Johnnie To Talks New Realities For Hong Kong Filmmakers In Conversation With Yu Irie
deadline.comHong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To talked through his long career, including his free-wheeling style of shooting, in conversation with Japanese director Yu Irie at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).
He also acknowledged that Hong Kong filmmakers now have less freedom than they once had. Yu Irie, this year’s director in focus in TIFF’s Nippon Cinema Now section, said he’d grown up watching Hong Kong films and counted To’s Exiled and The Mission among his favourite movies.
When quizzed, To said it was true that he shot Exiled and several other films without a screenplay: “For me, creating a proper screenplay before you start shooting means that the movie is already completed.
I wouldn’t be able to do my best shoot.” “I know before I start shooting where the scene is going to begin, where it ends, and where we’re going to make the cuts,” To continued. “All that is inside my head.” When asked how those working methods affected his actors, he said: “Around one third of the way in, the actors will know what the director is looking for and will have captured the spirit of the movie.” But he then smiled and said: “It’s probably not the best style of filmmaking.
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