Press Lounge

Julie Savelli interviewed Tan Chui Mui for the daily paper for FIDMarseille

Julie Savelli: I have viewed your film and I must say I was very sensitive to your work and particularly to the specific narrative structure which is really smart. Love conquers all is your first film. What is the origin of the project and in what budgetary conditions did you make it?

I had the script development grant from Hubert Bals Fund (Rotterdam Film Festival). It was 10,000 Euro for me to write and develop my script. Instead, I use all the money to make a digital film.

It is very common with the Malaysian DV filmmaker, especially with Amir Muhammad, James Lee and me, our usual budget is from 10 000 to 20 000 Euros.

Are the actors professional ones? How did you proceed for the casting and the direction?

Of the four main casts, Coral Ong (Ah Ping), Stephen Chua ( John), Leong Juin Juin ( Little Mei), Ho Chi Lai ( Aunty Hong Jie), only the little girl Leong Juin Juin had acting experience. She had once acted in a horror film. The rest are first time acting.

For the main role, I had spent 3 months from Oct - Dec 2005, having auditions in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Ipoh, Penang and Singapore.I did not get the girl I want. Then I started teaching a short-term filmmaking class in a Media College, and I found Coral Ong in the class. At first impression she was too talkative and playful. But during a conversation with her I felt that she have the emotion depth I needed.

Coral is now studying film in Taiwan. In real life, she is totally different from what you see in the film.

Throughout the film, Ah Ping is transported from one life to another - by bus, on a motorbike, by car - with recurrent stops - at the telephone booth, on the market place, for the meals... - which constitute as many different stages in the narration.

The changes of life happened to many. Different generation had experienced different type of changes. There is this film I like a lot, which realease in france this week - "The Syndrome of A Century" by Apitchapong. The same stories and character hapen twice in the film. One a hospital in the country and another one a hospital in the city.

The film is interrupted half-way (47' approximately) by a dark shot which clearly indicates a significant break in its development. And indeed, whereas there is a storm brewing in the first half, it rains in the second one...

The film is very structured. Maybe that's why I don't really like my film. It is clearly cut into half. In the first half, the girl is in control. She is playing a game, at time even humiliating the guy, like this scene she test the jacket on him.

In the second half, she is totally helpless. The situation is like how she is on John's car. She could of course always jump, but jumping is too painful.

The narration break of the film was the scene John explain to Ah Ping how a pimp operate.

The turning point for me was the trip out to the seaside. She shouldn't have get onto his car at all.

Ah Ping shares the little girl's room and their lives are superimposed on each other just as the beds are... What ties them to each other and why did you end the film on the child ?

Ah Ping is 19 and Mei is 9. For me the danger of Ah Ping is, she though she had known enough about love, and she took too much risk.

But then, what's the point of falling in love if we don't take risk of getting hurt?

They only become close to each other, when the little girl Mei tells Ah Ping her secret of the letters. And Mei knows about Ah Ping and John. Sharing secrets tie them together.

When I write a script, I always write my ending scene first. And this letter sending scene is the first thing I wrote for my film, as an ending scene. I imagine the awkard relationship between this little girl and her mother, and the sweet ending of motorcycle ride in the evening sun.

When little Mei asked her mother to ring the door bell of her secret pen pal, and she hide in the bushes to see who would come out, she suddenly look at her mother in another light. Her mother looks different to her now, shy and clumsily, fixing her hair in front of her motocycle mirror, walking to ring the door bell of a stranger. And at this moment, little Mei realised she is loved.

I like little Mei's story better. I think I even said it in the film. In their last scene together at the night market, John pointed at another jacket and told Ah Ping, " I like the other one better." They both look up. The film cut to the letter scene of Little Mei and her mother, Hong Jie.

The ending music was not planned during the script. I had in mind to not use music at all in my film, but one day I heard a school brass band practising near my office, it was a bit clumsy but loud and self-assured, and i felt it is very much like how i want my film to end. And I was very happy to use it. Because everytime when I walking into the dark theatre near the movie ending, I feel more couragious to face th audience. I'm a shy person.

And, the second scene I wrote of my film is my first scene. In the bus, the old man who sit beside Ah Ping, had headache and asked to change seat. He carries with him many luggages and plastic bags. He sit down and eat, and suddenly starting crying. The old man is played by a malaysian indian actor, who i worked with before. And when I wrote this scene I already have this actor in mind. Maybe because of his glasses, he looks so much like Mahamat Ghandi.

When Love Conquers All won the New Currents prize in Pusan last year, and Bruno Dumont was one of the jury. He is a director I admired a lot, so I approached him and asked him. He said he was very impressed by the starting scene. It started like a magic, he said. Somehow I suspect that is the only scene he like.

Trailers

Get Love conquers all's DVD here!