"I intend to emphasize the kind of conflicts that occur when two cultures meet," Hu said. She does this with an eye for detail and a light humor, especially in recording the astonished responses of people seeing "shadow magic" for the first time, and in creating the awkward dialogues between Liu and Wallace.
In speaking about Shadow Magic, Hu says she takes special care in balancing the film culturally. "I would not want to make a film just for Chinese or just for American audiences. If I make a film, it is always for people of both places and cultures. And if either the [Chinese or the US audience] cannot be persuaded by my work, it would be a great loss for me," Hu said.
Finding her own way
"In the business world, you can deal with both Chinese and Americans. But as an artist, you have to have a strong [personal] identity," she said. "For me, it is a new identity. I have a solid Chinese heritage and cultural background, but I was nurtured on Western values and working methods." It is Ann Hu's own identity, she said, that drives her to work toward the internationalization of Chinese films.
"This is an inevitable trend, and there will be more and more people like me," Hu said. "More and more Chinese films will have international funding and subjects. They will also have international production and distribution."
"We already have Ang Lee (李安) [from Taiwan] and John Woo (吳穻森) [from Hong Kong]. China should also have one or two filmmakers of such quality," she said.
As for its production, Shadow Magic is also an international mixture. It was financed and produced by Hu's US-based C&A Production, Germany's Road Movies Production, Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corporation (中央電影公司, CMPC), and Beijing Film Studio (北京製片廠) from China. A former partner of Hu's, Trends Technology, known for its anti-virus software PC-cillin, also invested in the film.
"During the shoot, my American cameraman and Chinese crews were constantly arguing and complaining to me about each other; and the worst was what they said about me behind my back, `the director has no idea what she's doing!' they'd say."
Luckily, with the success of Shadow Magic, the bad feelings have dissipated. Currently Hu has eight projects to consider, including two English scripts and a planned biographical movie about forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺), who made his name during the O.J. Simpson case. Taiwan's CMPC is expected to be a main investor in these new films.
"Actually, what I really want to do next is an extremely violent and pornographic film," Hu said. Clearly, success and acceptance have done nothing to diminish her ambition to take risks.
For your information
Shadow Magic will be released in Taiwan on Feb. 24. An English subtitled version will be shown at Taipei's Majestic Theater.
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