CineVue sat down with Burmese director Midi Z to talk about his third feature, the hugely successful ICE POISON when the film was screening at Tribeca Film Festival. Together was Taiwanese actress Ke-hsi Wu who has starred in all Midi’s films. ICE POISON tells the stories of a young farmer, whose family pawns the cow so he can earn a living as a taxi driver, and Sanmei, his first customer, who has returned to Myanmar to bury her grandfather. In order to escape the arranged marriage in China, Sanmei accepts a job as a drug runner and persuades the young farmer to be her driver. With the signature style of minimalism, and an exquisite sense of humor and tenderness, ICE POISON portrays the world of two where two souls snuggle up against loneliness and alienation and is reportedly the most powerful work of the Myanmar-born, Taiwan-trained director so far.
CineVue: Let’s begin with the title. Why did you name it ICE POISON, while the drug only appears in the latter part of the film? And what does it mean to the film?
Midi Z: I was born and raised in Myanmar, so drug is very common. For young people, including my friends and I, drug is a thing you can easily see and get everyday, especially in the outlands. So to some extent, drug or using drugs isn’t necessarily infamous or illegal. Of course, it’s illegal according to the law, but not in the common sense. The majority of drug users are relatively the poorest group among the population. In this regard, using drugs allows them to escape from the unbearable reality. For those who are educated, they get the feeling of ecstasy from their hobbies, arts, for instance. That kind of excitement and joy is higher than the satisfaction and fulfillment of your basic needs. I have tried to imagine how the lower working class, the poor can obtain this kind of feelings. What is their resource of ecstasy? I don’t know for sure, but I assume drug is one of the resources. So when I titled the film, I thought “Ice Poison” may be their getaway to regain confidence and joy, to escape from disappointment and loss in their life. That is how I define the meaning of ice poison in this film.
CV: What then does ice poison mean to Myanmar? On the one hand, as you’ve mentioned, it’s one of the main source of income. On the other hand, it causes addiction that may lead to destructive consequences.
MZ: I did not think this way when making the film. I tend to think of the film in another context, that the film speaks of the ideologies and symptoms of globalization. In order to pursue wealth and a better material life, many people and countries, especially Asian countries have changed their ways of living rapidly. At the same time, they don’t seem to adapt themselves to the changes and conditions well. They get defeated and frustrated in the process. Or perhaps, some people don’t mean to be changed. In this regard, the film is actually an allegory of globalization. The ideology of globalization and capitalism is based on the premise that it would offer you a blueprint of utopia, and ask to change accordingly to fulfill the utopian dream. It is happening in every country around the world. However, the fact is that only the elite, the 1% actually would get the benefit from all the free trade agreements, economic frameworks, etc., while most of the people suffer. This is what happens in Myanmar now. The majority of Burmese are still having a hard time adapting to the status quo. And the changes did not really bring a better life for them, either.
CV: The last scene in the film reminds me of a documentary, MY FANCY HIGH HEELS by Chao-ti Ho which is also about global economic in the context of globalization. It documents the production system of high heels and includes a scene of slaughtering of calves as well.
MZ: I heard about this documentary before, but I haven’t seen it. A film critic once mentioned that the slaughter scene in the film reminds him of Apocalypse Now. He said the films bear some resemblances in using animals as metaphors for the human condition and the struggles of existence. I agree on that view.
CV: The film overall deploys a realistic visual style. You mentioned that you did the shooting without a script. How was the shooting process like? How did you work with the actors?
MZ: We first went to Myanmar for the shooting of a short film, BURIAL CLOTHES (Part of the short film omnibus LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH). After finishing shooting the short, I felt that I needed more length to elaborate and express the complexity of this region and my feelings toward this place, so I discussed with the crew and actors right away and decided to spend five more days shooting the feature. We’d spent seven days shooting the short and five days contacting with the production company in Taiwan to raise the budget for the feature film. The whole process was very hasty and improvisatory. I didn’t even have time to write the script. I was only able to tell the actors what the next scene would be right on set.
CV: How much footage did you shoot for the short and feature respectively?
MZ: I got roughly two to three hours for the short, but shooting the short was not as precise as shooting the feature. I tended to shot more when filming the short. Later on when shooting the feature, the process was precise and efficient. For example, five minutes out of the ten minutes’ footage was actually edited into the final cut.
CV: [To actress Wu Ke-hsi] What was your experience of working with the director? How did you, for example, learn the language and prepare yourself for the role?
Wu Ke-hsi: I’ve known Midi since we shot a short together at the Gold Horse Film Academy in 2009. Before that, I have basically no knowledge or experience of learning the Yunnan dialect. After shooting the short, Midi invited me to join the crew for his second feature, POOR FOLK (2012). A year before shooting the film, I started to learn the dialect with Midi and his Burmese friends in Taiwan. I also went to Huaxin street which is like a Burma town in Taiwan to spend time with all the Burmese there, in order to observe their life and gradually pick up the drills.
CV: You are a trained professional theatre actress. How did you work with the non-actors in the film?
WK: It took me some time to adjust myself. I think the key is learning through the process and even from mistakes, and gradually I would know how to corporate with them. The non-actors have their natural instinct as well. And I also got used to Midi’s way of making films, which is very improvisatory and full of unexpected incidents. After a while, I just got used to it and get well-prepared for all the challenges. I happen to love this sort of challenges very much.
CV: [To Midi Z] What is the influence on the aesthetics of your work? Does this kind of minimalism have something to do with working with non-actors? The film is mainly composed with long shots. Is it because of the scale of the crew that it would be easier to manage longer shots on set?
