Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting's An Autumn's Tale

Appendix: Interview with Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting and Alex Law

Interview with Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting and Alex Law Interview conducted by the author with Mabel 0日eung 只ten-ting and AlexLaw in the Univers.句句fHong Kong Senior Common Room, Monday, June 26, 2006. SF: It's been 20 years since AnAutumn 云 Tale was released. Two decades later, what do you think about the film? Cheung: It's a very honest film and it's one of our very early films. It's about our friend, who is “Sam Pan" (Samuel Pang) in the film. He's actually based on a friend of ours in Chinatown. 1think technically, it might not be the best of our films, but in terms of energy 1think it is memorable - one of our most memorable. SF: How long were you in New York? Cheung: 叭Te were there for our Master's Degrees (at NYU, beginning in 1982). Law: We were there for the degree for three years, but since that time 發lSiii APPENDIX we've gone back on and off. Almost every year we'd go back to see our friends, or to see the place, or just to be there. SF: 80 you spent most of the 1980s either living in or traveling back and forth from New York City. It was a time of economic difficulty and the city was much different then than it is today. Cheung: Now it's much tidier - and cleaner - but 1 liked the eighties. SF: Were there other “New York" film directors who inspired you? Cheung: Of course 1 loved Martin 8corsese and also Woody Allen. And back then Woody Allen said that the only cultural advantage in L.A. was that you could turn right on a red light so he said he would never go there to shoot a film. He was a New Yorker and was going to be in New York all the time ... He hated palm trees ... and that's what 1thought too back then ...1 had never been to L.A. ... so 1thought, oh yes, New York's the best city in the world, 1 have to make films here. SF: Alex, what do you think about the city? Do you share that view? Law: 1love the city. Actually 1love it better the old way. It was a little bit dirty, a little bit dangerous, but very, very exciting. Every day was like a roller-coaster ride ... and almost everγmonth， either we ourselves, or our classmates, or somebody we knew would lose something, or something would be stolen from us 一 or we would see crazy people on the street but it was all verγinspiring. Cheung: In Hong Kong 1 studied at Hong Kong University. While 1 was here 1never had the chance to get to know certain people 一 likethetough guys in Mong Kok. 1would never go to Mong Kok and befriend the tough guys because 1 had my family and friends in Hong Kong surrounding me and 1 was in a world of my OWll. But in New York 1 had no money and 1 had to work part-time in Chinatown because the school fees were so expensive and living in New York was really beyond my means, so 1 really had to befriend all of those Chinatown tough guys. APPENDIX "iS象話。 SF: How did you two meet? Law: We met in class. At that time there were only three of us who were Chinese ... Both of us and one guy from Taiwan. Cheung: 1 think maybe there are more Asian faces now but we were the only three and before that there was only Ang Lee. Law: He (Ang Lee) was there during that famous ten-year period, hanging around. Cheung: And Spike Lee was there too, and the two Lees lived together as “minorities" in Alphabet City. That's where we shot one of our student films. SF: The question of autobiography arises when talking about this film. Is this your storγ? Do you see the character of Jenny [Cherie Chung] in you? Cheung: Jenny's experience (like in the egg sandwich scene) was my experience too because we really were broke and we could only a缸'ord an egg sandwich with just one egg. That was our story. Sometimes we had to walk from NYU to Chinatown to our workplace in the wintertime and it was a forty-five minute walk in the wind and snow. Law: Back then when we wanted...