 Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the first director Q&A session of Taiwan Study Summer School. I'm Dr. Zhang Biyu, the deputy director of the Center of the Taiwan Study. It is our great pleasure to welcome director Yang Yajie, one of the most popular and active directors in Taiwan today. So may I ask you all to turn on your microphone and give him a big round of applause. Okay, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Okay, so allow me to use a few minutes to introduce him before we kick off the Q&A session. Last week, we screened three of his feature films. Both Boy, Jionanhai, Girlfriend's Boyfriend,女朋友,男朋友, A Least to Paradise, Wei Zhang Tian Tang, and two episodes of his most recent and highly acclaimed television series, The Magician on the Skywalk, Tianqiao Shang De Mo Shuxi. Yang Yajie is a director as well as a writer. His background, we can say, is very colorful and has worked on different jobs during his college years, in which the experiences have become his inspiration in writing as well as filmmaking. He has worked on various mediums ranging from documentaries, stage plays, short films, TV dramas, and full-length feature films. The screening last week shows several of his most important works. Among them, the recent release, a TV series The Magician on the Skywalk, shows an increasing maturity in terms of his aesthetic, style, and critical worldview. This series is an adaptation of Wu Mingyi's novel of the same name and deals with memory, adolescent fantasy, and talent social changes. So to catch the essence of the period, the recreation of the Zhonghua shopping mall brings the audience back to Taipei in the 1980s. Yang Yajie really is a master of storytelling who conveys a magical touch with animation, fantasy, and folklore. Before we start the Q&A session, I would like to, as always, thank our funders, the Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Division at the TRO in the UK, and also the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute for their support. Without their generous funding and backing, it would not have been possible to launch such an ambitious project. So lastly, I will quickly remind you of a few housekeeping rules. First, please be aware this is a recorded session. Secondly, please post your questions we have mentioned about this. Probably you guys have different group of people using the conversation slash chat function. You will find the beach bubble icon at the top of the screen. So type your question there. And also please make sure you only ask one question at a time. Don't, you know, add on too many and keep them brief and succinct. Our assistant curator Shaoyi and project manager, Juel, will collate the questions and present them to director. This will be translated by Josh at a brick, sorry, Josh, our interpreter. So without, you know, dragging on to talk about all the rules, may I start off the Q&A session with two questions and I will ask one at a time. So the first question I will ask in Chinese. Okay. I will ask the first question. Okay. The first question is that you have used a lot of the same-sex animation in the movie. There are some fantasy elements like fantasy. I have read a lot about your interview. You often mentioned your childhood growth experience and your life journey. It deeply affects your work. Can you please tell us a little bit about your life experience and your childhood memories? What impact do you have on your career? And how does it affect your creativity? Maybe you can use Tianqiao as an example to explain how to use this. I will ask English now. You have used a lot of interesting elements in your work, such as Taiwanese folklore, animation and dream-like fantasy. In many of your interviews, you mentioned about your own experience of growing up and working experience. I wonder how those experiences have enriched and inspire your filmmaking and script writing process. Could you reflect on what kind of life experience impacted on your filmmaking, why they are important and how they are used in your films? Thank you. Ma Fan. There is a saying in English, you are what you need. I learned it when I was very young. When I grow up, I understand that in the same year or the day of your life experience, what kind of life experience you will have when you learn it. Before I was born in China, I was the happiest when I was a child. I read a lot of fairy tales and read a lot of stories about life. It has an impact on my life. Thank you, director. Director Yang Yajia was explaining how when he was young, he learned a phrase in English which was, you are what you eat. He was suggesting that as he has grown up, he started to understand that it is true in terms of life experience. From a young age up to the sixth year of elementary school in Taiwan, that phase of life growing up, that was his happiest phase of life. At that time, when he would read lots of stories, particularly fantasy stories, fairy tales, he found that positive experience, that happiness has influenced the work that he has created later on. When I was young, I read those books that helped me a lot. I was indeed like the boy in the movie, the boy in the movie. When I was a kid, I had to serve other students in the library for a while. At that time, I read a lot of books. I think that gave me a lot of support. Because you know that when you go to Taiwan, you read all kinds of fun and useless things. So my most useful book was probably when I was a kid, when I went to university, this period of time was the most useful thing. So director Yang was in elementary school. He was saying it actually quite similar to the film O.R.C. Boys. He was often spending time in the library helping out and helping out in classmates and things like that. So he read a lot of books during that time. And actually those were the most helpful in terms of actually learning and influencing and inspiring his imagination. And actually later on he was saying, generally rubbish in higher school. Because it was all just information and information for exams. He didn't inspire his imagination in the same way that in elementary school, those books that he read did. So director Yang's memories from childhood, they often, they come back and reappear in the films that he creates, the movies that he creates. Because later on he was saying, you know, memories are just studying and then nothing else. Yes. Okay, thank you. The second question, again, I want to use Chinese to ask. Because it's like our film series this time, Taiwan's New Chao Film, the main thing to think about is the development of Taiwanese films after the New Chao. As the director of the film director of Taiwan's Zhongsheng Dai, do you think your works have affected or inspired them? What kind of influence do they have? Then you think that in this era, in your era, in the director of Zhongsheng Dai, what is the biggest difference between the New Chao film director and them? Okay, I'll ask the English one. As the title of the series suggests, we aim to examine Taiwan's cinematic development of the last 30 years. As one of the younger generation directors, would you say that you are influenced by the new wave authors in some way or another? What is the biggest difference between your generation and theirs? Thank you, director. I am the younger generation, not the middle age. Okay. Uncle Age. You just mentioned the New Chao film. My answer is for sure. In my first time, I was brave enough to watch a film in the center of the city, the New Chao film. When I was a kid, I was almost in middle school. It was a brave thing to do. But from that moment on, I started to like the so-called real Taiwan-based film. The film is called Da Chou Chi. Okay. Director Yang was responding to the question, saying that for him, actually, of course, he has been influenced a lot by the Taiwan New Wave Cinema. And the example he gave was actually the first time that he was old enough and brave enough to take a bus by himself into the city center to go and watch a movie, was to see one of the New Wave films. And in Chinese it's called Da Chou Chi, taking the wrong bus. But he didn't take the wrong bus. He got the right bus and watched the movie. So that's kind of an example of how the New Wave Cinema has been an influence on him from a young age. Go ahead. Okay. So Director Yang was saying then that when he was younger, probably up until around about the time he was in university, the most popular films in Taiwan were American, Hollywood, movies, Japanese movies. And what was the