- Title: VARIOUS: Hong Kong director Scud brings gay drama to Berlin film festival
- Date: 18th February 2010
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 17, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF AMPHETAMINE, SCUD, SAYING: "That is very easy, because financing comes from me (laughs). I am using up the money I have accumulated in my last 20 years. And hopefully, before everything dries up I can have some return from what I have done, that's my hope financially. But I reckon that's fine
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- Story Text: Hong Kong director Scud who was born in China is heating up the Berlin Film Festival's Panorama section with his gay drama "Amphetamine", which he introduced on Wednesday (February 17).
In Chinese the word amphetamine has another meaning, namely: 'is this not his fate?' Fate is what catches up with a young personal trainer named Kafka in this passionate drama.
Kafka also holds down jobs as a martial artist and courier. He needs several jobs in order to be able to support his sick mother. His father is dead - he took his own life long ago. Kafka was only a child at the time.
One night - it's the night he splits up with his girlfriend May - Kafka meets a young financial manager named Daniel. Daniel has moved to Hong Kong from Australia in order to help pick up the pieces after the financial crisis of autumn 2008. Daniel makes a hefty play for Kafka, who succumbs to his advances - be cause he is lonely and desperate for love. The two men are convinced that their love will conquer everything that divides them, such as their sexual preferences and drug addiction.
"I mean if you love, no matter the other party is a guy or a girl, basically the feeling is about the same. Sex may be different, but somehow, when you really love, sex will not be that important. I think anything can change when the love is strong enough, so that's the other message I want to deliver with this film" Scud told Reuters about his intentions.
Daniel has no reason to regret his love for Kafka. Kafka does his best to reciprocate Daniel's love by trying to accept it - even though he hasn't exactly grown up with it. But then their situation is complicated by a terrible memory. "It's a movie about love, about fate, but it's a very strong gay undertone there. So it would be hard to get a very straight, homophobic type person who knew exactly what was in the movie to sit down and watch it. Obviously, they probably could, but would they appreciate it is much? I don't know," said Thomas Price who plays Daniel.
Price himself is not gay but says playing the role of Daniel has given him a different outlook: "Not that I have any prejudices or anything like so, but I know I know a lot more (now) about gay culture and gay people and their relationships and things like that. I've met a lot of very interesting and very good gay people and things like that. It has just opened me up completely to a side of me that probably would not have been so open say, four, five years ago when I was younger. But now I am older, and this is the 21st century."
Scud has dedicated his film about sex, drugs and true love to all those who live to love - but who only end up losing the love of their lives. He told Reuters that homosexuality was still a taboo subject in many Asian countries. "My friends told me that my previous film was very popular in China but underground. So they begin to talk about it, they recognize homosexuality exists, it's inevitable. So they begin to think how to live with it, that's China. Hong Kong is a liberal place, but I would say in terms of homosexuality it's not very liberal. These people will not talk about it openly, even to very close friends. In that sense I think Taiwan is actually better."
When asked how he financed the movie that has explicit gay sex scenes in it, Scud replied: "That is very easy, because financing comes from me (laughs). I am using up the money I have accumulated in my last 20 years. And hopefully, before everything dries up I can have some return from what I have done, that's my hope financially. But I reckon that's fine with me, because when you work, sometimes you do something you don't really like, but you get paid compensation for it. And if you are working on something you really like, money should not be an issue."
"Amphetamine" had its world premiere at the Berlin film festival on February 15. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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