Celebrity Life

A consultant with extensive experience with top collectors and institutions around the world, Wendy Goldsmith talks to us about navigating the art world, her changing clientele, the Western market and Asian collectors.

Wendy Goldsmith first joined renowned British auction house Christie's 19th Century European Art department in London over 20 years ago. There, she would travel across Europe and West Asia, sourcing key material for auctions and heavily contributing to the house's name and fame. After becoming its youngest Director and Auctioneer, she moved to New York and became the International Head of 19th Century European Art. In 2003, she returned to London and established herself as a private art consultant – Goldsmith Art Advisory.

Goldsmith's experience includes achieving some world-record prices in the art auctioning world while working with top collectors and institutions around the world. These days, she works out of her Mayfair office, focusing on Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary paintings and sculpture. We talk to her about the importance of art advisors, navigating the art world and the Western market, and the changing face of Asian collectors.

Goldsmith Art Advisory's Wendy Goldsmith on Navigating the Art World

Where have you been spending time over the past two years?

The last two years have been spent mainly in the UK. When not working in London, I was exploring many of the regional British museums and staycationing in some of our gorgeous country hotels whenever openings allowed. The only trip abroad was a trip to America last spring when I was able to sneak in due to my American passport. It had been too long not to see clients.

Have you been able to travel when possible during the pandemic and have you noticed people's travel patterns changing due to it?

It was exceedingly difficult for people to travel, hence almost impossible for them to view paintings and attend art fairs – because they simply didn't exist. The vaccine became the gamechanger, allowing the confidence for globetrotting to the world’s cultural capitals once again.

Has the demographic of your client base altered in any way in recent years?

There is no question that the clients have become younger and younger and younger, and they start at a much higher level; in my day you'd have 50, 60, and 70-year-olds buying the great works and the younger ones would start collecting with prints. Now you have 25-year-olds starting with seven-figure pictures which, having done this for so long, I still find extraordinary. 40 percent of the new clients at auction are under 30, as they are so comfortable buying online as well which is where all the sales seamlessly moved to over lockdown. In addition, the depth of the market is like nothing we've ever seen. Almost every country is involved – there were many years when certain nationalities would dominate; the Japanese in the late 80s, then the Russians, then the Italians yet now, literally everyone is enjoying the ride, with Asia leading the way.

Are there particular types of works that are notably popular at the moment?

Art that is popular to Western buyers has been filtering over to the Asian audience over the last few seasons. Now you have Western artists appearing more and more in the Hong Kong sales, which we never saw before when they were dominated almost purely by Asian artists. The experiment was a great success, especially as Asian collectors are educated and sophisticated, wanting to collect in-depth. They started with the obvious artists such as Andy Warhol, but have moved on to the likes of Nicholas Party – not necessarily a household name for those outside of the art world.

Are there obstacles to accessing specific works from the Western market for Asian collectors? How can these obstacles be overcome?

The problem with the current market is that everyone seems to gravitate to the same artists, which makes access the most difficult hurdle. Working with an advisor helps to overcome these obstacles. They have usually worked for years to cultivate relationships with the galleries, along with various other key colleagues, in order for their clients to have priority for the next great work to appear by their coveted artist. The other way to gain access is auctioning, which is why we have seen some outstanding prices in recent years. The person who puts their hand up in the air longest is the one who wins. Cash is king. It’s the great equaliser, without any waiting lists.

How has the pandemic affected your own ways of working?

Technology changed everything, and thank goodness we had it. Viewings were impossible over lockdown although, at one point, I did have a warehouse opened up exclusively to show a client one painting. The entire warehouse was completely empty, except for the managing director showing us around. I had to pull a lot of strings to make that happen, but it was the only way that deal could have gone through. That was early on during Covid but as time went on, collectors became more and more accustomed to buying online, especially new ones, once they were familiar with an artist and could see a high res jpeg, or had faith in the seller such as the brand names of Christie’s or Sotheby’s.

How would you say the pandemic has affected the buying and selling behaviours of your clients? How so for a wider collector base?

It remains a problem for Asian collectors, especially Chinese, as they literally cannot leave the country. Nevertheless, when there is an exhibition in say, Hong Kong, there are queues out the door. Local collectors can’t go elsewhere to view and experience art, so this is a very big event for them, even more so than usual. Art Basel Hong Kong was a huge success in March. Then the series of auctions held at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips saw some extraordinary numbers from this captive audience.

When looking at recent sales in Hong Kong, is there anything notable in the types of collectors? Or the prices reached for particular works?

There is a trend in every sale. At the moment, collectors are looking at Black artists, they're looking at women artists and even within this field, they are looking at female surrealist artists. Every collector is always looking for the next big thing which speeds up exponentially. This again stems from technology. There's such unprecedented access to information so people's tastes are constantly in flux.

More broadly, art fairs in Hong Kong (from Art Basel in May to Unscheduled more recently) have in 2021 reported strong sales – do you have any comments on this in terms of what it says about the market in general? Does this have longevity?

The art world is not going anywhere. Again, there's just greater and greater depth of the market as a whole new generation of worldwide buyers come into the marketplace. The younger collectors obviously start at the contemporary side of things with what their friends are collecting and what they understand. Sometimes, they then work backwards to early modern, which looks like such good value in comparison at the moment. On the other hand, their parents started with some classic names they knew from their art history books – Van Gogh to Renoir to Picasso – but as these artists become harder and harder to come by (as well as increasingly more expensive), some of them realise that it was actually more fun in a way, once they collected what they wanted, to move on to contemporary. So it's really interesting where all the generations are meeting.

What might be your predictions as we come out of lockdown?

As we come out of lockdown, people are going to be more and more selective of the number of art fairs they attend, as well as the actual auctions. Having said that, they are also grasping any opportunity to see art in person once more. You can become familiar with paintings by a particular artist but nothing duplicates the experience of actually standing in front of a work of art. Interacting with artists is also the lifeblood for collectors – they love a good studio visit. They get great satisfaction from meeting with artists, understanding their thought processes, seeing their progress, supporting them and often, becoming friends. It is a dynamic that will last for hundreds of years.

Are there art fairs you have booked to visit in your calendar currently, now that some areas are opening up?

The size and numbers of art fairs may become reduced as many of the smaller galleries are realizing that without the huge expenses of these overheads, between travel, shipping and hotel costs, plus of course the cost of renting a booth for the fair, they can do just as much and more with .jpg and online viewing rooms. It’s also an impetus to get clients back into bricks and mortar galleries and view proper exhibitions. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to Art Basel Miami in early December, along with some excellent satellite fairs. Plus, everyone is in a good mood in the sun.

How can people try to navigate a complicated and increasingly overwhelming market?

