Considering that he has endured weeks of college tours, press conferences and interviews to promote his film Beyond the Arctic (征服北極), veteran documentary director Yang Li-chou (楊力州) looked admirably cheerful for our interview at Spot — Taipei Film House (光點台北).
The 75-minute documentary follows three Taiwanese athletes, Kevin Lin (林義傑), Albert Liu (劉柏園) and Jason Chen (陳彥博), on their grueling 650km-trek to the Magnetic North Pole as part of the 2008 Polar Challenge, an international race that takes place between mid-April and mid-May each year.
“Nothing can beat me now. I survived the Arctic Circle,” said Yang.
The morning interview took on a frolicsome tone when the 22-year-old Chen arrived shortly after. Banter and teasing ensued between Yang and Chen who laughed at each other’s jokes. It almost felt like a scene transplanted from the movie in which the three voyagers remain upbeat in the face of extreme weather conditions and life-threatening situations.
The Taiwanese crew was one of the three teams, out of nine in total, to finish the race. Chen became the world’s youngest athlete to make it to the Magnetic North Pole.
Taipei Times: Which question do you hate being asked the most after returning home?
Jason Chen: “Is there prize money?” Or the favorite question from the elders in the family: “Why did you go if you couldn’t get money for it?”
Yang Li-chou: Mine is “Did you take a bottle of condensed milk with you? You could have eaten all the shaved ice you wanted!” In the Arctic, ice is the source of pain. You never ever want to touch it.
TT: Let’s start with filmmaking in the Arctic then. What was it like struggling to make a film under such extreme weather conditions?
YL: My first priority was not to shoot footage but to keep my body in one piece, my fingers especially. We had to wear four pairs of gloves to keep our hands free from frostbite. But my hands couldn’t function under four gloves because they were like Doraemon’s paws. I couldn’t hit the buttons on my digital camera [laughing]. It was frustrating. To capture important moments, I took off three gloves and stuck my hands, heating-pad covered, inside the camera protection bag to maneuver. I only had two to three minutes before my hands lost the feeling of pain and turned black.
TT: How did you keep the camera in workable condition?
YL: I took five digital cameras with me since there was no 3C (Tsann Kuen, 燦坤實業) around if they broke. Every day when I pressed the power button and saw the camera light turn on, I thanked God for giving me another chance. But it didn’t mean that I could get images on tapes for sure.
The most common situation would be, say, I was filming Jason passing in front of the camera. He passed by, but I could still see his image lingering on the monitor. It felt like it was so cold that even the electricity current was slow. I could never be sure if the images were in focus or not.
(Yang followed the team for its five-day trudge from the base camp at Resolute Bay, Canada, to the race’s starting point at Polaris Mine. Once the race officially started, Yang wasn’t allowed to visit the athletes unless they were within 30km from where the director and organizer were camped. Chen, the youngest of the trio, was tasked with filming the whole contest.)
TT: Jason, how did you record the race while trying to ski and stay alive at the same time?
JC: I would do hand warm-up exercises, such as moving up and down along the ski sticks, for one to two hours. Then I took off the gloves, unzipped my coat and got the camera out to tape for one minute before I lost the feeling in my limbs.
It was excruciating to merely get your hands out. Besides, my teammates weren’t too happy when we stopped to film [as the cold was unbearable when the athletes stopped moving and generating heat].
TT: What was in your mind while traversing the vast frozen expanses?
JC: Life flashed before my eyes. For nearly 20 hours a day, I was alone, hearing no sound except that of the wind. The absolute sense of solitude made me recall memories, in minute detail, that had been long forgotten.
(Their daily itinerary included over 12 hours of skiing, with a five-minute break every three hours to take in chocolate, beef jerky and peanuts, five hours of setting up the tent, boiling water and preparing meals, and four to five hours of sleep.)
TT: You suffered from serious hypothermia during the race. What was it like?
JC: The temperature was minus 49°C centigrade that day. There was a blizzard, and I couldn’t keep my body warm, no matter what I did. I didn’t have much to eat because my gloved hands were too bulky to get the beef jerky out of the bag.
I started sweating when I tried to pick up my pace to catch up with the others. All of a sudden, my sweat iced up. I could feel my saliva, freezing cold, coming down from my throat to my stomach.
We walked about 12 hours that day. I was hypothermic for the last four hours. When I finally made it to the tent, I unzipped my coat and lots of ice cubes fell out.
YL: [Breaking into the conversation:] How did it feel to have your body temperature drop below 20°C?
JC: You have blurred eyesight. Your whole body shakes uncontrollably. Your head swims and you can’t think straight. You can’t sense the environment you are in and can’t tell whether or not you are actually in the Arctic. You know that once your eyes close, they won’t open again.
TT: Did you consider giving up?
JC: No, I never thought of withdrawing from the race, even though the organizer hinted that we might not be able to finish it. The competition is not about physical strength. You have to fight the demons in your heart because every morning you wake up the road ahead seems endless.
YL: Every day I thought of giving up and going back home [laughing]. Yeah, it is all about mental strength. I saw many contestants sent back to the base after they withdrew from the competition. Most of them were found to be physically fit [enough] to continue the race. When asked why they quit, they usually said they just felt it was impossible for them to carry on.
TT: What is the most difficult chore to do in the Arctic?
JC: Every little thing after you wake up.
YL: I had one more thing to do than you guys. Every morning in the sleeping bag, I had 10 seconds to put my contact lenses on my eyeballs before they turned hard. You can’t wear eyeglasses because they break.
TT: How did you get your water supply?
JC: Everything involved with water is of the utmost importance in the Arctic, from urinating, cooking to boiling water for drinking. It takes about three hours to turn a bag of 2,500cc of ice into hot water. It’s another one to two hours to cook instant noodles.
Every morning we prepared three bottles of hot water. If you drank it too quickly, you ran the risk of being dehydrated for the rest of the day.
TT: What was the most memorable moment, thought, feeling or sight you experienced during the expedition?
JC: One day before we reached checkpoint one, it started snowing. We looked ahead and saw the mountains and islands enveloped in millions of glittering diamonds. It was the snowflakes reflecting sunlight. Our whole bodies glittered with myriad snowflakes.
The most memorable moment was the one when I arrived at the finishing point. I felt all my cells and pores were filled with new life and energy. I felt I was being reborn and broke into tears.
YL: It was a moment of sheer excitement for me too. I was greatly moved that they had made it. They are the first Taiwanese group to reach the Magnetic North Pole, but there were less than five people to welcome them. All of a sudden, I felt that the movie was important after all as it bears witness to the important moment …
TT: From My Football Summer (奇蹟的夏天) to Beyond the Arctic, you deal with the predicaments faced by Taiwanese athletes. Is it your intention to raise public awareness of these issues?
YL: Taiwanese athletes carry on their shoulders a heavy duty, that is, to fight for the country’s glory. Whether it is the young kids like those in My Football Summer or professional athletes like Jason, such patriotic thought is internalized and rooted in the heart. But they all know that no matter how hard they try, they are always on their own. The country never gives them anything in return.
(My Football Summer tells the story of an international football championship team from Mei-lun Junior High School (美崙國中) in Hualien County (花蓮縣). The film won the Best Documentary Award at the Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) in 2006.)
TT: What is the biggest difference between the finished film and what you anticipated and envisioned before the race?
YL: It is their laughter. I never expected so much laughing from the trio. They turned what was supposed to be a youth-inspiring sports film into a comic flick [laughing]. It is the power of laughter that kept them going.
NOTE: All of Beyond the Arctic’s box-office earnings will be donated to charities that work with disadvantaged children and teenagers.
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