Clara's Law

How does the script of such a visual film germinate in your mind?

Clara Law: Well, it differs every time. With this film [The Goddess of 1967], I wanted to explore the dark side in us, but because I believe the cinema a visual media, I try always to tell a story through images as much as I can. Dialogue is for me more like poetry. Like music in a film. I don't like to give information through dialogue. But Eddy (L.C. Fong, the co-writer of the script) writes beautiful dialogue, so I think I'm lucky to have him as my constant writer who I can work with with no barrier, and communicate easily with. And the way we work, you know, normally I start with something that I really want to do, and he will then explore with me what I want to do, and we start to go into character development, discussions of themes, then the story, never the story first, because I think this is not organic. With the characters, then the story can become something more organic. Then we go into a series of discussions about treatment, going into the details of each scene, and once we feel we've been into the pros and cons in the discussions, we feel it is mature enough, then Eddie shuts himself up and writes.Then he shows a little bit to me and I try to put him more into the direction that we're in. It's really an exchange.

You have chosen Tokyo in several of your works. Why Tokyo specifically ?

I think Tokyo speaks to me as city that is supermodern. With one or two images, you can easily say what a supercity is like through Tokyo. Probably Los Angeles can be as advanced and modern, but I think the look of it is not as stunning as if you just select a corner, an angle of Tokyo.

Tell us a bit more about this relationship with Tokyo, Japan...

Tokyo, Japan, is a constant fascination for me. They're so modern, but at the same time they keep the ancient culture. You can always go to some place in Japan and find those ancient things that they preserved. The energy is surprising. It's like you can find anything in Tokyo; things that you would not think of can exist in Tokyo. And that's why I find so worthwile making a trip to Tokyo. Especially now as I'm living in Australia and I don't travel as much, because this is so far away from anywhere else in the world. Anytime I feel that I'm lacking something of a kick, I go to Tokyo. I think Japanese literature, again, is very fascinating. I'm continually surprised by what you can read and find in the literature of Japan. And Japan has also preserved something of ancient China, the ancient Tang Dynasty. So if I do want to look into some research on China, I can also go to Japan! This is again amazing.

Do you think that to have a strong national cinema, a country needs some kind of strong, megacity?

No, I don't think so. I think for me the best cinema is when it can have that culture, but transcend the culture, so that it can speak to everybody. If it is just about something that is very provincial, local, it is very hard for an outsider to really undertsand. The best art can say what you are but also speak to the world.

You've lived all over the world. Now you are in Australia. Do you sort of identify with one culture more than the other?

I think I'm both of the eastern and western culture. I was brought up in both. I'm from a very traditional Chinese family. That was my home education. But my school education was in an anglo-chinese school. So I was brought up to speak and think in english as a kid. And whenever I wanted to analyse things, I talked in english. So it's kind of in me all the time. I suppose at one stage of my life I was struggling to find my true self. I studied English literature, I studied in London, so I thought that I was very western. But when I was actually in London, I felt I was a total outsider. So it sent me going back to look for my roots, and I then studied ancient Chinese philosophy and tried to find the ancientness of being a Chinese. I thought that I was, you know, only the Chinese, but I found out that I'm not only that. It finally came to a stage when I sort of made peace with myself and said to myself that I'm destined to be both anyway. So why don't I just live in peace, you know, with both? So I found a balance, and I found it's actually much more enriching, because then you see things with a very open mind. You're able to look at things all the time from different angles, and I think it is very important.

At what point in your life did you know you really wanted to be a filmmaker?

When I finished my university education, I was looking for a job, I started 95 things and I hated it. And then I worked maybe two months in 10/15 jobs, and I decided I wanted to do something else. I wanted to go back to study. Then a friend introduced me to this place called Radiotelevision Honk Kong. It was a place where at that time you could do experimental drama, and I fell in love with it immediately. And then I saved enough money and I went to London to study and, you know, worked in film. But though, I remember as a kid, I watched a lot of films, because my mom loved watching westerns, like John Wayne's movies, and Gregory Peck... And my grandpa and grannies would take me to see chinese movies, so as a kid I actually watched a lot of movies. And then when I was in highschool, I did a lot of theatre production, and I was always behind the scene, I was always a director, I was never anything else. And I think I tried different means to express myself, I would write poetry, I would write prose, but I found: "Oh, this is not my first language, this is not my mother tongue, I would never excel in being a writer, because was I did not know whether I was going to write in Chinese or English." So all of this kind of bothered me, and once I found film, I thought: "OK, now I've found the media. I don't need to use language, I can use other means to express myself. And I think it is the most powerful media there can be.

So cinema is your own goddess in a way?

Definitely!

Interview by Kerry Shaw & Robin Gatto