By APA Staff

Director Lo Chi-Leung shares his inspirations behind his new film Koma.

In person, Lo Chi-Leung comes across as wide-eyed, genuinely enthusiastic, and intently heartfelt, as he speaks about his latest project, the suspense-thriller Koma. Koma reunites him with Karena Lam, who he'd previously worked with in Inner Senses (2002), the horror flick which he is best known for. This film scored him the Best New Director award at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as a nomination for Best Director and an award for Film of Merit.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lo Chi-Leung began his career as an assistant director, and worked his way up to writing and directing his own projects, including Viva Erotica (1996) and Double Tap (2000). He is often a writer on the projects he works on, including Full Throttle, Viva Erotica, Double Tap, and Inner Senses; but this time, for Koma, he enlisted the help of Susan Chan, his writing partner on Till Death Do Us Part.

Koma is his third full-length feature, shot for two million in his hometown, where he makes his movies. The film opened in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and China in April of 2004 and was just recently screened at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles this November.

APA talks to Lo Chi-Leung about what Koma means to him, his amusing insights on male-female distinctions, and his general hopes and goals for his future filmmaking. --Ada Tseng

Interview with Lo Chi-Leung
November 12, 2004
Interviewed by Chi Tung
Transcription by Chi Tung

APA: Could you briefly introduce yourself?

Lo Chi Leung: Yes. My name is Lo Chi Leung. I am from Hong Kong, live in Hong Kong and make movies in Hong Kong.

APA: What kinds of films influenced Koma?

LCL: I'm not sure if this is right--Alfred Hitchcock? Some say it's like Kubrick's Shining. I just like Kubrick's one scene, but I think the movie is totally influenced by Alfred Hitchcock. For me, this is not a horror movie. Honestly. I want to do something that's exciting, not something that wants you to scream out--it's not that type of movie. But it's not exactly like Alfred Hitchcock because his movies are not too dark; this movie is dark.

APA: In the way that it's similar to a Hitchcock movie is that there are a lot of plot twists, whereas with the standard horror film, it's more about trying to scare the audience than making them think. Does that make it more suspense/mystery rather than horror?

LCL: For me, with horror films, it's easy to let me put something inside this film. This is why I choose this topic to talk about. Hitchcock says one thing--I'm not sure whether this is it--you need to meet the people in the movie, you need to be in the position of the actor or actress. So in the end, when the actress opens the door and walks through the corridor and opens something, at the end, this is just a tangent, in the end, behind the door, in Hitchcock, there's no use, there's nothing. Yet in Koma, I want to try and do something like that--behind the door is not the important thing, I just want you to be at the same time, same place as the actress.

APA: The film plays a lot upon feminine instincts. What is it about the female mind that you think works so differently from the male--what's potentially more scary or frightening?

LCL: [laughs] For me, some guy in Hong Kong after the screening asked me a question: why Karena, the actress, and Lee Sinje, the other actress, can be friends. They think--especially with males, not females--they don't know why. They need a reason, they think in the movie there isn't a reason, but in my mind, I have put the reason inside, of why she and she can be friends. This is something that if you are a girl, you know, but men always don't know. Maybe one day, your girlfriend asks you to change your glasses, but the boyfriend says tomorrow, or tomorrow, but nothing has changed, and you have a grand and perfect dinner, but the girlfriend says I don't want to get with you, and the boyfriend is confused, like, "what happened?" But if the girl asks you to do a simple thing, ask one time, two times, a hundred times, she doesn't really want you to change the glasses, she just wants the man to do little things for her. This is love. I think mostly men don't know that this is woman. This is a silly thing for man, they think if you want to ask me a big favor, we'll do it real quick, but women are different. So the reason in the movie that the two actresses can be friends I think is very easy. I think they both are free with each other, they're jealous, they want to be the other one. In their minds, it's not only one thing.

APA: You sound like you sympathize with the women a lot more than the man in this film. You talked about the woman being capable of...despite being jealous towards one another, still able to be friends. Why is it that the guy can't... why is everything real black and white with him? Is that something you feel about men in general?

LCL: I think with men, in love they're silly. This is what I think because I'm silly. A woman told me that. I really really don't know.

APA: Where did you get the idea for the kidney theme?

LCL: I don't know if you've gotten this email or not. One or two years ago, on the internet, I got a junk mail about the stolen kidney, written in Cantonese. They say it's a real thing. I've got a friend in Canada who also got this email in English, but right now some guys said it's not true, just a rumor.

APA: What other filmmakers--Asian or otherwise--do you admire?

LCL: Hong Kong? International?

APA: Either.

LCL: I like John Woo. Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorcese. Right now I like Steven Spielberg. When I was young, I didn't like him. Because right now, I can say old world movies are very difficult. Steven Spielberg is doing something like that. When I was a child and teenager, I thought Spielberg was laughing, exciting, nothing inside, but if you can do something like that, it's very difficult. For me, there's no hot movie, to let the little people know what you're thinking, There are two types--one is to know what you want to do, or you do a movie for well-educated people.

APA: What other kinds of movie genres are you interested in? Is the horror movie genre your favorite type? Or are there other styles that you prefer?

LCL: I like every type of movie. Comedy, action, love story, I want to try more types of movies, if I have more time, and the company supports me. It's difficult in Hong Kong, but what you call them...musicals? I like musicals.

APA: What kinds of goals do you have for the film, as far as the United States go? What kind of audience would you like it to reach?

LCL: I wish that everybody would watch the movie. I hope after they see the movie, they're not just excited. You can't say that there's a message, because I try to put any message in the movie. Because in the other movies before Koma, usually I have a message at the end, but for me, Koma doesn't have any message, the message is inside the movie all the time. There isn't only one message...something a Japanese writer said, his book is to not only say one thing, it's talking about you and me, not a message, just people and people's relations. Koma, to me, is just people and people's relationships.

APA: What does Koma mean in English?

LCL: It's the same as coma.

APA: What's next for you? What's after this?

LCL: Maybe I do a family movie. It's a comedy and there's CGI, it's talking about a girl who can talk to insects, and that girl befriends a ladybug and things change. It's like a rite-of-passage, coming-of-age story.

APA: Are you planning on filming anything here, in America?

LCL: Maybe. [laughs]

APA: Thank you for your time.

LCL: Thank you.

Published: Friday, December 3, 2004