October 9, 2014 10:48 PM
A New Look at Hong Kong Triad Life in ‘Gangster Pay Day’
A scene from ‘Gangster Pay Day’Sundream Motion Pictures
How does a gang leader shake his criminal past?
In “Gangster Pay Day,” a Hong Kong triad boss tries to go legit by investing in one of the city’s ubiquitous neighborhood Chinese restaurants, but it isn’t easy. He keeps getting pulled back into a life of organized crime.
Director-writer Lee Po-cheung’s seriocomic look at triad life is a far cry from what we usually see in Hong Kong gangland movies. For one thing, there are no pistol-toting thugs who shoot first and ask questions later. In fact, there are no guns at all in “Gangster Pay Day.”
There is, of course, plenty of head-bashing between the rival gangs, but tucked inside the street fighting is some unexpected humor, as the story follows the middle-age Kam-kwei (played by Anthony Wong — no stranger to the Hong Kong gangster genre) on his road to an honest living.
There’s melodrama, too. Kam-kwei falls for a pretty restaurant owner (Charlene Choi), who’s struggling to keep her business from going under, but she’s got eyes for one of Kam-kwei’s underlings.
“Gangster Pay Day” will screen on Oct. 11 as the closing-night film at the BusanInternational Film Festival.
Mr. Lee sat down with the Journal a few days before the world premier to talk about his film, working with a pair of former triad members, and why gangs are losing their influence (the recent triad attacks against Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators notwithstanding). Edited excerpts:
How did you come up with the story?
Director Lee Po-cheungSundream Motion Pictures
I like to wander around old neighborhoods in Hong Kong. Just a few years ago, I could still find some old shops and restaurants and enjoy connecting with ordinary people. But in recent years, there are fewer and fewer places like that — I don’t know where the people have gone. New stores have replaced [the old ones], and I feel like a lot of things are disappearing. I want to preserve the human connection, the people and their stories. That’s why I came up with the script for this movie.
It’s rare to find humor in triad movies. Why did you include it?
I like making comedies. Also, after my research [for the film], I found that gangsters are less violent than they once were. They actually have a sense of humor in their daily lives.
And no gun battles. Why is that?
First, gangsters in Hong Kong rarely use guns. Second, if I wanted to film a gangster movie with guns — there already are many similar movies. I don’t think I can make a breakthrough with a feature-length film using gunshots.
How did you research this film?
There are two actors [in “Gangster Pay Day”] — Chan Wai-man and Ng Chi-hung — who were gangsters in real life. They were once triad bosses and now they are actors, so I talked to them.
Do they think it’s a realistic portrayal of gangs?
They provided a point of view of how gangsters look at things. What would they do? Because I wanted to explore the spirit of loyalty. I asked: “Given that you guys are so loyal to [your brothers,] how would you resolve problems?” So they told me how they would go about it from the triad boss’s perspective.
How powerful are gangs in Hong Kong now?
Actually, they have less influence today because it’s very difficult [for triads] to make a living. Many things have been standardized and globalized. They are no longer in control of some businesses. The reason why I wanted to tell this story through gangsters is because they are actually affected by the changes, because they have less influence [today].
Will triad movies continue to be popular in Hong Kong?
No, not really. It’s so difficult to make a gangster movie because the younger generation doesn’t understand [triad culture], while the older generations, who know what triads are, would think [the genre] is so clichéd. You need to have new elements in order to make movies. And because gangster movies are still prohibited in China, it can’t be a co-production project, and that brings down the budget.
And nowadays, most Hong Kong movies are co-produced in order to get mainland China distribution.
It was very challenging for me to make [“Gangster Pay Day”], because it is not a real co-production movie. That’s the reason why there are fewer gangster movies in Hong Kong.
–Edited from an interview by Dean Napolitano and Joyu Wang
http://m.wsj.com/articles/BL-CJB-24413