MZ: I actually have never received any former film education. I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in graphic design. It was when I attended the workshop at the Golden Horse Film Academy and had the master classes with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Ang Lee that I started to learn about films and filmmaking. During the workshop, Hou would come in person and work with us on the shooting of my short, HUA-XING INCIDENT (2009). From that experience, I have learnt that when on set, you will actually encounter enormous limitations. For instance, professional actors may not have time for the pre-production training and the non-actors cannot perform according to the instruction or script. What I have learned from Hou is how to use the minimalist aesthetics to disguise the awkwardness of non-actor’s performance and allow them to improvise naturally. We did invent our own aesthetic style due to the limitations, but some of the skills are not original in my film. Long shots, for instance, had been invented in the 40s and had been also used in the tradition of Chinese language films. It is not a new aesthetic style, but it is a good fit for the kind of realistic storytelling and narrative with a strong sense of real time passing. Even with a higher budget and a larger crew, for this story and the tone of film, I would still have chosen to shoot the film the same way. So the aesthetic style was a conscious choice as well as the result of limitations. It is interesting that sometimes with limitations, it provokes your creativity and pushes you to think out of the box. It would give you the freedom you won’t otherwise have when making high concept films.
CV: How will you posit ICE POISON within the context of Burmese film or Burmese film industry, since it is a film about Burmese Chinese?
MZ: Actually most of the Burmese artists and filmmakers who have seen all of my three feature films, and also I myself, consider them not just films about Burmese Chinese, but films that reflect or represent the lives and existences of Burmese as a whole. It has never been my conscious decision to make Burmese Chinese films. It is just that our crew and actors all happened to be a group of fellows working in the Chinese-language film industry. The villages that we chose as the filming locations are places where the Burmese Chinese live. These are the reasons why ICE POISON and my previous features are all centered on Burmese Chinese, but the scenario and the essence of the story actually cover a variety of aspects to the life in Myanmar. In addition, Myanmar has never had any proper film produced since the 60s. The first Burmese film that you would probably have ever seen internationally would be my first feature, RETURN TO BURMA (2011). Due to the political condition, the Burmese government has never given permission to any film that reflects reality of the society and the country. Most of the films made there are either Hollywood copycats or TV soap operas.
CV: [To Wu Ke-hsi] Speaking of outside references, some parts of your role reminded me of Uma Thurman’s character, Mia in PULP FICTION and the female leads in Jia Zangke’s films. Did you do any kind of homework in this regard?
WK: Not really. It all came from life. Before going to Myanmar, I’d tried to imagine the mindset of the character, but it was not until getting off from the airplane and arriving at the filming location that I really got into the psyche of my role. I spent a lot of time with the natives when living and filming there. Back then when we shot POOR FOLKS, I even pretended that I was my character in the film and told the natives that I could introduce them to work in Taiwan. Then, there was a guy literally came to our place and asked me to find his friend’s daughter a job in Taiwan. I thought that was the time when I really transformed myself into the role.
CV: What would be a Burmese native’s view toward a female labor broker, or migrant worker, that is, a female with such mobility as your character has?
WK: I feel due to its political and economic conditions, the local life in Myanmar is similar with that in Taiwan during the 50s or the 60s. Telecom, Internet and medical resources are yet to become available to all. The native still hold on to many traditional values, for instance, the concept of male superiority over female. Most of the women are still restrained from working outside of their own households. What happens to Sanmei in the film, for instance, the arranged marriage, is actually very common there. They may have been tricked into marriage, but they will not fight back for their own sake. Their main concern is the financial situation of their families or the benefits for their children. Women in Myanmar are still living a relatively conventional life.
CV: [To Midi Z] ICE POISON just premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. How did the audience respond to the film?
MZ: The response was great. We went over time for the post-screening Q&A for half an hour and continued talking with the audience in the lobby for almost an hour. Some of them even followed us to the after party. I have been to many film festivals since I made my first feature. The screening time of the premiere was not the best time slot (Friday 10pm), but the audience’s response and enthusiasm was beyond my expectation.
CV: The film has been shown in Berlin, New York and many other cities and it will go on to be released in Taiwan in July this year. Do audiences in different regions respond differently to the film or do they share the same interest in any specific part?
MZ: Tribeca is the seventh film festival I have been to with ICE POISON. The overall response to the film has been great. Most of the western mainstream media tend to have the presumption that the film would unveil “the mysterious Myanmar” and disclose the drug problem and dark sides of the country. Many of them came to the screening for that reason. Now they see that this is a film about the lives of the lower class situated within globalization. It is not only about Myanmar, outlands or drugs. The drug is only the surface structure or a metaphor.
CV: The film ends with a scene of death. We also see the female character return home for her grandfather’s funeral. Death thus seems to be a recurring motif in the film, in association either with violence or melancholy. What is the message that the film wants to deliver with these scenes? The film also contains some very poetic shots, for example, the two protagonists lying on the field using drugs and the penultimate scene in which the male lead dances around the burning haystack. Is it hope or desperation the film wants to convey at the end?
MZ: As I have mentioned, ice poison is a metaphor for the kind of liberation and ecstasy one could get from using drugs. In additions to that, I still want to observe or perhaps gaze at the very existence and lives of human beings. Death seems to be an inevitable destination. During the pre-production stage, I did a lot of interviews with the natives living in the mountain area and interestingly they viewed death quite indifferently. Let me give you an example. When we shot the funeral scene in the film, the old man who played the part of Sanmei’s grandfather told me:“It will be great if this is happening for real.” He was not joking. Perhaps it is because he is not happy with his life, or as one grows old, life becomes tedious, that someone in that position yearns for the liberation. This is why I decided to include the last sequences in the film.
Questions formulated by Miranda Hsiu-an Wan and Lesley Yiping Qin.
Interview conducted by Lesley Yiping Qin.
Transcribed and translated by Miranda Hsiu-an Wan.