other one? Hong Kong films. So Hollywood, Japanese, Hong Kong films. And actually the Taiwanese films were not what people would usually choose to go and see. But for him actually it was different. For his leisure time there was a particular cinema that would always show either European or Taiwanese films. And Director Yang was saying that he found that actually that became a place for him where he didn't even need to know which film was playing. He would happily go and buy a ticket and just see what was on because he knew that it would be good. It would be something that he would enjoy. So he also mentioned that up until kind of almost after university, he hadn't even considered becoming a full-time director. But I think that was a process afterwards. So I later analyzed why I would have this kind of habit of watching films. I found that I liked a real, human-to-human relationship film. And it wasn't a fantasy film. I had to believe that it was real enough so that I could enter the film industry. The most important thing about the Taiwanese film industry is the human-to-human relationship. It must be real. So this affected me in the way I talked about my future work. I had to believe that things are real. Director Yang says that for him, as he analyzed what it was that really attracted him about the films that he was watching, what he liked about the movies that he saw, he was saying the key point was the relationships between people, that it has to be real. It has to be believable. And it's like you can almost put yourself in the shoes of the people in the movie. It's not just over the top. And so one of the things in Taiwanese new wave cinema that they were extremely good at was representing those very real connections between people, the emotional connection between people, and describing those relationships in a very down-to-earth kind of way. So for Director Yang, that's really influenced his own work that when he's shooting the movies, what he really wants to portray is the kind of the reality of the relationship and the connection between people. So the audience can feel a sense of understanding and I guess empathy and also reality through it. It's not somewhere off in the clouds, but it's actually you can move somebody because it feels like almost their own life being put on screen. So like the director of the new wave cinema, or director of the film, their work, because their relationship is very real. So it has a big impact on me. Of course, when I was in university, when I was watching movies, I always recommended some European movies, like Keng Ruo-Chu and the English director Keng Ruo-Chu, or some European directors. Their relationships are closer to my aesthetic level, so I would really enjoy this route. So Yang Beoyan was saying there that, again, reiterating is that reality of the relationships between people in movies. And in the Taiwanese new wave, the two directors you mentioned, Hou Xiaoxian and... Timing Liang. They were very good at portraying those emotional connections between people in a very real way. And director Yang said also, then after a while, his teacher also pointed him in the direction of some European movies that were similar in style where they portray real relationships. So there was a British director called Keng Ruo-Chu. Keng Ruo-Chu. Keng Ruo-Chu. Keng Ruo-Chu. Keng Ruo-Chu. Yeah. Cool. So that's had a big impact on his own filmmaking. Okay. I haven't finished yet. You haven't finished yet? Yes. It's my impression of the new wave. Yes. And you said, what do you think the people in that era are different from you? The environment is good, the body is good, the style is good. I'm actually chasing a director Yang to ask him to further elaborate on his reflection about the differences between two generations in terms of styles, subject matters, and environment. In fact, if it was my childhood, before I was born, the Taiwanese film was very popular, very commercialized. It can be sold to many places in Asia. But when I was almost a child, it was because the Taiwanese film was too commercialized and it wasn't very realistic. So I was slowly hated by my own audience. At that time, director Hou Xiao-Xian, they started a new wave to pursue a more close to fine art film. But that fine art film was rarely seen. But I think their film is purely based on the author's opinion, based on the author's opinion. Our director from Taiwan is the lowest point to start over. So we will think of a way to pursue audience's attention in a more commercialized way. So in terms of a difference between the new wave cinema and the movies from director Yang and other directors of his generation, he was just painting a picture of at the time of the Taiwanese new wave or pre-new wave, I should say, Taiwanese films had been very successful throughout Asia and were popular, but because they became overcommercialized, gradually that popularity started to decline because it was unbelievable. And it was at that point that Hou Xiao-Xian and other directors from the new wave group, what they started to make was much more like fine art movies. So not necessarily so popular, not mainstream, but they were very much shooting what they wanted. Now, for his generation, for director Yang's generation, he was saying they've almost had to start from the very bottom where Taiwanese cinema hasn't been popular and they've had to be very creative in balancing making something that they want, something that they believe in, but being able to attract audiences back to watching Taiwanese movies again. So there may be some commercial elements in the movies, but not overdoing it and trying to get that balance of creativity to bring the audience back, but keep it true to what he's trying to make. Thank you. Okay, maybe we should let them rest a bit. So, Shao-Yi, would you like to come forward and ask the question? Thank you. Yes, sure. I think there are some audiences who will give their questions out. Then there is one audience who will ask, do you have movies in Taiwan or online? Or is it exclusively online or in this year's world? Is there anything that you can do online? I don't think so. Not at all. Maybe there is no censor in Taiwan. After I was in college, the censor system fell. So my work is very lucky and doesn't need to be censored. So it's all in Taiwan. Thank you. Director, just replying there, he was saying that his movies in terms of censorship, by the time he got to university, censorship in Taiwan wasn't faded out as it were. So he's been able to produce basically whatever he wants without worrying about bits being cut out or bits being banned. Maybe I just remind everyone that after Shao Yi asking the Chinese question, let her also repeat the English one. Sorry. Because at that time, he would answer immediately. Okay. The second one, Shao Yi. Yeah. I think Nick is asking how Director Yang regards his own films and how he lets foreign audiences know Taiwan through his films. Thank you. As for foreigners, foreign audiences, foreign friends know Shao Yi, my movies at the beginning were all just thinking about how to introduce and how to recognize yourself. Because Taiwan is a very special place. People who come to watch movies will be far more than Taiwanese people. At least ten times more. So my movies are all about introducing our own audience. If you want to communicate with foreigners, you need to know yourself. Maybe foreign audiences will be interested to know us. So for this question Director Yang was saying that actually he hasn't really thought too much about how his movies will how I guess foreigners or people outside Taiwan will relate to understand his movies. Actually his starting point was much more thinking for Taiwanese how can we understand ourselves. And so by kind of looking at and examining ourselves, understanding ourselves, perhaps actually that's the best way for foreigners to understand us and who we are in our island here. But sometimes in order to study different countries the way of love is I will listen to their love songs. Oh, originally Japanese people thought of love like this. British people thought of love like this. And from movies to every country different people what is the point of love? I I don't dare to say that the movies I make can be sold all over the world. So the movie or music is an interesting thing and then sometimes the works will be changed because of these movies and these music. It won't be a problem for Taiwanese people. So the flip side of what Direct N was saying was that actually he will go on