The art world has become an almost impossible beast to navigate, even for professionals. That's why an art advisor is so essential if you're going to take collecting seriously. It would be physically impossible for a layperson to go to all the exhibitions, auction viewings, museum shows, gallery openings I attend, as well as read all the websites I look at, the previews for the shows and art fairs – not to mention the endless auction catalogues. So you really need someone in your corner: a support system, a teacher and an educator to really understand the complexities of this absolute minefield, especially when there can be so much money on the line. Art advisors pay for themselves, just in that aspect alone.

What advice would you give to burgeoning collectors unsure of how to build their collections?

You can't see enough. Look at art anywhere, anytime and at any opportunity. Start to really understand your taste which is why it also helps to see the bad, in order to understand the good. It can take years to gain the confidence and education to build a collection so there’s no need to rush but if you’re still unsure, some professional advice would make all the difference.

You can find out about Wendy Goldsmith and Goldsmith Art Advisory here.

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Jennifer Yu Cheng's childhood and upbringing has afforded her a life and career many young girls could only hope for. But, as she shares with Prestige, her work in education is helping teens discover their full potential as future leaders.

There’s a saying that behind every great man there’s a great woman. Although there was a time when we knew little about Jennifer Yu Cheng, wife of the New World Development head and “cultural entrepreneur” Adrian Cheng, who also oversees Chow Tai Fook Jewellery and the lifestyle brand K11. These days, however, it seems as if Cheng is stepping into her own. Having spent years working behind the scenes and allowing her work to speak for itself, Cheng is at last offering us a glimpse into her life, which is clearly dedicated to the betterment of children’s future and the empowerment of young women. And to see what a formidable force she is.

When we meet at K11’s private-member Gentry Club, filled with rare object and fine-art pieces sourced by the K11 Art Foundation, Cheng is evidently supportive of her husband’s work and shares his enthusiasm for art.

She gives me a brief tour of the place, easily elaborating on a few of the pieces that catch my eye: an English cutlery set decorated in luodian, a Chinese art of mother-of-pearl inlay, and porcelain teacups so thin they look almost translucent.

But on sitting down to talk, her husband’s name never comes up once – and to be fair, nor do I feel the need to ask about him. Cheng isn’t just a wife or mother figure linked to one of Hong Kong’s most established families. She’s a fearless leader, charting her own path in a world of education, empowering girls to take on leadership opportunities and offering teenagers a chance to become future-ready for the workplace and life itself.

But why does this daunting task appeal to Cheng and what set her on this path? To understand who she is, and how she got to where she is today, we begin with her childhood in Canada, growing up with a brother and cousin in the most wholesome way possible. “When I was in grade school, my cousin, brother and I had made this ninja base in our garden,” she recalls fondly. “We even made a wooden door to the ninja base, and we painted a lion on it just to scare the bad guys away. Exploration played a huge part early in my life.”

She watched her father make things in his backyard DIY workshop and learned the joys of tinkering with him. Building Lego blocks, making T-shirts and working on science projects were some of her happiest moments. She’s a natural-born innovator – “I remember when my grandmother had broken her thumb and I made her this thumb brace. Those are some of my earliest memories, of kind of seeing a problem and trying to find a solution and creating something out of it,” she says.

Exploration played a huge part early in my life

Jennifer Yu Cheng

I ask Cheng if she thinks her fixer-upper attitude is also part of the reason she found her calling in education. Were there perhaps problems in the sector that she felt she wanted to solve? She agrees with that assessment wholeheartedly. Fresh out of college, that wasn’t what she’d set out to do but it was certainly the choices she took that led her there. Graduating with a major in engineering and a minor in economics from Columbia University, Cheng had her starting in the field of finance, first with JP Morgan then at Goldman Sachs, where she worked in the fixed-income securities division. The company had a summer internship programme in which she was champion for her division. This was the first time she saw first-hand that there was gap in education that needed addressing.

“Through the interview process, interacting with the candidates and successful hires, I saw there was a gap in Hong Kong’s education, in particular, preparing students with the skills of communication, critical thinking, creativity and guidance counselling,” says Cheng. “That’s what really inspired me and my partner, Jennifer Ma, to start ARCH Education in 2009 and address that gap.”

It was a bold venture, but one for which Cheng says she found support among her friends, colleagues and even bosses, who sent their own children to ARCH Education’s first programme. “They really believed in our vision in bridging the education gap, and helping students find direction and fulfilling their full potential,” she says.

From then onwards, Cheng hasn’t looked back. In 2017, she spearheaded CTF Education Group, a second venture that gave her an even greater standing in the field of education. “We saw a need to start CTF Education Group to deliver our vision of empowering the next generation to be future-ready through education,” she explains. CTF Education Group brought together the myriad resources in Cheng’s network and consolidated her many efforts.

Beyond looking solely at education resources, Cheng saw the need to explore business collaborations, as students (and their teachers) required a deeper understanding of the evolutions of the workplace. CTF Education Group also looked at talent development – how to empower students and train teachers to deliver a future-ready education, and how to embed digital and technology readiness into existing school curriculums – and even to rethink the entire process, from kindergarten to Grade 12. A charitable side to the organisation rounds out its overarching mission – reaching out to those unable to afford CTFEG’s schools, but who could benefit from its programme.

Cheng is entirely aware that her upbringing afforded her opportunities that aren’t always available to every teenage girl. She herself pursued STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) while studying at Columbia University, but concedes that not many girls set out on the same path. “In local schools today, there are still gender biases around teen girls pursuing advanced science and math in secondary school,” says Cheng. “This then precludes them from pursuing STEM in university and jobs of the future in these high-growth sectors and also other industries that are adopting new technology and experiencing digital transformations.”

Covid further acerbated the situation, with industries everywhere turning to tech and digitising the workforce. In 2020, Cheng set up the Jennifer Yu Cheng Girls Impact Foundation to further her mission to inspire, equip and empower teenage girls to become future-ready leaders.

“Even though industry transformations were already underway, they exponentially picked up speed after Covid. The pandemic rolled back so many of the gains made by women in the workforce,” Cheng explains. “At just one in five management and leadership roles, and one in six STEM students in university, women in Asia were already underrepresented.

“But when the pandemic hit, the industries transformed seemingly overnight, so a future-ready education seemed more critical than ever to level the playing field for women and ensure their access to high-paying jobs of the future that require digital literacies and leadership skills and competencies. Through my work in education, I know the power of education to transform people, to break poverty cycles and to bridge opportunity gaps,” says Cheng. After reading the Harvard research paper “Leaning Out”, Cheng was spurred to create an initiative that would offer teenage girls a window to erase and correct biases for an entire lifetime.

I know the power of education to transform people, to break poverty cycles and to bridge opportunity gaps

Jennifer Yu Cheng

“We’re launching our 10,000 Girls4Girls Coding+ initiative soon,” says Cheng. The empowerment initiative, which began its pilot mode this year, is an ambitious project from which Cheng hopes 10,000 girls will benefit by learning coding and AI in the next few years. Girls who have an interest to learn coding are also trained to become leaders, so they can volunteer with other schools as community outreach to teach coding skills to others. Additionally, students develop a leadership mindset through exposure to changemakers, inspirational women leaders and diverse industries.

