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Sex, suicide and suffering — nothing seems to scare this controversial director. Not even being called a feminist

Read our other features:
Final cut: Who decides what you see?
Johnnie To: The Auteur
Wong Jing: The crowd pleaser
Herman Yau: The cult director
Pang Ho-cheung: The enfant terrible

“After graduating from film school, I wrote a lot of scripts and contacted a lot of film companies. I even tried to give one of my scripts to Robert De Niro, waiting for him for a week outside the door of his Tribeca Film Center. The security guard thought I was a stalker!”

Wong Chun-chun is full of these inspiring stories about how she got where she is now, like how she financed her first feature film, the little-known A Carburetor for Suzy (1998), with the remaining balance of her credit card.

Now, emerging from her studio in a stylish outfit and a cap, she looks less like a movie director and more like an actress. As it turns out, she almost became just that. “I studied acting at the HKAPA, but I had forgotten to take the commercial sides of things into account – like how short I am. I was an outstanding student though; I was even awarded a Jackie Chan scholarship in my last year!” She bursts into a fit of laughter.

“After I graduated I became a radio DJ for two years, all the while watching lots and lots of movies. I decided to study film [at NYU], especially as I was still young.” After a moment of reflection, Wong continues, “I still enjoy acting, but it’s totally different from directing. When you’re acting, you only need to concentrate on your own character; but when you’re directing, you’re portraying the whole world.”

But nothing could have prepared that world for the frankness of her controversial documentary Women’s Private Parts (2000). Shot on DV with an all-female cast, the film displays Wong’s instinctive ability to get her interviewees to discuss sensitive topics such as masturbation, adultery and much, much more.

“I got the idea when I met up for a drink with six or seven of my girlfriends,” explains Wong. “We were chatting away in the corner of a bar, near the men’s lavatory. As we whispered cheekily about sex, we found that the men were slowing down on their way past us, eager to eavesdrop on our conversation. It was hilarious. It made me want to demonstrate to places like New York that Chinese women are not as conservative and submissive as they are perceived to be.”

Three years later, Wong followed up with youth drama Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat (2003). The film was a hit with the younger generation, popularising – if not introducing – the game of Truth or Dare in Hong Kong. Then, after the success of Truth, Wong returned to more contentious material with Six Strong Guys (2004), which revolves around a bunch of pathetic men, four of whom are preparing for a mass suicide attempt in the opening sequence. Now there’s a new twist on the male-bonding cliché.

“When men make films about men,” says Wong, “they’re always making A Better Tomorrow – everyone’s cool and brave. But I feel that men have problems of their own to deal with, so my objective was to look at men from a woman’s perspective. It was full of good intentions, trying to encourage women to be more understanding towards men.”

Naturally, Wong was instantly labeled as a feminist director. “I was like, ‘are you serious?!’ I was praising men, showing their soft side, the pressures they have to deal with. I’m the opposite of a feminist director.”

Wong’s next film, Wonder Women (2007), didn’t help. One of several films marking the tenth anniversary of the Hong Kong handover, it chronicles every disaster in Hong Kong in the past decade, from the Asian Financial Crisis and the SARS outbreak to the charcoal suicide trend. Again, the male gender seems to come out worse for wear. “The film’s based on a novel, though,” says Wong, “so it wasn’t my idea to make the male characters suffer like that!” There comes that laugh again.

But what’s it like being a female director in such a male-dominated industry? “Actually, I think Hong Kong men are quite open-minded,” Wong answers, generously. “But there are two factors that you have to consider as a woman director: first you need a very clear idea of how you want to shoot the scene when you step onto the set. If you hesitate for a second, the crew goes, ‘I told you so! She’s just a woman! She can’t think it through!’”

“The other thing is that a woman can’t cry on set. If you cry, the crew says, ‘I told you women are incompetent! Just go home and make dinner. You can’t deal with pressure!’” Open-minded indeed…

So, is Wong a feminist or not? “I’m an individualist,” she says. “I feel that everyone should have their own personality, vision and freedom to do whatever they like, including sex. I absolutely don’t think that women should have all the power. One of the happiest aspects of being a woman is to be able to rely on men occasionally. It’s no fun if women control everything!” Guess that’s a no then.

Edmund Lee

Read our other features:
Final cut: Who decides what you see?
Johnnie To: The Auteur
Wong Jing: The crowd pleaser
Herman Yau: The cult director
Pang Ho-cheung: The enfant terrible