purpose to music from other countries to watch films from other countries and for example to I guess research through that medium how for example Japanese in their love songs how do they talk about love and relationships or in English love songs how do they see it and how is it different and through music or through foreign movies Direct N was saying that will actually of course influence then what he creates as well so while he was saying he can't say that necessarily his films could be popular all over the world but actually there are elements in those movies of him as a director being influenced by different cultures different countries, different ways of life which I think do make the movies accessible to a foreign audience so while the starting point might be for Taiwanese to understand themselves there are elements in his work which are very much accessible to foreign audiences as well actually one thing I missed out from his previous answer was he was saying in Taiwan the audience for Hollywood movies is at least 10 times the audience for Taiwanese movies and motivation for wanting to let Taiwanese know themselves through their own movies as well and not just constantly watching American Hollywood Unless one day if foreign European companies or American companies find me to film I might try to show the audience the likes or different cultures for example I think the most interesting is the difference between Taiwanese and European movies there are a lot of European and American movies so I thought foreigners wouldn't film but actually it shouldn't be so one day if a European or American company coming in hold on lots of static on the line okay there's some noise in this there we go thank you so director Yang was saying one day if a European or American film company came to him and wanted him to make a movie for a foreign audience in particular then yes he would definitely research what it is that different audiences from different countries and cultures like and also need to see in a film to be able to enjoy it and as an example he mentioned one of the big differences that he thinks is obvious between Taiwanese or maybe Asian films and American or European films is the mountain of tears so in Asian films there are a lot of tears and emotion is expressed a lot through tears whereas in American and European films there's not nearly as much and you know if there are tears it's for a very serious moment so he was saying he thought therefore that we in the west don't cry Americans and Europeans don't cry very much but he said I don't think that's not the reality but in terms of how emotion is portrayed in movies it's different fantastic okay I'll read this first the question in the magician on the sky you pay tribute to who's Dustin Wynne can you elaborate more on why you selected that particular segment in Dustin Wynne he said in the fairy tale there was a in the fairy tale of Dustin Wynne he wanted to know why you chose that in the fairy tale of Dustin Wynne yes actually we we he's going to translate first sorry sorry because when we were doing this it was a very big project and in the background of the fairy tale the author of the fairy tale wrote that an old character in the fairy tale really existed and in the in the fairy tale Dustin Wynne was shot in this movie I think this is a common memory and Dustin Wynne was a very red I like it so I put it in a very important location because the original director was talking about a particular part of the edition on the skywalk this series where they're referring to a movie from called Dustin the wind which was like that film back in the new way there was he was saying it's like a collective memory for the audience so actually having that in the series is like a piece of reality I guess in this series a part of the history of Taiwan at that time and there be you if you have something to add there I've missed carry on first sorry so I especially in the fairy tale in the fairy tale I mentioned a young boy was still killing his girlfriend then this plot in the series of this movie is his story when he was young when he was young he was in the army he was changed when he was a soldier he was abandoned this is a coincidence these two stories are the same so I especially pulled the fairy tale into this plot into a very important work ok so in in the the book of Mediton on the Skywalk then there's a a part which mentions the a boy who's been conscripted into the military compulsory military service who he kills his girlfriend because she's abandoned him and in the film Dust Dust in the Wind Dust in the Wind there's also a part about a boy who's in the military service who's abandoned by his girlfriend so director Yang kind of wanted to put those two parts together into his his adapted series I think that's right BU is there anything to add to that? I think you probably because the previous session that he did mention about Wu Ming Yi Wu Ming Yi wrote about a particular character and that's why he put in his film, TV series but never mind it's a past sorry Shaoyi The next question is from David so I'm wondering if he'd like to ask himself who would you like me to pick it up? I can come in and actually my question kind of overlaps quite a bit with Junty Han's one but I'll say my one first so first of all I wanted to say that we use your film girlfriend boyfriend quite a lot here for teaching about Taiwan politics from particularly the late martial law era through until the 19 so our students love that film but I was curious about and it's something that BU touched upon in an early question about your personal experiences so I was wondering if you could comment on with for example the clash between the military instructor and the students and also the Wild Lily scenes was something that you'd personally experienced I was just curious about that I'll show you to modify I'll have a try on that one okay we often use your film especially for boyfriend and girlfriend especially when it comes to democracy our students really like this film so they can understand this I was curious did you personally experience these conflicts for example with the instructor with the students and with the Wild Lily scenes I don't know if you participated at that time and you wanted to make this film I was born in 1971 and when I was in high school Taiwan was the first to remove the wild Lily scenes I think in the old days I was free that kind of feeling made me really remember many British friends or the young audience the kind of life that was suppressed so I really wanted to tell them that freedom is really precious so I really like to put these things even when it comes to martial arts I still do Director Yang saying then in response to this question he was born in 1971 and so it was when senior high school in Taiwan in the sixth form here I think that was when martial law ended in Taiwan so that transition from being so strictly controlled through pretty much all aspects of life to suddenly being free and particularly that freedom coming through the teenage years in teenage years is something that was made really deep life impression on Director Yang and so therefore he was saying he wants to portray that in his work and has done all the way up to his latest series the addition on the skywalk because it's something that certainly for us in the West it's quite hard to understand because we've never lived through that kind of repression and in fact Director Yang said even for young Taiwanese they didn't know about it either and that's really a sense of gratitude for that freedom that actually don't take the freedom we have now for granted and that's an element that comes through in his work Thank you I think because Dr. Zhang Tihan also has a similar question like David said so she's asking so she's also been teaching the film Girlfriend, Boyfriend for the last few years and it really helps the students to understand the context of Taiwan's democratic expression with Director Yang in the future consider to film more subjects from the social movement for instance the sunflower movement or the LGBT movement in Taiwan what do you think that you've already done enough on those subjects and you would like to move away from it not so a but Professor, he's also using Girlfriend, Boyfriend as a teaching he really can help the students to understand Taiwan's democratic expression so you think in the future you'll film more subjects about the social movement for instance the sunflower movement or the LGBT movement or you think you've already