Look at the films of Yasujiro Ozu. The man’s wife is dead, his daughter has been married off, and he has to live the rest of his life alone. What about Aki Kaurismaki’s characters? Aren’t their lives miserable? But they deal with their situations and lives with dignity.
TT: Is that also the reason why you choose to maintain a distance from your subjects in Doctor and Parking?
CM: Rather than trying to pull the audience right into the story, I like to keep a distance between the two. To me, one of the cinema’s great attractions is that distance.
TT: Parking has a strong visual style. What was your inspiration as the film’s cinematographer?
CM: Are you familiar with the paintings of Edward Hopper? [Chung quickly scrolls through several files on his computer and shows me a few of Hopper’s scenes of American urban landscapes.] Look at his use of light and shadow and how his characters are portrayed in terms of their relation to the environment. [Here, Chung clicks on Nighthawks (1942).] Hopper’s city is lonesome and desolate. I wanted to give Taipei the same noir feel and look.
TT: Is it easy for you to be both the director and cinematographer on the set?
CM: It is actually easier because I don’t need to communicate with another person. We hired a cinematographer at the beginning. But he ran away, probably because he couldn’t stand me. [Chung laughs.]
I started doing the cinematography for all the commercials I have directed after an advertiser made me the cinematographer and Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) the director for a car ad in 2000.
TT: What are your plans for the future?
CM: I will keep making commercials and feature films. Unlike filmmaking, making commercials is not about how you create a piece of work. It is about instant pleasure and satisfaction, and it is fun.
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