PUBLISHED ONJanuary 12, 2024 9:06 AMByYeo Shu HuiSpoilers ahead.
In a climactic scene in the new Malaysian Chinese movie Abang Adik, Abang (played by Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-ren), who is deaf and can't speak, is sentenced to death. As a priest visits him in prison to counsel him about accepting life and living well, Abang, who is stateless and has lived all his life carefully, has an outburst and communicates with the priest in sign language that life has been unfair to him although he has always tried his best with it.
For his emotional performance, Kang-ren won best actor at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in 2023. The movie was also nominated in seven other categories.
You might think the 41-year-old rehearsed hard for the emotionally stirring scene. However, he told AsiaOne in an interview yesterday (Jan 11) that he went into filming it directly.
"I didn't prepare much for the scene. Actually, I didn't even practise the day before filming. I remembered I was tired after filming [other prison scenes] the day before," Kang-ren shared.
He added that he had already learned sign language beforehand, and the production team had edited the script at least 30 times because they want to ensure that the dialogue flows with the emotions portrayed in the scene.
He said: "I had already memorised what my character wanted to communicate in my mind."
Abang Adik centres around two close-knitted brothers who grow up as orphans and are stateless in Malaysia. While Abang has resigned himself to a life of poverty and does odd jobs for a living, Adik (played by Malaysian actor Jack Tan) resents his life circumstances, hoping to earn fast money to lead a better life. A violent accident one day leads them to go on the run and eventually tears them apart.
Malaysian director-scriptwriter Jin Ong, who was nominated best new director at the Golden Horse Awards for the movie, said that the scene is crucial not because of Abang's outburst at the priest, but of him questioning his fate to the world.
He shared with AsiaOne: "I want the audience to think, why do some people look at their own life simply… while others can't because they are restricted [by circumstances in their life]?
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"So when they can actually live simply, why didn't they do it? Should they live well [if they are able to]?"
Jin, who directed the movie between June and July 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, shared that his inspiration came from his desire to tell stories about people living at the fringes of society in Malaysia where the issues that stateless people face is an ongoing problem.
He added that he first started preparing for the script in 2020 and faced multiple difficulties while doing his research because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"There were a lot of meetings that couldn't be done face-to-face and were done only through Zoom. When we met the public relations team in prison, they were also unable to bring us into the prison to observe, so we could only meet in an office. We also met with non-governmental organisations, lawyers, police and forensic scientists through Zoom meetings to find out more from them."
Another memorable scene (another spoiler ahead) is when Abang and Adik bid farewell to each other in prison.
Jack shared that he was supposed to speak to Abang but ended up using sign language to communicate with him instead.
The 32-year-old, who was nominated for best supporting actor for his performance at the Golden Horse Awards last year, told AsiaOne: "I actually have a lot of dialogue to say. While doing rehearsals in a meeting room, I am not sure why, but at the end of it, I started using sign language to communicate my love towards Abang and how I have missed him… It was only after the rehearsal that I realised everyone was crying and I apologised for not speaking my lines.
"Our producer, Malaysian singer-actress Angelica Lee, was also teary-eyed and said that it was very good and logical for the scene, so we eventually used this in the movie."
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Jack shared that the scene was memorable for him because he was very into his character and emotions at the time.
"I remember Kang-ren telling me, 'Don't be too emotionally attached to it, what if the director wants us to redo the take 10 times?" he laughed.
Luckily, it only took them two takes to complete the scene.
Jack added that for every character he plays, he keeps them like a "file" in his mind. Thus, whenever the theme music for Abang Adik starts playing, he would remember those emotions he had while playing Adik — he still cried during the movie premiere in Taiwan last November.
"I don't think I can say goodbye to Adik because he has a place in my heart forever. This movie is very memorable to me," he said.
When Kang-ren was asked whether his first win at the Golden Horse Awards last year had any impact on his acting career, he shared that he "haven't felt anything different".
"Maybe it might give me more affirmation, but it doesn't change my attitude towards acting... Even if I don't win an award, I would also look forward to how different my projects will be each time," he shared.
He added that since he is in his forties, he looks forward to performing according to his age by "forgetting" his performances in the past, so that he can present himself as a fresh new character in a new project.
Kang-ren shared: "If you ask me to play Abang now, I may not be able to act as well because the best state is at the time. I don't think I would be able to act like that now, it would have been different."
Abang Adik is showing in cinemas now.
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