done enough then you don't need to film any more thank you I've done enough I still want to continue filming related subjects but my producer told me not to film this it's hard to make money so I might be moving away from these subjects but what I want is to be like Ken Rosch he's been filming for his whole life when he was 70 or 80 Ken Rosch his film was very touching so directly he says no I haven't finished with these kind of social movement issues I'm very keen to shoot more of that but according to the producer or editor they're keen for him to leave those subjects alone for a while because they're not good for making money not good for the box office so even though he may in the future leave those subjects for a while there's not going to be something that is left forever Director Yang was saying he admires the British director Ken Rosch because even throughout his whole career he's always been looking at social issues and his kind of social movement things and so therefore I think we will always see that element in Director Yang's work but but perhaps there has to be some commercial elements in there too according to the producer and editor so it's a balance for him The next question is Dr. Brooklessle Director Yang gets amazing performances from young actors could he say something about this approach to casting young actors and directing children In your film there are many young actors but they all are very outstanding do you have any experience of casting young actors or how do you direct these young actors to acting yes, thank you I particularly like I particularly like young actors and children they don't have much experience in acting which means they are more realistic my only job is to trust them and find their true colors I think the audience will be affected So in terms of trying to get the best out of young actors, particularly children actually Director Yang says he loves working with children partly because they don't have much experience and so he was saying as a director then his role is just to find a kind of let the reality out for them, to believe in them and to let them just express themselves in the most real way that they can and actually that will be what moves an audience But if for some time I have experienced 30 years of acting they will let me have more experience in acting so sometimes new actors will make me happy but experienced actors will also bring me to a new field so the other angle that he is saying is having worked with some very experienced actors even some from Hong Kong he has experienced in the film industry is a totally different kind of I guess opening his mind to creativity on a different level so whereas working with very young actors or with inexperienced actors with children you know that's something which he loves the creativity involved with that and the kind of so few restrictions but on the other working with experienced actors opens up a whole new world of how to act and how to really display to show different kinds of moods, feelings, emotions in different ways is kind of that sense of really being able to to表現 to act in different kind of ways to fit different kind of themes and moments so one of director Yang's I guess dreams or goals as you could say would be to take an extremely experienced actor or actress his example was the actress from The Crown who you know may have an actor or actress with 30 or 40 years experience and put them together with a family a family a family and put them together with a teenager who's got no experience whatsoever and see how that kind of chemistry works out you know the kind of the top of the scene with someone totally fresh and see what happens that's something that he would love to do in a work in one of his movies later on next question some researchers suggested that there's a tendency in post new wave cinema which is new localism how does director Yang think of this observation in his work whether he has this intention or not there are some researchers who think in the later movies there's a kind of a new genre of a new genre of a new genre of a new genre of a new genre of in your work was there this kind of intention ah I want to Huo Xiaoxian director they are really very tematical to our generation with our generations in fact it's very unutical but it's just that because Huo Xiaoxian director their generations experience and their experience with our differences. We are more influenced by the United States, Europe, Japan, and so on. So the appearance of our work will be different. But no matter what, I don't think making films is to imitate others. Instead, we absorb these stories from the United States and Europe and make up the stories we want and not to imitate them. If we imitate them, it might be effective. So on the topic of new localism, Director Yang was saying that the new wave directors, Hou Xiaoxian, and that generation were extremely localized in terms of their portrayal of Taiwan. For Director Yang's generation, he is saying that they're actually they're still fairly localized in terms of portraying Taiwan and what it's like. But the difference is that from his generation, they've been a lot more influenced by whether it's America, whether it's Japan, whether it's Europe. And it's not that they're not imitating that, but it's about what influences you, the work of creativity, the culture that influences you, naturally comes out when you go to create the work that you want. So while Director Yang and his generation are saying, well, you know, we make the movies that we want to make, we're not trying to imitate anyone because if you just imitate, what you can come out with is not a good idea. But none of those differences which differentiate between the you could say the new wave and the post-new wave, if you like. Thank you, Director Yang. I think the next question is from how we... How do you overcome the challenges of representing the cost in the rep to be changing Taiwan? For example, the logistics, the locations, scouting, props and so on. What does he want to ask you? Do you have any difficulties in representing the past? Because in the past decades, Taiwan has changed very quickly. So when you represent the past, do you have any difficulties? For example, in filming locations or props and so on. I think as long as you have money, you can solve a lot of problems. Like the crown, when you want to represent the Queen of the White Queen, it's not a problem in the 1930s and 40s. As long as you have money, you can do it. But the biggest problem in Taiwan is that we even lost our language. If I look for young actors, they want to speak Mandarin or Mandarin, or speak Taiwanese more fluently. If I speak Taiwanese, young actors can't even speak the standard Taiwanese. Moreover, it's even harder to speak the Taiwanese of the past. I don't know if the English of the UK is any different from the current language of the 1950s. But in Taiwan, young actors speak the standard Taiwanese. It's hard to speak the Taiwanese of the past. But I think the language is the hardest part. So in answer to this question, Director Yang was saying, in terms of the look of things, in terms of backgrounds and scenery and props, as long as you've got money, you can solve any of those problems. Actually, that's not too hard. Like, for example, the crown is then, if they've got the budget, they can recreate the Queen Elizabeth of the 1930s and 40s and the UK of that scene. But in Taiwan, the challenge, he's found the greatest challenge has been language. And in particular, trying to find young actors now who are able to not just speak Mandarin, but also speak Taiwanese dialects and with the accent and the vocabulary of, you know, a previous generation is really difficult. And so actually that's been a huge challenge to be able to find young actors and actresses who, because the accent is different even if they can speak the Taiwanese language very fluently and the vocabulary is slightly different. So often that is a huge challenge on set, is, you know, trying to get the language and the accent right to make it believable that it really is of that generation. That's the next question. Yes. Oh, thank you. Then the audience is asking, do you think that when a very arrogant novel changes the movie, how to monitor the original and your own style, do you think that changing novels is the most important thing? So when you're adapting a very popular novel into a film, and how do you take care of both the original and your own style? And what do you think is the most important