Between Cinema and Theatre
My Next Step
Dir. Cheuk Cheung
China, Hong Kong 2015, 66’
Subtitles: Polish & English
Kunqu Opera, one of the oldest existing forms of performing art in China, has once again risen to people’s attention after being proclaimed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2001. My Next Step follows a young Kunqu Opera artist Yang Yang (28 year-old) over the course of several years. Yang has witnessed the diminishing glamour of the role of wusheng (a martial hero) in Kunqu Opera and hence his fellows leaving the stage one after another. Being the last wusheng of his generation left in the troupe, Yang is shaken to quit the profession as well. After working with avant-garde Hong Kong director Danny Yung, he develops an experimental Kunqu Opera play about the last Emperor of Ming Dynasty, which challenges the traditional art form.
The documentary dissects down the complexities young artists face in the brave new world of contemporary China - how they perceive the tradition, the art, and one’s own dream, own life and own self. Intersected with performance excerpts from both traditional and experimental forms of Kunqu Opera, My Next Step offers its audience a glimpse into the world of Kunqu, and a magnifying look into the ambivalence of a young man struggling to find a way out for a fading art.
Cheuk Cheung
Co-founder of A Priori Image. Cheuk graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He directed two documentaries about Chinese Opera (Xiqu) practitioners, My Way (2012) and My Next Step (2015), they were screened in London, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Bordeaux, Tokyo and many more. He received the Award for Young Artist in Hong Kong Arts Development Awards for My Way. His latest documentary Bamboo Theatre (2019) was nominated for Best Documentary at the Golden Horse Film Awards and Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Beside filmmaking, Cheuk co-initiated a collaboration platform with a Japanese Theatre Director Kawaguchi Tomoco in 2013, for cultural exchange between young performing artists in Asia. The first project Absolute Airplane was a Hong Kong x Tokyo cross-cultural exchange project, related workshops and performances were presented in Hong Kong, Yokohama and Tokyo. Almost 30 artists (Contemporary Dance, Butoh Dance, Contemporary Music, Opera, Cantonese Opera, Noh, Video Art, etc) have participated. In 2017, he was invited by Tokyo Arts and Space’s residency program, developed and presented his theatre piece He and I. In 2018, he co-directed a theatre piece Songs of Portrait, which is extending documentary from screen to live performance on stage, involving three diverse background artists from Kunqu, Noh and Opera.
Now he is working on a documentary about Japanese Noh Actor.
Filmography
2012 My way
2019 Someday I Will Become a Rock
2019 Bamboo Theatre
Cast & Crew
Director: Cheuk Cheung
Screenplay: Cheuk Cheung
Cinematography: Szeto Yat-lui, Mak Chi-kwan, Shin Chiu
Editing: Law Mei-ling, Leung Man-shan
Music: Steve Hui
Producer: Ken Hui, Cheuk Cheung
Production: A Priori Image
Language: Mandarin
Colouration: Colour
