Taiwanese film director Alex Yang sets romantic comedy
on picturesque college campus location in southern Taiwan

[ "我的逍遙學伴" ] (English title: "My Fair Laddy", cf. "My Fair Lady"))

http://japundit.com/archives/2005/10/26/1403/ [MOVIE TRAILER AVAILABLE HERE]

There's a first time for every ''amateur'' actor

Just by chance, I was recently asked to play a very small role in Alex Yang's new film titled''My Cool Study Partner'', and when I say "very small role," I mean like less than ten seconds of film time, when the movie is finally cut andedited and ready for release. I play the role of a college professor who -- in the very first scene in the film, so don't be lateto the screening, or you will miss my film debut! -- is beinginterviewed by a pretty television reporter, and she asks me:"Professor, what do you think of this new writer on campus?"I am wearing a colorful southern Taiwan-style nightmarket shirt, ablack French beret, and black reading glasses. I say to her, or to thecamera, it depends on the final edit: "Oh, la la, c'est magnifique,c'est tres tres tres bien, c'est un chef d'oeuvre."I go on, still speaking to the pretty TV reporter from ETON-TV: "Youknow, he's the best writeron campus. In this day and age, talent is very important thing, andthis guy's got it!"At that point, I pretend that I don't want to answer any morequestions from the reporter, and I blurt out, to the camera: "C'esttout, c'est fini, a bientot! Sayonara!"[{translation: "That's all, it's finished, see you later, I'm outtahere..." and then switching into Japanese: ...."Goodbye!"]Now to film that scene, it took an hour, we had to do about 20takes, repeating the scene over and over, mainly because forgetful me couldnot remember my three easy lines, and the complicated process ofspeaking French, English and Japanese confused me andcaused me to mis-speak my lines over and over again. Finally, on the lasttake, just before the director was about to fire me and hire a newactor to take my place, I got it right.
"Cut!" yelled the director. "It\'s a take."So I got the job and now I\'mgonna be in the movies. I can\'t wait until the film comes out here inTaiwan: I am sure my role will end up on the cutting room floor,anyway, and you won\'t even see my face in the final cut,but hey, it was fun, it was a lark.Now, about this movie:Alex Yang shot it in Taiwan, on a college campus, and it\'s histhird feature film since "The Trigger" and "Taipei 21". If all goes well, thiswill be his break-out film, bringing him to the attention of aglobal audience both East and West.Titled tentatively in English, "My Fair Laddy," a play-on-words on "MyFair Lady", the movie is being billed as a kind of neurotic comedy, apost-modern take on university life among Taiwan\'s younger generation.Starring an energetic cast of Taiwanese actors from TV, film and stagebackgrounds, the cast also includes a Japanese "racing queen idol,"the model and actress Soma Akane, who has been working in Taiwan forthe past 12 months, learning the language and building up an islandwidefan base. [I met her once during the filming and said "konnichiwa" to her!]The movie is a love story, acomedic, romantic love story: boy meets girl, boy studies with girl,other boys meet girl, problems follow.Written by Yang and his wife, AmyHo, the movie is based on a popular series of Internet novels writtenby Taiwanese bestseller sensation HiYaWu, whose books have alreadybeen translated into Thai and Korean for readers overseas.Come December, viewers in Asia will get a first look at Yang\'sromantic comedy, and if word of mouth is good, this film could travelfar -- globally.And if you watch closely, during the opening momentsof the movie, you will see a funny-looking \'\'college professor\'\' with",1]
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"Cut!" yelled the director. "It's a take."So I got the job and now I'mgonna be in the movies. I can't wait until the film comes out here inTaiwan: I am sure my role will end up on the cutting room floor,anyway, and you won't even see my face in the final cut,but hey, it was fun, it was a lark.Now, about this movie:Alex Yang shot it in Taiwan, on a college campus, and it's histhird feature film since "The Trigger" and "Taipei 21". If all goes well, thiswill be his break-out film, bringing him to the attention of aglobal audience both East and West.Titled tentatively in English, "My Fair Laddy," a play-on-words on "MyFair Lady", the movie is being billed as a kind of neurotic comedy, apost-modern take on university life among Taiwan's younger generation.Starring an energetic cast of Taiwanese actors from TV, film and stagebackgrounds, the cast also includes a Japanese "racing queen idol,"the model and actress Soma Akane, who has been working in Taiwan forthe past 12 months, learning the language and building up an islandwidefan base. [I met her once during the filming and said "konnichiwa" to her!]The movie is a love story, acomedic, romantic love story: boy meets girl, boy studies with girl,other boys meet girl, problems follow.Written by Yang and his wife, AmyHo, the movie is based on a popular series of Internet novels writtenby Taiwanese bestseller sensation HiYaWu, whose books have alreadybeen translated into Thai and Korean for readers overseas.Come December, viewers in Asia will get a first look at Yang'sromantic comedy, and if word of mouth is good, this film could travelfar -- globally.And if you watch closely, during the opening momentsof the movie, you will see a funny-looking ''college professor'' with
and saying: "C\'est tout, c\'est fini, a bientot! Sayonara!"That would be me. If....I don\'t end up on the cutting room floor!--



Taipei Times movie preview and interview with director here: [November 4, 2005]
http://www.taipeitimes.com

Taiwan Cinema News

Webposted: Summer [2005] / Taiwan Year [94]

Up-and-coming Taiwanese film director Alex Yang (楊順清), born in 1965 and a graduate of Taiwan's National University of theArts (he was a drama major there), is making his third feature film this summer, following his debut film "The Trigger" [ 扣板機 ] and his popular sophomore followup "Taipei 21" (台北二一).