thing when you adapt a novel? Thank you. Well, changing a novel is the most important thing is to read it many, many times. And then ask yourself, ask that novelist, what do you want to say? But usually novelists don't tell you the answer he wants to say in his heart. So you can only guess by yourself. And then in the end, use a unique mood, write down your own feelings, the feelings that the novel gives you, so you can turn it into a drama. Why do I like it? Why is it so common? I think this is a very difficult question. You can't only relate to the original novel, but to the heart of the novelist. The eyes of the novelist. The heart of the novelist. Yes, that's it. The key point here, then, in terms of adapting a novel or a book into a movie or a series, to the perspective of the reader, and to find that same heart. So he would say, he would ask himself, what is it that moves me about this novel? What moves me about this book? What is it that I like about it? And what is it saying to me? What is the author trying to say? Is one question, what's the author's through the book, through the story? But what do I take from it? What does it say to me personally? So he was saying it's important not to just copy the story and put it into picture, but actually to copy the heart of the story. And it's taking the central themes, what the story is talking about, but putting it into, expressing it in the way that it's moved me as the director or as the reader. So it's capturing the heart of the story and making that come to life as opposed to trying to follow too closely to every particular punctuation mark. Now, the next question, the audience would like to ask the director, do you think that in the past few years, the characteristics of Taiwanese movies were the advantages and disadvantages that were found in the international scene? So asking, what are the pros and cons that Taiwanese cinema has on the international stage? But thank you. Because Taiwan's advantages are because Taiwan is a very multi-cultural place. Our people have come from China and have local residents. But we have also been dominated by Japan. In a certain period of time, you can also say that it's like being dominated by American culture. So our advantages are that we have a lot of culture mixed together. So it's very special. But because of this mixed culture, so there are some stories that can easily be sold to Asia, other places, or abroad, to make others understand. There is not much of a combination on culture. But Taiwan's experience, let's finish the advantages first. Let's go here first, so that the classroom won't be too tired. So in terms of the advantages or the kind of positive points about Taiwanese cinema, particularly on the world stage, Director Yang was pointing out that Taiwan is a place which mixes lots of cultures and lots of influences. So you have the majority of the population who will trace their ancestors to mainland China, different parts of mainland China who have moved across at different points through history. But you also have Aboriginal Taiwanese as well. Plus you have a period of 50 years of colonial Japanese rule. And then also you could say you can also argue that Taiwan has almost been occupied by American culture for a time. So you've got this whole massive mixture of different parts of the world all in this small melting pot. So in that sense, there are stories that Taiwan can tell in cinema which don't have such a cultural gap. So in terms of selling to other countries in Asia or wherever, actually there's a lot of their own culture which is already in the story just because Taiwan is a place that has been influenced by so many other parts of the world. So in terms of a plus point, that's a plus point, that it's a big melting pot and that builds bridges, that creates connections with other countries. So the stories then are not so removed and other people can relate to them quite easily. Yeah. But the place where it's a bit of a loss is because there's a lot of money now. There's a lot of money. There's a lot of money and the product needs to be more and it needs to be wider. So now I think to imitate others or to learn from others, for example, ghosts, to learn from Thailand's ghosts or something like that. Excuse me. Sorry, hold on. Haruna, thank goodness, sorry. Yes, please. Please continue, I'm sorry. Okay. There's a place where there's a lot of money. So when there's a lot of money, you start to imitate others. Then the things you imitate won't have their value. But I think it's like returning to some factory-style production, this kind of film. But that way, it will lose its own characteristics. Josh? Oh, sorry. I had a slight lag then. So Director Yang was saying then one of the problems is that with more money in the industry, then you have to create more stuff. You have to bring out more regularly. And the downside of that is it ends up with essentially copying. So one area that he was saying was it's not so good, it's just copying other people's styles or mediums. So for example, copying Thai horror films or something actually. As you start to copy, then you lose your own elements and you lose your own creativity. And it's not. You lose your speciality in that sense. Then it just becomes commercial and for marketing sake. Hmm. I'll do it then. OK. Sai, thank you so much for sharing. I'm curious about the phenomenon of the convergence of film and TV series production in the area of streaming media like Netflix. Could you please talk a little bit more about that? And do you think it would be a trend for Taiwanese filmmakers? He is our loyal friend and a teacher at the University of Shandong. He wants to ask... Oh, sorry about that. In recent years, like Netflix, the media has brought the emergence of a combination of culture. The production of films and TV series. The whole process has become more and more融合. Could you please talk a little bit more about this phenomenon? And would you think it would become a trend for Taiwanese filmmakers? Yes, thank you. Uh, based on my knowledge of several OTT platforms, Netflix's production is probably the most profitable. But the requirements for it may be more than other OTT platforms. It has its main purpose. For example, it may need to be in the first level to have a very, very advanced beginning, or very violent or something related to nature. I think it is its platform's main purpose. This is a very good fund. It is an advantage. But this OTT platform will also affect the direction of the production of films. I like to watch other OTT platforms, like the BBC. I don't really know if they would be more than Netflix. But at least I know Netflix has a threat. It will also affect the future of everyone's taste and popularity. So in answer to the question about the new streaming platforms and the emergence of Netflix and others, Director Yang was saying that taking Netflix as an example, the plus point is that their budgets are the biggest. They have the most money. They are essentially the richest platform. So in that sense, you have a higher production budget. You can make high quality content. That comes with strings attached in terms of the content of what you're shooting. So you might need to have particular violence or sex in what you're making in order to make it to be able to get onto the platform because that's what the audience supposedly want to see. So Director Yang was saying, actually, what he worries about that is those restrictions, I guess, on what has to be in, whether it's series or films, will influence the creativity of directors down the line. And he prefers, he was saying, other less restricted productions. For example, from the BBC, that won't necessarily have the same kind of boundaries that Netflix would impose. So his concern is just that these popular platforms, they're popular because they're adhered to very clever marketing methods, but actually that does stifle creativity, or it can lead to creativity being stifled. Actually, if you have subscribed to many platforms, you can compare HBO, Netflix, or other Amazon platforms, or only in Korea. You'll find that each platform has a different attribute. So in terms of looking at different platforms, whether it's Netflix, or HBO, or Amazon, or others, Director Yang is saying, actually, just by watching the content that is exclusive to those platforms, you can start to figure out what it is that these platforms require to be included in the content that they produce. And from his perspective, it's not really very healthy for