THERE comes a time in every creative person's career when they need to try something different -- completely different. To step out from the familiar, (not to say lucrative) and to go boldly forward where they have never gone before. This is the case with Thai pop singer, Thongchai ''Bird'' McIntyre, who is starring in 2046, a new film by Hong Kong movie director, Wong Kar Wai.
And why not? Bird, still youthful at 41, has already secured his place in the annuals of popular music with a string of hits stretching back over 10 years. His most successful album ''Boomerang'' (1990) sold two million copies and remains the biggest selling album in Thai history. In between making music, Bird turned his talents to the big and small screen starring in dozens of movies and TV dramas, the highlight being his role as ''Kobori'' a Japanese officer in the drama Khoo Kam.
On the other hand, Shanghai-born Wong Kar Wai, also 41, has followed a very different path to creative fame. His family moved to Hong Kong when he was five years old and he graduated in graphic design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in 1980. He then became in involved in the local movie industry and was a scriptwriter for several years before he made his directing debut with As Tears Go By in 1988.
The critics and the public, though confused by the plot, loved the style and Wong was immediately recognised as the up-and-coming avant-garde film-maker.
As with most of his subsequent films, the storylines tend to meander and seem less important than the characters who carry them -- outsiders, loners and rootless individuals who feel alienated by an increasingly unreal world. In all his movies, Wai uses unique imagery to enhance this sense of loneliness.
Wong Kar Wai's work is in a very different mould from the usual Kung Fu, Hong Kong ganster flick. Although As Tears Go By did have plenty of action it was offbeat, quirky and unpredictable. It unsettled the audience rather than entertained them. It was, well, avant garde.
To date, six of Womg's movies have been released in Thailand, Days Of Being Wild, Ashes Of Time, Chungking Express, Fallen Angles, and Happy Together -- for which he won the best director award at the Cannes Film Featival in 1997. However, they have all fared badly at the box office. Nevertheless, Wong's films are highly regarded by a small group of Thai ''artcore'' moviegoers and praised by international critics.
Chungking Express, probably his best known movie in Thailand, contained all of Wong's trademark images -- slow motion shots and the hand-held camera style of Australian cinematographer, Christopher Doyle -- which impressed both new wave Thai directors and younger film-makers.
Mass appeal and artistic respect do not often go hand in hand, but Wong believed that Bird had a place in his work.
In 1998, Bird was invited to play the main character in Wong's new film Flowerlike Year, however, Bird turned it down as he was busy in the studio making his new album ''Thongchai Service''
However, Wong and Bird kept in touch and a few months later, Wong offered him another role, this time in 2046 -- a futuristic piece set in Hing Kong in the next century. They had their first meeting in Hong Kong and although Bird really didn't know much about the director, he was attracted by his simplicity.
At the meeting, Bird asked Wong, ''Why me?''
''You have a confident way of talking,'' replied Wong, ''That's all.''
The director added that he had been following Bird's career with interest and was impressed by his ability to play totally different characters.
Bird then returned home and watched Chungking Express and Happy Together, which he admitted he found difficult to understand.
''Actually, I don't really like art movies. But that doesn't mean I like or dislike Wong's work,'' said Bird. ''I think his films are interesting in the way they tell a story; they seem very real to me.''
And so he agreed to take the part -- which also meant a leap into the unknown.
''It's hard to tell exactly what the plot is,'' Bird admitted, adding he knows only that the essence of his role is, you guessed it, an outcast. ''My character is looking for freedom which is something the people in Hong Kong have a hard time finding, so it's a lonely road.''
Bird compares the characters to white sheets that Wong Kar Wai then paints on. And like the beginning of any of Wong's movies, that's all there is -- a pile of white sheets and an idea.
In the introduction of his book Don't Try For Me Argentina, British film critic Tony Raynes writes that despite Wong's background in scriptwriting, since his second film Days of Being Wild, he has never had a finished storyline when he begins to shoot. He starts with a rough idea in his mind, which he explains to both the crew and actors and then slowly but surely, the film simply evolves.
Bird is being paid Bt2 million for his part in ''2046'', which co-stars Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Faye Wang, Carina Lau and hot Japanese singer ''Smap'' Takuya Kimura, and the film will have a world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2000.
Filming began last Monday (Sept 6) and it is believed that locations will be used in 10 countries, but with no finished script and the shooting schedule being kept secret, anything may -- and probably will -- happen.
Bird seems to be revelling in the challenge and the uncertainty of what lies ahead, despite the fact it's a whole new approach to working. Although happy to take the risk, there is a clause in his contract that prohibits anything that might harm his image. For example, nude scenes are out.
What's more, Bird has an album due for release in the new year which somehow must be fitted into the schedule. Yet being on the set of a movie that doesn't quite know where it's going from one day to the next, Bird will have little choice except to put his trust in the director.
''I'm learning by doing,'' said Bird smiling, ''Sometimes, knowing nothing is attractive. It keeps me moving forwards.''
So, a new step in Bird's career has just been taken and what fascinates him is that he has no idea where the path will lead. Which is just fine, because it's all part of the adventure.
BY PIMPAKA TOWIRA
The Nation
*thank you Thongchai Online for information*
