INTERVIEW/For director Huang Xi, a nuanced shift toward emotion in latest film

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) With a feature film and a TV series under his belt, director Huang Xi (黃熙) has shown he has a knack for telling personal stories.

However, in "Daughter's Daughter" (女兒的女兒), Huang's latest movie, the director heightens the emotional stakes, thanks in large part to veteran actress Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉).

In a recent interview with CNA, Huang talked about the film's detailed depiction of emotions -- a rare attribute in today's cinema -- and the role of the cast in enabling more subtle emotions to shine through compared with his previous works.

The film's melancholy undertone is set in its opening scenes, which include a haunting long shot of Chang, who plays the film's protagonist Jin Aixia (金艾霞), walking alone on the New Jersey Turnpike, her figure receding into the distance under an overcast sky.

This sets the perfect backdrop for the tragedy that is about to unfold.

As it turns out, Jin, a divorced mother of two daughters in her 60s, is in New Jersey to identify the body of her youngest daughter Fan Zuer (范祖兒), who died in a traffic accident with her girlfriend.

Her daughter left behind a frozen embryo that had just been created through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and Jin is now the embryo's legal guardian.

She must choose one of four options: keep the embryo frozen, donate it to another couple, find a surrogate mother, or terminate it.

The tragedy also makes Jin reflect upon her relationship with her estranged first daughter, whom she gave up for adoption after a teenage pregnancy.

In his conversation with CNA, Huang praised the cast for their nuanced performances that conveyed the complex feelings expressed in the script, and he seemed especially impressed with Chang's work, which earned her a Golden Horse Award best actress nomination.

Huang said Chang's masterful performance required several edits to capture in its full glory.

"After we mixed the sound, we watched it on the big screen and I was blown away. Sylvia was so good," Huang said. "We saw so many things we hadn't noticed, so we went back and did some more editing."

Not only was Chang the lead actress, she also shared the title of executive producer with legendary director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and often raised "profound" issues about the script, Huang said, pushing him to continually fine-tune the storyline.

Chang, a director and writer herself, would, for example, often remind him to cut out any unnecessarily sentimental or depressing scenes even though the movie is a tragedy, Huang said.

Huang did not get Chang's suggestion because he did not find the plot "depressing," but he still tried to come up with solutions along the way, taking a considerable amount of time to re-think and tinker with the plot.

"She (Chang) read Jin Aixia from her perspective. After all, Jin is older and wiser than me, so no matter how much research I did and tried to picture it in my head, I could only get so far," Huang said.

"This is when actors step in to do their thing and bring their characters to life," Huang added.

Asked how he would define his latest labor of love, Huang said, "It's a story about life."

"It's a movie that will give you some courage in this day and age. It will give you 'something extra' when you face the many problems and big and small decisions in life," he said.

"Daughter's Daughter" has been nominated for five Golden Horse Awards, including for best leading actress, best supporting actress, best original screenplay, best makeup and costume design, and best original film song.

The movie hits theaters on Nov. 22.