“We want to mobilise those girls who already have an interest to learn coding, to become leaders through the train the trainer model,” says Cheng. “The programme creates leadership opportunities for them to learn coding and apply it, and there’s a lot of learning and encouragement between the two groups of girls in learning coding and other future-readiness skills.”

Cheng, who was brought up with strong mentors, believes mentorship is vital for growth and development. It’s a role she’s taken on herself. “I’ve seen so many transformations – students who lacked confidence who are now high achievers, or those who may be on the verge of failing have a big turnaround. The teenage years is a great opportunity for students to experience that change,” she says.

Cheng’s own greatest supporter and mentor is her own mother. “Her spirituality and her values have really served as a compass for me in navigating my life and my work,” she says. “Just growing up, she would always tell us to try our best. She would see failures as opportunities to learn and taught us to see that as well. She encouraged us to be kind and grateful for our successes, and to pursue a meaningful, purpose-driven life, to contribute and make a positive impact.”

As she grew up in Canada, her parents encouraged her to take part in after-school activities, which Cheng believes was important for overall development and education. “I’m a strong believer that extra-curricular activities are
an important part of a whole person’s development,” says Cheng. “Through sports you develop collaboration, leadership and teamwork – even the way you see failure. Through clubs, you learn to problem solve, deal with different situations and learn to advocate for something that you’re passionate about.”

Cheng, who returned to Hong Kong to study at the German Swiss International School before attending boarding school and college in the US, counts her teenage years as the time when she became the person she is today. “Going to boarding school was that period of transformation for me personally,” she says. “It gave me an opportunity to explore myself, to discover my strengths and weaknesses, and to be in an environment where teachers really encouraged me and gave me opportunities to develop leadership skills.

“And as I mentioned earlier, the value of extra-curricular activities in exploring these leadership capacities … it’s not just about going to talks about leadership or going to camp, but how do you put leadership into action? Now that I look back as an educator, high school was really the start of leadership empowerment for me.”

Leaders aren’t born. Leaders are made – and by helping and inspiring girls to rethink what leadership means to them, Cheng hopes they can view leadership as an attitude. She hasn’t forgotten any of her mentors and remains grateful for the opportunities afforded to her at school and later in the workplace. “I had really supportive bosses working on the trading floor. They gave me a lot of opportunities and trusted my work. I was lucky to have had a relatively fast-track promotion to Executive Director while I was at Goldman, but I also know that not all teen girls or women have that. Or maybe I realised that not all teen girls have the access to the kind of education or the preparation for future readiness or the workplace skills that would allow them to navigate successfully, which is why I feel my foundation’s work is important.

“We invest in teen girls today so we can develop a strong talent pipeline of future women leaders who can navigate opportunities and chart their own path in their community and in the workplace,” says Cheng.

Cheng feels a strong connection with every student she’s had the privilege of working with – and the feeling is mutual. She recalls getting Mother’s Day cards even before she had her own children, sent to her by students grateful for the life-changing opportunities she’d offered them. A few years ago, through ARCH Community Outreach, a programme aimed at broadening opportunities for Hong Kong youth through exposure to international education experiences and diverse career networks, Cheng met a young student who came up to her to ask if she could help him achieve his dreams.

“He said, you know, you really encouraged us to try and pursue our interests and dreams. and have an experience abroad, but I don’t know if I’m worthy,” Cheng recalls. Finding the student incredibly mature but lacking confidence, Cheng and her team offered him free coaching and guidance counselling.

“Fast forward, the student got a full scholarship to study at a university in the US, and fast forward to now, this hesitant boy graduated with a degree in economics and applied to PhD programmes and now is a PhD candidate with a full scholarship. He did that all himself,” says Cheng.

“It really is a wonderful story, because the student is so humble and he gives back every time he’s in Hong Kong, coaching kids in our charity. He’s using his own example to encourage others to pursue their goals and dreams, and not be afraid of failure. That’s just one of many transformational cases, whether it’s our outreach work, or our work at CTF Education Group. It’s what makes our work in education so meaningful and impactful.”

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When I returned to Hong Kong in April, spending three weeks in quarantine prior to taking the helm at Prestige, I had a lot of time to think. During those days trapped in the Kerry Hotel with nothing but the view from my window and a computer full of emails to keep me occupied, I thought long and hard about all of the things I wanted to do in my new position. From that period sequestered alone, I already had this initiative in mind: Women of Power. A list, but also a group of people committed to learning from each other, to teaching others, and to giving back to the community.

My vision was for an engaged matrix, one that set new standards for the Prestige brand. Yes, we’d had lists before: a regional Power list of tycoons and politicians, year-end round-ups and accolades, top 10s that appear regularly online. Those were created passively, without the participation of the honourees, as an award they could tout in their LinkedIn bios or social media profiles.

Women of Power was envisaged as a collective of 100 women who not only understood the influence they wielded but wished to transfer their secrets and pay it forward, to help other women pave the way to success, in the interest of bridging a gender gap that’s still very much in existence.

As we began the process, we gave up our golden number of 100, because we realised on the way that this wasn’t about achieving an arbitrary round number that looked nice as a cover line: this was about change. Changing the status quo, changing the game. We went for quality, over quantity. We pored through the list weekly, swapping out names and adding new ones, meeting old acquaintances and making new ones, many of whom were recommended by women we approached – one fine example of the kind of empowerment we sought. We went through the arduous process of explaining this ideological commitment, asking women who are already time-starved and juggling multiple titles and roles, to give us their attention and allegiance.

I’m proud to present that vision, realised. These are the fruits of our team’s labours, and the beginnings of a collective that will grow yearly, as our reach expands. I’m so excited to present to you this year’s Women of Power.

Meet the 2021 Prestige Women of Power

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Award-winning filmmaker and director Apichatpong Weerasethakul on his latest film Memoria, working with Tilda Swinton, his art and more.

During Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul's busy summer, he found time to talk to us about his latest film Memoria, which won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as well as his current art installation at Bangkok's 100 Tonson Foundation.

In conversation with Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul

When his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives received the Palme d’​Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul became the first Southeast Asian director ever to win this top award. Of course, he'd already shown several times at Cannes, beginning in 2002 with Blissfully Yours (which won the Un Certain Regard prize), but his 2010 victory catapulted the soft-spoken director to new heights of stardom on the international art-house cinema circuit.

For Oscar-winning actress and noted cinephile Tilda Swinton, a long-time admirer of Weerasethakul’s work, Uncle Boonmee ranks as one of her all-time favourite films. On the British Film Institute (BFI) website she describes it as, “Slow cinema at its most immersive, lateral and resonant. It’s possible to believe you dreamed Apichatpong’s films after you see them… they certainly take you somewhere you’ve never been before on this Earth.”

Now, more than a decade since the release of that landmark film, the acclaimed British-born film star has the lead role in the enigmatic director’s latest movie, titled Memoria, which had its world premiere on July 15 at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (coincidentally the eve of director Weerasethakul’s 51st birthday). 

