[upbeat music]
[speaking in Chinese]
[smacking lips as he chews]
[dramatic music]
- Welcome to Director's Cut .
I'm Pete Schwaba and we just saw a clip from Yen Ching ,
a documentary about an overworked Chinese
restaurant owner struggling to keep his
business afloat and his family together.
We are joined today by the film's director,
Yinan Wang, and producer, Yujing Wang.
Welcome to Director's Cut .
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- It's great to have you both.
You've got this film set in a Chinese restaurant.
It made me hungry watching it, I will say that.
It's a very intimate kind of film and I,
at first, thought you must be related to the people.
Tell us how you found the project.
Is there a relation there?
What's the connection to the family?
- Actually, I was working there.
I was working as a delivery driver for their restaurant.
When I, the first time, got the job
and another, business is not going very well.
This is why we have a lot of time
to communicate with each other.
She kind of tell me some his family stories
and then we kind of share
their experience and stories in our downtime.
Because
he didn't make any food
because there's no customer coming here.
- Oh, boy. [chuckling]
- He didn't make any food,
so I have nothing to do, right?[chuckling]
- Oh boy, so you had a lot of time to get to know them.
- Yeah, yeah. - Interesting, okay.
You were a delivery driver and that's how you met them.
How did you come onto the project, Yujing?
Did you know right away you were going to be a producer,
or how did your involvement start?
- Well, 'cause I'm his wife. [chuckling] - Pete: There you go.
You did have the same last name,
but I didn't want to make assumptions.
You are husband and wife, okay.
- Yeah, when he was doing his project, and 'cause we
don't have much money, no funding for this film.
He was talking about this project with me.
I shared my understanding, my ideas with him.
So, we're working together, living together. [laughing]
- You might as well work together if you live together.
That's great.
Let's see another clip from Yen Ching .
[speaking in Chinese]
Not an uncommon situation, a father who wants
his son to take over a family business.
Is this more common in Chinese culture, especially when
there is a family business or a store of some type involved?
- Yeah, I think that is very a typical thinking in China.
How their father, or how their family want to pass down
their family business to their children.
Because we really, very honestly, it's a carry-on idea.
- You said the business was not doing well
at times when you were there.
Is it doing better now?
Is there a business, it's still open
and a son could take over if they wanted to?
- I think they are doing better now.
Yes, they are still open, yeah.
Actually, his younger son, as you see, in the film,
he didn't want to come back to the restaurant
and help his family, because for all different reasons.
Now, he's working outside
somewhere in Kentucky, now.
- Yujing, what were your responsibilities as producer,
your day-to-day activities on the set?
What did you handle while Yinan was directing?
- I think it's more like the mentor
conversation background thing.
I'm not a typical filmmaker in the film industry.
All I can think of is from the audience perspective
and give him from my perspective, from the audience,
what I want to see in his film and what motivated me most
and what make me very emotional.
I can get emotional point where and when?
It's more like suggestions from my understanding.
And, of course, I provide him, well, money. [laughing]
- That's important. - That's the big part.
Were there days when you showed up to the set
and the family just wasn't feeling it, they didn't
want you there, they thought you were in the way,
or everyday were they gung-ho to shoot?
- I think about the very beginning,
'cause I'm not very familiar [inaudible] culture.
- Sorry?
- Actually, at the very beginning,
they refused to be filmed, because they are,
I don't know if it's very common in the U.S.,
but this is very common in China,
every person, they have camera shy.
They don't want to be in front of the camera.
They don't know how to behave.
They don't know how to face the camera.
The first couple weeks, we were in a very weird
and strange relationship, because both of us
have to change our positions from friends to--
- To filmmaker and subject. - To filmmaker and subject.
- That's really interesting.
You do get them talking.
There's some great exchanges in the film where
you can tell they're a little more introverted,
but then you do a nice job where they start talking.
In a couple cases they talk a lot and they're very animated.
That was a nice way to bring that out of them.
Great job.
Let's take another look at a clip from Yen Ching .
[speaking in Chinese]
Welcome back to Director's Cut .
We are joined now on the set by Dick Blau,
who is a UW-Milwaukee film professor.
Thanks for being here, Dick.
- My pleasure.
- You are also a creative consultant on this film.
My question is, we've had a lot of guests
that went to UWM for film,
how often are you asked
to consult on films and why this one?
- I'm often asked to consult, particularly by
students who have graduated come back and actually want me
to function as meta-editor before the final cuts are made.
I met Yinan, actually, when he first came to UWM
and I was asked to place him in a class.
When I took a look at his work, I realized that
I really had somebody who's extraordinary.
Not only did I place him, but I also started
recommending him to shoot other people's films.
Some time later, he appeared in my senior one class,
which was the first class of the senior thesis.
That's when we really got to work together.
- That's great.
Your background is cinematography, correct?
- Yes. - Let's talk about that, then.
You've got these two settings, basically,
an apartment and a restaurant.
Not the most cinematic.
How do you, as a director, juggle that or go for something
as cinematic as possible within those two settings?
Is that frustrating?
Or, are you focused more on telling
a story as a director in that situation?
- Actually, I personally love the positions
the subjects and the characters in a closed space.
It's like their own world.
This is a way to create a world
without distribution from outside.
- Yeah, and it's interesting within that realm,
you can be cinematic, because you capture the smells,
almost, of the kitchen and the sounds.
Dick, you've obviously seen
a ton of films from your students.
What do you do when you just go, "What is this?"
I'm sure you're a great professor and filmmakers
are all talented, but are you ever confronted
with giving someone notes on a film that you
just aren't getting or aren't feeling?
