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Scriptwriter & Director : Kenneth Bi (KB)
Lead Actor : Jaycee Chan (JC)
Original Score - Solo Cellist : Trey Lee (TL)
It's a very interesting idea to infuse Chinese Zen drumming from a real-life drumming
Troupe into a movie. Kenny, how did you come up with the concept?
| KB: | I saw U Theatre, the drumming troupe, performed in Hong Kong for the first time back in December 2000. I was so moved by their performance that I went to Taipei the very next week to meet them. After several months of research and interviews, I wrote the first draft of the screenplay for “The Drummer”. |
The drumming looked quite complex. Was it a big factor when you cast your lead
actors?
| KB: | Definitely. I had to find actors who could play the roles and pull off difficult drumming sequences. I was lucky that Jaycee Chan, Lee Sinje and Tony Leung Ka Fai were so enthusiastic about learning to drum and practiced rigorously. What did you think of the drumming experience, Jaycee? |
| JC: | Before this film, I didn’t know anything about Chinese Zen drumming. I had to learn everything from ground zero and forget about any pride in front of the professionals. When I first started to learn, it was very difficult, but as I got more used to it, I became better and more confident. |
Jaycee, you looked like a Zen drumming expert towards the end of the film.
| JC: | When you practice drumming to a certain stage, you start to forget about yourself and feel like a robot in a way. This feeling is very unique and very difficult to explain. Basically, as you reach certain level, you don’t think about which way to drum will make you look better, you don’t think about anything anymore. |
Kenny, in addition to drumming, another instrument, cello, is also featured
prominently in the film. Was that by design from the beginning?
| KB: | Music is a big part of my life and my work. I’ve composed music for a few local films before, including Fruit Chan’s “The Longest Summer”. My producer and I really wanted to work with Trey Lee, a world-class cellist from Hong Kong on this film, so from the start we decided to have cello as the key instrument in the film score. |
| TL: | This is the first time I collaborate with a film. Usually as a classical musician, I need to interpret the music and have a lot of freedom to think about how to perform a work. However, this time there is a story in the film, therefore I need to perform the music according to the development of the story. |
| JC: | I watched Trey’s music video for this film over and over again. He is really an amazing cellist. |
| TL: | Classical music is more traditional, and my collaboration with The Drummer is a new experience. It was fun to play Andre’s score, it’s a combination of classical and world music, something that the audience could really enjoy listening to in the film, from a CD or live in a concert. |
So who was the fastest learner of the Zen drumming?
| KB: | Sinje was the hardest working. She practiced day and night; during lunch with her chopsticks, in the van to and from location, and at night in her room. She had to put a lot of towels on the drum to muffle the sound, else the cast and crew in her adjacent rooms would have all requested to change rooms.
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| JC: | Glad my room was on another floor.
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| SH: | What was the most unforgettable part of working on “The Drummer”?
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| TL: | It was the very first time I met Kenny at a cafe in Berlin -- sitting there in the middle of this central European style restaurant, Kenny pulls out his laptop and shows me a clip of the U Theater drummers in performance. I remember being absolutely stunned and captivated by the performance right then and there. I was hooked immediately and knew that I wanted to be a part of the film from that moment on.
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| KB: | Watching the world premiere of the film at the Locarno Int’l Film Festival with 8,000 people.
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| JC: | Getting my hair shaved off!
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