In the film, Swinton plays Jessica Holland, a Scottish orchid farmer in Columbia who finds herself unable to sleep after being startled at daybreak by a loud and inexplicable bang only she can hear (this idea stems from an experience the director had during his own first visit to Columbia). She later befriends an archaeologist studying some newly unearthed human remains, and becomes fixated on a 6,000-year-old skull with a hole drilled into it – in order to “release bad spirits”, the archaeologist tells her. Together, the pair visit the excavation site, and then in a small town nearby Jessica encounters a man by the river with whom she begins to share memories. 

In retrospect, it seems almost cosmically inevitable that Swinton and Weerasethakul would one day collaborate on a film. When I spoke to the director, shortly before the Cannes festival, he discussed how he and Swinton have become friends over the years, and how they’d long been searching for the right project to work on. In fact, he wrote the script for Memoria specifically with her in mind.

“It’s not a typical work for her,” Weerasethakul said. “That’s why it took time for us to find the right moment, so that she could be totally committed, for a long stretch of time. It’s quite unusual.” Also unusual is the fact that this is the director’s first film not set in his native Thailand, or with Thai dialogue (it's a mix of English and Spanish). It seems like quite a daring artistic leap to take all at once.

“I know,” he chuckled, “but that’s the beauty. I think that I should have done this a long time ago. I've been working with my own team in Thailand for almost 20 years. So to suddenly shift and go somewhere else with a new team is a bit scary, but it definitely opened up the senses.”

So does this combination of star power and a primarily English script hint that Memoria might be a step in a more commercial direction?

“I have no idea!” he said gleefully. “That’s why I’m excited about Cannes, to find out, because I can never judge my movies, really. But I wouldn't say it’s commercial. That’s why we need so many partners, to contribute little by little,” he adds, listing the countries of production as Colombia, Thailand, UK, Mexico, France, Germany and Qatar, while the movie itself is a Kick the Machine Films and Burning production, in association with Illuminations Films (Past Lives). As for critical reception, the film went on to win a Jury Prize at Cannes – one of the festival’s top honours.

“The film is about the vibration of memories that connect us,” the director said during his acceptance speech, in which he also thanked Swinton for her grace, humour, and heart. “We talked many times about this dream,” he told her from the stage, “and here we are. Our ship has landed.”

In addition to Memoria, Weerasethakul was also part of another Cannes 2021 premiere, having contributed a segment to the anthology film The Year of the Everlasting Storm, alongside such renowned international directors as Jafar Panahi, Anthony Chen, Laura Poitras, and Malik Vitthal.

“I contributed a short film to this omnibus project. All the films reflect the situation we’re in… the pandemic. It was made last year actually, when the situation was quite intense. In my case, I just shot [it in] my bedroom.”

After Cannes wrapped up, Weerasethakul returned to Bangkok, where he put the finishing touches to his art installation, A Minor History, at the 100 Tonson Foundation art space, which runs until January 2022. To some, it seems curious that with all his success in cinema he’s still interested in smaller-scale art exhibitions, but he doesn’t see the two disciplines as mutually exclusive.

“They feed on each other,” he explained. “But, of course, making a movie involves a lot of people and financing, so art installations allow me more freedom to experiment.” Coming from someone whose feature films are most often described as bewildering, inscrutable and hallucinatory, with a marked preference for unconventional narrative structures, this seems an interesting and even amusing statement.

For his exhibit at 100 Tonson, which combines photography and three video channels, Weerasethakul relates how he returned to Thailand’s rural Isaan region, the setting for many of his previous films, for inspiration.

“After the lockdown [last summer] I travelled to the northeast, where I grew up, to see and be inspired by the landscape and the people there. It started from just having no direction at all. I spent a month and a half on the road, mainly along the edge of the Mekong River, passing through my hometown of Khon Kaen, as well as Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Ubon Ratchathani,” he says, adding that the stories he unearthed in the region were mostly about situations that were quite oppressive. 

“In Kalasin, I discovered the ruins of an old cinema that reminded me of those big cinemas I grew up with, so I kind of juxtaposed these ruins – like the skeleton of a dead animal – with the current situation around there, most importantly the disappearance of people,” he says solemnly, alluding to the incident in January 2019 when the bodies of two high-profile Thai political activists, who had fled to Laos seeking sanctuary, were discovered in the Mekong River; very much the victims of foul play. 

In its entirety, A Minor History comprises two halves, which change midway through the scheduled six-month run. Helping with the show’s evolving concept is Manuporn “Air” Luengaram, a well-known Thai curator with whom the director has worked closely in the past.

“The first part is mainly a kind of reminiscing,” Weerasethakul remarks. “A fictionalised story about a person strolling along the Mekong and talking about the floating corpse, and how the Naga [the mythical river serpent] accidentally swallows the corpse and then has to throw up.”

Such pointed political jabs seem destined to stir up controversy, but the director is well-known for ruffling feathers in his homeland. For the Thailand release of his internationally acclaimed 2006 feature film Syndromes and a Century, which had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival that year, the Thai Censorship Board demanded the removal of four scenes (a request the director denied, although he later agreed to a limited release where the cut scenes were replaced by a black screen). As for his award-winning 2015 film Cemetery of Splendour, he never gave it a theatrical release in Thailand for fear that it would also be censored, though it has been screened privately at special film events. 

As for the future, the director reveals a small glimpse of what he’s working on. “It’s another strange project, combining film and performance, but I cannot tell you much about it yet,” he said. However, he did indicate it's influenced by the ongoing pandemic and also touches on his continuing interest in exploring the theme of sleep. 

“At the same time I’m developing local works where I really want to focus on the political situation in Thailand,” he continues. “We are living in a very ‘crossroads’ moment. The new generation has a totally different attitude from my generation. There’s been such a shift in the past 10 to 20 years in this country.”

And while he’s probably too humble to say it outright, outspoken artists such as Weerasethakul have played a major role in keeping the spirit and momentum of that shift alive.

(Image credits: All stills used from the film Memoria are courtesy of ©Kick the Machine Films, Burning, Anna Sanders Films, Match Factory Productions, ZDF/arte and Piano, 2021)

This story was first published in the August 2021 issue of Prestige Thailand and online on Prestige Thailand here.

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Award-winning filmmaker and director Apichatpong Weerasethakul on his latest film Memoria, working with Tilda Swinton, his art and more.

During Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul's busy summer, he found time to talk to us about his latest film Memoria, which won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as well as his current art installation at Bangkok's 100 Tonson Foundation.

In conversation with Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul

When his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives received the Palme d’​Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul became the first Southeast Asian director ever to win this top award. Of course, he'd already shown several times at Cannes, beginning in 2002 with Blissfully Yours (which won the Un Certain Regard prize), but his 2010 victory catapulted the soft-spoken director to new heights of stardom on the international art-house cinema circuit.

