It's another damp and dull winter's day in Taipei. The boy is dressed in a khaki jacket and green scarf and carries a violin case. The girl wears a cute red hat, a red-and-white scarf and long skirt. These two figures are about to make the big jump from paper to celluloid.
The two characters live in the same apartment building, surrounded by lovely plants, cool music, good books and loneliness. They wonder if, in this maze-like city, the clouds will ever clear to let in the sun.
They are lonely because, although they live in the same building, they have never met, as when each leaves the building, she turns right and he turns left. Although they are obviously meant for each other, their paths seem destined not to cross.
ILLUSTRATION BY JIMMY, COURTESY OF GRIMM PRESS
This is the stuff of the best-selling book Turn Left, Turn Right (
Last week, Johnny To (
As in Jimmy's book, the couple meet accidentally in a park by a large round fountain without realizing they are neighbors. They feel like they've known each other for a long time.
PHOTO: WARNER
In the shooting of Turn Left, Turn Right, Johnny arranged for Kaneshiro and Leung to meet in a park near the New Peitou MRT station, where there is also a large round fountain.
Leung, who plays the role of a translator, accidentally drops her papers into the pond. Kaneshiro takes his shoes off to get them for her -- and as the scene took a number of takes to shoot, Kaneshiro spent much time with his feet soaking in cold water, a far cry from the hot spring water for which Peitou is best known.
As in the illustrated book, To also found a carousel for Kaneshiro and Leung's fairy tale-like first date. She and Kaneshiro have already been on-screen lovers in the 1999 film Tempting Heart (心動).
Taiwan-born Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chungking Express, Fallen Angel), who plays the violinist in the film, is a heart-throb in Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong because of his handsome face and melancholy eyes. "He is just like the loner in the book," said To.
As for Gigi Leung, the popular pop singer from Hong Kong, she looks a bit different from the girl in Jimmy's book because of her short hair. But her young and innocent face makes up for this difference.
Jimmy's books often portray people coping with alienation, loneliness and feelings of anxiety. His main characters are usually portrayed against huge backgrounds, maze-like cityscapes or walls of nameless faces.
An atmosphere of poetic imagination, melancholy and cuteness dominates. The plot itself is actually rather thin.
In a way, this will be a very reserved love story for director Johnny To who excels in dialogue-intensive romantic comedies.
"I don't mind if the film comes out differently from the book. The book leaves a wide space for interpretation. You can make it deep or light or just romantic," said Liao.
Nearly two years ago, Johnny To and Wai Ka-fei (韋家輝) from To's Milky Way Films went to Jimmy for adaptation rights. Jimmy said the talks went very smoothly, and added:"I trust them to make a good film, because To's films are popular with the critics as well as successful at the box office." Even if the film comes out as pure comedy, "That's okay with me," he added.
To and Wai chose the book for a good reason. The book, published by Grimm Press in Taiwan, is Jimmy's best-selling work among his 13 illustration books, selling 200,000 copies in Taiwan. It has also proved popular in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.
The book has been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Greek. Another book, Sound of Colors (地下鐵), is ready to be translated into English.
Jimmy said he got the story for Turn Left, Turn Right from thinking about his next door neighbor who he has never met. "Basically this book comes from imagination, not anyone's experience," he said.
Regarding having his book turned into a film, the author said he was most surprised that it will became a US$3 million film chosen by Warner Brothers for their first foray into the Chinese-language market. "It is so much larger than I expected. And as for the cast, the only word I can say -- `wow!'"
Johnny To, who won awards for his gangland action drama The Mission (鎗火), made in 2000, chose a romance story to be his first internationally invested film. The reason, To said, is that "gun films are more risky films to make."
Wai Ka-fei, the film's co-director, said the team will try to make every scene look like the pictures in the book. But in order to make the film more believable, more characters and plot elements were added.
Among the new roles are a pizza deliver girl and a doctor, both trying to piece together clues for the leading man and woman to find each other. They even hire a private detective to help, but later this only makes things worse.
Frustrated and sad, the girl and the boy each decided to go travelling alone for a while. And then the unexpected -- or perhaps the totally expected -- happens.
In fact, Turn Left, Turn Right is not the only project putting Jimmy's work onto celluloid. Last year, the official Golden Horse Film Festival trailer, an animation short, was based on Jimmy's illustrations. And now there are several animation production houses negotiating with Jimmy for animation adaptation rights.
"But my main focus is still on illustration. I will not suddenly jump into film production and forget about who I am," Jimmy said.
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