- Sure, all the time. - How do you handle that?
- I saw a film last night, a very, very promising film.
I said, this is ambitious, imaginative and terribly boring.
You really have to cut this film.
- Take the heart out. - Right.
Of course, they had so much good material
they just had to understand they had to take a step back
and look at it again freshly and figure out how to balance
the linearity of the story with the spaciality of the story.
- That's great.
In the clip we just saw, that's the father,
that's the most animated he is, he's very entertaining.
Why did that set him off so much, the question of religion?
- This is a very interesting story.
I remember the day when I was there.
I wasn't ready to shoot anything.
I was having a conversation with his wife.
because I always have this confusion about
which religion she believes in.
We just a very casual conversation with her.
After maybe just a few minutes, I saw Guishan.
His face changed.
I said, okay, I think that is the time to
turn on my camera. - Turn the camera quick.
[chuckling] That's great.
Let's see another clip from Yen Ching .
[speaking in Chinese]
Such a nice, intimate scene.
Yinan, I noticed you really don't have much
score in this film until the closing credits.
Was that a conscious choice or what was the thinking there?
- I'm sorry, can you--
- Music, score, you don't have a lot of music,
but then in the closing credits,
you've got this great piece of music.
Was that to capture more of the sounds
and the feel of the restaurant?
You didn't want the music to take away from it?
- Yeah, that music is from,
that music is a very classic music in China.
I don't know how to translate into English,
but it means a river cross into two different lines.
It's a river separates a line to different pieces.
I think that is something that is very related to--
- Very apropos. - To this film.
- I knew there was something behind it
'cause it popped out at me.
I was like, oh, this is an interesting choice.
Dick, as a professor, you're one of the founding members,
or founding professors of the film program at UWM.
Do film departments brand filmmakers in a way?
Obviously, you influence them.
But, is there a Milwaukee style, or some type of style
that the filmmakers have when they graduate UWM?
- We try not to limit our students to a particular style.
Our orientation is essentially experimental.
Consequently, each film is really set as a problem for
the student to understand how to reveal the material inside.
It can take various forms, such as in Yinan's film,
or in films that are more abstract than that.
Generally, we try to teach the whole filmmaking process
so people come out as complete artists
and can work with whatever materials they have at hand.
We were shooting with cell phones as soon as they came out.
That sort of thing.
- Oh, cool, okay.
That's interesting.
One of the things that jumped out at me
about this film was you have a lot of silence.
I shouldn't say silence, no dialogue.
You have people eating, cooking, smoking.
You really let it breathe.
No pun intended with the smoking thing.
You have these great moments where
you're letting the view take it in.
Can you explain that choice?
Obviously, that is a style or a conscious choice you made.
- Yeah, I think a lot of times
the silence means everything.
No words means there is a lot of things
they want to say in their heart.
- Right.
And we saw it in that last clip between the mom and the son.
The way she looks at him says more than dialogue would.
I think that's really interesting.
Let me ask you this.
Let me turn the question I asked around before
when I asked Dick about consulting on other films.
Why did you have, was it intimidating in any way to have
your professor, or former professor,
a part of this project?
- He is so good [chuckling].
Let's get back to your question.
The reason why I make this film because of him.
When I was in his class I was thinking what I'm
going to do for my graduation for my senior project.
I was thinking about this for a long time.
I tried other different projects,
but they're not very successful.
One day after class, I talked with Dick.
He told me, "Why don't you
make a film about the restaurant?"
- Great.
That's a nice tribute, too.
I don't know how you're not crying right now, Dick.
That was a very nice tribute.
- I'm crying inside. - You're crying inside.
Me, too.
Let's see another clip from Yen Ching .
[speaking in Chinese]
That is a great part of the film
and one I did not see coming.
It's really nice story telling, the reveal
that he was away from his family for so long.
A great immigrant story.
Was there ever any inkling to reveal that earlier
or did you know right from the get-go
that you were going to save that?
- Yes, this part is the part I like most because he's
really a representative of most of Chinese immigrants.
He follows this path, how come to the U.S.
and how to start his business
and how to reunion with his family.
This is a very typical Chinese immigration story.
As far as I know, a lot of people like him,
just only by himself, then after maybe five years
or ten years, or maybe even longer,
so they can have a chance to see their family again.
- That's great.
You're doing graduate work at Temple right now?
- Yes.
- Tell us what your next project will be after.
Is graduate school affecting you the same way UWM
affected your sensibilities as a filmmaker?
- Actually, the project right now
I'm working on is a project about the older
Chinese immigrants in Philadelphia Chinatown.
That is also about Chinese immigration.
That's the piece I'm working on.
The theme is the same, but the people is different.
Already people think, okay, immigrants,
they come my age, they came as young people,
but there is another group of people
that came after their age of 65,
because for many reasons.
One, he's taking care of their grandchildren.
Someone, they have no relatives left in China.
Maybe something like their children
want to live with them together in the U.S.
There's a whole 'nother different story.
- You did a very nice job
encapsulating a typical story like that.
It was just great work.
Dick, thank you for being here, too, you guys.
Nice work.
It must be nice to collaborate like that.
Excellent job.
Thank you for watching Director's Cut .
For more information on Yen Ching ,
please go to w-p-t dot o-r-g and click on Director's Cut .
While you're there, send us an email
or find out how to submit a film.
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I'm Pete Schwaba and I have never
wanted Chinese food more than I do right now.
What do you say?
Road trip, Yen Ching? You guys in?
Let's go, we'll do it.
We'll see you next time on Director's Cut .
[dramatic music]
[speaking in Chinese]