For Oscar-winning actress and noted cinephile Tilda Swinton, a long-time admirer of Weerasethakul’s work, Uncle Boonmee ranks as one of her all-time favourite films. On the British Film Institute (BFI) website she describes it as, “Slow cinema at its most immersive, lateral and resonant. It’s possible to believe you dreamed Apichatpong’s films after you see them… they certainly take you somewhere you’ve never been before on this Earth.”

Now, more than a decade since the release of that landmark film, the acclaimed British-born film star has the lead role in the enigmatic director’s latest movie, titled Memoria, which had its world premiere on July 15 at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (coincidentally the eve of director Weerasethakul’s 51st birthday). 

In the film, Swinton plays Jessica Holland, a Scottish orchid farmer in Columbia who finds herself unable to sleep after being startled at daybreak by a loud and inexplicable bang only she can hear (this idea stems from an experience the director had during his own first visit to Columbia). She later befriends an archaeologist studying some newly unearthed human remains, and becomes fixated on a 6,000-year-old skull with a hole drilled into it – in order to “release bad spirits”, the archaeologist tells her. Together, the pair visit the excavation site, and then in a small town nearby Jessica encounters a man by the river with whom she begins to share memories. 

In retrospect, it seems almost cosmically inevitable that Swinton and Weerasethakul would one day collaborate on a film. When I spoke to the director, shortly before the Cannes festival, he discussed how he and Swinton have become friends over the years, and how they’d long been searching for the right project to work on. In fact, he wrote the script for Memoria specifically with her in mind.

“It’s not a typical work for her,” Weerasethakul said. “That’s why it took time for us to find the right moment, so that she could be totally committed, for a long stretch of time. It’s quite unusual.” Also unusual is the fact that this is the director’s first film not set in his native Thailand, or with Thai dialogue (it's a mix of English and Spanish). It seems like quite a daring artistic leap to take all at once.

“I know,” he chuckled, “but that’s the beauty. I think that I should have done this a long time ago. I've been working with my own team in Thailand for almost 20 years. So to suddenly shift and go somewhere else with a new team is a bit scary, but it definitely opened up the senses.”

So does this combination of star power and a primarily English script hint that Memoria might be a step in a more commercial direction?

“I have no idea!” he said gleefully. “That’s why I’m excited about Cannes, to find out, because I can never judge my movies, really. But I wouldn't say it’s commercial. That’s why we need so many partners, to contribute little by little,” he adds, listing the countries of production as Colombia, Thailand, UK, Mexico, France, Germany and Qatar, while the movie itself is a Kick the Machine Films and Burning production, in association with Illuminations Films (Past Lives). As for critical reception, the film went on to win a Jury Prize at Cannes – one of the festival’s top honours.

“The film is about the vibration of memories that connect us,” the director said during his acceptance speech, in which he also thanked Swinton for her grace, humour, and heart. “We talked many times about this dream,” he told her from the stage, “and here we are. Our ship has landed.”

In addition to Memoria, Weerasethakul was also part of another Cannes 2021 premiere, having contributed a segment to the anthology film The Year of the Everlasting Storm, alongside such renowned international directors as Jafar Panahi, Anthony Chen, Laura Poitras, and Malik Vitthal.

“I contributed a short film to this omnibus project. All the films reflect the situation we’re in… the pandemic. It was made last year actually, when the situation was quite intense. In my case, I just shot [it in] my bedroom.”

After Cannes wrapped up, Weerasethakul returned to Bangkok, where he put the finishing touches to his art installation, A Minor History, at the 100 Tonson Foundation art space, which runs until January 2022. To some, it seems curious that with all his success in cinema he’s still interested in smaller-scale art exhibitions, but he doesn’t see the two disciplines as mutually exclusive.

“They feed on each other,” he explained. “But, of course, making a movie involves a lot of people and financing, so art installations allow me more freedom to experiment.” Coming from someone whose feature films are most often described as bewildering, inscrutable and hallucinatory, with a marked preference for unconventional narrative structures, this seems an interesting and even amusing statement.

For his exhibit at 100 Tonson, which combines photography and three video channels, Weerasethakul relates how he returned to Thailand’s rural Isaan region, the setting for many of his previous films, for inspiration.

“After the lockdown [last summer] I travelled to the northeast, where I grew up, to see and be inspired by the landscape and the people there. It started from just having no direction at all. I spent a month and a half on the road, mainly along the edge of the Mekong River, passing through my hometown of Khon Kaen, as well as Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Ubon Ratchathani,” he says, adding that the stories he unearthed in the region were mostly about situations that were quite oppressive. 

“In Kalasin, I discovered the ruins of an old cinema that reminded me of those big cinemas I grew up with, so I kind of juxtaposed these ruins – like the skeleton of a dead animal – with the current situation around there, most importantly the disappearance of people,” he says solemnly, alluding to the incident in January 2019 when the bodies of two high-profile Thai political activists, who had fled to Laos seeking sanctuary, were discovered in the Mekong River; very much the victims of foul play. 

In its entirety, A Minor History comprises two halves, which change midway through the scheduled six-month run. Helping with the show’s evolving concept is Manuporn “Air” Luengaram, a well-known Thai curator with whom the director has worked closely in the past.

“The first part is mainly a kind of reminiscing,” Weerasethakul remarks. “A fictionalised story about a person strolling along the Mekong and talking about the floating corpse, and how the Naga [the mythical river serpent] accidentally swallows the corpse and then has to throw up.”

Such pointed political jabs seem destined to stir up controversy, but the director is well-known for ruffling feathers in his homeland. For the Thailand release of his internationally acclaimed 2006 feature film Syndromes and a Century, which had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival that year, the Thai Censorship Board demanded the removal of four scenes (a request the director denied, although he later agreed to a limited release where the cut scenes were replaced by a black screen). As for his award-winning 2015 film Cemetery of Splendour, he never gave it a theatrical release in Thailand for fear that it would also be censored, though it has been screened privately at special film events. 

As for the future, the director reveals a small glimpse of what he’s working on. “It’s another strange project, combining film and performance, but I cannot tell you much about it yet,” he said. However, he did indicate it's influenced by the ongoing pandemic and also touches on his continuing interest in exploring the theme of sleep. 

“At the same time I’m developing local works where I really want to focus on the political situation in Thailand,” he continues. “We are living in a very ‘crossroads’ moment. The new generation has a totally different attitude from my generation. There’s been such a shift in the past 10 to 20 years in this country.”

And while he’s probably too humble to say it outright, outspoken artists such as Weerasethakul have played a major role in keeping the spirit and momentum of that shift alive.

(Image credits: All stills used from the film Memoria are courtesy of ©Kick the Machine Films, Burning, Anna Sanders Films, Match Factory Productions, ZDF/arte and Piano, 2021)

This story was first published in the August 2021 issue of Prestige Thailand and online on Prestige Thailand here.

