During Sitges’ International festival of fantastic cinema from Cataluña 2019 it had place Super Me’s World Premiere (Chao Ji De Wo). Its director Zhang Chong has been really kind to attend us for a brief interview after his watched film.
First of all I would like to thank you for your time dedicated during the Festival. Moreover, I would like to congratulate you because of the good feelings transmitted by your film.
Watching your film we have seen a very interesting mixed of genre. It was hard to keep up the rythm of the film and to maintain the audience attention? Had you think about to tell the story like that from the begining?
ZHANG Chong: It is, indeed, a complicated process (to maintain attention). Of course, it’s the same the difficulty that any story which wants to combine the commercial and art-house segments would meet.
The initial story is vastly different than the current version. But fortunately, it is heading for a better direction.
«Super Me» is my debut feature as a director. I hope audiences will like it, so I can continue to make movies. I also hope the industry professionals can find the values of it. So, I could visit more film festivals like Sitges and have more opportunities to talk to you.
The fantastic part seems to be present in this film and in your second one called The Fourth Wall. Do you love this kind of genre? Do you feel comfortable working with it?
ZHANG Chong: If culture is a circle, the closer it gets to the center, the closer it towards popularization. Outward to the edge, that’s the direction art creators explore. The culture proportion is expanding that many avant-garde arts have become mainstream art. In other words, exploring the unknown is the instinct of human beings. I am only pursuing this empathy and asking a little doubt about our existing self-awareness.
Is there a boundary between reality and illusion? Are there real paths that exist to the spiritual world and the material world? I have been fascinated by such subjects in the last few years. I hope this film can make the audience hear an inner voice from the bottom of their heart.
Sang Yu is growing as a person during the film, is this change a reflect of the real life lived by teenagers at this moment? Do you think that Yu’s fighting spirit is suffered by a lot of people day-to-day?
ZHANG Chong: The experiences of SANG Yu is not only focused on the spiritual situation of young people. Let’s think and look around the people surround us, including ourselves, how many of us are overdrawing to satisfy our current needs.
We often forget that it is an overdraft. The serious trouble comes when we think it is a special credit card and don’t need to return on debt.
Scientifically speaking, what we observe and feel daily would be sorted by the subconscious in the evening. Then it will make an appearance in the dream. We can understand and recognize ourselves better via dreams. Dreams are gifts given to us by night, don’t throw them away easily. A lot of mental tortures were caused by our perspective and observation of the world. On the other hand, some spiritual tortures are potent signal reminders.
ZHANG Chong (director)
Do you have any influence by other directors, films or whatever to create your own histories?
ZHANG Chong: Watching movies is a fascinating process. It is often found that somewhere in the world, people who have different lifestyles and educational backgrounds might have the same mind as you in the film-philosophy.
Of course, I often find out that others have been thinking of a subject for a long time, and you just thought of it.
I feel that many works affect my own. Compared with movies, I have a far-reaching influence on literature, psychology, psychoanalysis, Freud, Jung, Borges, and they have given me too much.
Asian cinema, in this case cinema from China, it is well received in several occidental countries including Spain. What do you think about it?
ZHANG Chong: The Chinese film industry is developing. The market is proliferating and attracting attention. After the mastery of the film industry, more cultural confidence integrates into it. Chinese films will have more gener and share more valuable content in the future. Currently, we are still in the developing processes. In it, it is still not satisfied.
We cannot finish this interview without asking you about your future. Do you have any new project in mind?
ZHANG Chong: I will continue working on this type of genre, the reality mix with fantasy. I can’t share the name at the moment. I don’t want to call it a magic realism film. I want to pursue the story, which is natural. It is easier to be more profound, and it is a kind of virtue. But it requests some abilities to describe it reasonably, and I am still working hard on it.
La Colina de Raven 