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Thongchai
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THERE comes a time in every creative person's
career when they need to try something different -- completely different.
To step out from the familiar, (not to say lucrative) and to go boldly forward
where they have never gone before. This is the case with Thai pop singer,
Thongchai ''Bird'' McIntyre, who is starring in 2046, a new film by Hong Kong
movie director, Wong Kar Wai.
And why not? Bird, still youthful at 41, has already secured his place in the annuals of popular music with a string of hits stretching back over 10 years. His most successful album ''Boomerang'' (1990) sold two million copies and remains the biggest selling album in Thai history. In between making music, Bird turned his talents to the big and small screen starring in dozens of movies and TV dramas, the highlight being his role as ''Kobori'' a Japanese officer in the drama Khoo Kam.
On the other hand, Shanghai-born Wong Kar Wai, also 41, has followed a very different path to creative fame. His family moved to Hong Kong when he was five years old and he graduated in graphic design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in 1980. He then became in involved in the local movie industry and was a scriptwriter for several years before he made his directing debut with As Tears Go By in 1988.
The critics and the public, though confused by the plot, loved the style and Wong was immediately recognised as the up-and-coming avant-garde film-maker.
As with most of his subsequent films, the storylines tend to meander and seem less important than the characters who carry them -- outsiders, loners and rootless individuals who feel alienated by an increasingly unreal world. In all his movies, Wai uses unique imagery to enhance this sense of loneliness.
Wong Kar Wai's work is in a very different mould from the usual Kung Fu, Hong Kong ganster flick. Although As Tears Go By did have plenty of action it was offbeat, quirky and unpredictable. It unsettled the audience rather than entertained them. It was, well, avant garde.
To date, six of Womg's movies have been released in Thailand, Days Of Being Wild, Ashes Of Time, Chungking Express, Fallen Angles, and Happy Together -- for which he won the best director award at the Cannes Film Featival in 1997. However, they have all fared badly at the box office. Nevertheless, Wong's films are highly regarded by a small group of Thai ''artcore'' moviegoers and praised by international critics.
Chungking Express, probably his best known movie in Thailand, contained all of Wong's trademark images -- slow motion shots and the hand-held camera style of Australian cinematographer, Christopher Doyle -- which impressed both new wave Thai directors and younger film-makers.
Mass appeal and artistic respect do not often go hand in hand, but Wong believed that Bird had a place in his work.
In 1998, Bird was invited to play the main character in Wong's new film Flowerlike Year, however, Bird turned it down as he was busy in the studio making his new album ''Thongchai Service''
However, Wong and Bird kept in touch and a few months later, Wong offered him another role, this time in 2046 -- a futuristic piece set in Hing Kong in the next century. They had their first meeting in Hong Kong and although Bird really didn't know much about the director, he was attracted by his simplicity.
At the meeting, Bird asked Wong, ''Why me?''
The director added that he had been following Bird's career with interest and was impressed by his ability to play totally different characters.
''Actually, I don't really like art movies. But that doesn't mean I like or dislike Wong's work,'' said Bird. ''I think his films are interesting in the way they tell a story; they seem very real to me.''
And so he agreed to take the part -- which also meant a leap into the unknown.
''It's hard to tell exactly what the plot is,'' Bird admitted, adding he knows only that the essence of his role is, you guessed it, an outcast. ''My character is looking for freedom which is something the people in Hong Kong have a hard time finding, so it's a lonely road.''
Bird compares the characters to white sheets that Wong Kar Wai then paints on. And like the beginning of any of Wong's movies, that's all there is -- a pile of white sheets and an idea.
Bird is being paid Bt2 million for his part in ''2046'', which co-stars Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Faye Wong, Carina Lau and hot Japanese singer ''Smap'' Takuya Kimura, and the film will have a world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2000.
Filming began last Monday (Sept 6) and it is believed that locations will be used in 10 countries, but with no finished script and the shooting schedule being kept secret, anything may -- and probably will -- happen.
Bird seems to be revelling in the challenge and the uncertainty of what lies ahead, despite the fact it's a whole new approach to working. Although happy to take the risk, there is a clause in his contract that prohibits anything that might harm his image. For example, nude scenes are out.
What's more, Bird has an album due for release in the new year which somehow must be fitted into the schedule. Yet being on the set of a movie that doesn't quite know where it's going from one day to the next, Bird will have little choice except to put his trust in the director.
So, a new step in Bird's career has just been taken and what fascinates him is that he has no idea where the path will lead. Which is just fine, because it's all part of the adventure.