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Always willing to change with the times, Alvin Valley is designing for the modern woman--no matter what life throws her way.

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No one said showbiz was easy, and if you’ve met JuJu Chan Szeto, you’ll know she’s not one to give up. We sit down with the action star to talk about how embracing her martial-arts background led to her big break in Hollywood.

As a child, JuJu Chan Szeto wouldn’t sit still. Her father was an action-movie fanatic, and every time they watched something together, Chan Szeto remembers copying every move by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen. “I’d jump from table to table,” she says. “I broke a lot of things at home.” Exasperated with their daughter’s boundless energy, her parents sent her off to judo school where she fell in love with martial arts. From judo, to karate, Chinese kung fu, taekwondo and Thai boxing, Chan Szeto has honed her martial-arts skills since she was 10, entering national competitions and representing Hong Kong in taekwondo.

A born performer, Chan Szeto says she’s never turned down a chance to sing, dance, or act since she was a child. She studied computer science – “something practical befitting a traditional Chinese family” – but ultimately found herself enrolling into New York’s Tisch School of the Arts and learning the ropes of the film industry. Afterwards, she came back to Hong Kong to begin her career here and she’s never looked back since. 

It wasn’t an easy start, though. From beauty pageants to reality shows, and even a brief music career, Chan Szeto tried everything to make her mark, but it wasn’t until a director told her to embrace her roots as a martial artist that she found her way. That director, with the gems of wisdom that put Chan Szeto on the map and Hollywood on her radar, is Antony Szeto, who’s now her husband. 

I talked to Chan Szeto about her love for martial arts, her favourite action scenes and her upcoming feature film on Netflix, Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance. 

You’ve credited your husband for pushing you to embrace your martial-arts background as an actress. 

Yes. In Hong Kong especially, actors are expected to act, sing, and appear in campaigns. When I came back I took any opportunity that came to me, because I just wanted to perform. I got signed to a music label and I released an album in Hong Kong where I wrote my own songs. My husband, Antony Szeto, directed one of my first music videos. At that time, I was doing so much and Antony knew I wanted to become an actress. But at that time also, I didn’t tell people that I could do martial arts. My image was very different then – I had long hair and looked very girly, which was the typical look in Hong Kong at that time. I wanted to make hip-hop and rap music, but my management told me to stick with mellow love songs. But Antony told me he was having a hard time finding female actors who could act and do their own actions. There are a lot more action stars in the older generation, but not in our current generation. He could tell I could fight, and he said maybe I should focus on letting people know that and not be afraid of being different. After that, I brought my nunchucks out and showed people what I was capable of. 

Was that how you got your Hollywood start and joined the cast of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)? 

Netflix was doing this worldwide search for Asian actors and actresses who knew martial arts for the movie, and they’d heard about me as one of the action actresses based in Hong Kong who also spoke English. There really weren’t that many of us at that time. There’s Michelle Yeoh, whom I really like, especially after working with her. She didn’t start in martial arts, she was a dancer who actually got trained by the Jackie Chan team and became a female action figure. I’d say until this day that she’s the biggest female action actress in Hollywood and it was amazing to have worked with her on Sword of Destiny. She was so graceful, really loving and caring and generous. I look up to her and, yeah, I hope I can work with her again. 

Do you do a lot of your own stunts?

No matter how good you are, everyone in Hollywood has a stunt double for insurance. But I do all my fight actions myself. I have my own fighting style and the way I do my actions makes it hard for people to double me. But there are times when we shoot multiple units because of our tight schedule and the production might have to use doubles to pick up some shots of our previous fights, because we can’t be in two locations at once. I love to run through all my actions as many times as possible before I shoot them. And I also like to attend the pre-visualisation sessions with the stunt team, which is where we visualise the scene to show the director how it’s going to look on
the screen. 

Have you choreographed your own stunts too?

On Wu Assassins, we had a longer period of shooting because it’s a TV series, so I became really close to the stunts team and the action choreographer Dan Rizzuto. He knew I did a lot of high kicks, so we incorporated a lot of those into the kitchen scene. We came up with the choreography together in the stunt room and ran the whole scene with the other stunt doubles. The choreographer was like, “I’ve never had an actress do this – usually it’s the stunt double’s job.” But I like being there and being able to have some creative input. I also choreographed all of my fight scenes in an independent action film called Hollow Point, which aired on FOX Movies in Hong Kong and my action performance in that film got me a nomination for a Jackie Chan Action Film Awards in 2019 for Best Action Actress. 

Out of all the projects you’ve done so far, which would you say is your favourite fight scene?

The kitchen fight in Wu Assassins episode three is one I love a lot. It’s so quick and dynamic and we were making use of all the kitchen pans and stuff. I love including things from the environment in the fight. Another favourite one would be in Jiu Jitsu (2020) with Nicholas Cage. That was one long shot of me fighting five or six guys alone, using nunchucks, jumping and turning. When we shot it, it was a two-minute-long fight scene, but in the final edit, there’s other scenes added in because there were a few fights happening at the same time. The camera guys are also moving with us at the same time to capture the shots – we’re not really hitting the actors, so you have to catch it at a certain angle, right? It’s a whole teamwork thing. 

Do you have plans to direct your own film one day?

I did a short action-comedy in Los Angeles before Covid. I shot it already I just need to finish editing it so I can release it. I’m interested in directing action films, especially as an Asian. I don’t think there’s another female action film director who actually has an action background, and I’d like to be the first. Hopefully I could get the editing done by the end of the year so I can put it in a festival and release it next year. It’s a really fun piece. 

Do you feel that as an Asian American actor today, you’re finally receiving the recognition and getting more opportunities? 

I started auditioning while in NYU, but at that time there weren’t that many Asian-American roles in America. It’s only these past five years or so that more roles have come up. I receive auditions every week from Hollywood now. There are a lot of roles and more people competing for those roles as well. It’s a good thing. For Asian representation in Hollywood to grow, we need more Asian faces, more roles in different genres. It’s a healthy competition. 

What’s a role you’d like to play that you haven’t tried yet?

A musical! Singing, dancing and maybe some action. I want to be in a musical so badly. I recently re-watched Glee and there were so many great songs and dance, and it looked like it would have been so much fun to be one of the main cast.

So Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance comes out on Netflix next year. What can we expect from it?

Four of the original cast members come back from the TV series. I still play Zan, and then Lewis Tan, Iko Uwais and Lawrence Kao also come back to reprise their roles. There are new cast members too, including Jason Tobin from Hong Kong, who’s great fun to work with. Roel Reiné is the director and he was super great to work with too. We filmed the entire movie in Bangkok in 28 days because of Covid – I think they wanted to shoot it in the shortest amount of time possible since the longer you stayed the more liability there was for the whole production in case the whole thing had to shut down. We managed so many fight scenes it’s quite amazing. The audience can expect heavy action, fast pacing and just pure fun seeing all of us going around Bangkok.  

