On the day of the Taiwan premiere of his second feature Help Me Eros (幫幫我愛神), Lee Kang-sheng (李康生) arrived on time for our interview amid his hectic schedule. Neatly dressed, the 40-year-old actor and director comes across as a melancholy man of few words, reminiscent of the roles he has played in Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) films. Lee began his acting career after being spotted by Tsai in front of a video arcade in the Ximending (西門町) shopping district and subsequently starred in the director's feature debut Rebels of the Neon God (青少年哪吒). After nearly two decades of working with his pupil, Tsai has made Lee an internationally recognized actor and a director with two features under his belt. His newest movie is a modern story about the societal ills of materialism, and is filled with sex, food and drug use.
Taipei Times: What was your earliest experience of cinema?
Lee Kang-sheng : When I was little, there was a temple near our home. Hand puppet shows and Taiwanese opera were staged there and later films were screened to celebrate the deity's birthday and Chinese New Year. Sometimes I would sneak backstage to satisfy my curiosity and see the performers change by accident. We kids would spend the whole day watching movies. I remember Jackie Chan's (成龍) movies were must-sees during the temple's Chinese New Year celebrations.
TT: You have been working with Tsai for more than 15 years. How do you interact as far as the working relationship goes?
LKS: We have worked as a team with the same cinematographer, editor and recording engineer right from the beginning. Tsai has a peculiar way of writing his screenplays. Every time he is stuck, he has to go back to scene one. We never once started shooting a film with a complete script because Tsai has this habit of returning to the starting point and re-examining himself again and again. During this process, he talks to the actors and asks us what we would do as characters under certain conditions. In this way, some parts of the scripts were the result of our collective discussions.
TT: Your onscreen persona is slightly melancholic, withdrawn and rebellious. Does the image share many resemblances to you in real life?
LKS : Only partially. I'm not a talker and can't express myself very well, so sometimes people think I am a loner when, in fact, I am just quiet in front of strangers.
TT: What does Tsai mean to you and you to Tsai?
LKS : Tsai plays multiple roles in my life. He is my mentor, my director, my friend and sometimes my mom, who can nag me over all sorts of things like smoking or gaining too much weight (laughing). I think I am like a family member to Tsai. Having come from Malaysia to study, he was alone in Taiwan and didn't have many friends. He is, in fact, the lonely, withdrawn one in his films.
TT: Did you two hit it off right from the start?
LKS : Hmm, I think it all began with my illness. (Lee suffered from a mysterious neck injury for nine months after Rebels of the Neon God.) Things didn't go well during that period of time. I had no luck with work either because I don't brownnose my way up or take the initiative to fight for roles. Tsai probably felt sorry for me, and took me to see the doctor sometimes. My parents also invited him for dinner from time to time because Tsai was all alone in the city. That's how we've grown so close.
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