Kwan Pun Leung: The image creator of nature

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Welcome to industry deal from the BBC World Service,

the series that ticks us inside the minds of artists as they create new work.

I'm Shan'eng.

In this programme, I'm following Kuan Pun Leng,

the cinematographer behind some of Hong Kong cinema's most celebrated films,

including In the Moot for Love, named Best Film of the Century,

which was co-shoots with Christopher Doyle and Mark Leaping Bing.

In 2046, also shopped with Doyle and Lai Yulfei,

for which they won Best Cinematographer at both the Hong Kong Film Awards

and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.

I've known Kuan for many years.

He's very different from most cinematographers I know.

Quiet, gentle, deeply attentive.

His image reflects that.

Poetic, restrained, sensitive.

And at the heart of his work,

is the belief that filmmaking means responding to the world as it is.

Working with nature, not controlling it.

Whatever he sees on location, he embraces.

I'm following Kuan in the making of his latest project.

In May 2025, Kuan is shooting a music video for one of Hong Kong

and Taiwan's biggest musical artists, Walking Child.

And action.

This is a music video project,

Les Huapien.

His English title is Fragile Love.

Oh, cut.

Cut.

The song is about lace.

The lace metaphorically expressing the softness

and romantic feeling of a female.

The artist is a male singer,

but he's very good at expressing himself to a female perspective.

Kuan and his crew are filming on the streets at night.

And a member of the crew sits on the track,

moving in circle as he shines a big light onto the wall.

When I look at the set,

there is a tree that's nice,

but then when the light was moving,

the branches and the leaves,

the shadows all moving along the wall

behind the corner of the street where the ladies stand.

So I suggested to take a shot of that shadow

and it becomes the opening of the scene.

The ending, I planned it at the beginning.

I did not plan it.

That's how things work together.

I planned something, but I did not plan everything.

I let things evolve along the way.

The shadows all moving along the wall

is like a symbol of beauty that is always around us,

but we are not realizing.

Kuan is talking with his lighting crew.

He's saying he's too much light.

He's looking for something more impressionistic.

In another area,

Kuan was asking for an extra lamp to access moonlight

because he found it too dark to see the shape and color of the object

he's trying to capture.

Light is full of light and shadow.

Without the shadow, you cannot appreciate the light,

but too much light you find the image very boring.

Camera is how I see the world,

and lighting is how light and darkness work in my life.

At the moment, I'm going through a little bit shadow here,

even though I look quite smiley.

What's the difference?

I think it's dreamy and abstract.

I captured with his camera assistant,

Jefferson Yip,

on set when Kuan was busy directing.

Because you know that Kuan previously famous Wang Kawai's coffee,

so you can see some style or some elements,

like it's beyond light.

The wet, very humid road,

the style is so-called old Hong Kong faction.

So how's your relationship with Kuan?

Because I studied in the Chinese refresh here at Hong Kong.

I take a course that's in my top a bit.

It came from lecturing.

So the relationship is like teacher and students.

He takes care of me very, very, very much,

giving his camera and a teacher how to operate it,

how to do tricks.

Tell I go.

How?

How's the background?

Can you tell us a bit about this production?

During this shooting, you can enjoy how the director

like guide the lights and the shooting.

And I feel very impressed.

Kuan is very talented and experienced

in controlling the light, how the lights come,

and how the shadows and the lights can

cooperate with each other.

I learned a lot from him.

He's talking with his crew about aperture.

I think to be a cinematographer,

one needs to be artistic,

but also technical, Kuan definitely has both.

I see cinematography not only skills and not only techniques.

They are the basics.

The more important thing is the energies.

The energy is matching to cater,

and then playing with it,

becoming an orchestra.

So maybe that's your definition of cinematography,

an orchestra of energy.

I just try to get in touch with my feeling,

not only the script or the dialogues.

I will imagine all the elements,

like the words and the location into my brain.

And then I try to immerse myself into it,

and then get some image out of it.

And then it's how it's the feeling.

One of the filmmakers I like best, Tarkovsky,

is how he captures the existence of things,

like water drops.

These are my captures, the existence of the thing

in front of you, the image.

Kuan often references Russian filmmaker,

Andrej Tarkovsky,

a director who believed cinema is to create an environment

that taps into the viewer's subconscious,

a sensibility quant shared.

