The intriguing title of Mike Ao Ieong’s latest movie is inspired by his reflections on the meaning of life. The protagonist of the film, Ming, is 30 years old and still lives in his parents’ house.
Forced to move out and look for a somewhere to live on his low salary, he begins to ponder his usefulness and decides that in his next life, it would be more practical for him to come back as a plastic chair.
“The main character, Ming, is what you might call a ‘loser’, a good-for-nothing,” director Mike Ao Ieong explains, “He is a single man in his thirties who still lives in his family home. He sleeps in the same room as his younger sister, and one day his sister’s boyfriend wants to live in the same room, a situation that forces him to leave home and face different problems due to the low salary he receives as a cashier in a supermarket.”
In the process, Ming begins to question the usefulness of his existence.
“The story reflects on the idea of success, and what it means to be successful in life, what defines whether we’re useful or not,” shares the director. “That’s why, in his next reincarnation, he decides that he wants to be a plastic chair, because for many people, a chair is a useful object that doesn’t waste space.”
The inspiration for the story came from Mike reflecting on similar experiences he had when he returned to Macau about a decade ago.
“When I was looking for a flat, I had to move every two years, which was very tiring.”
Mike also wanted to explore the very common phenomenon of his generation, of young adults living at home with their parents.
“They often live there in their 30s to save money and wait to get married, sharing a room with their siblings. But it doesn’t make sense to live your whole life with your parents, because it doesn’t help you mature.”
An acquaintance of Mike’s who also had to deal with a similar situation, wrote a short story about it. Upon reading the story, the director felt that the topic was pertinent and deserved to be addressed. He adapted the short story into a screenplay and began filming in 2021. Shot mostly in different apartments around the city and other locations, the feature film relies mainly on amateur actors.
“Macau has no professional film actors. All the actors in my film come from the theatre or are friends of mine.”
The only exception was the lead actor, Wong Hin Yan, who is a well-known singer in Hong Kong.
“I chose him for the role because he has a face that looks like something out of a comic book, with mysterious expressions.”
The film premiered at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei in 2023, and was recently shown for the first time in Macau at Emperor Cinemas. It was also screened at Cinemateca Paixão during the month of March. Next the film is heading to Hong Kong and before returning again to Taiwan.
The director says that the reception to the film has been positive, but many people were surprised because they weren’t aware that Macau has any local film productions. He recalls that many people came up to him after the screening at the Golden Horse Festival and commented that they couldn’t imagine that a film “produced in Macau could be like this, telling a story with this theme in such an unusual way”.
In order to make the movie, Mike received approval and support from the Cultural Institute programme of subsidies for the production of feature films in 2018.
“We were then given a budget to make this film,” he explained. Now, after three intense years of shooting the film and post-production, the filmmaker confesses that for the time being he wants to rest and focus solely on promoting the movie, hoping to collaborate with other platforms and festivals abroad.
The director has already produced several feature films, with his film Blue Amber, winning the ‘Asian New Talent Award – Best Cinema Photography’ at the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival. The short film The Mutation, But Myself was awarded the ‘Jury Recommendation Award’ at the Macau International Film and Video Festival.
