Hi-So
Aditya Assarat returns to the director’s chair this week with his new film Hi-So, a film that has been having a great run on the festival circuit.
We caught up with the director to chat about the film, the inspiration behind and it and what lies ahead for him.
- Hi-So is your new film so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It’s about a guy who’s relationship with an American girlfriend is ending just as a new relationship with a Thai girlfriend is beginning.
And the relationships kind of mirror each other. As with real-life, we often do the same things with different people.
- I was reading that you consider this film your most personal, so where did the project start for you? And what was the major inspiration behind the script?
I had the idea for the film ten years ago when I was in film school. I wanted to make it as my first film but it never came together. So I put it away and went off to do a bunch of other stuff.
Then after my first film Wonderful Town won some prizes, I was given the chance to make another film, so I pulled Hi-So back out.
It was indeed a personal project to me, that’s why I felt it important that I make it, just to put down on film a large part of my youth.
- As someone who doesn’t write scripts of stories I am always fascinated with where you start with a project like this; do you start with an idea, a character, an actor that you have in mind for a role as you begin to pen the screenplay? How does the process work for you?
It’s different for every film. Sometimes it starts with something very specific like a location or an image. And sometimes something more abstract like an idea. Hi-So began in the latter way.
It was a feeling of being an outsider, of floating along and never really belonging to the place you live in, that I wanted to capture.
- Ananda Everingham, Sajee Apiwong and Cerise Leang are all on the cast list so can you tell me a bit about the casting process?
Ananda I met when he was only 21 when I first had the idea to make the film. We didn’t end up making it until six years later. So I thank him for hanging in there.
Cerise and Sajee I met more recently. I just needed two girls from opposite ends of the world, who had some chemistry with Ananda.
- Ananda Everingham is a very experienced actor so how did you find working with him? And what ideas did he bring to the table when developing his character?
Ananda’s great. He grew up in a similar way to me, travelling around a lot and speaking two languages all the time. So my story was also his story to a large degree.
He hardly had to act; he just had to be himself. I often cast actors who are very close to the characters so they can more easily play it. Because if they can’t, I don’t really know how to get them to do it.
- On the flip side of that Cerise and Sajee are not experienced in front of the camera so how was your experience with them? Was the fact that they had done little or no acting working before one of the reasons they were cast?
Again, they were pretty close to the characters they played so it wasn’t much of a stretch, which I think is important for non-actors.
Anyway, “trained actors” in Thailand are often mis-trained in my opinion so it’s not always bad to work with people who’ve never acted before.
Some people can act and some can’t, and that has nothing to do with whether they do it professionally or not.
- What is your definition of the word Hi-So?
Hi-So comes from High Society. It’s the same as “posh”. It’s a life of privilege in Thailand: studying overseas, speaking English, getting all the breaks – it’s a lifestyle that automatically makes one an outsider in a country where most people are still poor.
It was always the title of the film, I suppose because it means something to everyone. It’s immediately relatable.
- The film hits the big screen here in the UK this week so how have you found the reaction to the film so far? Not just in the UK but around the world?
Well, interestingly, I’ve found that Asians relate to it more than Europeans. I think it’s because Asians strive to be Western; we’re still stuck with the insecurity that we must speak, look, and behave like Westerners.
But it doesn’t work in reverse. Europeans or Americans don’t want to be Asian. So the feeling of being in-between that is represented in the film doesn’t resonate with Westerners.
- Hi-So was part of the Berlin Film Festival earlier this month - how was that experience?
It was good, got a good response.
- Festivals are great platforms for films but other than that what do you get out of festivals as a director?
Made a lot of friends along the way.
- Hi-So is only the third feature film of your directing career so how have you found the transition from shorts and documentary projects?
It’s actually my second feature. As I look back on all my projects, I wish I had done things differently, so I suppose that’s a sign I’m still learning…which is good.
- How has your early experience in shorts and documentaries helped as you have made the leap into features?
Just working, doing stuff, whether its shorts or documentaries or whatever, always helps. Filmmaking is like sports, which I played a lot of as a kid. You can’t get better if you don’t practice.
- All of your film work so far has been in your native Thailand have you given much thought to perhaps working in UK or U.S. cinema - I was reading that you do write your scripts in English so it does seem like a natural transition?
Yeah, I’m writing a story right now about a European living in Thailand. It’s exploring the idea of being an outsider in a different way. It’ll be partly in English again. It’s called White Buffalo. I’m having fun with that.
Hi-So is released 1st March. Check www.day-for-night.org for listings.