Love Will Tear Us Apart Interview: Yu Lik-wai Q. When did you first start planning Love Will Tear Us Apart? A. The first script was written in 1995 when I graduated from film school in Belgium. The main characters remained the same from the first script, but as I rewrote the script in the next three years, the issue of immigrants from China was starting to raise concern. It was two years before Hong Kong was to be returned to China, and the Mainland's presence was growing stronger in Hong Kong. That is probably why I got interested in the issue. I think this film is not only about the love-hate relationship between people, but you might be able to say that it reflects the love-hate relationship between China and Hong Kong too. Q. Much of the film was shot indoors. Was this on purpose? A. Yes, I wanted to express human relationships by intentionally creating a closed feeling where you want to move around, but can't. That could have been an expression of my feelings toward Hong Kong when I wrote the script. Hong Kong's identity is neither Chinese nor British, and is very unstable. I think "trapped in a forced definition" describes Hong Kong's identity best. Q. You also work as a director of photography, and in fact did wonderful work in this capacity on Platform (also screening at FILMeX). Do you plan to work as both a director and a director of photography from now on? A. Film is a collective form, and I don't think the director is any more important than the director of photography. As long as I get to express myself creatively, I would be more than happy to work as the director of photography in films directed by other people, or even act in them too! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Director's Profile: Born in Hong Kong in 1966. Studied abroad at Belgium's Institut National Superieur des Arts de Spectacle. Upon returning home, shot and directed the documentary Neon Goddesses (1996). Awarded the Documentary Grand Prix at the 1996 Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards and the "We Love Cinema" prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Festival '97. Active also as a director of photography, with credits including such works as Jia Zhang-ke's Xiao Wu and Ann Hui's Ordinary Heroes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extrait de dialogues Comment t'appelles-tu ? Yan Ying... "Yan" comme dans "Enfer" T'es d'où ? Wuhan Ah, la révolution de 1911... Ça, c'était Wuchang ! Comment t'es arrivée ici ? Pourquoi t'es venue à Hong Kong ? J'ai pas détourné un vol d'Air China, si c'est ça que tu veux dire.