BY PIMPAKA TOWIRA
(The Nation)
Movie of Bird : 2046 - Bird Takes Flight
FILM: Thongchai 'Bird' McIntyre on his way to Cannes with a starring role in Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai's new production
When
award-winning Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai was researching Thai talent
to star in his new movie 2064 which will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
in March 2000, his scouts reported back to him with only one name, "Bird."
After meeting Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre, he agreed his scouts were
right in choosing Thailand's most popular singer/actor.
Forty-one year old Mr Wong, winner of the best director award at Cannes in 1997 for Happy Together, is planning to put Asia on themotion picture map next year as his new ensemble cast reads like who's who of Asian talent.
Joining Bird as his love interest is Hong Kong's Faye Wong who will be teaming up again with Tony Leung (Fallen Angels) and Japan's TV heart-throb Takuya Kimura, leader of the Japanese rock band Smap.
Christopher Doyle, who collaborated with Wong on Happy Together and his other movies (Days of Being Wild 1991, Ashes of Time 1994, Fallen Angels 1995), will once again be director of photography. Mr Doyle's earlier work with Mr Wong resulted in the director's critically acclaimed "French new wave" style, emphasing humans "waiting for love, being loved, and loneliness across time."
The new movie has yet to be picked up for regional or worldwide distribution but a major investor is reportedly a Japanese distribution company.
Bird is excited about the challenge of starring as "the bad guy" in an international production.
"While I am thrilled about the opportunity, I am more excited for my fans," said Bird in an interview with the Bangkok Post. "This film is very special. I don't just represent Thailand, I represent Asia."
Already busy through the end of the year with a schedule that has him performing in several concerts in honour of His Majesty the King's 6th Cycle Birthday, Bird is looking forward to Cannes next year.
"I'd love to see the film become a commercial success," he said. "But everyone knows Wong Kar-Wei is an art film director. It doesn't matter since the experience of going to Cannes is exciting."
In addition to his concert dates, Bird is planning to release a new album in November. His last album, Bird Love Hits was released in June this year and, like everything Bird does, was an instant hit.
"'I'm not sure yet if we will have any of the music from the movie on my new album," Bird said shyly.
"But we have negotiated so that I will have a song in the movie."
Bird is also preparing for another Babb Bird, Bird (BBB) concert in April next year.
"We don't know how many performers we will have this time but sure it will be more than the 35 we had at the last BBB three years ago," he said.
The plot of 2046 (working title) is still being developed, however Grammy Entertainment's Duangkamol "Aom" Limcharoen, acting as Thai consultant for Mr Wong's production company Jet Tone, says the film will be an action adventure that takes place as Hong Kong losses its status as a Special Administrative Region in the Peoples Republic of China in the year 2046.
Mr Wong admits that his inability to remember names was another incentive for the 2046 title.
"Because I am very lazy to find names. I thought of using numbers. After all, Kafka [called] all his hero's 'K,"' said Wong Kar-Wai in a recent interview.
Ms Duangkamol could not say much about the production other than working with Wong Kar-Wai was a pleasant challenge.
"He is a genius, I really respect him but he is the one calling all the shots. Everything comes from him and most of the time things seem a bit unorganised," Ms Duangkamol admitted.
Working with Mr Wong will also be a challenge for Bird as not only will his dialogue be in English but Mr Wong also has a reputation for changing the script on the spur of the moment. And what about his yet to be scripted love scene with Faye Wong?
"I don't know what the big deal is," Bird said. "A love scene is human. I just play human feeling. The question is will the director ask me to [really] do it," he added, warily.
Mr Wong has already begun location scouting in Thailand where about five percent of the film will be shot.
"The Film Board has really been a very big help to the production," said Ms Duangkamol. "They can see the advantage of having some of the movie filmed here."
With such a high profile film shot in Thailand, the country's image as a favourable location for motion picture shoots should benefit, especiallyafter the bad experience with Twentieth Century Fox's The Beach last year.
"With a more coordinated permit system and a one-stop shop for film production, Thailand can gain not only economically but a positive image of our beautiful beaches, pastoral villages and other destinations on worldwide movie screens will really boost tourism," said Juthamas Siriwan, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
However for now, Bird is leaving things in the hands of Mr Wong.
"I am fortunate to be working with him and his team, some of which have been with him for over 10 years," Bird said.
"I don't know about the future, but maybe this [film] will help eastern culture, Asian Art excel in the new century."
BY SCOTT
ROSENBERG
(Scott Rosenberg is the Asia Pacific editor of Film Journal International
and Thailand correspondent for Variety)
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