Cinematography can be a work of subconscious.

I study hypnosis.

There's so much similarities between cinematography and hypnosis.

In the feature film, there are a lot of dialogues

for the actors.

Whenever they use words, something becomes very concrete,

very detailed or accurate.

But visual is something ambiguous.

It's like setting up a background or an atmosphere

for the audience to step into the world of the story,

and start to believe it is real.

Of course, it is fake,

but like hypnosis,

you are giving the client hints,

different guidance in words,

in order to bring out their subconscious feelings,

which they are not aware of,

like hints to their background of their mind.

So, it helps the audience to start believing in what's happening in the screen.

And once they believe in it,

they are living with the character.

The character is like a friend of them,

and they have empathy or feeling as if they are going through the journey with the character.

There are so much similarities,

but the use of hints is not words in cinematography.

We use light, shadow, movement, and color.

As I watch Cron at work,

I start to see how he weaves together every shadow,

every reflection,

every movement to pull the audience into the world he's creating.

He brings this to life on me with a scene from 2046.

Wang Ka-Wai's sequel to In the Moot for Love,

starring two of Hong Kong cinema's most iconic actors,

Tony Lang and Fei Wang.

There's a scene in Tony Lang,

and Fei Wang was having a Christmas dinner together.

The space wasn't so interesting in the restaurant,

so I took a shot on the war opposite of them.

There's a mirror.

There's a split between two mirrors,

and then when I do a tiny track between the two mirrors,

and sometimes they become frivolous,

and sometimes they become partisans away.

It reveals how the actors there in the world was.

For example, Tony Lang tries to persuade her to call in,

so that she finds that her boyfriend in Japan is with another person at this moment.

A very simple shot.

I remember that I took only one or two takes,

then the director says,

okay, because the magic happens.

I know approximately how it will happen through the mirror,

but I did not know the exact timing.

It's all about a collision,

and the spark comes out.

So is the scene in the photography.

Teach me how to make me nervous,

not me being the total control.

What is it like working with the energy and skills

of the director like Wang Kawaii?

He doesn't like to tell you everything.

He wants your contribution.

He wants something out of his expectation,

and that's why he's famous of not following the script.

Let things happen.

Like doing a collage.

The stage director needs a lot of rehearsal in the rehearsal room,

but for Wang Kawaii,

I always say that the negatives

is like a rehearsal room.

Expensive rehearsal room.

This year, a short film,

Kuan Kou shoot over 20 years ago

in the mood for love 2001,

a spin-off from the original,

was released in cinema for the first time.

Kuan reflects on what it was like to see this work resurface

after so many years.

This is not the future we were promised.

Like hell that out for a tagline for the show.

From the BBC, this is the interface,

the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.

This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.

It's about what technology is actually doing to your work

and your politics, your everyday life,

and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's hard for me to describe the feelings,

but I saw the film coming out.

I never did a production that has been buried in underground

for 20-some years,

and then suddenly it comes alive again

when not as many people are coming to the cinema.

And in longer this stage, as you know,

that many cinemas, theatres are closing in Hong Kong

and then not many people are still tracing after Wang Kawai's big name

and then slide all the years has passed.

I could hardly tell you the feeling.

I grew up watching Kuan's films.

When in the mood for love came out, it blew my mind.

Now this show film has resurfaced.

It's surreal.

Mechicheng, Tony Long looked exactly as they did 25 years ago,

caught in a nostalgic black and white corner store scene.

The visual style and storyline are still somewhat familiar,

but time has passed.

For Kuan, seeing it coming back to life was a moving experience.

When I came out from the cinema theatre,

I was planning to do other things before living Hong Kong,

but then I changed my mind.

I certainly decided that I should go to visit my parents and my sister in the cemetery.

That's what I did.

Maybe you do not understand exactly how I feel,

but you can somehow have a glimpse of what I experienced.

Welcome back.

Back to the set.

I'm catching up with Kuan's producer, Opo Choi.

First thing is how to control the budget.

Even though I had quite a lot of budget this time,

we try to remind him every time,

hey, this is only five minutes,

we'll see.

It's not a movie, but Kuan is trying to make a movie.

That's why he tried to invite some of his friends to help.

