One of the more
well-hidden discoveries of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival was ICE POISON, a
cinema veritae-inspired tale of poverty and drug affliction in the breathtaking
rural environs of Burma and neighboring parts of China. To make the film,
director MIDI Z returned to his native Burma after a lengthy stay in Taiwan,
where he studied filmmaking. Populating his film with both professional actors
and natives of the provincial areas where he shot the film, he sought to
achieve a truly lifelike depiction of the Burmese people, with their relatively
lethargic pace, in the face of increasing worldwide industrialization. Z, along
with Taiwanese lead actress Ke-xi Wu, discussed the inspiration for the story,
challenges of maintaining a sense of realism, and adventures of filming in
areas without permission.
MondoCurry: You lived
in Burma at a very young age. How much of situations shown in your film were
familiar to you growing up?
MIDI Z: I was born in Burma and went to Taiwan when I was 16 to study Chinese.
In 2008 I returned to my hometown for the first time in ten years. I met my mom and my childhood friends. At
that time a guy who escaped from Thailand was arrested at the border and put in
jail. He used crystal meth, or “ice Poison,” and got crazy. He’s still living
in my hometown. I met with him but he didn’t realize who I was anymore. And I
did some research about the family and wrote this story.
(The story) is about how Burma is changing. Many businessmen
come to Rangoon to for trade. And most of the people, the lower class people,
like the farmers at the base of the mountain, will plow the fields but the
harvest is very poor. So most of them imagine what they could’ve done to make a
better life. They imagine making a better life…like in this story, the father
buys a motorcycle to run a scooter taxi…But mostly (these native Burmese) aren’t
suited for this modernized life.
For me this is a common story that is happening everywhere.
In my view, this is not just a story about Myanmar. It’s about globalization
everywhere.
MC: For some viewers,
there may appear to be various forms of drug use. Can you give some context to
clear up any possible confusion?
M Z: (the old men smoking in front of houses) is nothing
bad, it’s just like smoking tobacco cigarettes with a water pipe. But crystal
meth is also so easy for people to get. For example a boy, after graduating
from junior high school, can get a job and then get the ice very easily. One
reason people get into it is to help escape something.
MC: There are a few
very surreal and distorted visuals when characters are taking ice. Can you talk
about how you came up with the way you showed the drug’s effects?
M Z: It is based on the truth. I interviewed so many friends
after I did research. Actually, one of my classmates in Burma was just 13 years
old when he started to use ice and. It’s a common situation…You bring a bag of
ice to a hotel in China, and then waiting in the hotel for the buyer…In his
case, before the buyer came, he was just curious so he started using. After
that he fell asleep for two nights. When he woke up, he was arrested by the
police. His memory became distorted.
MC: Did you work with
a lot of non-actors on the film?
M Z: Yes, in my previous 3 films most of the supporting
actresses were not professionals. But their real life was connected to the
story. That is why it is really easy for me to get their performance. But the
main character, like (Ke-Xi Wu) has always been played by a professional.
MC: How do you work
with the nonprofessional actors to get the performance you want?
M Z For the nonprofessional, it’s very easy. I don’t tell
them how to act. I just told them the main structure of the story and main
point of the dialogue, but they can be free to act their own way as long the
main subject of their dialogue is maintained. They can move wherever they want.
Sometimes it is difficult to capture them because they move. But the
professionals, they realize the camera too much. We should discourage them from
showing their realization of the camera.
I think for the professionals, they feel their character
needs to cry or act or perform. And it’s very easy for them. But sometimes I’ll
just say to the actors to sit there, and do something very natural, for
example, have a conversation with the mother. It’s no performance…
MC: How did you feel
about improvisational acting?
Ke-xi Wu: I was a stage actor before and I especially liked
improvisation. To me it’s not very stressful. It is very challenging. In the
beginning, around 2009, I had a lot of
experience to learn about this way of acting.
MC: Oftentimes it
appears that only one camera is used, and scenes are filmed with one long shot.
Was this done to capture the Burmese pace of life?
M Z: Yes, mostly one camera was used and filming was only
one take. In such type of story, timing is important. It’s all about
waiting. The poor people are waiting for
changes. They may be waiting for a phone call from Mainland China, so the long
shot from the camera will show this timing….
MC: The selling of
drugs comes across as matter of fact, not so dramatic…
MIDI: They show up like a guest and just come in and give the
person something and get the money. It’s so normal and simple.
MC: Was it a typical
situation that police would be there waiting, like what happens in the film?
MIDI: Maybe the police would come to arrest the woman. They
would let her go if she pays. They wouldn’t just be arresting her because of
the law. No…everyone everywhere has his own reason to do something. Here they
are doing that to make their living.
MC: The reaction of the
male lead also seemed very genuine, and not necessarily heroic…
MIDI: Yes, that is very human. Actually Ice Poison is a very
mainstream narrative, a dramatic story. But I didn’t allow it to happen in a
dramatic way because I wanted to make a film very realistic.
MC: The setting has a
natural beauty. Did you know what you were looking for when seeking out filming
locations?
MIDI: I was very familiar with the setting because I lived
there for 16 years. Doing research, I found some places. There is one scene on
a hill. Just 100 meters from this hill is the CIA station. During the shooting,
they came to us and asked ‘what are you doing?’ Then I went to negotiate with
them.
K W: That scene was shot without a D.P.
MIDI: I just told the actress ‘ok, now the cinematographer
will be the director. You are going to be shooting and I am going to negotiate
with the police.’
K W: We quickly finished two shots and then pretended we were
tourists.
MC: Is there anything else that you feel might be
misunderstood by an international audience that you would like to make clear
about the film?
MIDI: At the beginning people may think it’s political or
about drugs but really it’s a story about globalization. It occurs even in
America and Europe.
MIDI Z’s next project
is expected to be a love story about immigrants in Thailand. ICE POISON has
been screened internationally at various festivals.
me on twitter = @mondocurry
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