▲ Wu Kangren and Zhu Ziyan play the drug-addicted father in Hunan and the daughter Ziyuan in the 2007 version respectively. (Photo by Tsang Yaohui)
The movie “May You Live Longer” was officially released a few days ago (April 11). The story is set in 1997 when director Zhu Ziyan came to Hong Kong and spanned to 2007. He adapted some of his own experiences to tell the audience about the identity issues of new immigrants. and the indescribable relationship between father and daughter. Golden Horse Best Actor Wu Kangren transformed into a drug-addicted father from Hunan and collaborated with director Zhu Ziyan to write, direct and play the role of his daughter Ziyuan, bringing a message of self-reconciliation to the audience.
“Hope You Live Longer” is adapted from a short story by director Zhu Ziyan. “The origin of the story is that I listened to a song called “August 15th” by Landlady’s Cat. I thought there was a very poetic lyric in it, “Have my wild lilies bloomed?” and I wrote it as a title based on this lyric. , but the element of “wild lilies” did not appear in the entire short story I wrote. Instead, the element of “wild lilies” was added again when I adapted it into a script. “
As for the reason for choosing family background as the theme, Director Zhu explained, “‘Coming of Age’ has always been a favorite subject of mine, but there seems to be no movie that can summarize a girl’s growth from childhood, youth to adulthood, and what experiences will cause her to grow up.” With her today, I hope I can create a movie that can summarize a girl’s entire growth stage.”
Hong Kong Film Awards 2024丨Francis Ng came to Hong Kong to attend the premiere of “May I Live Forever”. Tse Wing-yan felt aggrieved and angry after being slapped by Huang Zihao
▲ Zhu Ziyan bluntly said that she did not want “May People Live Forever” to convey the message of forgiveness. (Photo by Tsang Yaohui)
Li Junshuo recommends Wu Kangren
“I spend the most time on the audition process.” Director Zhu frankly said that the most difficult part of filming “May We Live Forever” was the audition. Among them, Director Zhu hopes to find an actor whose native language is not Cantonese and has a slight accent to play the role of father Lin Juemin in “May We Live Longer”.
Director Zhu said bluntly: “Producer Li Junshuo recommended the casting of Kang Ren. At that time, my impression of Kang Ren was still that of a handsome boy. I felt that it was difficult for a famous actor to make the audience get rid of the old image until they noticed Kang Ren. In the Taiwanese drama “Scaro”, his dark and thin appearance with clean clothes and shaved head simply made my eyes shine. He is no longer the handsome guy who appeared in Mayday’s music videos in the past.”
After Director Zhu watched “Scaro”, she finally contacted Wu Kangren. She said: “When we first met, he fell in love with the script at first sight, and the communication between us became smooth, and there was a kind of The feeling of ‘tiqula’.”
▲ Wu Kangren said that it is very challenging to play the same character of different ages, and he will refer to the behavior of the elderly in the subway and the park. (Photo by Tsang Yaohui)
Get to know dad again
During the filming process, the actors in the film will inevitably be reminded of their relationship with their families. When Wu Kangren received the invitation from Director Zhu to star in “May We Live Longer”, his father passed away. “I feel that in addition to being a great fate that brought me to Hong Kong to film, it is also an opportunity for me to return to the old world and recall the time with my father. I wonder if God has given me the opportunity to get to know him more deeply. My dad.”
Because Wu Kangren’s parents divorced early, his relationship with his father was very poor. For many years, he had been living with his brother, mother and grandfather respectively. Wu Kangren said: “My father and I don’t see each other every day, but when I go home and smell the smell of cedar trees and cigarettes, I know that my father is back. So the relationship between me and my father is like the stage between 1997 and 2007 in the movie. The relationship between father and daughter is the same.”
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hope to bring about self-reconciliation
When Director Zhu created “May You Live Forever”, he never thought about giving the audience a special interpretation. “I hope that the whole story is not to convey a message of forgiveness. I don’t want to lead the audience to forgive their own family members, because there is a strong relationship between family members.” And there are indeed some unsolvable knots, and I don’t really like a politically correct ending.”
She continued: “I hope to bring out humanity and understanding, not necessarily reconciliation, but understanding family members, understanding people’s multi-facetedness and fragility. In fact, no one wants to take drugs, and no one wants to be a failure as defined by society. But through a person’s vulnerability, we can understand that everyone is just an ordinary person, and we will feel more comfortable with ourselves.”
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