screenplays, but I was able to sneak by because I was also the producer. There were also times when I would start with a television writer’s script, but once I got on location I threw the whole script away and rewrote it myself. I still gave the original writer all the credit, but I couldn’t bear to use his work. I knew that if I made the show according to his screenplay it would have been really good—but it wasn’t what I wanted. There are some aspects of reality that you can’t write at home. So I wrote two thirds of Rebels of the Neon God, Hsu Li-kong wrote the last section to apply for funding, and then I just went and shot without regard to his ending. But Hsu Li-kong is really funny, and he would often joke with me and say, “Ah Liang, do you know why you got awarded funding for this film? It’s all because of my beautiful ending!” (Laughs)
Michael Berry, Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers
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