Scud Interview

This is an interview with filmmaker Scud regarding his new film "Body Shop".

Where did you get the idea for this movie?

Wow, the idea was quite a long time ago. There are two things. One was that I always think, because I have a good friend who is a very good chef, so he pretty much would have Chai food of course and sometimes they would talk about, what if is legal one day, that we think it is proper to have human flesh as food, and we find it a rather environmentally friendly idea. So, that was the quiet initial thought of many years ago. Yeah. And then, actually, Body Shop is part of the unintelligible production, I would say, because another of my films is called Apostles. Okay Apostles and Body Shop were originally one film that I wanted to produce to, to summarize, consolidate my thoughts about ghosts and the afterlife, and how if ever possible, we could be reborn in the future. So, that was one single film I was making, but then after a while. I realized that the film would be too big. My first cut was like over three hours. So, I tried to separate them into two. So, one will be more like an intellectual discussion, more wordy, and more a Western philosophy of death, like the Plato's ideology. And then another one, Body Shop will be more like the Oriental, the Eastern vision of ghosts and how the ghosts will behave. I mean, if they remain in our world. So, I kind of laid the two into one film, so it’s called Body Shop.

What did you most like about creating this movie?

Wow, very important question. I think I keep imagining, if one day, we die, and we have got only the soul with us, but we don't have the fresh, we don't have the central part of our life, we lost that, but we still have the thought. We still have the feeling. We still have the memory, but we will be wondering, still in this space, what would it feel like; what would it be like? So, I think, for this film; I did quite a lot in that last bit, trying to reproduce a probable life of young naughty ghosts. So, I think that gave me some satisfaction. And also some of the scenes that I shot was perceived to be quite difficult, but actually, that is almost like a norm in my films, like the two guys running naked in Barcelona for 100 meters, and that was not an easy thing to do. Most people still wonder how I could do it. But anyway, we did it. And the actors were very painful. Especially the one in front who has very flat feet. So, he actually didn't have to go to the army because of that, but he ran that for me. So, it was very painful for him, but he also proved that he's such a fabulous actor.

Were any scenes difficult to film?

Okay. May I say no? I mean, once we decided to it, we would do it anyway. So, difficulty is usually not such a problem. There is one that looks very easy, but that is a little bit dangerous. That is the scene actually shot in Taiwan. When the ghost, the guy, was following his family out of funeral house. Actually, initially, we booked the funeral house for the shoot, but then someone in the house changed their mind. They said they had some interior decoration or something. So, we couldn't use that, but we already planned the shoot there. So, we just did it, and essentially, other people's funeral were also happening nearby, so it was quite tense for us.

Who do you think is the most likable in the movie?

Well, I think the role of the young ghost. He has proven to be very likable, and he's already very likable now. Despite there being limited in screening of the film so far in Asia. There’s also some talk about the guy who was running on the street together with him, he was actually Mr. Gay Taiwan. That's how I met him. I was actually on the jury of that competition. So, he became the winner in Taiwan. Then, he went to Madrid, representing Taiwan for the beauty contests. He's thinking of future life in Europe himself.

What do you like about directing?

I think the most important, and the most significant thing about directing is, no matter how tough the process, the experience has been - at the end, you do have a product. You do have an art that you created, as the main person creating it. So, one day when you die, I mean, as a writer; I can leave behind some books. As a songwriter, I can leave behind some music, and for me, leaving behind some films is not a bad idea. It's not a bad career for me.

How did you get funding for your first few movies?

Okay. That's a very simple question. Totally from me. Only in the first film, I had 20% of the investment from my mother, but because soon I realized it's very difficult for my sort of film to make money, I returned the investment to her as soon as possible, and I never invite anybody. But then I was actually invited by a lot of people. They want to be part of my film, but my thought had been - how do I say it? I want to enjoy my freedom of creation as much as possible until I use up my resources, until I run out of alternatives. It's almost like where I am now, and that's why I was saying that after I make the next movie, after Body Shop, I will retire from filmmaking, because I don't really have the resources to do that anymore.

Why did you decide to make movies?