One of them is Penny Chai.

She's also a Golden Horse Award winner, the Art Direction.

This is only a music video, but because of Kuan,

the relationship and friendship,

we are using award-winning filmmakers to work on this production.

What's your experience working with Kuan?

I love Kuan over 20 years.

He's a shy guy, not talk too much,

but he has a lot of ideas.

He's artistic, right?

He's very diverse, and he understands every position.

He likes to use everything around him.

I think that's why people like working with him,

because he helps the director or the acting a lot.

He's very open when he sees something on set.

He has an instant feeling.

Oppo, is there any memorable moments

about Kuan's interaction with actors, directors or crew members

you can share with us?

Karina is my very good friend.

So I remember her first movie, Julai Rhapsody.

Karina Lam, the three-time Golden Horse Award-winning actress,

whose debut film, Julai Rhapsody,

was a film widely regarded as one of the best work

of modern Hong Kong cinema.

Grand was less in the photographer.

There was a scene that Karina expected to cry,

but she needs sometimes to get ready.

I remember there was this one particular scene

where it's between me and Jackie Chan.

We got off the bus and I had to cry.

I remember knowing that it was a crying scene.

It was very stressful and I felt a lot of pressure

and I couldn't do it later on.

I asked if I could have a little break.

And I went across the street from that last stop

and there was this wall.

I was holding the wall with my two arms

and there was this pile of fallen leaves.

So I remember I was kicking in the leaves

and you can hear the leaves crunch.

And Kuan observed the shadow from the trees

and then like we're fighting to the wall,

that is Karina was.

So he discussed with the director and her.

He suggested to roll the camera first

and then when Karina got ready,

they just filmed right away.

I was very beat up about not being able to cry on spot.

So I was doing this for quite some minutes.

And then Jackie Chan was very quietly.

He just came in and he was saying the lines for that scene.

And I responded to him.

And then Jackie responded back and I replied.

And then Roms and I heard, cut.

And then that's when I realized, oh, they shot the scene.

So effortlessly, I just realized, oh,

this is such a beautiful moment.

If it wasn't for a Kuan to be this observant,

it wouldn't have happened the way that it did.

So this is one of the examples

of how Kuan's sensitivities

and understanding to capture the moment and timing

that is very helpful,

especially for the first time acting.

Were there any other moments in the film

shot by Kuan that you particularly remember?

I remember the scenes in the classroom

where Jackie had his back towards us

because he was writing on the blackboard.

I was sketching him.

So I could feel that camera movement slowly tracking in.

Warren doesn't just look, he really focuses on you

and he gives you that gaze through his camera.

I felt empowered the fact that he had to track in.

As an actress, I just feel like you love that kind of attention.

Even though we don't really talk on set,

there's this mutual language between me and Guan.

This is the documentary from the BBC Well Service.

You're listening to In The Studio

and we're following the creative process

of cinematographer Kuan Poon Lang

as he creates the music video, Fragile Love.

This is first shot of the music video.

You will see an impressionist kind of image

because I merged the traffic light

which is blurred onto a shot of a lady

wearing a trench coat.

I'm walking on a coat rainy night.

The story starts from there.

Two days after the shoot,

Kuan is in a tiny editing room

working through hours of footage with his assistant.

He hangs a black cloth on the wall

and points the camera at it.

Please a black background in the editing room

and then I make some smoke in front of the background.

So that I got smoke passing by the framing

with a black background.

Then I key out all the black parts

and then use only the smoke to impose it onto the image.

It's an image of a street in Taiwan

at night with steam coming from the ground.

Like those shots you see in film sets in New York.

As you can see, this part is smoke and then

you can see this shot, the steam.

It's not something very obvious, but it's there.

I'm interested here about why you call this editing process jamming.

Normally people call it a reshoots or a pickup

but you are doing it in post-production in a lattice suite.

Well, only people that they have proper facilities

or a special crew is responsible for reshooting

something in the studio they can rent.

But for me, I only have limited resources

so I have to find my way to do everything in a small room.

And then now, usually in many productions

there are limitations in people's mind,

like in a biting suite.

It's not allowed to have smoke and then...

and then to film in the editing room.

But for me, I chose a location of this production

that I could do anything freely, yeah, as I want.

