Hong Kong film director Danny Pang had a friend with a most unusual life, who became the muse for his new movie.
This person wanders the streets picking up garbage believing it contains the spirits of those who died a sudden, violent death, with the intention to help them cross over to the afterlife.
“I first heard about this story from Danny in my kitchen. I was impressed and encouraged him to elaborate it to make it into a script, which he did,” recounted Hong Kong actress-singer Josie Ho during a media event held for the movie at Iconsiam in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sept 14.
AsiaOne was invited to cover the film’s publicity events held in conjunction with the Bangkok International Film Festival.
Directed by Danny and his twin brother Oxide, who are collectively known as the Pang Brothers, The Mage centres on Lan Pui Ching (Josie), an eccentric woman who collects garbage from the streets and becomes a suspect when she repeatedly appears at crime scenes involving deaths.
While police officer Wong Ming (Carlos Chan) initially believes she is mentally unstable, he soon discovers Pui Ching’s ability to see and communicate with the dead and the “garbage” she collects contains fragments of souls of people who had died unnaturally.
As they investigate the victims’ deaths together, dodging sceptic police superintendent Iman (Iman Taheri), they gradually discover a sinister conspiracy to extend the life of a mysterious cult leader, and it is up to Pui Ching to overcome her inner demons to stop the next death.
The Mage marks the first time in 12 years that Danny and Oxide, best known for their The Eye movie franchise (2002 – 2010), reunited to co-direct a film. The last was the 2013 Out of Inferno.
It is also the first movie with Cantonese as well as Mandarin screenings in Singapore cinemas, following the relaxation of rules of dialect film screenings announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during the National Day Rally in August. It opens here on Oct 15 in Shaw Theatres.
Believing in Pang Brothers to deliver good performance
Danny praised Josie for her impressive performance in the movie.
The 60-year-old said: “It is so difficult for an actor to act in a horror movie. On the set, they have to portray a terrified expression although it is not real, because there is nothing in front of them.
“It is only after including computer graphics and sound effects that the audience are able to know what they see and why the characters are scared… But on the set, there is nothing, it’s all up to the actors’ imaginations and that’s not easy for them.”
He remembered vividly that there were two scenes where Pui Ching speaks to a plastic bag.
“I shot with only one camera because the room was too small… I was quite worried, because the scenes required Josie to express deep emotions. But luckily, when I sat in front of the monitor and saw her complete the scenes with a long dialogue with just a plastic bag, [I was impressed],” Danny explained.
Josie, who produced the film together with her actor husband Conroy Chan through their production company 852 Films, also shared the challenges she faced before filming began, when Conroy’s health declined suddenly and they had to go to the United States for treatment.
The 51-year-old, whose father is the late Macau gambling king Stanley Ho, added she received the script only two nights before filming began and decided to use more improvisation instead of method acting in her performance.
She explained: “I had to accept and completely drop all my guards, kneel down and accept the storyline and trust the directors. Danny and Oxide are very nice; they knew our situation and told us they would try to shoot as chronologically as they could.
“I slowly got into the role and my method acting came back a bit. It was a very good experience for me.”
In 2023, Josie shared in an interview that Conroy suffered a burst aorta in 2022 and was on the verge of death. She also shared his struggles recovering.
‘Genius’ newcomer actor Iman Taheri
Danny also shared during the press event that he was initially concerned about filming with surgeon-turned-actor Iman.
He said: “Iman is a newcomer to the film industry… He told me that he had a dream since he was young to be an actor. The first time I filmed him, I took more care of his feelings because usually when I work with new actors, they would feel very nervous when facing the cameras.
“But with Iman, he was never nervous. He also had some opinions which he would discuss with me. I felt it was a bit strange and wondered how he knew this much as a new actor. But now, I know that Josie and Conroy trained him every evening before filming started, taught him the film language and recommended books for him to read.
“This made me very touched, because he really worked hard to chase his dreams. After filming his first scene then, I kept asking myself if I had met a genius…
“But later I concluded that in his career as a doctor, and it is not easy to become one, he had met many people, dead and alive. If he is not scared of them, then he wouldn’t be nervous to face the cameras.”
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Iman was also asked if he believes in the supernatural, which he shared: “In the film, I am totally against the idea that there is anything beyond our five senses, but as a doctor and surgeon in my past career, I had experienced a lot of stuff that I can’t explain with pure logic.
“It’s a humbling experience; I believed there are things that we don’t know, forces beyond our understanding and the best thing to do is to accept and respect it.”
As to whether he encountered any unexplainable occurrences on set, the 41-year-old Iranian-Canadian quipped: “The supernatural event that happened during this film is that Josie, Conroy and the Pang Brothers turned a surgeon into an actor. That’s quite interesting.”
Watch out for more of our interviews with Josie, Iman, Danny and Conroy, including how Josie had to overcome her germaphobia for this role.
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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com
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