Fathering sync sound

Tu's first use of sync sound was in a government project in conjunction with Edward Yang.

"The company assigned us a 16mm short film to promote a certain government policy. This was a great time to try the new technique [sync sound] -- even though we had to spend our own money to buy equipment."

After the success of City of Sadness, Hou bought a brand new set of sync recording equipment for Tu. "Hou thought the film was making money, and when he discovered there were bills still to pay, he'd already bought the equipment. So he had to take out loans to buy me the equipment, and I am still thankful for this."

With this new equipment, Tu began to work on more films using synchronized sound, taking the first steps to introducing this technique throughout the industry. "Now, only a couple of short films each year may not use sync sound," Tu said.

As a young man, Tu said, he loved stereos and so he looked for a job that dealt with the sound part of movies. "But later, I became fascinated by the use of sound in a movie context. This was when I fell in love with films, and the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang in particular. From then on I endeavored to use sound to enhance the meanings they sought to express in their movies," Tu said.

Such is his commitment to cinema that even his memory is pegged to film. "I don't remember in what year my son was born. But I do remember that it was while I was working on Yang's A day on the Beach (海灘的一天).

Tu now has his own sound editing studio with a staff of eight that handles the sound editing for 90 percent of films made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He himself is now currently associated with Chen Kuo-fu's (陳國富) Double Vision (雙瞳), Sylvia Chang's (張艾嘉) Princes D (D公主) and a film called Better Than Sex.

But after 30 years of experience and a room full of prizes, his studio still failed to qualify for government subsidies supporting the local film industry. The reason is that he is only a studio, not a company.

"That's a bit funny but I don't care much," Tu said. "Doing a good job is more important to me. My greatest happiness is when a director tells me,`You make great sound.' I'm this kind of person."