Ivy Ho writes romance for Hong Kong
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After an action-packed winter with movies like Avatar and Storm Warriors, Ivy Ho offers a refreshing love story with Crossing Hennessy, starring Tang Wei and Hong Kong pop king Jacky Cheung. A renowned writer and director, Ho is described as the "poet of Hong Kong" by the magazine Life Week.
Born in Macao, Ivy Ho dropped out of high school because her family couldn't afford it. She joined Hong Kong Commercial Television as an assistant for an actor training program when she was 18. Before long she turned to TVB and worked with directors Patrick Tam and Johnnie To. She wrote some programs for the station before her first film screenplay, Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Tian mi mi), came out in 1996. It won her Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards, one of the most prestigious film awards in all of China, in 1997.
After that, Ho wrote several more romantic screenplays, such as Anna Madelina (Ngon na ma dak lin na, 1998) and And I Hate You So (Siu chan chan, 2000). Her 2002 July Rhapsody (Laam yan sei sap) won her a Golden Horse Award for best original screenplay and another Hong Kong Film Award.
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Poster of Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Tian mi mi, 1996) |
She made her directorial debut with Claustrophobia (Chan Mat, 2008). Crossing Hennessy is her second work. Like Ho's other stories, it involves love affairs and everyday life in Hong Kong. "This is a changing place; I have always wanted to record the changes, and I think a movie must reflect the time and place where it happens," Ho said. "You can feel the old city of Beijing when you read Chinese literature masters Zhang Henshui and Lao She's essays."
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Still from Crossing Hennessy (Yue man xuan ni shi, 2010) |
"Hennessy" refers to a street in Hong Kong. "The street divides the old and new Wan Chai area," Ho explained. "It's a metaphor for the relationship between a man and a woman. If they can cross the street, they will stay together. But if they can't, they will lose each other forever."
But Ho doesn't want to be a director forever. "The only reason I direct my movies is to realize the story I write better," she said. "The fast pace of the Hong Kong film industry forces a lot of directors to change their screenplays randomly. But I don't agree with this and have argued a lot with many directors. I hope to write better stories from a director's perspective."
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