creativity when you restrict access to your platform based on the content of the series, or the films, or the productions like that. It's where commercialism is then limiting creativity. So previously, censorship came from the government, and if the government wanted to cut things, then they would do it. Now, actually restrictions and censorship comes from money instead, and from Director Yang's perspective, that's something to be careful of, and to, I guess, create restrictions. But anyway, that's the reality. So from ancient times, Director Yang saying artists, painters, musicians, they had to serve the interests of the king or of the rich nobility, and through to the present day, creators still have to serve the wealthy in that sense, whether the wealthy now are Amazon, or Netflix, or HBO, or whatever. At the moment, there isn't another way of just being creative and still being able to make money. As a flipside to that, actually, the age of the internet has opened up opportunities to be able to create and publish, or share without needing sky high budgets, production budgets. So the flipside of what he was saying before is that there are opportunities to be able to create what you believe in, and to share it without needing the budget for a movie, for a blockbuster. I think the next question is from Max, would you like to say it yourself? Sorry, I can't. Do you want me to do it? Please, thank you. Max is asking, given the challenges you mentioned of language proficiency, would you consider using people outside of Taiwan who can speak or are studying Taiwanese Mandarin, whose accent and vocabulary may be able to match the setting of your stories, and given the range of learning resources or influences across areas they have used. He wants to ask, since you mentioned the language proficiency, many young people may not be able to speak Taiwanese well. Would you consider using people outside of Taiwan who can speak Taiwanese or Mandarin to match the setting of your stories? I think it's like Cuiying Hong. If, for example, I found a Hong Kong actor, but he can't speak Mandarin or Taiwanese well, I wouldn't consider him to be a local Taiwanese. I would consider him to be a local Taiwanese. I think it's too uncomfortable. If a British actor finds an American actor, a British actor may not be able to speak Mandarin well, a British actor may not be able to speak Mandarin well. If I find a Japanese actor, I would consider him to be a Japanese in Taiwan, or a Taiwanese in Taiwan who can only speak Japanese well. Director Yang was saying, in answer to this question about language and nationality, if there's an actor or actress, for example, coming from Hong Kong, he won't want them to pretend that they're a local Taiwanese. He would actually, or if they came from Japan, he wouldn't want them to pretend that they are local Taiwanese. Actually, he would use their background as part of the story, so that his character then is from Hong Kong in Taiwan or is from Japan in Taiwan, and therefore it makes it more believable. He would say it would be very difficult, there'd be a lot of pressure, and it probably wouldn't come out very realistic, if you're trying to force someone to be what they're not, particularly in that sense of language and trying to pretend that your mother tongue is a mother tongue that it isn't. I also have a question to ask foreigners. Since I know that American actors are amazing, they can imitate British accent, but your British audience really have the power to think that I can't even see it, I think they're amazing, they're British. Doesn't it really feel like that? Because if, for example, Chinese actors, Chinese actors from mainland China, people from Taiwan, you have to say he's a local Taiwanese, we probably still have two or three layers that can feel different. I don't know if the Hollywood actors are already amazing but the British can't see it. So Director Yang is asking us, as the audience, a question, whether we, if a Hollywood actor, he knows who's saying I know Hollywood actors are the top professionals, but if you have an American pretending to be British, for example, can we really tell the difference? Can we make out that actually they're faking it? Or are they so good already that we don't, we're persuaded by that accent. So the example that he gave was that if somebody from mainland China is acting as a local Taiwanese, there's probably 20 or 30% of the audience in Taiwan who would recognize, I don't think they've got it quite right there. So he's asking, is it the same for us? If an American acts as a British, can we tell the difference? Or are they so good that we don't notice? So give your answers now. So as an example, which American actor or actress has done the most persuasive role as an English person? What's an example? Can somebody give an example? So obviously, accent is the most obvious part, and Director Yang says, that's like the starting point, you've got to get the accent right. But even if you're American acting as British, you've got a good accent. How about just the style, the way that the actor carries themselves? Is it persuasive? And does it match British or not? I've seen some of the audience mention it, for example, but actually he's an English person, and he's an American actor. It's Kate Winslet, in the recent, yeah, Mel Vistown's performance. A lot of people think that he's an American actor, and that he's a good actor. And he's also a female actor in the Middle Ages. No, he's also a male actor in the South. And there are audiences who can tell, they can tell it's different. And then there's Emma Stone, and Jillian Anderson. And then there's body language, Meryl Streep, Renee... I can never pronounce her name. Like Renee Stone from Bridget Jones. Oh, okay. Also, Nicole Kidman. Hi. To answer the director Yang's question, I know as well, some of the failures have been when, not necessarily trying to do British accents, but when either Americans or Australians try to do Irish or Scottish accents, then it often doesn't quite work. I think maybe a lot of American actors can do a standard British accent. It's actually quite good. But it's even more difficult to do the Scottish or Irish accents. Oh, okay. I remember, there was a movie with Robin Han, and then there was an Australian actor, and he was like the Australian Korean actor, and so he went solo with a British actor. With him? That's the hardest thing about your acting. Even if you were a Japanese, a Portuguese, or even the Mandarin, you would still As an example of the challenge of acting as a different nationality, for example, even if a Japanese act or actress, if they're Chinese, they're Mandarin is perfect, but you can still find out that you can still kind of discover their true nature, because for example, they might be just that over a bit too polite, not rude enough, not direct enough in the way they speak or the way they carry themselves. So he'd say, you know, that's the biggest challenge for actors is how not just to get the language, the accent right, but to get that, I guess, the body language and just those natural habits that belong to a certain culture, a certain location to get those right is, you know, that's the top level. Shouyi, can we go back to the question? Yes, sure. So are you... Thank you. There's a question for the audience. You just mentioned that in the video, for example, some of the films that you mentioned might not be easy to get the funds, for example, you just mentioned the film about social movement. So you also mentioned that as long as you have money, you can solve a lot of the problems of filming. So I just wanted to ask you about the process of filming in the past, the process of raising funds. And did you encounter any conflict between funding and creativity in the film? So Director Yang has mentioned that there's certain kind of topics or subjects that are less likely to get the funds investment. So what was his process of getting investment in his past work? And did he ever encounter any conflict between the money and his own creative process? Thank you. When I first started working on the film, I had just quit my job. So if the money comes from the public service, the PGS, or the money from the country, there will be some old people who will still be in charge of your work. The situation in the past 20 or 30 years is a bit like the situation in China now, or the Hong Kong director of the youth generation, who has to run away from the police. He has to do a lot of hard work to get away from the police. It