Midi Z, Zhao Liying on the Universal Themes of The Unseen Sister

Taiwanese-Burmese filmmaker Midi Z made waves and garnered good notices with his 2019 film. Nina Woowhich tackled the exploitation of women in entertainment, and was released amid the global #MeToo movement, a long-overdue public reckoning for powerful men who commit sexual violence and misconduct.

Selected for main competition at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, Z’s new film, Sister of the UnseenOstensibly at least, there are similar themes. Nina Woo – namely the mistreatment of women in the entertainment industry as well as the ordeal of women on the margins of society.

Adapted from the book by Zhang Yueran Invisible sisterThe film tells the story of two sisters, one who is officially born as Qiao Yan and the other who bears the name Qiao Yan but lives illegally in a twilight world, constantly under threat. I am After switching identities at a young age, the sisters lead very different lives in two different countries. The real Qiao Yan lives on the edge of poverty in Myanmar and the assumed Qiao Yan becomes a famous actress in China. Fate, inevitably, brings them back together.

The film stars Zhao Liang (The Legend of Shane Lee, The story of Chu Qiao’s Mangalan legend, The Legend of Love Jean And Flower and Wild Bloom Journey), a prominent television actor in China who has been switching features. The cast also includes Huang Ju, Xin Xili and Chinese rapper Jim.

Sister of the Unseen Produced by Shanghai Linman Pictures, and part of the company’s push into feature films with international appeal. After its run in Tokyo, the film will be screened at the Singapore International Film Festival in December.

During the Tokyo Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter Talked to Z and Zhao about Sister of the Unseenthe challenges of making a mainstream commercial film with art-house credentials and characteristic universal themes.

is Sister of the Unseen The first mainstream Chinese film you did?

MIDI Z Yes, that’s right. Compared to past films, this is the first mainstream film I have done. It is the most commercial film in terms of production budget and production scale. All my previous films were a bit smaller with less people on the set, this one, more than 300 people on the set. Ultimately, the core of the story and the core of the entire production is very Chinese. It’s about the Chinese people. It’s about family. It is about the values ​​that the Chinese people hold dear.

Were there any particular challenges for you as a director working on such a large scale? Did your process change in any way?

MIDI Z I think the most important part [for me as a director] There is communication, especially communication with actors. Within a story, within a production, the chemistry and performance of the actors is actually more important than the story, because the actors are the ones who bring the story to life. And so in the two months, right before production, there was actually a lot of communication between me and the actors, and getting the actors to rehearse and get the chemistry to see the story together and develop that story. They met often. Rowling is invaluable and really helped me bring out the story through the actors’ performances.

So the film uses two languages, Mandarin and Greek dialect. Why did you choose to use two different dialects?

MIDI Z This is because of the story. This is due to the character setting. The character is traveling from Greece to Beijing.

For you as an actor, Zhao, do you speak the Greek dialect? If not, was it a real challenge to get it right?

ZHAO LIYING No, I don’t speak. We spent about a month before production working on the dialect, specifically going through all the lines that are in the Greek dialect of the script, so that we could be more comfortable during production. Thus we overcome the difficulty of working with a different dialect.

As an outsider, is it unusual for a mainstream Chinese film to use multiple dialects of Mandarin?

MIDI Z Having different dialects is now becoming more common as many different people travel between different cities in China, and the dialects are more exposed. The Sichuan dialect, the Guizhou dialect, for example, is becoming more and more common in the content, and I think that’s great.

is watching Sister of the UnseenI felt that the sensibilities, and perhaps the audience for this film, would be more international, especially with the themes and ideas that the film deals with. Is it fair to say that?

MIDI Z Ultimately, this is a very, very Chinese film. And when we think about the Chinese nature of the film, it has two different parts. The first part is the core of the story itself—the values ​​of the story are very Chinese. It’s about the individual and their family, and how the individual’s wants and desires collide with the family’s wants and desires and how that unfolds. And then when we come to the other part of it, which is the outside of the story, which we see visually—the landscape, the location. Its aesthetic, like all production design, is the architecture we see. It was snowing a lot and it’s a very poetic aesthetic, a very Chinese style.

And themes are universal themes. My films really express people’s lives. To speak to an audience, you really have to understand what life they’re going through. And really this film is about women and what they are going through in the society, the difficulties they are facing and their struggles. Their fight is against everything that oppresses them, their desire and their longing for freedom and a better life.

Regarding your character Xiao, Qiao Yan, she is very complex and she is also a famous actress in real life like you. What drew you to the project? And do you also relate to the pressures of fame and industry that Qiao Yan goes through?

ZHAO LIYING I chose this role and chose this project because I really wanted to challenge myself. What really drew me to this project was really Midi’s style and Midi’s very unique narrative style of his films and his stories. And honestly, the role of being an actress is really just a setting for the character in the story. And it’s not about that one character in that one setting. It’s really about the whole thing, like the overall story and the structure and the style and the narration that really drew me in.

As for whether the character was relevant… obviously, the story, it’s very dramatic. Sure I can relate to an extent, but of course these are very dramatic experiences that the character is going through. This doesn’t really happen in real life. Total pressure, pressure [Qiao Yan] Faces at Work, I can definitely relate to this particular thing. There’s a scene where my character is filming a scene in the hospital and he’s getting stabbed with a needle, which really moved me.

Muddy, Sister of the Unseen There are some apparent similarities with your last film. Nina WooSince there is an actress as the main character, she is exploited by the men around her, and the entertainment industry is portrayed as quite negative. Why have you focused on stories of abuse of women?

MIDI Z I grew up in a family dominated by women. I grew up under the protection of my mother and sister. They are both wonderful women. My interactions with my family influenced my ideas when it came to storytelling and designing characters. This understanding of my mother’s and my sister’s lives also influences me whenever I write and create a female character. i Sister of the UnseenQiao Yan really represents the kind of woman who is already successful by the standards of our current society, she’s famous, she’s rich, and yet she faces these kinds of difficulties. This situation can really affect anyone.