The post JuJu Chan Szeto: Putting Up a Fight appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Ahead of the release of her highly-anticipated new album, 30, Adele has reentered the spotlight, opening up about some of the things she's experienced in recent years. For one thing, she's gone through a divorce, which is never easy, regardless of whether you're under scrutiny as a celebrity. The singer shared how she's dealt with the anxiety she's faced due to the experience.

Adele went through a tsunami of emotions

In a cover interview for Rolling Stone's December issue, Adele gave insight into the ways in which she's coped. She reveals that the anxiety left her bed-bound for weeks after she'd parted ways with her husband, Simon Konecki, in 2019. Though she maintains a close friendship with Konecki, according to the article, an amicable split doesn't equal a painless one. Adele recounts a "tsunami of emotions," adding that the many highs and lows of such a transitional period felt like "really f—king up-and-down."

 

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After the news of their split hit, the internet was filled with headlines about the breakup anthems fans were clamouring for, along with commentary about Adele's physical transformation, which she eventually clarified was never about weight loss at all. In her new Rolling Stone interview, Adele explains that she sought solace in 2019 by trying all kinds of new things — the gym being just one of them.

"If I can transform my strength and my body like this, surely I can do it to my emotions and to my brain and to my inner well-being," she shares. "That was what drove me. It just coincided with all of the emotional work that I was doing with myself as a visual for it, basically." In the process, the singer learned that she was "stronger than she thought."

There are plenty of science-backed physical and mental health benefits of working out regularly. Breaking a sweat in any capacity — whether by hitting the ring for a boxing class, as Adele has said she loves, going for a hike in the fresh air (another Adele-approved workout), or hitting the mat for yoga — counts.

At the same time, Adele doesn't suggest that incorporating more gym time was her only outlet for anxiety relief. She seemingly has plenty of tools in her arsenal to help cope with anxiety, telling Rolling Stone she had a "sound bath era," started getting into the ancient meditative practice in 2019, and gave up drinking for six months when she began experiencing "hangxiety." She also "threw [herself] in headfirst" into travelling in hopes of soothing her anxiety.

It seems like Adele did plenty of soul-searching over the past two years, and she reveals to Rolling Stone that she's found closure with the ending of her marriage and the loss of her father to cancer back in May, as well as a new sense of joy with her boyfriend, talent agent Rich Paul. 30, which is set to drop on November 19, is sure to be a deeply personal album.

This story first appeared on www.shape.com

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Wen talking about Hong Kong cinema, familiar names and faces come to mind instantly – martial artists such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Donnie Yen, or stars from the era of gambling or crime film like Chow Yun-fat, Stephen Chow, Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Louis Koo or Sean Lau.

But as with the industry all over the world, there’s a new generation of talent waiting in the wings, so here are four young people we’re sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the not-too- distant-future: model/actress Angela Yuen, actors Tony Wu and Kevin Chu, and director/actor/ singer Hang Jai, who all open up about recent projects they’ve been working on – and where their screen careers go from here.

The Future of Hong Kong Cinema

ANGELA YUEN

Tell us about your breakout role.

In August and September, I had a part in a movie with a new director. I played a single mum living with a children, facing all the difficulties during the time of Covid. The storyline had lots of scenes showing how I was struggling with my children and not being a responsible mother, which I found really interesting.

What’s been your biggest project so far?

So far, that one, but I wouldn’t like to measure the project purely by its scale or how commercial it is.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on another movie with a different director, and the story’s about family. In the movie, the mother doesn’t want her daughter to get married only to get a divorce, and the whole family hates her for it. There are lots of scenes based on our daily issues, family relationships and how they reflect reality.

Who would be your dream co-star or director?

My dream co-star is the Hong Kong actor Tse Kwan-ho. I always go to watch how he acts even on-stage. As far as dream directors are concerned, I’d say any and all of the good and talented directors.

What’s coming up next? What would you like to achieve in the industry?

My next project is a feature film about gaming. I’m constantly aiming to become a better actress.

TONY WU

Tell us about your breakout role.

My first movie was called Weeds on Fire, about 10 Hong Kong underdogs who set up a youth baseball team. In real life I’m a baseball player in a Hong Kong team, so the director gave me a chance and cast me in the role. The first times I was on set I was very nervous, especially with scenes involving action or fighting movements, but fortunately two other experienced actors were willing to teach me and try out the angles together, so it worked out pretty well at the end.

What’s been your biggest project so far?

I had parts in Benny Chan’s Raging Fire, and in Zero to Hero with actress/director Sandra Ng.

What are you working on now?

I’m now working on big-scale movie, but I’m not able to talk about it yet. This is already the fifth year of my acting journey, and I’m so excited about the new movie as it’s my first time to work with Louis Koo – so I have to make sure I’m focused 100 percent. I’m also working on a TV drama with Viu TV and the renowned film director and producer Johnnie To. My role is to connect three different stories and I’m so looking forward to it.

Who would be your dream co-star or director?

I always learn something new from every actor, actress or director, so I’m always open to working with anyone new in order to create good movies.

What’s coming up next? What would you like to achieve in the industry?

Aside from focusing on being a good actor and gaining more experience, I’ve been working on singing, so I’m hoping to be able to showcase my songs soon.

KEVIN CHU

Tell us about your breakout role.

It was in a movie called To the Fore, a story about a young man following his dream of becoming professional cyclist. The first movie I got a role in with dialogue was Dealer/Healer – I was very nervous in a one-on-one scene with Sean Lau, as I had so little experience at the time. Luckily he calmed me down, pointed out my mistakes and taught me some acting skills.

What’s been your biggest project so far?

I’ve been working on A Step into the Past, which was a popular TV drama in 2001and it’s now being made into a movie based on the same story. The shooting took place in Guizhou, in places like forests and a palace. As the director got most of the previous characters to take part in the movie, they’re mostly very experienced, which gives me a lot of pressure. Also Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong, which gave me the opportunity to work with Andy Lau and Tony Leung.

What are you working on now?

I just finished shooting a TV drama. The story’s about destiny – two children who do the same thing but with very different results and destinies.

Who would be your dream co-star or director?

I always look forward to creating something new with different directors, actors and actresses, as I can always learn new things from them.

What’s coming up next? What would you like to achieve in the industry?

I have a new movie coming up in November about family and everyday life Hong Kong. Talking about achievement, being recognised and affirmed with an acting award would be one of my goals. I’m looking forward to challenging myself, and breaking out of my comfort zone to become a better actor.

HANG JAI

Tell us about your breakout role.

My first movie project as a director was Vampire Clean-up Department, which was unforgettable. Making a movie from start to finish involves so many different parties that I realised teamwork is most important.

What’s been your biggest project so far?

One of my biggest projects is the recently released movie One Second Champion. Compared with Vampire, I had a bigger budget so we could create some scenes on macroscopic scale. The other big project was my concert in Star Hall, as my other job is as the lead singer of the band Tonick.

What are you working on now?

I’m working new songs with my band and preparing some scripts for new projects.