used to be like this. So let Josh translate first. So in terms of when Director Yang first started making movies, it was just fairly soon after the end of martial law in Taiwan. So there was still a sense of particularly whether if the funding was coming from government sources like the CTS, the National Television Station, or just from that kind of older generation who would suggest that your content should have this, this, and this in it, but it should not have this and this in a bit like... So in terms of trying to get around censorship in that way, you had to think very carefully how you were going to portray the content of your story. A bit like he was saying that the young Hong Kong directors now or perhaps directors in mainland China, the way they have to think quite carefully about censorship and therefore how to portray the story without it being cut. If it's recent, I don't have any problems with the funding at all. It's because of my insistence that he would put all the investors outside and then he would overreact to their opinions. So I don't need to face the investors to tell me these questions. I just need to face my insistence. But my insistence is a rather evil one. Director Yang is saying his editor, is it producer? Producer. The producer will essentially be a filter between the sponsors or the funders and himself. So he doesn't, as a director, then he doesn't need to constantly be thinking about what the sponsors want or what they require. He just has to come to terms with his stubbornness, I guess, his own... What it is that he makes sure that he meets his own standards without having to take it into account and other things. Sometimes it's dealing with himself and his own requirements, his own standards, his own goals for what he's trying to make. But it sounds like a good producer to me. Because we started making films from a very young age, we're poor kids, so we don't have to spend a lot of money on toys. But if you're playing in the sky, it's a great producer for Taiwan. But it also has a lot of money. So you have to have various ways to get the same effect as you want. I think inspection and money are the problems we face in this era. If you don't face the inspection, if you don't face the money, then you have to move your mind. If you don't move your mind, then you can get things. But if you don't spend so much money to get the same effect, I think that achievement is very big. So in terms of production, actually making what you want to make directly, Yang says, you're either going to come up against censorship or you're going to come up against funding. You can't escape from either one of those things. And so, for example, for him shooting his most recent work, the Medellin on the Skywalk, yes, he says, we have come up against a lack of budget. So then in that case, you have to think about, well, how can we create the same effect, the same visual effect that we want without using such an expensive method to film it or to produce it? And actually, the sense of success and achievement that he gets when it works, when he manages to come up with a different solution, which gets around the budget requirement, but actually comes up with the same result, is really satisfying. Sometimes, I just want to add, sometimes it's too much money. You will find the easiest way to solve it. But when you really don't have enough money to do that, sometimes you will get better things because you move your mind, you will get more philosophical thinking, more positive things, more positive things, more positive things. So even to take that to the extreme, sometimes having too big a budget is actually limiting because Director Yang was saying, if you have all the money you need, then you just use the simplest method to solve whichever problem you come up against. We've got the money, we'll just spend the money. Budgetary restrictions, actually sometimes that can push you to think creatively in a way that you wouldn't have otherwise, and you might therefore come up with something that is a bit more special, a little bit more unique, and a little bit cleverer than if you just have them throw the money at it. Sometimes having money will only make you think about forgetting what you really want to do. But when you don't have money, you might have to go back to this person, this character, what you want to do in your mind, and then you can use actors' acting or actions to achieve that goal. I think in every role or scene, it's better than acting in the most dynamic way. Sometimes when you've got that budget, you've got the big budget, and you just rely on the special effects and the big stuff, the money to do it, to tell the story, to use some of the life in the film itself. Directly the actors, all the budget you want can't replace that. Just going back to the characters, the people, what it is that the character is trying to portray, what it is about that particular story that's going to move people, and how then are you going to use maybe an actor's expression or a particular movement or just a particular shot which can communicate the same thing with a lot of special effects that cost a whole load, a lot more money. And actually it's sometimes it's in those details and in those very human details that you get more out of the actor and you move the audience in a deeper way. 讀一下下一个问题. In the magician on the skywalk, how do you manage the integration of fantasy and reality so that the boundaries between them become blurred? 世界上最接近魔幻这件事情的时候 是童年的时候 我们越大越 年纪越大越不相信 魔幻 所以有一个 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 我们越接近魔幻 有一个比较简单的方法 也很困难啊 现在我50岁了 我就要想办法 让我变成10岁 或者是8岁小孩子的脑袋 去考虑他们相信什么 他们喜欢什么 你只要用小孩子的方式思考 那你让他们做出来的动作 就会让观众相信 这是真的 因为每个人都有童年的 我觉得最简单 进入魔法就是 用小孩子的脑袋去想事情 10岁小孩子的脑袋去想事情 So the key to that the key to that merging of fantasy and reality is entering into the mind of a child so direct the end will say actually it's children who are closest to fantasy and as we get older we get fixated on reality we don't believe in fantasy so as a director he was saying I'm 50 years old and the challenge for me is to put my mind into an 8 year old or a 10 year old child and try to see things through their eyes and their perspective and imagine how they would imagine actually that's the best way to portray fantasy kind of that merging of fantasy and reality is through the eyes through the mind of an 8 year old or 10 year old child okay I'm wondering if Bi has any questions Ming Ke has one question on the chat talking about island nation 國際排橋社 can you see Shao Yi okay yeah I thought that was more like a comment rather than a question 最近那個 sorry nothing yes carry on sorry 最近那個影集 國際橋排社裡面就是 actually 有一些演員的口音比較接近 比較接近中國 外國人 外省人 對對對 然後是不是 他們 他們的是不是會比較有 那個中國 中國的那個身份認同 就比如說 只會 I'm not quite sure and maybe Bi 如果 would you like to I'm not going to be sure Ming Ke would you like to come up and express you know explain yourself it was not really a question yeah I'm so sorry for that because it's just many comments but my question is about there are many Taiwanese actors who may have whose family made from mainland China and who can speak like some kind of accent like very close to Zhuziang or Jiangsu provinces and they have established career in mainland China sometimes they go by I want to act some I mean talent mainland Chinese figures for example in the TV series like island nation one season one season two there are some figures like representing mainland Chinese political figures like we're employing this kind of actors and to trying to play this certain nationality Chinese nationality and well in fact there are also like some Taiwanese actors in cannot be identified as Taiwanese because they speak Mandarin so well so it's a very interesting phenomena this is my question I can trust myself this is my this is not quite a question this is a comment I think it's about the political level recently like the International Chiao Pai there are some actors like Lin Zaipei he played some acting in mainland China he was arranged to play some more representative of some mainland or some foreign characters for example the role of the director of the film Hao Bochun I find this is a very interesting phenomenon there are many Taiwanese actors they came to mainland China as long as they have some acting some works as long as they have some they will not be very clearly recognized by the audience they are Taiwanese because their accent is very like this Zhejiang or Jiangsu some kind of accent yes thank you that is their acting really good and actually actually like if you