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Short Film Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Lights, Camera, Action (2019) by Leon Liu

As quoted at the end of 's debut short film “What We Talk About When We Talk About Lights, Camera, Action”, Francois Truffaut's in “Day for Night” compares filmmaking to a journey with an uncertain destination. Young director Liu stages a meta-textual mise-en-scène to share a glimpse of the filmmaking process and the ugly side of it.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Lights, Camera, Action” is screening at NewFilmmakers Los Angeles Film Festival

The film starts with an interview to the young cast and crew of a film. We imagine the film was successful as the director is praising his producer Song and the team for giving him the chance to balance art and commerce in this eternal gamble that is filmmaking. But his humble thankfulness is betrayed by a shadow in his eyes. Immediately, in flashback mode, we are transported on the set, few months earlier, just before starting to shoot.

The crew is ready and motivated, led by Chinese American director Fan, who is in China to shoot his first film, the commissioned work “Cosmetic Romance and Emperor Li”. However, the production has a disastrous start, as the location is not available and the leading actor has vanished, apparently working on a different film set. Director Fan has an idea to overcome the problem and suggests changing the script completely, to adapt to the new situation. In fact, he has an “ace in the hole”, his own script ready to go: “Sojourn my Little Universe”, a story that is extremely different from the commercial one they were supposed to film. A more arty and metaphoric story, “Sojourn my Little Universe” has only female roles and it would be perfect for their remaining cast. However, the crew and the producer are strongly averse to this change of plan as it poses a greater risk of failing at the box office, as often happens with more auteur-ish movies. The leading actress is enthusiastically up for it as she loves the idea of a more unusual role, but the director had the supporting actress in mind for the leading role instead. In short, nobody agrees with any other member of the team and chaos sets in. The director is mocked as “an American kid who just got out of film school” blatantly ignoring the Chinese colleagues' need to bring home a salary; soon, stereotypes and big words are shouted to each other.

Liu's film is mostly set in one room giving strong emphasis on the dialogues, and pleasantly resembles a stage-play. The script by Ruochong Wan is cleverly designed on Liu's original idea, to show the behind-the-scene mayhem that often characterizes the process of filmmaking. Entailing such an intricate tangle of skills and hard work, film schedules easily go awry, and plan B's quick implementation is a necessary and required expertise. We can imagine this happening systematically with first time directors and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Lights, Camera, Action” might stem from Liu's direct experience. If so, he did a very good job at concealing the cracks as his film unfolds neatly and ends on a positive note. With a certain dose of sense of humor, it poses an open question about confidence, which can be interpreted not only literally, but also as another aspect of the old dilemma of all creatives at work, about giving people what they want or pursuing their own vision.

Well acted and well staged, the film is shot by DOP Yifan Wen in an atmospheric dim light during the behind the scene set, in contrast with the bright spotlight of the interview and punctuated by a jazzy original score by Haibei Wang.

A very personal love letter to the profession that director Liu has just brilliantly started “What We Talk About When We Talk About Lights, Camera, Action” is a confident work. The only slightly dubious aftertaste in watching it was the fact that, after all the racial frictions, in the end, it is the American guy in China who saves the day; of all stereotypes …

About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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