The new film is titled "My Fair Laddy" (我的逍遙學伴), and the romantic comedy was filmed in June and July on the picturesque campus of Chung Cheng University [中-正-大-學] (literally, Chiang Kai-shek University) in Chiayi County [嘉義] in southern Taiwan [台灣].

The Taiwanese film stars Bobby Dou and Lin Meng-ching [ 林孟瑾 ], among other local actors.

Popular TV host Chang Fei's son also has a starring role in the movie, according to sources.

"My Fair Laddy," which focuses on Taiwan's youth culture, is set for an October or November 2005 debut on screens in Taipei and other cities nationwide. It will be screened at festivals overseas as well, according to the producers.

Synopsis:

MY FAIR LADDY is about a college boy and two college girls. They are all students at Chung Cheng University (CCU) in Chiayi, Taiwan. The boy , named Tong-tong, is not famous until he writes a drama that makes a big hit on campus and even nationwide. Sophia , the most beautiful girl at CCU , promises to perform this drama. During the rehearsal, they start to fall in love with each other...

On the other hand, Tong-tong's girlfriend , Ann , worries about her boyfriend since he begins to be famous. She is afraid of losing him. But she is a thoughful girl, and everytime Tong-tong is without any inspiration , she will pretend to be an anonymous character on the Internet and give him some suggestions.

Finally , Tong-tong is gradually confused with love, fame and being himself... The movie has a little comedy , a little romance , and a lot of meaningful ideas about modern life and romance in today's Taiwan.

It is sure to be a hit nationwide and overseas, too, in Japan and elsewhere.

Yang is known as a sensitive director with a pronounced talent for both composition and dialogue. Having studied and worked with well-known Taiwanese film director Edward Yang [楊德昌] (no relation), Alex Yang is slowing finding his own audiences, both at home and overseas.

With his third film, Alex Yang is finally coming of age as a director.Yang's particular strengths are as a storyteller: his keen grasp of cultural context, and his discreetly poetic sensibility, according to industry sources. He is seen as an heir to the gentle humanism of Edward Yang (whose breakthrough film, ''A Brighter Summer Day'', Alex Yang co-wrote).

Viewers of "My Fair Laddy" can expect the same attention to detail inYang's new film -- the furnishings in people's homes and classrooms, the rhythm of their lives, all serving to delineate elements of character and status -- and a similarly deep affection for his characters.

The use of cellular phones, instant messaging, and e-mail are not just props but are media through which important communication, misunderstandings, and reconciliations in the storyline are made possible, according to sources.

"Can youth save Taiwan film?" asked the International Herald Tribune newspaper last year, in an article from Taipei by reporter CarolineGluck. The answer, in Alex Yang's capable hands, is yes.

Yes, yes,yes!

As Gluck wrote in the IHT: "A new generation of Taiwanese filmmakersand producers is beginning to make waves."

"My Fair Laddy will likely be a breakthrough film for Yang and for Taiwan cinema in general, according to sources, hoping to find audiences in Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and North America following its Taipei debut later this year.

------------------------

我的逍遙學伴 Production Notes:

http://movie.cca.gov.tw/PEOPLE/people_inside.asp?rowid=212&id=1

Production Company: Together Productions, Ltd., TAIPEI

Taiwan's romantic college campus comedy "My Fair Laddy"

set to reach for worldwide audience both East and West

Fortysomething film director Alex Yang is shooting a new movie in Taiwan, his third since "The Trigger" and "Taipei 21", and if all goes well, this may very well be his break-out film, bringing him to the attention of a global audience both East and West. Titled tentatively in English, "My Fair Laddy," a play-on-words on "My Fair Lady", the movie is being billed as a kind of neurotic comedy, a postmodern take on university life among Taiwan's young generations. Starring an energetic cast of Taiwanese actors from TV, film and stage backgrounds, and shoton location in southern Taiwan, on the picturesque college campus of Chung Cheng University, "My Fair Laddy" is actually titled something like "My Cool Study Partner" in Mandarin, and as the title suggests, it's a love story, a comedic, romantic love story: boy meets girl, boy studies with girl, other boys meet girl, hijinx ensue. The original screenplay was written by Yang, and the movie was filmed in July 2005 at CCU.

''My Fair Laddy" looks positioned to reach a wide audience overseas, as well, and Yang and his producers hope to screen the movie at international film festivals in such places as Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Montreal, New York and London. Financed by a production team comprised of Taiwanese and French investors, the film is poised to put Yang on the international festival map and put Taiwanese film-making back in the saddle again. With a theme that college students around the world will be able to relate to, "My Fair Laddy" might be the film that takes Yang to an international stage, while also giving the Taiwanese film industry a much-needed shot in the arm. Soon......viewers in Asia will get a first look at Yang's romantic comedy, and since word of mouth is bound to be good, this film will travel far -- globally.