Director Stanley Kwan (right) together with two of the 18 new faces in his latest movie Showtime, Phil Cai Pengfei and Eugena Sun Yiqiu (sitting).

Director Stanley Kwan decided the cinema needed new faces. He agreed to direct a film featuring 18 students, completely unknown in the business ?and he gave them a chance to work with some of the industry's top performers. Phoebe Cheng reports.

It's been five years since Director Stanley Kwan Kam-pang's last award-winning romance, Changhen Ge was shown on screen. While audiences awaited another stirring production from this film veteran, Kwan decided to surprise everybody with a young energetic dance drama starring 18 new faces who may be stars of the future in the Chinese film industry.

Kwan met the young stars in May 2008 when he went to Shanghai to direct a musical. The performers all were students either at the Shanghai Theater Academy or the Shanghai Conservatory of Music - students of singing, dancing and acting. The musical was their graduation project - a chance to do a public performance. Most hoped to launch careers in the performing arts after graduation. Not many will succeed. Kwan is well aware of that hard reality.

"There are not many opportunities out there," said Kwan, himself a graduate of the Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) actors' course. Later he worked for TVB as an assistant director. "There are a lot of students like them graduating from the performing academy every year. However, not many of them actually stay in this industry."

Starting a career in the movie industry in 1979, Kwan experienced the ups and downs of the business, in Hong Kong and on the mainland. He worked with almost all the stars of the 80s of the Hong Kong cinema, including the late Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. He was part of the most prosperous time ever for the Hong Kong film industry.

Now the film industry on the mainland is expanding rapidly. In recent years the number of movie houses has grown 20 to 30 percent every year. Kwan was among the first of the tide of Hong Kong film directors that swept north, in the 90s, eager to make films for the immense mainland market. He believed the choices for directors were narrowing. While Hong Kong directors face fewer limitations when co-producing films with the mainland, they continue to face restrictions on the subject matter they may choose. Movies that put society on trial, movies with heavy sexual content, movies about homosexuals are just some of the subjects that are taboo and probably always will be. Much of the fresh humor of the Hong Kong cinema is likely to be buried.

"They (Hong Kong directors) have no choice but to cater to the mainland market and what they have sacrificed is creativity," Kwan said. He came out in 2001 when he released the movie Lan Yu, a Hong Kong film that had a gay theme.

He's grown weary of the limitation of movie themes and the shortage of top artists. He decided he wanted to see new faces on the screen rather than just "Bing-bing (Li Bing-bing or Fan Bing-bing), Ziyi (Zhang Ziyi) or Zhao Wei".

Kwan was moved by the enthusiasm and energy of these 18 new bloods in Shanghai who were urging him to produce Showtime, a bright, encouraging youth drama. He took no fee for directing the film. Kwan did Showtime to help the students and out of love for the movie industry.

Kwan could not promise the young people that any of them could make it in the movie business. Within a few years, he said, perhaps only one or two would remain, and struggling to find work. But Kwan thought it was time he gave something back to the industry - by passing his experience and knowledge to the next generation. He believed this head-on acting experience is the best way for young people to learn acting and to prepare them for the way ahead.

"The education system (of the acting academies) in both Hong Kong and Shanghai or even Beijing does not allow students to express and develop their individualism," Kwan said. "Students in the acting academy were told to act in certain ways. And they lack uniqueness and individuality in their portrayals."

He thinks rigid theories about acting are worthless and advises those who really care about acting to focus on the way they get on with different people. Then, through reflection, young performers will learn about themselves and others from the strengths and weakness they encounter, Kwan says.

During the shooting of Showtime when Kwan was working with his youthful cast, he had a lot of time to study the character of each. He got to know his performers pretty well as he watched them progress over two years. They are more confident now, he observes, both in their acting and in themselves.

It was a big break for the young actors. Not only was it their chance to perform in film, but also they had a chance to work with big names like Carina Liu Jialing, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Angie Zhao Yazhi, Huang Lei and Wu Jun, etc. Kwan invited the established artists to take part in the film, to give his student cast a better insight into what it takes to be an actor. And the top artists happily volunteered their efforts. They didn't get paid for their supporting roles in the film.

"'Act slowly, carefully and don't be nervous,' Miss Zhao told me when we were about to act," said Eugena Sun Yiqiu, 23, who was one of the 18 new faces in the movie. "She was so nice to me with no pride and selfishness. Who am I? I'm just a green leaf in the industry." Sun remembered how Zhao comforted her and gave her confidence during the shooting. It was Zhao's manner that charmed Sun, and from the top star Sun learned about the proper attitude of the working actor.

There is a Chinese saying that "every minute on stage, you need 10 years of practice off it". It's too early to say if the 18 new actors will make it in their chosen careers. But they've been given the best possible beginning working with top professionals in their fantasy world in the movies.

(HK Edition 11/19/2010 page4)