I must say, I've never heard anyone doing this.

Or you can say that I'm not organized well enough

and I don't like preventing everything.

I want to have different possibility

of some collision of ideas and energies

when I find something interesting

that I could add to the production, I can do it.

So, talk me through your editing process.

For drama, usually people will edit by the storyline

or the narration first.

But I edit in a different way.

I would see each element,

like the dialogue, the facial expression, the environment,

the light and the breathing,

any sound or the music, the sound effect, anything.

I treat them like equals data,

like a piece of music instrument.

So, whatever could come first

and then we'll lead to another one.

I believe the combination or the montage of anything,

they have equal importance.

Sometimes we understand a story

by the underlying emotion, not the words.

In most cases, I will have dummy music

when I edit the drama.

And I merge the music with the dialogue

and shots together rather than adding the music in the last.

In music video, usually the music comes first.

For this one and the early versions,

I asked the singer-songwriter

to give me the multitrack

so that I could treat each note

or each instrument as an individual element

so that I can play around with it.

The main concept came from the original lyrics,

but then I tried to add something that's meaningful to myself.

When challenges come, if I could break through

the whole process is finding myself

and finding how I could interact with the world.

Quan is filming a fashion commercial

for a Chinese American designer, Daisy Lim,

in Louvre Museum,

just two months after his music video shoot.

It's a hot summer day.

I walked past the famous glass pyramid entrance

and stepped into the Grand Halls and marble corridors.

There I found Quan filming in this living archive

of human imagination.

Quan, so tell us a little bit about today's production.

Today I am filming a vintage childrenware designer.

I've been filming her,

seeing the exhibition.

It's quite an interesting experience

to go through the corridors and the exhibition halls,

like I myself, like water flowing through the space

with the displayed items

and with the subject I'm filming.

So it's just straight me how varied your job is

as a filmmaker, as a cinematographer.

From last month, you were shooting on set

for a music video to now in museum, in Paris,

shooting a fashion video.

So to me, there's no boundary between

a large scale of a back crew

or sophisticated equipment or a form.

It doesn't matter.

It's just all kinds of different experience.

As you could see in my editing process,

I also sometimes I stop editing

and then do some filming.

And then to fill into the story

and then I make some sound to add into the editing process.

So to me, if I can handle the situation

without much restriction,

I enjoy it very much because it's like a playground.

Quan is also a prolific documentary filmmaker.

His film, less the wind carry me,

receive best documentary, best editing,

and the top prize million dollar award

and Taipei Film Festival.

How do you approach your documentary differently

to a future drama?

As I said, I do not really believe

documentary, feature film or other forms

are very different in nature.

It's just a story.

Because I can find something real

although it's fiction.

Maybe it's the symbolic meaning

or maybe it's something real about the actor or the director.

The core of documentary is something

where we call it real,

but in fact there's many unreal parts.

So I could find my truth.

Although it's not a universal truth

and try to express using my camera

to deliver that personality to other people.

So everything is like illusions.

At the same time, you can find something close to truth.

What's your relationship with your finished work?

We married and have a child.

The child is kind of rebellious.

And my responsibility is finished.

It's up on the audience

how they would like to see.

The music video is now an adult.

It has its own life.

I don't know what this music video will lead to.

I remember when I chose to study film and TV.

It was because I was inspired.

So I want to be the one to pass it on

and to inspire others.

As now I'm doing the interview

where you find it interesting or maybe

what I said could somehow inspire somebody.

That's what my will in the beginning

in our 20 or 30 years ago.

It's not about movies anymore.

What I did.

Whether I'm a cinematographer or a director

or a editor, it doesn't matter.

It's just a creator of energies.

We can call it inspiration maybe.

You've been listening to the documentary

from the BBC World Service

with a Hong Kong and Taiwan cinematographer,

Kuan Poon Lang.

I'm Shan.

You can listen to more creative masters

talking about their crafts

on bbcwowservice.com slash in the studio.

This is not the future we were promised.

Like hell that out for a tagline for the show.

From the BBC, this is the interface.

The show that explores how tech is

rewiring your week and your world.

This isn't about quarterly earnings

or about tech reviews.

It's about what technology is actually

doing to your work and your politics,

your everyday life.

And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet.

Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.