My first career was actually a very long one in IT. I worked 22 years in IT as a software programmer, up to the management, and then at the end of the career, I had a feeling that I might have done a lot, but I’d not left behind anything. I'd been looking for other people's projects, turning up systems, which may be used, may be benefiting some people, but then after maybe ten or twenty years, they will no longer exist. So, I had a feeling that I've been doing all things, only to have some income for my living, and I actually do not demand a lot of money for my living, because my life has always been very simple. So, certainly I decided that maybe I should do something that can stay, that can hopefully survive my own life. So, I decided that maybe making a film is something that I can manage, because, to me, I think writing a book, a fiction, may be too demanding, and singing was too late for me. So, I think, yeah, maybe I can try making films, because I want to hear stories and I want to tell stories. So, that's how I started.

Do the people in Hong Kong like your movies?

That is an even better question. My first film in Hong Kong was the number one film by the film critics, and then my second film was the opening film of the film festival, Hong Kong film festival. My third film was the closing film of the film festival. It felt like I was almost like a darling, I mean, coming from an indie background. But then for my fourth film onwards, I think maybe some people say I've been going too far, I've been pushing the boundary too much. But to me, it's also the change in Hong Kong itself. It’s no longer moving in a more liberal way. It began to go back. And obviously, you know, what it is like now, compared to 10 years ago or so. So, I have a feeling that I'm being separated in silence by the Hong Kong mainstream, probably from 10 years ago. But I mean, that bothered me a little bit at initially, but after all, my films were not really meant to be seen by Hong Kong people. So, I think I've been fine. So, I continue. I go on to make other things. But still, having said that, last year, the Hong Kong Gay Film Festival came back to me to do a retrospect of my film. So, I was still okay, there. But what is not really okay, is Hong Kong itself. Yeah. It's not the people, but it’s the government, it’s the whole environment, the whole atmosphere that is not really okay.

What would you say were the biggest challenges in making your films?

Money. As time goes by, I become more fluent in making my films at a slightly lower cost than the initial ones, but still, the return from the investment will always be slow. Even though there's a saying that my films are timeless, meaning - actually some of my old films sell still about the same as when they were launched, like over 10 years ago. So, steady income, but not enough to sustain us to come up with new projects. So, money is the biggest challenge.

How vibrant is the gay culture and gay nightlife where you are?

If you're talking about Asia, now, I'm actually living in Bangkok. Bangkok has always been one of the most vibrant, most happening place for LGBT people in Asia. And also, my biggest market is in Taiwan. Taiwan is also very good, very LGBT friendly, and they are actually the first country to have passed the same-sex marriage law. So, these are very good places. Hong Kong turned back very decisively, and the government even says they will never reveal the issue of same sex marriage. So, some are going back, some are still moving forward. And we may never reach the acceptance of like Europe, but I think, in some places, I mean, in Thailand and in Taiwan, it's almost comparable. And even the very concept, the very conservative Japan is kind of waking up to the fact that if they want to claim themselves to be the most advanced country in the world, they have to handle this; they have to accommodate this.

Can you talk more about LGBT acceptance?

I think there's a complacency that we have already reached sort of equality with the other people. But in fact, it's not. I mean, deep down a lot of people still think LGBT people are only something they can tolerate, but not something they will embrace. So, I will say there's still a long road, especially in many places in the world that homosexuality is very much discriminated against. So, I think there's still a long way to go.

Where can people follow you?

The earliest occasion will be the FFL, the Rotterdam Film Festival, this coming year in January, because they are going to run a full retrospective of all of my 10 films. My films have always been criticized for being not very available. Recently we are at least available on Amazon, and there are some streaming platforms on which you can find us, but now we are looking forward to maybe after the homage by FFL, a couple of months from now, we can reach more networks, I mean, to find channels to have my films more represented. Right now of course you can go to artwalker.org Yeah, we actually are revamping. That is my last investment in my career. Actually, we are revamping our platform, our website, so that at least our films can be streamed out smoothly. So, that will happen in about a couple of months time. So, people interested in my films will be able to watch simply by going to our website.