Who would be your dream co-star or director?

I’m always excited to work both as an actor or director, looking forward to working with different people in new situations so I can keep on learning and creating something new.

What would you like to achieve in the industry?

To be able to carry on in my acting, music and directing journeys, being able to take on different roles, and create new songs and movie storylines. The biggest achievement would be for more Hongkongers to go to the cinema and show their support for local movies.

Four Emerging Faces of Hong Kong Cinema Photoshoot

PHOTOGRAPHER NATALIE DUNN | ART DIRECTOR JEREMY WONG
STYLIST GENNADY ORESHKIN AND JEREMY WONG | LOCATION THE CHINESE LIBRARY

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The breakout star of the film Hand Rolled Cigarette, newcomer Bipin Karma is on a high. We talk to the rising young Hong Kong-based actor.

Bipin Karma carries the weight of great expectations on his shoulders well – the weight of 30,000 pairs of eyes from the underserved Nepali community in Hong Kong. And the 24-year-old knows it.

You may not remember exactly when the term “representation matters” first emerged into the common lexicon, but it’s been a go-to phrase in the past two years. Partly for that very reason, Karma knows Hong Kong’s Nepali diaspora has held him in great esteem from the moment he was cast as the second lead in the now-acclaimed film, Hand Rolled Cigarette.

Written and directed by Chan Kin-long, the modest budget two-hander with actor Gordon Lam not only reaped great rewards at the local box-office, but also amassed seven nominations – including Best Feature Film – at this year’s 57th Golden Horse Awards.

There are several questions hanging in the air. Will Karma win Best Newcomer in the upcoming round of local awards? Considering the glowing reviews, will he get the trophy for Best Supporting Actor? Is this the beginning of a career where he’s the focus of all eyes in the Southeast Asian community?

“Initially, all I saw was that the film was a great opportunity,” he says. “I wanted to be involved in it and I wanted to do as much as I could, to the best of my ability, finish it, execute it, but I wasn’t thinking so much about how much it means in the bigger scheme of things. “I just realised that I’m the first Nepali actor in Hong Kong – ever! So when I was asked during the press calls around the release of the film, ‘How does it feel?’ – well, the honest answer is that I don’t know how I feel. I’m still going through it.”

Born in Hong Kong, Karma was brought up by his grandmother in Nepal until he was eight years old. He attended primary school here – “I had to learn English real fast” – and eventually enrolled to study creative media at City University. He’s currently trying to wrap up his BSc in digital entertainment at the same institution. Which brings us to the obvious question. How did he get the part? “Audition,” he says. “I was in my final year at college when the movie’s director was in the thick of the casting process and he came across Bench, a digital short I’d written. Even doing that, we couldn’t find a lead actor who was of ethnic minority descent, so I ended up doing the part out of necessity. No one else was doing it.

“I went for the casting, but I was kind of reluctant at first, because it was big part and you had to speak fluent Cantonese – and my Cantonese was elementary. And it’s a demanding role. How it all came about, you can only connect the dots looking back. I couldn’t even comprehend I’d be acting as a lead in a Cantonese film – it had never felt as if there was any place here for someone like me.”

With a surname like Karma, maybe it was fate. He laughs and says, “I was comfortable in front of the camera – I was doing parkour videos, I was doing commercials for different brands. But I hadn’t done any proper acting to that extent – I was doing stunts and acrobatics, but it wasn’t often speaking parts.”

Having little experience or fluency, as well as an innate shyness, he wondered how he’d managed to land a leading role in a major motion picture. “I asked the director, ‘Why did you choose me?’ He said, ‘Intuition.’ Everything came together, because I was interested in cinema and I wanted to work on a film, but behind the camera.

It had never felt as if there was any place for someone like me

Bipin Karma

“I was fully aware this was my big break into the film industry. We had long chats at the early stages of presenting my background with sincerity and authenticity. I wasn’t going to be projected as a cliché or in some stereotypical manner. The writer and director’s intentions were good, and we wanted it to appear as real as possible. So far, it’s been amazing.”

The Hong Kong film industry is also notoriously hard-working, with long hours and toil both physical and emotional, but Karma looks back on the experience only with fondness. “Working on the film felt like a dream. The shoot took around a month, and we’d had a few months’ preparation before shooting. As it’s my voice on screen, I had to do a lot of practice in advance. The team helped me translate the Chinese script into English. I had to understand it, get it right phonetically and, you know – act!”

Then, of course, there was the physicality of the part, which also took its toll. “When you see the action scenes, I was in the zone. In my head I knew how to perfectly execute it, even though I’d had surgery just seven months before on my ankle [for a gymnastics injury]. I hadn’t fully recovered and there were some moments when I was really hurting, but I used that as a tool on screen – the body language, the pain all worked in my favour.”

When the film was released and resonated with audiences, few people were more surprised than Karma’s own family. He’d briefly mentioned to them that he was working on a film project and didn’t self-hype to his friends and crew, letting the work speak for himself.

“I really appreciate the recognition,” he says, “but honestly I’m quite an introvert. They saw the full film and were – I guess – surprised.” Karma admits to being the quiet type. “I like my alone time – I get a lot of my energy in solitude,” he says. So when the time came to promote the film, he had to take a deep breath and get used to the rigamarole of questions, the media calls and photo sessions. At our photoshoot we saw him come alive, doing somersaults, high kicks and leaps towards the ceiling.

“We usually do the safe shots and then I vibe with the photographer and ask, ‘Hey, can I jump?’ Speaking in a foreign language was generally a challenge as a kid, so when I returned to Hong Kong, I naturally expressed myself through sport. Parkour has been the biggest impact in my life – my action is louder than my words.”

As with any actor, it’s not the past laurels but what comes next that matters most – and especially so at this stage. He’s currently keeping his studies in mind and is working on a personal project that involves writing and directing.

Back in Nepal, his face is cropping up in many fan sites. “There are great actors in Nepal, wanting to go global, but it’s not easy. For me to get this opportunity, it was a slow dawning, ‘Oh my God!’ It means a lot. So many Nepalese have been so supportive. A lot of media from Nepal contacted me, and so many of my community’s friends, families near and distant, they’ve just been reaching out and saying they’re proud and – it means a lot.”

A people that’s long felt excluded can at last see a version of itself on the screen, thanks to Karma’s work. Those who’ve never seen one of their own as a leading figure in Asian cinema find this young man representing a long-existing ethnicity but one that’s mostly been invisible – or at least not so glamorously visible. I ask the question, “How does it feel?” several times before he answers. “How do I feel? Happy,” says Karma. “Yeah, I guess, I’m just happy.

(Hero image: Bipin Karma in Zegna)

Bipin Karma Photoshoot

PHOTOGRAPHER ANDY CHAN
STYLIST BHISAN RAI
ART DIRECTION P.RAMAKRISHNAN
MAKE-UP ARTIST JENNY TZIONG
HAIR STYLIST DOMINIC TAO

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