let the foreign audience understand more then it's like an English actor or an English actor to play an English actor played very well maybe everyone will be very satisfied but if you say there is a person who plays an English king but his accent his accent is basically like Erlan then everyone may not be able to recognize I think actually not only in Taiwan but also in other places everyone can hear a lot of very sensitive things a little bit can be read out this character this accent identity or the place or even its setting this is the challenge of an actor I think his accent can let the audience do not need a lot of information just to know this person's background then I think this is an interesting place so director Yang was kind of adding to that comment about accents that it really is an art form because audiences have very strict ears or very detailed they can pick up audiences will pick up on just those little mistakes which portray someone's true true origin as it were for example if a Scottish actor was acting as part of the British royal family and did it to the point where it's believable everyone would certainly he prays on that particular actor being able to do it that that kind of that role the accent and the way it's done because their background is so different whereas conversely if someone is an actor or actress was trying to act as the British royal family with an Irish accent and it didn't quite fit then the audience is not going to believe it it's not going to pass so it's being able to get those details I guess that's what makes actors job both difficult but also really interesting and for a director as well is being able to capture where you've got all the details exactly believable that you can feel using actors or actresses whose background isn't what they're acting to make it believable and to I guess deceive the audience in some way is a real art form and that's what makes movies interesting almost is those missions great Shao Yi I can see there's two more questions or just one we only have 12 minutes left can Shao Yi ask a short question and the director will be in trouble sorry go ahead the audience want to ask the question he said sometimes in the South China Sea sometimes it's hard to understand the dialogue between actors but other older movies Chen Yu-Xun's There's no problem is it the same way of acting in the younger generation because for example in Europe, Germany, France TV series Taiwan has a system so you won't have to watch movies thank you I don't like the accent pronunciation it's too clear the reason is we ordinary people talk Taiwanese people are very lazy and it's not possible to correct each other I feel like in the South China Sea there's no child who can correct each other if it's in Taiwan so I am more like Chen Yu-Xun okay just to answer the question the question was asking about speech in movies and the example was that in the ORZ boys it's not always very clear the speech of the characters in terms of trying to make out what they're saying and so the person was asking in the 1994 Chen Yu-Xun's movie Tropical Fish the conversation is much clearer, it's much more audible so the person was asking is it because in Taiwan movies tend to always have subtitles so you don't need conversation to be so clear because it's readable as there were and Derek was saying if you take ORZ boys as an example you did it on purpose because you didn't want those kids to speak too clearly because children don't speak clearly generally in Taiwan, you just wanted them to speak as real kids do to each other and it's mumbled it's fast, it's not very clear and actually that would portray much more of their situation because sometimes because I can portray them in a very real way, the audience can still read what they're saying if they can't understand it verbally so that was what he was saying in terms of that particular film, the ORZ boys Great, we got another question here Zhao Yi This audience wants to ask you the most what is the current director of Taiwan or which one who would be your most favorite contemporary director and why current favorite director of Taiwan wow, it's not like I want to dance, you're the director you can do it current favorite director of Taiwan I really like current favorite director of Taiwan because he's very delicate he's very gentle he's much gentler than I am I can see from his work and I can't learn this young director also has quite a lot of that I can't think of current favorite director he said there's actually a whole group of great directors now in Taiwan these young directors but the one he picked out to mention just then was maybe you can help me be you what was the name of the director Zheng You Zheng You Zheng You Zheng You Zheng You Zheng You and in particular the Dear Dear Tenant Dear Tenant I'm not sure that the translation but what what director Yang liked about Dear Tenant this particular or at least the way that the director shot it was in more of a gentle more of a soft way in in a sense it's what director Yang said he what he liked about it was he recognized it was something that he couldn't make you know it was telling a story in a way that he can't do himself and that was something which he admires about about this other director very important point is because director Zheng You and other Taiwanese directors he he was influenced by Japanese culture a lot then I think the difference between him will make me especially like him because I can see another so one of the other one of the other key points about this younger director Zheng You his cultural background is quite different from Yang's cultural background so director Yang saying actually that's something which is really nice to watch is the difference then because of Zheng You's background I think he lived in or grew up in Japan by Japanese culture so that's that comes Japanese movies are very different great last question how are you so audience want to ask about the magic on the bridge the last part you have the magic sound please ask this question what is the meaning so you you've provided the voice for the magician in in the magician on the skywalk is there any any meaning behind this thank you actually in fact in the background I think if the character uses his own voice audience will soon realize that he is the original magician so by chance my voice I didn't want to be an actor so in answer to this question director Yang was saying actually it's not my ambition to become an actor but just for the point of production he didn't want the magician's voice to be too recognizable for the final part so in the final stage of production he decided that he would use his own voice for that last part I guess kind of to discuss who it really was and not let the audience in on the secret too easily well so in the end I want to ask the audience a question but they don't have to answer me or if one day we meet on the Internet he can answer me I'm thinking why the Asian love will always be more painful and then the current people's love will always be more painful do you guys really love more painful I'm thinking of a prejudice but I think this is a very interesting cultural comparison that is in Europe or in the United States the pain is less or the painful thing will happen but in Asian movies or in our movies maybe we just love the pain thank you Director Yang's final question for the audience is on the theme of love and relationships and why is it that in Asian films relationship pain seems to be such a strong theme whereas in European films it seems like relationships are even if something bad happens it's over quite quickly whereas in Asian films people get stuck in this pain of being hurt by their boyfriend or girlfriend or partner and is it true is that true to reality our relationships are they easier less painful than in Asia or is it just in Asia that we love pain and we like to dwell on the pain maybe you have a great singer like Adele he will sing never mind I find someone like you we don't have such singers don't be so painful he says maybe in Asia we don't have we don't have singers like Adele you can just say never mind I'll find someone else like you yeah okay, thank you okay thank you so much on that note it's such a fitting ending because Director Yang while keeping seeking for love and expression of love so thank you all for taking part in today's Q&A session before you go may I ask you again to switch on your microphone and camera a round of applause should we? okay, thank you thank you thank you so much