SPAGHETTI EASTERN
The Far East Film Festival in Udine has for 21 years now been one of the more quirky gatherings the cinema world hosts each year. It’s tucked away in the far north of Italy, a good hour’s drive from Venice, and yet for 10 days it showcases the very latest creations from Asia’s distinctly commercial film industry.
So you get gangsters and monsters and romance and music. And audiences inside the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni can’t get enough. This year Wong and Consunji arrived with a very small film from faraway Hong Kong. From the other side of the planet, they touched people’s hearts.
“It’s been overwhelming, but in a good way,” says Consunji. “When it came to acting I was petrified of having to try something new at this age. A lot of people start a career in film when they’re 18. I’m double that. My primary motivation was to share the message [of the film]. I felt compelled. It was just me trying to do something new.
“I’m afraid of things that I’m not comfortable with and I was afraid of the things that I might lose, having established a career elsewhere. I started in theatre when I was 10 but it was a life I’d chosen to leave behind.
“I didn’t think the film would be this well accepted. I hoped it would be. But people are ready, they’re hungry to hear more, and I’m hungry to do more of this work.”
In accepting his Golden Mulberry Award at the festival, Wong produced a piece of paper, joked that he must be too young to receive an award for outstanding achievement because he still didn’t need reading glasses, and then talked from the heart about his life in film, and where it continues to lead him.
“I’ve never felt like I have much in my career,” he said. “The world of film is like the deepest abyss of the ocean. It’s mysterious and unpredictable. It’s easy to get lost, and to lose sense of time.”
Weeks later we’re back in Hong Kong and that mood of reflection still lingers. “I feel this has all been a round-up of my story,” Wong says. “In Italy I saw my first time on screen [in My Name Ain’t Suzy] and my latest film. I saw myself as a young man, so handsome. Now, these days, every time I wake up I don’t want to look in the mirror. But all this is maybe a sign that I should start something new. I don’t know what’s coming next. But that’s what’s interesting to me about being in the film industry, and I suppose it’s what’s interesting about life.”