Hong Kong-based, Mainland China-born auteur Yonfan has scandalized and enthralled Chinese-speaking parts of Asia in a career that has spanned fine-art photography, filmmaking and journalism. Further afield, he has become a regular on the Lido.
His 1995 feature “Bugis Street,” which has been restored and is screening in the Venice Classics section, achieved notoriety at the time of its debut. It is set in the red-light area of Singapore, at a time shortly after the country had achieved independence and before it earned its buttoned-up, conservative reputation.
Loosely structured, the film follows a 16-year-old woman (played by Hiep Thi Le), who’s an employee at the appropriately named Sin Sin Hotel. There she witnesses prostitution, transvestism and debauchery, but also discovers friendship, love and beauty in unexpected places.
Yonfan remains as independent, bright and breezy and as ever. And his conversation with PvNew is characteristically unapologetic.
How is this restored version of ‘Bugis Street’ different from the 2012 restored ‘Bugis Street Redux’?
In the good world of restoration you are not supposed to add extra materials to change the original artistic work, but you can re-discover new things from the original work through any new techniques. “Bugis Street” was made almost 30 years ago and was shotonPanavision equipment with Kodak 35mm negative stock. But in this new 4K restoration, the magic of old-fashioned film stock is brought back much more with modern techniques. There is much more of the brilliance, the density and the atmosphere thatwashidden behind the layers of thecelluloidnegative for so many years. L’Immagine Ritrovatadid such an amazing job.
With theexperience ofwatching a restoredfilm, sometimes you get the complimentthatthe filmlooks like it wasmade yesterday, but that is only on the technical side. Artistically, if every time you watch an old film and find something new, that is the more important thing. That is the definition of a classic film.
Why choose to restore this one of your dozen movies, not others?
This film means so much andisso dear to me. Although my early movies are mostly aboutunrequitedlove, actually they have very edgy tones hidden behind, just like those layers of celluloid.
I think I was a revolutionary in the closet, andyetpeople think I just do pretty things. It iswith“Bugis Street” that I shoutoutloudest to people my true side of revolution. Sincethen,my movies are not the same anymore. “Bishonen,” “Peony Pavilion,” “Colour Blossoms,” “Prince of Tears” and “No. 7 Cherry Lane,” they all touchin some way onthe taboos deep down in our hearts. I was much more advanced in our part of the world. I made “Story of Rose” with Maggie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat 38 years ago and it was quite popular as a sugar sweet romance, but today people realize the whole movie is about incest.
How are your movies financed? What are the festival and commercial exploitation plans for the film? Is there a sales agent?
Ha ha. That is a very interesting question! I financed all my movies with my own money. I started collecting classical Chinese paintings when I was a highly paid photographer. Some of these paintingshaveset world records at auctions by Sotheby’s and Christie’s. So, I could say that all my movies were financed by the great masters of Chinese painting!
I developed a knowledge of Chinese art before itbecamepopular and a valuable commodity. So I am able to finance all my artistic interests. That is the reason why the industry in my part of the world does not recognize me as a part of them. But for the Western part of the world, it might be a different story.
Although my movies go to festivals, sales agents struggle to position my films in the market. I think all the sales agents know my work, but they are not as adventurous as before, or do not know how to handle me. Maybe I am too unique.
Will ‘Bugis Street’ be released in Singapore? Will a new classification be needed?
I do not think very positively. The film has been approached by many independent Singapore distributors to be shown in arthouses or even on DVD form. Till now, I still do not sell my movies to television nor streaming. I make movies for the big screen. Not for iPhones!
The film was historical lookback even at the time it was made (1995). Do you consider 1960s-1970s Singapore to be a golden age of some kind? How has Singapore’s position on non-cis sexuality changed since you made the film – at the political level, at the social level and its expression in terms of cinema and TV?
It definitely was the golden age of our timeforour generation, evenmoreso in Singapore. The final shot of the movie is a transsexual from Bangkokarrivingat Sin Sin Hotel to look for a good time. Whatglorious days when Bugis Street wasinits prime! Now Singapore is so clean and Thailand has become a haven for trans people.
Why did you choose a Vietnamese girl to be the heroine of the movie?
She wasfreshfromshootingOliver Stone’s “Heaven and Earth.” We met in Singapore and she was courageous enough to do a movie that speaks for the minorities.
Hiep was wonderful from the first day we met and so loved by everyone. She met my AD and they felt in love.They married and have two children and he also directs. Sadly, she passed away in 2017. Her lifetime partner is now a transgender who will come to Venice this time to meet the audience. A real life “Bugis Street.“
Your production notes positively boast of the film’s minimal screenplay, the same thing that some reviewers criticize. If you were making “Bugis Street” today, would it be more tightly scripted?
If anyone doesn’t recognize the opening voice of transsexual No.1is a la Mae West,they haveno right to criticize my writing. What do those people know about movies and writing?
This reminds me of some of those reviewers from Hong Kong who criticized my award for best script at the 78th Venice Film Festival for “No. 7 Cherry Lane,” because I namedropped so many great writers. What can I say?
Do you plan to direct any further films or even TV series? Or a series adaptation of ‘Bugis Street’?
I don’t do television. I am Norma Desmond. And I certainly don’t do sequels. I am preparing a new filmset in theShanghaiof the‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, about a woman painter and her life with four men. It is only for the big screen.
